ASOIAF Miniatures/Tactics/Stark

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Why Play Stark

"Winter Is Coming" You like being honorable? Or maybe you like playing the keepers of the old way ? OR even maybe you wanna play as the guys who are kind-of-sort-of to blame for most of the bad things that happened in setting in one way or another? Or maybe you just want to play one of the harder hitting armies in the game and like to zip around the battlefield and making the longest charges in the game

Pros

• One of the hardest hitting armies in the game
• Multiple cheap solo units in the form of wolves
• Not failing charge distance is great
• Good moral
• High mobility

Cons

• No responsive ability
• You need to attack at multiple front at the same time to ensure you can take the enemy force out
• Lack of autowounds
• No panic user
• No real tricky plays except maneuver

Playstyle

House Stark is mainly about aggression. You move quick, charge far and hit strong and accurate. This idea is simple and your units and NCU double down on it. If you want to hit fast and heavy this is your factions. Your alpha strike is a multiple alpha strike, strike at many different places at the same time, by using your superior mobility and outactivate beforehand via your doggos

Unit and Attachement Analysis

You have 7 themes in your unit choices. Defensive Tully, even more defensive Karstark, fast and ranged Crannogmen, Hard-hitting and maneuverable Stark, offensive berzerkers with Umbers, not THAT offensive berzerkers with Mormonts.

Commander

• Rob Stark: Mobility Commander. He is fun to use, and has a lot of tactical play. He himself has a gives a free shift every round and heals his unit when they retreat. Positioning is his game, with sudden retreat and hit and run you'll never get bogged in a protacted fight, and superior positioning lets you bait enemies into making disordely charges that will get them a fraction of the value they were expecting. He rewards clever positioning and keeping control of the different fights that'll happen on the front line.

• Greatjon Umber: Aggression Commander, pure berzerker tactics, he rewards keeping your units on the lowest rank possible and playing balls to the wall assaulting, killing and dying so you can take your enemy with you. Just shut off your brain, grab Mormonts and Umbers and show those southerners what it takes to survive in the North (Hint its mostly madnees, and muscles).

• Brynden Tully: Defensive Commander, Stand your ground and Stalwart his unit will be hard to shift, his cards give you a chance to attack before you take a charge and deal out vulnerable and panic tokens. His main issue is that while the Tully units he wants in his list could def use the extra offensive power, you can just get more value out of using them on the other more offensive focused units, so what I do is put him in Greataxes so he can work as the center of your battleline, that way he can proc his cards by himself and have the other benefit fully from what they can do.

• Eddard Stark: Aura Based Commander, his whole kit is centered around stuff happening around Eddards unit, letting him buff their attacks, better morale or counter-charging attackers with his unit, as such he needs a good unit to go into, his Honor Guard is solid since their profile is balanced and pretty good for the cost (though they could do with a bit more, as it stands they are just slightly buffed Sworn Swords). Very balanced and great potential, remember to take Syrio too.

• Howland Reed: Tricksy Commander, a variety of debuffs for your enemy lets him take control of the battlefield, hitting their mobility, getting in free attacks and weakened tokens and some panicked and panic tests, its all dependent on Crannog units but with 2 of them, counting his own and with Meera and Jojen you may not even need trackers, you're more than set.

• Rodrik Cassel: Slow aggression Commander, his cards all play around with tokens, so you'll benefit from having Bowmen, She-bears and Outriders to let you get them, given the cost of this cards (tokens) they have very powerful effects, like denying abilities and tactics cards, buffing atatcks or debuffing your enemies own. Put him in a unit of Bowmen or She-bears and play the long game with your opponent.

• Brynden Tully (Cav): Mobility and Cav, go full Targ with an all cavalry list so that all your units may benefit from your cards, with sentines and ride-by attack you'll be spoiled for choice on what you want to dogpile, and with Marshal and Elusive escape you'll be way harder to finish off than the enemy expects.

Units

• Stark Sworn Swords (5pt): They do their job, they are your cheap unit to hold your frontline. With average defense, average morale and average offense (before factoring Stark fury, which is way better than last edition), they are here to fill your army, and even moreso then other factions, attachement determine how exactly they will accomplish their goal.

