Affiliation is an amazing game mechanic in ASOIAF. It encourages a certain list building where specific units get to shine rather than sitting on the side lines. However, recently it feels like this mechanic has almost vanished, even though there are still new Commanders being released with the Affiliation trait. This is the Fourth in a series of articles where I want to focus on some of the Affiliation armies and bring them into the spotlight. In this one we talk about the last two Houses of the Stark faction that feel the most incomplete – the Mormonts and the Reeds.
House Mormont
List 1: Herding of the Westerlands
House Mormont She-Bears – Maege Mormont (Lady of Bear Island)
House Mormont She-Bears
House Mormont Bruisers
Stark Outriders
Stark Sworn Swords – Mormont Veteran
Catelyn Stark
Robb Stark
This list is based on the moment in the books where Robb gave several tasks to his Lords when he set himself up in the Westerlands. The task for Maege Mormont was to herd a large portion of the cattle of the Westerlands into the Riverlands to make up for all the food destroyed by the Lannister forces. Thus, I have made a primarily Mormont list backed up by some Stark forces. Since she is herding cattle a cavalry unit feels obvious and bringing the lighter more manoeuvrable of the options is a wider choice. I am interested to see if the NCU Robb is worth the time since he has been put down by so many, however he feels auto included in any Lore list since he has been giving all these commands. I hope we see some more characters for the Mormonts. I would love to see Darcey the heir to Bear Island and would have been more warranted than Lyanna but I guess show lovers are very happy with that model.
List 2: The HAIR of Bear Island
House Umber Berserkers – Maege Mormont (Lady of Bear Island)
House Umber Berserkers – Mormont Veteran
House Mormont She-Bears – Umber Champion
Stark Bowmen
Stark Outriders
Catelyn Stark
Arya Stark
This list is filled with commonly chosen units for the faction. An issue with the Mormont Units is that they aren’t tempting in Maege list due to other Units seemingly being better. The Mormont Bruisers being a bad unit for their points doesn’t help as well as the tech-designed She-Bears. Mormonts also don’t have an identity. They get stronger as they lose ranks. So does Stark and Umber Units. They are all about Critical Blow? Sworn Swords have that as standard. The Mormont Veteran might suggest the right direction, what if Mormonts get more resilient the more they die?
Either way the Affiliation isn’t worth it here either. A +2 on Morale for the here we stand roll is amazing but really will only be used on the Maege unit anyways. Only one other card gives a benefit, and this is to hand out a weakened token. If you want us to pay any mind to Affiliation you must make it worth more.
With Bruisers being a badly designed unit, and She-Bears being more tech focused due to War Cry, it feels like we should be expecting a new unit that is the bulk of the force, the reason you bring Mormonts. Or perhaps a redesign on the Bruisers and some new Mormont models will reveal what the grand plan is for the stoic defenders of the North.
House Reed
List 1: The Neck
House Karstark Spearmen – Howland Reed (Lord of the Crannogs)
Crannogman Trackers – Crannogman Survivalists
Crannogman Trackers – Crannogman Survivalists
Stark Bowmen – Jojen Reed
Stark Sworn Swords – Meera Reed
Catelyn Stark
Rodrik Cassel
Howland Reed never took center stage in the books, and the Reeds don’t take center stage in the game either. Howland Reed was ordered to protect the Neck, preventing any force from the South from invading. The forces of the Reeds were going to play an important role with removing the Greyjoys from the North, in the show the Starks were fixing their relationship with the Freys to assault Casterly Rock, but in the books, this was to hit Moat Cailin.
This list was to bring the best the Crannogs have to offer. Using Rodrick to utilise as many traps as possible and becoming an annoying army that harasses and debuffs the units it fights rather than engaging them. Howland in Spearmen is something I haven’t seen yet, and I do think it has a place in the game. It is easy to overlook Reed when Tully Cavalry and Umber Infantry are all over the place. But I swear the next list is one of the best in the game.
List 2: Tim’s Advice
House Mormont Bruisers – Howland Reed (Lord of the Crannogs)
Crannogman Trackers – Crannogman Warden
Crannogman Trackers – Bran and Hodor
Summer
House Karstark Spearmen – Rickon Stark, Osha
Shaggydog
Petyr Baelish
Rodrik Cassel
It isn’t often in this game I come closer to raging out of the game, but when fighting the above list, I almost lost. The potential to win through psychological warfare is immeasurable when whatever you do there is a negative to it. Moving into range of Hidden Traps or Overwatch makes you think twice and eventually bite the bullet, or if you charge the Spearmen or Bruisers, you are either hitting a brick wall and likely hurting yourself or doing very little and powering up the bruisers. Summer’s counterattack and Shaggydog’s increasing damage is another shot in the foot. Then Rodrick can bring back the Orders and Petyr can help with board control as always. If that wasn’t enough, Howland’s cards add to the horror, Crannog Traps for a debuff to movement and a terrain piece becomes deadly, Bog Devil Ambush for Weakened or free Ranged Attacks, and finally an extra Panic Token and Panic Test.
Affiliation is interesting with this faction; you want more Affiliated units for the army resulting in the need for the children to be taken. However, you want some of the Attachments more like the Warden and the Survivalist. There is also only one unit which is odd since every other Affiliation based unit has at least two units. Perhaps we will see a frog spear unit in the future?
There is a lot of potential with the Mormonts and Reeds, a few bits of tweaking and new Units and Characters could flesh them out into fully fledged armies of their own. With Starks and Lannisters all clear now on the Affiliations front, who should we look at next?
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