Finally i get to play these clansmen!

This is how the Lannister side setup looks like:

And here we see Stark forces awaiting battle:

Stark pushes forward along the road with his foot, and sends the cavalry up the mountains on each flank. Rickard leads the assault, and i decide to take a chance and attack him with my clansmen and Shagga, reactivate them and attack again. I roll lucky enough to get the hits i need beside Rickards toughness, and punish Stark for exposing his commander. Shagga takes some hits, too, and both my clansmen units drop to reduced strength. I rain some arrows onto the oncoming cavalry, with little effect.

This is the board after first round:

The riders of winterfell kill one of my archer units. The Greatjon comes along the road, and the northern warhost fights my red cav, leaving them at reduced strength, but still taking some hits by themself in response. Shagga flanks Starks red riders and uses one of his axe tokens to finish them off.

After round two, the board looks like this:

My archers kill the blue cavalry and cause some losses to the northmen, too. The Greatjon attacks, but fails to get rid of my own cavalry. Not only does Stark have bad luck with the dice, i also get to launch a coordinated attack against the Gratjon with Shagga, rolling double red and double valor. I use another of Shaggas axe tokens, and the Greatjon is captured, leaving Stark without commanders.

After round three:

Stark has only two units left. I use the last round to clear all remaining foes off the board. We both agree, that i had some pretty lucky rolls this time, whereas Stark got bad luck with the dice. Maybe Rickard should not have rushed to the front, being exposed to Shaggas blows, but anyway Stark did not deserve such a crushing defeat. We are curious to play this one again, to see whether the outcome feels more balanced next time.

Take me home, country roads…

My guess was that Stark had a light advantage in this scenario. Every wagon he takes in round three would have given me zwo points, and three for him, and i was sure he would snatch one in the first round and some in round two as well…

So here is our setup:

I started by covering Marq Piper in arrows. Stark rushed towards the street, reactivating his cavalry once to claim 3 of my chariots. Gregor joined the figth and advanced deep into my enemies. Stark was still holding all the three points, so i kind of exhausted my resources by ordering Adam, reactivating him with rally all, and ordering him again, using his commit ability to drive Stark red cavalry off the street and then pursueing to attack and luckily scare away the green riders, too. Longbowmen did fire to no real effect.

This is how the board looked after round one:

In round two, i got all the dice results i ever wanted, captured Marq Piper, the Blackfish and smashed all remaining Stark and Tully cavalry. The longbowmen rolled two 7-dice-attacks to no result. Stark could get a second marker with his red infantry, but the other ones seemed already past his reach, and he would not be able to command a lot during the next rounds.

Situation after round two:

The game seemed a nearly sure win for me now, so i put all my efforts into preventing Stark from getting another marker, to make sure i would not have to suffer any surprises. His archers were still ready in full force… I lost my blue cavalry, and Kevan got stripped to the bone, but the northmen could not get their hands onto my loads. Tully archers fired three rounds of five-dice-attacks to capture lone Kevan, but failed.

The board after round three:

With no way for Stark to come near my 20 victory points, i had no worries rushing into close combat with all remaining forces. The longbowmen finally took Kevan, and Adam got captured during melee combat with Edmure. I managed to kill one red rank warhost of the north and drive the other one far off.

Right before the last round:

The rest was done wuick, capturing Edmure, killing one of those archer units, and that was all my tokens and Gregors command limit of one could accomplish. Looking at the board, i felt more like armageddon then the crushing victory the points implied, but anyway, the better part of my cartload got home safe.

The end:

I thought this one was slightly in favor of Lannister.

Stark started by having his longbow men fire some volleys, and i was afraid cause of the pure amount of dice he rolled, but his attacks did exactly nothing. My red cavalry rushed into his lines soon enough and started to decimate his ranged units. Rickard and his fellow riders joined the battle on the west flank, and some Tullys crossed the river. My heavy cavalry engaged some Starks to prevent them from flanking my own cavalry, and Kevan assisted my archers on the tower in killing an entire blue cav unit.

