Let's Play Warhammer Renaissance: The First Sheep Raid of Dudesdale

I have had the great pleasure of playing my first game of Warhammer Renaissance! We played a 1000-point game, with two players on each side: I brought a 500-point Khorne warband and allied with the Skaven to fight the Bretonnians and their Dwarf allies, in what I have dubbed the First Sheep Raid of Dudesdale. We had an excellent time.

**

This was my army list:

Chaos Hero Thekla von Grauschädel - 135 points

 Mark of Khorne, additional hand weapon

The Scholars of Brass and Blood:

9 Chaos Warriors - 162 pts

The Moon Dancers:

5 Marauder Horsemen - 115 pts

 +10 standard bearer = 125 points

5 Bloodletters of Khorne - 80 points

For a total of 502 points. My Skaven allies fielded a block of Clanrats led by their general, a unit of Skaven Slaves, a Warpfire Thrower, some Poison Wind Globadiers, a battery of Jezzails and some Giant Rats.

For the objective, we rolled an 8 for Take the Relic: we would be fighting over an arcane landmark in the center of the table. Ordinarily, it would provide extra Winds of Magic cards to the first wizard to reach it, so we decided instead that the first character to reach it could draw a random magic item. One of the other players had brought some sheep miniatures, and they were placed in the middle of the landmark so we'd have something to fight over.

Here's how we set up the terrain.

We drew each player a random magic item or rune, as appropriate; mine was the rather underwhelming Silver Sigil Sword, for +3 Initiative. Our host also owns a full deck of Chaos Gift cards, so I would have them at my disposal - for better or worse! As this was such a small game, I would only draw one Gift per turn.

In proper Warhammer Renaissance fashion, we drew our deployment onto a piece of paper, and then both sides simultaneously deployed their units. Here's the Chaos-Skaven deployment and battle plan:

My Marauder Horsemen deployed on the far left, in hopes of flanking the enemy, with the Bloodletters and Chaos Warriors heading right up the middle to capture the objective. The Skaven infantry massed on our right, accompanied by the Warpfire Thrower and Globadiers, with the Giant Rats taking the right flank and the Jezzails in firing positions on the hill.

I apologize for the improvised movement trays! Facing us were the forces of Dudesdale and their Dwarf allies:

In the center were the dwarves, with one unit of infantry led by their general, and a unit of Thunderers, as well as a Flame Cannon on the hill. The Bretonnians deployed a huge unit of archers on the left flank, next to some foot knights, with five crossbowmen on the hill and a regiment of Knights on the right.

I have to admit that my heart sank when I saw the Bretonnian Knights in their panoply directly opposite my samurai rabbits. I didn't think there was any way I was going to win that fight, so at this point my hope was to draw the knights out into jezzail range, and maybe at least tie them up for a turn so that the Bloodletters could get at them.

Dudesdale won the die roll to go first, and we got the game started!

**

Turn 1

Seeing the Khorne runes and the seething mass of rats before them, the Dudesdale forces opted to not move, except for the archers on their left taking position on the hill.

All the action was in the shooting phase. The crossbowmen on the hill let loose at the Bloodletters, only to see their bolts burst into flames midair as the daemonic aura easily repelled the attack. The dwarf Flame Cannon took aim at the Chaos Warriors, and the dwarven gunnery was dismayingly exact.

Two Chaos Warriors fell.

On our turn, we advanced into the teeth of the enemy fire. The rat-men surged forward while my Chaos Warriors made contact with the objective, and the Moon Dancers used their Fast Cavalry mobility to skirt around the edge of the woods, keeping the abandoned watchtower between themselves and the enemy knights.

The jezzail teams fired at the flame cannon, hitting both the machine and the crew, but failed to score any wounds. Meanwhile, my hero being the first to reach the arcane landmark, she secured the magic item hidden there, which turned out to be the Shield of Ptolos.

**

Turn 2

Again, the Dudesdale line stood and waited for us to come to them, with the single exception of the knights, who, with appropriate Bretonnian hauteur, advanced at a stately pace slightly past the watchtower.

