Can week three be as exciting as week two? Can Col maintain top spot? Will Dale have learned how to spreadsheet? Can Ray's Baratheons beat Brian's Neutral? Can the Greyjoys hold off the Dragon? Will Greg bother turning up to play?
Lets find out, in this weeks * loud x-factor voice * Wardens of the North West Weekly League Round up!
Here's this weeks matchups, again, link to the matches on asoiaf-stats.com included in case you don't want to read my keyboard diarrhea and would rather just see the numbers:
The week opened with a corker Brian vs Ray, Bolton v Baratheon in A Dance with Dragons. AS always you'll get a better read here on Brian's blog, but I'll tell you now those Stormcrows owned the battle field.
The second game of the week had me facing off against Andy in my garage. I've not got round to doing anything other than putting a table in there so, as the climate in the North West starts to head into winter it was hats and scarfs weather. The colder conditions should favour Balon Greyjoy taking on Queen of Mareen Daenerys Targeyan in this Game of Thrones and he first two turns where very close and fighty, with both players popping Tyco in turn two - one to save a dragon another to prevent dragon food. I'd set up with lots of activations and a palisade with the intention of arcing myself around to provide four archer shots at the central objective, protecting my flank and providing some Dragon bait with another archer unit on the right flank. However I also stupidly placed my commander unit in a position where I had no intention of taking an objective. Once again proving that I've no idea how this game works.
Things started well for me though by completely smashing his pikemen down to one rank, and then holding off his Dragon, but the tide of battle started to shift when Andy opted to move those pikemen off the central objective to prevent them from being killed by a thousand arrows, both Bronn and Victarian attachments where in range and ready to take him down. I chose not to chase them down with Vic but to hold my objective and move up with some reavers onto the one he'd vacated - this it would turn out to be the turning point of the game. Jorah rushed my bowmen tying them up for the next two activations, whilst the dragon breached the flank and got round my rear. Andy finished his final home game with a win which put him top of the League, 10-7.
Next up, drum Roll (in your head obviously)........
Greg vs Colin, that's right ladies and gentleman Greg has finally graced the league with his presence. Running Tormound Thunderfist in his Free Folk army he faced off against Colin and his Nights watch. Luckily we're ok with Proxies because Greg has brought a single model-less long base to represent his Q3, yet to arrive, chariots and a Mammoth to represent a second chariot.
Colins deployment forced Greg to place Tormund away from the fighting but over the objectives - thus leaving a placing a large point allocation well out of the fray. The free folks chariots really showed their worth reducing both of the Nights Watches veterans down to 1 rank! Free folk continued to dominat ending round two with a 5-1 lead, things where looking pretty for our league organiser. However, with the conscripts sitting protected behind a palisade and Ameon on hand to heal up the vets the nights watch quickly returned to good health. Harma and her spearwives died, and a swift dropping of endless horde saw them re-appear, but this it turned out would be the turning point. A wasted turn getting the chariots out of dodge meant that this chariot fell to the vets.
Ste taking the opportunity to run a couple of games this week played both Dale and Jamie. Having still not lost a unit in the league both Dale and Jamie where out to fix that problem. First up was Jamie, who opted to play a Feast for Crows and running the High Sparrow into the Greatjon. Playing across the table from the Free Folk murder scene Jamie had deployed a strong defensive formation really forcing Ste to bring the game to him, which he duly did.
Round three ended with very little having happened, but with Jamie taking the lead. Jamie Lannisters Halberdiers took a battering from the Starks bowmen whilst the Tully Cav waited on the side-lines to finish them off, but after healing up and after the charge Jamie still manged to knock them down a rank before they mowed threw him heading for the poor fellows.
At this point Jamie was leading and as the game went into turn five it looked like he could snatch it from Ste. Shaggy dog moved up to wear down the poor fellows allowing the Cav to sweep them aside. After which they could apply real pressure onto Jamies remaining two units. At this point it was all done and the tide of battle had swung in Ste's favour who continued on his 'no units lost' streak. Starks 12, Lannisters 11 - a close game, and a great effort from Jamie to keep Ste on his toes.
Next to try and bring Ste down a notch was Dale, both boys brought Robb Stark for a mirror match with Alex filling the role as High Seneschal watching from the side lines and reporting back to the group.
As well as squeezing in a friendly match to warm Dale up. Ste once again bringing his Tully Cav hoping to smash through Dale, but a cheeky Syrio Forel in a unit of Bloody Mummers (-2 to hit, filthy!) is going to be a an uphill battle.
Starting high up the pitch facing each other down the game of Fire and Blood began, both direwolves had been marked, along with Ste's Sworn Swords and Dales She Bears. The she bears where clearly Stes main target to take down and by the end of turn two, despite the score being 0-0 they'd taken a beating, with only two wounds remaining. During turn two something happened, and High Seneschal Alex didn't quite explain but somehow Ste went up 8-0.
Facing down a clear defeat the only way to save his reputation at this point would be if Dale could kill off a unit, get a couple of points on the board and shut Ste up about his having not yet lost a unit. Unfortunately for Dale in his last he only had a single rank Umber Berserker in a position to take out Greywind.
Having seen Dales dice rolls that night Alex was sceptical "Knowing Dale, he'll fuck this up", but Dale knew differently and took Grey Wind out scoring himself some points and some kudos from the group. Dale was the real winner of this game, regardless of what the score or table says. Starks 11 - Starks 3.
The week ended with the league like this, plenty of movement and still all to play for with 29 games remaining!
And so there you have it, the story of week three, more exciting than week two. Col got knocked off the top (with a game in hand). Dale can indeed spreadsheet (and kill wolves). Ray wiped out Brian's randomly selected Roose list. The Greyjoys do not like Dragons, and Greg did indeed turn up, although whether he played or not is questionable.
Tune in next week to see more words written on a page.
Aden.
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