CMON announced recently that a new update is arriving within the next few months for A Song Of Ice and Fire the Miniatures Game. With this announcement they teased a few units and a new Tywin Commander rework. They did say this update focuses on Commanders, and after showing the improvements to Tywin I started to think about which Commanders I would love to see addressed the most.
Starks – Maege Mormont
I decided on Maege due to a lack of an identity with her Tactics Cards that you build a list around with other Affiliations in the Stark Faction. Most Stark players are picking the units of Bear Island but rarely select Maege.
Her Tactics Cards are underwhelming. Sustained Assault is considered a bad card due to it only being useful when one of your units are engaged and not at full strength, so there are limited opportunities to be used efficiently.
Support of Bear Island is Supply Aid but with Weakened thrown in if certain conditions are met. Supply aid is very useful to heal a unit that doesn’t want to be on low ranks like the Tully Cavaliers, whilst destroying a rank on another unit to gain buffs like the Mormont Bruisers but falls into a realm where in order to synergise with the Affiliation identity you have to take on a negative.
Lastly, Here We Stand! A card useful to deny points or prevent an overrun of the rest of your army by keeping a unit in the fray. Again, only useful when you are losing.
Mormont Units become better in quality through combat the less ranks they have. A trait shown in other units such as Stark Sworn Swords and Umber Berserkers. Umbers match their Commander in being the extreme aggressive units of the faction, whilst Stark units tend to fit anywhere but show some similarities with their Commanders such as the Honour Guard being better Sworn Swords for Ned, and Outriders fitting nicely with the mobility playstyle of Robb. Mormont Bruisers and She-Bears only work with Maege if they stick around after Here We Stand! Or drop a run from Support of Bear Island. If your playstyle is to die to gain buffs then make it worthwhile like the Umber Cards, however doing that would turn you into a second Umber force rather than finding your own identity.
The Mormonts in the books were loyal to the Starks and shouted it out loud for everyone to hear. Whilst Manderlys and other Houses remained loyal but publicly renounced them. Whether it was the Boltons or Baratheons demanding their allegiance, Bear Island would answer no call unless it was from the King in the North whose name is Stark. Tullys and Karstarks are designed to stay in the fight the longest so being a resilient army would be off the table. I suggest instead that the Mormonts become a denying army. Include ways to stop abilities and Tactics Cards, find a way to counter an attack like Final Strike or Cotter Pyke’s Pyke Aggression card. Maybe even remove tokens as soon as they are given or force debuffs.
There is potential to design the Mormonts in an interesting way without doubling up on an identity from another Affiliation.
Lannisters – Jaime Lannister
Most Lannister generals are consistently useful with unique playstyles. However, I always find Jaime to be forgotten or left to be considered last. I think this is because his cards only buff his own Unit rather than the whole army like the High Sparrow. The inclusion of Addam Marbrand Attachment does help spread the effectiveness of his cards, but unfortunately 2pts is a lot to consider for a low activation faction.
There isn’t too much to say here other than his cards should change to affect more than just Jaime, perhaps those near Jaime as a boost of confidence having the most legendary duelist in Westeros leading them?
I do hope we get a Goldhand Commander in the future which would show a more capable Jaime who has learned from Robb’s battle strategies and become more honourable with his actions. Until then, an overconfident but very capable Commander would be the right idea for the Kingslayer.
Night’s Watch – Denys Mallister
I have played Denys Mallister quite a few times. Everytime I play him I come to the same conclusion; he is by far the worst Commander in the entirety of the game. Combat Prowess and Adaptive Methods are great cards, if you have tokens out on the field which is incredibly difficult to achieve for Night’s Watch when it is specifically.
Tempered by Duty is trash. A card that suffers the same fate as Sustained Assault. It is just not useful unless you are engaged, and have lost a rank or two, then you get a token or two. For the limitation on when this card can do something, and doing all that for a token or two, is a complete joke.
When looking at Denys, his cards don’t seem too bad, but the lack of token generation that you would want to use on his cards, and that all the other Commanders are just better, you’re just penalising yourself for not taking something else. Even Jeor Mormont feels much better than Denys.
I don’t care how it is done, just please rework Denys Mallister. Maybe even find a way to make him synergise better with the Shadow Tower Spearmen seeing as he is their Commander.
Free Folk – The Weeper
I don’t face or play with Free Folk enough to know which Commander needs a helping hand. However, I don’t hear about Harma or The Weeper as much anymore. I do remember the days of Skinchangers and Harma being a big deal and not having enough space to deploy every unit.
