ASOIAF: Deployment and Activations

Get ready for some hard lessons.

One of the best things about this game how in-depth alternate deployment and activations work.  All of this is outlined really well in the main rulebook, but I want to take a moment to stress the importance of how greatly this affects overall gameplay.  A lot of this harks all the way back to my WHFB days where "drops" and chaff really meant something when it comes to deployment.  Having more drops than the opponent allows you to see where their most crucial units get placed so you can better deploy against them.  Keep in mind that when it comes to "drops", this is strictly limited to combat units.  It doesn't matter how many NCUs you have when it comes to deployment, but this will matter when it comes to overall activations.  Activation order and the number of total activations matter because the more you have, the more you can "force" your opponents to activate their units so you can better counter them.

Alright, so let's dive into deployment first.  Going forward, I'm just going to call these drops because I'm an old-school WHFB player and you're just going to have to deal with it.  I'll start by using my Robb Stark list vs. the previously posted Ramsay list.

Faction: House Stark
Commander: Robb Stark – The Wolf Lord
Points: 40 (4 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• House Umber Greataxes (7)
  with Robb Stark – The Wolf Lord (0)
• Grey Wind (0)
• Stark Sworn Swords (5)
  with Bran and Hodor – Protector and Ward (3)
• Summer (0)
• House Umber Berserkers (7)
  with Sworn Sword Captain (1)
• Stark Outriders (7)
  with Brynden Tully – Vanguard Infiltrator (3)

Non-Combat Units:
• Sansa Stark – Little Bird (3)
• Lord Varys – The Spider (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

vs.

Faction: House Lannister
Commander: Ramsay Snow – The Bastard of Bolton
Points: 40 (20 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
  with Ramsay Snow – The Bastard of Bolton (0)
  and Theon Greyjoy – Reek (0)
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
  with Dreadfort Captain (1)
• Bolton Cutthroats (5)
  with Assault Veteran (1)
• The Flayed Men (10)
  with Gregor Clegane – Mounted Behemoth (3)

Non-Combat Units:
• Tywin Lannister – The Great Lion (4)
• Lord Varys – The Spider (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

Before we talk about anything else, keep in mind that after the battlefield is set up, you roll a die with your opponent and you see who gets to pick their deployment zone (winner chooses or passes).  The player who does not choose their Deployment Zone will the First Player.  The player who chooses the deployment zone puts down their first combat unit.

As you can see in the example lists above, Robb's army has a total of 6 drops compared to Ramsay's 4 drops.   This is one of the best things about the Stark Dire Wolves and that's because it comes with good 0-point chaff that are combat units.

If you choose Deployment and therefore starts deploying first, it would look like:

1. You put a wolf down
2. They put down a combat unit
3. You put another wolf down
4. They have to put another combat unit
5. You put down some Stark Swords
6. They put down another combat unit
7. You put down some Berserkers
8. They have to put down their Flayed Men with Ser G
9. Now you counter-deploy your Greataxes to meet his knights
10. ...and you can put your Outriders somewhere that best suits your needs

Hell, if you count his drops ahead of time, you can even choose to Outflank with your Outriders because you know the drop advantage is yours.  Always count the number of drops your opponent has and take note of any units of significance.

Do you see the power of having more drops than the opponent?  This is actually one of Stark's most powerful tools and that's the free Dire Wolves with Robb and Brann.  Once Shaggydog gets up in here, it's going to be a hoot.  Even having one drop over the opponent can mean a big difference because it allows you to better set up your slower moving speed-4 Greataxes somewhere that's going to scare those Flayed Men.  If you end up tieing with your opponent when it comes to drops, consider letting them choose deployment so they drop first.

Activating in the most optimal order is key.

Next, let's talk a little bit about activations.  For the most part, I'll try and keep things as generic as possible.  Knowing the when and why you activate your units will mean the difference between victory and defeat.  This is where most of the complexity of the game comes from.  By understanding that your NCUs count towards total activations and directly interact with the game through the tactics board, this greatly enhances how you play the game.  While most units interact directly with tactics cards, there's also a ton of ways to cheat out free actions.  To explain all of this is going to be really complex because it's simply impossible to predict any and all events that are going to happen in a game.  No worries though, I'll try and give out some hints based on the games I've had so far.  Keep in mind that who is First Player also matters greatly.

Here are some helpful tips:

• NCUs tend to activate first to either stifle the opponent's zones or take advantages for themselves.  For example, as First Player, taking the Tactics zone can be super useful, or robbing the Stark player of free maneuvers can also be strong, especially when there are plentiful objectives on the board.
• Whenever you interact with the tactics board, you should first consider if you're planning to give a direct benefit to yourself or to disrupt the opponents' plans.  Every decision you make should be deliberate and has a significant impact on the game.
• When units are already engaged,  claiming the Combat zone is very strong and should be claimed if you have First Player.  This is essentially a free combat action, which is just incredible.  Anything that gives free anything is highly-sought after.
• Activating your Dire Wolves first before your main combat units allow you to better move units in response to what the opponent is going to do.  They have to activate their units and cannot choose to just pass.  They can, however, put an activation token on the unit and just not do anything.
• Always look for low-risk activations first if you want to bait your opponent into doing something so you can counterplay it.  However, you need to prioritize high-value activations if you absolutely need something to go in your favor.  This is how tempo is set by the player:  If everything you're doing gives you an advantage some way or another, you will always be ahead.  An example of this could be deciding to put an NCU down first to disrupt the opponent or to activate a unit.  You want to choose the one that will put you ahead while leaving the opponent unable to respond.  The best type of activation is getting to do something that gives you advantage while the opponent gains nothing.
• As the game progresses, this is where the true chess element of the game comes in:  Choosing the wrong activation order can literally mean victory or defeat.  Everything is a risk because both you and your opponent has a hidden hand of tactics cards, and with NCUs being different every game, there's always going to be calculated risk.  This is why Varys is one of the strongest NCUs in the game currently:  He has 4 tries to foil your opponents' plans with the tactics board or their NCUs.
• Once combat is joined, the focus of the game shifts a bit from NCUs to actually fighting the battle.  Otherwise, you risk skipping pivotal combat and your opponent might just tactics your unit into the ground before you get a chance to swing.  If you see the opportunity to inflict damage, it's almost always worth it to take it unless you have the appropriate counter.  Look for unit activations that will give you the battlefield advantage.  NCUs are not the ones fighting over objectives.
• Typically when you're a couple of turns in and the battle is joined, you should look for opportunities for free actions first, then combat, then NCUs in that order.  There are many factors that will change this order around, but that's completely up to you to analyze the opportunity cost.  Since there are a lot of things to keep track of once battle is joined so it's important for you to get comfortable with your units, your commander, your NCUs, and your tactics cards.  Else, you risk missing vital opportunities or triggers that can win the game for you.

Alright, that's pretty much all I have to say about activations.  There are just a billion examples and each one of them is unique.  However, I think mastering your activations is the most difficult, most complex, and most rewarding part of the game.  It's probably the biggest factor in identifying player skill and experience, so it's definitely worth practicing.  Good luck!

ASOIAF: 40pt Boltons with Ramsay

You know it's real when everyone else is in armor and you're naked.

I've been dying to write this piece.  Beknownst to some, while Tywin is my favorite character of all time, I also really like Roose Bolton.  I think of him as the Tywin of the North because they're so alike in a lot of ways.  In fact, when you dig down a little deeper into the origins of House Bolton, you will find many disturbing and interesting things about them.  Mechanically, I think they play very close to their book representation and that means a lot of death and terror.  For now, I think Boltons' are the strongest when paired with House Lannister because of a lot of their tactics cards and toolkits synergizes with Lannister control elements.

Let's jump straight into a list that I've been messing with lately.  Since I'm going to turn this into a 2-part show, let me start with something that I've had quite a bit of success with.  To say it's pretty freaking brutal is an understatement.

I mean, lol, look at this guy.

Faction: House Lannister
Commander: Ramsay Snow – The Bastard of Bolton
Points: 40 (20 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
  with Ramsay Snow – The Bastard of Bolton (0)
  and Theon Greyjoy – Reek (0)
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
  with Dreadfort Captain (1)
• Bolton Cutthroats (5)
  with Assault Veteran (1)
• The Flayed Men (10)
  with Gregor Clegane – Mounted Behemoth (3)

Non-Combat Units:
• Tywin Lannister – The Great Lion (4)
• Lord Varys – The Spider (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

Just so you guys know, I absolutely hated Ramsay in the show.  I still can't decide who I actually hated more, him or Joffrey, and that's an achievement in itself.  To make things short and sweet, Ramsay's a battlefield commander through and through.  He likes to get in there and chop people to bits to spread fear directly.  When he pops his Order to Flay Them All! after a unit fails a Panic test, another unit within Long Range has to take a Panic test.  This is a great mechanic to have in a unit of MM because of the Vicious inflicting a -2 modifier.  The affiliation to House Bolton is something we will talk about once we take a look at his Tactics Cards.  Before we forget, let's talk about poor Theon who Ramsay brings along with him.  Having Theon dragged around with you basically allows Ramsay to auto-panic an opponents' unit every turn, but the downside there is that if you roll a 5+, Theon dies.  Boohoo, I guess.

Everything is made for killing.

The biggest weakness to this list is the low activations and deploys, but outwitting the opponent isn't something I'm going after.  I'm looking to get in there and murder the enemy in every way possible.  When you look at cards like Our Blades are Sharp, you will see that's one of the most damaging tactics cards in the entire game.  If you attack a Panicked enemy, your attack gains +1 to hit and +2 dice on the attack.  If you're a House Bolton unit, the defender also becomes Vulnerable.  This is why I have 2 real House Bolton units in the game and a MM with the House Bolton affiliation.  Make no mistake:  This one card absolutely sky-rockets your units ability to deal damage.  With a plentiful amount of Critical Blows, Vicious, and 3s to hit across the entire army, you will have plenty of chances to inflict maximum hurt on the enemy.  Cruel Methods is activation cheating, simple as that.  You play this card at the start of the round, regardless of whose turn it is and you get an out-of-turn free attack action.  Sure, there are downsides to this card if you don't manage to destroy the enemy unit, but with 3 House Bolton units on the field using max dice and re-rolling misses, you better do some work.  An amazing target for this is your Bolton Cutthroats with Assault Veteran.  If you pop this on them and that unit is already engaged with something, you will be rolling 10 dice, hitting on 2s with re-rolls, making the Vulnerable, and they have to test Panic with Vicious.  If it's going to be your unit activation, you can just cap the Combat zone with Varys and go again if that unit is somehow still alive and your guys are still around.  I'm telling you, it's bananas.  Lastly, we have Sadistic Games, where at the start of a friendly turn, your opponent has to pick either to have 2 of his units to be Panicked or suffer D3+2 automatic hits.  If he understands Ramsay at all, he'll go for the extra hits because at least he has a chance to save them.  Having 2 units being Panicked just sets them up to be abused later by Our Blades are Sharp.

Madness.  Madness and Stupidity.

Let's talk about the unit selection super quick:  Mountain's Men should be pretty straight forward.  You have Critical Blows and Vicious who works great with Ramsay's tactics cards.  Bolton Cutthroats with Assault Veteran is a match made in heaven, and having a Dreadfort Captain on the MMs help spread Panic whenever the opponent fails their Panic test (which should be often due to Vicious).  The giant elephant in the room is the fat-stack of The Mountain + Flayed Men.  Let's get one thing straight here:  This is 32.5% of your army and in most cases, can be considered a deathstar.  Now, I normally don't like to do this kind of thing, but I think Ser G + Flayed Men are one of the strongest units in the entire game by far, especially when you have them in damage amplifying list like this one.  For me, the best way to get value out of these guys is to take them in a list that will almost guarantee they make their points back.  If you think about in terms of points:  A 13-point unit better kill at least 13+ points to break even or be considered a unit well-spent.  This is, after all, 2 more units of Mountain's Men or even close to 3 units of Cutthroats or Lannister Guardsman.  It's a huge investment and I need people to realize that they do have weaknesses, that you can play around them quite easily, that mission objectives do matter, and there are plenty of tactics cards and combos out there that can stifle their damage or end them entirely.  I do not consider them over-performing at all, but they are nasty.

So why did I bring them?  Well, for one, Gregor applies free Panic that unlocks Our Blades are Sharp automatically and also automatically deal D3 wounds.  The fact that you can play Our Blades are Sharp on this unit is something out of this world, because now, on the charge you have 10 attack dice, hitting on 2s and re-rolling, Critical Blows + Vicious, Panic + Spread Fear, you make the unit Vulnerable, and you deal D3 extra wounds from The Mountain just because you can.  If that doesn't roll over many people, it will reduce them to almost combat ineffectiveness status and they will then try to retaliate against a unit with 2+ save.  If you wipe them out or start the round with Cruel Methods, you can then Overrun into another unit with a free Charge action to start the chaos all over again.  I don't know what to say, this unit with Ramsay is absolutely absurd considering how many extra, free combat rounds you can get from it, all the while spreading Panic tokens around because of Spread Fear and Vicious.

Yes, the unit above is ridiculously strong and I would say almost designed for Ramsay to take advantage of.  However, it's hugely expensive and that's why a unit like that doesn't perform well in objective-based game modes.  With only 4 combat units, one of which is a 13-point unit from hell, you can't possibly dedicate it to capturing points.  What you need to do if you're piloting this list is to use that unit to smash everything in its way to smithereens.  However, this will require you to have the right cards in hand which is something you should never build your strategy around.  Before I forget, that unit, as mighty as it is, has one giant flaw that needs to be called out:  It is hugely weak against anything that can blunt the initial assault.  A lot of the damage comes from the Abilities that the unit has attached to it so if you take those abilities *cough, Martial Supremacy, cough*, it's pretty much a declawed cat.  You can then trap the unit by engaging it from multiple sides (such as Grey Wind) and apply Greataxes to face.

Finally, I'd like to mention that Tywin as an NCU is still amazing.  In fact, I think he has one of the best once-a-game abilities in the game because it completely makes an enemy unit worthless for a round.  Funny enough, Tywin is also probably one of the best counters to something like the Gregor Flayed Train of Death.

ASOIAF: Rodrik Cassel 40pt Army

Let's get down to business.

Winter has come.  While there are some people out there that prefer to go maneuver-heavy with Robb or face-smashy with Greatjon Umber, I like going Rodrik Cassel.  The reason why is because his tactics cards are absolutely bonkers and making units Vulnerable just makes a smashy faction even smashier.

First, let's take a look at Rodrik Cassel and see what he offers to our army:

A true soldier.

As you can see, Rodrik is a soldier who has an Order to make the opponent's unit Vulnerable after Attack dice are rolled.  The timing for this is exceptionally important because it's what Sworn Sword Captains have as well and it's considered one of the best 1-point attachments in the game.  Vulnerable is huge for someone like Rodrik because it unlocks his Tactics cards and skyrockets the damage potential of all your units.  Having Vulnerable on something after you charge it would mean you re-roll all hits and your opponent has to essentially re-roll all their successful saves.  It pretty much means the Stark army will obliterate units that have low saves or punch through tougher targets that can normally deflect their blows.  Peeling ranks off enemy units will also keep your units around longer as the enemies' damage potential will decrease.

Let's take a look at Rodrik's tactics cards:

All that martial goodness!

Martial Superiority is one of the best defensive tactics cards in the game.  It triggers off when the enemy unit attacks and that dice rolls less dice AND loses all abilities until the end of the turn.  Now, it isn't as powerful as some of the silences we've been before where it lasts until the end of the round, but this card doesn't need any conditionals like expending condition tokens or anything else.  You cast it, boom, and most of the opponent's plans are foiled.  This card is amazing at stopping something like Gregor + Flayed Men from rolling a unit while you set up for a counter-attack.  To make things even more interesting, if you're going after Rodrik's unit, good luck.  Having Weakened on top of this card pretty much means Rodrik's units going to stay around.  Combat Prowess is a great follow-up card when used with Rodrik's unit or with any unit under the influence of Vulnerable.  What if your opponent rolls poorly and you don't need to spend the Vulnerable token?  Guess like he's being silenced and unable to respond with any defensive tactics cards.  It's really fierce when used on the charge as there are fewer things in the game that interacts with that timing window than when a friendly unit attacks.  Lastly, we have Press the Advantage.  This is another one of those cards that trigger off the attack so you can't use a Sworn Sword Captain's Orders and then play this card because it escapes the window.  What this card does is kick your opponents when they're already down because of the Critical Blows on an already Vulnerable target.  That's why I have taken a unit of Tully Sworn Shields with Rodrik because it makes them one of the tankiest units in the game while giving them the opportunity to do bigger damage than their stats suggest.

Here's the list:

Faction: House Stark
Commander: Rodrik Cassel – Master–at–Arms
Points: 40 (4 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• Stark Sworn Swords (5)
  with Sworn Sword Captain (1)
• House Umber Greataxes (7)
  with Robb Stark – The Young Wolf (3)
• Grey Wind (0)
• House Tully Sworn Shields (7)
  with Rodrik Cassel – Master–at–Arms (0)
• Stark Outriders (7)
  with Brynden Tully – Vanguard Infiltrator (3)

Non-Combat Units:
• Sansa Stark – Little Bird (3)
• Petyr Baelish – Littlefinger (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

Let me try and explain some of these choices super quick.  The Stark Sword Swords are simply one of the best offensive units in the game for the cost.  With Stark Fury and 8 dice on a 5-point unit and the ability to make someone Vulnerable, the damage potential for this unit is huge.  Great Axes deal a huge amount of damage and can definitely wreck heavy cavalry if they're already engaged with them.  Robb Stark as an attachment makes them regular infantry speed and gives you the ability to launch yourself out there on a Maneuver trigger on the tactics board.  This makes two units that can do it in the army and that will surprise your opponents a lot!  The fact that Robb (and Bran) come with their Dire Wolves is one of the best things about Starks.  These free wolves not only come with great abilities, but they're a free activation and deploy to be used in battle.  Grey Wind is especially good because he is able to apply Vulnerable onto a unit if already used, or apply it beforehand so it can be consumed using Rodrik's own ability or tactics cards.

I already explained a little bit about the Tully Sworn Shields above, but with Rodrik's tactics cards, this unit becomes a very jack-of-all-trades unit.  It's already super defensive with Shield Wall and 3+ save, but cards like Martial Superiority just takes it over the edge.  While the defensive stats normally lower damage expectations, Press the Advantage and Vulnerable tokens in general greatly increases its damage potential.  As for Stark Outriders, I think they're a great, solid unit at 7 points.  With Brynden Tully however, they can be one of the most annoying units in the game thanks for their great flanking ability and healing on retreat.  A lot of the Stark tactics cards play incredibly well with Outriders as well thanks to their unpredictable damage potential.  Just remember that with 7-point units, you can also decide to trade out the Sworn Shields for a unit of Berserkers if you want some more face-smash.

"And yet you betrayed me.."

As for NCUs, I really like Sansa Stark with Rodrik because of her ability to recycle or tutor for exactly what is needed right then and there.  While we all try and anticipate everything that is going to happen in a game, Sansa offers us extra insurance that if an opponent rolls a 6 for a long ass charge you didn't anticipate and is rolling in with crazy Tactics cards in support, you always have a way to Martial Superiority him into the ground.  For my next NCU, believe it or not, I think Littlefinger is a solid choice for the Starks.  It's just comical that I'm taking both Sansa and Littlefinger in the same list, but his ability to claim Combat/Maneuver that unlocks the secondary capabilities for your Stark tactics cards while still reaping the benefit of other unclaimed zones is amazing.

Try out the list and let me know how you fair!

ASOIAF: Tywin Lannister 40pt Army

My point exactly.

In my previous article, I gave you guys the rundown for how I go about building army lists.  I always start with the Commander first and then try to take units that best take advantage of their tactics cards.  Well, I decided to get the party started with my favorite character from GoT:  Tywin Lannister.  Lannisters, in general, have a ton of control elements and I think Tywin just adds to the flavor in a big way.  He is a battlefield commander so that means you put him with your frontline troops in any one of the units that he can be taken in.  Since he's considered an infantry character, you have to put him in one of your infantry units.  I decided to put Tywin inside a unit of Mountain Men because they have a pretty respectable save of 4+.  Besides, having two chances to apply Panic-based damage is great.  More on this later.

For now, let's take a look at Tywin himself and his Tactics cards to see what he offers us:

Just look at this badass.

From the get-go, you can see that Tywin is all about making your opponents' units Weakened and then exploiting those tokens and effects to your advantage.  Immediately, you can see that Tywin's Commander card has built-in Lannister Supremacy and Fear of the Lion.  Fear of the Lion combos really nicely with Tywin's tactics cards because it allows him to place a free Weaken token on any enemy unit within Long Range of his unit when he activates.  I put him with Mountain Men because MMs already have built-in Vicious so on the offense, they can make opponents take Panic Tests with a -2 modifier.  When they attack back, Tywin's Lannister Supremacy makes it so if I roll a 7+ on my Panic test, my opponent has to take another test at -2 again.  This is some pretty silly free damage if my opponent rolls poorly and can also be a form of damage negation because the more models they lose to Panic checks, the less damage they will do because of the ranks lost.  Throw Weaken on top of this from Tywin and it becomes a force multiplier.

The Lion doesn't mess around.

The Tactics cards themselves are very nasty. Exploit Weakness is a perfect example of a card that kicks your opponent when they're down.  If you spend the Weaken token, you can force your opponent re-roll all of their successful hits and any 1s to pop up will deal automatic wounds to their unit on top of whiffing on their attacks.  This is extremely effective at taking down heavy cavalry because it essentially turns that units attack into wounds that bypass saves.  The Lion's Wrath is a great card because it affects ALL enemy units on the board that has Weaken on them and it lasts until the end of the round.  You will hear me say this a lot, but anything that lasts an entire round is super good.  Players take alternating turns activating their units, but rounds last after all player turns are finished.  This means that for the duration of the round, anything Weakened on the battlefield will be moving -1 movement AND suffering Disorderly Charge on a roll of 1-2.  First, this card auto-applies a Weaken effect anywhere on the board, but Disorderly Charge is super frustrating when it happens.  Another example of Lannisters kicking you while you're down, but Disorderly Charge robs you from your ability to re-roll hits on a Charge AND essentially silences you for the rest of that unit's turn.  Players cannot play Tactics cards for the remainder of that unit's action, and if you miss the actual charge itself, that unit has to take a Panic test.  Lastly, we have Lannister Intimidation.  This is pretty much a hard silence on the enemy unit and all of its attachments until the end of the round.  Again, end of the round here folks, Tywin doesn't F around.  Almost everything he does is centered around making your opponents' units weaker while giving slightly leveraging your battlefield position.

Pycelle is an auto-include with Tywin.

As for unit selection, there are quite a few things you can do and I think Tywin is one of the more flexible commanders for how you want to build the list.  To make things a little easier, let me first start off by saying that you should probably take Pycelle as your first NCU.  Pycelle is incredible with Tywin because he puts Weaken tokens on your opponents when he claims a zone.  This is exactly what Tywin needs when playing his Tactics cards and Pycelle on the Tactics zone after The Lion's Wrath will see 3 enemy units Weakend on a single turn.  Now, Varys is pretty much one of the best NCUs in the game IMO.  His ability is incredibly good even if you only have a limited amount of Order tokens.  The ability to stop a crucial game-altering tactics board play or NCU ability from triggering when claiming a zone can be huge.  Since Lannisters is a control-heavy faction in general, you will see me playing Varys a lot in my lists.

Alright, enough talk, here's the list:

Faction: House Lannister
Commander: Tywin Lannister – Lord of Casterly Rock
Points: 40 (4 Neutral)

Combat Units:
• Lannister Guardsmen (5)
  with Assault Veteran (1)
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
  with Tywin Lannister – Lord of Casterly Rock (0)
• House Clegane Mountain Men (6)
  with Assault Veteran (1)
• Lannister Crossbowmen (6)
• Knights of Casterly Rock (8)

Non-Combat Units:
• Pycelle – Grand Maester (3)
• Lord Varys – The Spider (4)

Made with ASOIAFBuilder.com

As you can see, I have quite a bit of diversity in there with 7 total activations (5 combat and 2 NCUs).  Combat activations matter for deployment, but total activations matter for how much control you have over the board state.  That will be its own article at another time, but this isn't the first time I've played a minis game where activation and unit activation order matters a lot.  Anyways, let's take a look at the rest of the list I have here:  You will see Guardsman with Assault Vet, Tywin in MM and another unit of MM because they're a rock-solid unit.  Assault Veterans because I love the aggression and they are great with Tywin because Weaken basically ensures that there will be a second round of combat and your guys will attrition quite well.  For the Guardsman, you can also choose to bring along a Guard Captain to auto-pass Panic and therefore guarantees Lannister Supremacy every time.

When it comes to rounding out the rest of the army, Crossbowmen are there so they can pick off enemy units from range.  From here, you can generally branch into any direction you want to bring for the meta.  You can take another unit of Lannister Guards, another unit of MM, but for diversity and the ability to harass objectives, I decided to go with Xbows.  If you think about it, if you're running a pretty aggressive infantry army, having 7 shots of Sundering from Long Range that hits on 3s is no joke.  On top of that, I've decided to go wih a unit of Knights of Casterly Rock because they're a pretty decent unit to have for the points.  Some people don't like them because you need to play them well and they're not push and win like the Flayed Men, but if you get them on the flank of a combat you need to win, you will like them a lot.  They're designed to win on the charge so if you're not destroying units on the charge, think about saving them until you do or else you'll have to waste turns (or Manuever on the Tactics Board) to set them up again.

Stay tuned for my next article where I cover one of my favorite Stark lists to play right now!

ASOIAF: Getting started with army building

That Throne didn't build itself in a day.

I don't know about you folks, but building army lists and theorycrafting is one of the biggest draws for me when it comes to a miniatures game.  I just absolutely adore designing my own army with a theme that I appreciate and then playing them on the battlefield.  If I was to timebox it, I would say that at least half the time I spend with the hobby is designing armies to play and the other half is actually playing them.  Yes, that's correct.  I spend almost all my time playing the game, writing about it, and building army lists.  What about painting?  Well... that's another story for another time!

The first tool you will need when designing armies for this game is the ASOIAFBuilder.  The second tool you will want if you want to build army lists on your phone is War Council.  Both of these army builders are super useful for you to get an army up quickly and start playing the game.

Ah yes, so what do you do first when you want to build army list?  Well, picking a faction will be a good start.  If you read my previous article when I gave an overview of the Starks and the Lannisters, you'll know that the two factions are very different mechanically.  You need to find the house that best cater to your personality and what kind of playstyle that best suits you on the battlefield.  For a lot of fans of the show, you must have a favorite house by now right?  What I think would be pretty safe is that if you have a favorite house that is not yet in the game, it might be worthwhile for you to explore similar traits associated with those different houses in the ones that do currently exist.  For example, I would say that the Tyrells share many of the same traits as the Lannisters while Targaryens are more similar to the Starks.  Might as well start prepping for the future because sooner or later, those houses will come out.  If you're still hungering for those Dragons or upset the Greyjoys are not raiding the game yet, then I don't know what to tell ya, you're missing out on an otherwise great minis game.

Each Commander's Tactics Cards are different!

So back to business:  Once you find a faction that you like, it's time to pick a Commander that suits your playstyle.  There's a ton of Commanders in the game and all of them are free.  Most of the Commanders in the game will want to lead units from the front, but there are also some Commanders who like to take command from the back lines or maybe even issue orders from Court.  Yes, there are NCU Commanders and all of them are 0 points!  You just need to find one that best suits your playstyle and what you want them to do.  Each faction comes with 14 generic Faction Tactics cards (7x2) and each Commander adds 6 more to that, 3 of which are unique and will change the dynamics of your army.  For example, if I was looking at Lannisters and I was to pick The Mountain for my Commander, I know that my army will be using tactics cards geared for bloodthirsty aggressive vs. someone like Tyrion Lannister, who will be more cunning with plenty of tricks up his sleeve.  Just remember this, whoever you choose as a Commander will change the playstyle and layout of the rest of your army.  This means that whoever you choose will likely influence your choices for NCUs, your units, and which game modes they will be most effective in.  To get started, check out one of the army builders I linked above and look at the Tactics cards of the different Commanders your faction can take.  Look at their tactics cards and read the special abilities on their card and see if that jives with what you want to run.

Even Jamie as a Commander works wonders in a Guard unit!

With your Commander selected, the next thing you want to do is build a 40 point army list.  This is the most commonly-played points range and a large portion of all competitive events and tournaments are ran at this.  One of the things I advise players to do if they want to get serious with the game is getting very familiar with the points range that the meta, your LGS, and your tournament events play at.  It's a very different game going from 30 points to 50 points for example, and you want to get familiar at the one that's most commonly played.  Treat this as your 2K points of ITC and stay at this point range for your first couple of games.  Each of the Core sets has just enough for you to get a taste of the game and that's well and good, but I don't think I've ever played a minis game that you can get full satisfaction from the game by just playing with what's in the starter box.  I've been playing minis games for a long enough time that when I first started with this game, I did a ton of research into looking into the meta, and what I thought were some competitive options.  Trust me, it will save you an epic ass ton of time and money if you do a little bit of research ahead of time and see what's currently out there and what looks fun and interesting to you.  That's what the army builders are for, and that's for theorycrafting and proxying some of the units you already have before you go out there and buy them.

Alright, now with 40 points as your gold standard and a Commander to lead the army, you now have to add units.  For the purposes of this article, I will briefly go over unit selection as well as NCUs (Non-Combat Unit) even though I feel that NCUs deserve their own article.  There is a lot to cover for them, but I will say that from what I read/talked/seen being played is that at 40 points, you want 2 NCUs in your army.  Most NCUs cost points and those points directly contend with your units on the battlefield so you really have to think carefully about how you want to spend your points.  For example, a unit of Guardsman costs 5 points while someone like Tywin Lannister as an NCU costs 4 by himself.  That's 1 point less than a unit that has actual battlefield performance vs. an NCU who has an amazing once-a-game ability but also has the ability to claim zones on the tactics board.  Without getting too deep into the tactics board and NCUs, I will say that in some cases, the NCU might be better because they have better synergy with the rest of your army.  Just realize that 1. NCUs cost points 2. They can sometimes contribute to your battleplan more than actual units and 3. Count as an activation.

Another great attachment option is the Guard Captain!

When it comes to units, you really want units that jive with your commander.  You want to be able to amplify the Commanders' strengths rather than mitigate their weaknesses IMO.  There's a couple of reasons for this but the biggest one is that there are units in the game that will play very nicely with your Commander's tactics cards and if you have units that don't utilize these tactics cards, you won't be able to use them as effectively.  That's what I recommend doing first, and that's finding units that play well with your Commanders overall battleplan and takes advantage of their tactics cards.  For example, if you take a unit like the Lannister Guards above who already have an excellent 3+ defense save and pair them up with Jaimie's tactics cards, not only will you have a unit that will be even more difficult to take down, but you will also get tactics cards that allows you to parry/riposte and make up for that lower damage curve (6/5/3).

Hell, there's just so much to talk about when it comes to this game that I haven't covered yet when it comes to army building.  Tomorrow, I'll go through some Lannister and Stark list construction so you can take a look at some of the army lists I've been playing with.  I'll talk more about unit selection specifically for the Lannister and Stark armies as well as unit attachments, NCU choices, activations, and other good synergies.  Like I said, army building is one of my favorite aspects of the hobby and I can geek out for days about it.

ASOIAF: Starks and Lannisters Overview

So.. who's it going to be?

It's probably worth saying that I got into the game fairly easily because my favorite major house in the show is Lannister.  My wife really digs Starks but she has yet to try the game because it looks too nerdy.  Don't worry, it's just a matter of time because I see her eyeing the dinner table that I've fully converted into playing daily games.  It's a good thing that I bought enough stuff to get some variety into the mix so the newer players I'm trying to get into the game can experiment and mix and match units.  Even though I have my favorites, I have probably played at least 40% of my games with Starks because I feel that the best way to learn the game is by playing a lot.

Whenever someone starts with the game, no matter what minis game, I always tell them the same thing:  Go with the aesthetics and look of the faction first above anything else.  With this game, however, I don't think the same principle applies as much in this game because everyone is human (for the most part).  When it comes down to picking a faction, I think one of the things everyone needs to do is examine a bit of their psyche and pick a faction that best aligns with their personality.  It's like picking a color in MTG and understanding that each color represents a bit of your personality.  If you want to go a little bit deeper, picking a faction in this game would be like picking a guild from Ravnica, or even building a character in a D&D campaign.  That is, unless you really really like dogs.  Then I would say just pick Starks and never look back.

Alright, so back to the two starting factions from the Core set.  Since you need this set to play the game and they're the factions with the largest amount of units choices right now, you need to decide if you want to go with House Lannister or House Stark.  Remember what I said about picking the right faction for you, as this will do you big favors because a lot of the game's mechanics are designed around how the houses behave in the books/show whatever.  There's a big chance that if you don't like the houses' personality in the books that you will not like how they play in-game.  It's actually one of my favorite things about the game so far and that's how on-point a lot of book to table translation has been.

Hear me roar!

Alright, let's begin with the Lannisters.  In this game, the Lannisters are the faction that has a lot of panic shenanigans, morale tests, weakens, and counterplots.  Their Tactics cards play heavily with the Crown and Wealth zones on the Tactics Board and controlling those will open up many secondary effects of your cards.  Lannister Commanders come in many shapes and sizes from the destructive and brutal force of The Mountain to the cunning strategist that is Tyrion Lannister (yes, you can take him in combat!).  My favorite Commander for the Lannisters is Tywin Lannister (also my favorite character in the show) because a lot of his Tactics cards and abilities intimidate and Weaken enemy units.  Another Commander that I've tried is Jaimie Lannister because his abilities center around defense, parry, and riposte; turning the opponent's attacks and crappy rolls against them.

When it comes to NCUs or their Tactics cards, the Lannisters focus heavily on debuffing and control elements that limit the opponent's options.  Pycelle's Weaken effect and Cersei's No Confidence are prime examples of debuffing the opponent or making them worse for morale tests, while tactics cards like Counterplot can outright stop an opponent tactics card from going off.  I tried to get some examples of the kind of tactics the Lannisters can employ and I think this lot sums it up pretty nicely.  For the Lannisters, they are all scheming masterminds with several abilities that kicks players while they're down.

Kick 'em while they're down.

As for Lannister units, they are well-supplied and fairly diverse to take on a large breadth of enemies.  The Mountain is its own unit just because he is, Lannister Guardsman are slow with lower attacks but has an excellent defense and a great ability (Lannister Supremacy) that only gets better with attachments, and Lannister Crossbowmen are no joke.  I've recently started playing them and having a unit that just hits units with ranged attacks on a 3+ with Sundering from Long Range is incredible.  Lannisters also have some interesting unique units like Pyromancers that can toss their Wildfire from ranged or in combat and it ignores defense saves while suffering -2 to the defender's Panic tests through Vicious.

While the Lannisters have a solid lineup of units, I would say their strengths come from their debuffs and stopping your opponents from what they want to do more so than just strength of arms.  For that, you want to get into House Stark.  If you're looking for a faction that doesn't care about the subtleties and just wants to beat face, you've come to the right place.

Winter is coming.

When it comes to striking hard and striking fast, Stark is the faction to do it.  One of the many things I enjoy about the core set is that you have two factions that have radically different playstyles.  Just like it is in the books, the Starks and the Lannisters are probably the two houses most different from one another.  While the Lannisters rely on debuffs and abilities that stop your opponents from doing what they intend, Starks are all about battlefield combat and maneuver.  They see an opening and go for the jugular just like the Dire Wolf, their house sigil and in doing so, deliver massive damage to the enemies and leave them reeling.  With Commanders like Robb Stark who can take maneuver warfare to the next level, or Roddrick Cassel and his ability to exploit the Vulnerable enemies, the Starks are the faction you want if you want to destroy the opponent's army rather than play the more drawn-out  game of politics and scheming.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the Stark units or playstyle are just centered around this niche.  With both the Lannisters and the Starks, there will be Commanders and units that will change the regular composition from what you expect from the two factions and that's always a good thing.  For example, on one side, you have the fast-moving and lightly-armored Umber Berserker that has built-in Sundering (-1 to defense saves) and their attacks increase when you lose ranks rather than decrease.  You compare this to the rock-solid Tully Sworn Shields with the Shield Wall ability and good luck trying to break their 3+ defense saves from the front.  This unit variety not only keeps different playstyles fresh and exciting but also gives units legroom to perform depending on the game mode that you play.  Either way, when you think about Starks, their humble foot soldier in the form of Stark Sworn Swords move 5, have excellent morale and rolls 8 dice just because they can.  When you pop Stark Fury on them, they gain +1 to hit and Critical Blows on their attacks (6s deal 2 hits) at the cost of D3 models to your own unit.  If that's not a healthy representation of angry Northmen I don't know what is.

Winter is seriously coming.

When it comes to Tactics cards and NCUs, Stark is pretty straight-forward:  It's all about Combat and Maneuver and taking those zones will be extremely rewarding.  Catelyn Stark can remove a condition from an afflicted unit while buffing them so they're attacking with max dice, and Sansa Stark can instant tutor for any tactics card you need, even if it's a previously discarded card.  That is great tactical flexibility and I have her in almost every single one of my Stark lists.

Well, that's about it for the high-level overview of which armies you will get in the core box.  With so many different commanders, tactics, NCUs, and units to cover, list building deserves its own article.  I'll take you guys through the basics of list building and show you a couple of Lannister and Stark lists tomorrow so you can better grasp some of the things discussed today.

ASOIAF: A Song of Ice and Fire Intro

This is my new jam.

A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures game is one of the best table-top games that I've played in a long time.  No, seriously, and I don't say this often and without good reason.  At first, this game completely flew under my radar because I was wrapped up in other games.  Recently, I have been gearing up by re-watching all the seasons of Game of Thrones to prep myself for the final season.  One night, I remembered something:  Game of Thrones actually has a miniatures game!  After a quick jog down memory lane, I remembered that CMON created A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game.

After a few weeks of hard research, reading over the free rules and looking at all the minis available to me, I started getting really interested.  Now, I would say that I'm fairly frugal and really like to do my research before getting into a game and I took my damn sweet time with this one.  As a competitive tournament player, I wanted a game that had enough depth to keep me engaged but at the same time, had super clean rules with longevity in both creative design space and strong game balance.  The last thing I wanted to do is throw money at a game that won't play well.  I was never the player who got in the game for the hobby side of things, it's all about the game and the rules.  Besides, the game was designed by a familiar name being Eric M. Lang and while I didn't really know Michael Shinall, any designer who has his own tactics podcast gets a thumbs-up from me.  I am a big fan of designers who play their own game competitively and actively teach the community to be better players.

Honestly, when I first took a look at the game, I was afraid that the game will not have enough options.  I mean, the game came out with Starks vs. Lannisers in the middle of the War of Five Kings but when getting the core set, you pretty much only have these as your first two full-fledged armies.  Now, that's not saying that there's not more available now, but having played games like Warhammer Fantasy and 40K growing up, I'm sure as hell spoiled for choices.  So many factions and armies to choose from I felt like I had near unlimited options when it comes to choosing units out of a codex or army book.  Now, this is completely different when it comes to competitive list building, but the general gist is that players that grew up with GW as an option are definitely spoiled for choices.  Even with Privateer Press games, you knew you had a lot of factions to play if you liked variety because it suited a lot of different playstyles.  This was my biggest worry jumping in the game but the more I studied, the more I realized that what they currently have in the game is more than enough to get started.  In fact, seeing how there are only 2 factions in the game right now, an epic crap ton of design space and a billion other things not released yet, the game can only grow larger with more factions and greater complexity.  That makes a competitive player like me very excited.  They just came out with Night's Watch and Free Folk, and they will definitely shake up the meta and take gameplay to the next level.

I might have gone pretty hard with my first purchase.

To get you guys pumped, let me throw out some highlights that really got me into the game.  I've been playing it pretty religiously, having played around 20 or so games since I got the game like 2 weeks ago.  Yes, I've been going that hard.  In fact, I would say one of the biggest draws in the games is that games take about 1 hour or 1.5 depending on the points size and experience of the players.  Each of these talking points below will probably get their own article in due time, but these are the highlights that stand out for me.

Here's what I fucking love about the game:

• I love the fact that the rules are some of the cleanest rules I have ever seen.  It's almost like the game was designed with tournament play in mind in that there are very little questions I had out of the initial rules package.  The game seems like a perfect blend of complexity and speed with tight-wording and streamlined mechanics seen from other minis games.  The rules package itself is very lightweight and comes with all the nitty-gritty you need to get in and start playing.
• Speaking of speed, I just love that the game puts movement trays back on the table and the units are ready to play.  I can get a package from Amazon to actively playing with that unit on the table in 5 minutes.  The minis are hard plastic, has great detail on them, and come with a movement tray for all the units to fit snuggly into.
• The game uses alternate player activations with plenty of play and counterplay (via rules, tactics card, tactics board..etc) that allows for active engagement with the other player in all phases of the game.  I absolutely love games that go back and forth because it not only keeps players focused, but it generally leads to more even games where choices feel more meaningful because you have a chance to respond next activation.  It's not like you're just sitting there watching all your units get shot off the table.
• The rules are light, but the game is very deep:  Activation order matters, the amount of drops you have matter (deployment and activation), the commander you choose matters, the control of the tactics board matters, your tactics cards and the order you play them matters, your list composition matters, the game mode and mission objectives matters, everything matters.  Part of what makes a good game great is how much the player influences the outcome of the game.  Looking back at all the games played so far, I can zero in on particular situations where if I did something different, I would have won.  This is important for me as a competitive player because less ambiguity means a more direct route to improving.
• The tactics board by itself is a complete mini-game inside the existing game.  This really deserves its own section, but let's just say that NCUs count as activations and how you interact with the tactics board influences the units on the board, the tactics cards in your hand, and how you play the game as a whole.  It's absolutely awesome how it's so tightly integrated into the game mechanics while still making a ton of sense from a flavor and fluff perspective.  When Cersei Lannister is playing her games at court, your units really feel that on the battlefield.
• There is so growth potential in the game that I can't fully wrap my head around it right now.  Right now, we have Lannisters, Starks, Neutral (with House Bolton units!), Free Folk, and Night's Watch.  There's a good amount of unit variety already but that's without most of the other major Houses in there as well.  Where is Baratheon, Tyrell or Greyjoys?  What about Daenerys and her dragons?  Can we even fit Dragons in a 40 point game?  Is there going to be an epic game format or the possibility to ally different houses with another outside of faction + neutral units?  The possibilities are near endless.
• You can take 2 lists into a tournament event as long as they're from the same faction.  This has got me super excited because you essentially have a backup list to play to a specific matchup or game mode to maximize your chances on winning.

More armies to come!

Before getting into the game too much, let me just say that I'm planning a series of articles that go much more in-depth with list building, faction overviews, and competitive play.  There is a lot to talk about for this game and I want to take the time to write my out my journey with you.  I'll probably cover the Stark and Lannister overview next before going more into list construction.  Stay tuned!