• Stark Bowmen (6pt): One of the best ranged unit in the game in a faction all about charging, the ability to ignore intervening unit makes them very good support for behind your frontline and taking orders off a unit that fails the panic test is tailor made for fighting Baratheons and Lannisters. I wouldn't recommend them to a beginner, and playing more then 2 is hard to pull off, but its hard to go wrong with bringing one. Warden is probably the only thing you'll put in them if ever, maybe Cassel Commander.

• Stark Outriders (7pt): Solid. Quick and can hit way harder than they have any bussiness to with the right support, Mounted Brynden can keep a unit of them in reserve to have them come from a table side to throw a wrench into your enemy's plans all the while slinging Vulnerable tokens all around.

• Crannogman Trackers (5pt): The other filler. This one has a unique role in their mobility and ability to deal hits and make enemies more likely to get a disorderly charge. Keep them away from cavalry and know if the enemy faction can do some suprise attacks (counter charge from the baratheon for example). They really don't do well in melee so they have "Order: Swift Retreat" to get out after they get their asses kicked, and attachment are probably a waste in this unit. Fun to use but meh to be honest.

• House Umber Greataxes (7pt): The unit you want if you are facing 3+ armor on the field. Generally Starks are not known for throwing out auto-wounds, for such a foe, they have this can opener. They are average mobility wise, but your cards can remedy this. Best choices are to get them in as your last activation in a turn with an opponent initiative, so you can ensure the bonus panic damage from executioner's fury and maybe even Catelyn. Greatjon ups their offense and survivability, Rob their mobility, Umber Champ and Sword captain keep them at peak effciency, they are fine naked but as a solidly rounded unit they can pretty much take whatever and get a benefit out of it.

• House Umber Berserkers (7pt): Fast speed, good morale with Unyielding. They even get more offensive output as their numbers dwindle! more dice and better to hit rolls are always welcome. People used to make lists consisting of only these units. These have traditionally been interchanged with Umber Greataxes depending on personal preference. Overall this unit has seen consistent play since the birth of the game and it will continue to do so, put Syrio Forel in them to take advantage of their absurd attack die values and to make them stay that much longer in the lower rank brackets.

• House Tully Sworn Shields (6pt): Tully are a weird unit for you. They don't hit hard, are slow, but they do have Order:Shieldwall; which, gives them a defensive boost of blocking hits equal to their ranks from their front or flank every round. Having a resillient unit shouldn't be underestimated in certain game modes, and costing only 6pts makes them a reasonably priced anvil, primed for a Commander or 2/3 point attachements. Play them if you really want to have a defensive unit, but keep in mind they won't really gain much from you general deck, besides some mobility which is one of their weaker stats. For an anvil, they work fine but are a bit slow. More defensive attachement will lead people to just ignore them tbh, so best choices are naked unless there is a place you really wanna defend or the attachment adds some movement like attachment Rob or Crannogman Survivalist.

• House Tully Cavaliers (9pt): Good if enemy is playing death star style. These are mostly compared to Lannister's Knighst of Casterly Rock since their profiles are fairly similar (not to say almost identical), but while they are just there to charge and delete units your Cavaliers can also buff the morale of other units, keep them close to your battleline to countercharge an enemy unit or just let them ride around the field since you can give them way better mobility than any other heavy cavalry unit in the game (Except for Targaryens).

• House Mormont She-Bears (6pt): Base profile is identical to Sworn Swords, but they differentiate themselves in their offensive output, they get Critical Blow as a base, and get +1 to hit for every missing rank, now take into account that they have Order: War Cry to hand out panicked and vulnerableand you see that they are not shabby on the offense at all.

• House Mormont Bruisers (7pt): Light armor, good attack dice values, and counter-strike to hit back when you get the hurt sent your way, when you want to send it the enemy's way though, you get to choose between Critical blow, Precision or Re-rolls every time you attack, and get to pick one more for each missing rank. get a Mormont Veteran to keep this unit in their last rank to lay down the hurt. They are abit overpriced for what they do, counterstrike works best when you also have disrup or agil (which they don't) and their armor and morale are nothing to write home about, the can get shredded by units cheaper than themselves so the need supprt like Syrio and Howland Reed to make their points back.

• House Karstark Spearmen (6pt): Defensive unit, but while their main competition in the Tully Sworn Shields get their toughness from blocking hits, these guys get it with high armor saves and denying charge and flank/rear bonuses. They are meant to be activated last in a round so they can get those sweet 2+ saves for as long as they can, plop them into objectives and watch you opponet struggle to shift them off.

