This is the second battle report in our series of epic one-off matches, Battle Stories. This series highlights some of the craziest custom scenarios on Board Man Gaming, with huge battlefields and oversized army lists.
This battle story will focus on the most popular custom scenario in Board Man Gaming’s history, the Battle of the Bastards. I’ve played this several times before, but this was the first time I’ve played it under the 2021 ruleset and with the actual Wun Wun (instead of a Savage Giant).
The game size was a respectable 60 Points per side. The lists were:
HOUSE STARK:
Units (Attachments)
Eddard’s Honor Guard (Jon Snow, Commander)
Stark Sworn Swords (Rickon Stark, Special Attachment)
Stark Bowmen (Davos Seaworth)
Free Folk Raiders (Tormund Giantsbane)
Stark Outriders
Mormont She-bears
Spearwives
Wun Wun
Ghost
NCUs
Sansa Stark
Petyr Baelish
HOUSE BOLTON:
Units (Attachments)
Bolton Bastard’s Girls (Ramsay Snow, Commander)
Bolton Blackguards (Dreadfort Captain)
Umber Berserkers (Umber champion)
Bolton Flayed Men
Bolton Cutthroats
Bolton Cutthroats
Umber Greataxes
Karstark Spearmen
NCUs
Roose Bolton
Walder Frey
DEPLOYMENT
The game was played on a 6 x 4 table.
The units for both armies were spread across the length of each deployment zone.
House Stark (from left to right): Ghost, She-bears, Bowmen with Davos, Honor Guard with Jon (Jon’s unit was in the center of the table and 6” from the deployment edge), Stark Outriders, Wun Wun, Raiders with Tormund, and Spearwives.
Rickon’s unit of Sworn Swords was deployed on the other side of the field, within 6” of Ramsay’s unit, across from Jon.
House Bolton (from left to right): Karstark Spearmen, Umber Greataxes, Flayed Men, Bastard’s Girls with Ramsay, Umber Berskers with Champion, Cutthroats, Blackguards with Dreadfort Captain, and a second unit of Cutthroats.
These units are deployed ‘left to right’ when looking from the same direction. For example, Ghost and the She-bears were facing off against the Karstark Spearmen and Umber Greataxes.
ROUND 1
As is customary when playing the Battle of the Bastards, the game began with little Rickon running for his life. The Stark player used Swift Reposition to nudge Rickon’s unit forward then marched him to the center of the battlefield, gaining control of the center objective token. Rickon and the Sworn Swords rotated to facedown Ramsay and his huge, bloodthirsty army.
Ramsay did not want his special surprise to escape so easily, so Roose activated and used his ability to place a panicked token on Rickon’s unit. Roose then claimed the sword zone on the tactics board. Ramsay and his hunters shot at the youngest Stark, but this version of Rickon must have learned to zig-zag as every shot missed. The unit was still made vulnerable and Ramsay and his girls charged in. After using the panic token, Ramsay’s attack deals 7 total wounds to Rickon. To continue the psychological warfare, Ramsay played Sadistic Games the next turn and made Rickon and the Stark Outriders panicked.
The Stark NCU advantage began to take shape, as lazy Walder Frey sat back while Littlefinger and Sansa went to work. Littlefinger is the perfect counter to Walder when playing 2 vs. 2 or 3 vs. 2 NCUs. Ramsay continued his attack against Rickon Stark, but Petry and Sansa were able to heal Rickon enough to keep him alive for the time being. The question for the Stark payer became: how much of their resources do they want to pool into a unit that is doomed to die? On the same hand, the Bolton’s were using an equal amount of resources to destroy Rickon (and score the Valuable Captive bonus victory point).
All the units marched up the battlefield, preparing for a bloody Round 2. Ghost moved up 18”, out of line of sight for the defensive-minded Karstark Spearmen. The white direwolf could be a big problem for Ramsay if it gets in the enemy’s backfield.
Side note: the reason Ghost is in this custom scenario is because the director of the episode originally wanted to have Ghost in the battle, but couldn’t due to budget constraints.
Near the end of the round, the Flayed Men activated and went in for the kill, charging into Rickon Stark and his loyal guard. The intimidating cavalry unit dealt 5 nasty wounds, but Rickon somehow passed his panic check and survived for another turn. Davos was able to use Supply Aid to heal Rickon’s unit by 4. Walder finally showed up and the Flayed Men were able to get off another vicious attack. Rickon survived the onslaught once more, allowing Jon Snow to charge in and heal his little brother by 2 with Rally Cry. Jon’s furious attack was only able to cause 3 wounds to the powerful Flayed Men.
ROUND 2
The round began with Roose claiming the swords and the Bolton player using Planning and Insight to add +1 hit to their attack against (you guessed it) Rickon. The attack did 4 wounds, leaving only little Rickon remaining on the almost empty unit tray. On the first panic roll, the Stark player rolled a 9 and passed. The Bolton player expended the panic token and forced a re-roll… and they rolled a 10! Rickon lives! Supply Aid healed Rickon by 4, and the Stark player used Assault Orders with Sansa to have Jon attack the Flayed Men once more and heal Rickon by 2 more. It became evident how different it was to play the Battle of the Bastards with the 2021 ruleset: Rickon never stood a chance before (the longest I’d seen him survive was until Round 3), but with new abilities available to the Starks such as Rally Cry and Supply Aid, the targeted healing made Rickon seem kind of invincible.
Ramsay, tired of trading blows with the Starks boys in the middle of the battlefield, made a somewhat surprising play and had the Greataxes attempt a risky charge into the She-bears. The charge was successful and caused 5 wounds total to the Mormont soldiers. With this, the Bolton player was hoping to force the Stark player to spread out their healing and leave Rickon and Jon more vulnerable. What Ramsay did not expect was how devastated his units would be from War Cry by the She-bears, Wun Wun, and Tormund, who were able to hand out vulnerable and panic tokens like chocolate on Halloween.
