ASOIAF Miniatures/Tactics/Baratheon
Why Play Baratheon
"Ours is the Fury"
You are the true King, by virtue or by ability.
You are like a rock and will not move, hell they can hit you all you want, they are just playing into your hands. This is the faction for you.
You are a defensive faction, mostly because you are slow but also because all your ability go off getting stuck in battle.
Pros
- Lots of free attacks
- 2 Major themes
- Stannis
- Attrition based game
- Two widely different playstyle (good for two list format, as preparing is hard)
Cons
- Fucking hammers
- Stannis is a fuckin mess
- Renly is a bit simple at this point
- Slower then even Lannister
- Half of your releases won't work with the other half
Playstyle
House Baratheon are about attrition. You just take it on the chin, wait for him to be unprepared and then hit him, multiple times.
Via your tactics deck and your characters, you have more attacks then god.
Generally you are a defensive factions, but you counter attack on the field via attacks. If you can't auto-attack no problem, you will grind everyone to dust.
Unit and Attachement Analysis
I would now say you have x themes, where x is a number. With the Baratheon x is so high, leading mathematicians are unsure if x is observable in our universe. So I'll say you have 6 theme in your unit choices. Your generic part, which can be used by both sides. In general you have good - average moral, err on the slower side and work via condition and taking a hit then hitting back.
Renly's Tyrell, who only work for him, these have the two themes of healing wounds and dealing auto wounds, these will probably be armed well.
Stannis followers, who only work for the rightful king. Here you have the R'hollor followers, the Kingsmen and then Davos and his son. My complaints will follow
For Both
Commander
Nah no Robert
Units
- Baratheon Wardens (5pt): Your bread and butter by virtue on just being cheap. 3 + armor and above average armor. Giving out weaken is good, though the other ability is only good if you really lucky on your attack. Loses a lot of dices later with rank lost, which kinda fights your theme of taling damage, but honestly these guy were never dealing damage
- Baratheon Sentinels (6pt): A good unit if a bit expensive. There are your attacking unit, sundering on 8 dice is good, but once again consider how much dices you lose on lost ranks. Within your faction, this unit probably make the best of all the free attacks via tactics cards
- Stag Knights (8pt): Way too overpriced. You want them to take dmg and keep them at low health, but you can't really prevent them from dying if you get to low health. 7 7 7 is good, if you can luck out and always keep them alive but more often then not they'll not be worth there value.
Non-Combat Units
- Shyra Errol (3pt): Who?
- Alester Florent (4pt):
Attachement
- Master Warden:
- Stag Noble:
Stannis
Commander
- Stannis Baratheon - The Rightful Heir:
- Stannis Baratheon - The One True King:
- Andrew Estermont - First of the King's Men:
- Davos Seaworth - Hero of Blackwater:
- Axell Florent - First of the Queen's Men:
Units
- R'hllor Faithful (7pt):
Non-Combat Units
- Axell Florent (3pt):
- Davos Seaworth (4pt):
- Selyse & Shireen (4pt):
- Melisandre (5pt):
Attachement
- Andrew Estermont:
- Davos Seaworth:
- Devan Seaworth:
Renly
Commander
- Renly Baratheon - The Charismatic Heir: The starter box renly was made for the content for the starter box, but he can benefit from Rose Knights and the new attachements too. He does get access to Brienne below, that is just a giant plus. His Younger... works great with Rose Knights, as the card is a new source of healing therefore you can dish out those wounds. "They will make me King" requires a bit of foresight, but it will shift the balance towards you. He is ok with any kind of list, but does want a nice bunker for himself to give out buffs, while he wants a fighty unit for Brienne. His bunker doesn't really need to be very offensive.
In general he is a solid, if a bit unfocused commander. Keep him in the middle, and make sure he doesn't die as his best cards require him being alive.
- Renly Baratheon - Lord Paramount of the Storm Lands: Renly is armor. He lost his area buffs and his friendly tactics card to focus more on single targets. He might want to be used in a more proactive choice, so Rose Knights works well. He wants an aggressive unit, as he is one of your two auto-included attachement. Keep attention to when your units gets attacked to make use of all your cards. He also gets Brienne, so you usually field 2 fighty units (2 Rose Knights = 14 and 3 Wardens/Cutthrouths/Stormcrow Mercs make a nice 29 point base to fill up with NCU's). Throwing in some Stormcrows can make it easier to trigger Hidden Affairs, I recommend 2 with either Wardens or the Leutnant.
- Loras Tyrell :
- Eldon Estermont:
- Cortnay Penrose:
Units
- Rose Knights (7pt): Hot damn these unit is awesome, very tough, good moral and not too shaby offense. The two abilities push them over the horizon. An autoheal, basically after each time you are attack is quite nice, and just their general heal make them a nuisance to remove. Run them forwards early on, get them stuck and then they'll never die. Can take care of all your needs by autowounding them away. Honestly your best choices
Non-Combat Units
- Eldon Estermont (3pt):
- Margaery Tyrell (4pt):
- Olenna Tyrell (5pt):
Attachement
- Cortnay Penrose:
- Loras Tyrell:
- Brienne the Blue:
Building your Army
As always, your list depends on your commander and objective. Your choice of Commander also determines which units, attachement and NCU you can field. In general you want around 8+ activation in your army. Reason herefore is to wait out the enemy attacks. Most everyone wants 3 NCU, and as a Baratheon I found that a third NCU allows you to wait out the foes actions a bit more. Also because some ability requires Crown you might want 1 more NCU.
Baratheon usually build around one of three units, if you go Renly Rose Knights (between 1 and 2), if you go Stannis Faithful and else Flayed men.
Sample List: These are made to get into the game early. I recommend the Neutral Hero Box 2. The faction specific herobox can only be used by 1 side, that's why I suggest the neutral. I recommended 2 instead of 1 just because I feel the character within work better with both factions, but it is your decision.
Points: 40 (7 Neutral)
Combat Units:
• Baratheon Wardens (5) with Master Warden (1)
• Baratheon Wardens (5) with Master Warden (1)
• Baratheon Sentinels (6) with Stannis Baratheon - The Rightful Heir (0)
• Stag Knights (8) with Daario Naharis - Reckless Mercenary (2)
Non-Combat Units:
• Shyra Errol - Lady Of Haystack Hall (3)
• Alester Florent - Lord Of Brightwater (4)
• Jaqen H'ghar - Follower Of The Red God (5)
Tactics Deck
- Baratheon Conviction:
- Counter Charge:
- Hold the Line!:
- Last Stand:
- Ours is the Fury!:
- Stag's Resilience:
- Stag's Wit: