ASOIAF Miniatures/Tactics/Lannister

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Why Play Lannister

Hear Me Roar"/"A Lannister Always Pays His Debts"/"Tywinn shits gold"/"MY HAND!!!"

You are a dick in real life, and want to be one in the game too. So you play this factions. Or you think money can buy you everthing (it can actually if you are rich enough). Lannisters are the richest factions and can buy the coolest shit. You are the faction build around tricks and defense

Pros

• Lots of denial and debuffs
• Toolbox approach to units
• Good defense
• The Mountain who rides
• Some of the strongest glass cannons in the game

Cons

• Morale is kinda crap in general
• Panic bomb got nerfed
• Toolbox approach to units
• No offense increase via effects
• No free action either in attack or movement
• No movement tricks

Playstyle

House Lannister is about tricks. You debuff their offense and their option, you ensure you stay in a good position. After you are sure, you apply your specialized units to the task they are best at, then you pat yourself on the back you lazy fuck. Generally you are a defensive factions, and your offense is via Abilities and NCU. If you do take the iniative you mostly deal wounds via panic.

Unit and Attachement Analysis

You have 3 themes in your unit choices. The Lannister troops are all pretty well armored, have average to bad moral and help deal panic dmg. The Clegane units, that get benefits by fighting dirty and are better at finishing off wounded units rather than going at it toe to toe. The Faith of the Seven troops have excellent morale and play around with it by generating tokens that give them either offensive or defensive buffs.

Commander

• Jaime Lannister: Defensive Attachement with Tactics cards centered around his unit, giving Panic test passes, better offensive power on his unit and dealing panic tests to the enemy, as an addition all his cards can be played at the start of a turn to draw another one, giving you some great flexibility. He is as flexible as they come and is great for smaller forces where most of the battle will happen close to him so you can use his cards rather than just ditching them.

• Gregor Clegane: Relentless, Gregor is what you choose if all you want is to crush your enemy's head with your bare hands, his cards can combo with each other with quick and dirty combat buffs that have increased effect if the unit has the "Clegane" affiliation so he benefits from bringing Sandor, Mountain's Men and Brigands to get the most out of them. Aggression to the extreme is his whole thing so you should position in a way that will allow you to throw throw when you pick an Influence Borad spot or put units with lots of keywords in combat to use Price of Failure to maximum effect.

• Tywin Lannister: Gives "Lannister Supremacy" to the unit he attaches to and Weakens an enemy unit in long range whenever his unit activates, Broken Resolve depends on the target being Weakened so it really benefits to bring Pycele along so you can keep him guessing. He's very utilitarian giving you offense, defense and activation passing in one neat package. For some easy synergy, bring along a unit of Red Cloaks so they get an adittional activation with "Issue Commands" so you can spam even more panic on your enemy.

• Tyrion Lannister: Very strong, his cards get better when you have the Letters spot on the Influence board and are focused on stumping your enemy's plan with better positioning and basically nerfing you opponent. He's easily one of the strongest commanders for the faction, he takes you control oriented game andn turns it up to eleven, this is the Commander you take when you want to have your opponent tear his hair out.

• Joffrey Baratheon: Not used very much since he gives 3 VPs if he dies and his cards have negative effects for you, though the positive effects are one of the strongest in the game. He's a high risk high reward kind of guy so you need to build your list around him if you want to use him.

• High Sparrow: Since NCU commanders are a thing of the past, he now brings a +1 morale bubble and Incite to keep you units at top bracket efficiency, he synergizes with his intended combat units (Faith) like no other commander and his cards can be hair pullingly frustrating, his army will tend towards wound restoration and tough as nails morale sort of tankiness and can deal a surprising amount of damage through the use of Faith tokens (of which you'll have plenty, since all his cards have the unit make a morale test). Very fun to use though the units he supports can only be purchased on their own so the army might run a bit expensive, but you're a Lannister, money is not an issue.

