Drowning In Nerfs – Is This The End For The Greyjoys?

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. In this article, we will be looking at the rebellious forces of the Iron Islands; The Greyjoys. 

Pillage – Faction Mechanic

Changes – Army wide rule, removed from all units. 

This article is not going to be a very positive one so this is your warning. Greyjoys were not in a great place and arguably could be considered the worst faction. They needed an overhaul of some kind that also addresses their internal balance. The change to Pillage is a welcomed one, and could be considered better than before, but are still very bad. 

Any rule you need to do X to get Y is innately worse than any rule that just gives you X. You need to kill 5-8 models to get +1 dice whereas Boldness and Courage just gives an extra dice or two no matter what. Having an army designed around a mechanic that you need to work hard for means they will be worse than others that don’t need to work to be at full effectiveness. 

The change to Pillage is a mixed bag. On the Harlaw Reapers it is much worse, on the Reavers it is much better, on Ironmakers it isn’t a big deal, and on the Silenced Men it’s quite significant. 

I do have an idea for how to rework/fix Pillage since it does feel like the development team don’t want to abandon it, I will go over how I would save the Greyjoys in another article, but it does relate to a shared Pillage mechanic. 

Base Deck 

Changes – Raiding Call, The Iron Price, What Is Dead May Never Die, and Finger Dance Tactics Cards rework. 

Raiding Call – Not too much has changed here other than wording it better and removing the synergy with Lysene Pirates because of lore reasons. The development team has done this with most Pillage rules in the Greyjoy faction. I think this is a bad call as it goes against some of their own guidelines. The reason we can have Flayed Men in Targaryen forces is due to the game’s What If? Standpoint. Everything is up to you as the player to decide how forces have come together after the death of Robert Baratheon. As much as I hate it when something doesn’t make sense, that freedom of play is important. Secluding Units and factions off from the What If is stupid. 

Lysene Pirates and Smugglers work with Free Folk all the time in terms of trade, Eastwatch by the Sea spend most of their time dealing with the sea trade to the Free Folk so why can’t Free Folk take mercenaries? Why couldn’t Greyjoys work with Pirates to achieve their goal? What would have happened if Balon was killed, and Asha became ruler of the Iron Islands? She would have welcomed working with others to achieve their goals. 

In terms of gameplay this just makes Pirates undesirable in any faction when it works with nothing and is on its own. Having a place, it could synergise would have saved the play rate of the Unit and likely boosted sales. Just a bad move for the sake of lore that you don’t follow elsewhere. 

The Iron Price – This might be the worst Tactics Card in the entire game. Why spend a premium currency of a Pillage token for such little benefits in the game. I for one will never spend a Pillage token, remove a condition token, or get rerolls. Furthermore, I can’t see any situation where losing a Pillage token will matter for highest attack dice. The worst card that is only detrimental to your faction. Instant bin if it comes into my hand. 

What Is Dead May Never Die – A pretty good change to the card. I like the new optional effect of healing a Unit as there is nothing worse than drawing this card early in the game as you don’t want to discard it but likely won’t be using it for a while. I also like that it now keeps you alive after being destroyed, getting rid of possibly dying from the following Morale test. Plus, you no longer need the Sword Zone to prevent damage, but the trade-off here is you’re left with one wound. This card will be just as powerful as it was before but has more play for the Greyjoy player to utilise. 

Finger Dance – The change to this card is for the effects to be only in Melee preventing it from being used on the Bowmen. This card is now pointless unless it is to ensure the nail in the coffin when you know the opponent can’t capitalise on it. The card has less play and is like a straight discard if it is ever drawn. 

The Base Deck for Greyjoys is now one of the worst in the game. It’s hard to know if they did nothing to change the deck. You would be sitting better than you are now. These changes feel halfway between needed and uncalled for and I just don’t understand the decisions. 

Victarion Greyjoy – Commander 

Changes – Sustained Assault Tactics Card rework.  Add Vicious to Commander attachment. Reduce attachment to 2pts. 