The ensuing shooting phase was pure murder. The crossbowmen took down three Bloodletters, and the archers and Thunderers cut a bloody swathe into the Clanrats. The flame cannon scored another direct hit, and I failed all my saves, leaving five Chaos Warriors knocked out of the battle! Luckily my units passed their panic tests.

When our turn came, Khorne decided he had had enough, as I drew Lose Gifts, immediately discarding the only other card I held. To be honest, I couldn't blame him; I thought the battle was over after that shooting phase.

Still, we weren't going down without a fight. While the remaining Chaos Warriors and Hero took cover by the ritual stones and the Bloodletters marched on, our flankers charged. The Skaven Packmaster drove his Giant Rats up the hill and into the Dudesdale archers, and with a resounding rabbity banzai, the Moon Dancers charged the Bretonnian Knights!

In the shooting phase, the Skaven jezzail teams switched targets to the crossbowmen, knocking down three and forcing a panic test, which the survivors failed.

On the right, the Giant Rats killed an archer, but lost the combat by a considerable margin and fled, which caused the Skaven Slaves to panic!

On our left, the Marauder Horsemen lost one of their number, but brought down two Bretonnians.

That was enough to win the combat, and the Bretonnians promptly failed their break test and fled off the table!

I tried to restrain the Moon Dancers, but they also failed their Leadership test and galloped off the table in pursuit!

**

Turn 3

At the start of turn 3, I had a total of five models left on the battlefield. Everyone else was playing Warhammer, I was suddenly playing Age of Sigmar.

On the Dudesdale left, the archers charged the Poison Wind Globadiers in front of them, who fled into the woods. In the center, the dwarf infantry advanced and the flame cannon hit the Chaos Warriors once again, killing one of the two survivors. Thekla was also hit, and even the Shield of Ptolos couldn't protect her, and she fell.

I now had three models on the battlefield! Luckily, at the start of our turn, the Moon Dancers returned and galloped for the hill. Since my lone surviving Chaos Warrior couldn't claim the objective all alone, she and the Bloodletters charged the dwarves. On our right, the Clanrats charged the Bretonnian foot knights.

In the shooting phase, the Skaven Warpfire Thrower supported my fight in their inimitable way by firing into the mêlée, broiling some dwarves. The jezzails fired at the Dwarf Thunderers, but to no effect.

My daemons and Chaos Warrior did very little damage; in return, the dwarves killed the last Chaos Warrior and one of the Bloodletters. The last daemon failed its break test and disappeared into the warp, no doubt to face Khorne's fury.

Meanwhile, the Clanrats wiped out the foot knights!

The exuberant ratmen charged on as far as the hill, not realizing that this put the entire enemy army behind them.

**

Turn 4

The dwarf infantry advanced to the objective, while the archers continued their pursuit of the fleeing Skaven, charging and wiping out the giant rats. Meanwhile, the dwarf crew frantically wheeled around the flame cannon to shoot at the oncoming Marauders, but for the first time in the battle, they missed, overshooting the Moon Dancers completely.

On our turn, the Skaven Slaves continued to flee, blocking the line of sight of some of the jezzail teams on the hill.

The clanrats reformed and made for the Dwarf Thunderers, while my Marauder Horsemen charged the Flame Cannon.

The Warpfire Thrower team fired at the Dudesdale archers, hoping to make them flee off the table. Eight of them died in the flames, but the archers passed their panic test.

The jezzails sniped one of the dwarves holding the objective, and in the close combat phase, the Moon Dancers avenged their fallen comrades by wiping out the flame cannon crew.

Their overrun move carried them straight into the flank of the Dwarf Thunderers!

**

Turn 5

The homicidal (raticidal?) Dudesdale archers charged and wiped out the last remaining Poison Wind Globadiers, while the dwarves reformed to face the enemy. In the close combat phase, the Moon Dancers tore into the Dwarf Thunderers, killing half of them and sending the survivors fleeing.

On our turn, the Skaven Slaves fled onto the hill and created an almighty mess with the jezzail teams.

The Clanrats charged the dwarves, determined to seize the objective or die trying.

Unable to charge, the Moon Dancers moved to contest the objective and flank the dwarves if the game went to a sixth turn.

The mêlée was bloody but inconclusive, and when we rolled for a sixth turn, we didn't get it, so that's where the game ended! As darkness began to fall, both sides beat a retreat.

With both sides wreaking carnage on each other, our victory point totals were closely matched. And since both sides had one unit close enough to contest the objective, no victory points were awarded for it, making the game a draw.

**

That was a very hard-fought and eventful game, and we had a great time. I want to thank my opponents and my ally for an excellent game, and I'm very impressed by how smoothly the rules worked. We set up and played the game in a little under four hours, which is kind of impressive.

Since we had a lot of small units, mêlée combat was especially deadly, with units breaking or even being wiped out in just one round of combat. This also really underscored how important it was to get the charge! In general, there's a very authentic Warhammer feel where anything can happen based on the luck of the dice, and I love it.

As for my army, I'd have loved to have seen my Chaos Warriors or Bloodletters in action properly, and maybe if I hadn't failed so miserably in rolling saves, it might have happened. But then again, they absorbed all that firepower, which let the others get to close quarters.

My Marauder Horsemen were clearly the stars of the show, and I'm beyond delighted by their performance. Getting the charge against the Bretonnians was key, and clearly Khorne rewarded their bloodthirst. I'm pretty sure I want more Marauder horse, and also more infantry! Maybe a larger block of Marauders wouldn't be so easy to annihilate at range. Also, maybe a mounted character would actually have made it into combat!

**

To sum up: Warhammer Renaissance is great, and I can't wait to play more of it.

Since neither side managed to secure the objective, the sheep went unclaimed. I imagine that all armies will have sent their people to recover the wounded and salvage any equipment they can; certainly Khorne won't let his warriors escape his service that easily. The next dawn will reveal a scorched and bloody battlefield, and grazing around the standing stone, some very confused sheep.

Warhammer Renaissance: Let's Paint Chaos Warriors

My main wargaming project right now is building a Warhammer Renaissance Chaos army from what I already own. I've already got some Khorne Daemons, and in Renaissance a Chaos army can be either Chaos Warriors, Beastmen or Daemons, or all three combined. Obviously that's the most fun, but at under 2000 points, it means the army has to be dedicated to only one Chaos god. So it turns out I'm building a Khorne warband.

**

My first unit is some Marauder Horsemen. I've previously used the Samurai Rabbits from Eureka Miniatures' excellent Pond Wars range for my Stormbun Eternals and the Loyal Zootopian Lancers. Reading some Usagi Yojimbo gave me an idea, which led me to Warlord's Samurai Horsemen. I was originally going to field them as Rough Riders in 40k, but now they have the perhaps dubious honor of being the first full unit to join my Warhammer Renaissance Chaos warband.

Stillmania compels me to name each unit and provide them with a background, so:

The Moon Dancers

Long ago, in the land of Nippon, six samurai were so consumed by the way of the warrior that they lived only for battle and killing. Their daimyo, sickened by their bloodthirst, banished them from his service, making them rōnin, warriors without a master. As their infamy grew, no-one in Nippon would retain their services. And so the six rōnin headed north into the Chaos Wastes, where they dedicated themselves to Khorne and now ride under his bloody banner.

Six Marauder Horsemen with a standard bearer are worth 138 points.

**

In addition to the horsemen, I also own a whole regiment of twelve Chaos Warriors, assembled and undercoated, who've sat on a shelf for so long that they were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Since our first game will be at 750 points, with a maximum points value per unit of 200, I can't field all twelve of them; ten Chaos Warriors add up to 180 points.

I think it's funny that I painted these specifically for Renaissance, which is basically an Oldhammer project, and I kind of accidentally made this the most grimdark unit I've ever painted. But I wanted them to look like proper fantasy villains, and I think I did.

The Scholars of Brass and Blood

Siegfried Totenbaum, High Professor of the Altdorf Polytechnical College, decided to experiment with an innovative new teaching technique called the group project. His students were divided into groups and told that their grade, and therefore their entire future, now depended on the success of their group project.

The first student death occurred two weeks into the project. Several fatal accidents followed, later escalating into outright murders and open warfare. Soon Totenbaum had been assassinated and the Polytechnical College was engulfed in flames. The only known survivors were a group of students who swore an oath to Khorne, overcame their enemies, and fled through the sewers as the College collapsed above them. They now roam the Chaos Wastes as warriors of the Blood God.

The obscure elven tome Totenbaum got his idea from, known by its Classical title Rota Magna, is believed to have been destroyed in the fire.

**

Now all I need is a character to lead the army. A while ago, Archon Studios made a 28mm He-Man miniature game. I bought it on a whim; I watched the Filmation animated show religiously as a kid. So here I was, thinking that I need a Chaos Hero with something I can plausibly pass off as an Icon of Khorne from the magic item list - and I remembered I also got the Teela expansion.

I think she looks pretty good in Khorne's colors!

Of course we have to give her a name, so:

Thekla von Grauschädel

Born in the lowly hamlet of Grauschädel in Reikland, Thekla was sent to work as a maid for a local wizard. Slaving away in his household, Thekla developed a passionate hatred for her master and all magic-users. One of the older servants taught Thekla to read, and in the wizard's library, she found tomes with rituals for the destruction of magic-users. The wizard was such a brutal master that many of his servants soon joined a cult dedicated to his murder, and with young Thekla's leadership, he was soon dead and his manor burned to the ground. Thekla and the other servants fled into the woods, where she soon became their leader. The cult activities continued, and Thekla eventually drew Khorne's eye and earned his mark.

**

Together with some Bloodletters, I now have a tiny Chaos army for Warhammer Renaissance, and I'm hoping to get to try a game soon!

Let's Read Tolkien 94: The Umbarian Gambit 36-

Umbar, the Fish Market

June 2, 3019

The shrimp were excellent.

Nah, you know what, he's lost me. I read several chapters of a thoroughly modern, really hackneyed and badly written spy novel, starring Baron Tangorn as James Bond in exotic Umbar, and was bored to death. I started skimming forward, and it just kept going and going. There's no longer any point in talking about anachronisms or themes: the story has nothing to do with Middle-earth or Tolkien any more, and I'm just not interested.

Sadly, this means I'll never find out what dazzlingly clever plot twists the dude came up with for the end of his story. I can live with that.

**

So, that was the Last Ringbearer, as far as I'm concerned. It's much more interesting as a concept than an actual text. I liked some of Yeskov's ideas, but the execution is so bad that I honestly can't recommend it to anyone.

When I started reading the Last Ringbearer, coincidentally a year ago, one of the great points Yeskov made in an interview I read was that a lot of Tolkien's Middle-earth doesn't really make sense. For all his talk of sub-creation, Tolkien wasn't really interested in creating a consistent, or even coherent, fictional world: he was interested in creating a backdrop for his stories and his languages. One of the reasons I was interested in the Last Ringbearer was that I thought Yeskov would try to make it all make sense. But he does the opposite. One of the central tenets of his reimagining of the War of the Ring fails spectacularly, and in general, his alternative versions of Mordor, Umbar and so on are a completely incoherent mess of orientalism and anachronism. Reading Yeskov makes you admire Tolkien's creative vision and consistency all over again, which, given the tone of Yeskov's work, cannot have been the effect he intended.

So anyway that was that. I can't say I think it's a coincidence that I've heard so many people refer to the fact that the Last Ringbearer exists, and so few references to its actual content. As I'm actually quite busy nowadays, my Tolkien-reading series will continue at some later time, maybe. For now, happy new year.

Let's Read Tolkien 93: The King and the Steward 31-35

Gondor, Minas Tirith

May 17, 3019

“Her Royal Majesty the Queen of Gondor and Arnor!”

We now go to Minas Tirith, where we get to know Aragorn and Arwen a little bit.

**

Aragorn, we learn, is unhappy: despite winning the throne of Gondor, Arwen refuses to actually marry him. They're only pretending to be king and queen, when in reality she's his elven "advisor". It turns out they're also running rival espionage operations, competing for the technical knowledge of Mordor and Isengard by running rival Operation Paperclips. After some repartee with Arwen, Aragorn receives the White Company, Faramir's former guards.

The scene then shifts to a quarry in the White Mountains where Kumai, a Troll engineer, is held captive along with a black Haradrim mûmak, sorry, múmak driver, Mbanga. We're given an infodump about how the Harad Empire fought against slavers from Khand. It's puerile, at best orientalist and cliched, and boring. The significance is that Mbanga gets into a fight with the guards and is killed. There's some very cringey orientalism about how he now gets to go to the heavenly lion hunt or something, and also a frankly uninteresting flashback to Kumai's war experiences. The guards also beat Kumai badly, but this provides an opportunity for him to be smuggled out of the quarry by the anti-Gondor resistance.

However, unbeknownst to Kumai but beknownst to us, it isn't actually the anti-Gondor resistance at all, but a fake resistance movement run by Aragorn's agents. Apparently they all have animal codenames, because Cheetah debriefs Mongoose and sends him to Umbar to capture Tangorn. And with that, chapter 35 and part II come to an end.

**

So, that was part II. I have to say, as a fantasy or adventure novel, this is really not very good. If it was an original IP, so to speak, I would not be reading it any more. So this is kind of a slightly weird exercise where I'm actually interested in Yeskov's alternative Middle-earth, but I'm finding it a chore to trudge through his prose. These chapters highlight the problem: I love the idea of elven and dúnedain spies racing to secure the legacy of Mordor; I dislike the silly stuff about Harad and Khand and so on; and I'm bored by everything else. The combination of the terrible narrative voice and the total incoherence of the fictional world is just really offputting. Also I actually miss Haladdin.

Looking at the table of contents, there's four parts and 69 chapters (nice), so I'm pretty much halfway through. I'm going to keep at this, mostly to see if he comes up with any other cool stuff. But I think I'll be sticking with this sparser narration, largely because I can't really be bothered to engage with the story more closely.

**

Next year: part III

Let's Read Tolkien 92: The King and the Steward 25-30

Ithilien, Blackbird Hamlet 

May 14, 3019 

“So you just announced it to the entire Emyn Arnen: ‘merry men of the Blackbird Hamlet?’”

Together with the men of Blackbird Hamlet, our heroes are planning to rescue Faramir.

**

Faramir and Éowyn are being held in Emyn Arnen, and they're plotting to escape with the help of Beregond. The Blackbird Hamlet gang are plotting to free them, and now Tangorn and Tzerlag participate. Various spying shenanigans ensue, leading up to Tzerlag sneaking into Emyn Arnen to free Faramir. The attempt fails, and it looks like they're going to be killed, but Aragorn's spies let them escape.

Two constants remain. The names are all over the place: the man Beregond clandestinely meets is called Runcorn, and they're caught by the Gondorian "counterspy" called, ludicrously, Cheetah. Anachronisms abound: the espionage and counter-espionage are fully 20th-century, as is the martial art Tzerlag is trained in. Someone actually shouts "Freeze! Drop your weapons!". And so on. Yeskov's Middle-earth is a total mess. The only redeeming feature here is that it's Blackbird Hamlet.

What's worse is how Yeskov ruins his story by turning everything into a sterile intellectual exercise. Whether it's intelligence and counterintelligence, or a fight in a hallway, one side always know exactly what the others expect them to do, and then do something different. Everything works out just so, and this is explained to us by nearly omniscient characters as if everything was always completely obvious. Faramir and Éowyn are the only ones who are allowed to escape this, and therefore the only characters in these chapters who even remotely resemble people. With everyone else, there's no human element present at all.

Again, the overriding impression is that Yeskov very badly wants us to think he's incredibly clever. This could have been a decent spy/heist story, but it's just soulless. By the way, our Nazgúl main character Haladdin is barely even mentioned in these chapters.

Where this all ends up, then, is that Faramir and Éowyn are free, Haladdin and Tzerlag have access to Faramir's palantír, and Tangorn sets off for Umbar.

**

In other news, I'm happy to say that I finally got to give my lecture on Tolkien at the Helsinki Adult Education Center, as part of our lecture course on the history of heresy. I talked about evil, Manicheanism and Pelagianism, and did my exegesis of Frodo's experience on Amon Hen. I thought it went all right, and I'm very pleased I got to put together some of the stuff I've been writing about here into a proper lecture.

**

Next time: Aragorn.

Let's Read Tolkien 91: The King and the Steward 23-24

Mountains of Shadow, Hotont pass

May 12, 3019

“There’s your Ithilien.”

We're back with Haladdin and the gang, who are making their way across the mountains into Ithilien, with the help of some trollish resistance fighters. We visit the trolls of the Shara-teg valley in a sort of flashback, and then our heroes find some of the Baron's old soldiers.

To use Tolkien's terms, we're now in Yeskov's own particular sub-creation, and a couple of things do stand out.

First, the language. We experience Hotont Pass, Shara-Teg valley and meet Ivar the Drummer. Oh, and they drink vodka. There is no logic to these names, or to the kind of culture and language Yeskov is trying to portray. Everything is eclectic and poorly thought out, and keeps getting worse as the story goes on.

This is underlined by my least favorite feature of the story, which is the relentless anachronism. We again have guerrilla fighters in a preindustrial society behaving like modern professional soldiers. People point bows at others like they're guns and hold modern military ranks. While they're staying with the trolls, Haladdin meets, of all things, a graphologist. The graphologist produces a psychological profile of the elven officer they killed in Mordor, and Haladdin uses this to come up with a key idea for his plan, to which we are not privy.

A lot of stupid things get said about fantasy and "historical accuracy", especially by people who are fine with dragons and zombies, but insist that if there isn't violent misogyny it isn't "historically accurate". As a historian, I consider this very silly. Fantasy isn't history: there's no reason to demand historical accuracy of it in the first place, and when the demand is made, it's almost invariably made in a way that's so selective that it's obvious it's being used as an excuse.

What I think fantasy or indeed any speculative fiction should be is coherent. If you want to portray a pre-industrial society with Middle Eastern influences, then do that. This seems to be what Yeskov set out to do, but it's constantly undermined by his references being all over the place, his unbearably smug narrative voice, and above all by the fact that all of his characters are clearly 20th-century people who for some reason happen to live in a fantasy world.

Tolkien used anachronisms deliberately, to maintain a distance between the narrator and the story, and sometimes for reasons that are entirely beyond me. I still have no ides why hobbits have potatoes. Yeskov uses them constantly to batter the reader into submission.

I'm still of two minds as to whether or not I actually want to see this whole thing through. Every now and then, I read a chapter and I feel like okay, I want to see where he's going with this. Far too often, though, the "look how clever I am" schtick makes me despair. We'll see what happens.

**

Next time: merry men.

Game of Thrones board game 3: Here I Throne

Elderr Gutlon rose violently, his large frame towering over the seated brethren. "How dare you, Vitus. How dare you, who has yet to earn a single "R" in his name, who has not even completed his study of the ancient works, and can hardly quote from them by memory, judge us?

- Mark Brendle, Something Awful

in 2019, we played our first ever six-player game of the Game of Thrones board game. But since one regular member of our gaming group was away in California at the time, he's missed out on the particular experience that is an entire day dedicated to murdering your friends all across Westeros. Last May, we tried to rectify this - and then the coronavirus happened.

We ended up playing Here I Stand by email instead, which was quite an experience. At the same time, it's downright hilarious that the last season of the Game of Thrones TV series was apparently so bad that the entire franchise simply vanished from the public eye, especially since the dude can't finish a book (the latest novel in the series was published four months before Skyrim). I'm going to start telling people that this boardgame is the original work it was all based on. Anyway, Here I Stand is over, so now it's time for Here I Throne.

**

Our first game was a five-player affair, featuring a Baratheon blitz into the Reach and an ineffective Lannister betrayal; it was won by House Tyrell. Our second game had six players, and featured a Baratheon blitz into the Reach and an ineffective Baratheon betrayal; I won as House Lannister. This time, we've got the Mother of Dragons expansion, and while the Essos board extension barely fits on our table, incorporating House Arryn is easy. We also knew that one player would have to leave early, so we would definitely be using the vassal house rules. So we set up for seven players:

Since I've played as the Greyjoys and the Lannisters, I decided I want to be at the opposite end of the table this time, and picked the Martells. The vassal house ended up being House Arryn, who became vassals to House Baratheon. On the first turn, the Greyjoys came out swinging, grabbing Flint's Finger, Seagard and Moat Cailin for an early lead.

This, of course, concentrated quite a bit of attention onto them in the next few turns. While the war in the north raged, we in the south consolidated our positions, and the Baratheons secured King's Landing. As the Greyjoys were chased back to their islands and the Baratheons stormed the Reach, by turn 4 it was the Starks who looked like the ones to beat.

At this point, the Baratheon player had to leave, so Arryn and Baratheon were vassal houses. I decided this made it high time to grab Storm's End from the Baratheons, and the Greyjoys turned the tables on the Starks with a seaborne invasion of Winterfell.

As turn 5 rolled around, everything happened: we recalculated supply, rebid all the influence tracks and sustained a Wildling attack where they ate all our horses.

Turn 6 saw the Stark player leave the game, so we were down to four players and three vassal houses. The Stark departure made things a little bit easier for both the Greyjoys and Lannisters, and they capitalized on it, with the Lannisters grabbing a lead and threatening to win the game outright.

Therefore, our agenda was clear: a House Arryn offensive, supported by both the Baratheon and Martell navies, cleared out the Lannisters from Crackclaw Point, and a Tyrell attack led by Loras took not only Lannisport but also Riverrun. I used the distraction to grab King's Landing.

Meanwhile, the Tyrells also struck in the south, routing my garrison at Starfall, but Arianne Martell sent them right back home.

Going into turn 7, it was pretty much a dead heat between my Martells, the Tyrells and the Greyjoys.

After the seventh turn, I think fatigue set in for all of us, and it was a slog to get through the last turns. The Tyrell offensive sort of petered out; I got into a fight with them over the Reach, but couldn't make any more headway. The Lannisters never really recovered. Finally, the Greyjoys captured White Harbor at the very beginning of the tenth turn to seal the win.

The game took a little bit over ten hours and we were exhausted.

**

So, I came in second with the Martells after winning the previous game with the Lannisters. I feel like the biggest reason I lost was sheer physical exhaustion: I was out late the previous night, and by the time we got to the endgame, I was so tired I was simply unable to put together a plan to get to victory.

Another thing that tripped me up was supply. In our first game, we took ages to turn up a mustering card, and I suffered for that as the Greyjoys since it stopped me from mustering any units at all. This time, it took several turns until we got a supply card at all, but when we did, I hadn't secured enough supply areas and fell behind. Not being able to put effective armies into the field was crippling, and entirely my fault for overlooking this crucial area of the game.

So yeah, I lost because I played badly. On a positive note, though, we all liked the vassal system. The option for players to drop out is frankly excellent, and while the very limited amount of vassal orders you can give makes sure the vassal houses don't completely unbalance the game, they still make things a lot more unpredictable. I would definitely recommend using the vassal house rules, and I liked the addition of House Arryn.

I'm glad we played, but the last few turns were so grueling that I think we have to consider making the next one a two-day event. And holding it next year. At the earliest.