This is the eighteenth report in our narrative campaign series, Campaign of Thrones. After each battle, the characters on the losing side will potentially be captured or killed. This will transform the story as we know it, inspiring new ‘What If?’ scenarios and battle reports. Join us on this alternative dice-driven version of the War of the Five Kings and battle at the Wall.
As we wrap-up our A Storm of Swords parallel narrative, we’re going to up the ante for the next two battles. The results of this battle and The Bridge of Skulls will directly impact our upcoming large-scale finale, Battle for the North.
If Stannis is victorious in this battle, 15-points of his forces will join the northern army to face off against the Free Folk (joining the battle in Round 3 on the right flank). If the Free Folk are victorious in The Bridge of Skulls, The Weeper and 15-points of Frozen Shore units will join the Battle for the North (Round 3 on the left flank). It will obviously be a huge advantage if one army receives reinforcements and the other does not, so the next two battles will likely change the course of Westeros and the Campaign of Thrones.
LISTS
The game size was 40 Points per army. The lists were:
STANNIS BARATHEON:
Units (Attachments)
Queen’s Men (Justin Massey, Commander)
R’hllor Lightbringers
R’hllor Lightbringers
Dragonstone Noble
Castle Wall
Dragonstone
NCUs
Melisandre
Davos Seaworth
Axell Florent
RENLY BARATHEON:
Units (Attachments)
Rose Knights (Loras Tyrell, Commander)
Highgarden Pikemen (Robar Royce)
Highgarden Pikemen (Parmen Crane)
Riders of Highgarden
Riders of Highgarden
NCUs
Cortnay Penrose
Shyra Errol
DEPLOYMENT
While these narrative battles have sometimes been played with an eye towards maximum chaos, this time around both players wanted to push this scenario’s custom rules to the limit and really focus on how to best exploit the rules to win quickly and convincingly. The major focus was the custom Dragonstone Port tactics zone, a zone for only the Stannis player.
Though scoring 3 victory points is extremely valuable, losing an activation early in the game can be a tough hole to dig yourself out of. With all that said, the Stannis player showed their hand early by lining up their Dragonstone Noble directly in front of the right-side objective token. There was even discussion about the Stannis player utilizing two Dragonstone Nobles to claim the objectives and evacuate a.s.a.p. for 6 VPs, but without the unavailable Alester Florent it would be difficult, especially since the Renly player considered this possibility and brought 2 speedy Riders of Highgarden units to counteract it. The Dragonstone castle wall also limited the Stannis player’s list building options, so in the end they went for a safer choice of just one Dragonstone Noble and three 12-wound infantry units.
The Stannis player lined the very defensive Queen’s Men unit with Justin Massey right in the middle of the table. He was flanked on both sides by Lightbringers to best utilize the low walls and defend the objective tokens. As mentioned, the Dragonstone Noble was deployed on the right-side with an eye on the nearest objective token.
The Renly player deployed their Riders of Highgarden on both flanks, ready to charge forward and contest any unit attempting to evacuate. Loras Tyrell and his Rose Knights were placed in the center directly across from Justin. He was surrounded by Pikemen on both sides, Robar Royce on the left and Parmen Crane on the right.
ROUND 1
The game started with the usual NCU maneuvering, with the Mel bomb dealing 5 wounds to Robar Royce’s low morale Highgarden Pikemen. Both Lightbringers marched up and placed themselves smartly over the low walls, guarding their front and flanks. Loras and Justin both marched headlong toward the center token.
The right-side Riders of Highgarden maneuvered up 6 and then charged across the table into their fire flinging enemies. The Lightbringers were protected by the low wall, but Renly played Our is the Fury which added +1 to hit as well as vicious to the Riders native sundering. They got 6 hits even without rerolls and the Lightbringers choked on their save rolls, suffering 5 wounds from the attack. Luckily for Stannis, they passed their panic test and served some Baratheon Justice, handing out all 3 condition tokens to the aggressive Riders of Highgarden. The Renly player hit back with Stag’s Wit, making Justin Massey’s Queen’s Men and the charged Lightbringers panicked.
As it was 3 vs. 2 NCUs, the Stannis side player was able to delay their final NCU activation until later in the round. The aggressive Loras commander had moved up too close and was now in range of the other Lightbringers (perhaps thinking the Stannis player would utilize Davos NCU to evacuate the Noble in Round 1). Instead, Davos claimed the swords and got a ranged attack off against Loras and his Rose Knights. The Knights only suffered 2 wounds total, but 1 wound was from a panic test. This caused a bounced panic test to the nearby Highgarden Pikemen with Robar Royce. They failed and suffered 3 wounds, going down to their last rank. 8 wounds from 2 panic tests.