A surprise favourite of the patch is the Captain of the Iron Victory himself. His Attachment has been reduced to 2pts finally after it was intentional to keep him at 3pts for no reason. A huge boost to the Attachment that unfortunately no one will take. 

The Commander however has gotten much better with an update to Sustained Assault helping the attacking power of a Victarion force. But adding Vicious is the kicker since Silenced Men are the best Unit in the faction and become even better with Vicious in tow. 

Victarion could be the best Commander due to his Tactics Cards helping a lot to get Pillage tokens earlier in the game whilst making the best Units even better. I could even see people bringing Golden Company Swordsmen here but the lack of synergy with the Tactics Card could hold them off. 

It’s strange that Pillage doesn’t synergise with Lysene Pirates, but the Greyjoys will pay a Golden Company contract. Like they seriously don’t want to pay the gold price for their victories but fine with hiring mercenaries? Why do Greyjoys get Neutrals, but Boltons don’t? Sorry for poking holes in the logic here. 

Asha Greyjoy – Commander 

Changes – War Cry Tactics Card rework. Both attachments remove Inspiring Presence and replace it with Iron Resolve. 

Asha may have become one of the worst Commanders for the Greyjoys after the developers removed her Morale aura. After an outcry for War Cry to remain as both tokens for the Commander cards, the developers have reworked it whilst removing her Morale benefit even further. Iron Resolve whilst very useful doesn’t interact with the Tactics Card. 

I think this is the nail in the coffin for Asha. Her cards rely on the Greyjoy Units passing a Morale test to see any form of benefit. Against a Morale debuffing army there is no way Asha can see any benefit from her cards, and until you start gaining benefits to Morale, they will likely be ineffective. 

Asha is a ruthless Commander that looks to be the one hope for the Iron Islands to live in harmony with the rest of Westeros. Both the books and show have become an unlikely ally for the would-be rulers in Stannis and Daenerys. If you are changing her abilities to not interact with her cards, then you should probably change her cards. What if instead of when they pass a Morale you attach the card for a buff until they fail a Morale? That way Iron Resolve comes into play more. 

I say rework her altogether to show strategic but ruthless planning alongside encouraging synergy through collaboration. Asha will be the least played Greyjoy Commander throughout this update.

Theon Greyjoy – Commander 

Changes – Stark Exposure Tactics Card rework. Add Sentinel order to Commander attachment. Attachment version reduces to 1pt. 

Theon has had a stellar glow up and he is certainly a great Commander for setting up a flanking play. All his Tactics Cards can be used to slingshot a Unit with a handful of buffs to eradicate even the most resilient of targets. However, it is within the realm of all your eggs in one basket, if the play does not work or fails to be pulled off then you’ve earned nothing but putting yourself out of position. 

Outside of this his combat boosting cards can be very useful on their own such as giving Silenced Men rerolls and Vicious. Or taking away Tactics Cards and Orders with Stark Exposure. There is potential here especially with Sentinel now added to the Commander Attachment, an ability sought after by all factions. 

I am curious if we will see the Attachment version now that it is cheaper. Auto-Six charge is nothing to discount especially with a free retreat afterwards to keep the Unit safe. 

I sure hope this means more of Theon is what we will see over the rest of this season. 

Balon Greyjoy – Commander 

Changes – All Tactics Cards reworked. Remove Iron Resolve and replace with The Kraken’s Dues. 

I am a firm believer of Balon being one of the worst Commanders in the game, but this has been because of my experience with the Commander rather than his actual rules. Denys Mallister still holds the title of worst. 

This update took away some of the best aspects of Balon and gave some decent abilities in return. Acceptable Sacrifices is arguably way more worth it now due to it being able to generate two Pillage tokens for doing two wounds to one of your Units. This is incredible, you can have a Unit off to the side not in danger fuelling the power of another. The Old Way gives a further boost to a Unit depending on Pillage tokens that can be used in a defensive way in Morale or an offensive way. 

