A 50pts themed event for ASOIAF: TMG has just taken place in the UK, and I was fortunate enough to attend the spectacular tournament with Neutrals. I will be going over the event, my lists, and then my experience playing throughout this article. This event is one of the many renowned Leeds Events held in the UK and is beloved by the community.
Events in Leeds held at Leodis Games are renowned amongst the UK community for having some of the most creative rules. The missions are modified, and the list building has some unique restrictions all in the name of a more thematic fun experience.
For this event, you were to bring two lists with an optional third list and must play each list once across the three games at the event. So, if you brought three lists you would play each once. For your first two lists, you can not have the same character show up twice, and one list must include a Neutral NCU, Unit, and Character. The third list can ignore these rules.
The missions had a modified version of Game of Thrones where the objective cards could be moved around with a NCU replacing a tactics zone. A rebalanced version of Here We Stand that saw NCUs be worth +1 point for deciding who controls what zones and extra victory points for killing named characters with your commander.
The third mission used is a brand-new mission called King of the Hill which adds a new terrain feature into the middle of the board with some added bonuses. There are three objectives throughout the middle of the table like Clash of Kings, but only the center object on the hill gives you a point for scoring. Then from Round 2 you roll a D3 to see which objective is worth 1 more point. You can have a NCU replace a tactics zone to reroll this D3. On top of this, each game also has the Water Gardens and House of the Undying in play.
There are also awards and prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd position for the whole event, top 3 best themed and some honourable mentions, best painted army and NCUs, and sportsmanship award. Best and worst in each faction, special dice sets for specific themed lists, mid table master’s and the coveted Badge of Shame for filthiest list. The tournament organiser Thomas always does an incredible job to fill everyone’s pockets with prizes and gives everyone a goodie bag of items in addition to this too!
My aim was to go for the best theme award with my Neutral Faction. I have been enjoying bringing Neutrals to events with them becoming my main Faction overall, I wanted to show off different ways to play the Faction at this event.
List 1 – Harrenhal
House Bolton Cutthroats (5)
- Vargo Hoat (C)
House Bolton Cutthroats (5)
- Bolton Flayer (1*)
Bloody Mummer Skirmishers (6)
- Rorge (2*)
Bloody Mummer Skirmishers (6)
- Biter (0)
Bloody Mummer Zorse Riders (6)
- Glory Seeker (1*)
House Bolton Flayed Men (8)
- Glory Seeker (1)
Jaqen H’ghar (4)
Roose Bolton (4)
Walder Frey (5)
Bloody Mummers are a neglected subfaction within the Neutral roster, they haven’t seen too many updates or additions to their forces to make them stand on their own. However, they do mix with the Bolton forces in the books at Harrenhal, so combining them would be quite thematic – it could also be a good reason for putting Mummers into the Bolton Faction to expand them. For this list, if it could work with being at Harrenhal we will go with it.
A good mix of Bolton and Mummer Units to make up the presence on the battlefield comes to double Cutthroats, double Skirmishes, then a cavalry. Just now realised that I am at 49pts for some reason so could have turned one of those Cutthroats into a Blackguard Unit. Vargo Hoat is my Commander as the leader of the Mummers, with Rorge and Biter being other members of the group.
Jaqen H’ghar is stationed at Harrenhal so was a perfect NCU to go with the supporters of the evil Harrenhal leaders in Roose Bolton and Walder Frey. I must admit that the Zorse Riders have been an incredibly impressive Unit from the Mummers and have a lot of play outside of the other options, but Skirmishes are beyond worthless in almost every situation they have been in. Hopefully we can see them perform better at the event.
List 2 – Stormcrow
Stormcrow Archers (6)
- Jokin (C)
Stormcrow Dervishes (7)
- Widower (0)
Stormcrow Mercenaries (5)
- Stormcrow Lieutenant (0*)
Hedge Knights (7)
- Glory Seeker (1*)
House Bolton Bastard’s Girls (7)
- Daario Naharis (1*)
Lysene Sellswords (5)
- Lysene Bonsun (1*)
Varys (4)
Petyr Baelish (4)
Tycho Nestoris (5)
One of my favourite ways to play Neutrals is with the Stormcrow Mercenaries, but with Season 6 they have completely changed thanks to Motivated by Coin getting a full rework. I wanted to save Daario Naharis for my third list and luckily, we have Jokin to lead the Stormcrows alongside the Widower. Since Jokin’s cards are limited to Stormcrow Units, you are restricted in where to put Jokin and Widower to get the most out of Brothers in Arms, Jokin is forced into Archers since it is the best place for him, and the Widower is forced into Dervishes but there is a discussion that could be made for him to go into the Mercenaries.
Hedge Knights fit nicely alongside the Stormcrows without breaking the theme, but Bolton Bastard’s Girls breaks this. Or they would, if I didn’t come up with an alternate version for the Unit where we replaced the archers with Stormcrow Archers and the dogs with flocks of crows. We still had space for one other Unit, if I had another Stormcrow Mercenaries Unit I would have taken it, but instead I bought another Essos merc in the form of Lysene Sellswords with their Bosun.
Since the Stormcrows are all for Daenerys, Varys works perfectly with them, but that is the end of thematic NCUs for Stormcrows. I have gone with Tycho to represent the Iron Bank’s need for mercs to fulfil their military needs, and Petyr Baelish because he once had a meeting or two with them. Yes I am reaching for straws here. With that we had a decent force of Stormcrows that may not be highly competitive but is a lot of fun.
List 3 – Golden Company
Golden Company Swordsmen (7)
- Daario Naharis (C)
Golden Company Crossbowmen (7)
- Brienne of Tarth (2*)
Stormcrow Mercenaries (5)
- Golden Company Officer (0*)
Golden Company War Elephant (6)
Golden Company War Elephant (6)
Hedge Knights (7)
- Glory Seeker (1*)
Jaqen H’ghar (4)
Petyr Baelish (4)
Varys (4)
First off, I am so annoyed by the lack of stock for the Swordsmen. When they were released, they were not impressive enough for a lot of people to pick them up and I should have grabbed one whilst they were cheap. When they became insanely powerful, they were bought in droves leaving little to none left. Now when I needed them for this list I had to pay twice as much for the Unit to get them due to the stock issues. It is insane the problems behind stocking the game from CMON that I have been fortunate enough to avoid until now.
I used a Daario Naharis STL file from the Game of Thrones miniatures game by Knight Models as a stand-in for Harry Strickland. He was positioned leading the Swordsmen due to his abilities being all about melee combat, but there are few rules you double up on. It was quite difficult to pick a Commander for the Golden Company since nothing works for them. Jokin wants Stormcrows, Daario doubles up on rules, Roose/Ramsay want things that help with morale damage, and the same could be said for Vargo. Now more than ever we need a heroes box to work with the Golden Company.
With this heroes box we would also get some good options for attachments as almost none of the 2pts attachments works in the Crossbowmen. Brienne can boost the Sentinel Charge if you take it with Knightly Vow whilst making them a 3+ morale from Stalwart. But outside of this is Jokin for Precision, or something else that only affects melee combat, it is a bit weird. If I had another Officer, I would have put it in the Unit.
The Stormcrow Mercenaries have been converted with new shields featuring the sigil for the Golden Company and spears for their weapons to match the spear in the sigil. It feels odd to me that their main symbol has a spear, but nothing wields it, but a 5pts spearmen Unit for a Mini-Faction Golden Company box would work so well.
You cannot bring Golden Company without bringing their elephants, so I brought two of them. 50pts games may be the only place you see two elephants getting played as it is difficult to bring both in a decent list within the 40pts format. Again, Hedge Knights fit well without breaking the theme.
Whereas my first list was one point less for some reason, this list was one point more and the NCUs had to be reconfigured. Previously we had Tycho in the list which is the perfect NCU for the Golden Company since the mercs are a favourite of the Iron Bank. Instead, we are running Jaqen H’ghar due to the Facelss Men’s temple being near the Iron Bank, Varys since he is working with the Golden Company to restore the Targaryen dynasty, and then Petyr Baelish because there are no other NCUs that work thematically.
Game 1 – Stormcrows vs Stannis Baratheon
My first game was the modified Game of Thrones mission against a Rightful Heir Stannis List. It contained Stag Knights, Lightbringers, Queen’s Men, King’s Men, and a Crownland Scout Units, with Justin Massey, Andrew Estermont, Bryne Farring, and a Dragonstone Noble for Attachments, and Shyra Errol, Patchface, Maester Cressen, and Alester Florent for NCUs.
Early in the game a clash broke out in the middle of the board between Queen’s Men Stannis, and Daario’s Flock of Crows. Surprisingly, Daario held on against the Unit and dealt considerable damage to Stannis from the get-go. Dauntless being a new ability on Daario worked wonders with the 4+ morale, but the extra keywords made them a brutal force. By the end of the clash, it was just Stannis with both To The Last tokens expended failing a charge over the corpses of my crows in front of my archers. Queen’s Men couldn’t move well, do enough damage, or even survive enough to be worth much.
Whilst they failed in the middle, it was a pointless fight on the left flank where my Stormcrow Mercenaries and Lysene Sellswords stared down Stag Knights with Bryen Farring. Because if Resilience wasn’t enough, rerolling the defence saves and preventing the opponent from spending vulnerable tokens will make sure this Unit will not die. In addition, they are equipped to be one of the best combat Units in the game. I just decided to run speed bumps and ignore them, there is no point trying to do any damage whilst getting slaughtered in return for such little effort. Lysene Sellswords crumbled so easily to this Unit that i kind of wish I back off with them keeping them alive.
On the right flank it was a cat and mouse game between the two cavalry and the archers. I pulled my archers towards the center so I could use their firepower whilst keeping out of the way of the Lightbringers who were holding an objective. If my opponent wanted to use the ranged attack, then they would have to forego the victory points. I did commit my Hedge Knights far enough for his Crownland Scouts to scoot past them and into a terrifying position to rear charge my archers, but luckily, I had tools to get me Hedge Knights into the Crownland Scouts and remove them as a threat.
The whole game was a nail-biting experience, really close to a point where it was a tie in victory points by the end of Round 6. As mentioned earlier, if I kept the Lysens Sellswords away from the Stag Knights who were happily sitting on an objective all game, that may have given me the win. But there is no way of knowing if my opponent would have stayed put and not try to push forward. By sacrificing the Sellswords I may have saved the Stormcrow Mercenaries holding my objective.
But when a tie happens you count the points of what was left on the table. My Hedge Knights couldn’t quite deal with the Lightbringers in time, and my Archers were in a poor place to remove the King’s Men. The Baratheons had four more points of Units left on the table than I did, winning him a minor victory.
The new Stormcrow rule was forgotten but would have not played too much into the game. Perhaps it could have if the Mercenaries were the ones to face off with the Stag Knights, but the Dervishes did nothing but crumble to the King’s Men. Jokin sucks, Precision did a lot of work chewing through the Queen’s Men however, but he does almost nothing on the table. His cards are great though but never had a huge impact on the game where it was notable. Shame really as they can be crucial.
Game 2 – Golden Company vs Faith of the Seven
Both the opponent and I had won thematic dice for these two lists at the event and got to use the awesome dice from Baron of Dice in this game. Poor Fellows, Warrior’s Sons, Red Cloaks, and Crossbowmen made up the Units for the Faith force, with the High Sparrow as Commander accompanied by Champions of the Faith, Barristan Selmy, and even Ser Robert Strong in Crossbowmen. His NCUs were Joffrey, Qyburn, and Roose Bolton.
The most devastating move that my opponent could possibly do to me would be taking the Water Gardens and shutting down all my Letters and Coins bonuses from the tactics board. I learnt this from practice games and knew I could not allow this zone to be taken and constantly had to think about it. With my opponent bringing Joffrey and two Red Cloak Units, it was an automatic decision to always go for Water Gardens if I could prevent the deluge of Panic Tests from coming in. Petyr Baelish came in clutch for this, preventing my opponent from holding Crowns for the first four rounds of the game. It was demoralising and I am so sorry.
This game is the custom King of the Hill Mission, but we flirted with getting on the hill since both of our Crossbowmen brought their scopes down onto any fool who got close enough. The Faith were winning the Crossbow battle since they would melt anything they shot whilst Resilience protected them from most damage. My Elephants had one good round in them before they were taken out so easily, I feel like I needed to be cagey just to get that but also you may need to be in general to keep your elephants around.
The middle did become a one-sided fight between my Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, and a Elephant, I did end up taking a Warrior’s Sons Unit down but lost all three to the damage from the Warriors, Red Cloaks, and Crossbowmen, but Daario got away with a wound left when the game ended. The right flank was uneventful, just Hedge Knights chewing through Poor Fellows who got a few good strikes in.
The right flank was very interesting, it was a standoff for a while with Red Cloaks and Warrior’s Sons against Elephant and Stormcrow Mercenaries. I was shocked with the performance of the Mercenaries with the Golden Company Officer, every time I was attacked, I would deal out a Weakened token since I was passing my panic tests or using cards to pass them. The heal and rerolls were brutal. I ended up leaving both the Red Cloak and Warrior’s Sons Unit on one wound each when I went down in that area. There was nothing I could do to finish off those Units by the end of the game.
However, I managed to squeak a few extra points out of the objectives pushing me to a minor victory. But at any point it could have gone worse for me, and I would be down to just a few Hedge Knights, equally it could only have gone slightly worse for the Faith with a few Units biting the dust. There is only one way to describe the game; BRUTAL!
Game 3 – Harrenhal vs Stark Heroes
Final game was the modified version of Here We Stand, and my opponent was Matt from the GeekPride YouTube Channel. Do check them out because they have some great content surrounding everything nerdy, whilst making some beautiful battle reports on ASOIAF.
The Stark force opted to bring all three Direwolves with Robb Commander in Bog Devils and a Survivalist, some Winterfell Guard bringing Osha/Rickon/Survivalist in one, and Bran/Hodor in the other, Mormont Bruisers featured with Syrio Forel, then the listed was rounded off with Ned, Arya, and Lyana as NCU support.
I was worried this game would be a slaughter since Mummers aren’t known for being good and four of my Units had a 7+ morale, and when we got an early game smack from the Bog Devils into my Skirmishers, I already had my mind set that this was going to be a pummelling. However, it became a much closer game with some focus on playing to the objective and trying to kill what I can to keep ahead.
Early game saw the right flank crumble into the middle crippling the Skirmishers and Cutthroats trying to hold out, but Grey Wind was savagely removed on that flank by the Zorse Riders who left a wide berth from the Bog Devils chasing them down. On the right flank we played cagey due to Flayed Men not wanting to be caught out and Winterfell Guard not wanting to be caught by the Flayed Men and Vargo, especially since Vargo could kill Rickon for 2VPs in this mission.
The NCU play was interesting. My opponent forgot Ned’s healing throughout the game, mainly because he was auto passing morales at a lot of points or it wasn’t worth spending the token with how little damage I did. Arya didn’t have a huge effect either but certainly caused some sweat to build up in some encounters. Lyana on the other hand was a big deal. By the time my Flayed Men were in combat looking for morale damage, she was there with an auto pass, but the same was said for Jaqen who copied Lyana throughout the game gaining the much-needed morale defence I was worried about and some Critical Blow for good measure.
Whilst I was crumbling in combat, I used my NCUs to steal a lead in victory points whilst trying to kill as many characters as I could. We were able to take down Rickon with Vargo followed by the rest of the Unit, adding this to some of the wolves being taken down and a lead in objective points inched me over the finish line. The final round of the game had me pulling away with my cavalry which was all that was left. We got to safety and used the NCUs to secure me enough points to win the game. But if just one of the Stark Units caught my cavalry it would have been game over for sure. Very close game indeed.
Event Review
What an event! It was awesome to finally play 50pts with everyone bringing thematic lists you might have otherwise never have seen before. Each game was close and went to the wire, I only had a few minutes after each game before going into the next. Normally I am done early giving me some time to mingle and socialise with others, but it was a rush from start to finish.
The TO do a brilliant job of organising countless prizes to make sure everyone felt like they got something from putting time into their forces and gaming for the weekend. I walked away with a plethora of goodies with my favourite being the award for killing the most characters and the honourable mention for a thematic list.
It is such a refreshing and rewarding feeling to put so much work into a thematic list every event and finally getting something out of it. For the Golden Company I searched through countless pages of lore in the books for houses that showed their support to the Blackfyres and were exiled to Essos forming the Golden Company, all to then freehand the sigils on to shields for two Units. To do all that work in addition to fully painting the army with my own mix of white gold and then making three other forces was so much effort. I can’t say how much I truly appreciate not only a shoutout to this but a prize for putting in the work. Thank you so much!
Passionate champions of this community are what allows the game to not only grow but maintain the playerbase for ASOIAF. People like Thomas are who we should be thanking for the game being alive to the level it is today, and I cannot wait to see what other events are in store for us all in the future organised by champions like Thomas.
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