The round ended with the Dragonstone Noble claiming the nearest objective token, setting up a Round 2 evacuation.
ROUND 2
Instead of using the Dragonstone Port to evacuate the Noble first thing, the Stannis player smartly knew that the right-side Riders were tied-up with the Lightbringers after their aggressive charge and they could delay the evac by a few turns. They went with Mel to the bags first, healing the Lightbringers and targeting Robar Royce’s wounded Pikes. The Pikemen failed the panic test, but only rolled a 1 on the D3, keeping them alive with 1 wound remaining.
Cortnay Penrose claimed the swords to continue the attack on the Lightbringers. A melee battle between lance cavalry and archers isn’t the most hard-hitting combat you’ll see, soit’s no surprise to hear they only did 2 wounds (even after expending a vulnerable token). Cortnay was working overtime, next using his ability when Davos activated to potentially block the port. Instead, Davos claimed the port as planned. Robar’s unit was able to heal up by 3 and the Dragonstone Noble and its objective token were removed from the game. 3 to 0 for the Stannis side.
The left-side Riders had a lot of room to operate, and they charged into the flank of the other Lightbringers. The low wall protected the fire archers from what could have been a devastating charge and they only suffered 3 wounds. They then used Sudden Retreat to disengage and face the Riders. This retreat did leave the Lightbringers flank exposed to the slow-moving Rose Knights. Ser Loras threw caution to the wind, praying for a successful long bomb charge. They needed a 6… and rolled a 6! If Grey wind was the early MVP of Campaign of Thrones, Loras is making a strong case late in the game. 1 wound from Expert Duelist, 4 from the attack roll, and 3 wounds from panic brought the left-side Lightbringers down to just 1 wound left. The Stannis side can’t even attack the Rose Knights back before the Lightbringers heal up or retreat as the Rose Knights would likely pass their panic test and heal a wound from Loras’ Dauntless ability, then deal a wound back to an engaged enemy and kill the Lightbringers off. Seemingly abandoning that lost cause, the Stannis player instead retreated the other Lightbringers toward the safety of the Dragonstone castle wall. Fearing no wall, they were chased down by the relentless Riders of Highgarden.
Lonley Parmen Crane and his Highgarden Pikemen hung back and claimed a castle wall objective token. They suffered 2 wounds from arrow fire but scored their team 1 VP as the round ended.
3 to 1 for Stannis.
ROUND 3
Cortnay claimed the swords and the Rose Knights didn’t even have to roll any dice as Expert Duelist took care of the final Lightbringer. 3 to 2 for Stannis.
Both players now wondered aloud if the loss of the Dragonstone Noble and the current ineffectiveness of the Dragonstone castle wall has made this game unwinnable for Justin Massey’s forces. Feeling desperate, Justin’s Queen’s Men took a calculated risk and charged the left-side Riders of Highgarden, turning his back to the Rose Knights. The Queen’s Men did 7 wounds to their rivals, nearly killing the defensively dubious cavalry.
The hyper aggressive Loras charged the exposed Queen’s Men and were in their rear. Since this is Campaign of Thrones, the Renly player decided that they had to go for the 5+ Expert Duelist kill on Justin Massey, and of course they rolled a 6. Justin Massey was destroyed in the game, and it was decided that he was now dead in the story, too, because you must reward that kind of gumption. Luckily, he was taken out of the game while his team was still up, so he won’t be charged with the loss. The attack itself did 4 more wounds and they suffered another 3 from a panic failure.
The Dragonstone castle wall finally get involved, as the Riders of Highgarden’s insistent pursuit of the remaining Lightbringers brought them within long range of the battlements. The attack brought the Riders down to their last wound, but they passed the panic check and survived. The next turn Shyra Errol claimed the bags and healed the nearly dead Riders by 3. The Stannis player tried to finish them off with both Melisandre and a crown zap, but they passed both times. Most of the fighting pushed toward the Stannis deployment zone, so the once almost dead Robar Royce was able to march up and safely claim the center objective token. Parmen Crane suffered 2 more wounds from the castle wall’s end of round arrow bombardment, but he was in no immediate danger and was scoring valuable VPs.
4 to 3 for Team Renly.
ROUND 4
The round began with a big momentum swing, as Melisandre claimed the swords and the damaged Queen’s Men were able to finish off the sapped Riders. 4 to 4 tie game. Then Melisandre used her NCU ability to panic Robar’s Pikemen, dealing them 4 wounds and once again bringing them down to 1 wound remaining. Destroying that unit would have been huge for the Stannis side, but the Renly side has proven extremely resilient against panic tests and panic damage.
