We do not kneel! ASOIAF 2023 update is here for the Free Folk. This article goes over the changes to the forces beyond The Wall and speculates over the future of the game for them. I want to give an early warning. This update had some major changes to the Free Folk roster, but by no way did it nerf them into unplayable. They are very balanced internally and the future should be bettering the underused things.
Pre Update
Stating the obvious, Mance needed to change, his Tactics Cards mixed with his Attachment rules made him far too good. One or both aspects needed to be addressed to allow other Commanders to get a chance in the sun. Alongside this is a need for the Free Folk base deck to be addressed with Endless Horde being the most cried out card to be changed.
In terms of Units, the Free Folk Raiders, Frozen Shore Chariots, and Varamyr, all needed to be looked over in some fashion. Free Folk Raiders is spammed (to be honest it makes sense) but to the detriment to all the other unique units. Chariots are too cheap for what they do. Varamyr brings so much to the faction and is practically an auto take as a Commander/Solo with or without his animal Solos.
I don’t think any of this needs nerfing, just balancing points on most things and then reworking others to allow other things in the faction to shine. But it can’t be just buff the units not taken, there must be a nerf/rework of the top performing stuff with buffs to others.
Mance Rayder
I was predicting that Mance would be dead in the water after this update, like how Othell was dropped after his rework. Whilst Othell is still very much alive but not as overbearing as before, Mance follows the same route. Keeping his strong Tactics Cards, the same, but thoroughly reworking the Attachment, Mance no longer plays the same or feels as dominant. However, he is still very good and sits in a nice place in the Free Folk faction.
Rally Point being removed from this faction is a massive deal reducing the survivability of the faction significantly. Is there an easy way to fix this shortcoming in the army now? Perhaps spending points on Attachments in Raider Units buffs the morale like the Walrus Chieftain, however that still results in needing to spend points to help this weakness and becomes more expensive for Units outside of Raiders, Mance’s Unit keeps its 5+ morale which will hopefully keep him alive throughout the game. Free Folk will now need to play around this low morale statistic again.
Boisterous Charisma and Counter Strategy are going to work very well for shutting off plays against Mance. He doesn’t want to be in Short Range of anything so the Order will be used to reduce the effectiveness of a challenging Unit as best as they can. Why is this important? The new rule The King is Dead! Results in 2 Additional VPs for slaying Mance and every Free Folk Unit becomes Panicked. Whilst Mance was cagey before to protect the morale bubble, it is now more important than ever to protect him from everything, especially now with Outflank running wild.
Are these changes balanced? I hated the VPs given to Mother of Dragons and Joffrey, you must put a unit out of the game or play to protect it just so the opponent doesn’t snowball into victory. Whereas Joffrey also had negative effects in addition to negatives on his card making him all around feel bad, Mother of Dragons at least had no other negatives to add on to the VPs. I think Mance’s cards are still the same and very strong at that offsets the VPs. I am just a little confused why CMON believed the VPs to be a bad rule and thus took it away from MoD and Joff, but then gave it out to Mance? Only Rickon and Maimed Jaime work with VPs rules now.
The Result – Mance will be taken a lot less now that he has a huge weakness and does not buff the army significantly. However, he still has great cards to utilise which keeps him as a solid choice for a Commander. We may see alternative Mance picks in NCUs and Attachments now, whilst the biggest impact will be for other Commanders to take center stage. A brilliant update to the GAME, not just the faction.
Tactics Deck
Coordination Tactics, There’s Too Many! and Endless Horde, have all been changed in some fashion. Coordination Tactics changes nothing for Free Folk as it was a wording change to help with the Greyjoy Drowned Men confusion.
There’s Too Many! Was a strong card giving a massive negative to morale tests as it was incredibly likely you have the max Units in range. Add this to any of the Bonelord stuff, Weeper, or even some of the monsters and it can be an issue. This is all without talking about the additional wounds you would take that are now removed. This card will be amazing for morale damage plans but will become almost pointless outside of it. I think it is in a good place now and can be crucial at times. A good change.
Endless Horde. The most controversial card to date perhaps? Look, a few Units in blocks of 12 Wounds is too much. Coldhands being taken for his revivability keeping the activation count high for Night’s Watch is the only reason he is taken, but he is only 4 Wounds. Same with Varamyr’s animals. Most Units can kill solos in one go, but not 12 Wound blocks with unbreachable morale. Changing this to making Raider Units expendable seems the right choice. I don’t think it can be super problematic if you just hold on with a few wounds, draw the card, force a whole new attack to kill them, and bring on a fresh Unit, all without losing a VP. I do believe this is more balanced and helps armies not good at killing to have a chance at board control.
The Result – It is hard to tell what impact these changes will have without playing them in game. A great blog by Brian Mcgonigle who is a leading Free Folk player for the game is what I will be keeping up to date on to see the effects of the Tactics Deck changes and by extension Free Folk as a whole. It is an awesome blog with some intense battle report coverage at several events.
Frozen Shore – Chieftain, Walrus, Bears, Hunters and Chariots
I am looking forward to making an Affiliation Article about the Frozen Shore. There is actually quite a lot of customisations when it comes to the Units/Characters available which is always a recipe for success with Affiliation. Some of the changes are quality of life improvements like the Chieftain missing Iron Resolve from the Hunters box, the Hunters going to Short Range, and Hardened being reworked on the Great Walrus.
