ASOIAF Miniatures/Tactics/Neutral

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Why Play Neutrals

"Our Blades are Sharp?" Neutrals while viable on their own as a faction are in the end meant to be added into armies (except Freefolk) so buying into this faction expands your options for all others, besides the fact that a few of these units are very efficient on their own.

Pros

• Control, Agression, Resielence, we got a little bit of everything here
• Flexibility? Stormcrows
• Panic damage? Boltons
• Acting like you're better than your opponent? Bloody Mummers
• Great models, the newer Golden Company look amazing.

Cons

• Commanders lean on their subfactions so they need at least a sprinkle of their soldiers to function properly
• Lack of autowounds, besides the Elephant
• Being Overcosted? Golden company

Playstyle

A mish mash of subfactions rather than a faction unto itself, it will depend mostly on your commander since the base deck is pretty versatile if unimpressive, you have quite the toolbox that you can integrate into other factions so this page is the most guidelinesy of them all.

Unit and Attachement Analysis

You have 4 themes in your unit choices. Boltons have heavy and light units, and their whole thing is panic and fighting dirty, Roose and Ramsey are their commanders. Stormcrows are medium infantry and can fill gaps in other armies since they have line, ranged and elite infatry, Daario is their commander. Bloody Mummers only have 2 units, both lightly armored and meant for short engagements, Vargo Hoat is their commander. Golden Company, boy oh boy these were hyped up way too much, Swordsmen, Crossbowmen and War Elephants are all glorious models but their rules leave a lot to be desired, they dont have a commander yet.

Commander

• Roose Bolton: Controlly Commander, playing around with dealing out and using tokens as well as some more panic support, he goes swimmingly in his own Blackguards and benefits from bringing Ramsey to give strong units Bolton affiliation to get more sustain from panic damage..

• Ramsay Snow: Aggression Commander, making your enemy choose between a bad situation and another equally bad situation, benefits more from joining non Bolton units and bringing his father for those Panicked tokens.

• Daario Naharis: The one for Stormcrows, plays off the bags spot, even letting you count as controlling it with a tactics card. Buffing you unit's offensive output and a bit of token play are always goo, bring Bronn to get more benefit from the bags spot.

• Vargo Hoat: The one for Bloody Mummers, plays around Weakened tokens spending them to either add more sting to panic tests or turning them into Panciked and Vulnerable. Has the same terrifying "Sadistic Mutilation" ability as his regular attachement so it pays to make a deathstar out of him.

Units

• Bolton Cutthroats (5pt): Bolton basic Infantry, prioritizing offensive power, they get light armor but pack Vicious and get re-rolls and throw a Vulnerable if their target hasn't activated on the same round. Very fragile so need a bit of support to pull ahead if they get punched back.

• Bolton Blackguards (6pt): Heavy Infantry, not that big on offense but with Horrific Visage they'll sit on an objective and dare your opponent to shift them, Dreadfort Captains predictably do very well with them since they can trigger that sustain on the regular.

• Bolton Bastard's Girls (7pt): The premier Infantry of the Boltons, they can optentially throw 10 dice at the same enemy on 3+ so they get a lot of mileage out of an offensive attachement like Brienne Maiden of Tarth or Ramsay.

• Bolton Flayed Men (8pt): THE best cavalry unit in the game, while not the end all be all of the game they will routinely break the bones and willpower of basically anything they face, even Targaryens make space in their lists for one of these. They will still break against concerted effort and there goes 8 points but they rarely dissapoint.

• Stormcrow Mercenaries (5pt): Cheap, thats the point, not a stellar profile for its cost but the have Adaptive, so they reduce the cost of attachements on them by 1, so they can pack them 1 pointers for freebies, stuff like Spearmen Captains or Guard Captains love them since they are cheap delivery vectors for great abilities.

• Stormcrow Archers (6pt): Control the Bags, Letters and Swords to give their ranged attacks benefits, otherwise pretty basic ranged unit, if you get all the dominos right they can devastate an enemy, Bronn lets them attack when claiming the bags, so do Crannogman Wardens when enemies end moves withing line of sight, gettin more attacks with a ranged unit is always worth it to invest on that if you do bring them.

• Stormcrow Dervishes (7pt): The Elite Stormcrow unit, decent attack profile, their gimmick is attacking multiple times with the bags spot and being able to retreat right after attacking, also flank charges give the enemy tokens making them nastier than usual. Need finesse to get the most out of them, Daario, Stormcrow Lieutenants, Vargo, everything that pumps up their offensive output goes well with them.