Units

• Lannister Guardsmen (5pt): Your bread and butter melee unit, very defensive with a 3+ save and an in-built defensive ability in Lannister Supremacy, stick them on an objective and they have a good chance of holding it for a long time, considering giving them a Guard Captain or Assault Veteran to make them an even more frustratingly defensive unit. Though with 4 movement and a 6/5/3 attack profile they can hardly afford to go on the offensive and even if they do they'll dish out more wounds from Lannister Supremacy than their longswords.

• Poor Fellows (4pt): Your other bread and butter unit, faith edition. Despite their 6+ save they are much more tankier than your would have believe, a 6+ morale makes them much more resistant for their price than you might have initially thought, and their ability to easily regenerate wounds by spending faith tokens helps them recover. Much like Guardsmen they rely on their ability to do the majority of their damage though its not that much.

• House Clegane Mountain's Men (6pt): Mountain's Men are very simple, you want them to be in combat as soon as possible, with critical bow they can do serious damage to a unit though with a 4+ save and a subpar 7+ they can't take a lot of punishment in return. Though now they get WAY better when fighting dirty, whenever you attack a unit with equal or less ranks they get +1 to hit and vicious, which will fuel their Prey on Fear ability, a unit that loves offensive attachements like The Mountain or Assault Veterans, maybe Mandon Moore to make them basically old school cavalry.

• Lannister Crossbowmen (6pt): 6/6/3 attacks with Long Range and Sundering is fantastic, even better when you factor in the short range re-rolls, however this also means they are normally target number one for any dudes on horseback, so keep them protected. Use them to shoot at any wolf or Jorah you can see for a free VP, to soften up a unit before a charge, or use them to shoot at a unit camping an objective to force them to come to you. Honorable mention to Adam Marbrand attachement to get extra shots from this unit when your opponent attacks Jaime's unit.

• Lannister Halberdiers (6pt): Another very defensive unit, their order Set For Charge lets them attack a charging unit with 7 Sundering attacks which can give you extra control of the board as no unit really want so be around them to eat that attack, and its even better now that it also works on the flank, give them a Sentinel Enforcer to force your enemies to charge this unit, or Jaime Attachement to give em re-rolls and stick Vulnerable on the enmy so this unit can easily become a lose-lose situation for your opponent.

• Pyromancers (7pt): If you look up the definition of glass cannon you'll see these guys. They die easy but kill even faster if they can get there. Wildfire is a great way to crack open high armour targets. One of the most fun units in the game to use, they love anything that can give them extra attacks and work well with The Mountain or Jaime attachements for full scorched earth, alternatively you can give them an assault veteran so they will sting back even harder when your enemy attacks them and triggers "Horrific Visage"

• Knights of Casterly Rock (8pt): The gold standard of cavalry, though with Lannisters did you expect anything else? The wealthiest motherfuckers around and they give you the mobility you desperately need, since they have a 3+ save and Lannister Supremacy they can take a hit as well as a Guardsmen but you want them to be constantly charging to make good use of their Lance ability, now that there are a variety of Cavalry attachements you can have them be even more powerful, giving you more sustain with Glory Seeker or have them sling panic checks with a Clegane Butcher.

• Warrior's Sons (7pt): Your other Faith unit these dudes have two different abilities, one offensive and one defensive that require Faith Tokens to use, using a faith token to get Sundering and re-rolls give them good offensive output letting them kill units the Poor Fellows cannot. while blocking a hit +1 for each missing rank means that they will not die when brought down a rank or two, put Barristan Selmy on them to give them even more solid morale and wound regen, the High Sparrow also loves to be in them (sweet clergy bussy Mmmmmmm), lastly Marbrand Commander makes these a nightmare since with hardened on top of Iron resolve makes it so the enemy needs to pile bonuses or shut their abilities off if they want to actually hurt the unit.

• The Mountain That Rides (4pt): Your cheapest unit points cost but not price wise. A formerly Kickstarter exclusive model it now comes with the Lannister Heroes 3 box so you too can abuse this beast of a unit if you're not using him as a commander or Robert Strong.

