List Building 101 - Action Economy

About a 10 min. read.

One very highly debated subject in the ASOIAF community, and everyone got their own take on this, is:  how many activations do you need in your army setup?

The answers will vary wildly from players to players and factions to factions. I've seen people swear on the head of their shiny starter Pokemon, that it is impossible to win a game if you go under 9 activations. Others, more rare I'll admit, that they play 6 activations regularly and still maintain a healthy win/loss ratio. Others, that you can barely play if you don't have 3 NCU, because theses are the cheapest activation you can get, cannot die and thus, cannot be stolen from your activation tempo. 

This question is obviously very meta oriented, but I am not here to say talk about meta. I am here to present you another way to look at your list building, and maybe this will help you see things in a new light. 

Now, this hasn't been an official term game wise, but players often refers to the number of activations per round available in a list as "Activation Economy". 

Activation Economy

For people a bit newer to the game, let me just quickly describe a couple reasons why this term is important. Since the game is based on alternating activations from players to players, it makes the game more dynamic than if player 1 played all their pieces and then player 2 did the same. Some other games do that and it works, just differently. 

With alternating activations, comes the direct consequence of an advantage when one player has more activations than the other. This might be from the get go, because one list simply had less units than the other at the start, or it can progress with the game as units are destroyed and activations are lost. 

I will not lie, more often than not, having less activations than your opponent is likely to lead into an uphill battle for yourself. You will see this phenomenon take a real hold of your game when you realize that you have activated every pieces for the round, and your opponent still have a couple left to do. This leaves him free reign over what happens for a couple turns, because you are powerless to react. This can be made even worse if he also happens to be first next round. So he can take his time to deal some attacks free of retaliation, maybe position a bit better to deal charges in flanks next round, etc... you see the deal here, it's not pretty.

Activation Economy is often a starting point in any players list building. Even before choosing your commander, how many of you think: I need to make a 8 activation list minimum. I'd wager a lot of you, and I've been guilty of doing it myself in the past. It's simply natural. Nobody want to just go into a game where they don't feel they have a chance at winning because they haven't respected a recommended quota.

An Activation Economy can be fed in 3 ways: Combat Units, Non Combat Units and the "Relentless" ability.

However, not all factions are good at meeting an activation quota, and some players just outright prefer to bring a low count of elite units, so how would you compete with an advantage in activation?

For myself, I've found that the answer to that question lies into the "Action Economy".

Action Economy

And this is where people will either start to get interested or outright disagree with me, as is the nature of all debate. 

So in short, your "Action Economy" is the number of actions your army can take in any given round. 

The difference is subtle, but it's there. If you were playing a card game, let's say Legends of Runeterra (not trying to plug anything here), that would be like considering the amount of cards you have in your hand that can be played, each one would be an action. Some of them are Slow spells that you can use only on your turn, one at a time (like an activation that result in an action). Others are Fast spells that can be used on any turn and interrupt Slow spells resolution (interrupting an action with another action).

A typical activation will amount to 1 action (Maneuver, March, Retreat, Attack or Charge). Some specific unit abilities or tactic cards will give you more of them. The easiest example that we can use is a cavalry unit, which gets a free maneuver at the start of it's activation. 

Of course, an actual activation will always remain more powerful than an action, as it is unhindered by triggers or conditions like an order, ability or tactic cards. But, even if there is some disparity in your number of activations, if you have the same number of actions available to your opponent, then the overall impact on any given round should be about the same. 

The use you get out of additional actions is very important as well, because when properly used, they can actually steal the tempo of your opponent. Activations are pretty slow, as outside of a few edge cases, you will only be able to activate one unit per turn. Additional actions are limited by their trigger, but there can be many in a single turn. 

Let's say you have the order "Set for Charge" on a unit, and your opponent has 2 vanilla units. Well then he could charge you with one unit, you use your order to attack him first. If he dies then and there, you just stole tempo from him since he doesn't get anything out of his own action. If he survives, well he can carry on with his attack. Then you activate, you attack, and he can then activate his last unit and charge you. In this very basic case, both players got to resolve 2 attacks in the end, and the player with "Set for Charge" resolved them much quickly than the other player, giving him the opportunity to steal tempo from his opponent. 

Some units are infamous for their number of extra actions available to them. The Night's Watch Ranger Hunter being very known for it by this point. Their combination of abilities can effectively let them do 3 actions in a single turn by Attacking, Retreating and Attacking again.

Of course, there are much more factors to take into consideration. I've only stated a few examples that are direct actions, but your Action Economy can also be influenced by other effects that even simulates actions. Such effects could include the abilities "Counterstrike" or "Tactical Reposition". While "Counterstrike" is not an actual attack, and cannot provoke panic tests, it is still retaliatory damage that can accumulate enough as if an attack had occurred. "Tactical Reposition" is not a maneuver either, but used at the right time, as shift of 3 inch can be the difference between getting shot by a ranged attack or not, a successful charge or not, getting just far enough in a flank so that your enemy has to maneuver to face you instead of charging, etc... 

Hell, even if healing cannot be considered an action, you can heal enough to remove the damage done by one or two attacks, that will effectively nullify your opponent actions. We really haven't touched upon effects that block hits either, but it goes without saying that reducing the impact of an opponent actions be really effective in fighting off an activation advantage. 

I'd say that the actual Action Economy is good to keep in mind, but it is important that the player actually gets comfortable at running extra actions. Over time, getting used to it will give a better sense of what can, can't, should or shouldn't be done with theses actions. This is something that is not as necessary when running superior activations, as it is much more forgiving. Having additional actions is often linked to specific triggers, and so, you can learn to lay traps that your opponent will need to either waste resources in circumventing, or deal with it head on. Get your practice on!

In conclusion, if you want to play with less, but more elite units on the field, and you want a good measurement of your army capabilities, I'd recommend that you take a closer look at your Action Economy instead of Activation Economy and you might just find out why even 6 activations armies can battle against 9 activations. 

Factions 101 - Specialty Charts

About a 15 min. read.

Disclaimer: This analysis is entirely fanmade and serves no actual gameplay purposes, so if you think this is only more confusing that way, I'm sorry. This has been a good way for me to limit the quantity of information I need to absorb. Now with that out of the way, let's start. 

Knowledge of your opponents capacity is a big part of improving your planning and expectation of what your opponent might do mid-match.

Know your enemy.  - Sun-Tzu (maybe? idk) 

If we strip a faction completely naked, no units, no commanders, no NCU, the only thing that is constant is a set of 7 cards that represent what your faction can actually do differently than others. Lucky for us, this is also the only information that is hidden from opponents during a match, the rest can be deduced from visible information. 

If you are able to state from the tip of your fingers what every cards in the game does, this little analysis won't help you much. Now if you are like me, remembering every cards in this ever expanding set is pretty difficult.

So, what I did, was to create categories of effects that will help me encapsulate what a faction can and can't do. Then I assigned a score to each faction by looking at their core tactic card deck. 

And this is what I call Faction Specialty.

So the categories go as follow: 

• Manipulation: Tactic cards, order or abilities manipulation friendly or enemy
• Action: Gaining/limiting actions or movement, terrain manipulation effects
• Buffer: Gaining additional keywords, bonus to stats, token removal, self dice rerolls
• Debuffer: Decreasing stats, throwing tokens, opponent dice rerolls
• Offense: Causing additional hits, wounds or panic tests
• Defense: Healing/preventing wounds, blocking hits, auto-passing panic tests
• Self-Harm: Any kind of negative impact on your own units

As you can see, the categories are rather large, but separated in a meaningful manner. This is to prevent having too many different categories, as we are trying to simplify things a bit. Of course, given the rarity of some effects, we should expect to see each stats peaking at a different level. 

And the rules of scoring are as follow:

• The score is based on the potential of each cards, not the actual quantity or quality of the effect written. 
• I.E. The Free Folk card "Surrounded and exposed" is worth 1pt in Debuffer even though it could give more than 1 condition token.
• The score is regardless of the triggers or any conditions needed to fulfill an effect. Only the possibility of an effect matter. 
• I.E. Jaime commander card "Kingslayer's Renown" would gain 1pt in Manipulation and 1pt in Defense even though each effects cannot be played at the same time

So after all of that talk and checking cards to give them score and adding them in their proper categories, we get the following sweet sweet RPG looking chart and some numbers we can analyze further.  

Now, I will not even attempt to remember the numbers this gives me, I would rater just remember the tactic cards at that point. No, the utility behind this analysis is to be able to point out what are the core strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of each factions that hides behind theses numbers. So highs and lows is what means something to us. 

So basically, all red boxes are the scores of 0, meaning the factions has no mean of getting theses kind of effects outside of explicitly bringing something that will provide it for them. The green boxes are the leading scores in all Specialty, and the yellow boxes are the secondary leader of each specialty. 

Now for you eagle eyed people, you will notice that there's 2 columns for the Night's Watch faction, I'll explain that part by itself later.

Here's some things that we can see from all this (and this is the kind of stuff that I have an easier time remembering than all the cards effects by heart):

• Manipulation
• With a high score of 4, this means that Manipulation effects are kind of rare compared to others.
• The leading faction is Lannister (kinda fitting) and secondary factions are Free Folk and Neutral. Theses are the faction that naturally bring the most tactic cards, order or abilities manipulation in the game. 
• Baratheon, Greyjoy and Targaryen have no natural means of Manipulation, so unless their commander choice bring some to the table, this is a weakness in their kit. 
• Action
• There is a big disparity of points here, the best being a 6 and secondary being 2, this makes Targaryen really big leaders in this category.
• The leading faction is Targaryen (fitting as well) and secondary factions are Night's Watch and Stark. 
• Baratheon and Lannister have no natural means of Action, so unless their commander choice bring some to the table, this is a weakness in their kit. 
• Buffer
• The leading faction is Night's Watch (Whaaaat? They are good at buffing???) and secondary factions are Stark and Targaryen
• Every faction has a mean of Buffer to some degree, with a lowest score of 3, this makes Buffer the most common category of effects available in the game. 
• While not exactly incapable in this specialty, Free Folk, Lannister and Neutral are in the lower end spectrum of it, so they might have a tougher time surprising their opponents with buffs.
• Debuffer
• The leading faction is Baratheon and the secondary faction is Lannister
• Every faction has a mean of Debuffer to some degree, with a lowest score of 1, thus, this category is also pretty common in the game.
• While not exactly incapable in this specialty, Night's Watch and Targaryen are in the lower end spectrum of it, so they might have a tougher time surprising their opponents with debuffs. 
• Offense
• With a high score of 1, this means that Offense is the rarest specialty
• The leading faction is Baratheon, Free Folk, Lannister, Neutral and Stark
• Greyjoy, Night's Watch and Targaryen have no natural means of Offense, so unless their commander choice bring some to the table, this is a weakness in their kit.
• I find this one particularly interesting in and of itself as I never realized how each faction has very little access in dealing extra wounds, hits or panic tests in their base kit. I did a similar exercise 2 years ago, and let me tell you, back then, this was one of the very high scoring specialty.
• Defense
• The leading faction is Greyjoy and secondary faction is Baratheon.
• Stark have no natural means of Defense, so unless their commander choice bring some to the table, this is a weakness in their kit.
• It's nice to see that Defense related effects are more common than the opposite category, Offense. 
• Self-Harm
• The leading faction is Greyjoy, good for you guys, you are good at healing AND self damaging :) 
• Total Scoring
• The faction that has the most accumulated points is Greyjoy, but if we remove the detrimental Self-Harm from consideration, the leading factions are Baratheon and Night's Watch. This might explain why the Night's Watch deck is recognized as pretty powerful compared to others, as they have one of the best points potential and a lot of it is reusable rounds after rounds.

Now we can go even go a bit further in checking each faction individually and the repartition of their score as well. 

Baratheon

Looking at the Baratheon faction, it is to be expected that they are supposed to be very combat oriented and the chart confirms this pretty well I think. The focus is clearly meant to represent cards that will impact an opponent capacity to defend itself, while the Baratheon player can add even more to his own attacks by buffing them. 

Baratheon also have one the highest Defense stat between all factions, so they are able to handle punishment as well. 

Their big weaknesses comes from the absence of anything in Manipulation or Action for that matter, making them extremely predictable on the field. When facing a Baratheon player, you will know that whatever they have in their hand will never be able to surprise you with a charge or make you discard a tactic card or stuff of that nature. If you manoeuvre out of their line of sight, their only mean of keeping up with you will be information available on the field (Sentinel ability or Horse zone), that is, unless they bring a commander that gives it to them like Andrew Estermont or Davos Seaworth.

Free Folk

Taking the Free Folk chart by itself, we can see that this is an extremely well balanced deck of cards, which fits the adaptability and diversity of the Free Folk perfectly. 

They have a little preference in the Manipulation and Buffer department, but their overall spread really means that their commanders cards will have a big impact on that spread and define the playstyle that they will adopt during the game.

Greyjoy

The Greyjoy chart is pretty fun to look at. Besides the arrow shape, we can see that they have a big focus in the Buffer, Defense and Self-Harm specialties. To me that reads as a faction that doesn't really care what happens to their troops, as they will heal them back up and they will also try to keep their attacks relevant throughout the game.

The rest of the stats seems circumstantial, like they get a bit in the Action and Debuffer department, but that's it. They are lacking in the Manipulation and Offense department, so outside of a commander that brings it, you are safe in theses cathegories. Fortunately for them, the majority of their commanders does seem to bring either a supplement in Offense or Manipulation, so in the majority of matchups, you might not actually get to exploit theses gap in their kit.

Lannister

The Lannister faction have a clear tendency to focus on disrupting their opponent rater than helping their own troops accomplish anything. This is clearly shown by their focus in Manipulation and respectable score in Debuffer. The rest of the scores are on the low side in every specialty and they even have a gap in Action with a score of 0. This means that a savvy opponent can take advantage of their lack of extra actions and movements unless the commander is Tywin, Gregor or Tyrion.

Neutral

The Neutral chart resembles the Free Folk chart a lot. Maybe that should not be super surprising as they are both well rounded factions know for their adaptability. They are clearly able to do a bit of everything, and digging into their deck a bit more specifically, their Manipulation lets them choose what aspect they want to focus on by letting them reuse cards multiple times. There's no obvious weakness to pick off from this, but they don't have a clear strength either. As fitting for their faction, their commander is going to be a big driving factor in the army specialty. 

Night's Watch

The Night's Watch chart is certainly not one that should be surprising to anyone. They do a little bit of everything, with an extremely high focus in the Buffer specialty. They buff their units, and the buffs stays active afterwards as long as their units stays alive. Even their points in Manipulation reflects that as it allows them to either buff their troops further or move buffs around. 

With an extremely high focus on augmenting the efficiency of their own units, however comes with a complete disability in controlling or disrupting their opponents in any capacity. They have no Offense score, barely any Debuffer score, and their Manipulation score would be 0 if we think about affecting their enemy stuff. Thus, Night's Watch opponent can be warry of provoking any additional actions, but can otherwise go into battle knowing that their tactic deck, unit stats and abilities cannot be surprisingly affected by a tactic card, unless the Night's Watch commander is Alliser Thorne. Some other commanders like Jeor and Donal also provides some measure in Offense and Debuffer, but other than that, the rest of commanders are mostly focused in adding even more points to Buffer or Action.

Night's Watch (neutral units)

So for this one, I was pretty curious to see actually how much bringing neutral units in a Night's Watch army limits their deck usability as their cards cannot be attached to them and other are outright unusable if the unit is not a Night's Watch unit. The result is pretty impressively bad as this is a combination of the lowest score in all category except Action, and even then, this is only a 2 inch shift, so nothing impressive there either. 

So, if you've seen Night's Watch players having some difficulty in including Neutral units in their lists, this is why. Their core deck is so good when used on Night's Watch units, and so bad when paired with Neutral that a really big natural synergy between a unit and it's attachment or some specific commander cards is needed before this option is even considered.  

If you play against a Night's Watch opponent that brings Neutral units, remember that this should be considered a pretty big weakness in their lineup, but also keep in mind that this could mean more cards to stack on their other Night's Watch units.

Stark

Stark chart, surprisingly has an extremely similar chart to Night's Watch even if both factions play quite differently from one another. The big differences here, even if the points value are similar, is the actual effects that can be thrown by Stark are aimed at making sure that they get the jump on their opponent, and when they do that their opponent cannot properly react to it as their Manipulation score is focused on that. Looking more specifically at their cards, we can also see that 3pts in their Buffer score is dedicated at rerolling charge distance dices, to make sure that Stark are able to pull off some charges that would otherwise have a high chance to fail.

Finally, we can also see that Stark have no score in Defense, so unless they have other means to mitigate attacks and heal up, they will feel attacks made against them pretty harshly. besides the fact that harden is a pretty good ability in this game, it comes as no surprises that attachments that provides such heavy defensive measure to Stark units is so popular in list building. 

Targaryen

As expected of the Targaryen faction, they are very single minded in the Buffer and Action specialties, leaving all other scores in the dust. Most of their commanders option adds more into theses 2 categories, making them even more efficient at it. This makes them very excellent at letting them strike first and hard. Targaryen reputation as bloodlusty is pretty well earned.

However, this naturally leaves some gaps everywhere else and they have a pretty poor score in the Manipulation, Debuffer, Offense and Defense. Targaryen players should be aware to try and fill theses gaps in list building, and besides their obviously good ability, it's not hard to see why Illyrio and Selmy are some of the most favored NCU for Targaryen. 

                                 

Little final words before you leave, this analysis could of course be extended further to include the various commander cards or even units and NCU to further flesh out what you get out of your list building. Maybe this idea will be explored at a later time, but for now I hope that this has given you some ideas for what are the gaps in your opponents defenses, but also how you can better list build your own army as well. If you are looking to create a well rounded army for example, and you know where are the gaps in your faction, it will be easier to understand what to include to fill theses gaps. Same thing if you want to get extra specialized in one way or another. 

Just remember that this analysis was made for fun and if you liked it, I am glad, but don't get obsessed with it, as it is simply a mean to remember the lows and highs of each factions. If you feel I might just have re-stated the factions identity, but with the help of numbers this time, well at least you got to see some cool looking charts :)

Non Combat Units 101 - Night's Watch

About a 15 min. read.

With the idea of learning more about each faction, this series of articles will be focused around each non combat unit (NCU), from the Night's Watch faction, giving an overview about them, discussing a bit what they can do in a game and how they synergize with their faction. 

Aemon

Aemon is your typical healer. As in any RPG, you know that the healer is one of the most important part of any party. In this wargame, and especially with Night's Watch, that role is crucial. Since one of the big aspect of the faction is getting stronger as the game progress, Aemon can actually maintain troops alive long enough for them to accumulate some power. 

His ability is more efficient on infantry units because he gets better if the targeted unit has destroyed ranks. If your intention is to run cavalry or warmachines, Aemon might not be your best option. One thing that is especially frustrating for an opponent, is to put Aemon on the Bag zone and heal a near death (last rank) infantry unit with both effects, to get a 6 wounds heal, but that's their problem for letting the Bag open in the first place. Another nice little trick that can be done is to use Aemon on the Sword zone and heal up a rank and augment your attack profile just before you resolve the zone free attack action.

Even tough he has a very nice total healing when taking the Bag zone, Aemon does help to alleviate the need to take that specific zone, so you might be able to keep focusing on your offense instead.

Bowen March

Bowen is that NCU that will be generally good with any lists. His effect will be useful in combination with any commander, as your choice of commander will often dictate how your army function, and that is intimately linked to their tactic cards. Having the right card at the right time will often mean the difference between victory or defeat. 

Depending on your viewpoint however, drawing cards via Bowen can be a boon or not. His presence in your roster diminishes your need to take the Letter zone as it's effect is redundant, so you may focus your attention on other zones. It can actually also cause problem if you are close to your hand limit as the Letter zone and Bowen could make you draw 3 cards together, forcing you to discard a card if you've gone over 5 cards. If one of your goal in your list building was to use the Letter zone to throw out condition tokens, then Bowen might not be a good fit for you.

Some heartbreaks are guaranteed to happen once in a while, as you might be forced to choose between 2 good cards and put one at the bottom of your deck, never to be seen again.

Craster

The dubious wildling host has an ability that is pretty straightforward in nature. He makes his chosen zone a bit better. While that may seem like an underwhelming ability when you could choose to actually add a whole other effect to a zone by selecting another NCU, one should not underestimate the possibilities that comes with what he does. 

Taking the Bag zone means that you can actually chip heal up to 3 different units and even remove a condition token on a fourth unit. This can be especially useful when you are trying to top up some ranks to maintain control over objectives or simply to make sure you act at max rank all over the board. Another non-negligible interaction with this, is the fact that you could potentially heal multiple Conscript units with this, and using supply aid afterwards can translate 1 wound healed into 2 wounds healed. 

The Sword zone effect is pretty self explanatory and it can help push a little more damage than what could have been anticipated. It is best used on cavalry to ensure max rank attacks, or Shadow Tower Spearmen since they keep a high attack profile even on 2 ranks. It can also combo with the Boldness and Courage ability, making a last rank unit attack with a 3 rank attack profile. 

Finally, the Horse zone gives a +1 move that is always nice in any situations. It can mean the difference between a failed retreat and one that succeed, it can mean that you could move completely out of your enemy line of sight instead of being barely visible. Since it adds up to the "Watcher on the Wall" card effect and Qhorin influence, this could mean that you could manoeuvre a Hunter unit into a Quickshot from much further than anticipated. Jon Snow card "For the Watch" is also compatible with this effect since, even if you replace the zone effect, Craster simply gives +1 move to the final effect, so you can use it to charge with a +1 move. 

Donal Noye

Donal is the kind of NCU that requires a bit of finesse and restraint on how you are going to use him. His ability is very powerful, and doesn't require him to take any zone, but can only be used in a very limited amount. You could simply burn them in 1 or 2 turns and that would be it. Fortunately, the trigger of his ability is pretty forgiving and lets you take multiple factors into consideration before you decide to commit a token or not. 

For the part where he makes you reroll your attack dices and prevent weakened tokens, it's application are very self explanatory. I think however that this is the part of his ability that will generally be used a little less, since Night's Watch already have cards, abilities and orders that will allow for attack dices reroll. That doesn't mean it cannot be considered as this is not an order, so it might be used at the same time as an order or tactic card such as "Incite" or "Sword in the Darkness" to really create some meaningful strikes. Since you can use this ability after attack dices are rolled, you get to actually see if you really need a reroll or not before you commit to it, and when you do, the opponent will not be able to diminish the result. Daario also appreciate this effect very much as a weakened token is a counter to his ability. Keep in mind that this part of the ability is also available to help reroll ranged attacks.

The additional defense ability is how his tokens will be spent most of the time. The Night's Watch units best defense is a 4, not bad, but easily affected by keywords like sundering and critical blows. Our defense also easily gets worse when flanked. So when you see that your opponent is trying to commit a lot of resources into finishing off a unit, you should consider carefully if you need to use a Donal token or not. Fortunately, the trigger is also after attack dices are rolled, so you have the benefit of seeing the max damage output potential before you commit a token. You can also pair this ability with "Shield of the realm of men" card to really make your defense extra resilient, but I would recommend to keep them for separate occasions. Diminishing your opponent attacks 4 times will often yield better results than blocking completely 2 attacks.

My suggestion for using him is to consider which aspect of him you will likely need the most when you are list building and try to commit to theses moments. If your list seems to be lacking in the offense department, try to keep his tokens to make a few of your attacks count as much as possible. If your list is already pretty aggressive, maybe try to hold on to the tokens for when your opponent really tries to off your glass canons. 

Jeor Mormont

Yours truly, is an NCU that should not be underestimated. On paper, his ability to switch attached cards between units seems limited a bit. It is on the field that you will see him shine. As the representative of the Night's Watch faction, adaptability is the word to remember with Jeor and you will often be able to surprise your opponent with effects that he didn't take into account. He is definitely an NCU with a learning curve.

Couple examples could be to switch "Watcher on the Wall" while taking the Horse zone to allow a unit to move further, switching "Light that brings the dawn" unto a near dead unit while taking the Sword zone to make it attack as if it had full ranks, or if you see that a unit with an attached "His Watch has ended" that is on the verge of dying and wasting the card effect, you can pre-emptively switch it unto a better unit. 

His effect is also not limited to the core tactic deck of the faction, as he can also switch some of the more powerful commander cards. You could switch Jon Snow card "For the Watch" while taking the Horse zone to replace it and to an unexpected charge. You can also use him with Donal commander cards, an switch "Refuse to yield" where it matters most. The true kicker comes with switching "Defensive formation" around, since you could take the Sword zone with Jeor, switch "Defensive formation" off from a unit that could then attack, without loosing the card to the discard pile. If you are able to get a good sense of rhythm between your units activation, you can effectively juggle a single card of "Defensive formation" between units activations and maintain that card alive round after rounds.

Finally, taking back one of theses powerful cards back on the field after it has been lost to the discard pile is pretty good as well. From the core deck, you could be looking out to trigger yet another "His Watch has ended" or take back a good commander card back unto the field. The important part is to keep looking for opportunities. 

Also, not really a gameplay mechanic, but opponents will often be confused by the sheer amount of stuff our tactic cards add to our units. Jeor will serve you well in confusing them even further and preventing them from thinking clearly. This is less efficient against seasoned players of course.

Othell Yarwick

What is not to like with Othell orbital strike. You will love it, your opponents will moan endlessly. His effect is very versatile as it can transform any zone that you do not want into a potent attack that can target anything, so you can support any part of the battlefield that requires it, or kill units that would be out of reach otherwise. 

Taking the Crown zone means that you actually produce a more potent version of the classic "Crownzap". Instead of a simple panic test at -1, you can actually deal damage AND produce a panic test at -2. There's actually no downside to replace that one. Replacing the Bag zone will usually mean that, in addition to making the hits harder to resist, your opponent might not be able to heal the damage at all. Taking the Sword zone, can be seen as a defensive application of his effect, as it produces an attack anyway, but throwing out a Weakened token in the process should help your troops survive longer. 

It is important to remember that Othell replacement effect is still a ranged attack. As such, your units engaged with the targeted opponent will need to pass a panic test as well. The silver lining is that you can actually take advantage of that with Jeor commander attachment to heal him, trigger moral tests for Jeor commander cards, trigger Donal "Refuse to Yield" card effect, Alliser attachment to further wound an engaged opponent, etc...

Qhorin Halfhand

One of the few big 6 pts NCU of the game, the guy that everyone loves to kill, the one and only Qhorin Halfhand. His high cost often makes him pretty hard to include in lists, but he's the kind of NCU that you learn to rely on with time, and after a while, it becomes hard to build a list without him. 

His influence effect is pretty good in itself, it is like adding the effect of "Sword in the Darkness" and "Watcher on the Wall" at the same time (and also stacks with the cards) on a unit, round after rounds. So getting that influence out early each round should be a priority to get the most out of it. Multiple movements or attacks (melee or ranged) from a unit means you get more out his influence. The perfect target for him remains Ranger Hunters, because they require both bonuses in spades. What is an influence of a single dice from Qhorin, can stack up to actually being 2-3 dices with Ranger Hunters. It gets even more crazy if you put that influence on a unit with a Watch Captain attached, as the bonuses will stack up in between the unit actions and extra actions. 

Besides Ranger Hunters, Qhorin influence is also good on Shadow Tower Spearmen, any kind of cavalry or any units with critical blow keyword really. He makes big plays bigger.

His reputation however, comes from his sacrifice play, as it is a play maker. Immobilizing a key unit for a full round can be absolutely huge. It can stop an opponent in his tracks if he was poised to overrun multiple units, or kill one of your important pieces. It can also let you snowball an advantage. If you were already winning the game, you could sacrifice Qhorin to immobilize your opponent last piece while you do whatever needs to be done to seal the victory, maybe table your opponent and get a crushing victory instead of a regular one. 

There's also a special interaction that can be taken into account. His sacrifice triggers the requirement for the card "His Watch has ended". So if both cards were already on the field, it gives you the power to choose when the cards are triggered both at the same time, instead of relying on your opponent killing a unit. It is sometimes a bit hard to time his sacrifice right, but if you bring him, there is no game where his death cannot be beneficial in some measure. 

Samwell Tarley & Gilly

Samwell and Gilly are a nice second, or third, add to any NCU setup. He serves pretty much the same goal as Bowen, that is to have as much card available in your hand as possible, and be able to react to events happening on the battlefield much more efficiently. Since they effectively both help in drawing more tactic cards, I would advise to take one or the other. Bringing both could mean that you have ultimate draw over your tactic deck, and that you are likely to run out of cards by round 4 without even taking the Letter zone. 

There is still a couple outliners that differentiate Samwell and Bowen, and making Samwell a bit more powerful. First, Samwell ability is a passive one, meaning that it happens regardless of him taking a zone or not, so if you manage to empty your hand before each rounds, you will draw more cards than your opponent, as he will not have any time to block it. Then, on the contrary to taking Bowen, Sam will not make the Letter zone obsolete as he also increases your hand size will not put you in a position where you need to discard from your hand when you do take the Letter zone. 

Finally, he also unlocks Gilly as an additional NCU to be used whenever you see fit. If you brought 2 NCU + Gilly, you can use her to block a zone at a moment when your opponent would need it, win that NCU race on a specific round if your opponent has 3 NCU, or just for the general utility of having another free activation. Samwell and Gilly pairs especially well with Qhorin NCU as you could use Gilly as a backup NCU for the round when you do the Qhorin sacrifice. 

Factions 101 - Overview

About a 10 min. read.

One of the first question people asks when getting into this game is : Which faction should they play?

While it seems to be a simple question, it's still one that is to be taken seriously of course, because availability of boxes, finances, storage space, etc., are usually going to limit your choices, despite your preferences. 

But let's say that you can at least start one army of your choice, of course you will want to focus on one that vibes with either your playstyle or that contains some of your favorite characters of the ASOIAF series. 

So here's a brief description of their playstyle, some unique mechanics linked to the factions and a list of the most recommended boxes to get when starting your army. 

Note: The recommended boxes mentioned below will not mention Starter Sets, Heroes Boxes or Attachments Boxes. Theses are considered highly recommended for every factions that has them. They are the best bang for your buck and the biggest tools to customize your armies. So the recommended boxes sections will focus on additional units to buy first. 

Baratheon

Playstyle

Baratheon likes to get in the thick of things. They want to get into battle and stay there for as long as possible. Their armor will put them as one of the slower faction, but it will also help them win over prolonged engagements. They have many ways to make sure that their attack is rightfully felt and that their opponents attacks are wasted on them. Baratheon also bears a lot of different means to retaliate against attackers, but theses means are, for the most part, driven by your choice of loyalty.

The faction is known for being divided and choosing to dedicate yourself to one of theses sides will give additional focus to your gameplay. 

The Renly side resolves a lot around his alliance with Highgarden, and as such there is a big plant and flower thematic surrounding his dedicated troops. So Renly side will have a tendency to grow with battle, making sure that his troops are healed up, and as they heal, damage the opponent in kind. Renly loyalty also has an increased affinity with politics and manipulations, and as such, they have some very useful tools to be used to influence the tactic board.

The Stannis side focuses a lot on self-sacrifice for the greater good, high risk high reward type of deal. Stannis loyalty will use their faith in R'hllor against their opponent to make them flee the battlefield in terror. As such, Stannis troops affinity will be to push out more damage when they attack. As their rank gets lower, they maintain a high efficiency on the battlefield and push out more and more retaliation. One should be careful while threading with Stannis troops, as R'hllor is a powerful force to be tamed. It's sacrificial nature is unsettling to his own troops, so one should be mentally prepared for it. 

Unique mechanic

The Baratheon faction is a divided faction. Both King Stannis and King Renly have their own claim to the throne and neither will back down for the other. As such, houses have thrown their loyalty to either.

This means that units, attachments and characters loyal to Stannis cannot be taken at the same army as those loyal to Renly and vice-versa. There are units, attachments and characters that can be taken by any loyalties, but unless you have a chosen preference between one of the 2 Kings, this effectively makes Baratheon the equivalent of buying into 2 factions.

Do note that this does not influence tournament list building, as it is perfectly legal to bring 1 army of each loyalty in the same tournament.

Recommended boxes

Champions of the Stag

For Stannis loyalty, Queen's Men, R'hllor Lightbringers

For Renly loyalty, Rose Knights, Thorn Watch

Free Folk

Playstyle

Free Folk is known as the horde faction. They bring a lot of cheap units in the battle to surround or intimidate their opponent, and then wash them under the weight of their superior number. Having no access to proper metal to equip their troops, they are instead armed with leather, wood, bones or any other kind of organic material they can get their hands on. This leaves them very exposed to attacks and individual units will easily be defeated by Westeros metal weaponry. But fear not, as whenever Free Folk falls, there is always fresh troops ready to take the place of the fallen. Their wealth of tricks also helps them to even the odds against better troops. 

The units that compose their force are very adaptable and diversity in battle keep them strong. They also have a tight affinity with nature, bringing all kinds of monsters in battle. Giants, Mammoths, Bears, Wolfs, Eagles, they use everything at their disposal to gain the upper hand. They also do not play by the rules of the Seven Kingdoms, so they have their own way to manipulate political intrigues to their advantage. 

Unique mechanic

Free Folk lives to the north of the Great Wall and are proud independent people that doesn't bend the knee to any silly kings. As such, they live outside the boundaries of conventional society and do not have any coins to trade with southerners or hire mercenaries. 

This means that Free Folk players may not include any Neutral units into their list building. However, they are very adaptable and diversified by themselves to compensate this lack. 

Recommended boxes

Thenn Warriors, Followers of Bone, Frozen Shore Chariots

Greyjoy

Playstyle

The people born of the Iron Iles are raiders at heart and they thrive on acquiring goods and resources from their enemies instead of producing their own. As such, Greyjoy excel in snowballing an advantage. The cost of creating this advantage however is unimportant, and people are a useful resource to be used for the sake of that advantage. This also doesn't matter much, since the Greyjoy have many ways to replenish their ranks. Their faith in the drowned gods also helps them continue to fight for extended periods of time, long after what would have been lost by lesser men. 

Unique mechanic

Most Greyjoy units can accumulate pillage token. Pillage tokens are acquired from killing down ranks of enemies and each token gives additional and unique benefits to the unit that accumulates them. Thus, Greyjoy units tends to get better as battle progress, but Neutral units brought into battle will not benefit from pillaging. Besides making units better in the long run, pillage tokens can also be used as a currency to fuel some powerful tactics. 

Recommended boxes

Ironborn Trappers, Ironmakers, Blacktyde Chosen

Lannister

Playstyle

The Lannisters of Casterly Rock are a wealthy bunch and they want people to know it. They equip their troops with the best looking armor money can buy, and seeing them on the field of battle is quite the spectacle. They often terrify opponents from their looks alone, but when that is not enough, they play behind the scenes to prevent units from fighting effectively or manipulating the political game. 

The Lannister faction possess a good amount of tools that can prevent bad things from happening to them. But outside of manipulating their opponent, their troops are adept at a very wide range of roles. So while the faction as a whole is very well rounded in capacity, it is easy to specialize your army in multiple fashions. The classic Lannister troops are very efficient at terrorizing an enemy after they have been attacked. The Mountain, Gregor Clegane, brings ruthless killers into battle. The High Sparrow has a wealth of dedicated followers that gets better in battle each time their faith is tested. The very popular King Joffrey can also provide the might of his Kingsguard to help the battle. 

Unique mechanic

No particular mechanic to mention for the Lannister faction. They are very adaptable and are generally one of the best Faction to mingle with Neutral options as they complement each others pretty well. 

Recommended boxes

Knights of Casterly Rock, Warrior's Sons, Lannister Crossbowmen

Neutral

Playstyle

The Neutral faction is composed of mercenaries or Lords that will offer their services to whichever house they deems to serve, if not in fact, actually self-serving to gain more power. Their playstyle is the most varied out of any Faction, simply because Neutral put a big emphasis on their commander, which will dictate their playstyle in turn. Their core deck possess numerous tools to adapt to many situation and to draw out the power of their commander. 

The Boltons will enjoy making their opponents flee in terror and capitalize on it. Their units can be especially hard to bring down as they are constantly reminding enemies of their mortality. Stormcrows will enjoy the sound of fat money purses ringing and that motivation pushes them to new height of aggression. They are also very adaptable, and can easily be adapted to any flavor you need as the cost of bringing attachments in their units is reduced. Mummers enjoy dueling their opponents and making sure that their mistakes in battle are harshly felt. And while dueling is of their favorites sports, they are not above using underhanded techniques to deny an opponent strengths when he needs it the most. After all, a duel is only fun if you are the one coming out on top. 

Unique mechanic

While not having a specific mechanic on their own, they are the only faction that can be brought as a standalone faction OR they can also compose up to half another Faction army when calculating points for list building. 

Thus buying into Neutral options is recommended, even if you don't want to run them as a standalone, for the sheer options they can add to your list building.

Recommended boxes

Bolton Flayed Men, Bolton Blackguards, Stormcrow Archers

Night's Watch

Playstyle

Night's Watch are know to be an adaptable faction that bring a few elite, high-cost units on the table. As the fight progresses, your troops will improve and become even more powerful. They have access to a set of cards that can react to many different situations making them excellent all-rounders. 

With a diverse cast of characters coming from all over Westeros, units can obtain a huge variety of abilities that will help them to either mitigate their weaknesses, or specialize them into any role you need. 

You will often get outnumbered on the field because of the high cost of your units, but that is all right because each of your troops can grow to become worth two of other factions units. Night's Watch has access to a wide range of low cost units as well that are specialized in helping their more elite brothers. Take care of your units as every life is precious and should be accounted for. 

Besides an excellent cast of core units, the builders bring their engineering knowledge to the field in the form of warmachines. While slow and cumbersome, theses warmachines can be used to harass opponents on a very large range. And if slow and cumbersome doesn't do it for you, the rangers specialize in fast movement and blitz strikes.

Unique mechanic

The Night's Watch is a brotherhood dedicated to the defense of the realm of men. To be initiated into the brotherhood, one must take vows which are to be uphold until death.

This means that the core tactic deck of the Night's Watch faction has cards that may be attached to Night's Watch unit that uses them. Attached cards will give benefits to its unit for as long as the unit lives, the game ends or the card is transferred by other means. This helps Night's Watch units grow in power as the game progresses, but it is also a deterrent in bringing Neutral troops as they can never attach theses cards.

Recommended boxes

Ranger Hunters, Builder Crossbowmen, Conscripts

Stark

Playstyle

Probably the most recognized name of the franchise, the Stark embodies the furry of the north and they bring into battle the loyalty of many bannermen's. While their arch-nemesis, the Lannisters, uses subterfuge and conspiracy to get their way, the Stark faction focuses on controlling the most important part of any battle, namely the battlefield itself. As such, they do not let any obstacles relent their charges. They are very adept at blitzing an opponent and claiming first blood. 

Once they get into battle, they demonstrate their fury for their fallen comrades and they adopt a berserker-like style of fighting. Their attack and defense becomes more fierce as they loose ranks. Maintaining a balance on a sword edge, they are at their most dangerous when close to death. 

Having many bannermen's also means that you have access to a wide variety of specialists on your hand. For instance, the Tully's bring heavy armor and defensive shield walls to distract their enemies from their deadly cavalry charges, and the Crannogman's are adept trappers, limiting and punishing the advance of their opponents. 

Unique mechanic

No particular mechanic to mention for the Stark faction, but if you include their corresponding masters in your unit lists, you will be able to bring wolves to the fight. As with the Lannister faction, their lack of mechanic also makes them very apt Neutral users. 

Recommended boxes

Mormont Shebears, Tully Cavaliers, Tully Sworn Shields

Targaryen

Playstyle

The core of the Targaryen faction is all about moving fast and defeating their enemies before they get a chance to react. If that sound a bit like the Stark playstyle, that's normal, but they do it in their own fashion. Targaryen expects to draw the blood of their enemies, not their own, and so, most of their troops struggle over long engagements, but shine in alpha strikes. They have a huge amount of freedom in their mobility, letting them dismantle the opponents ranks from any angle they choose. 

It comes as no surprises that they will favor winning by killing of opponents than dragging a fight around controlling objectives. The core of their army is, again unsurprisingly, cavalry units, where other factions will have an infantry core accompanied by cavalry. The Targaryen's will not favor particularly synergy or cooperation between their units, preferring instead to have raw power in each individual unit. It doesn't mean that they don't work well together however, as getting double tagged by two Targaryen units of any kind is almost surely a death sentence. 

Unique mechanic

Their commanders being a cast of characters coming from all over the world, and not all of them agrees on how to best command the Targaryen troops. As such, each commander bring with him a set of 4 commander cards, as opposed to the regular 3, that lets them fashion the core Targaryen deck in their own image. 

They are (currently) one of the only faction that can bring a mounted commander, so having a full cavalry list is possible with them. 

Stormcrow units, normally from the Neutral faction, can be brought as full Targaryen units, meaning they don't count for the half army limit of Neutral points. 

Finally and just a small detail, they are the only faction with access to Dragons, if that strikes your fancy. 

Recommended boxes

Stormcrow Mercenaries, Stormcrow Archers, Unsullied Swordmasters