2021.03 Update for A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game is here. We will be going over each faction’s changes to Units, NCUs, Characters and even Base Tactics Decks. This update has been bigger than the last and thus has shaken up the game substantially. In this article, we will be looking at the fully revealed Base Deck and Commanders of the new Mini-Faction. The Traitorous House Bolton.
Base Deck
Remorseless Examples – I love it when we get super creative new Tactics Cards from CMON. This card working with Terrain rules is something we see very little of in the game. The first part of this card I feel like would be ignored, since there are many ways to generate Panic Tokens in this Mini-Faction. This card aligns well with existing synergies with the Boltons, and I can’t wait to see littered fields of corpses. I love that CMON has taken a tactic used by Boltons of showing flayed corpses on a battlefield into a Tactics Card.
Harsh Punishments – Another Tactics Card that was designed to match an aspect of the Bolton characters. When an underling messes up or does not achieve what was asked of them, there is nothing but harsh punishments in store. CMON has balanced a negative effect perfectly on this card for the benefit of it. Sundering and Highest Attack Dice Value feels best used on the Cutthroats or Blackguard, but it can also be played with the Spearmen and Bastard’s Girls. It can be attached to Flayed Men which terrifies me. A truly interesting card.
Our Blades Are Sharp – One of Neutral Ramsay Snow’s cards have a slight rework before being added to the Bolton base deck. Precision will be useful on any of the units along with the reroll. I imagine a Set For Charge order from the Dreadfort Spearmen would love this card, but also the Blackguard since they are used defensively and are unlikely to be charging. It’s situational, but useful. As the words of House Bolton that are rarely spoken due to other coined phrases, this card represents the meaning behind the words, but also the rarity of its use.
Sadistic Games – Another Neutral Ramsay Snow Tactics Cards makes its way into the base Tactics Deck. A carbon copy card that allows for token generation or a little extra damage thrown out. You must be smart about when you launch your sadistic game, you cannot allow for one of these choices to not be beneficial. Set up a situation where the hits would be a negative, then if Panic Tokens are handed out then it feeds everything the Mini-Faction wants anyways.
Cruel Methods – Finishing off the set, Ramsay’s third card makes its way into the base deck. This is a little nerfed as it can no longer heal the Flayed Men, however it is still a very useful card for defensive capabilities with handing out tokens and healing back losses. It costs a Panic Token, which you should have a lot of anyway.
A Flayed Man Has No Secrets – One of Neutral Roose Bolton’s Tactics Cards has also been added to the base deck. This is an incredibly powerful card that is very similar to Counterplot. There are a whole host of ways that it can be used, and with the third season of the game showcasing some amazing abilities and Tactics Cards, this will be needed more than ever. Happy to see it is for all the Commanders and not just Roose though.
Fear Keeps a Man Alive – The final Tactics Card in the base deck also comes from the Neutral Roose Bolton. Another healing card to keep the force in the game. There are units super tough to take down in the Flayed Men and Blackguard that would love this card to reinforce that toughness. But others, which are glass cannons, like the Cutthroats and Bastard’s Girls need this healing to keep them in the game for longer.
This base deck has a few tricks up its sleeves that help in aggression and defence, whilst having a few powerful plays that all synergise with all the corners of the Bolton Mini-Faction.
Roose Bolton – Lord of the Dreadfort
Roose’s abilities remain the same as the Neutral variant with Intimidating Presence ability and Spread Fear Order. Just like the Neutral version, Roose is best placed in the Blackguard Unit to get the most out of all his abilities, mixing with Horrific Visage. I think the next best place is with the Cutthroats as they have Vicious, or the Spearmen for the Set For Charge Morale test.
Whispered Threats – One of Roose’s cards from the Neutral variant has remained in his Bolton version. This allows you to generate some tokens when an enemy NCU activates. A useful card for putting out some tokens but is not massively impactful on the game. Roose now has two ways to put out Panic tokens in his deck which is a unique aspect across the Bolton Commanders.
Seeing Their Flaws – A powerful card from Kevan Lannister has made its way onto Roose Bolton. This card can be used to great effect to shut down a Unit’s abilities and Tactics Cards. This only affects Roose’s Unit however, which is quite likely to be Blackguard who aren’t great at combat, but pair this card with Steelshanks Attachment, who counts as Roose for the card effects, and you could see more use out of this.
Dreadfort Secrets – A brand new card added into the game, and it plays in a similar fashion to the Dreadfort Spearman’s Impaling Spear ability. Generating Panic tokens is incredibly valuable for the Bolton faction, and Roose NCU helps a lot in this manner, so having the Commander equipped with something to help with this is important. This card can work with almost any Unit in the faction so it will have a lot of playabilities, however the impact might not be that substantial.
I think Roose is a bad Commander. His best cards went into the Base Deck which makes him less valuable than the Neutral version. Whilst all the cards will be useful in some way, they will impact very little on the field, this is the same for his abilities that only enhance something that is already happening. Seeing Their Flaws is a great card that can impact the game, but Roose’s Unit is not likely to utilise it making it redundant. You are kind of forced to bring Steelshanks to gain any value.