• Red Cloaks (6pt): Average profile for their cost, but their abilities are the cherry on top, while controlling the Crowns, you proc panic checks at long range whenever this unit makes an action, this can easily be pumped up in number by playing other spots on the Influence board, just take Joffrey and you can take the Swords or Horses to proc a panic check and attack/reposition them since the enemy WILL be gunning for them.

• Lannisport City Watch (6pt): Another bully unit with a basic profile almost identical to Halberdiers, they auto-pass panic tests when the enemy has less ranks than they do, they have an order that can bump up their saves or get autohits when attacking. They are an offensive unit make no mistake, they have to drop the enemies ranks so they are weaker on the counter attack and hold them there by sidestepping panic damage, The Hound pairs swimingly with them by letting them have better offense on the charge and sustain to keep their ranks topped off.

• House Clegane Brigands (7pt): Panic damage, cavalry edition, they are real flimsy with 5+ armor and 7+ morale, but throw a decent amount of vicious attacks and deal an extra wound if the enemy fails their panic test, pair very very well with the Clegane Butcher attachement since it gives them more damage and dull the counterattack. For a single additional point you can take bolton flayed men that are way more reliable with better morale, armor, and abilities (Intimidating presence and crit on the charge) its absurd really, wait for them to get buffed, until then, just get some Flayed Men.

• Casterly Rock Honour Guard (9pt): If there ever was a no-nonesense death-star unit its this one, good defense, but their token interaction is incredible, they get altertative ways to use their tokens so they get flexibility too, you'll want the Hound, Champion of the Faith, Jaime, whatever generates tokens so they canmake use of their ability.

Non-Combat Units

• Pycelle (4pt): Weakens an enemy whenever he activates, its hard to argue against him since he directly synergizes with practically everything in your army by selectively softening your enemys attacks.

• Cersei (4pt): Drawing cards is great, drawing 2 cards, which are among the best in our base deck, even out of your discard pile, twice per game is pretty fucking good my guy. A hilarious tactic is to use Joffrey to take the Bags and efectively activates your whole tactics deck and allows Cersei to drawn both Hear me Roar and Subjugation of Power (arguably the best cards of the basic Lannister deck) no matter what spot she takes giving you a TON of value in just 2 activations.

• Joffrey Baratheon (5pt): Counting as holding the Crown independent of where you put him is VERY strong make no mistake, if he takes the Bag spot he turns on the WHOLE basic Lannister tactics deck and now doesn't even put a panicked on your units, even getting a solid +1 wound from panic on an enemy unit, he is worth every point and while maybe not an auto-include he is definetely one of the strongest NCUs we have.

• Tywin Lannister (6pt): Completely screw over you enemies plan at the start of a turn once per game. Thats it, and its very strong, especially if your enemy is running a deathstar, but that means you should know your opponent before choosing him, he's really expensive so you NEED to have a solid plan before getting him.

• Tyrion Lannister (5pt): The Trolliest of NCUs, bigger hand size and getting a counterplot whenever you deem necesary once per game will ensure you have the advantage in the tactics card game, if you don't really know what to take for NCU's Tyrion is rarely a bad choice.

• The High Sparrow (4pt): Pick an enemy unit, now any panic damage it takes heals one of your units up to 3, since you're the panic faction, this old man gives you all the healing you'll ever need and it procs off your strongest offensive option, if you focus fire an enemy unit you could easily heal more than 6 wounds in a single turn, which for the uninformed, is quite a good deal.

• Tommen Baratheon (4pt): He is an alternative to Cersei, giving you Fealty to the Crown and Bribery, not as good since these are defensive options, you don't want to stop the bleeding you want your enemy to bleed harder with proactive plays, but to be perfectly honest he is not a bad choice at all, drawing two cards off of one activation is strong as hell no matter what you're drawing especially considering he still gets to use the tactics zone he claimed.

• Kevan Lannister (5pt): He is the pale image of his older brother Tywin, once per game you get to do a whole lot of utility, which will help you stabilize a game or capitalize on a good position, he isnt as strong as Tywin but is much safer.

• Qyburn (5pt): An alternative to Varys, his effects are more focused on screwing your opponets use of the tactics board rather than mirroring them for yourself, he is a solid and versatile control piece.