Starks unit cleared away one of my cavalry, but Adam and the other red went into a double-pursue killing spree and got rid of two longbow men units and put Edmure to reduced strength. Riverborn riders joined the fighting but did little against my heavy foot, and the tower-archers still rolled quite fine and picked out trout after trout.

Stark was way behind in victory points by then. Jaime used his commit ability to reactivate and move twice, finally reaching battle grounds. The two blue warhost of the north stayed at their starting position the entire time, just like my two lannisport guards did. The remaining Tully ranged missed again, and an attempt to capture lone Adam failed. My red heavy infantry got killed, but their brothers still stood in full strength. I managed to capture Edmure, and one round later both Rickard and Brynden, leaving Stark with quite few command options.

The last two and a half rounds gained me the third objective and left me one kill short of a morale-rout-win. This victory was overwhelming, with 13 to 3 victory points and all three Stark commanders captured. I guess Stark had kind of a bad start in missing with round about 5 ranged 4-dice-attacks. Also, i get to like heavy infantry more and more (and he really hates them), as they often can be used to engage someone without second thoughts about getting flanked, limiting enemies moving and fighting options. The scenario seems a little more unbalanced to me as it did before, but i would still love to see how this ends when played a second time.

Stark slaps Lannister around a bit with a large trout.

My first thought after reading the win conditions was: “I will totally win this one”. Then i found out about those objectives being only one-way, and it was more like “I will totally lose this one.”

I start by moving archers and lannisport guards into buildings. Stark leads his Tully riders into the river. Later he noticed he would have been possible to get Brynden across the river thanks to his ability to ride through own units, but actually the line of hidden fords looked very nice. I send the red cavalry north and Adam rides east on the southern flank, together with my other knights. Rickard comes west with archers and riders, and my own archers climb the northern mountains.

I have Adam rush out together with his fellow knights, kill one blue unit of winterfell riders in a coordinated flanking attack and pursue to have Bryndens unit get to reduced strength. Stark engages my northern archers, then flanks them, kills, and pursues onto the objective. I send my red riders and red footmen up and kill one of those riverborn units. Rickard leads a great attack together with the red riders and captures Adam. My archers loose some arrows with no effect. Brynden attacks my blue cavalry, but stays engaged next to the ford. I rally all with Kevan and launch a six dice aided flanking attack against Brynden with my red cav, capturing him and drawing even on commanders.

In round three, my red knights weaken Starks, then get killed themselves, but not without taking the ford. My lone blue rider soon shares their fate. Some blue Stark cavalry slips past my occupied building, stopping next to the south-western objective. My archers take them under fire, and lannisport guards leave the front building to kill them. My red foot engages the red riders on the ford, causing minor losses.

The last round starts with Rickard taking the front building, rising Starks objective-count to three. My only chance to win this battle is to drive Starks morale to the yellow. My archers do a great start for this plan by killing the red cavalry. An attack against blue river riders fails to deal damage. I have to pay a morale and use a flag token to reactivate, cause Kevans command limit is exhausted (i hold rally all in my hand). I kill the unit, but end up one single point short on the morale track.

Stark wins and again we wonder whether it is us who tend to have such close battles or the scenarios are just so well balanced. And whether we should take better care for our commanders.

Eddard vs. Tywin on the burning fields.

I started by advancing the middle one of my archer units and fire some Kevan-aided arrows towards the northmen. Stark moved his warhost closer to the mountains. One of my red cavalry moved into the central forest. Stark answered by attacking it with his own red cavalry, driving it back with morale results, then pursued and rolled morale again. My riders ended up just where they had started, with one less figure.

I had two other of my cavalry units attack the forest, but they did not manage to kill the Stark cavalry. That was the point, when the match took an early and heavy turn in Starks favor: He attacked my stalwart red cavalry with his own one, scoring three red, pursued and scored three blue against my stalwart blue cavalry. We both moved most of our units to the central forest, where my second blue cavalry got killed, too.

