Hello Westeros!
FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYY played a game after this 5 days 2 months lockdown!
Unfortunately, my area has been locked again (basically: bar street, end of lockdown, everyone out there, 1 day later, street closed again…), so went to live at a friend’s place for 2 weeks and didn’t have access to my minis…
We did manage to play in Eric’s place last weekend though, with a fun battle to try some of the new stuff!
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The Lists
I really wanted to try some of the new Lannisters, and Kevan being one of my favorites in the books, he had to be my commander!
I went for a “Feast for Crows” thematic list, representing the King’s Landing troops in the 4th book, along with NCUs.
Lannisters: Kevan Lannister in Crossbowmen, Qyburn in Warrior’s Sons, Robert Strong in Red Cloaks, Guardsmen, NCUs Pycelle, High Sparrow and Tommen Baratheon.
On the other side, Eric picked Renly, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands. Two things to try: Riders of Highgarden and the newly arrived Golden Company Officer.
Baratheons: Renly in Rose Knights, Golden Company Officer in Rose Knights, Riders of Highgarden, Master Warden in Pikemen, NCUs Margaery Tyrell, Cortnay Penrose and Alester Florent.
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The Battle
Round 1 went smoothly, with Highgarden troops earning Weakened tokens, Lannister Crossbowmen failing a crown bomb, Tommen picking up a Bribery, and… bribed Riders of Highgarden charging my Guardsmen. Already?!?
Well unfortunately for them, one of their riders heavily sabotaged the attack, and the violent charged ended in the Lannisters’ shields. The red and gold still panicked, losing a rank, but the mighty Lannister supremacy was too strong for the Riders, who lost nearly half their horses.
So overall a good round for the Lannisters!
Round 2, and things accelerated quite a bit… The Riders were healed, but it allowed Kevan’s crossbows to start shooting at Renly’s Rose Knights, taking half the unit down in a very impressive attack.
Enraged by this, the Riders tried to attack the Guardsmen again. Well, let’s just say I fell in love with the Lannister Supremacy again after this game, with the Riders losing once again 5 wounds, against 3 for the Guardsmen…
This success made the Lannisters quite confident, and they counter attacked the Riders, dealing them 3 more wounds, taking 1 rank out. At 4 wounds only, the Riders decided to retreat.
In the middle of the battlefield, the Pikemen suddenly decided to charge Ser Robert Strong and his Red Cloaks. Unfortunately for them, the silent giant’s Resilience was too much, and they only took 3 guys out of the unit.
With the Pikemen engaged in combat, which allowed Kevan to… see their flaws, after which he ordered his crossbows to shoot in their flank, turning half the unit into corpses.
Witnessing the damage done and the huge threat the crossbows were presenting, Renly ordered his Rose Knights to maneuver away. Seeing how the Pikemen regretted their decision to charge, Robert Strong and his men rejoiced and… finished them. That went fast!
The second Rose knights unit went forward, preparing for the Warrior’s Sons charge, which came right after. Unfortunately for the latter, the Tyrell shields held strong, and even worse, the knights passed their panic test, healing thanks to the Golden Company officer and dealing one wound to the fanatics. Worse, their Baratheon Conviction led the Warrior Sons to fail their own Panic test, losing 2 more men in the process!
Round 3 started with a bang, or with a bomb… to be specific, a Crown bomb! I finally had full access to the Crown zone before Alester Florent, so I sent Pycelle on it. Unfortunately, Stag’s Wit prevented my token output, but the Crown bomb took care of the Riders of Highgarden, thanks to a Panic token and a timely picked Hear me Roar!
With one more unit off the board, the situation was getting increasingly problematic for Renly. Seeing the flank of the GC Officer’s unit threatened by the Red Cloaks, Renly’s unit attempted a charge… and failed.
The Warrior’s Sons celebrated by attacking once more, but unfortunately, the Rose Knights were too strong defensively, and once again passed their Panic test, this time using the Baratheon Justice to weaken, panic and make the Warrior’s Sons vulnerable!
At that point, I was seriously reconsidering my choice of putting Qyburn in them, since I did not even have a Faith token, having failed my previous Panic…
Robert Strong had to choose between two Rose units in front of him, but Renly was in one, and his unit already in bad shape. Strong charged, killing 2 Rose Knights while his men did a bit more damage. The Rose knights retreated far away, scared by the giant armored man.
On the right, Kevan had two choices available to him: stay on the objective for victory points, or join the fray and put more pressure on the Tyrells. We hadn’t played for a long time, so I let you guess which one I chose…
The other unit of Rose knights managed to take the Warrior’s Sons down to one rank in one attack, not even needing to spend the Vulnerable token. For once, the zealots passed their test, even after being panicked, and gained a Faith token, which would hopefully prove useful on…
Round 4! Which also started with a bang, and another dead unit straight away, the Rose knights enjoying a free attack and destroying the Warrior’s Sons, even with their Faith token used defensively.
Now I’m a bit confused on how the events followed regarding the Tactics board and the state of the field, having forgotten to take pictures in between. But basically, Robert Strong ended up very close to Renly’s unit, and charged them, killing the Pretender and ending round 4.
They then turned back towards the second Rose Knights unit, who were getting dangerously close to Kevan’s crossbows.
Round 5, Strong pushed his men for a charge in the GC Officer’s flank, but they were apparently exhausted from the previous fight and missed their charge. This led the Rose Knights to charge the Crossbowmen, who stayed strong and then retreated to be able to shoot.
At the end of the Round, the game was won for the Lannisters, with a score of 10 to 2!
We then played a bit more just to see how it could have gone, and Kevan ended up being the last survivor of his unit, while a rear charge from Strong sent the Rose Knights to their officer and his banner the only men left alive.
So it was a Kevan Lannister victory!
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Conclusion
It felt good to play again! This game is very addictive and making lists for 3 months without trying any of them, while watching battle reports on Youtube, is definitely not helping…
So first, Kevan Lannister: I really enjoyed him as a commander, I managed to use all his cards except the “Predictable Maneuvers” which arrived among my last cards, and were impossible to use due to the “Boisterous Charisma” on both Rose Knights units.
His ability to attack from the Crown is great, and I’m looking forward to play him in a more competitive list with Baelish and Bronn, for maximum effectiveness.
Now to Qyburn and Robert Strong: I was really excited about the first one, who ended up very disappointing sadly, but I think it was mostly due to my Warrior’s Sons overall bad performance. I played them 4 times, they only proved their worth 1 time, so really not convinced about this unit, I think I’m more of a R’hllor fanatic than Faith one… Still, I’m curious about using Qyburn, and I know which unit I want him in… no spoilers!
Robert Strong felt okayish during the game, but after writing the report, he actually carried my whole center by himself: dealing 2 auto-wounds per attack and protecting his unit thanks to Resilience is not to be taken lightly!
On the other side, the Riders of Highgarden got quite unlucky on their panic tests, but attacking Guardsmen headstrong was probably not their best option. They are very flimsy, so flank charges to make a maximum of damage are essential, in order to protect them from retaliation. And yeah, don’t attack “Lannister Supremacy” units with them!
The Golden Company Officer was FAN-TAS-TIC with Rose Knights. I think to put him in tandem with Renly Lord Paramount is an incredibly frustrating thing for your opponent: as soon as I killed the Pikemen and the Riders, my High Sparrow was useless, and I couldn’t use some of the cards to their full potential. I always was dubitative of the Thorn Watch Sentinel in Rose Knights combo, due to their morale of 6+ only, but I have to admit, when “Dauntless” works, it works well! So yeah, the attachment is 2pts so a bit costly, but having one is a great investment in a good morale unit.
Finally, this battle completely made me reconsider Alester Florent, who was a real thorn in my side half the game. I usually prefer Littlefinger, but I have to say Alester was a real poster boy for the “don’t bring Red Cloaks without Joffrey” rule. I think I used “Lannister Justice” once during the whole game, all due to Alester sneakily shifting allegiances. So great use of the guy from Eric!
And there you have it, a real fun game, we probably made some mistakes due to being a bit rusty, but I hope you enjoyed the batrep and will be looking forward to the next one!
Grob’
Chez Grob 