New images and details of the Reny Loyalty Baratheon Heroes box have been revealed giving Renly new characters to reinforce his position. From a Kingsguard unit to several attachments, there are several new tools at disposal to change up the game for the Baratheons loyal to Renly. Let’s not waste any more time!
I want to talk about a few subjects when breaking down the reveals for these new characters. I want to rank them on Rules, Themes, and Creativity. How competitive are they but also how fun and flavourful? How well do they represent their characterisation in the books/show? Is the model a great design in terms of look but also synergy?
Renly Baratheon, King in the South
This version of Renly is at the height of his power, with a 20,000 cavalry host and 60,000 infantry not far behind, he has made an agreement to side with the Stark and Tully forces to end the War within a fortnight. Some would see this as overconfidence, but this is very much just a fact, the numerical advantage is off the charts and if it wasn’t for some shadow magic hacks we would see Renly on the throne. CMON encourages the ‘what if?’ scenario and you need it more than ever with the future of Renly due to the surprise exit of the character.
In terms of themes Renly isn’t that bad at face value however you can tell this was done either in hindsight or without much depth. Swift Strike may seem out of place, we have never seen Renyl fight so why does this rule matter? Perhaps it links to his forced march rush of the cavalry to lift the siege of Storm’s End, or since it goes to the unit, he is in it inspires the folk around him to leap to his aid. Claims to the Throne makes perfect sense and for the most part is a brand-new rule perfectly fitting Renly. Overconfidence is not right for Renly specifically, he has countless pieces of evidence that backs up his predictions for how the War will go, thus he has nothing to be Overconfident about unless the rules designs are like “Don’t get cocky kid, a shadow assassin can appear out of nowhere and kill you just like that” However, Overconfident might be referring to Renly’s forces who are regarded as never seeing combat, otherwise known as being Green as Grass. Knights of Summer and Lavish Encampment fit Renly and his forces perfectly in terms of name and theme, the rules don’t reflect this, however. I am going to mark down the Theme category for a few points. The rules are perfect for representing Renly’s forces but do not reflect Renly himself, however there are elements here for a very interesting army buffing units through recklessness.
Renly’s attachments rules are pretty good, if utilised with the Rainbow Guard you can help keep them alive with Swift Strike and make them more potent when spending tactics cards on them. Outside of the Rainbow Guard Renly could be an interesting attachment to the more Baratheon units like the Sentinels or Stag Knights. I don’t see him being placed in any of the Reach units as the abilities will either be redundant or worthless to the unit’s playstyle. The Tactics Cards suck. Any Commander that gives negatives to playing needs to counter those negatives with better than average rules otherwise they will fall to the bottom of the pick rate. At first, I was upset that they were just remaking Joffrey for Baratheons as Renly is nothing like him but then I came to understand this is a thematic choice for the recklessness of the Green Knights of Summer. Will this character be picked for fun themed lists? Of course. Will this character be picked for competitive play? Most likely not unless your name is Kyle.
We have seen the model before in the first Renly box. Garland Tyrell wore Renly’s armour to the Battle of Blackwater sparking the legend of Renly’s ghost coming back to haunt them. Here we get Renly sporting the armour. I think this is the closest to how I imagine Robert’s armour would have looked in the Rebellion. It is grand and glorious to the eye which describes Renly perfectly in contrast to functionality before fashion Stannis. The Rainbow Guard with Renly are a centerpiece unit to an army and fit gorgeously with the forces of Highgarden, however in terms of rules he very much synergises with no one and does not improve the playstyle of Baratheons.
Final score: 5/10
The Kingsguard 2.0
It is a shame we never got to read or see this unit in action together. I wish there was a brief conflict at Storm’s End causing a fight so that we could have seen the Rainbow Guard in action. Finally, the unit gets to do what they were formed for. Perseverance and Valor fits the Renly loyalty playstyle as well as being a beacon for morale on the battlefield. Great in attacking but with such few wounds and an armour value of 3+ they will fall to most units on a decent charge. Play them cagey and utilise swift Strike and perhaps you can keep them out of harm’s way.
All of it is let down by the effectiveness of the rules. Most of the Kingsguard are reckless so having them be great at attacking but not that swell at sticking around is flavourful, however being 8pts that can die from a charge with no other buffs for any mid to high tier unit is incredibly bad and disheartening to go through. Thankfully they don’t give away an additional 2 VPs like Joffrey.
The models though are gorgeous as they stand but are meant to stand out once they have had a stellar paint job applied to them. I cannot wait to see this unit feature in painting competitions till the end of time. Synergy wise, they do nothing to shorten up a hole in Renly’s armies and will need more work babysitting then being the spearheaded unit they should be. Would the Kingsguard units be better with four heat tokens counting as buffer wounds until the unit starts to take damage? Theme and creativity are pretty good, but the rules drag this unit to almost unplayable.
