This weekend was a spectacular Songapalooza event, where A Song of Ice and Fire was played almost non stop for 3 days!
The primary goal was to test out the 1.5 rule set, try out new units, and introduce new players to the game.
Even I had only gotten to play a few games thus far, despite watching dozens upon dozens of battle reports. While that can be helpful, it is limited, since you can't really see what cards are in the player's hands, etc.
This first game against Marty was a Clash of Kings I believe, which is a scenario I have only seen a few times in battle reports. We were using the new rules regarding objectives, in that you must be fully on them, and have more ranks than the unit opposing you for it..
I tried to squeeze a few extra cards in the early turns by placing the Crossbows with Sir Cards Alot (AKA Preston Greenfield). That is not something I will do again, at least until the rule that wipes out attachments in respawned units is changed.
Tywinn in the Halberds is very handy, especially with the new changes to that unit. Having enough cards in hand to maintain the set for charge order can make them nasty, especially when Pycelle is handing out weakened tokens, along with any other NCU that can dive onto a token placement spot on the tactics board.
Units came back so often that the objectives continued to be cleared multiple times. It almost reached a point where you purposely tried not to kill a unit, because that could give you a numbers advantage with activations.
Also keep in mind that we had not started using the new mechanic for failed morale tests during this game. I am not really sure how I feel about that yet, because I can see it creating lots of new problems in an effort to solve existing ones.
The entire battlefield became a swirling mess, with units being wiped out almost every turn. I had a heavy card draw presence, especially with the Imp, and we also had 3 NCU's each. I love when this happens, because the tactics board becomes as much of a fight as the field itself!
The Boltons were definitely handing out panic tokens like crazy, so we shall see how that is affected by that new panic test failure mechanic. Units that rely on rebuilding stuff via failed morale tests will not have much fun with that.
I had plenty of cards and other NCU actions to keep the Knights alive much longer that otherwise might have been the case. However, there were times where it was better to let them be wiped out to come back again in a better area, or even jump onto an objective to set up other returning units.
I was already a fan of Halberds long before this weekend, but with the new changes and seeing them in all manner of engagements, they are a must have for me. I will even try to work out some lists with multiple Halberds to see what happens.
A variety of unit attachments were tested out, and each of them had something very nasty to offer to an opponent.
We didn't get to test out the new Black Guard in this game, but I think that extra bit of variety will give the Boltons many more options in the future.
While the Bastard's Girls were effective in this game, they would have been a huge hazard for the Lannisters with the new alterations to their stats and abilities for 1.5. I have wanted to include a unit in my Lannisters since the beginning, and now I think they fit in very well!
This weekend was the very first time that I could use the Mountain's Men, which is a unit that I painted up in my latest Army Painting video series for the Patreon Page! They were painted entirely in oils, but yet they look just like any other unit painted in acrylics.
I had "Barrister Selmy", as we called him, in that unit all weekend long. I really love that synergy, as it protects them from the one big weakness, and that is morale. Making them a 5+ morale for the entire game is quite handy!!
You can check out the Army Painting stuff from the Patreon Page here:
After starting out the game in a 0-5 hole, I managed to bring this back to a 10-8 nailbiter of a finish. I learned a LOT of things straight away in this game, lessons which would be applied to the rest of the matches I played with great effect.
Stay tuned for the second episode of the Songapalooza Saga!!