• Bloody Mummer Skirmishers (6pt): The annoying unit, their whole thing is packing disrupt and counter strike to make it a pain to fight them without something either well armored or with a good attack profile, so send them against cheap stuff with horrible offense like Poor Fellows or Raiders. They still go down like flies to concerted effort and if they lose their abilites they are toast. Special Mention to Syrio Forell since Agility stacks with Disrupt to make them a -2 to hit.

• Bloody Mummer Zoarse Riders (6pt): Cost the same as Dothraki Screamers, have an overall worse statline, and need to flank and rear charge to get actual value. I make them sound worse than they really are, but they do need you to work to get the most out of them.

• Hedge Knights (7pt): Now these guys are a bit of a tricky one, controlling the Bags and Swords makes them resilient as Flayed men and hit harder than Screamers respectively, if you can get some Tactics board control thse guys are worth every penny, they can fill a Heavy Cavalry role in any faction even if they they are mostly outclassed by Flayed Men

• Golden Company Swordsmen (7pt): I'll be honest with you pal, if they were 3+ armor they'd be good enough, but as it stands they don't pack enough in their kit to make them a particularly attractive choice at their current cost. They're not bad at all but at 7 points you expect a unit that can kick ass and take names and these guys dont have enough offensive or defensive value to compete with the more specialized units in this price range.

• Golden Company Crossbowmen (8pt): Crossbowmen make a more compelling argument for themselves, being easily comparable to Lannister Crossbowmen they barely edge out in value by packing Sentinel, letting you maneuver them off of enemy attacks and letting you set up some nasty side or rear attacks, but still at that price range Flayed men, Knights and Honour Guard of Casterly Rock, Cavaliers, Champions of the Stag, are all choices that are just as killy, just as maneuverable and honestly way more resilient.

• Golden Company War Elephant(7pt): You can only bring one of these for each Golden Company Swordsmen or Crossbowmen you pack along, meaning you can't get 2 of these outside of a Neutral army. This thing kicks ass and looks good while doing so, it ignores defense saves which makes it great at cracking heavily armored units. Now if you know your opponent wont be packing stuff with Order:Shieldwall or Hardened or Resilience you're golden (heh) but since it doesnt have the same thing as the giants of inflicting straight up wounds it can get neutered hard by units with Auto-blocks like what was mentioned before. So in the end while it looks great and is a great intimidation piece, it isnt worth its price of 7ps alongside an overcosted GC unit.

Non-Combat Units

• Roose Bolton (4pt): Token players love him, he can put a Panicked token each time he activates up to 3 times, with additional uses of this ability available by replacing zone effects. A zone replace is good and fueling his token game when you take a zone you don't want is not bad at all. Of course, he works way better on panic heavy armies.

• Petyr Baelish (4pt): THE zone replace guy, he can replace any zone effect with another one, zap with the horses, restore wounds with the cards, sky's the limit, but thats not all, once per game you can count as controlling a zone for the rest of the round, letting you get all those big effects even if you don't have control of the board. If you don't know what to bring and only have 4 for an NCU he doesnt dissapoint.

• Lord Varys (5pt): THE reactive plays guy, up to 4 times per game he can get a mini-zone effect when your enemy claims a spot, the effect is of course related to what your enemy claimed. Drawing a card is rarely bad, restoring wounds lets you equalize fights, hits or a panic can knock an enemy down a rank before you activate and finish off that unit. Like Petyr, he's the one you bring if you don't know and have 5 points to spare.

• Tycho Nestoris (5pt): Heal a lot once per game, simple and strong. Getting 5 wounds to throw around your units freely can bring back a unit from the brink or simply top off a few to get the upper hand.

• Jaquen H'ghar (5pt): Precision isn't all that easy to come by, and getting it off of a Swords claim is very very good. Still his main selling point is being able to copy the Influence of another NCU either ally or enemy, doubling up on stuff like Melisandre, Beron Blacktyde and Barristan Selmy is VERY good especially since you can just do the Precision thing if you feel its gonna be more beneficial to you.

• Walder Frey (4pt): Old codger is an iffy one, you can only use him if its your last available activation, he does the Baelish replace thing, or he can restore a few wounds, weaken something and make you first player the following turn IF he claims the crown. Now the thing is if you're using Walder you lose a 3 NCU fight every time, only bring him if you know its a 2 NCU game and then again only if you know you're not against someone who wants the crowns.

Attachement

• Ramsay Snow + Reek (2/0pts): The little shit gives a bit of panic damage bonus and sustain for a modest price, and since Reek is free he always gets to sling Panicked tokens like its nobodies bussiness, he fits better on Bastar Girls and Blackguard than most other units, Guardsmen and Mountains Men do make very good use of him though.

• Dreadfort Captain (1pts): Healing off of panic damage makes him a natural fit with Blackguards, or anything thatw ants to do panic damage like Bastard's Girls or Guardsmen

• Bolton Flayer: Now throwing this guy into a Blackguard or Pyromancers unit is just mean, since he can basically double up the Horrific Visage procs whenever your enemy is dumb enough to attack his unit. Cheap and easy all things considered.

• Daario Naharis (1pts): Critical Blow and Precision at peril of suffering a wound for every 1 when attacking is not bad lemme tell ya, units with access to rerolls like Martell Royal Guard or high volume of attacks like Umber Berzerkers will make good use of the guy.

• Stromcrow Lieutenant (1pts): Sundering and Highest attack value when controlling the bags. Not stellar but if your army wants the bags then he isnt a bad choice at all, Lannisters and Tyrells can probably make good useof him, Daario Commander can obviously make the most in any case.

• Bronn (1pt): Additional resilience when controlling the Bags and an option for extra attack actions off of the Bags spot, he goes in solid line units or ranged units. Shoring up the defense of ranged units andletting them get more attacks in is one of his specialties, making stuff like Wardens or Rose knights unkillable while letting them Rambo it up with extra attacks will quickly teach your opponent to keep control of the tactics board. Dont sleep on him, if you wanna play around with the bags he is better than the Lieutenant.

• Jaqen H'ghar (1pt): Situational, but in very basic terms in introduces redundancy nto your list by letting you get an attachement back from the dead, whether yours or the enemies once attachements start going the way of the dodo his unit gets versatile. Another notable use is getting your commander back from the dead to keep doing his thing or I dunno bringing back an Expert duelist or Vargo to kick ass from beyond the grave again.

• Brienne Maid of Tarth (2pts): Make your unit a heat seeking missile, better morale and Knightly Vow make sure whatever you attach her to will make it to its target, Bastard's Girls love her, Ranger Hunters love her too, Sunspear Dervishes, the list goes on, anything that wants to devastate something with one or multiple charges loves her.

• Vargo Hoat (2pts): This guy, he's a lot of people's nightmare, fighting him is what turns boys into men. He gives the unit Vicious, no biggie, and makes it so enemies that fail panic tests caused by his unit become weakened, anot bad prolly still within the 1 point mark at this point. Sadistic Mutilation, letting you spend a weakened token after completing an attack to destroy an attachement, THIS is what makes Vargo terrifying since if you were weakened before he attacked he doesnt even need to deal damage to your unit, he just plucks the attachement out of the unit and tears their organs out, not that he needs it since he's his own engine for weakened tokens, this ability is even better than its competitor Expert Duelist since its less random by requiring some minor setup, he is a superb intimidation tool and will make your enemy tremble if he doesnt wipe him before he has a chance to kill his commander.

• Golden Company Officer (2pts): Dauntless? meh. Immunity to enemy NCU Influence, Orders and enemy tactics cards might as well be worth 2 points on its own. A shame he comes with the Golden company swordsment cause he's good, hes a great piece for long range units to keep them safe from panic bombs or what have you.

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.

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. In general your Tactics Deck is supplementary to your play style and not the basis, you also lack card draw.

• Planning and Insight: small bump to offense or defense, get better with Letters or your commander's unit, you'll find a time to use it each turn.

• Adpative Methods: Change tokens, or throw tokens from a unit to another if you have the Letters. This lets you bouce a token off one of your units onto your enemy's, changing the toke type to whatever you want, this is a great card if the situation allows for it.

• Issue Commands: Is your commander sitting alone on an objective and would thus waste their actvation? Isuue Commands. Do you want a second use of a sweet order like Sentinel, Spread Fear or Charging volley? Issue Commands.

• Worth the Risk: Morale Re-roll or autopass if close to your commander. Solid against panic heavy armies.

• Meticulous Planning: More commander Cards, either at the end of a round or during a turn if you have the Letters, good if your commander has good cards.

• Surprise Strategy: Prolly gonna use it with the Letters spot since its prolly too expensive otherwise, good to get those killer cards back into your hand not bad.

• Spiols of War: One of your units get stonger after the first and second emey unit dies close to them, attach it as soon as you get it not like it'll make your units badasses if they weren't already.

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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