Introducing Council Units to ASOIAF - Plus Stark and Bolton Updates

The developers have continued to release in-development updates for the community, with reveals slowing down just a bit and insights increasing. NCUs have been completely reworked with Stark Council units being shown off, and Boltons get a new commander. We will be breaking down these changes and the possible impact of them.

Grunt leading the Dreadfort Spearmen - Painted by JBone

Further Mormont Rework

As mentioned in our previous article about the Stark changes, these rules are not final and are in the development process. We are being presented with some glimpses into the development process which allows us to understand what is being looked at and what is changing, alongside some insight from the development team as to why. The Mormont units were not looking good and the developers recognised this and amended to a new version. This was due to Mormonts being one of the first units they looked at and as such were not heavily changed, which resulted in them being lackluster in comparison to everything else.

House Mormont Bruisers - CMON

Bruisers - An increase to morale and counterstrike from the previous version have been replaced with Go Down Fighting. Previously they had defensive stats that matched the current version of Bloody Mummer Skirmishers, and speaking from experience here, are terrible defensively. The design choice looks to be one where the Bruisers want to be tied up with the opponent by being a nuisance to deal with rather than any real threat. Taunt will be a way to force this or blunt the charge into another unit. Disrupt keeps them alive a little bit longer due to their terrible defenses, and go down fighting now chips away at the opposing unit if they do choose to face them.

I still do not believe these changes are good enough for the Bruisers. They went from a unit wanting to play on their final rank with all the bonuses which synergised nicely with Maege commander and even some other commanders in the game. Now, I see them as terrible until you add an attachment which either increases their decent melee attack, or helps them be more survivable. The problem is, if there is another unit for the same points but better, why wouldn’t you bring them? The Umber Berserkers look to be better in combat, and better at surviving, whereas the Bruisers trade that for debuffing the opponent. It doesn’t balance out in my opinion.

The only way I can see this working is if they are 5pts. They lose a lot of combat power for debuffs where they want to be in combat, if they are 5pts I would actually consider it. The only problem is that there are a lot of 5pts units in the Stark roster to choose from, adding another may bring them under more scrutiny. I would consider a few more changes here to make them a more tech piece unit and turning Mormont identity into tech pieces. Why not nerf the combat stat and replace go down fighting with gang-up in a 5pts package? I do hope there is more testing being done on this unit.

House Mormont She-Bears - CMON

She-Bears - The only change here is to War Cry. There were a lot of comments on the original post with the She-Bears on the changes to War Cry which all suggested it was very bad now. War Cry was a terrible order in comparison to others which auto generate a token, like Threaten and Mark Target. The change from the unit making a morale test to now enemy units making the morale sucked since most morale stats are really good.

The change now adds a modifier to the test the opponent needs to do per rank in the unit. We know from the developers that some morale stats will be getting worse as well as modifiers becoming a little bit more rare, so this change is huge. The overall change is now that War Cry triggers when the unit activates, deals out both tokens rather than the one, and it is the opponent doing the test with some negatives. I do think this fixes War Cry becoming obsolete in comparison to Mark Target whilst making it a little bit more thematic. She-Bears are looking stronger now with all the condition tokens they generate.

NCUs Redesign

NCUs are now called Council units and have been completely reworked. The design choice is to give them some abilities that are granted depending on the zone you take with them rather than at all times. This will result in a more strategic interaction with the Tactics Board for all players.

To showcase this, the developers have revealed some Stark Council units, but have made it clear that the rules for the Council units should be ignored at this stage. I want to take a look at how the new version of Council units work and what these early designs could mean for their rules in the future.

Eddard Stark, Warden of the North - CMON

Eddard Stark - Warden of the North Eddard Stark is the more popular of the two by almost twice as much. As a 6pts NCU he does bring a powerful ability of rerolling panic tests or healing on a successful test. The healing is the key part of Ned that makes him so strong especially with all the extra healing you could pick up from Tully Cavaliers on top of this. In double Tully Cavalier lists though he isn’t as strong since it is tough to break through the cavalry to a point where their own healing will cover them. I wouldn’t say he was too good to desperately need a rework, but 6pts NCU can be oppressive at times. Imagine a Bolton player playing against him for those rerolls.

