First Battle of Winterfell using HOTT

They don't teach generalship in Westeros...

Battle of Winterfell (I)

Working my way back to the somewhat inexplicable Baratheon venture into the northern wastes to secure Winterfell. Stannis is very far from home. But for the purposes of turning a debacle into a plausible contest, I lay out the following special rules:

1. Finding himself right next to Winterfell, Stannis vigorously patrols against Bolton spies, uses Melisandre to scout, hangs deserters, and cuts a defensible base camp.
2. Supply difficulties are not insurmountable.

For his part Ramsay Snow/Bolton needs a field victory so as to loot his enemy and find forage for his many horse herds. (I believe this is what forces Ramsay to take the field each time.)

Army lists

Bolton, defending - same as the Battle of the Bastards:
Beast general, cost 2.
3xKnights, cost 6.
4xRiders, cost 8.
1xShooters, cost 2.
1xWarband, cost 2.
2xSpear, cost 4.

Baratheon, attacking
2xBlades incl false blade general, cost 4.
1xMagician, cost 4.
1xHorde, representing demoralized foot.

Special rules:
Stannis himself, and a variety of elements, are concealed or off the board. They may be summoned on a 6. Alternatively or additionally, 3 BW of concealed (lurking) bad going may also be summoned on a 6. If there are both off-board and concealed elements, two separate 6s are needed.
To represent the chance of resupply, off-board elements appear partly at random: foot appear 1,2,3 north edge, 4,5, west edge, and 6 east edge. Mounted appear 1,2,3,4 north edge, or 5,6 east edge.

An account of the battle:

All goes well for Ramsay until Riders and Beasts gain the "step". At that moment Stannis rolls a 6 and buys 3 chevaux-de-frise, his own Bd general, and 1 Spear. This brings his force points to 16. 

He uses the 6th PIP to advance his existing Bd to the spare obstacle. Suddenly Ramsay is in trouble and badly needs to pull back and rejig. But of course it's far easier to advance than pull back an overextended line. It takes time and his left is nibbled up!

Stannis rolls another 6 and summons 1 Wb element appearing west, 2 Riders from the east, and 1 Rider from the north. His force is now a full 24 points.

From there on it's a nightmare for Ramsay. He takes just the one Rider before losing half his force.

Final result: Bolton loses, 2:12

Summing up: I thought the summoning rules worked well. Obviously things could go much worse for Stannis. Possibly a hidden card system to establish where his lurking bad ground might appear? I don't like the idea of reducing it to a woods-battle, so this seems a good way of making it a set-piece battle.

Melisandre was just worth the 4 point cost. Her 2-PIP cost to bespell hindered Stannis movement. Her long-range assistance into melee was decisive twice, and that's often all you need to turn a battle.