Having to face the brotherhood again, and with my cavalry a good deal away from the crossings, i was not sure whether i could prevent Stark from washing over me. Infantry does strike back with 2 less dice when on fords, and those lightning archers were able to rain down three dice valor hitting arrows, but then again a pack of heavy infantry plus Jaime on the one side and Shaga on the other were right the men i would choose to stop an onslaught.

This is the initial setup:

Smalljon and some lancers head to the bridge, the brotherhood takes the objective on the fords. My infantry attacks the fords and drives the brotherhood back. They throw themselves at the crossing again, and one cavalry unit manages to get through. My crossbowmen and Stone Crows start their take on the lancers who crossed the bridge, which had placed a defense token. They drop it to get a simultaneous counter attack and get killed.

Beric attacks the ford, a lone figure of heavy infantry holds ground. Jaime flanks the brotherhood riders with no effect. Beric attacks again, killing my men and taking the objective, then tries a third attack but without causing hits. Shagga advances one field at end of round and engages Smalljon on the bridge.

Jaime flanks the Cavalry again, and my heavies engage Beric. The riders i initially ment to send to the building flank and kill the brotherhood cavalry at the ford. my infantry attacks Beric again and dies because of the counter-attack. At the bridge, my Black Ears riders flank Smalljon and score some hits.

Beric and his men use the breach and cross the river, they attack, pursue and rundown my cavalry. my heavy infantry crosses the ford, too, and kills the green winterfell riders unit. Longbowmen take their shot at my guys and kill two heavies. My crossbowmen try and target green cav but score no hits.

The bridge looks like a stall, so Tyrion, Chella and the Black Ears ride to the ford. Tyrion rallies them and Chella commands them again, killing Starks men on the ford and retaking the objective. Shieldmaidens arrive at the building.

Morale is 4 points in favor of Stark after this round.

Chella orders herself and the Black Ear red riders, giving both plus 2 dice this round, and they each kill a unit, collecting some ears and ripping open the crossing for all Lannisters. Beric attacks the lone cav figure but fails to kill them, so Jaime flanks him. Due to reduced capture rating, Jaime takes Beric and uses his commit ability to rally all my units on the board.

Stark attacks Chella with archers and Cavalry, but only gets her to reduced strength. She uses 10 ears to have Black Ears attacking Rodrik three times without taking him, before herself and the riders head over to the archers on the hill. Last hearth lancers head over to the ford, and Thoros rallies all.

The brotherhood riders kill my blue cav and head to the lone objective, Tyrion follows them. The Shieldmaidens move onto the point. Rodrik moves onto the ford and gets captured by heavy infantry with a lucky roll. The winterfell riders kill my guys afterward. Shagga attacks Smalljon with no effect.

Morale had gone up for Lannister a bit but drop down again to 4 points in Starks favor.

Riders of Winterfell move onto the ford, Jaime attacks them, rolls morale and advances to retake the objective. The Smalljon disengages from Shagga, attacks other Stone Crwos, reactivates and heals himself, and moves away, in order to be able to command some units.

Tyrion kills the brotherhood riders and attacks the Shieldmaidens on the ford. My Black Ears at the ford charge into enemy lines but end up in a bad position and get killed by Thoros’ unit. Shagga walks onto the bridge and kills some nearby brotherhood guys. The lancers attack Jaime without hitting him, and get shot down to reduced strength by my crossbowmen in response. The Smalljon drives Shagga back off the bridge but cant pursue.

Morale is finally one point in favor of Lannister.

Round five:

Stone Crows cross the bridge and Shagga moves onto it again. Smalljon and his mean nearly kill the Stone Crwo unit, and the archers finish them off. In turn my Black ears kill some archers and the remaining winterfell cav, and Tyrion finishes those maidens.

Jaimes men kill the lancers and engage Thoros. he disengages and tries to sneak past Jaime, but Jaime gets a lucky roll and captures him. Archers drive Shagga off the bridge with morale results, and the Smalljon finally crosses. But its too late.

All objectives are occupied by Lannister (Smalljon could have taken the bridge, but without effect), three Commanders got Captured (Beric, Thoros, Rodrik), and morale is deep red on Starks side.

A glorious win for the lion after nearly 4 hours of gaming!