At the end of round one it was: Three cavalry down on lannister side, just three figures missing in Stark units. I used Tywins commit ability and had my lone red knights get rid of some Winterfell riders, whereas Jaime did not accomplish much with his attack. Rickard went to the mountains, putting my archers under attack. I killed his fellow men and started a six dice Kevan aided flanking attack, (> 70% capture chance) but ended up one hit short. My last cavalry (save the fragile mister Tywin) had to pay for this attempt and got butchered away.

At the beginning of round three, the battle seemed almost lost for me. I had no units to reach the soft targets (green cavalry) at the back of Starks lines. The only way to win was to capture Rickard. Karstark was sitting in the forest, though. I planned to clear the way with Jaime (there was one last red cavalry figure blocking my path), then reactivate and start a coordinated attack with three units and Jaime reducing Rickards capture value. Jaime did not manage to kill this last northern rider, though.

While Stark took my archers under attack again to little effect, Eddard was busy quenching some fire and I lost a lannisport guard unit on the right flank, Tywin eventually killed the red cavalry. I did three desperate attempts to capture Rickard, but he did manage to hide between the trees.

With two command cards still in my hand and four order tokens left, but no active unit and no way to rally one, I had to call this one a victory for Stark, with five victory points for him and only two for me.

Introducing: tridents.

I started with a little firing with my archers, while Stark ordered his troops on the right flank towards me. His plan was to block the way, keeping some of my units stuck. I could answer by having Kevan rush forward and supporting my men who were attacking the shield maidens. Tywin waited behind the river, making sure i would start turns next round. Robb and his fellow riders engaged my heavy infantry with very little effect, and my own cavalry launched a counterattack.

At the beginning of round two, I used Tywins commit ability and managed to kill some of those last hearth riders on the left. Some serious fighting took place on that flank, leaving only Robb and my heavy guys nearly untouched. All the other cavalry went down, on both sides, only Adam himself remained, and tried to get away.

He suffered several capture attempts, but got away luckily, killing one kennelmaster in the process thanks to a forced pursue using his commit ability. I had him riding towards the topmost objective, far away from all those bad northmen. Meanwhile on the other flank, I amanged to drive them remaining shield maidens into the marshes, and finished them off with a command-card-doubled archer attack. My red cavalry was hurt and got quite far north due to some trident bearers attacking them from behind and scoring several morale results. Tywin finally had to move near to his troops, handing initiative back to Stark.

Robb took care of the south-western objective, and one of my heavy infantry finally got killed. Adam took the northern one, and Galbart joined Rodrik and his trident folks at the building. Some of those started north towards Adam, and killed my red cavalry. I was able to sneak past the rest with my remaining blue riders and got into the building. Robb joined the battle again and killed my archers, but Tywin rode past him, used a rally all card to enable Kevans men to finish some warhost of the north, and took back the south-west point himself.

At that moment I did control all of the four points, and was ahead of Stark in killing-related victory points. I felt sure as hell i could never ever lose, but Stark had still some plans. He started with a rally all by Rodrik. Galbart went along the street, captured Adam and advanced onto the objective. (Two more points for Stark, one less for me). The trident bearers drove my cavalry from the building, and Rodrik moved in. (One more point for Stark, two less for me). A final attack against my mounted knights left them with one figure remaining, preventing Stark from getting another point.

I had no way to capture Robb, who was at full strength, and no active units left near the building or at the northern point. Robb was inactive, too, and even if he could have been reactivated, was one hex short of reaching one of the two southern objectives. I did win with 13 victory points, Stark had 11. Again, there were many interesting choices made throughout this session, and i feel like i had just a little more luck with the dice this time. Either side could have easily done a little better now and then, so i will call that a close win and be looking forward to trying this scenario again at some point.

That one seemed somehow unwinnable for Stark.

First, i had Tywins cavalry advance over and onto the ford. It took the northmen half a heartbeat at most to kill them. I was still confused about how quick my men fell when Stark launched his first attack against the inn, getting one of my heavy armor stalwart covered infantry to reduced strength.

I had Gregor step out and fight the riders, buying some time. Kevan urged his men forward over the river. Tywin himself took several blows by the Smalljon, who was driving him back over the river, far south. I was very glad, though, cause the Smalljon joining the attack against the inn could have cost me a strategy marker.

I used Tywins commit ability to move some heavy infantry back into the southern part of the inn and let my green cavalry step into the free space. That way, everybody was stalwart and covered again. My red infantry died fighting those shield maidens, but that was just the time i needed to get the second marker, while Smalljon started to ride back.

In the third round, I had my green riders leaving the inn and circling around Maege, attacking from behind, while Kevan himself stepped into the inn. At that point, there was nearly no way for Stark to do both - drive my men out and get his own ones in. And that’s exactly how it went - i won after keeping the building for three rounds.

After the battle, we talked about the imbalance and possibilities. We agreed, that the Smalljon should have attacked the inn instead of ignoring the objectives and chasing Tywin. This one seems hard to win for Stark. If the average case can’t win you the game, you should not plan with the average case, but set yourself up for some lucky roles. With Smalljon rushing past Gregor or attacking the infantry, there would always have been the chance for some lucky dice, granting the Cavalry a place in the inn, and let them start driving those Lannisters out with morale results or killing them.

This will be another one for the “very interesting to replay” list.

Now for the Stark expansion.

My first impression was that Stark had a light advantage. Lannister started with two objectives, and the dire need to capture an additional one. The one on the building seemed no good choice for me. The southern way was hard to take, with the forest right at the ford and Greatjon waiting to slash crossing units to pieces. The northern way would take me through marshes, with red rank maidens waiting for me.

I decided to go for both the northern objectives. The ford, i thought, could easily be taken, my red rank foot would arrive in time, and i had archers to fire into the marshes with Kevans support.

Should Galbart decide to stay and defend the hills, at least his units would be bound and my western ford would be secure. They could not help out on the right flank, as well. Should they choose to rush south or east, there should be a great possibility to take the hills.

I had my heavy infantry the right ford. Stark moved into the marches, right out of my reach, and his shield maidens started moving as well. Kevan and my archers went forth, raining an off-balance, commander-supported and marsh-target-aided pack of arrows onto those northmen.

Galbart and the Stark cavalry started to move south along the western river. I started firing arrows and engaging them with my other foot. Adam stayed well behind, but when the moment was right, his cavalry rushed forward to kill the Stark riders. The Greatjon entered the forest and started fighting my infantry.

I decided not to fire into the marches again but to send my arrows to the left, making sure the Glover forces would soon be scattered. Toughest unit to finish were those shield maidens, then only Galbart himself and some reduced strength archers remained. They posed no threat to my own ford and i was sure to take the hills with my cavalry.

Greatjon did finish my heavy guys though, and advanced onto my ford, so i needed to either take that one back or get the northern ford. A single remaining northmen figure had crossed that one, but red rank shield maidens were sitting on the ford in defense stance, after morale against my lannisport guards, who had held that ford for a minute or two.

I rode down again with Adam, planning to use his commit ability to drive Greatjon from the ford and claim it back, but Stark saw that one coming and moved his archers into the forest, preventing retreats by his commander. In the final turn of the final round, i started one last desperate attack against the shield maidens, but failed to kill them or drive them off, so Stark called a victory.

After the battle, we talked about tactical mistakes. I guess i should have taken a bit more care of my eastern ford, and i should have used my archers against those maidens advancing through the marshes. And had i recognized Starks possibility to block Greatjons retreat path, Adam could have attacked the northern ford, too, weakening the maidens or forcing them to retreat.

Stark said he should not have broken his formation at the hills so easily, and wait for me to advance, keeping his cavalry ready to rush either past my troops to take the southern ford, or to get over and lend a sword at the eastern objective. Rushing into close combat gave me plenty opportunities to attack units who were no longer stalwart.

Finally i get to command the hound and all three new unit types together.

