Hello Westeros!
The last tournament of the first season of Shanghai 2023 (February to April tournaments) took place yesterday, and it was another blast!
While I unfortunately ended 8th of the tournament due to a very particular Skinchanger and his INSANE pack of wolves, my Ironborns managed to get the second place of the whole season, in between two roaring lions!
So once again thanks to Bruce from SoGoFun for the organization and sponsoring, with great prizes for the tournament and 3 lovely trophies for the season ending, and thanks to all the participants for 3 great events filled with tears, blood and sweat!
My lists
We implemented a fun rule: during one season of 3 months, you had to make 6 different lists with 6 different commanders (2 per monthly tournament). You didn’t have to play all of them, but it still made for more variety in list building, instead of the traditional Drogo, Jon, Eldon…
I went with Greyjoys, and my first tournament pair was Victarion/Erik, my second one Baelor/Dagmer, and the last one Asha/Balon. I did manage to play all 6 of them which was my personal challenge, so quite happy about that!
My Asha list was mainly focused on a strong commander anvil for Clash of Kings with Asha in Ironmakers, and a strong hammer with Theon in Bastard’s Girls, which I tested the month before and absolutely loved:
Asha and Qarl in Ironmakers, Theon in Bastard’s Girls, Drowned Men, Reavers with Reaver Captain, NCUs: Wendamyr, Rodrik Harlaw, Beron Blacktyde.
My Balon list was focused on healing and good morale, for Feast for Crows:
Balon in Ironmakers, Drowned Men, Drowned Men, Asha in Bowmen, Warsworn and Reaver Captain in Reavers, NCUs: Wendamyr, Rodrik Harlaw, Beron Blacktyde.
A Clash of Kings
Asha Greyjoy vs Loras Tyrell
His list:
Loras Tyrell in Rose Knights, Rose Knights, Champions of the Stag, Baratheon Wardens, NCUs: Olenna, Margaery, Cortnay Penrose.
Did you say… grindy? Probably the grindiest game I have ever played!
I did a grand total of… 2 attacks.
One was a charge of Reavers in Loras’ rear, making 2 wounds. One was a Drowned Men attack on Loras, making 1 wound.
All the rest of the time was basically early positioning and retreating while on the central objective: I rushed my Ironmakers towards the middle, to grab the objective with lots of space behind to retreat, the Drowned Men coming in close to support them on one flank.
In front of them were 2 Rose Knights units, so I had no real plan to attack, my whole focus was to retreat slowly but surely.
I put Theon and the Bastard’s Girls on the left, ready to grab the objective and potentially get replaced by the Reavers once they would outflank. On the right, he sent his Wardens to grab the last objective, while his Champions strolled (too?) slowly behind his Rose Knights, guarding their flank from Theon.
Round 2, my Drowned men took position on my Ironmakers flank to prevent an incoming charge from Loras. They took the charge pretty well and didn’t die, instead healing. The second Rose Knights charged my commander unit, but thanks to Beron Blacktyde, they held strong, and retreated just after, keeping the point.
The Champions and Theon’s unit just looked at each other, being just out of range from charging, but Theon scored.
Round 3, the longest decision in the game, where to outflank? My original plan was to outflank behind Theon to let him move around freely while controlling the point with a cheaper unit. However, his Rose Knights’ rears presented a juicy target for a unit with Sundering. I ended up for the second option, placing my reavers as to being visible from his wardens, expecting a charge on them which I would then retreat from. The charge didn’t come however, so I claimed the horse zone to maneuver, using a Wendamyr token to get me closer. Time to charge… 2 dice, 2 wounds. By the Drowned God I hate 4+ melee attacks.
The good thing was that this sudden new unit distracted him from my Drowned men, which managed to hold strong. My reavers took a lot of damage but managed to survive, escaping on the next round, their purpose completed. Meanwhile the Champions finally decided to charge the Ironmakers, but it was too late, and after passing a last panic test and some healing, they did hold strong, with no dead unit on either side, and a Greyjoy victory!
Dark Wings Dark Words
Asha Greyjoy vs Baelor Blacktyde
His list:
Baelor in Silenced Men, House Harlaw Reapers, Asha in Reavers, Drowned Men, Drowned Men, NCUs: Wendamyr, Beron Blacktyde, Erik Ironmaker.
Compared to the first game, this one started in a completely different way. We drew mission 4 as one of the 2 first mission cards, meaning the Tactics Board would be quite useless on the first two rounds.
Unfortunately for me, my first card draw included two “We Do Not Sow”. Sure, I could have done a Rodrik shuffle. But after a game with barely any attacks, my offensive Greyjoy side was itchy. So when he marched with his Reavers the full distance, right in front of my Theon’s Girls, I went medieval on him, as Marsellus Wallace would say. Using Asha’s activation to replace the mission card by another, this made me free to use the zones and replace it by “We do not sow”. The first range followed by melee attack was brutal, but unfortunately not enough to finish him. Knowing that I had a second “We do not sow” in hand, I didn’t retreat. Unfortunately, he also had one, and combined with Drowned men and cards, he managed to heal just enough to not die on my second attack, with Asha being at one point the lone survivor of the unit, and my Theon retreating but at half numbers.
A very exciting and surprising round 1 to be sure!
I started round 2, but he had managed to heal back Asha’s unit a bit, which prevented my range attack to finish the unit. I then went for the charge, killing it, but unfortunately leaving myself exposed to his Baelor and Silenced Men. He did not wait, hurting my Theon’s Girls quite badly in retaliation. I managed to escape, but my wounds were too low at the moment to present any real threat to him.
On the right, his Drowned Men deviated and went for the point, while my Ironmakers tried to rush in as well, having lost one activation to change the mission card the round before. My Drowned Men accompanied them, waving around the Silenced Men to turn their attention away from Theon’s Girls, to no avail.
I had used my Outflank on round 1, placing my Reavers in position to threaten his center, but in insight I should have just stayed on the right objective, which would have granted me more points undefended.
Instead, I went for the Reapers’ rear, but they turned around and we ended up exchanging blows. However, with round 3 now on, the next mission card in reserve was the “Enemy deployment zone” one, which was perfect for me, my Reavers being near. I simply had to take the horse, retreating from the reapers, who charged me again, but I then activated and retreated, avoiding them all together and scoring 2pts (unfortunately after giving him 1pt to change the zone, by going on the letters zone which was “forbidden” at that time).
The Drowned men managed to hold Baelor and his Silenced Men on the flank (thanks to one What Is Dead), while Theon was recuperating, while Asha, Qarl and their Ironmakers finally reached his Drowned Men controlling the central objective.
The last round was my lucky round: the Ironmakers managed to kill the central Drowned Men, and the last card was 2 points on the central objective! Thanks to a second What Is Dead, my Drowned Men once again survived the Silenced Men’s wrath, keeping my whole army intact.
On the right, in a desperate attempt to score one more point, he sent his Reapers on the last objective. I had the Iron Price in my hand, and 2 pillage tokens on my Reavers… One token spent later, I needed a 6 on the charge… 6!
The Reavers ran across the field in a devastating assault, taking out one rank of the Reapers and contesting the objective! Final score 8-6, thanks to the central objective mission card, so a very tight and fun game!
A Feast for Crows
Balon Greyjoy vs Varamyr Sixskins
His list:
Varamyr, Wolf Pack, Shadowcat, Eagle, Wun Wun, Raid Leader in Thenn Warriors, Raid Leader in Raiders, Chariot, NCUs: Craster, Val, Ygritte.
Well, there had to be a bad game in there right? There comes the limitation of playing the same faction and mostly the same opposing faction for a few months: you forget abilities in others… Add this to the fatigue of the day, and I did make a lot of mistakes.
I picked Balon for two reasons: first, I had planned this list specifically for Feast, and second, I wanted to play all my commanders of the season at least once, and he was the last one. In insight I should probably have stayed with my Theon’s Girls, who would have been able to deal way more damage, and faster.
In deployment, I put each Drowned Men in front of an objective, with my Ironmakers and Bowmen center/right. Of course, he put his cat behind my lines, aiming for my Bowmen.
The first round went smoothly, with the cat charging my Bowmen but my Ironmakers using 2 Wendamyr tokens to get rid of him. On the other flank, the Drowned Men advanced, with me basically learning that the Wolf Pack is completely insane and that I should deployed them with the rest of my army instead…
Round 2, he went to seize the objective on the right, and my Ironmakers charged in, accompanied by the Drowned Men, making him lose the objective. In the center, Wun Wun is getting dangerously close to my Bowmen, which shoot a volley and manage to do 2 wounds to the big guy!
