ASOIAF Campaign Round 3. Stark vs. Baratheon

 Dance with Baratheons

So, I got the change to throw out a challenge and challenge Martin from House Baratheons. As a campaign event I got to take "All or nothing", which would grant us extra conquest points if I won, but none, if I lost. So a lot was at stake on this battle...

Our deployment

As we're playing a team campaign, I planned with my team member Atte, whom would take which commander and so forth (as named characters can appear on a battlefield only once per round).

I also wanted to play with my new toys - Stormcrow Dervishes, which I thought would be excellent against Baratheon reactive cards, as I could slip away before their counter charges.

Dervishes WIP

As a commander I wanted to try Eddard Stark as his cards are very aggressive, which would be needed in a face smashing contest with Baratheons. I also needed to keep him alive (for his cards to work and to score 2 VP from objectives), so I decided to put him into Dervishes. Hence my army looked like this:

Tycho was there to act as first aid, should there be a risk for Eddard's unit for dying. Berserkers and Tully Cavaliers were there for opening those Baratheon tin cans. Only one Dire Wolf, as we're playing a campaign; Bran & Hodor were wounded last round, so they were not available and my Team mate Atte was using Robb & Grey Wind. 

Martin deployed almost a "starter box army":

• Renly, Lord Paramount (not optimal against Starks I think)
• Stag knights (with Renly)
• Sentinels with Brienne the Blue
• 2 X Wardens wih Master
• Bolton Flayed men
• NCUs: Eldon Estermont and Alester Florent

 

Opening moves

Martin won the roll of choosing table halves and picked the better half, so I got to pick up who goes first. As I had a narrow activation advantage of 8-7 and wanted to have the tempo for the beginning of round 2, I let Martin go first. He picked horses and manoeuvred sentinels forward. Later on they then marched towards the centre objective... I went for the letter zone.

This brought Sentinels close to Eddard and Dervishes and I had one NCU to use and 

Sudden Charge TC in my hand... (I think Martin should have seen this coming)

Serie of three TCs saw the Derwishes successfully charge into the Sentinels, gaining two automatic hits, sundering and making them vulnerable - this nice combo reduced Sentinels to just three models. Seeing other Baratheons poised to Counter Charge, I used Dervishes' Swift Strike and retreated back to my battle line - ready to charge again at the start of the next round! 

On my right flank Tully Cavaliers had tried a Yolo-charge to Flayed Men, but didn't quite make it, they passed their panic test easily though.

Stark Tempo

As promised, Eddard and Derwishes proceeded to charge again. I played "Lead by Example". They easily dispatched the remaining Sentinels and then surged forth on to the centre objective. This was a tough choice, as I would have wanted to keep them mobile, but securing 2 VPs from the objective is essential. I then proceeded to follow Eddard's lead by charging Tully Cavalier's head long into  Flayed men (this is why I had tried the Yolo-charge). I was looking to cripple FM with my 11 sundering critblow attacks, but FM only lost 4 wounds! They then retaliated by attacking back with "Swords", causing also 4 wounds! A bit later my Bowmen proceeded to shoot at Flayed men too, causing couple more wounds - Tully Cavaliers managed their panic test just fine... or maybe I used Northern Defiance card...

Then it was my turn to charge again, it was a relief, that Martin had not charged Shaggydog and I charged my Berserkers to Wardens to protect it. Combination of a weaken token and no charge bonuses (Master Warden) caused not so many hits and then an awesome save roll by Martin resulted in only a one wound caused! I then proceeded to Sansa Devastating Impact from my discard pile and due to controlling Horse-zone I charged Stag Knights with ease, causing 2 automatic wounds and scoring 9 hits with Stark Fury. After saves, only Renly and 2 Stag Knigths were left standing!

Round 2. drawed to and end I was leading 4-1 after destroying one unit and scoring 3 points from objectives. I felt that I had the game in the bag!

What the hell is happening?

