Hello Westeros!
Two Stark games this week, Ned Stark vs Renly LPS!
Spoiler alert, lots of healing on one side of the table…
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The Lists
We wanted to try some themed lists, Eric went full “Highgarden”, and I went “North Rebellion”: 1 unit of each Northern house, led by the Ned.
Starks: Ned in Honor Guard, Mormont Veteran in She-Bears, Dreadfort Captain in Bolton Cutthroats, Karstark Spearmen, Umber Greataxes, NCUs Catelyn and Sansa.
Tyrells: Renly LPS in Rose Knights, Loras in Rose Knights, Warden Captain in Pikemen, Pikemen, NCUs Olenna, Margaery and Cortnay.
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The Game
Deployment was my main mistake, I had the numbers on the table, but spread my Karstark Spearmen on the left flank, to get the objective, which meant playing at 6 activations vs 7.
Round 1 started gently, with everyone marching towards the center and the objectives.
Round 2 escalated very quickly, with Bolton cutthroats free-manoeuvering on Renly’s flank, which led him to activate in order to turn around and avoid a flank charge.
Seeing this, Ned charged the Pikemen through terrain pikes, losing 1 rank (which I kind of wanted to get 2+ rolls, but after reflexion I should have just destroyed the pikes first), but making 8 wounds to the Highgarden unit (critical panic test fail).
Margaery healed them 4 wounds, then Ned attacked a second time, making them lose 4 wounds again. Somehow, thanks to a “Sustained Assault” and the Warden Captain, the 1 rank Pikemen managed to kill 6 more Starks, and it took a charge from the Umber Greataxes to kill them. One “Final Strike” later, and the Greataxes were in trouble… Loras charged his Rose Knights in the Umbers, putting them at 1 rank.
The Cutthroats then charged Renly too, mostly in order to prevent him from charging Ned the next round, but in the end making quite a bit of damage, surprisingly!
The right flank was not going much better, with the Mormont She-Bears failing both their “Warcry”, their charge and their Panic test, ending on the objective and waiting for the inevitable Pikemen charge… which was quite devastating, turning the unit to 4 wounds left (we forgot the Mormont Vet on the picture, added a She-bear back afterwards).
Round 3… well, Renly had the initiative, so it meant I was gonna lose something… turned out to be the Greataxes, sadly!
Luckily for me, I had the “Fury for the Fallen” card in hand, so Ned and his banner charged angrily Renly’s flank, with a Sundering bonus from the scenario. Nearly 2 ranks of Rose Knights out, then my turn, so 1 brilliant attack later and…
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And then it all went completely south…
He healed the Rose Knights thanks to Margaery, and my Ned died from an autowound.
His Loras was then free to charge the She-Bears, killing their Veteran. The She-Bears then proceeded to retreat rather than keep pushing, knowing that a simple “Hold the Line” could end them.
Strangely enough, the Bolton Cutthroats were the only unit standing in the middle of the battlefield and still going at it, even as far as bringing Renly back to 1 wound two more times!
Sadly, it won’t be enough, and Renly remained, finally killing the Boltons on round 5.
On the right flank, the She-Bears went for a fun desperate last charge (game was basically over so… YOLO!), ending up doing 8 damage!
But the Master Warden is not letting go, and in one “Hold the Line” order the 3 remaining She-Bears bite the dust.
Final score: 10 to 5!
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Conclusions
So that didn’t go well at all…
As I said above, my main mistake was to put the Karstark far away for the whole game. The pikes charge was a fun idea but very dangerous in hindsight, and I’m getting less and less impressed by the She-Bears the more I play them, “Warcry” is great when it works, but they really need an attachment to put their Morale at 5 I think (which I usually have with Rickon).
Ned was fun, shame that he died so fast, his cards are still great value.
Quite impressed by the Cutthroats, I might play them more often, cheap and efficient.
Sansa is good as she provides a free “Assault Orders”, but you really need 3 NCUs to make her shine, I never had the chance to use her replacing zone ability, too tight schedule with only 2 NCUs.
Renly is really in a strong position now, still dominating the NCU board and healing faster than taking wounds, making him very hard to finish. With many people playing him here in Shanghai, he now became my “to beat” target!
Hope you enjoyed, next one will still be Starks! Winter is coming!
Grob’
Chez Grob 