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Brotherhood without Banners:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/battles_of_westeros_brotherhood_without_banners/

Run Down strikes back!

We both did not really know, which strategy to follow in this one.

Here is our setup:

I started by moving my men down the street in stalwart formation, and having Gregor set a hex near the building on fire. My first mistake was to not spread the fire into the building immediately. I was waiting for more fires and better opportunities to spread into enemy units, but since the brotherhood can move several times a turn, they outright occupied the building and used the warhorn.

On the right flank, i secured the building with Kevans men. My cavalry moved down, and my initial plan was to reactivate Jaime and make my riders stalwart, but some archers moved into the building and used the warhorn, spwaning a one-man green unit. i could not resist and reactivated my red cav, killing the guy, and driving the archers back out with pursue.

I kept one card, to be able to go first next round.

I started out with Gregor letting another hex catch fire, and spreading, setting three of Starks units on fire. I felt very good about the state of the board so far. I would leave the burning flank to my enemies, but they would be busy quenching the fire in order to not loose units, and it would take some time to move the rather slow units past the burning fields to the center. Meanwhile, my cav was in good position to do quick strikes where needed, and should they get engaged, Jaime and my guys on the street could just attack anybodies flank.

Well, it did not work out that way.

Stark had Beric order three, attacked my blue cav with one rider, scoring one hit, attacked my red cav with the other, and rolled a whopping valor, valor, red, pursued through the blue, running down a figure, and attacked for the last hit. Third unit ordered were the archers, and Stark said: “I will roll two morale against Jaime”. And he did. New situation: All my riders down, Jaime somewhere at the back where he couldnt order anyone, let alone attack.

After having my archers on the right flank do a Kevan aided shot, Stark put out two fires, and i figured i should just try to kill as many guys on that side as possible. I moved my men over there, stalwart all the time. Beric came over and weakened one heavy infantry. Other knights of hollow hill killed them, used run down to pursue through some other guys, and finished those, too.

All Stark had to do afterwards was to use his two morale tokens to raise his morale by two, and i was routed. I did not even have any killable unit in range of the few active men i had left.

Final board:

Did i mention rund down and pursue 3 can play out pretty awesome?

Smartphone Apps are available for free to calculate probabilities for attacks in battles of westeros. Select rank of taregt unit and number of dice and check whether its likely to captur a commander or decide between coordinated attack and flanking.

iPhone version:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rollofdice/id550919321

Android version:

https://market.android.com/details?id=de.bokeh.arollofdice

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Brotherhood without Banners:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/battles_of_westeros_brotherhood_without_banners/

No rising did take place at all.

This is how the setup looked like:

Scary, isnt it? After the last beating i took from the brotherhood, i was a little afraid. But only three rounds seemed quite little time to me, even if those outlaws could take multiple turns each round.

I started with Gregor, putting a huge level 4 fire onto the one objective, making it quite hard for Stark to try the double-X-way rigth from the start. He answered by having his cavalry ride in all directions, engaging my men on both flanks.

On the other side of the river, my men scored a very lucky three-hit-attack against the red rank northmen, and drove back the green ones. Brotherhood riders went on, killing my guards and taking the left x point. I rallied Gregor and laid a second fire, then used his commit ability to spread, catching three of Starks units in fire, without a possibility left for him to order them.

The fire spread up, unfortunately, putting Gregor and my archers on burning ground, too, but it seemed not to bad, given the path to the y targets was now blocked for the better part of it.

After round one:

Gregor, my archers and the green warhost spent their turns quenching the fire. One unit of outlaws had burned, and some brotherhood cav just sat there, waiting for anothe rhit by fire. My lannisport guards moved west and drove the knights off the point, advancing to retake the x. But Beric came down, killed em, and the other guys retook it. I sent the other guards immediately, and they brought Beric to reduced strength, at least.

Kevan finished the red warhost, but Thoros and some outlaws started towards the right y, and killed my heavy infantry with an all valor roll. Taking both x seemed very unlikely, but the red priest was uncomfortable near one y. The fire spread down this time, heating up the green warhost again.

After round two:

I moved my archers onto the y, and placed Kevan and the green heavy infantry next to them, to make them stalwart. I also managed to kill the last remaining figure in the Thoros’ unit, leaving him on his own.