Littlefinger made sure to block the crown zone, keeping Walder at bay and ensuring the Starks would be first player starting Round 3. Rickon survived another attack from the Flayed Men, who had lost a lot of their potency by being engaged for this long. Ramsay decided to retreat from the melee mess in the middle, looking for a deadly Charging Volley combo with Walder’s help near the round’s end.
Around the rest of the battlefield, the Blackguards and Karstark Spearmen claimed the objective tokens near their deployment zone, while Tormund and his Raiders claimed a token on their side. The She-bears battled with the Greataxes for control of the other token, but with the help of Ghost, the She-bears were able to wrestle back control from the Umbers.
Walder finally activated and Ramsay was able to shoot Rickon (doing no damage) and charge in. The melee attack did 3 wounds and Rickon finally failed a panic test, suffering 2 wounds from the D3 and 1 extra wound from Intimidating Presence. Yet somehow Rickon survived, again with only 1 model remaining.
The score was tied 2 – 2 from the objective tokens controlled.
ROUND 3
The round began with some more healing, as the Starks played Stand United, Brothers and the Boltons played Cruel Methods. Sana claimed the swords and Jon Snow continued his assault against the recently healed Flayed Men, doing 2 damage. Hoping to continue to expand their attack radius and decentralize the Starks healing, the Karstark Spearmen abandoned their objective and charged Ghost. The charge was disorderly and they only managed 2 hits, 1 of which pierced the direwolf’s hide. The Greataxes attacked Ghost a few turns later, bringing him 1 wound away from death, but Littlefinger claimed the bags and fully healed the wolf before he could be dealt a killing blow.
The Flayed Men retreated, leaving the melee with Rickon and Jon that had encumbered them for 2 rounds. Ramsay activated and played Issue Commands, allowing the Flayed Men to charge into Jon Snow and use critical blow and re-rolls. The attack only did 2 wounds, but Jon failed the panic test and suffered 4 more, leaving only Jon’s model left. Charging Bolton cavalry? A lone Jon Snow standing defiant before them? Hmm…
The major difference is that this time a 4-year-old Rickon Stark is right beside him, dodging all the arrows and killing Flayed Men.
The Stark player used another Stand United, Brothers and took 5 models from both Rickon and Davos’ units to heal Jon’s unit up by 7. They just can’t die. The Honor Guard supercharged their attack with Stark Fury and finally the stalemate broke. The Flayed Men were destroyed. The score was 3 to 2 for the good bastard. Jon surged forth into Ramsay’s flank.
The Umber Berserkers tried to retake the momentum by attacking the Stark Outriders, but they survived the 9 hits (and resulting 6 wounds) and used Swift Retreat to escape before more damage could be done.
Things started to go south for Ramsay across the battlefield. The Greataxes that had been severely damaged from the She-bears and Bowmen fell in an attack from Ghost. 4 to 2 for House Stark. Wun Wun charged into the Berserkers and laid waste. 5 to 2 for House Stark. The Spearwives and Tormund’s Raiders double team and destroy a unit of Cutthroats. 6 to 2 for House Stark.
At the end of the round, the She-Bears scored 1, Tormund scored 1 (he was able to surge forth back onto his token after destroying the Cutthroats), and the Blackguards scored 1. It was 8 to 3 for the Starks and the Boltons had just lost 4 units.
ROUND 4
The arrival of the giant corpse pile was appropriate since the battlefield had just been littered with Bolton bodies. The surviving unit of Cutthroats kicked the round off by attacking the Outriders. Despite the Stark player using It Shall Not End, the counterattack was not enough and the Outriders perished. The score was 8 to 4. Wun Wun got revenge a few turns later, clubbing the Cutthroats to death. 9 to 4 for Jon and company.
Wun Wun had put himself in a precarious position as he surged towards Ramsay and the Bastard’s Girls. The Blackguards decided to make a desperate charge into the giant’s rear and take out the mythical monster. They were able to take the giant down to just 1 wound, and later in the round Walder used his ability to get the Blackguards to take another shot at Wun Wun. They got 3 hits, but he saved all 3 and survived.
Walder had claimed his zone and the Starks still had several activations to go. The Stark units attacked every enemy, aiming for a decisive victory through combat. By the round’s end, only Ramsay remained in his unit, and the Spearmen and Blackguards were badly damaged.
Rickon’s unit scored 1 from controlling the objective (the rest had been abandoned to finish off the enemy) and the Stark player scored +1 because Rickon was still alive at the end of the round.
11 to 4 for the Starks.
ROUND 5
Fittingly, the round began with Sansa claiming the swords and Jon destroying Ramsay. The game was called.
A decisive victory for House Stark, 12 to 4.
EPILOGUE
Unlike the Battle of Blackwater Bay, there was no great swing in momentum this time around. Once the Stark player took out the Flayed Men, it was just a matter of them picking off units one-by-one. Still, the first 2 rounds were very exciting with several big rolls keeping Rickon and Jon alive, along with all the healing from Rally Cry (which I believe gave Rickon an extra 12 wounds), Supply Aid, the bags, and Stand United, Brothers.
Having only 4 NCUs in such a big game certainly limited their value, especially with Littlefinger incapacitating Walder’s big ability every other round. It was a bad match up for the Boltons on the tactics board. Having Tycho Nestoris might have been a game changer. In the end, we used only these 4 characters because they were the most closely aligned with the storyline from the show. Overall, it was a fun battle and seeing Wun Wun, Tormund, Davos, Jon, Rickon, and Ramsay all on the battlefield together for the first time was awesome.