Price of Failure was a terrible card, and like other Commanders that bring this card with them the update is incredibly strong here. It would be better used on a Unit that is unlikely to hit hard such as Trappers, and conveniently you could tie it in with Acceptable Sacrifices to negate the negative effects a little as you can’t be Panicked twice. 

The true strength of Price of Failure may lie with using it on a strong Unit to make sure you don’t drop dice and utilise the keywords to their max. Silenced Men mixed with some Tactics Cards perhaps. 

I think Balon is still strong, just very different from what he was due to the changes to his best assets. We will see plenty more of Balon throughout this season. 

Erik Ironmaker – Commander 

Changes – Gold’s Allure and Iron’s Endurance Tactics Cards rework. Remove Just Shares order and replace with Divide the Spoils order. Rework Gifts of Silver and Bronze. 

Erik Ironmaker has changed quite a bit to being one of the best Commanders for the Pillage mechanic in the game. He can share Pillage around with his Order which is not unlike his previous self, but his cards are now attached to Units to get further buffs from Pillage, making the effort to gain the currency worthwhile. 

He has two defensive cards one is skewed towards morale, the other is preventing attacks with both having some form of healing built in too. His third card boosts up the attacking power of one of your Units. I do think Erik is one of the most beneficial Commanders in the game that does help improve the weak faction mechanic. 

I expect to see more of Erik even as his NCU self especially when many NCUs that were auto included are now gutted. 

Dagmer Cleftjaw – Commander 

Changes – Knowledge Pain in Iron Tactics Card rework. 

I am unsure what the Tactics Card was before as I do think this must have been a minor change to just account for the Pillage changes. The card is best used to return Coordination Tactics to your hand since you can duplicate abilities to make a powerhouse Unit. I don’t think there is too much to discuss here but you can use it to hurt the opponents Tactics Cards but spending a Pillage token for a chance to remove a specific card is perhaps just not worth it. 

Ironborn Bowmen

Changes – Ranged Attack Dice value decreases. Armour save decreases to 6+. Remove Divide the Spoils ability, replace with order of the same name. 

Ironborn Bowmen are one of the best Units Greyjoys have, not because they have great stats but because Long Range Units are quite good across the whole game, and Ironborn Bowmen are very cheap. Before the update, bringing two of them was a common practice and sometimes people would bring more. 

Now Finger Dance is gone, which certainly hurts the Bowmen a lot, following this they are now super fragile with their armour of 6+ and their middle rank loses some dice. It seems like a lot of nerfs for the only ranged Unit for Greyjoys. I would consider this overkill, but the true hurt comes from Finger Dance. 4+ to hit keeps the Bowmen in line a lot, but the Vulnerable makes sure the hits that do get through generally land rather than bouncing off. 

I wouldn’t mind seeing the bowmen get a massive buff and bringing them to 6pts. Ironborn are known for their skill in archery and showcasing this with a very strong ranged long bowmen Unit would be ideal. It would also solve this issue of archery spam. 

Blacktyde Chosen

Changes – Morale increases to 7+. Remove Dauntless. Add Divide the Spoils order. 

So what’s with the nerf? Blacktyde were a very bad Unit for the Greyjoys until they were updated in early 2023. They became a great Unit for their solid Morale and sustainability through Healing and attacking buffs. Then they just get gutted for no reason other than they were too good? Now they are worse than their pre-buffed state. 

7pts Units with 7+ morale is just shocking; the survivability is incredibly weak and this Unit of all of them should be the strongest due to their resilience and rebellious nature towards the Greyjoy way. The decision behind the rework here is bonkers. Switch the Unit back to its previous version. 

