The Always Winter Grand Tournament took place this weekend in Scotland, and some of the best players from around the UK took part. We saw representation from all corners Westeros and Essos, with the most represented factions being the Targaryens and Greyjoys. However, it was the noble men of the Night’s Watch that managed to achieve a 6-0 victory at the event. Let’s check out the lists.
Guest Writer: Carly
Tom’s Winning Night’s Watch Lists
Expand for Army List
List 1:
Conscripts (4) – Othell Yarwyck (0)
Conscripts (4)
Builder Crossbowmen (7) – Watch Captain (3)
Builder Crossbowmen (7) – Watch Captain (3)
Jeor Mormont (4)
Petyr Baelish (4)
Tycho Nestoris (4)
List 2:
Conscripts (4) – Othell Yarwyck (0)
Builder Crossbowmen (7) – Watch Captain (3)
Builder Crossbowmen (7) – Watch Captain (3)
House Bolton Flayed Men (8)
Jeor Mormont (4)
Petyr Baelish (4)
At the London Grand Tournament in autumn of 2021, the Builder Crossbows performed very well and have now repeated this at the Always Winter Tournament. This list finished with 18 Tournament Points, 22 Secondary Points and 140 points of Units Destroyed (TP/SP/UD – 18/22/140) and quite a gap between 2nd (16/19/101) and 3rd (16/17/114).
Tournament Points are determined through Win, Draw or Loss. So 3 points for a Win, 2 for a Draw and 1 for a Loss.
Secondary Points are used as tiebreakers to determine victory and are based on total accumulated Victory Points versus opponent’s total. Crushing Victory(5+ VP): Winner: 4 SP / Loser: 0 SP, Standard Victory (3-4 VP): Winner: 3 SP / Loser: 1 SP, Narrow Victory (1-2 VP): Winner: 2 SP / Loser: 1 SP and Tie: Both players get 1 SP.
Units Destroyed points are used as tiebreakers to determine victory and are based on total accumulated points of destroyed enemy units.
When we look at the scores for the Night’s Watch List we can see that there isn’t much distance in TPs, however SPs were quite high being only 2 points away from max; a defensive Eddard Stark list and a Roose Bolton led Lannister list managed to bring the SP points down. The list was also 33pts away from max units destroyed with the hardest fight being the great Khal Drogo and the same Eddard Stark list, although 33pts might seem like a lot in comparison to the rest of the players throughout the day it is impressive.
Studying the lists used we can gather that the list is built to increase the output of the Builder Crossbows to a point where they can mow down whatever they face. The Watch Captain’s Order Relentless allows the unit to make an additional Attack or a Maneuver in exchange for a unit not activating, the Crossbows have an order to make an Attack when a unit decides to Charge them, then their own action to Attack and possibly another two from the the Tactics Board. That’s a total of eight ranged attacks a turn if both units of Crossbowmen are charged in the front. There are more crossbow bolts being fired in one turn than were loosed at the Red Wedding.
However, you just need to take out a few ranks to reduce the quality of the unit right? Well no, you have to destroy the unit otherwise they will forever be acting at full strength. Their stats do not decrease until they are on their final rank, and with the Watch Captain’s ability Boldness and Courage they are always treated as having +1 Rank for attack dice and at full gains an additional die. Then Othell Yarwyck can also give +1 to Hit and +1 die with one of his tactics cards; Honed Enhancement. At best the Crossbows are now hitting on 2s with 8 dice, with the crossbow rules of Sundering and re-rolls within Short Range. This card can be easily found or moved with the help of NCU Jeor Mormont to increase the efficiency of the units.
Then you need to think about Tycho’s healing in a desperate situation, and then the base Night’s Watch tactics deck that can go defensive with The Shield of the Realms of Men card preventing hits and Take the Black card for healing, with additional healing from the Conscripts’ order Supply Aid resulting in it becoming almost impossible to destroy.
So buy Night’s Watch and play Crossbows for goodness sake! You’ll win the War of the Five Kings and be back home for your lemon cakes before winter has begun.
In all seriousness though, there were armies at the event that did not suffer too many losses, and/or they came close to victory. This is a good thing about the ASOIAF Miniatures game, even a list as strong as the Othell Crossbowmen list can still sometimes snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Let’s see how this came close to happening.