Frozen Shore Bear Riders gained the Charging Volley Order to help boost their damage in one action. The shooting attack is only Short Range on a Cavalry Unit with 4 Move, a very slow base for trying to set-up this attack but will now allow for a chance at being a stronger hitting action when they do surge into the enemy. I do believe there are better ways to spend the 8pts like a giant, but the bears are very survivable and wop a massive punch. Not a huge game changer but a welcomed one.
Frozen Shore Chariots were way too good for 4pts the same value as Raiders. Super-fast unit and can do some serious hurt on the charge was just too good for 4pts. The points change is an obvious one where the extra point for a chariot is about having the big punch from a fast-moving unit. We won’t see too many chariots around but may see the odd one in lists utilised as a distraction you can’t ignore like how the Hrakkers are feeling now too.
Overall, I think if you are bringing Frozen Shore Units you want to play into the Frozen Shore Affiliation. The Walrus’ Battle Endurance Tactics Card has the obvious choice of going on Frozen Shore Bear Riders, however you could put it onto a Unit with the Walrus in or even the Chieftain which could catapult them into a terrifying unit whilst remaining resilient with the attachment abilities and the other two Tactics Cards providing a defensive buff and an offensive buff.
The Result – Chariots are not an auto included in forces now, and same can be said for the Hunters who are brought down from the insane Long Range they were released with. Whilst Bears saw a buff I do see them being played outside of the Walrus’ deck, nor do I see the Chieftain being valuable over the other 2pts Characters. However, the Units are better than some of the other unique Units, and playing into the faction will create a fun synergised force for people to play.
Tormund, Wun Wun and Jarl
War Cry Changes to Tormund is huge, with the Change to Wun Wun maybe not so much. Tormund was a perfect combo with old Mance as he would bring a Morale benefit with two tokens. Now his Morale benefit is the sole boost the Unit he is in will have and only one token is being applied. Tormund will likely see very less play now as he brings much less to the table in Attachment form. I do think his Commander is still interesting enough to play.
Wun Wun when taken in a monster list with Mag did get too much out of the tokens other than to really boost his own damage perhaps. When taken in a normal list the tokens are welcomed, however Mag looked to be a better choice when wanting to field a giant so I am unsure if this will have a huge impact on the pick rate of Wun Wun and his performance.
Jarl was great before, now even better. When you can take him for free in Raiders, he is an auto include to harass the enemy lines from the flank or rear. But I think his power truly shows when you take him in Spearwives, giving them a crazy charge from a very advantageous position. I think he will pair very nicely with Harma’s Feinting Maneuver Card, or Tormund Commander who has a few nice tricks to turn this Unit into a monster.
The Result – Tormund Attachment will see little play, whereas Wun Wun will likely only show in Commander Mag forces. Jarl is likely to be taken very often with such a drastic change to Outflank, I think we will see a lot of Jarl’s forces climbing the Wall to flank the forces of the Night’s Watch or anyone else foolish enough to take on the Free Folk.
Cave Dwellers
No longer do the Cave Dweller Savages hurt themselves with their Melee Attack. It is no secret that I hate abilities that do instant wounds to the user with the benefit not being a good trade off like Price of Failure for example. Cave Dweller Savages were balancing on the edge here, but they were still never used. This change gives them a unique position in the faction as no other infantry Units are built to stomp through a Melee Attack.
The Result – This unit will see play, likely the unit will be taken off of the shelf after a long-time gathering dust or finally out the wrappings like the Clegane Brigands. A brilliant change.
Mag the Mighty
Did Mag need a points reduction on his Commander? Mag was and is being played outside of his Commander version as he is the equivalent of an oyster shucker. Dealing with pesky heavy cavalry? Well, you better take the king of the giants! He will pop open those shells for you. The Commander’s points prevented him from fielding anything above 6 activations with a pure monster list which is practically a death sentence. Varamyr’s inclusion into the game changed this allowing higher activations. The points reduction makes Varamyr less necessary and means there are combinations between giants, mammoths and NCUs giving the Commander a lot of list building freedom. Will this make Mag the best Free Folk Commander?
The Result – I by no means believe he is now the best Free Folk Commander as Styr and Varamyr also keep for that spot. However, I do believe this change will increase his pick rate for Wilding players.
Post Update
Already we can see changes in tournaments, Free Folk are taken less allowing for a lot of other factions to shine. Further to this Mance play rate is drastically reduced, with Mag being taken a lot in his place. More specialised Units are coming out to play which is likely due to the Raider spam being less effective and Chariots not being auto included. This refresh brings a breath of air to the faction allowing those who field them and play against them to almost feel as if they are playing against something brand new yet familiar. One thing is for sure, Free Folk are not dominating games now which is the most requested change in the update.
Summary
I am curious to see what the future will be for Free Folk with quite a few changes pushing the players to experiment and get creative once again. If it does none of this, then at least it opens the doors to other factions to shine.
Frozen Shore is looking very filled out so would love to see some themed lists towards this now that their infantry is hitting shelves and those amazing Bear Rider models are now worth taking.
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