I decided to pick The Weeper since Harma’s cards are unique enough in playstyle that she seems incredibly fun to use. A Spearwife Matriarch with Harma’s Bannerman seems like a fun combination. Whereas The Weeper is just a different type of panic play to Rattleshirt, and even then Rattleshirt isn’t much of a morale focused threat.
I think the Free Folk faction is in a great place now and I feel nitpicky with selecting a Commander to be focused on. I know people are discussing the power of Varamyr and Mag the Mighty, but it is nowhere near as devastating as Mance was, and the faction feels relatively balanced in comparison to the other lists and factions performing well at events.
Baratheons – Renly (KitS) and Justin Massey
I am selecting one Commander from each loyalty and the selection was the easiest choice I have ever had to make.
Renly (KitS)
Renly, King in the South, is bonkers. I didn’t think it was possible to make a Commander that feels worse to play with than pre-patch Joffrey Baratheon, but they did it. It all falls into not understanding the character design from what has happened in the story.
The card Overconfidence triggers me so much as Renly has never been overconfident as a negative aspect. He had a huge army backed by one of the wealthiest, largest, and well provisioned realms in Westeros, against a few islands from Stannis and a crippled defenceless King’s Landing. Even if Tywin went to defend the city he would have been crushed. So even if you consider Renly’s thoughts about the war at this point as overconfident, he has every reason to be this unless he had foresight towards black magic assassin babies.
Why is Lavish Encampment bad for Renly? Him having tournaments for his people and making sure they were well fed boosted their morale and more importantly their loyalty to new heights, and in the books, this didn’t have any repercussions as he wasn’t slowed down nor was his supplies diminished.
Knights of Summer card is the only one that could come with a negative effect due to new soldiers never seeing battle before overextending themselves. But this is not reflective in the effects of the card. How does overextending yourself result in doing a morale test and if you pass enemies, they are engaged with do a panic test? Surely this should have been additional combat effects for damage or tokens thrown back on the aggressor.
Then we also have a unique unit in the more expensive Kingsguard by 2pts with worse abilities. It just blows my mind how badly designed this unit and Commander are to a point where it just makes no sense in gameplay or story. At least the abilities of Renly himself are very valuable and make sense to his actions, but it’s a shame it comes attached to everything else that is abysmal.
Justin Massey
Justin Massey is a great Commander for lore purposes. I think his cards were well thought out from the actions he has taken in the books, and some of his rules make more sense when utilising mercenaries just like how he secured support from the Iron Bank and recruited mercs.
But for the Baratheon side of the roster, he feels out of place. His morale boosting ability is just a +1 to some units and no change in value to others. It only feels weird due to seeing Inspiring Presence on bad morale units such as Asha Greyjoy for the Ironborn Trappers and their 8+ morale. It is helpful when including Neutrals like the Stormcrow Archers who also see a benefit from the Tactical Reposition Order on Justin as well.
Sudden Retreat is a great card for the ranged units, but most of the time Baratheons want to be engaged to get the most out of their abilities and cards. Regroup and Reform is just as useful as Supply Aid, but this ability is easily gathered from Davos, and the Attachment switching is likely to never be utilised. Precious Supplies is a great card, but the benefit is so little that it doesn’t equate to much.
A few tweaks of Justin to synergise better with the Baratheon forces might result in him being worthwhile. Or go wild with making Neutrals fit better with the rest of Baratheons, representing his work with the Iron Bank and distancing from the ideals of most of the Baratheons at the time.
Targaryens – Barristan Selmy
There are a lot of Targrayen Commanders that need some form of rework which makes the decision to pick one very hard. After spending way too long trying to choose, I do think the worst Commander is Barristan Selmy. Belwas was a close second, but I think his cards are better than Selmy’s.
Barristan’s cards have a lot of hurdles to gain benefits and most of the time those benefits are not worth it. Following this two of them have a negative effect if conditions are met. Legendary Boldness is restricted to the start of a round, attach to a unit, pass a panic test, and be in short range just to get a panic token, then to keep the unit alive and engaged to get a vp. If the unit is destroyed, then the opponent gets an additional vp. I am glad the draw card option is on this card because that is what I would use it for each time.