Carlo’s Khal Drogo List
Expand for Army List
List:
Drogo’s Bloodriders (8) – Khal Drogo (0)
Dothraki Veterans (8) – Fortune Seeker (1)
Stormcrow Mercenaries (5) – Unsullied Officer (3)
Jorah Mormont (3)
Barristan Selmy (5)
Illyro Mopatis (4)
Tycho Nestoris (4)
Carlo came second in the Tournament with his Targaryens and used the great Khal for a lot of his match-ups. From first glance I can see that the army is built around debuffing the opponent, hitting them with some of the hardest hitting units available to the Targaryens, and then using mass healing to mitigate any counter-attack.
Drogo’s Bloodriders are able to hand out some pretty crucial condition tokens and Jorah can increase the effectiveness of a unit with Precision and allow them to use their highest attack dice value. Combine that with the stats of the Veterans or the Bloodriders and there is little that can survive. The Fortune Seeker, Stormcrows and Unsullied Officer can then give out free attack actions to further confirm death. You then have the “backer of many” Tycho and the best healer for cavalry, Illyrio, to prevent the loss of a unit. Selmy is quite different but valuable against the Crossbows, with his Wisdom of the Old Knight he can prevent tactics cards and abilities from being used which is something hard to counter.
I can see how it was possible for Carlo not to give up many points in the destroyed category which helps a awful lot against the gun-wall on The Wall. However the downfall can be easily missed, ranged vs combat would have made this a hard fight for Carlo, especially if the Night’s Watch can get on to the objectives first and set themselves up for the game, I can only imagine it took a lot of skill or a lot of luck to have survived the game without more casualties since he cannot do anything unless he gets into combat. One thing we can learn from this though is that having a solid back bench of healing, and multiple ways to have more attacks is the quickest way to seize the Iron Throne.
Stephen’s Eddard Stark List
Expand for Army List
List:
Eddard’s Honour Guard (6) – Eddard Stark (0)
House Tully Sworn Shields (6) – Mormont Veteran (1)
House Tully Cavaliers (8) – Glory Seeker (1)
Stark Bowmen (6)
Catelyn Stark (4)
Petyr baelish (4)
Tycho Nestoris (4)
Tully Sworn Shields are well known for being one of the most resilient units in the game thanks to their Shieldwall Order. Enhance that with a Mormont Veteran for further protection, Rally Cry from Eddard Stark and a hefty heal from the master of deficit spending, Tycho, and there is very little chance that this unit can be taken down. The Tully Cavaliers are also notorious for being tough to kill and they now heal other units thanks to the Glory Seeker rallying them for the fight. Eddard Stark’s tactics cards prevent the army from failing Morale, Catelyn makes sure they are fighting on their top profile and the Bowmen are there to take away abilities from the units they shot at. Everything synergises to make sure nothing dies.
The game against the Night’s Watch suggests it was hard fought with the victory points being 10-8 to the Night’s Watch however the army was all but wiped from the table. This could only suggest that whilst the army failed to stay alive, the units stuck around long enough to hold the objectives and with the points being so close I would imagine it could have gone either way. An alarming observation is that what is considered the most resilient bunch of units in the game could not withstand the onslaught of crossbow fire which further shows that the Builder Crossbows have insane levels of devastation.
What Have We Learnt?
Builder Crossbows are stupidly, insanely good, with little to no effort needed to perform as one of the best lists in the game. Synergies only serve to increase the output and prevent it from dampening, resulting in a wipe needed which comes close to impossible due to the defensive capabilities of the army plus the fact that you will lose units before they get there.
However there is hope. If you can heal faster than the bolts can kill you, your army will live long enough to make a dent, with the most effective dent being scoring the objectives. An offensive army like the Dothraki has the potential to annihilate in combat but getting there and avoiding the overwatch of the Night’s Watch is difficult and is easier if you have that healing bench of NCUs or defensive counters. Your best bet is to load up on resilient units that can prevent hits and heal plenty, out score the Night’s Watch and tie them up.
Either way, CMON, please rework the Builder Crossbows. Oh and please increase the taxes on the Iron Bank so that Tycho isn’t handing out investments to every person who can spell “heal”.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