Stark did something strange now, and i believe this was the turn which sealed his doom: The brotherhood cav attacked Gregor, and he used call to arms to place a warhost on the x point. The objective was now defended by two green infantry units instead of two blue cav, i had my guards attack, kill them, and advance onto the spot.

Beric did retake the point, but after that, Stark had only one brotherhood token left, and the priest even got captured by my archer’s counter-attack (what a lucky roll!). A victory, but i am pretty sure this could have ended either way. Besides, Gregor in his fiery version is so cool!

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Wardens of the West:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_waechter_des_westens/

And Wardens of the North:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_waechter_des_nordens/

There’s gold in them thar hills…

Note that this session was played with a previous version of the scenario, where the Lannisport Guard at the entrance of the mine was red rank, and instant win condition for Stark was only checked at end of rounds, not turns. And i took pictures from different angles this time.

The Greatjon ordered his men to come along the raod, but Daven was ready and engaged them at once. After he rallied himself, he finished of the first unit of northmen and pursued to attack the Greatjon, driving him far back with a double morale result. This was great luck, since the greatjon would need some time to reach the mine and had his units out of his ZOC.

The Smalljon came along the other road and engaged my guards, but lost some of his men along the way due to my crossbowmen. Some of those stepped out the building to be able to fire at the riders.

Daven fought his way through the northmen, but got somehow quite far away from the entrance in the process. Smalljons riders were now present at full force and slaughtered away my guards, occupied one building and engaged the crossbowmen.

The Greatjon started to the mine, again, and Tywins men readied themselves to reach the scene next round. Stark archers shot one horse down. The miners still did not join the battle, for lack of command capabilities. I decided to hold back one card, as it was Tywins “order all units” and i figured i could utilize it for great effect later on.

Tywin arrived at the scene, my riders retook the building and killed nearly all remaining Stark forces. Only the Umbers remained, but the Greatjon was about to enter the mine and approached the inner objective, whereas the Smalljon could always hope for a quick strike at the buildings.

My cavalry had some lucky rolls against those intruders, but things were not yet safe.

I still had my ace up the sleeve. Tywins commit ability brought my red rank guards back to live, and then he played order all to order six units at once. Some militia engaged the Greatjon, and after that he got a ten dice coordinated flanking attack, with a succesfull capture as result.

Stark had no unit left to enter the mine, and the Smalljon could not hope to keep one building, not to mention two, between this bulk of Lannister troops. So in the end, the gold mines were defended successfully!

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Brotherhood without Banners:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/battles_of_westeros_brotherhood_without_banners/

Thorn in the paw? More like a goddamn stake through the heart…

This was our setup, Adam feeling still shiny, waiting for the day:

I started with my heavy infantry into the building, cause i figured cover and heavy armor was nice, and securing points of interest couldnt be that bad. Well, my guys got torn into pieces faster then i could say “flanking attack”. My other infantry attacked some archers, but got driven off by brotherhood riders afterwards. Adam sent some cavalry to secure the crossing, and thats round one.

And that is when the killing began, followed by a light salad. Run down is just like “well i did hit you, and now i will get extra hits for riding you down, and then i will attack right again, so my friends can flank you, and kill the unit, and ride through some other guys, and get another attack.”

After losing Kevan and all archers i felt like i should sneak past with my own cavalry, but the brotherhood never sleeps, you know, so they kinda caught me. Some other chevaliers attacked archers, just to cause any harm at all, and in a blink all the other Stark guys were right there.

First of all: Those archers rolled one die and did get their freaking red result before my infantry could kill them and at least force one cav unit to head east. Sir flank-a-lot launched a nice attack and killed two units, but then Beric was there, and yeah, did i mention how broken run down is?

The board after round three:

Yeah, that’s correct, one unit left.

Well, round 4 was, huh, Stark got all objectives, killed my last unit and routed me. I am so frightened of the brotherhood right now, i will insist on replaying some other scenario before we move on to number 24.

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Tribes of the Vale:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_clankrieger_der_berge/

You shall not pass!

