CMON Expertly Demonstrates How to Balance a Game – 2023 ASOIAF Update Teaser

CMON have gone Live today teasing the new balance update they are calling 2021.02. This update is a part of their overhaul of rules for the game they began with the 2021 update and will continue into future versions. This one focuses on universal rules and clarifications and unique rules will come later. Next week we will see the full release on the APP and the CMON Website, as well as a change log. However, we have been given some nice teases for the future. 

Release date 

Save the date! 28th February is the balance update focusing on universal rules more than unique rules. Things such as Hardened and War Cry that appear across multiple factions are seeing reworks to balance the rules or to clarify them.  This does not mean that some rules outside of those that are universal aren’t being fine-tuned as there were some teases of changes outside of this. Fabio confirmed that every faction has received some changes with Martell’s having the fewest due to them being so new. We saw something like this with the Greyjoy’s last year. 

Points

The first new change revealed was for the Lannister Halberdiers. They have been competing for a spot in Lannister forces with several other 6pts units. They remain unchanged apart from their points cost and are now 5pts. This is a crucial change for the Lannister’s giving them some much needed cheaper activations whilst giving an opportunity for the Halberd unit to be used in forces without feeling underwhelming for their points.

Fabio did mention that there are other units and attachments that have point changes, but we will need to wait until the 28th to see which ones. 

War Cry

The Mormont She-Bears were shown off next and are used to showcase the change to the War Cry order. The wording is a lot better on the order but now instead of it giving both a Vulnerable and Panicked Token, you must choose one of them. It is a nerf to the order, but it is a welcomed one. It will still be quite useful in many situations however spamming War Cry might not be as useful as it was previously. 

Champion of the Faith attachment will be most affected by this, quickly followed by Asha Greyjoy and Drogo’s Bloodriders. It was not mentioned if this affects the War Cry tactics cards or the similar Stormcrow card. 

At this point Fabio also revealed that Relentless has changed but neglected to go into detail. Relentless is an order that becomes almost auto included into armies especially in the Night’s Watch faction. I am incredibly curious to see how this rule pans out. 

Hardened

Othell Yarwyck was used to show off the new Hardened ability. Hardened has now lost the initial blocked hit and only grants +1 per rank destroyed. This is still very good but won’t be as oppressive. Perhaps we will see less spamming of the Mormont Veteran in Stark lists, or Addam Marbrand won’t be as prominent. It did raise the question of whether the Warrior Son’s were going to receive the same treatment for their versions. There was no comment on this when asked.

This is bad news to Greyjoy players as it nerfs their best Commander in Baelor Blacktyde. Kevin and Addam were the only things holding up the Lannister force and Addam list might have just been hit hard too. Hopefully these two factions see other improvements to help them survive this next phase of the game.

Outflank

The biggest game changer of this update will hand down be the change to Outflank. The Reaver Captain was shown off for this rule and it is truly incredible. No longer do you have to spend an NCU activation to take the Manoeuvrer Zone. If you are not the first player, then at the start of the round you can place 1 unit within the Short Range of a Friendly or Flank Table Edge.

Blow the dust off of those Reaver Captains because they are finally useful. I can’t help but go straight to the NCU Robb Stark and see how valuable he now is for the Starks. Hrakkers also catch my attention with their potential, and Jarl for the free Folk piques my interest. There is quite a lot of Outflank in the game, keep an eye on Starks for sure with this one.

Coordination Tactics

A tactics card featured in a few factions through their deck or commander has been changed to help with all the FAQ questions CMON is receiving. It now only affects non-innate abilities and shares them between units. I am sure there will always be plenty of FAQ questions and the bigger the game gets the more FAQ questions there will be. It is really nice to have CMON address these confusions and hope there is plenty more to clear up the game. 

Fabio did mention there are not as many changes to tactics cards as there were last year.

Other Teases

NCUs will see minor changes, this is due to most having unique rules and that is their focus in the future whereas this update is on rules that show up across multiple cards. Fabio did mention that the Night’s Watch sees the most NCU changes.

Summary

In my opinion, CMON have ticked all the boxes with how you should balance a tabletop game with this stream. Some rules deemed too strong have been dialled back (War Cry, Hardened), others that were too bad or not worth using are reworked or points costed effectively (Halberdiers, Outflank) and then there is rules that cause a lot of confusion and FAQ questions that have been reworked to help clarify (Coordination Tactics). The community has asked for this and CMON have provided to our satisfaction.

Knight Models have issues with model support and tend to release Batman models that would make the most money. This is now changing after listening to the community. GW are fast with changes both good and bad, but the sheer scope of the game prevents many balancing challenges and sometimes models, and rules becomes obsolete and not to be addressed for a long while, power creep is one of these issues.
CMON, whilst providing great updates, are let down by how long it has taken for something to be done, and the lack of communication in a bunch of areas. Sometimes it is just words without anything to back it up like the nerf to Mance that has been teased. I have good faith that CMON will release a high-quality update next week.

That is all for the teases given to us by CMON today, we will be discussing the changes when they go live next week so stay tuned!

If you want to get a hold of the new Outflank rules ready for the change, why not pick up Brynden Tully for your Stark army or some Hrakkers for the Targaryens.

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