Ironborn Reavers

Changes – To Hit value increase to 3+. Rework Reaver Axes. Removed Pillage ability. Add Furious Charge

Out of all the Units in the faction, Reavers needed a glow up the most. The Unit was taken once if at all in most forces and you get two of them to start with. This is because the cheaper Units were far more useful for one less point, and the expensive Units did far more especially since you had plenty of points to play with. 

After Victarion’s Relentless Order was nerfed, the Reavers became more and more hidden, gathering dust on the shelves. The new changes to the Reavers certainly makes them worthwhile to take on their own, and even bringing the likes of a Drowned Prophet in them has been catching my attention more and more. 

Now they feel like a strong offensive 5pts Unit that can get the job done before needing Pillage to uplift them. Hitting on 3’s straightaway is a huge change and given inbuilt rerolls once they have the tokens is super useful. But they aren’t relying on Pillage anymore to be worthwhile, they can get stuck in and it sort of doesn’t matter if you aren’t brimming with loot. 

Reavers will be taken a lot more, however with the power of 7pts Units like the Silenced Men and Golden Company Swordsmen, I believe they will be left at home. I am just glad the Neutral points changed otherwise most of Greyjoys would be maxing out the Neutral take to make up for their poor roster. 

Silenced Men

Changes – Move value increase to 6. Rework Great Axe. Remove Pillage ability. Add Dauntless ability.

What were the developers thinking? One of the best Units for the Greyjoy faction was the Silenced Men as their 5+ Morale and reducing the Morale damage was key to their survival. They also packed a punch whilst debuffing the enemy’s Morale for max damage. Now, they have an inbuilt way to heal, are faster at getting to their target, and hit even harder against armoured does once Pillage is maxed. 

No nerfs. But five buffs to the Unit at max Pillage. Morale, Dice, Armour Piercing, Movement, and a Heal. Did CMON take the faction’s buffs and put them all into the Silenced Men? I would say this was the worst decision of the patch but then again Golden Company Swordsmen have that title. 

Not only are there bad decisions for nerfs and reworks, but even the buffs are wild. Why does it feel like every time I look at a faction’s update the developers have no idea what is going on with the current state of the game? The internal balance is worse than ever for the Greyjoys. Blacktyde Chosen, Ironmakers, and Harlaw Reapers will never be taken over by a Unit or Silenced Men. I can’t believe I am saying that changing them back to what they were would be better. How is life before this update better for Greyjoys?

Harlaw Reapers

Changes – Move value increase to 6. Rework Reaper’s Fervor. Remove Pillage. Add Bardiche ability and Prey on Fear. 

What has happened here? How can this Unit that started off in such a bad position, rise to having a place at last in the faction, to then lose out on all their abilities around Morale? All to do an attack when they die if they have two Pillage in the first place. 

This Unit feels worse than bringing the Ironborn Reavers which are cheaper. This doesn’t mean that they need to be 5pts though, rather they were fun before due to their unique rules. 

The logic to gut this Unit when it finally started to look playable, and fun was just such a bad move. Again, reverse the changes so that they can feel useful again. 

Drowned Men

Changes – Morale increase to 6. 

Drowned Men are good. So, they needed a nerf…to Morale. I don’t understand the change here. From the books, Drowned Men constantly go through drowning by standing in the shore for hours upon hours, they live off of what is only given to them by the sea so seaweed and driftwood shelters. Iron Islanders are fearless, but the Drowned Men are different kinds of fearless. One that has already been to hell and back. 

A morale change is not the answer to this Unit, nor do I believe there needed to be. They do nothing in the game other than boost the activations and provide buffs as a tech piece Unit. That is their role. At 4pts you could bring Bowmen or Trappers, but you sacrifice the 12 wound block and potential of damage for a tool to boost another Unit. 

We shouldn’t be looking to change them for better or worse. A pointless small nerf for no reason. 

Ironmakers

Changes – Armour Save increase to 3. Rework Raided Armaments. Remove Pillage ability. 