Axes flash, broadsword swing,
Shining armour’s piercing ring
Horses run with polished shield,
Fight Those Bastards till They Yield
Midnight mare and blood red roan,
Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Starks mounted troops rush round the south-western edge and engage with the Stone Crows. Meanwhile, the Black Ears slip through the crags and collect the ears of those daring enough to come along the road. The Burned Men take position at the northern part of the road, awaiting their enemies.

Follow orders as you’re told,
Make Their Yellow Blood Run Cold
Fight until you die or drop,
A Force Like Ours is Hard to Stop
Close your mind to stress and pain,
Fight till You’re No Longer Sane
Let not one damn cur pass by,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

The Stone Crows fall under the trained hooves of winterfells riders. Only Shagga and his personal guard stand their ground, delivering some blows. The cavalry turns and heads through the mountains, where Timmett and his men fall upon them and loot their corpses. Brave Chella gets behind the enemy lines, but gets captured in a massive combined effort.

Guard your women and children well,
Send These Bastards Back to Hell
We’ll teach them the ways of war,
They Won’t Come Here Any More
Use your shield and use your head,
Fight till Every One is Dead
Raise the flag up to the sky,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Shagga struggles to get back to where the action is. The Greatjon and Timmett, both without any guards left, get at each other, but cant find a weakness in their foe. Most of the Black Ears crush through Stark infantry lines, just to get flanked and killed. The Burned Men dont get the time to use their new equipment alot, thanks to Rickard.

Dawn has broke, the time has come,
Move Your Feet to a Marching Drum
We’ll win the war and pay the toll,
We’ll Fight as One in Heart and Soul
Midnight mare and blood red roan,
Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Rickard abandons the main battle to get at Shagga, thus denying him to have his place in the killing, too. Timmett is working hard to have the clansmen keep up with the Stark killcount. The grounds fill with dead bodies, and only few remain alive. Some Burned Men are the last ones to hold the street, but the enemies coming up dont have great numbers on their own.

Axes flash, broadsword swing,
Shining armour’s piercing ring
Horses run with polished shield,
Fight Those Bastards till They Yield
Midnight mare and blood red roan,
Fight to Keep this Land Your Own
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How Many of Them Can We Make Die!

Shaggas men fall, but he himself stands as a rock, far away from the street. Timmett eradicates a complete unit of northmen, while his fellow clansmen sacrifice themselves to keep the last winterfell riders from reaching the gate. He then gets up and after the Starks, but is to slow to reach them in time.

Starks call a victory, having killed one more unit than they lost. But the clansmen tried them hard, bloodied the street and did not let any one reach the gate. This battle shall be remembered, and wolves will think twice before attempting to march through clansmen lands again…

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Wardens of the West:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_waechter_des_westens/

And Wardens of the North:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_waechter_des_nordens/

A new opportunity to use some cool wardens stuff.

My plan was to put Stark under pressure rigth from the start, moving my cavalry up to block the way. His red riders would have a decent chance to get shot down due to the bonus die ranged attacks get against them and my arches and crossbowmen being nearby. He should struggle right away to keep from loosing via the “push them back” condition.

So here is our setup:

I got a cool “command one unit and all units adjacent to that one”-card for starters, moved all for cavalry up, killed a bunch of shieldmaidens and nearly got the archers, too. But Stark played a card which gave pursue to the ordered units, and his trident bearers came down upon my blue riders, killing them and getting past the line. Sandor got stripped down to reduced strength, and my ranged missed on the red cav, just scoring morale and driving them back.

It was one stalwart unit of shieldmaidens and the pursue-tridents who hold the line for Stark. I was very glad with the opening, though, since i got my cav in place to smash three soft green targets the next round.

This is after round one:

In round two, Starks lancers remained at the back, being out of range for command cards. Stark used his tokens to order some units again he rallied with Smalljons commit ability, healing the shieldmaidens in the process. I managed to kill his archers, but came down one hit short for the trident guys. One of my ranged units got killed, then Stark forces returned to the central clash.

Kevan stayed with his archers and corssbowmen, lending addituional attack dice to them, but without scoring any hits but morale results. Rodrik moved into the center, too, assisting the Smalljon in hacking at my militia.

The board after round two:

Round three got quite some movement into the center. My militia fell, and Stark killed my pikemen, but i finally got those shieldmaidens, the remaining trident bearer (who had been hard to get at before, since he used his deflect) and the lone red rider, who had been stalking around my back.

