Monday, May 6, 2024

A Song of Ice and Fire: Free Folk vs Lannisters , 03.04.2024

We switched armies, in my first experiment since trying out the Lannisters for the first time. I built an infantry heavy horde, while the Lannisters brought up the Clegane brothers. 

Round 1 went by with no particular happenings, just maneuvering. Then round 2 started and I realized that I messed up the turn order and my outflanking spearwives were only coming in round 3. Desperate to stall, I sent forward the boar to tie down the crossbowmen. It was a heroic effort, and it died, but fully accomplished its goal.


The Lannisters healed up but Craster did force some nasty morale checks next to corpse piles, as you can see with both red units having taken losses.

Round 3 and beyond

Spearwives in the back. The knights immediately turned to confront them, but missed a 4+ charge... possibly the biggest game changing moment.

Immediately notice the halberdiers-shaped hole. Throwing the spears then charging in to the back is no little feat, and the girls pack a punch.

They continued their rampage on this flank, allowing my other units to form up.

I did everything in my power to reinforce them, including moving models from the raiders into the spearwives, and exchanging the skinchanger with the now useless jarl as well. With everything else evading combat here, it became a running joke that only the wildling women fight well.

The Raiders did hold an objective and healed the girls, while the trappers marched up through a line of stakes to support but not shoot. No free morale checks near corpse piles when fighting Lannisters!

On the other flank, Gregor Clegane and his men (literally) marched unto an objective. My brave raiders, who had only moved millimeters in the past rounds, then charged in. The Lannisters are fiercely resilient, and the Mountain's Men healing trait really showed up.

This also became a joke. I charged in the giant. The raiders died. I brought them back with Endless Horde, charged them in again, they died again...

Leaving the giant to plod towards the 2 point objective towards the end of round 4.

The knights went on a rampage, killing the raiders and the spearwives. By the time they were done, I had brought in my thenns. They're not great, but a lot of dice made the difference.

With me camping objectives and only the knights remaining, the game was soon over and the Lannister army wiped out.

Aftermath

I think the game hinged on the knights being out of place and failing their charge into the outflanking spearwives. I had contingency plans, but the unit surviving the rampaging through the Lannister lines did wonders.

Free Folk units suck. There's no way around it. I did find the infantry horde fun to play, always outnumbering the Lannisters. The 3 NCUs on their side didn't help, I think, although my opponent was happy with their performance.

I like the game - no change there. I'll be experimenting more in the future.

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