Hello Westeros!
Last week’s game with Stannis Baratheon himself fighting Mance’s hordes of Free Folks… and Bears!
It was a pretty tight match until the end, with some great actions from both sides.
But who won?
—
The Lists
Baratheon: Stannis OTK in Kingsmen, Master Warden in Queensmen, Lightbringers, R’hllor Faithful, Dragonstone Noble, NCUs Melisandre and Axell Florent.
I basically went all in on the “Stannis at the Wall” theme, with the full R’hllor roster and no Davos.
Free Folks: Mance in Thenns, Thormund in Spearwives, Harma in Raiders, Bannerman in Raiders, Spearwives on Bears, NCUs Craster and Val.
—
The Game
Deployment started normally, Lightbringers in front of the Bears to try and control them, they seem scary…
Stannis and his Kingsmen take off in direction to the left objectives, while the rest of the army starts marching forward. Melisandre does a double-panic bomb, but the Raiders pass the crown one, reminding everyone that they won’t kneel.
Round 2, and troops start clashing into each other, but first the Lightbringers shoot at the Bears, and the beasts’ riders answer by… shooting at the Faithful. The latter then charge the mammals, shouting “Stannis! Stannis! Stannis!”, and we’re in for some turns of melee.
Thormund’s wives unit charges the Faithful, while the Queensmen and the Dragonstone Noble charge Thormund.
On the left flank, the Kingsmen went to control one objective, while a new horde of Raiders popped on the table.
Back in the centre, with Mance’s morale bubble, all the Free Folks units are passing Panic test after Panic test, holding the line.
The Dragonstone Noble is surprised by Harma’s unit marching in his direction then charging him the next round. He manages to survive, but Thormund’s Spearwives retreat and end up shooting at him, killing him!
The death of Ser Godry Farring turns Stannis and his Kingsmen in blood-fuelled fanatics, and they charge the Free Folks in front of them, led by Harma’s bannerman, who were just shot by Lightbringers and already lost a rank. The charge is devastating and the whole unit dies.
Stannis then pivots towards his next target on the left flank, charging it on the next round. Seeing this, Mance and his Thenns try to relieve the poor raiders by charging the Kingsmen in the rear, but with limited success.
Meanwhile, the bears are still holding the center, but with only one beast left, they retreat. This proved a fatal mistake, leaving the R’hllor Faithful free to charge Mance, and the Queensmen to charge Thormund.
The R’hllor Lightbringers just had to shift to take the last bear down, while the rest of the Baratheon troops cut down the free folks hordes.
Mance retreated from a losing battle, but Thormund fought until his last breath, destroying many Queensmen. After finishing the wild man, the Queensmen turn their attention to the last Raider unit, which ultimately ends up brought down by the Master Warden Ser Richard Horpe.
End result 10-6 for Stannis!
—
Conclusions
I wanted to try the whole Stannis loyalty-schtick at once, and it works pretty well!
Sure, it would have worked much better without Mance’s morale bubble, which is crazy good in FF, but overall satisfied by the Baratheons’ performance.
Melisandre is still fun but unpredictable, using Stannis to heal the wounds back is really a good combo, she would definitely be better with Selyse & Shireen though, to deal auto-wounds and make sure those tests get passed. Axell was a bit disappointing, but it was mostly due to Mance’s bubble, he should do better against a “normal” list.
Quite impressed with the Bears in terms of resilience, they stayed on the board for a while! In my opinion, one mistake from Eric was to not charge with them on their first attack, their range attack is more for objective control than dealing damage early in the game. One charge from them could have been quite devastating on the R’hllor Faithful.
Queensmen and Kingsmen are finally usable, and doing great! Favorite minis and now their rules make me happy to put them on the table, so a huge thumbs up for these two!
Hope you enjoyed!
Grob’
Chez Grob 