Non-Combat Units

• Arya Stark (4pt): The little girl is useful not just because she is cheap. Forcing a free maneveur can grab an early objective or get you out of danger. Since its at the start of an enemy turn you should use it when your enemy is running out of activations.

• Sansa Stark (4pt): Sansa is meh in a hand of a beginner, but if you know your deck well you can pull off some insane maneveurs. Like Arya her ability is limited, but it does have some better timing if you are unsure about your plan. Good choices to draw for beginners are Swift Advance, Devastating Impanct and Winter is coming. Make sure you know what you want and you might even toss a Winter is coming early to enable this.

• Catelyn Stark (4pt): Removing tokens is always useful, since weakened tokens can gimp your charges and vulnerable upping the damage you take. Attacking on the highest number can be good on certain unit, beserkers have a stronger alpha strike, while some unit will feel the damage less (good for sworn swords); in total you gain 2 dice. Her and Rodrik is a personal choice.

• Rodrik Cassel (4pt): Rodrik gives on average around 2-3 vulnerable tokens in the game, and will allow you to recycle orders twice per game. Claiming swords is always nice to pull off, but keep in mind, if you are the one charging your enemy can claim swords, so it might be harder to pull of then you think. The order recycling is the star of the two, ettin more overwatch with Crannog Wardens, Incite with Umber champs, or even more Stark Fury on you sworn swords, easy example; start turn, recycle stark fury on previously activated Sworn Swords, take the sowrds, put vulnerable on the poor sod and have them attack with stark fury again, even with basic units he synergizes with a great deal of the army so do consider him.

• Eddard Stark (5pt): Panic insulation with re-rolls and healing, in total he can heal between 8 and 16 wounds. This is more then Tycho and Aemon on average but keep in mind that you require some conditions. But unlike Aemon you can heal someone multiple times times in a turn.

• Howland Reed (5pt): He gimps enemy units, thats it, and its great, by clipping their movement he helps you maintain your positioning, and the -1 to hit helps with the average survibability of your units, if you're not sure what to bring, you'll hardly go wrong with good ol' Howland Reed.

Attachement

• Rickon Stark: My Boy. He gives you a dog, the hardest-hitting one of the bunch. He is also the cheapest of the three wolf attachement, for a total of 4 points. But the Dog and Rickon give 2 VP together, is that worth it? For the cheap package yes, additionally you get +1 morale and Osha, a solid attachement. Counterstrike will probably amount to 4-6 hits depending on how bad the enemy unit is, Poor Fellows? they migh as well kill themselves, Reavers with pillage tokens? they don't give a shit. Best synergy is with Stormcrows Mecenaries (8 points for 2 activations) and maybe Tully (beserkers are fine, but you might want to put more aggressive rather than defensive stuff on them.

• Bran and Hodor: Good and solid. autowounds? great, auto-retreat? also good, but they depend on your list, if you want something that'll consistently help your unit you can get better stuff, but Iif you need an escape plan and some slightly better damage output then by all means, take them.

• Brynden Tully: A simple morale buff, dampening the panic damage you take and dealing a bit of it when you pass is all well and good, but as with other things in this army, he'll fit better on defensive rather than offensive units, Sworn Shileds and Spearmen can use him, Sworn Swords not so much.

• Bryden Tully (Cav): Expensive but I'll talk him up now. You can outflank a cavalry unit, quite useful on some game modes, and throwing around vulnerable every turn is also very good. Outriders are an natural fit, with the weaken from Ambush and Swift retreat to keep them out of danger, you can pretty easily keep 2 ranks. The Cavalier and Flayed men enjoys ouflanking to set up an easy charge, and vulnerable just helps them hit even harder on the charge than they already do. It depends on your playstyle, play him if you can make use of his outflanked unit, for 2 points on units of at least 7 points he is an investment so use him wisely.

• Jojen Reed (2pts): Getting re-rolls on demand is good, he's the flexible choice, put him in some sort of skirmisher like Dervishes or Sworn Swords.

• Meera Reed: Good for the points. Hits and disorderly charge is useful, but as you usually want to charge, she's a defensive attachement on a faction all about agression.

• Syrio Forel (2pts): Only fieldable with Arya or Eddard, and not bad at all for his cost. Precision will give you an easier time punching through armor saves and agile makes the unit harder to kill, Berzerkers love him since with their high attack die numbers they get more benefit out of Precision, also agile lets them stay at 1 rank for longer, Bloody Mummer Skirmisher also like him since Agile stacks with Disrupt for a -2 to hit against them and a hit back for every enemy miss.

