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

• 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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