The A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game Super Regionals took place this weekend, and CMON showed off some new boxes, models and rules. The only information released from the event is from those that have attended and have told us about what they heard, so take this information with a pinch of salt. However, there will be a Live Stream by CMON next week in which they will reveal the future of the game in depth. But if you can’t wait then this article is here for you.
Artwork
When the event began a bunch of artwork was shown off on monitors around the tables. Gold Cloaks, Umber Cavalry, Pit Fighters, Neutral Heroes 3, Starfall Infantry, and Greyjoy Raiders were all shown off. There was also some artwork of the leaked Bolton Starter and Martell Heroes 2. Only a few of these were talked about shortly after the event in a presentation which we will talk about later.
Sandor Clegane, Arya Stark, Rorge, and Biter look to be in the Neutral Heroes 3 box with two other characters being a mystery. This box quite possibly could be the most anticipated box in the game’s history in terms of rules. Neutrals desperately need some new NCUs and Commanders and this could bring that to the table. Some people think the two mystery characters could have ties to the Golden Company or Stormcrows.
Umber Cavalry are so exciting for the subfaction to stand on its own as this would bring them to three unique units, they just need some character for NCUs, and you can run a pure Umber army. This would also be the third cavalry unit for Starks and could bring some interesting synergies with many of their Commanders.
Starfall Infantry looks to have been shown off as well. They share some similarities with the other Starfall units, and the characters in Martell Heroes 2 would need an infantry unit to attach to. There isn’t much to go off on this unit but if they are anything like Darkstar they will be incredible duellists. There is a possibility that they are troops from Lemonwood since they share a similar colour scheme with Daynes.
Greyjoy Raiders or Heroes or Attachments, to be honest these guys look generic so it is hard to predict what they could be. However, they look fantastic and Greyjoys need some help after their losses from the patch. They could be characters due to the different weapons each character has, which might lean into the leaked Attachment box on the way. This could truly be anything.
Lannister Gold Cloaks
The long-awaited defenders of King’s Landing have arrived. It was theorised that the Gold Cloaks could be Neutral, but it is confirmed that they are Lannisters which makes sense when Addam Marbrand has been named their Commander on his rules card. The models shown off look very Roman but also there looks to be an attachment in the box with one model having slightly different armour. In the Artwork you can see the same character with the breastplate more decorated than the others so this could back up the point.
People who were at the event said that the developers described the unit as being “Bad at both attack and defence but have lots of control and suppression.” No specifics were given as to what this means, however Lannisters moving away from morale damage and leaning into a dominance theme seems neat. Perhaps this unit has Sow Discord to remove some abilities from the field? It is not an ability commonly seen and plays into the suppression aspect.
Pit Fighters
Strong Belwas is joined by his gladiator buddies in Targaryen’s new infantry unit. Hopefully this helps the faction and spotlight Belwas a bit due to him being not that impressive of a Commander. The models look like they will have very little armour but will likely trade this for being voracious in combat. The developers said that the unit will be “Cheap but not chaff.”
Boltons
Boltons are officially revealed. There is some interesting news here that I don’t think lines up. Apparently, we will be getting a new version of Roose NCU and a Ramsay NCU but I am unsure whether this aligns with the contents of the Starter. Perhaps there won’t be the exact same versions of the Neutral Bolton stuff in the Bolton faction which may result in a Neutral version being picked if it is better, for example people often bring the Neutral version of Daario as it is better for the Tactics Deck in Targaryens.
CMON did say the Boltons are a Mini faction with this opening the door for other houses to become smaller factions. I assume that this means they won’t have as diverse of model range as the main factions but can be run with some level of creativity in list design. Other factions that could be released as a Mini faction are all the Neutral Affiliations, Riverlands, The Reach or even Cleganes.
Jeyne Poole as Arya Stark is one of the NCUs in the Starter Set. The rules that were discussed sounded confusing saying that it has an ability where the enemy can control her once per game. This would be a very bad NCU if it has the same points as the rest, would it still be good at 3pts? It makes me wonder if we will see the Steward of Winterfell Vayon Poole who died when Ned tried to seize the throne.
Dreadfort Archers – Full rules reveal, no points. A unit that has become a terrifying concept to the game if it is a neutral unit seeing how powerful ranged units are becoming. However, they will be Bolton only. They share a lot of similarities rules wise with the Stark Bowmen other than their morale being worse and a slight ability change. I do think this means the unit will be 6pts to match their Stark counterparts. Their new rule allows them to gain re-rolls and Precision when shooting a unit that is engaged by a friendly unit, then all friendly units engaged take a wound.
Bastards Boys, Tybald and Ben Bones – The Heroes box is full of Bolton unit buffers. Ben, the kennel master of the Dreadfort training the dogs to fight wolves, is 1pt but will be reduced by 1 in Bastard’s Girls, there was nothing about his rules mentioned. Tybald, the Dreadfort Maester, is an NCU. The most interesting part about this is that he is only mentioned in the pre-release chapters for the unreleased Winds of Winter book. All the Boys will be Attachments and gain bonuses for being in Cutthroats or Bastard’s Girls, there was nothing else about their rules mentioned.
Walton Steelshanks is the only Commander in the Heroes box for Boltons. Whilst none of his rules were shown off, his Tactics Cards were revealed to be Taunt, Rush of Aggression and Price of Fear. While we know what Taunt and Rush of Aggression are since they are featured on other Commanders, Price of Fear is new. Taunt is considered to be useless, but it forces the opponent to think twice about getting too close whilst considering whether you have the card for every unit you approach.
Dreadfort Spearmen had their points shown off and are 5pts. They also come with Set for Charge, and another ability that gives “buffs/debuffs when killing with spears. Entirely new mechanic.” They also had their models shown off for the first time which was vacant from the leaks a few weeks ago. This unit will not be in the Starter Set. This could be a very good unit for Boltons to use and may help with them getting to high activations. Steelshanks may work well with the Spearmen as he could Taunt an enemy into the Set for Charge.
Live Stream
Whilst we were expecting some information on the other pieces of Art shown off, CMON have said they will be doing a Live Stream in the next week. Unsure when this will be but keep an eye out on their Facebook page as it will likely be shown off there. They do confirm they will go over the future of the game in more depth.
They did also mention a whole bunch of information about the future of Organised Play in the US.
As soon as there is more information, I will be posting an article with what was said here, so keep an eye out for that in the future. In the meantime, why not pick up some Bastard’s Girls to get them painted up in time for all the new Attachments?
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