Ironmakers were okay before, and they certainly needed Pillage to be even considered worth it. Now you don’t really need Pillage. That is all that has changed for this Unit. What is letting the Ironmakers down is the fact they just aren’t that survivable really. The armour is nice but the chipping damage you can pull off from the Morale stat being so bad is just not worth it. 

I think they would have a place in armies anyways, if it wasn’t for the fact that Silenced Men are so good now. After a Silenced Men rework, the Ironmakers could take stage, but really, they are a little too expensive for what other Units can do. There is a potential however and they aren’t as bad as most would think. 

Ironborn Trappers

Changes – Move value increase to 6. Melee Attack Dice value decrease. Rework Trapper’s Tools order. Remove Pillage.

I don’t know why the Trappers have changed, but I do think they have changed for the better. The Trappers weren’t blowing anybody’s minds or dominating in any games, they were hardly even the spotlight. No longer needing a Pillage token to put out condition tokens is nice, but you need to be in Melee where they aren’t really going to be doing much. 

I want to like this Unit, but it does nothing to the game. Bowmen provide Long Range coverage and Drowned Men provide tech capabilities. Pay a point more for a huge upgrade in attacking power with Ironborn Reavers. Trappers don’t have a place. 

Disrupt and tokens can be useful, but the amount of effort you must go through to get those bonuses into play is very too much, especially when that is all this Unit has going for them. I doubt they even feel fun to play in the most casual of games. 

Trappers would have benefited from some kind of additional ability that plays into them wanting to be in combat with other Units, that boosts the other Units just like what it is doing now. Gang Up should be on Trappers. 

Moqorro – NCU

Changes – Decrease cost to 4pts. Rework NCU ability.

Moqorro decreasing to 4pts is a big change for the NCU who was taken very little due to being not worth it at all. Now he has some form of play being able to remove the ability to use Tactics Cards and Orders whilst also being able to bring back some attachments. Moqorro will likely see a lot more play due to the rest of the NCUs being knocked down in power. 

Beron Blacktyde – NCU

Changes – Decrease cost to 4pts. Rework NCU ability. 

This sucks. There is no other way to describe it. I don’t think everyone was taking Beron due to the 5pts cost but he was powerful and very much needed to counter the frailness of the faction. He still helps with the defensive capabilities but Hardened is very different from Resilience which means you will only see bonuses on injured Units, and this will only protect 1-2 hits rather than the half or more that Resilience would have done. Like Hardened does nothing to save a Unit from a heavy cavalry charge, but Resilience does so much work against it. 

This is an incredible nerf to the faction, taking away one of their best defensive tools and possibly forcing more survivable Units to the limelight. It does more damage to the internal balance than it fixes. I don’t think it should be switched back, but maybe it should do something initially as it does nothing until you are on the backfoot, which to be fair will be quite a lot. 

Balon Greyjoy – NCU

Changes – Rise Again, Blade in Hand NCU ability rework. 

Balon Greyjoy no longer needs to replace a zone to bring back a dead Unit. This is a pretty big change, although you still count as activating Balon. Bringing back a dead Unit with all its Pillage is going to be quite significant and I am sure Greyjoy players aren’t leaving their lists without this addition. 

With Pillage being so important still for the faction, having a way to counter an early mistake or a planned loss is going to be crucial for the Greyjoy players. Before I saw it as the perfect combination to throw a Relentless Victarion into the mix and know that you can bring him back to continue to wreak havoc. 

With so many NCUs getting gutted for the Greyjoys, I can see Balon looking more and more favourable for players. 

Wendamyr – NCU

Changes – Remove starting with an order token for NCU ability. 

Wendamyr is one, if not the best, NCU at the Greyjoy’s disposal. He featured in almost every list that the Greyjoys would field competitively so it is understandable for him to be nerfed in some way. Removing the initial Order token from Wendamyr is a huge hit as the power of Wendamyr always lies in having a token in the first place so the opponent needs to think about the potential of the token being used with every activation. 