Oh the hubris! Game in a bag when you're engaged with three units against Baratheons? Dream on Teemu! Renly's unit might have played Our is the Fury against my Stark SS because now they started the round and finished that unit off. Flayed men kept pommeling my Tully Cavaliers, whom barely stayed alive - I was sleeping on using Tycho Nestoris! I realised, that my left flank needed acute help and took the horse zone to take Cavaliers out of the combat with FM and moved them to threaten the flank of Renly's Stag Knights... luckily one of Renly's bodyguards noticed what was happening - look out sir!

So the Stag Knights went on a rampage! I had pondered on whether to strike with my Berserkers or not... I chose to strike with them, while they were still alive, this time I caused 5 wounds on Wawrdens, nuch better. But then the Stag Knight rampage started: with a Counter Charge they charged the flank of my Berserkers and wiped them out. I was thinking of charging Shaggydog on them to wipeout them, but then to my shock realised, that it was now Baratheon turn! Renly proceeded to charge and kill poor Shaggydog and then surged forth (with the objective), to get as far as possible from my Cavaliers... whom had also healed up.

So, Renly had taken out 3 of my units and was now holding an objective. Somehow he had also healed 3 wounds (it must have been "Stag's resilience" card at some point). I needed a 3+ to charge... and rolled a 2, I had no cards to help this charge... darn! This charge could have won me the game there and then!

Game was so intense on these middle rounds, that I forgot to take pictures. In the mean while Eddard and SC Dervishes had charged the Flayed men and managed to kill them. Then they had turned to face the approaching Wardens, whom were not on an objective any more.  My Bowmen joined in to and let fly, taking out 6 Wardens - they probably failed their panic test and dropped the objective token! Wardens then proceeded to charge Eddard and Derwishes to also reclaim the objective.

I had used Northern Defiance to automatically pass a failed morale test somewhere, where it had not been so crucial, but as we were playing 1.7 (or 2021) with 5 card maximum, I had decided to use it.

Now I was deeply regretting it, because barely still living Wardens in my right flank (they had been devastated by both Eddard & Dervishes (my MVP of the game) and by my Bowmen) managed to cause a wound and then I proceeded to fail my panic test! You can see Martin merrily placing the objective token within 2" of my unit, Wardens couldn't take it, as they were already holding a one.

This denied me 2 VP!!!

As we had played 4 rounds Baratheons were now leading 9-7!!!

Round 5. where it's all decided 

To my surprise Baratheons were leading the game and I had to do some moves to win! So I retreated my Cavaliers from their pincer position with a horse zone... Renly and Stag Knights followed up with a charge, but my Cavaliers' armour and morale held against their sundering & vicious attack. Luckily the Wardens didn't succeed in their Yolo charge...

...and even took 3 wounds from a panic test, caused by the failed charge!

It was then my turn to attack and it was Martin's turn to fail a panic at a critical moment, my Cavaliers finally grabbed the objective from Renly! I should have taken it with the charge on R3, but there a bad charge dice roll denied it from me and now a bad dice roll by Martin delivered it to me.

Naturally Baratheons still had a "Ours is the Fury" card to play, but my brave Tullys held fast!

In my right flank Eddard finished the Warden unit and took their objective. He and Dervishes then surged forth 2" and grabbed the other objective token dropped earlier... this made them drop the objective taken from the Wardens... but I had horse zone manoeuvred my Bowmen forward and they were now able to march on to that objective, huh!

So the game drew to an end. I was now holding all three objectives and had destroyed an enemy unit this round. This lifted me from 7 to 12 points, while Baratheons got nil this round! 

Victory to House Tully!

Conclusions

• It was nice to play a game with a difference of just one in activations (me 8, Martin 7)
• Martin played with a not so competitive Baratheon list:
• No Rose knights
• No Healing
• Stag Knight and FM not being worth their points
• Stag Knights with Renly were crazy devastating, Eldon had provided all the good cards for Martin
• Eddard in Stormcrow Dervishes was awesome, even if 
• I forgot to use Eddard's order for healing most of the game
• It's maybe not optimal in this scenario, as you must take an objective with your commander...
• but if they would have been seriously threatened, they would have had the option for a free retreat
• Probably the most exciting and hence the ASOIAF best game I've had this year (10 games so far)