We gave this game another round. I still used my same old army, deciding to experiment better usage of Jaime Lannister's halberdier unit. The Free Folk had new additions, spear wives and bear riders. We tried rolling for a scenario, but still rolled a 1.
I still don't have a good way to record the NCU board. At least I took more pictures of the battlefield this time.
On second thought, maybe not. My first picture is the state of the board end of turn 1. The Free Folk took first turn so that their reserves would arrive turn 2. That meant I could zip forward with my cavalry (strategically left to move last) in expectance of a good charge.
The unit of crossbowmen on the left just took an objective and sat there for the rest of the game. Really makes a strong case for a cheap throwaway unit to do this from now on.
I countered my opponent's preferred refuse flank deployment by putting Jaime's halberdiers front and center, then hanging my right flank behind and encircling with the knights.
In preparation for round 2.
Round 2
After all the posturing during round 1, the action finally began. I saw how a single spearwife ranged attack decimated the halberdiers, so I lost no time moving in the cavalry. I don't remember exactly, but I think the Free Folk unit ran away to a panic check. That meant we saw nothing of what the boar brought on by Borroq can do.
That meant the reserve raiders caught my crossbowmen in the back - expected losses.
I let that as-is and instead charged in the halberdiers. Then my opponent channeled every possible healing maneuver into the fight, prolonging combat for several turns.
Bear riders charged into the crossbowmen, sealing their fate. More raiders took the halberdiers in the flank. Time for me to channel every possible healing into that.
I then completely abandoned the crossbowmen to their fate and countercharged my guardsmen into the center, aiming to overwhelm the wildling infantry as soon as possible.
Round 3
We finally saw a bear emerge from the raider unit, and it did savage the halberdiers, but I counterstruck and killed its parent unit. RIP skinchanger. The guardsmen then neatly reformed to accept the bear rider charge.
Deft maneuvering saw the spearwives retreat and volley down the knights. We were both impressed at them taking out such a powerful unit.
... and then I forgot to take more pictures as the action sped up and intensified.
Round 4
The guardsmen finally ground down the bear riders with the help of several tactics cards and panic checks. They then charged and killed the reserve raider unit.
Jaime turned around and killed Thormund's unit, for a tabling.
Or not quite... with Endless Horde, another unit of free raiders came on. However, victory was still mine as I reached 12 VPs at the end of the round.
Aftermath
With my vast experience granted by 3 games, I am by no means a master. However, I do feel like having a reasonable grasp on the basic rules and tactics by now. I also feel like I've finally understood, if not mastered, the army mechanics of my current list.
That means... I am finally confident enough to start experimenting!
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