Shyra claimed the bags next and healed Robar’s Pikemen, keeping them around to control the center token. The Rose Knights attacked the Queen’s Men and destroyed them… possibly. But they passed their To The Last morale check and remained alive with 3 wounds (thanks to Baratheon Conviction). The Queen’s Men then somehow failed their panic test and died again… only to survive once more with their second To The Last. With no more possible revivifications, the surviving Riders turned from the cowering Lightbringers and charged the near-death Queen’s Men. They finally took out the remnants of Justin Massey’s unit, making it 5 to 4 for Renly. With the objective token scoring it was now 7 to 4 and looking pretty grim for Team Stannis.
7 to 4 for Renly.
ROUND 5
The remaining Lightbringers and Riders of Highgarden hung around and traded attacks. The Lightbringers smartly moved back toward the Dragonstone castle wall to get some support and the Riders fell into the trap, suffering 5 wounds from the castle’s arrows and nearly dying. Nearly wasn’t enough as the round ended with 2 more points scored for Renly.
9 to 4 for Renly.
ROUND 6
Melisandre claimed the bags to heal the Lightbringers, then immediately sacrificed two of those men to panic attack the Riders. The ploy worked, killing those pesky Riders of Highgarden and making the score 9 to 5 (what a way to make a living). Parmen Crane and his Pikemen smartly moved off their objective token so that they weren’t bombarded with arrows the entire round. After some pointless maneuvering the game came to an end. The Dragonstone castle wall survived, scoring Stannis 2 VPs, but somehow Robar Royce stuck around the entire game and scored the winning VP.
Final score: 10 to 7 for Renly Baratheon, First of His Name, King on the Iron Throne.
WRAP-UP
Bad news for the northern side in the upcoming Battle for the North as there will be no Dragonstone reinforcements coming around to save the day.
It was an uphill fight for Stannis once the Dragonstone Noble got the hell out of Dodge and he was swarmed by the speedy Riders of Highgarden. There were several moments where a Renly side panic failure could have destroyed one of his units, but instead they passed and kept the pressure on the 3 remaining Stannis units while safely collecting VPs. We had a good discussion after the match about the Dragonstone castle wall and if it hindered list making too much, but it does add to the overmatched element while giving the Stannis side a chance to score 2 pretty easy VPs. Maybe 2 NCUs would have been better for Stannis, as he could have taken 2 Dragonstone Nobles or Wardens or something and had a better chance of scoring 6 VPs from the evacuation mechanic. Like several scenarios I’ve made that try to depict situations with overwhelming odds, it will simply be harder for the underdog side because they have more choices to make.
CODA
Wind lashed against Driftmark Castle. Stannis Baratheon lay awake in the predawn hours. He heard the scrambling footsteps before his chamber door burst open. He sat up and moved for his scabbard.
Davos Seaworth entered, drenched head-to-toe in seawater.
“Ser Davos.” Stannis grinded his teeth. He knew precisely what the Onion Knight was about to say.
“Dragonstone has fallen. Ser Justin attempted to rally the men, but we were severely outnumbered. He was slain by Loras Tyrell while defending the walls.”
Again the Knight of Flowers. Stannis’ mind raced. “What of the princess and queen?”
Davos hesitated. He reached for his lucky pouch and swallowed. “Several men claim they saw Princess Shireen exiting the castle with Margaery Tyrell. Lady Margaery seemed to be comforting the princess, holding her hand as they walked toward the port.”
Stannis breathed. Taken as a hostage, but Renly wouldn’t dare kill his young niece and Margaery Tyrell would see that she is treated gently.
“And the queen?”
Davos squeezed his finger bones once more. “She was hesitant to evacuate when the attack began, believing that the Lord of Light would safeguard the castle. We smuggled many to safety… but after they stormed the gates the passageway to the port was cut off and, and…”
Melisandre flowed into the darkened bedchamber. Her red necklace gleamed, and her eyes were fire. “It was a blessed death. A death by fire. Ser Axell was with her. The sept burned, and her spirit was unchained from horrors of this world.”
“And this was all part of some plan, I’m to believe?” the aggravated king prodded the Red Woman.
“You were here, my lord, when the hammer-stroke fell on Dragonstone. You evaded the cavalry charge and returned unscathed from the battle at King’s Landing. R’hllor always keeps you one step ahead.”
“One step ahead… my wife is ashes and I have no army to speak of,” Stannis rebuked.
“And from ashes Azor Ahai was born. You are the Prince That Was Promised, not the Prince Who Was Gifted the World. It will not be easy. It will be the hardest thing any man has ever done. That is why it must be you.”
Alester Florent entered the room. “My king, we must leave now before they learn of your whereabouts. Driftmark cannot hold back that which engulfed Dragonstone.”
“To where?” questioned Davos.
They all knew the answer, but none of them knew what would happen when they got there.