Ramsay Snow – Spiteful Heir
Ramsay’s abilities have remained the same from his Neutral variant bringing the Horrific Visage ability. This is a great ability for any of the infantry Units to have. Whether you are the Spearmen further incentivising the opponent from not attacking, the Archers to give them a defensive boost, or the Cutthroats trying to stay alive, Ramsay fits in with them all apart from the Blackguard who will double up on this rule.
Skin Collection – Skin Collection is a brand-new fantastic card for Ramsay to bring. This can make an attack from Vicious a -4 to the Panic Test, or increase a full rank Blackguard/Commander Unit to a -5 Panic Test. It can help with Spread Fear on the Bolton Flayers or give the defensive Units a little punch to their attacks. The possibilities, and impact on the game, are endless here. You must work to get the order tokens, but it is for a good payout.
Opportunist – What a powerful card. My first thought was to give Archers the rerolls and keywords without needing to have a Unit engaged or boost their rule with Vicious. But then I thought about Flayed Men getting Precision and the reroll, or the Bastard’s Girls, really any Unit would see a lot of benefits from using this card to pack a hefty punch. A strong card that can be used in so many ways.
Spoils in Flesh – Fuelled by Slaughter but in a Short-Range Tactics Card. Adding more ways to heal for the Boltons will be quite strong for keeping them in the game, and unlike Cruel Methods it can be used to heal the Flayed Men which are arguably one of the best Units at their disposal. It can also offset the glass hammer Units too.
Ramsay seems to be the best Commander for the Boltons, each card is impactful on the game and provides some strong buffs for the whole army, not selective Units. You can bring what you want whilst being able to boost them further with Ramsay’s cruel tactics and strategies. A strong Commander for the Mini-Faction.
Steelshanks Walton – Captain of the Guard
Steelshanks Walton is a high-ranking Lieutenant for Roose Bolton and was tasked with bringing Jaime Lannister safely to King’s Landing. Steelshanks succeeded in this task even when Jaime added a bit of chaos into it and was a likeable character to some extent. He is still a Bolton after all. He was also the one to kidnap Jeyne Poole believing her to be Arya Stark.
Walton’s abilities are weird. Shared Fear is a brand-new ability which is interesting, generating tokens from your own Unit failing Panic tests is certainly something we haven’t seen before, and there are some bad Morale Stats to utilise this. However, Iron Resolve seems odd.
I can see the developers wanting to add something to help players not feel let down with a benefit only from a negative, and solved this with Iron Resolve, however it probably would have been a better idea to add Unyielding instead since the +1 to Panic tests from Iron Resolve counteracts Shared Fear. A small change to abilities here would have Walton sitting nicely in a niche design.
Price of Fear – A brand new card to the game that adds some mobility to the Bolton forces for some flank or even rear charges. It could also tie in with the other Tactics Cards Walton has for a long shot combination across the board. This card will be played at crucial times to have the most impact possible, it could even be game settling if used in the right way to remove a Unit from the field.
Rush of Aggression – An auto-rolled 6 for the charge and Critical Blow. This will be a brutal card for the Boltons to use with Bastard’s Girls or even the Cutthroats. I can see it being played on the Flayed Men to increase their threat range, but the Critical Blow aspect will double up unfortunately. This has been a strong card with aggressive Commanders like Victarion Greyjoy, so it will be interesting to see how it works here.
Taunt – The new changes to Taunt are going to be substantial here. I wish CMON kept it as a Long-Range option for Tactics Cards similar to how they changed the War Cry Order. The tokens will be helpful, however the real power here is forcing the opponent into charging something they do not wish to such as the Blackguard or Spearmen. This forcing of actions will tie into Price of Fear plus it could be brutal if you have a hidden set up with Rush of Aggression.
Steelshanks is a dark horse, Commander. His cards don’t look overly impressive at first glance, however when digging deeper you can see the combos, and with an experienced player behind the wheel of this Commander, Steelshanks could be quite powerful. Only time will tell whether he is a decent leader for the Boltons.
Summary
That is the three Commanders and Base Deck broken down with some of my thoughts on their impact. I think the Base Deck is incredibly powerful with some of the big hitters coming from the Neutral variants of the Boltons. Roose has become a lot worse because of this and his cards are a little lackluster for the grand betrayer. However, Ramsay has stood out as being the most impactful Commander for the Boltons, with Steelshanks showing some synergies for the smarter tactician.
Looking at the tactics and strategies you will be employing from these leaders, Boltons will be a decent faction but will fall apart in the long run due to being cut off from Neutrals and not having a diverse roster to work with. CMON should open the Boltons to having at the very least some Neutral support, otherwise they could fall to the bottom of the pile and be forgotten about.
Be sure to check out the next article which will go over the rest of the faction; the Characters and Units of the Boltons.
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