Final Score: 6/10
The Kingsguard Divided
Robar the Red: 5/10 – Robar Royce was featured in the books as one of the first to find Renly dead. Emmon attacks Brienne and fails to kill her whilst a frightened Robar is convinced by Catelyn to let them go. When Loras found them, Robar tried to convince him of what happened and was then cut down. Does Furious Charge and Reckless Strikes fit this character? It seems like Emmon would be a better fit in terms of theme, although Robar is one of the better fighters in the Rainbow Guard even though this is never shown, so gaining a Vulnerable token, Critical Blow and Precision does fit him and only the names of the abilities do not make sense. He is over costed at 2pts, you can pay 1pt for Reckless Strikes with Daario so you’re paying 1pt for Furious Charge. Very few people, if any, will buy this if they are after Reckless Strikes. Robar’s model is one of the better-looking models out of the box. Marked down for theme but only slightly, marked down for rules, but marked up for the look of the model but its synergy to the army is lacking.
Emmon the Yellow: 8/10 – Vengeance of the Crown! This is perfect although having his rules switched with Robar’s would solve the theme issues. Emmon wanted to straightaway take vengeance for the death of Renly, his axe was broken by Brienne and their swords clashed. I think it would have been better however to call this Reckless Vengeance and be the same as Reckless Strikes but only if you control the crown zone. For 1pt he is worth it for your objective holding unit. Thankfully having an axe helps this model to stand out with very few models in the game having equipment like this. Slight mark down in the theme and rules.
Guyard the Green: 4/10 – Guyard was more of a bard than a knight. When Renly died, he switched sides to Stannis. He offered to duel Cortnay Penrose to decide Storm’s End’s fate. And died in the vanguard of the Battle of the Blackwater to Renly’s Ghost. Knowing this, he is 2pts, Renly Loyalty only, Counterstrike and Dauntless. He fancies himself a singer and is said to be a good swordsman, perhaps these two rules do represent this. He is over costed however and is boring. It feels like the designer slapped on these rules because they couldn’t put any effort into him but then again, he is a minor character with very little love for him so why bother putting so much effort into him? At the very least allow Stannis’ players to take him, he spent more time on his side then Renly’s. His model has no character and is just a heavy armoured swordsman.
Parmen the Purple: 8/10 – Parmen whilst being on guard at the time of Renly’s death, was not slain like Robar and Emmon when Loras went into a rage. After this he defected to Stannis and went to Bitterbridge to raise the soldiers there to fight for Stannis. Again, why is this character restricted to just Renly? Rally Cry is thematic since he was sent to Rally the forces of the Reach to Stannis’ cause. 1pt Rally Cry is nothing crazy but has a place in the army if healing is truly something you lack. The model isn’t that formidable either. Marked up for theme, down a little for rules and down again for model.
Brienne the Blue: 6/10 – The fourth Brienne model and arguably the worst in rules but the best in theme. The previous Baratheon Brienne is creative in playstyle, but Battle Scars is perfect for Brienne due to her becoming harder after every conflict she is in. I do think this version would be better on a Neutral Brienne so you can so that she becomes stronger no matter where her quest has led her. Is it lazy to just slap a rule used countless times? The Lannister box had so many new and interesting rules for the Kingsguard but these are all just whatever is lying around. However, this is the third rules wise and fourth model wise we are getting of Brienne. I think this model is better than the Brienne in Renly’s first box, but worse than both Neutral versions. In terms of synergy, it might have a place in the forces of the Stormlands due to not having access to Vicious and Sundering as much.
Bryce the Orange: 4/10 – A lord of a big named house. A great fighter featured in tourneys and offering to fight on behalf of Stannis against Cortnay, and he once goaded Robar to juggle daggers. He had an amazing line that Davos used in the show where he convinced Stannis to send Melisandre back to Dragonstone so that he wouldn’t owe his victory to spells. This moment is the only time Bryce is worth mentioning, why not design something around this to make a fun thematic character rather than Taunt? Perhaps Bryce is coming for Stannis and taunt is to represent the only moment worth mentioning about Bryce whilst he was with Renly. The model should be fun to paint due to the many crows on his shield but otherwise is just another swordsman standing around. Taunt is not a great rule, and it doesn’t synergise with anything in the Baratheon’s’ force infantry wise.
Loras Lord Commander: 7/10 – This is the specific time in Loras’ history where he went into an uncontrolled rage and slew two of the better Rainbow Guard effortlessly. I truly believe this should have been Expert Duellist and Uncontrolled Rage for 2pts. It would make it super competitive to take the amazing ability of Expert Duellist but with a massive risk of not being able to control it. What we got instead is a great model rules wise. Deadly Bloom is an ability only found on the Rose Knights so quite a nice link there. It would be perfect on Highgarden Pikemen due to their ability to heal every time they attack. Does Deadly Bloom fit Loras at this moment? Perhaps outside of the Red Rage Loras is the perfect Rose Knight utilising Renly’s playstyle of healing very well. I like it a lot, I hope we get a Red Rage version in the future. The model is a slightly different version of the Loras we already have, at least we know he stands up straight when growing strong. Marked down slightly for theme, marked down a lot for model, but up for rules and synergy.
Renly’s box is done, and it is by far the worst value of any Heroes box to date. We will very likely have to wait a long time to see any changes to this box in the updates which means they will be a part of themed lists and glorious painting spotlights until they align with their faction by “Growing Strong”.
Keep your eye out tomorrow for my review of the Stannis box. If you are looking to pick up some new models then use this link, this helps support the articles going forward. Thank you to everyone who has used it so far!
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