Victory Comes Hard is Sundering for the game, but if you fail a panic test the unit gains weakened and vulnerable. The risk is not worth the reward unless it is on a high morale unit such as Unsullied who certainly benefit from the extra keyword but by no means need it. Swordsmaster don’t care about the weakened token and a Rakharo led unit doesn’t either but that’s about it. The cons outweigh the benefits here.
Sustained Assault is a bad card no matter where it is found but to lose Sudden Retreat for it is the biggest kicker. Combat Prowess is a great card but there are very few ways to get tokens out onto units in the Targaryen forces.
Barristan feels like a penalisation to a Targaryen player as bringing any other Commander would have more impact on the game. Unfortunately, this tends to be the same reason we don’t see many of the Commanders, there is a specific few that are just better to take by default at list building stage.
Greyjoys – Asha Greyjoy
In the most recent update, Asha was nerfed due to her popularity in patching the biggest weakness for Greyjoys; Morale. This is likely due to the decision to change Mance Rayder for the Free Folk due to him doing the same thing. So almost an indirect nerf to Greyjoys alongside others such as the War Cry change.
At least Harlaw Reapers and Blacktyde Chosen were updated, each with a buff to morale in some form. Asha may have gotten worse as a Commander but the synergy across the force has gotten better or remained the same.
Asha’s cards only take effect when passing a morale test, so you need to build the list around high morale units to utilise her cards the most. However, a token, a few wounds, or an extra dice, are not substantial buffs in comparison to other Commanders such as Victarion’s Assault Orders, Euron’s Cunning Ploy, or Theon Greyjoy’s Opportunist.
Asha lost Rally Point and gained Boisterous Charisma. I am sure there are many situations where this ability would make a difference specially to survive, normally this ability is on characters that are too expensive and is not played as often to know it’s impact.
All of this is kind of obsolete as Greyjoys are getting a huge refresh due to the Pillage mechanic being reworked. This change will be world changing for every Commander and Unit in the Greyjoy force, so trying to discern which Commander needs to be looked at is practically pointless.
Martells – Oberyn Martell
I haven’t played with, played against, or watched in play Martells, so my thoughts on the faction are limited. However, out of all the Commanders I see Oberyn Martell played the least. Considering he is an incredibly popular fan favourite; his rules must be poorly designed to reflect this.
Two of Oberyn’s cards get the most benefits when interacting with Oberyn’s unit. This is the same reason why I considered Jaime to be a bad Commander as his benefits affect a small portion of the force. At least Intercept Orders aren’t restricted and Unexpected Exhaustion does have an effect that is not reliant on Oberyn’s Unit. When they do interact with Oberyn, it is only for tokens most of the time, which is probably the least useful benefit a Tactics card can provide. However, this does work well with Oberyn’s abilities.
Oberyn introduced the Poison mechanic which is a very fun ability when you can utilise it. Forcing an opponent to take damage every time they become vulnerable can slowly whittle them down, and when you combine this with the slow attrition of the rest of Martells can be significant. However, you need to get in combat and have the enemy unit activate twice, or once if they are already vulnerable, to see anything happen.
Generally, Oberyn doesn’t do too much constantly, whereas someone like Uller, just by showing up, has more interaction with the force. Iron Resolve takes effect very likely multiple times in a turn, with Supply aid being on hand to support a unit. Manticore Venom and Viper’s Fangs would be lucky to happen twice.
Essentially, if you have a rule that is very likely to only happen once a Round, especially when you need to jump through a few hoops to use, it needs to have a good reward.
Summary
Overall, a Commander that needs focus from the developers for reworking has a few signature traits. If the Commander doesn’t interact with the whole force like Jaime or Oberyn then it will be overshadowed by a less restrictive Commander such as the High Sparrow or Harmen Uller.
If there are too many criteria for the army to reach just for a benefit like Maege Mormont and Barristan Selmy, and the rewards for achieving that are underwhelming, then they will fade into obscurity in favour for less restrictive Commanders like Greatjon Umber or Marselen.
If a Commander feels bad to play due to you feeling like you’ve penalised yourself by not bringing any other Commander like Denys Mallister or Renly (KitS) then these need some changes to feel better to bring to the table. Denys Mallister makes playing even one of the worst Night’s Watch Commanders fantastic, whilst Renly (KitS) isn’t consistent with gameplay or lore.
Whilst some factions were spoilt for choice, every Commander selected felt obvious for a rework. I hope CMON has come to the same realisation and addressed them in the patch coming very soon to the game.
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