Stark did the opening by command Robb and his two warhost of the north, attacking with the king himself and moving his men forth. I expected him to move his men around Karstark first and to wait for me to break my stalwart positions before engaging, but he got us right into close combat. My answer was to have archers and crossbowmen raining arrows and quarrels onto Starks green cavalry and his northmen. Riders of Winterfell took revenge by attacking my archers, chasing them off the mountain, but my own cavalry came over to finish those intruders quick enough.

Rickards men now started to approach while my pikemen joined the fighting and killed the other green cavalry. But Stark did surprise me again: He ordered his remaining warhost units to get back north. Only Robb stayed somewhat near, but rode over to the eastern flank, attacking my archers. He scored no hit, but forced a retreat, pursued, and rolled some nice four green shields. Crossbowmen took revenge by taking Robb’s unit down to reduced strength, but that was all i could hope to accomplish, concerning his capture rating of 4.

My new plan was to send Adam north on the right flank, and my other blue cavalry following the river. There would be a small chance to take the objective. I might force Robb to stay at the lower right objective, preventing him from killing more of my units. Meanwhile, Sandor could advance towards the enemy.

Rickard killed my blue cavalry, Adam got rid of the blue kennelmaster unit and advanced towards the objective. Clegane killed one warhost of the north. Last round proofed i took too great a risk. Adam was right on the point of interest, next to him a blue and a green warhost of the north, with only one mini remaining in each. Marbrand had a good chance of killing the first with a flank attack, pursue and getting the other with another flank attack. But Stark played first, engaging Adam with his northmen and capturing him with a flank attack by Rickard.

Victory Point count was 9 to 6 in Starks favor, so i lost. Had i not exposed Adam so early, he might have been able to stay out of Rickards reach, just racing to the northmen during last round. With two more enemy units down, there would have been a fair chance to win, considering the morale gain.

Yeah, crossbowmen, yeah, Tyrion!

Rickard and one of his fellow cavalry units went to block the ford. Tyrion sent two of his own clansmen units to try and drive them off. He himself and the third cavalry passed the southern ford, my plan was to have them ride up and take the objective at the forest, or maybe attack Rickard from behind.

Kevan ordered the crossbowmen to step forward and cause some losses to the kennelmasters. The lone lannisport guards unit occupied the mountain. In the center, Maege came with full force, aided by blue stark cavalry. They secured the central objective, took the mountain next to it and started to fight my pikemen, which were in “always flank me” formation.

Meanwhile on the eastern flank, red cavalry came down onto my blue one, killing them and riding onto the ford. My own cavalry drove Rickard from the ford and had their companions move onto it. Rickard killed them, though. Tyrion rode north to get behind Rickard and near to the topmost objective.

Greatjon advanced slowly, some northmen taking damage from crossbow men. The kennelmasters sent their dogs, and soon there were but reduced strength cleganes, causing no serious damage anymore.

Devan and heavy infantry engaged the red cavalry on the ford, with little effect. The other infantry unit tried to help in the center, but Maege had everything under control. My pikemen killed the blue cavalry, but then got butchered, too.

Rickard did not step onto the ford he cleared at once, so my other cavalry took the point. Some Stark archers came over, but they could not prevent Tyrion from reaching the topmost point and deactivating Rickard thanks to one of his command cards.

It was the beginning of round 4, i was holding three points of interest, and there seemed no way for Stark to win. The northeast flank was lost for him, and Greatjons soldiers were still a little too far away from the southern building occupied by Kevan.

I finally managed to get rid of red cavalry thanks to my heavy infantry, and Daven stepped onto the ford to seal my victory. Overall battlefield presence seemed in Starks favor, Greatjon and Maege had lost just few of their fellow soldiers. But they were too short on time, and Rickard had given up the right flank too easily.

(Stark said he was distracted by all the nice painted minis we finished just in time for this scenario. Otherwise, he would have thought more about victory conditions, not wasting so much time on the left flank, and not letting Karstark try to win on his own at the other side.)

This is how the battlefield looked at the end of round 4: