The sky whistled as the wind rushed between the rocky hills near Ashemark. Two Marbrand guardsmen rested at the bottom of the watchtower hill, noshing a quick midnight meal.
“Ho!” cried a voice from above. “A rider approaches!”
It was sometime before the clopping hooves could be heard over the melodious, thrashing wind. The rider, a Lannister squire, arrived at the base of the watchtower and crumpled off his horse. The two guards lifted him off the ground. He fought to catch his frenzied breath.
“Breathe, boy,” one guard implored.
“… th… huuurrr… they... Ox… Oxcro...”
“Oxcross?”
“Massacre… They’re coming. The heart… he fed… fed the heart… to his wolf. And they’re coming.”
The Story
"The combined army of Robb Stark takes several castles of the westermen, including the castle of Ashemark, the seat of House Marbrand. Grey Wind, Robb's direwolf, slays a man during the taking of the castle."
Gameplay & Strategy
There are some events from the book that I initially shrugged off as being repetitive or too obscure to turn into a custom scenario, but with only a few options left, I went back and looked at all the battles from the War of the Five Kings. The Starks foray into the westerlands stood out as a fun opportunity, yet two things made me hesitant: one, the source material is no more than a few sentences from A Clash of Kings, and two, the lack of important Lannister characters present at these events. In the end, I realized each event provided unique gameplay opportunities and would also highlight a variety of Stark commanders. One of the best things about playing all these custom scenarios over the years is not only recreating the events from the book or show, but also forcing myself to play under-utilized commanders and attachments that may never see the table in competitive play.
The Taking of Ashemark separates itself from the Storming of the Crag scenario as it’s a full-blown siege instead of being a blitz/hybrid siege like Crag. The watchtower terrain piece gives this siege a unique flavour, with the watchtower acting as an extension of one of the castle walls to attack the Stark besiegers.
This is a fan-made scenario inspired by CMON Limited’s A Song of Ice & Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game and is in no way associated with CMON.