Now it will take two turns in a row of doing nothing but generating tokens before he can be useful in the long run. The first turn has an obvious use for this to be fine which is why Wendamyr was so good as he was at full tilt from the get-go. 

I still think Wendamyr is great, but now for the first third of the game he must generate tokens before you see any return on your investment. But this also means losing momentum in activations and an effect from that for what though? A card and some healing? Some slight movements? Is it now worth it over something else? 

Forcing us to now think about whether to gamble on Wendamyr is a good thing as it allows more NCUs to have a moment in the sun, however I am unsure if this was too much. Perhaps reducing the bonuses might have been better?

Tristifer Botley – NCU

Changes – Ironborn Diplomat NCU ability rework. 

Tristifer is not fantastic anymore, but he does help a little bit, but it is likely to be much better for you to pick Petyr Baelish over him since they both have a once per game count as holding a zone, except Tristifer gives it to your opponent as well. The token generation is nice, but being able to manipulate your position to block without losing negatives with Petyr is much more valuable. 

I see Tristifer being left at home a lot more now that he has been changed. 

Baelor Blacktyde – Attachment

Changes – Decrease by 1pt. 

This is a big deal. Boldness and Courage and Unyielding are great rules, tied with any Until in the Greyjoys roster and they become far better, furthermore add in the benefits of max Pillage and you have a killer Unit. Max Pillage Bealor in Reavers is 9 attacks with rerolls, and those Pillage tokens could be spent on Tactics Cards for better buffs or tied into ones that don’t even need it. I can see Baelor in many forces going forward for what he brings. 

Quite remarkably though, I don’t see him featuring in the Silenced Men due to the double up of Unyielding buffs. Reavers or Ironmakers would be where we will see him since the Chosen are diabolical, sporting a worse attack profile than the reavers. 

Drowned Prophet – Attachment

Changes – Add Go Down Fighting ability to attachment. 

The developers said the addition of this ability was to make the Drowned Prophet more worthwhile for the points. However, what they fail to realise is how uneventful Go Down Fighting is, that it is quite inconsequential whether a unit has this ability or not. In fact, it could even mess up gaining a Pillage token which is a big no for the faction. A worthless buff to be honest.  

Summary

Greyjoys got a very bad update overall from this patch. Whilst this faction struggled to be relevant without spamming Ironborn Bowmen and Neutrals, Night’s Watch were storming to the head of events and boasting an impressive win rate over all types of games. The developers decided that to correct this imbalance was to tear down every great NCU in the Greyjoy roster and leave Night’s Watch’s NCUs alone or buffed in certain circumstances. It is hard to look at the developers and not see clear favouritism for how they treat the best faction and worst faction in the game. Or they are delusional of the performances, balance, and community perception. 

I don’t think I have seen quite as many misses in an update of rules for a tabletop wargame in my life and if it continues in thai fashion for the game, there won’t be a community anymore. From Greyjoy nerf, to Night’s Watch buff, and to Golden Company Swordsmen domination, I don’t think there has been an update that has quite destroyed the competitive scene in one go. 

Greyjoy players can now bring different Commanders, NCUs, and Characters from the norm that show some interesting ways to play. However, Silenced Men are so good that the Units won’t look favourable resulting in everything centering around them. Casual players will mix things up with their lists and have plenty of fun doing so but how long until that becomes stale with the focus still being on Pillage and the worst Tactics Deck in the game. How are Neutrals a better faction than Greyjoys? 

Perhaps the reason why this update to the Greyjoys was not fantastic was due to it focusing primarily on Commanders. The developers said this update was all about Commanders yet there aren’t many complaints about the state of them in the game currently. With Greyjoys I do think the Commanders are all in good places other than Asha which could be where most of the development focus has been on resulting in poor choices for the other aspects of the faction as they have not been playtested enough. 

I do consider the Greyjoy faction to be dead, let’s just hope what is dead may never die, and they can rise again in a future update harder and stronger. 

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