• Greatjon Umber (2pts): Simple, yet effective, dealing Vulnerable on the charge makes your attacks even more brutal, coupled with his Order to prevent your unit from going down completely he was tailor made for the Berzerkers that come with him in the starter set.

• Maege Mormont (2): Overpriced. You want stuff that helps you win, not stuff that makes it hurt less when you are losing, she doesn't do anything proactive and honestly won't do much at all with her abilities.

• Sworn Sword Captain (1pts): One of your best attachement. Vulnerable and re-rolls will make any unit happy, especially one that intends to fight multiple times in a round, you'll learn to love them.

• Winterfell Guardian (1 pts): A cavarly attachement, gives stubborn tenacity (1 autowounds when you pass a Morale test) and Dauntless (heal 1 wound when passing a morale test), definetly better on Tully Cavaliers than Outriders since they have enough morale and staying power to trigger multiple times.

• Umber Champion (1pts): Also one of your best Attachements. Use him for Greataxes, to more easily and effectively trigger their special ability or just Berzerkers to have them fight at top die value from the get go.

• Mormont Veteran (1 pts): Auto-block a hit and another one for every missing rank whenever you get attacked, for the price its not bad at all and your units could def use the added resilience when they start getting the hurt piled onto them.

• Crannogmen Survivalist (1 pts): Terrain no longer slows you down, and you weaken enemies when you retreat from them, great synergy with the likes of Robb Commander.

• Crannogman Warden (1pts): Getting more ranged attacks is a good investment, but he needs line of sight for it, so he'll do more work with Stormcrow Archers than your own bowmen, not really a bad thing.

• Jaqen H'ghar: Jaqen is quite unique. You attach him to an enemy and the effect only triggers if you kill that unit (or rather, him, the attachement, like with Vargo), once you do you get to deal 3 wounds against a single unit, killing an attachement with them if you so choose. The normal rule for such a thing apply, put him on a cheap unit to have an easier time killing it, or put him in a expensive unit to make the enemy hesitant. Make sure that you kill that unit early enough otherwise you have wasted a points. Worth it but you need to work for it.

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 9+ activation in your army. Use wolves to pad your force. Most everyone wants 3 NCU, and for you 3 NCU means you have 1 more cheap activation, and you don't have to waste a NCU for a slot you usually ignore. But because of your wolves, you can easily ignore going 3 NCU's if you want to stuff up the table. You generally play more attachment then most factions due to your wolves and because of your good 2-3 point attachements. Get to the activation count you want, then start filling out your points with attachement.

You don't have enough tools to weaken the enemy counter attack, so you need to have your army take out the enemy forces first, so fast and hard hitting units are good.

Running either/both Beserker and/or Greataxes is probably a good idea.

Sample List:

Commander: Robb Stark – The Wolf Lord

Combat Units:

• House Umber Berserkers (7) with Robb Stark – The Wolf Lord (0)

• Grey Wind (0)

• House Umber Greataxes (7) with Bran and Hodor – Protector and Ward (2)

• Summer (0)

• Stark Sworn Swords (5) with Sworn Sword Captain (1)

• Stark Outriders (7)

Non-Combat Units:

• Sansa Stark – Little Bird (3)

• Rodrik Cassel – Combat Veteran (4)

• Catelyn Stark – Lady of Winterfell (4)

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. Starks do that not as rigidly as others. Starks have some very strong card, but some of them have specific conditions. Unlike some other factions you will try to hold unto your cards. But what Starks excel at with their Tactics deck is comboing the fuck out of their card.

In general your Tactics Deck is supplementary to your play style and not the basis, you also lack card raw Keep in mind nearly all your card are for getting into combat and then attacking, so fuck me you are screwed if you can't charge anymore because you are all stuck or just dead.

• Winter is coming: One of your best card. Charging and turning off tactics card and orders is in certain scenario a killer. Use this card later in the turn, so he'll won't have a chance to use his tactics card (and order) later in the same turn, this way that card will continue shitting up his hand. The additional effect is useful, but not required. Decide based on your target.

• Northern Ferocity: Good effect, use it often, there isn't really a point in keeping it for longer, you don't have a unit who immensely profits from it.

