Hello Westeros!
With my Golden Company all done, I wanted to bring them for a whirl on the table: I already tried the Crossbowmen a while ago, which were quite disappointing, so wanted to check the new units, as in the Swordsmen and the Elephant!
But in which army to try them?
I thought about it, and basically, what you want for your elephant is simple: charge easily without dying. Hmm, sounds like a particular commander I love to play… You guessed it, it’s Victarion time!
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The lists
Victarion likes being in a unit with Sundering, making his charges that much more devastating, so the GC Swordsmen seem to be a pretty good fit. Joining them is the titular Elephant, who I was hoping to keep healed and protected, and even resurrected if possible, thanks to all the Greyjoys cards and Wendamyr.
Never going out without his Nute, the latter had to join him with a more traditional unit of Reavers, always a good value in Greyjoys. Finishing the battleline are Trappers, a good objective holder, and Bowmen, always good recruits in a Vic list.
NCU-wise, Rodrik is Victarion’s best support to get the cards you need at the right time, Wendamyr is the faction’s best NCU, and Baelish would join the fray to juggle a bit with the zones, while controlling the Letters if the Swordsmen needed it.
My list:
Victarion Greyjoy in Golden Company Swordsmen, Nute in Ironborn Reavers, Golden Company War Elephant, Ironborn Bowmen, Ironborn Trappers, NCUs: Rodrik Harlaw, Wendamyr and Petyr Baelish.
His list:
Styr in Thenns, Borroq in Raiders, Trappers, Wun Wun, Frozen Shore Chariot, Abel the Bard, NCUs: Craster, Lady Val and Ygritte.
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The Battle
Deployment went smoothly, I placed the elephant in between the Golden Company and the Reavers, with the Trappers and Bowmen aiming for the objective on the right. Wun Wun was the problematic element in his list, placing it in front of my Victarion. Eric placed Abel the Bard in my Bowmen, which didn’t really have any influence on the game sadly.
I started the first round by moving units forward, and doing one of my favorite Victarion strategies: to use Wendamyr and “Rush of Aggression” to be able to charge on round 1. I had to make a choice between the Golden Company and the Elephant to charge the Free Folk Trappers, and I ended up choosing the Elephant: it was a calculated risk as I had “What is Dead May Never Die” in my hand and he could therefore survive the next assault, which was the whole reason why I brought him in that list. The next step was to protect his left flank from Wun Wun with the Golden Company.
The charge of the beast on the Trappers was devastating, killing 2 ranks, and round 1 ended.
On round 2, Eric started. The Elephant was too much of a juicy target to not charge it, which is what he ended up doing with the Thenns. The charge was impressive, killing the elephant on the spot! Well, except it was a drowned elephant, and he would never die! With the Thenns already activated, the Elephant was not in real danger yet, but the trappers needed to be dealt with. Which they were, the Elephant stomping on them, for good measure.
The Golden Company made a free maneuver to protect the elephant’s flank from Wunwun, as he was a bit far and I had already used my Rush of Aggression.
Wunwun answered by charging them, dealing some damage, and then retreated thanks to Lady Val.
Moving Wunwun out of the way was the best thing that could have happened for me: with the big scary giant out, it was time for Victarion to shine! The Golden Company charged the Thenns, not killing them unfortunately, but making enough wounds to damper their offensive potential. With 2 wounds left, they would be an easy kill.
And a perfect target for Nute and his reavers, who charged aaaaand… failed.
Seeing the danger in the center of the table, and estimating that my right side was not really worth the risk, Eric decided to turn his chariot around and charge at my Golden Company. I got lucky on that one: failed charge. The Drowned God couldn’t have blessed me more…
Yes, you guessed it: time for OVERRUN!
Victarion and his Golden Company cut through Styr and his men, and charged the poor chariot who could have been their doom: end result, no more chariot.
Unfortunately for me, Endless Horde came in just after, and a new fresh raider unit popped out of the Free folks zone, charging my Golden Company’s flank.
Worse, Borroq and his unit also came in to charge the Golden Company, and Victarion’s unit was now in big trouble. Well, except for the big grey beast behind them, and Nute and his reavers, who charged at Borroq and… didn’t do much.
Victarion and the newly arrived FF raiders exchanged blows, but it was the elephant who managed to come in and destroy them, releasing some tension from the Iron Captain.
The beast had done its job, and it was with a sad eye that I watched another unit of raiders coming back and charge him in its back, killing him.
But its positioning had made it impossible for them to charge Victarion, who survived and with Nute’s help, as well as a flank attack from the Bowmen, killed Borroq.
The battle was over, one grey beast had fallen, but it was a victory for the Drowned God!
End result: 8-4 for Greyjoys!
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Thoughts
I LOVED the elephant with Victarion commander. It’s no secret that Vic is my favorite commander to play, but the elephant really fits with his style of intense aggression.
The combo Victarion cards + Rodrik + Petyr + Wendamyr is one of my favorite ones for crazy amount of attacks, and you really want to attack and charge with the elephant.
I think he is lacking something to make him a bit more resilient in normal lists, but in Greyjoys “What is dead may never die” really helps with that (oh yes, that is one of the reasons why he was able to do 2 Endless hordes quite easily, as I really needed to control the swords for the WIDMND early in the game).
The Golden Company Swordsmen also play really well with Victarion: he doesn’t really care about the zones, so taking the Letters mid-game and replace them with an attack is not a bad thing, and he really enjoys being in a unit with Sundering. They are more resilient to Panic than usual Greyjoy units, which is always a nice bonus (as I actually failed quite a lot of Panics, so the -1 wound really saved them on one occasion).
Nute was a bit disappointing this game, but I didn’t really focus anything on him, which made Eric not focus on him either, so he was able to score some last minute points.
The bowmen and trappers were in the same situation, only useful on points, except the bowmen for a last attack.
Eric’s biggest mistake was to send Wunwun away, I think he got scared from the offensive potential of both Victarion and the Elephant, but Wunwun is resilient and scary as hell, so I would have kept him in the fray. Bad luck for the chariot charge, failed charges are probably the worst thing that can happen in this game, so that didn’t help…
So in conclusion, I didn’t have that much fun playing a list in a long time, and this really cemented Greyjoys as my top spot for fun faction to play!
Coming soon, the Second Battle of the Sea Elephant… against the terrifying forces of the Dreadfort this time!
Grob’
Chez Grob 