Fragile Alliances

Hello World!

Greetings, all!  I've posted informal Battle Reports on the various social sites in the past, but this game night provided enough content & entertainment to finally push our group into the blog world.  Hope you enjoy reading about it half as much as we enjoyed playing it!

Our Takes on the Custom Game from the 2022 German Nationals

Like many of you, the German National Championship stream provided hours of entertaining content.  What I didn't get to see, but was immediately very interested in, was the custom game mode they came up with for people to play casually during the 2nd day top cuts.  While the top 8 were battling it out for the trophy, other players were duking it out, making & breaking "Fragile Alliances" in a team game mode turned free-for-all half way through (Chaos is a ladder, after all).

Fragile Alliances

The name of the custom mode they came up with was "Fragile Alliances," for which the rules can be found here & copied below (edited slightly, for translation):

A Song of Ice and Fire Side-Events

Setup & Deployment:

- 3 Objective Tokens are deployed using the Clash of Kings scheme and the deployment zones are 10" each

- Normal scoring and claiming rules apply (no special scoring for Commanders)

- Each player compiles a list of 25 points, and this can only include 1 NCU

- Walder Frey must not be part of such a list

- Teams of 2 will be formed at random (before terrain & deployment)

- Each player will place 1 piece of terrain

- Player order for placing terrain, deployment, & turn order is determined as follows (perform once for terrain and once for deployment):

    - All players roll 2D6. Re-roll for players with the same result until all players have different results

    - The player with the highest score is Player 1 (1st player)

    - The teammate of Player 1 is Player 3 (3rd highest roll)

    - The 2nd highest roll is Player 2

    - The teammate of Player 2 is Player 4 (lowest roll)

- This is the turn order until Round 5, passing down 1st player so each player gets a chance at 1st. (i.e. Player 2 goes 1st on Round 2, followed by Player 3, then Player 4, then Player 1)

- Player 2 & 4 pick their deployment side as a team

- Players within a team share a deployment zone

Special Rules:

- Each player only has access to their own Tactics Deck

- All effects from your teammate are considered friendly, and so are all units within a team (also relevant for Tactics Zone control)

- On a player's turn, he may only activate his own units and not those of his teammate (they can target their teammate with Tactics Zones; the teammate will control their own unit's Actions)

- If it is a player's turn but has no units left to activate, their teammate must activate a unit instead, if possible

- Players within a team share triggers for cards and orders. (i.e. only 1 card or order per trigger per team)

- Victory Points are awarded to both players within a team

- Once a team reaches 6 4 Victory Points*, that team is disbanded and the former teammate's units and effects are now considered hostile:

    - Each player retains 6 4 Victory Points*, but no longer score points as a team

    - The opposing team remains together until they reach 6 4 Victory Points*

- On Round 5, Player 1 chooses the first player that round, but cannot choose themselves

- On Round 6, the first player of Round 5 chooses the first player that round, but cannot choose themselves

- 12 8 Victory Points* are required to win

- If multiple players choose to play cards, orders, &/or effects, follow simultaneous effect rules, allowing teammates to decide the order over their own effects & treating both teammates as the Active Player

- If all of a Player's field units are eliminated, that Player is eliminated from the game & play order.  Their NCU may no longer activate.

*Note: We played to 6/12 Victory Points, but would recommend 4 Victory Points to team split & 8 Victory Points to win, after having played this game.  Teams did not break up until late in the 5th Round in our game.

The Game

Now...on to the action! Our competitors today are Lannister, Stark, Night's Watch, & Greyjoy. On our 2D6 rolls (& then several re-rolls), Stark gets paired with Greyjoy & Lannister paired with Night's Watch - none of these factions have any history of betrayal, right? What could go wrong?

Deployment

On the Lannister/NW side, we have Sworn Brothers with a Watch Captain, Ranger Hunters with Jeor, Crossbows with Kevan, Cold Hands, Flayed Men, & Red Cloaks with a Champion of the Faith.

(Aemon & Petyr NCU's)

On the Stark/GJ side, we have Bolton Bastard's Girls with Jojen (or, in this case, Crannog Croc Kids - more on that later!), Stark Bowmen with Meera, Loyalists with Howland, Trappers with Asha & Qarl, Ironmakers with Balon, Drowned Men, & the ever-reliable GJ Bowmen.

(Sansa & Rodrik NCU's)

Round 1

Political forces gather & plot around the painted table as the two coalition forces march solemnly towards one another & the inevitable battle.

The left flank especially is poised to strike on both sides, with the Sworn Bros marching up relentlessly despite the hidden traps sprung by the Crannogs as they approach...

Our Stark player hates House Bolton (no clue why; what have the Boltons ever done to a Stark...), so let me introduce you to the Crannog Croc variant of the Bastard's Girls!  Also lovingly referred to as the Lizard-lion Ladies, on occasion.

Round 2

The left flank blood bath begins, though the Ranger Hunters elect not to get involved this round.  Somehow, despite their ranger training, they find themselves threatened by the very forest they stand in thanks to Crannog Traps, leaving the Sworn Bros & Crocs to swing at each other, both taking heavy loses.

And on the right flank, the pillaged-up Ironmakers stand their ground, passing panic test after panic test from the red cloaks & tanking a full-on flank Flayed Men charge taking 0 wounds...

Then adding insult to injury, the GJ bowmen, with some Superior Flanking from Howland, peel off 7 Wounds with a crit-fail panic test.

1 to 0 for Lannister/NW as the Sworn Bros maintain tenuous control on the left objective.

Round 3

The Sworn Bros come out on top on the left, Aemon making it look like the outcome was never in question.  On the right, the Lannisters bravely retreat as Cold Hands (against his ally's advice) charges into the Drowned Men.

4 to 1 for Lannister/NW, though the cracks in the alliance begin to show...

Round 4

The Night's Watch pursues the Bowmen, whittling them down to the last man, who just barely escapes being put to the sword between Tactics Zone maneuvering & some Swift Repositioning (impressively staying a step ahead of the Ranger Hunters).  And the Ironmakers, fueled by their slaughter, refuse to let the Flayed Men get away easily.

5 to 1 for Lannister/NW, the alliance holds - if only until the Crows can hunt down the last of the Stark Bowmen

Round 5

Asha & Qarl race to try to save the fleeing Stark Bowmen from being totally routed by the oncoming Night's Watch forces.  In doing so, they seal their own fate as the Trappers are completely wiped out in the process.  Asha falls in battle while Qarl opts to Take the Black alongside Jeor & his Sworn Brothers.

In the center, Howland & the Drowned Men finish off Cold Hands (for now).  However, Howland & his Loyalist have exposed themselves to severe barrage of short ranged Crossbow bolts, volley after volley raining down from Crown & then unit activation.

The right flank is not going nearly as well for the Lannister forces as the Red Cloaks fall & enemies close in on the remaining forces in the center.  The Ranger Hunters turn & head towards the rear of the Crossbows...but do they come to provide much needed support, or to turn on their former ally?

NW 6; Lannister 6; GJ/Stark 4

Round 6

The Sworn Brothers finally finish of the Stark Bowmen after chasing them across three-quarters of the battlefield.  In the Center, the crossbows are charged on 3 sides by Ironmakers, Drowned Men, & their former ally, the Ranger Hunters in the rear for the killing blow...

Kevan, seeing the tides of battle turning against him, also Takes the Black & the Night's Watch take the battle, with a final score of 8, to Lannister's 6, & Greyjoy & Stark's 4.  In the end, the Greyjoy/Stark alliance proves true throughout the battle, despite volumes of lore that tell us that should not be the case! (The Bolton forces retreat & live to fight another day, probably for the other side - so that much aligns with what we've come to know & expect, at least.)

Final Thoughts

This was a very fun game mode for all involved.  It is certainly not a game mode for those looking for a competitive test of skill & tactical prowess (& it was certainly not advertised to be that, so no disappointment there).  As a beer & pretzels game night & a chance to screw over anyone & everyone, it delivered all that was promised!

I'd recommend decrease the Victory Point targets from 6 to break alliances & 12 to win down to 4 & 8, respectively.  It may be a 50 point game, but when teams break down it's really more of a 30 point game per player, so 30 point VP targets seem appropriate.  It may be a team game, but we were all just playing it to see what happens when teams break down, so let's get to that climax earlier for maximum chaos!

Thank you for reading this far - I hope to make these posts a regular thing; feel free to suggest other alternative game modes & really any content you might like to see out of our group moving forward!