Attachements

• Preston Greenfield (1 pts): Moving more is... meh?, unless he's in Red Cloaks he's not playing to your faction's strengths so keep that in mind.

• Meryn Trant ( 1 pts): Applies condition tokens on an enemy when he attacks in melee, versatile so he can pretty much go anywhere, but Honour Guard make the most out of his ability.

• Arys Oakheart (1 pts): Defensive Buff, simple though its effectiveness will depend on where you put him in, Bolton Blackguards? good, Halbediers? meh.

• Boros Blount (1 pts): Hybrid Buff, getting autowounds for getting damaged isn't something you really wanna pay for since you want stuff that helps you win, not stop the bleeding, but he has his place in units that like existing on their last rank like Warrior's Sons.

• Jaime Lannister - Kingsguard (2 pts): Snipe an attachment or 1 autowound is very good, put him on something that'll survive in the thick of it and send him towards something that really needs his attachment like a commander's unit.

• Mandon Moore (1 pts): Offensive buff, great on Mountain's men.

• Sandor Clegane (1 pts): Your enemy gets a Vulnerable token whe you charge him? he also gives wounds regen if your enemy takes a wound, and its more if they are missing ranks? and he makes your unit Clegane? he's pretty fucking great bud not gonna lie. If youre bringing Mhe Mountain Commander put him in something like Warrior's sons or Blackguards to pump their offensive output, if you have any other commander he goes better on Mountain's Men.

• Jaime Lannister - The Young Lion (2 pts): More consistent attacks on your unit and better morale, Pyromancers love him, so do Halberdiers.

• Tyrion Lannister (2 pts): Short range counterplot on a stick, have him run interference on the front line and he won't dissapoint.

• Barristan Selmy (2 pts): Better morale, restore wounds if you have the Crown and pass a morale test, very good on faith units.

• Gregor Clegane (3 pts): Guaranteed wounds, also makes your unit less controled but charges reliably if you lose that control. He's a very obvious tool and that doesn't make him any less terrifying, hes downright disgusting with his own Mountains Men but in the end he just makes a melee unit that much more hard hitting.

• Gregor Clegane (Cav)(3pts): He's very strong since he's exactly the same as his infantry version, probably better on Flayed Men since those autowounds guarantee the enemy makes a panic test at -2 but Cavalry need to position well to do the most damage and Gregor takes the needed control for that.

• Adam Marbrand (2 pts): Jaime's Vassal makes it so he is an autoinclude in every Jaime Commander List, or even good in lists where you bring Jaime's attachement versions, since it can be argued he can make a charge when Jaime Captive's unit is atatcke by one of your own (lol), probably better then on a unit with some bite to it like Mountain's Men.

• Qyburn (1 pts): -1 to defense saves is no joke, but the +1 to hit, vicious and preventing weakened tokens from being used against the unit are very strong too, you need to know what you're doing with him, he'll make units like poor-fellows decent in combat while just making them marginally more fragile, or he'll make something like Lannisport City Watch way scarier to face.

• Ser Robert Strong (3 pts):Hoo-wee, this one's a doozy for sure, Order:Resilience and 2 autowounds will make any unit he's in a death star by itself, Pyromancers become uncharacteristically hard to hurt, Warrior's sons become unstoppable, he's the defensive version of The Mountain and he won't dissapoint.

• Clegane Butcher (2 pts): A cavalry attachement that gives out a weakened token when an engaged enemy fails a panic test, and makes an enemy in Long Range take a panic test themselves. He interferes with the counterattack againts your Knights and sets up a harder morale check for another unit for added damage, also very good on Flayed men.

• Champion of the Faith (1 pts): Tests morale and put Vulnerable and Panicked on a success, he obviously goes very well on Warrior's Sons.

• Guard Captain (1 pts): Hold the Line, aka fuck around and find out, this gives the unit a lot of consistent chip damage that goes around some of the msot common defensive abilites, Poor fellows make a good homw since they like the grinder.

• Assault Veteran (1 pts): Intimidating Presence, aka worse panic tests for your opponet, pairs very well with Guardsmen to have a potential -4 to roll +4 wounds panic test for whoever is dumb enough to get into combat with them.

