War of the Five Kings - Fall Season - two first rounds

 What!?!?! Nigthswatch are messing with  politics and wars of seven kingdoms...

As reported we started a new campaign with 12 aspiring lordlings striving for the coveted Iron Throne.

I'm running Nightswatch. In the spring I played with Targaryens and did ok, but KNOWING what is coming for Targs, I chose to field the Brothers in black. They certainly have a tool kit to tailor a list for any occasion and against any opponent. 

Reinforcements

It has been a while since I have played with Nightswatch (except for two tournaments now in August). Now it was time to think what more should I have in my NW roster. I already had at least one unit of everything released for them, but these two strong units I wanted to paint second ones.

Kitbashed Ranger Trackers

These miniatures are kitbash built from FireForge Games Forgotten Worlds -range  with

further bits from other sets. I'm quite happy with them.

Also, a second unit of Veterans were absolutely needed.

They are so awesome with Donal Noye NCU...

In our campaign I want to try out different commanders and builds.

I have two different models for Jeor, I will use this one as the NCU version.

I'm also thinking on trying a build with many NW Captains and maximizing the 

usage of wows

Game 1.

In my first game it so happened, that I had to face a brother in black, Oskari. We were given no alternatives due to our challenge system. So we agreed, that the battle  would be a friendly war exercise with wooden swords and muffled arrows.

Scenario was Game of Thrones and game size 50p, my list was:

Deployment

We played on 6X4 table. My deployment followed the "refused flank doctrine". One of Oskari's units (Ranger trackers) was left in reserve and would outflank from a flank secretly chosen  by him. He also brought a stone thrower...

Stone thrower sighted! My Ranger units receive and order to Search and Destroy!

Round 1. completed: my conscripts have taken a one objective, my crossbows, ranger trackers and veterans are viewing the central objective, but so are Oskari's Sworn Brothers and Crossbows too... two enemy units are blocking my way to the stone thrower, which did hit my unit, but I was able to heal it (Aemon on Bags). Both Ghosts are lurking about.

Mid game

Oskari's Ghosts becomes the first unit destroyed as my RTs take an aggressive role and charge it with a suitable card from Othell. My Ghost has dared to claim and objective. Oskari's xbows, must have taken their activation already.

Using his special campaign event "Outflank" Oskari's Ranger Trackers appear to my left flank and claim an objective, also threating my Crossbows (I never remembered to use my Master Builder to build a set of stakes). My RT's have also surged forth after killing Ghost to threat "enemy" crossbows.

My Ranger Hunters have moved to challenge the enemy and are inciting enemy's wet behind the ears Conscripts to charge them... this is obviously a trap! Unfortunately this trap explodes to my own face as a combination of a hit from the stone thrower, failed panic test and charge from the Conscripts wipes them out! This is most disappointing as I was looking forward to pull out all kinds of shenanigans with my Hunters!

 

In the meanwhile fight for the central objective had started. My Vets had gotten their charge in, that and counterattack saw Oskari’s Sworn Bro’s losing two ranks.

Round 3 I had the first go and used it to charge my right flank Ranger trackers to the stone thrower. Unfortunately they were not able to destroy it before another enemy unit moved in to help the troubled warmachine team. At least I kept it from shooting for one round.

Jon Snow was fighting Jon Snow and dramatically it was my Ghost that  charged in to rear of the “fake-Jon” and bit him in the arse! This secured the central objective for me and with it the victory. My RTs had also somehow managed to destroy Oskari’s Builder crossbows, which was a key part of securing it.

Final moments

As the size of victory  is quite relevant in our campaign setting, I wanted to push for maximum difference in VPs, so it was time to protect my Conscripts, whom had done nothing throughout the game, but sitting on an objective, so Qhorin Halfhand laid his life down for them!

Thus was very much needed as a hit from stone thrower and a

failed panic test saw the unit almost destroyed!

On my left flank enemy Ranger Trackers had charged my Crossbows to their flank, but due to a disordered charge and a lucky morale tests failed to cause significant damage. My Crossbows had then retreated and turned. After later two hails of crossbow bolts (latter one against a frontal charge) and one failed panic test (I think) the enemy cavalry was no more and my Builder boys could merrily march to one more objective - in the end I was holding four out of five objectives.

Crushing victory!

16-5 

After the first round our campaign map looked like this and I was leading the campaign due to holding Twins with a castle built, which granted me an extra point for my domain.

Game 2.

As I was leading the campaign, I only had to wait for someone to challenge me... so it was my good old friend AND archenemy Pave whom challenged me with his dreaded Starks (our current reigning tournament champion). Adding to this he also played "destruction" on me as a campaign event, this would cause at least one of my "buildings" to be demolished from the map, oh dear! At least I had the campaign leader's 5% bonus to my army. We agreed to play a 40 game (so I had 42 points to use).