• The North remembers: One of your best cards. Holy crap this is good, but don't fall into the trap of it. You may hold unto it too long, and gain nothing by it, and secondly keep in mind the effect. You have to have a unit having activated, and throwing away unit might not be worth it if the other unit won't help you win the game. Usually wolves are sacrificed but make sure it is worth it

• Devastating Impact: Another one of your homerun cards. Don't be too obvious while using it, and more importantly don't overcommit your charges and get dog pilled.

• Swift Advance: I know I sound like a hype man, but damn this is a good card. Use it to either make it to their flank or get closer

• Sudden Charge: Another charge card, now you know the problem I have with everything being about 1 thing. It's good, use this NCU to claim the Horse spot, then trigger this card (but see below). You usually can use it best by keeping it in your hand, use 1 turn to set up the motions. But keep in mind, if your first activation is claiming horse then your opponent is free to just take swords, getting a free attack in.

• Direwolf's Fervor: Honestly meh, just use it ASAP unless you really want those d3 autowounds

Tactics

Wolves only have 2 wounds, protect them well. Walder has easy targets on your wolves but he should only use his ability on the turns, his ability wouldn't trigger. Don't attack easy sources of auto-wounds: Rose Knights, Gregor. Honestly just hide them.

In general, due to the change of wolves that they cost 1 VP, they suck tremendously. Not in the game terms, they are still worth those points, but on a fluff level. The nerf didn't weaken wolves, but nowadays the best bet for wolves is to just keep them in the far back, maybe let them sit on a objective, and never move them anywhere close to the battlefield. Attacking with them should only be done if a unit is close to death, and even then this is a big risk for you.

This change sucks, as they went to useful road bumps, to cheerleaders, and unlike infinity they don't wear miniskirts (look up caledonian volunteers).

List examples

The point of this is to explain list building a bit.

With this list I started with an idea: Make use of the Dervishes.

While you usually won't use Motivated by Coin effictvely if you go for their role as flankers, I am convinced they have some hidden use in anvils. If you get charged early, you can then freely claim either money or swords ensuring you can always flee, and then charge in with their activation, fleeing again.

First choices is always the commander: I went with Bryden. He is a defensive Commander, he wants some good moral unit for himself, and does require you to maneveur competent in the field. For the dervishes Set for Charge is a fun interaction, and Dervishes can benefit from some sustainability, of his other cards. Bryden himself I put in them.

Next step for me is often assigning blanket 11 points for NCU, as I often play with 3 NCU.

Because this is a Dervish list, I really want to make Set for Charge happen I take another Dervish. We now choose our other combat unit. As you are stark you want between 9-10 units. I decided for 2 more units; 1 unit of Tully Sworn Shields as they are another anvil in your tully army, and playing bryden without tully is just sad.

To get to 9 activation, I want 2 of the wolves attachement. I throw Bran into the 2nd Dervishes, and decide on Rickon as the second, as Robb can't fit. I like Rickon in the sworn brothers, as they allow some nice plays.

For the NCU. I still have a point left, so I am quite free. Rodrik fits well, as both dervishes can attavk multiple times, which his influence likes. Eddard helps heal my Dervishes back up, and I can decide to heal if I need to go back to a rank. Arya would help my slow Sworn shields and a 6 inch free maneuveur is just plain fun, I am going Sansa instead because I need Set for Charge in my life more.

With my last point I get myself a Mormont Veteran to make the Baratheon feel inadaquate.

So this should be the way to think about a list, think how your Commander can use his cards, get your prioritse done, and choose your NCU to complemante your army.

There was always different choices, instead of the Sworn swords and veterans, Rickon could have gone into the Sworn Shields and we could have added bowmen to force more moral tests.

Instead of Bran we could have thrown Robb unto the Dervishes for 7 + d6 retreats.

My List:

Faction: House Stark Commander: Brynden Tully – The Blackfish 

Combat Units: 

• Stormcrow Dervishes (7) with Brynden Tully – The Blackfish (0) 

• Stormcrow Dervishes (7) with Bran and Hodor – Protector and Ward (2) 

• Summer (0) 

• House Tully Sworn Shields (6) with Mormont Veteran (1) 

• Stark Sworn Swords (5) with Rickon Stark - Prince Of Winterfell (1) and Osha - Spearwife Guardian (0) 

• Shaggydog (0)

Non-Combat Units:

• Eddard Stark – Warden of the North (4) 

• Rodrik Cassel – Combat Veteran (4)

• Sansa Stark - Little Bird (3)

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