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.