Scenario: A Dance with Dragons

My Army:

My army was built for being able to hold at least 2 objectives (2 veterans + Donal +  Alliser), heal a bit (Craster) and to be able to shoot the hell out of Starks, whom are not so heavily armoured, with 3 units excelling at shooting and finally zip around with two units of fast cavalry, or even crab an objective and retreat behind my more defensive units.... I would have taken Qhorin, but he was healing from his wounds for this tournament round.

Stark Army was lead by Rodrik "Rowdy" Cassel, leading Bowmen, a unit of Berserkers with Jon Umber (charge with swords + overrun), Sworn Swords with Robb (charge with Manoeuvre zone) and another one with Bran & Hodor + two Direwolves and 3 NCUs, so this army would come smashing at my face, launching extra charges with both attachments and Sudden Charge cards...

Early rounds

I typically deploy my NW quite close together (depending on the scenario of course), this time I deployed Veterans in extreme flanks, they'd be going for the objectives. My left flan was the more important one, because I had my commander Alliser there and absolutely wanted to secure an objective with him (+1 VP), so his Vets were supported by Builder Crossbows. Both Ranger Trackers were deployed quite in the middle to be able to zoom where needed. All Stark units were deployed quite centrally.

I think I got to start the game and went for the Manoeuvre zone and moved my Alliser-Veterans towards the objective, soon after marched on it and nerfed Catelyn Stark NCU. After that violence soon erupted...  

Berserkers had claimed the central objective with Swift Advance and then launched a surprise charge (Sudden Charge or Swords), Pave was most unfortunate, his movement 2" Beserkers failed their charge due to a roll of "1".  My Ranger Trackers then got the opportunity to shoot them in the flank, killing 4, but as we know, this only pissed them off!

With a free manoeuvre Berserkers finally got their charge and beat my RT's almost to their death, Donal's token kept my horse boys alive! And then my Crossbows were ready to retaliate and soon the Berserkers were no more! I don't remember why, but the objective token was left on the no mans land between our armies. Rodrik Cassel and Bowmen later on claimed it.

Stark charges continued; another Swift Advance and SSs with Bran and Hodor moved to finish off the already depleted RTs.

I then had to move my other RTs to block a future charge to my Builder Crossbows...

At the end of one of the early rounds a Direwolf charged my Alliser-Vets into their flank, causing some wounds and trying to get them to drop the objective token. I think I actually failed the panic test, so I actually had to use Alliser's "At any cost" ablity. I then proceeded to swat the dire wolf with a "Pathetic Attempt" card.

Mid Game

So I had taken a nice 6-3 lead, but game was far from being over...

Both sides had lost a proper unit (+ one dire wolf), but I was holding two objectives (one with a commander), so I was constantly gaining on VPs. My defensive line was pretty solid: my Alliser-Veterans where protected by a wall (and Donal), even if they took some casualties from a Crit blow volley from bowmen (I made them reroll and got more hits in!), my Crossbows were safe from Charges for now...

On my right flank my other Veteran unit was left in peace holding an objective. They never engaged during this game.

Again Starks charged AND AGAIN an incredibly bad luck struck Pave - another failed charge with a roll of "1" and a failed panic test!!!  

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After this battle was so intense for a while, that I forgot to take pictures. I think my Allisser-Vets charged Bran's Swords and finished them off, shooting also saw Robb's Swords go down... leaving only a dire wolf and the Bowmen standing... battle was decided.

Final moments

So, victory was already secured, I would gain 3 VP at the end of this round and win the game. In our campaign, there are bonuses if one wins the game by a a 6+ VP margin, so I decided to go for a gamble and charged Robrik and the boys... I actually managed to grab the final objective from them for a moment but then another "Press the Advantage" was played... I took quite a few casualties, but held on to the objective... then the last dire wolf charged my flank and finished off the unit, grabbing the objective. If only I would have survived, it would have swinged nicely to me, as I was also holding another "Pathetic attempt", which would have killed the wolf!

 

In the end our units were just facing one another with nothing left to do...

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13-9 VICTORY TO NIGHT'S WATCH!

Aftermath

So, not a crushing victory, but a very important victory anyway. Pave is one of the top notch players in our campaign and ASOIAF community. Even with this victory, I fell from the leading position to second in our campaign (Destruction event had an impact too) and Atte Lannister took the lead. Anyway, my event gave me the opportunity to claim one of Pave's territories up in the north. Naturally I chose to take The Gift reagion - The Wall is back at NW's hands! Besides that, I also expanded my territory to a neutral area in South-East.