ASOIAF: our second map based campaign concluded!

New ruler in Westeros! 

Once again we have a new ruler in Westeros!

Read on to learn about our fall season campaign and how my Night's Watch fared...

Map in the end of campaign

Story of my campaign journey

We started our campaign with 12 players in early September. It was a continuation for our similar campaign last spring, won by Mika and his Starks. 7 out of 10 players from the spring campaign joined in and as our community had grown, 5 new ones joined in (our community keeps growing!). Players and factions were as follows:

Atte

- Lannisters

Pasi - Lannisters

Jaakko

- Nightswatch

Myself - Nightswatch

Oskari

- Nightswatch

Paavo

- Starks

Toni

- Starks

Toni

Å. - Free Folk

Johannes

- Free Folk

Martin

- Neutrals (Boltons)

Mikko

- Baratheon

Sami - Baratheon (Started as Lannisters!)

So, a nice spread of factions, only NW a bit over populated and no Targaryens. There's only two people with Targs at our club and only myself joining the campaign; as I had played the spring campaign with Targs, I wanted to try something else now (and wait for the new units for Targs, which has proven to be a very long wait!).

Rules Changes

Aftet our spring campaign, we decided to make the following changes to campaign rules:

• Have areas worth extra might spread better

• King’s Landing worth 1,5 might, not 2

• Have a separate Build & Conquest phase after all games are played. Needed because there are conflicting interests. Order of acting based on victory margin of the battles played - winners go first

• Implement two levels of victories:

• Victory (3 Empire points)

• Crushing victory (4 Empire points)

• Role of gold should be dimmed a bit

• 7 gold is worth 1 might

• Making your army larger a bit more expensive

• 1 point added = 1 gold

• 2 points added = 2 gold

• 3 points added = 4 gold

• 4 points added = 6 gold

• 5 points added = 8 gold

• We dropped the rule, that the challenger can choose the scenario (quite strong) and made an Event of it (adding the choice of table side) 

Starting positions

I actually had to add some more cities into the map to allow 2 starting locations for each of the 12 players.

Some players chose a more spread strategy, while others focused both starting locations to same "neighbourhood", many also followed fluff, for example North was heavily populated by Starks and Free Folk. In the long run a more spread approach proved better as some players found their kingdoms quite cornered, then again that also worked to protect them from easy invasions. My starting locations were in Iron Islands (a castle there) and my "Seat of Power" at the Mander -region. Maybe not so fluff locations for Nightswatch, but tactically good.

After starting locations had been chosen, I realised, that both of my fellow NW players had their regions quite close to mine. I then initiated diplomatic discussions with both of them and we soon formed a brotherly pact and agreed to not attack each other in any way. With Jaakko we also agreed, that he would expand from The Neck and I would protect his back by taking Twins. Similar arrangement was agreed with Brother Oskari in the south. I think both me and Jaakko were quite happy with this arrangement as we both are quite experienced and successful ASOIAF players and not beating each other would give us an easier path towards success in this campaign.

The War Begins

For the first round the order of challenges was randomised and it so happened that I was in the last position. Brother Oskari was the second last and as nobody challenged neither of us, we had to face each other on the field of battle. It was stated, that it would be a training exercise with wooden swords only! 

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

See battle reports for my round 1. & round 2. games here

 

So a decisive 16-5 victory guaranteed me the right to conquer new regions first and this gave me the foundation: I claimed Twins a& High Garden to my domain and built a castle to Twins, granting me first bonuses. Atte, Jaakko & Paavo also secured strong victories and Atte was positioned to grab the coveted King's Landing, while Jaakko grabbed Casterly Rock. In the end of Round 1. I was leading the campaign.

Round 1. completed

Round 2. Fighting Starks

Leading the campaign has it's perks, but quite a few downsides too: you never get to choose your opponents and you choose your event from "leftovers". So Paavo, one of our clubs leading players, challenged me with "Demolition" targeted at me too! What can man do against such reckless hatred?

Well, man can win the fight!

It was a tight fight (see the link to the battle report under Round 1.). My two Ranger Trackers were awesome! As my event I had chosen "Agitated Rebellion" and as I won the game I was able to claim a region from Paavo's domain, even if we were not neighbours. I naturally went for the The Gift and hence the Nightswatch returned to the wall!After round 2. Atte Lannister had taken a lead and I was second after losing some real estate to "Demolition".

 

Round 3.

Round 3. saw lot of underdog challenges; Toni of Free Folk had only his home province in the north left and he called the "All or nothing" event (5 Empire points from victory or nothing from draw / defeat) and Challenged Mikko of House Baratheon, whom had conquered several regions next to Toni's seat of power, a risky challenge, but with a potential for high reward. Pasi Lannister obviously felt anxiety of his southwest domain being now quite blocked by my areas, and he challenged me. I certainly welcomed this as it gave the opportunity to potentially grab Old Town... and to use Stone Thrower, muhahahahhahaaaa!

Battle report here

As Round 3. was completed I had retaken lead in the campaign. Old Town was mine and a new city was built in Highgarden, which boosted my lead even further... this unfortunately also lead to many other players brooding on how to topple me from my high throne!

Round 4.

Mikko of House Baratheon / Tyrell challenged me for round four as he wanted to claim Highgarden, which he claimed was rightfully his! As my event I chose to run a raid at Sami of House Baratheon, who's wealth was starting increase in a worrying speed! This meant, that out of the gold (14), that he collected, he would only get half 7 and I got half of his lost part, rounded up to 4. With this, I think Sami would have speeded to victory with his wealth. 

A surprise followed when Johannes of Free Folk also challenged me by choosing the "Cut off the snake's head" event! He also had a game against Atte of House Lannister, whom had chosen "Demolition" as his event and threat to use it against me! 

Round four Battle reports (currently WIP) are here .

During the Build & Conquest phase of Round 4. I conquered two regions from House Baratheon, but lost the vey valuable Highgarden, which wan run over by Wildlings! This dropped my might in total, as HG had an extra value of +1. I calculated the situation and realized, that if Atte of House Lannister would really direct his "Demolition" event to me, I would lose the leading position to Sami or Paavo (of House Stark). I then engaged in negotiations with Atte and his time I was able to pursue him into switching his target to Sami! I guess Atte envied all the gold Sami was collecting and mining every round! 6 gold also exchanged hands from me to Atte. Atte's "Demolition" caused two of Sami's buildings to collapse!

As the dust settled for Round 4. I was leading with a narrowest of margin before Paavo and Atte, our chart looked like this:

Shall it continue for another round or two?

Our campaign concept has a random length built into it, and it was time to roll. Campaign would continue on a roll of 2+ on D6. I called a video call to our messenger group and Paavo and Sami answered the call to follow this roll. I told them not to worry, because I'm such a seasoned wargamer, I'm certainly capable of rolling a 2+ on a D6. I think one of the chaps commented something like, "but don't you want to throw a "1", as you will win the campaign... and so the die was rolled...

...and a "1" it was!

VICTORY!!!

ALL HAIL HIS GRACE,

lord commander teemu, OF no HOUSE, THE FIRST OF HIS NAME,

KING OF THE ANDALS,

THE RHOYNAR, AND THE FIRST MEN, 

AND LORD OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS.

CAMPAIGN WINNER TROPHY 

IN MY MINIATURE VITRINE

And finally our final ceremonies (in Finnish)