Stark got his lancers to the battle, and i managed to get rid of one of those units on the spot. Things were going well for me, the second trident unit was about to fall in a moment, Smalljon was at reduced strength, and i was ahead on victory points. Only Rodrik was likely to hold the line for Stark.

State of the war after round three:

Round number for went well for Stark. I got the leftover trident bearer and slashed Rodrik down to being alone in his unit, but thats all i achieved. The last hearth lancers and Smalljon smashed through my cav, leaving only Tyrion as mounted unit, and the got at my archers, too, essentially drawing even at victory points. Right before the last round, the board looked like this:

The last round was quite demanding, with lots of action and praying to the dice. my archers fell, and Stark archers shot down my crossbowmen in the forest. My other ranged got killed, too, and the Greatjon moved far south to prevent instant loss, after Sandor finally managed to capture Rodrik.

Tyrion killed the riders of winterfell, and suddenly we were equal on victory points, with me ahaed on morale. Sandor had Smalljon engaged, who could not disengage due to sandors ability, and i felt safe Stark would not manage to kill anything, since Smalljon stood in a forest. But he pulled off a nice turn once again, having his archers roll morale against Sandor, then using Smalljon to attack my own archers. He came up one hit short, and i called victory with one victory point more then Stark, due to my two more points of morale.

Final standings:

We had 4 units left each. The scenario felt very cool, it was a close win, tension till the end, and we had much fun playing those wardens-units again. They all came to use their abilities to great effect, which was nice. We had deflect and defender-action, the lancers formation did matter, pikemen had their time as well as the crossbows, and Sandors ability did matter.

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Tribes of the Vale:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_clankrieger_der_berge/

I thought i was well placed to hold the river, with two commanders already at hand, the mighty Shagga right there, and Gregor within reach. On the other hand i figured there would be no gain for me from fighting on the eastern flank, Robb is invincible and i would just loose my archers and maybe some infantry, without getting ahead on victory points.

The setup looked like this:

Yes, i used Tyrion instead of Timett, to be a little more flexible. The first round was just putting the troops in place, without much action. In the second round, Stark crushed into my men at the river, using his riders to pursue and decimate my soldiers. The Greatjon had a good time, too, killing some stone crows. Shagga got down to reduced strength while trying to capture the Lord of the Last Hearth.

Gregor Clegane and his men moved north-west to join the riverside killing. The Stark King himself went against my archers, so i had the second ranged unit head to the west as well, protected by heavy infantry. After round two:

I managed to get one of the red cavalry units down, and Gregor finished some northmen, but Stark killed nearly all my troops near the river. Shagga and Gregor remained at reduced strength, Tyrion did just survive because of his commit ability. Shagga tried to capture Greatjon two times (with a chance of 48% each time), but failed. I figured i should have used him to kill the other red cavalry instead, but getting rid of a commander was so tempting.

In round four, the river was lost. Gregor and Shagga were too slow to get back all those objectives Stark was taking. The Greatjon was there, red cavalry, Karstark, all were threatening to take Tyrion captive, and Robb was chasing over there, too, hitting my leftover archers. All i could do was to fight with Kevan and his men, and with some bonus dice and massed flanking attacks i took down to red units. Suddenly Starks morale was down to yellow! He had two morale tokens, and needed one to get the morale to use the other for rallying, to stay high enough on morale to prevent me from getting a chance to rout him.

After round four:

I figured i just had to kill this red cavalry to rout the Stark army. So when he ordered them first i thought it was to get them far away from Shagga. But Stark just did not have the morale track in mind, and stayed near. So Shagga used one of his axe tokens to make sure to kill the riders, and i won for routing the enemy. I was behind on victory points and far behind on objectives (8 to 4), so i would have lost otherwise. Even without the three-point-kill i would still have had the chance to get some more kills on the right flank. We were just not paying the morale track enough attention, but we learned that a morale order token should not be an automatic rally. Would stark have raised his morale in round four, the chance of a rout would have been very low.

Needs the core set:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros/

And Tribes of the Vale:
http://www.heidelbaer.de/einzelansicht-spiel/spiel/die_schlachten_von_westeros_clankrieger_der_berge/

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.