• Sentinel Enforcer (1 pts): has Taunt to force an enemy to charge his unit (if they fail a morale test and are close enough) good if you want to divert certain enemy units into your anvils, halberdiers are probably the better choice, though Guardsmen are cheap enough to do the job too.

• Turncoat (1 pts): He's another one of those "Attach to an enemy unit to screw them over" type of guy, you can kill this little guy to give the enemy unit a condition token of your choice and turn off their orders and friendly tactics cards for the turn (their natural abilities are still on though), he's pretty straightforward really, just drop him with an enemy unit that you want to screw over and go for it when the time is right.

• Maimed Jaime (2 pts): You attach him to an enemy unit, wwhen you control the Crown the unit gets -1 to hit and if the unit is destroyed they grant an additional VP (they do get +1 morale though). Put him on an enemy unit that cant really afford to teake the heat (bad armor save) and panic tests (remember you only need to inflict a wound to trigger one, or you can drop some on them with the Crown) and he might be an easy extra VP.

Building your Army

As always, your list depends on your commander and objective. Make a list which can make use of your commanders ability and tactics card.

In general you want around 7+ activation in your army. Most everyone wants 3 NCU, and Lannister also like 3 as this allows them to steal a spot, someone else wanted. Also it gives you a NCU to claim the highly contested letters spot.

Your faction more then any other factions are highly dependent on the commander.

Sample List:

Tactics Deck

General rule of thumbs in ASOIAF Miniature Game is to play your card more often then just keeping them in your hand and combo them if you can to one-shot units. You are Lannisters, you will probably throw them out faster then anyone else. You have some very specific condition and situational cards, you struggle is to determine, when do you just toss a card or when do you keep them.

Your general Tactics deck is kinda lackluster in general, but if you use them right, you will feel like a genius. Though you have no offense increasing cards, in general your commander cards are just better.

But a perfect card, can stop the foes plan in its track

• Hear me Roar!: apply a -1 to -3 debuff to morale when an enemy takes a morale test and deal them a wound on a failure (or +1 wound if it was a panic test), with how easy it is to trigger panic tests you will definetly find an opportunity to use it.

• Fealty to the Crown: When you enemy fails a panic test you can heal one to three wound on a single unit in long range for each model they lost, if you have the crown you heal 1 more. Good on the attrition game and since we trigger and basically make sure our enemies always fail their panic tests you're gonna get use out of this card for sure.

• Bribery: Your enemy gets saddled with their lowest attack die value until they use the bags or pass a morale test on the selected unit, put it on something with a sharp drop or just their basic units to ahve them hit like sleepy kittens, ranged units are also a good target for this.

• Intrigue and Subterfuge: Take away your opponets NCU's abilities and make a combat unit weakened if you have the Bags, this is deceptively strong since you only need to use it when the NCU activates which means your opponent is stuck with an NCU that only takes a spot and nothing else for a whole round.

• Subjugation of Power: Not unlike Intrigue and Subterfuge, an enemy unit must pass a morale test or lose abilities and cannot be targeed by friendly tactics cards, if you have the Bag and/or Crown spot the morale test has a -2 for each. This can be very powerful since some units really need their abilities to shine, turning off an Ironborn Reavers unit's Sundering and Pillage benefits or R'hllor Lightbringers Vicious and panic test spreading when they ahve to make a play can be HUGE.

• A Lannister pays his debts: Put this on a friendly unit for the rest of the game, they get vicious and +1 to hit (latter effect only if you have the Crown) after one of you trays gets wiped. Quite a few units could use the buff and lets you set up bloody retribution for your enemy.

• Counterplot: This is THE Lannister card, it allows you to deny the enemy a card they are trying to use on a 3+ with a reroll if you have the Crown spot, this is VERY powerful since you enemy doesn't know you have this card until you deny him his (unless you're fighting other Lannisters), letting you deny your opponent his tactics cards is strong on its own and making sure he has to commit to the card before you shoot him down puts this a step above.