On the left flank, my Drowned Men are in a bit of trouble, managing to survive a Thenn charge and a Wolf Pack charge, but not enough: with the Wolf Pack cancelling abilities AND tactics cards, they die, as I can’t use What Is Dead to bring them back from a “Commanding Bond” charge…
They die and I place a Corpse pile further away, to bring my Reavers with a nice outflank, straight on the objective! Unfortunately for me, he gets all his “Summon companion” cards and pops both his Cat and Wolf Pack behind me, while Varamyr gets the first objective and his Thenns move forward to meet my Reavers…
On the right flank, big mistake, I forgot about Endless Horde and killed his raider unit on the right: no point for me, but a corpse pile in long range, just in front of his new freshly arrived unit… One free vp for him!
In the middle, his Chariot charges my Bowmen, and I’m looking forward to destroy him with my Ironmakers on his flank. However, he did deal some damage and Wun Wun is coming, so for some unknown reason, I decide to attack with the Bowmen first, in order to reposition them further from Wun Wun. And of course, while doing that, I completely forgot about… “Swift Retreat”. By the Drowned God I hate myself. So after happily dealing 1 wound to the Chariot, I watch in horror as his only killable and VPable unit retreats far away, out of sight and range of my Ironmakers.
Heartbreak.
Even worse, in the center, Wun Wun initially decides to charge my Ironmakers, which could provide me with some action and if lucky a kill, but ends up having a change of heart and goes completely out of range, chilling in the background.
Even even worse! Surrounded by a cat, a pack of wolves and Thenns, my Reavers die, since I still cannot use What Is Dead, thanks to this insane furry unit that is the Wolf Pack (cue Sabaton’s “Wolf Pack” song, exactly how I felt this whole endgame…)!
And with that final action, we ended up on a score of 6 to 2, with a Free Folks victory!
This tournament started great and ended badly for my sailors unfortunately, with Varamyr’s wolves haunting my dreams the following nights…
These wolves are literal Greyjoy killers. Period. I think that’s why I never really read any complaints about them before, since for other factions they would cancel cards, but no other faction as a card THAT important for survival (I could see Greatjon’s players mumbling as well). So yeah as a Greyjoy-main, these guys are my new demon. Forget Mel-bombs or Lannister Supremacy, these 3 furballs are the stuff of nightmares!
Still I had a fantastic time, even though I do feel like playing the same faction and mainly one opponent faction for 3 months does take a toll on card memory, as both my first and last game came with some surprises which I had completely forgotten about (“Swift Retreat”, raaaaah…). So yeah, before a game, make sure to review all the abilities of the opposing units, it could cost you a lot!
The general consensus of this tournament was that the games are becoming harder and harder, for everyone, which is awesome but definitely more demanding! It is great though to see the level increase so much, as most games feel more balanced and anything could happen.
This is actually one reason why the more I play, the more I like the mission cards game modes, Dark Wings Dark Words and Winds of Winter. Both add a very different dimension and can turn a losing game into a win for any faction or list if you focus on the missions, which I think is more fun and makes taking risks and not playing auto-tuned lists more rewarding. The second game was definitely my favorite due to that, being a much more unpredictable and fun game than it would have been with a more normal game mode.
So while all 3 tournaments of the season have not been the best for me, my pirates did manage to sail under the radar and grab the second place of the season! I was quite happy to try all my 6 chosen commanders, with the most surprising one being Erik Ironmaker, which I actually really enjoyed playing.
In the end, Greyjoys did not have anything to be ashamed of, as we reached the second and fourth rank of the season, only bested by the powerful lords of Casterly Rock! On this topic, congrats to Masha for his first place and 2 tournament wins, and Brent for his third place and tournament win, we heard them roar!
So this is a testament to show that the Kraken is not that weak, for all aspiring Greyjoy players who lost heart, keep at it, they still have lots of fun tools and while certainly not the most competitive faction, can hold their own in most situations!
Just beware of this damn wolf pack…
Grob’
Chez Grob 