Warden Ned has had a rework but keeps the same theme. Now if he takes the crown zone then he can influence a unit with an ability to always let them reroll morale. If he takes the swords zone, then the unit targeted by the zone heals two wounds before performing the attack action. This feels more like a 4pts NCU to me due to how limited it is if not played early enough. I like that it feels a lot like his current commander attachment with the theme of boosting morale and healing being Ned's identity. I am unsure if this is good enough for him to be taken over the other NCUs as they stand right now, but also from the others shown off. I am interested in seeing the final version as well as his Hand of the King version.

Sansa Stark - CMON

Sansa Stark - The holy trio of Sansa, Arya, and Catelyn is the most played grouping of NCUs in the Stark faction, and crush the numbers in comparison to the other NCUs. On ASOIAF-Stats, Rodrik was taken four times in September recorded games, and Sansa was taken 198 times, with Arya and Catelyn being slightly more than Sansa. If that isn’t ground for a tweak down for not just Sansa but all three, then I do not know what would be.

Sansa allows you to return a discarded tactics card to your hand by replacing a zone on the tactics board, plus you can do this once per game in addition. This is almost always used for Assault Orders in the main tactics deck or a powerful card from the commander of choice. Getting more use out of the best cards at your disposal can be strong and it makes Sansa a good choice no matter what commander you choose to play with.

Sansa has gone through a massive change and an overall nerf in my opinion. She has traded her once per game for Petyr Baelish’s once per game of controlling a zone, but this comes with a caveat that it must be one held by your opponent. It is quite flavourful and changes how you may play Sansa in your list. She does keep a way of bringing back a discarded card but it is far more limited. She needs to take the letters zone and discard two tactics cards unless the opponent has the crown zone. This may be too limiting for her to be useful, perhaps only one card would do? However, at the very least I am glad that there are tweaks in the works for her, and hopefully the other two of the trio to freshen up the character options in list building.

Rodrik Cassel - CMON

Rodrik Cassel - Rodrik is the least played NCUs of the Stark faction but is closely followed by Howland and Robb Stark. He provides rerolls to melee attacks twice per game after the attack dice have been rolled, whilst also generating a vulnerable token each time he takes the sword zone. He is bad because the rules he brings are not that impactful in the game, especially when you compare it to some of the other choices on hand like Catelyn and Arya for the same points.

The change in format for Rodrik’s rules have done little to amend what he brings to the table in concept, but there are some small changes to him. First off the rerolls are no longer twice per game and are now from an influence ability off of any zone. In addition, it also provides Critical Blow which is a big boost. The freedom to put Rodrik wherever you like without losing out on a benefit makes him a good choice in a three NCU list. Whilst you won’t be able to use his effect in the best circumstances anymore, the trade off is to always have it for a unit who is then boosted by Critical Blow. His vulnerable token is now tied to the unit targeted by the sword zone which limits it a little.

These are the sorts of changes needed to bring an under-utilised NCU into a realm of possibility. Whilst we do not know if this is the final version of Rodrik, it is a good creative direction, and makes him a great third pick due to him having a benefit on any zone.

Howland Reed - CMON

Howland Reed - Just like Rodrik, Howland Reed is one of the least played NCUs in the Stark faction and this is mostly due to how strong the other options in the faction are. Howland influences an enemy unit which has them treating all terrain as hindering and can make one of their melee attacks -1 to hit. Again, this is not as impactful as other NCUs, but the -1 to Hit could be a game changer at times, especially when the opponent doesn’t have rerolls.

The changes to Howland in the format are substantial. Just like Rodrik he has an influence which triggers off of any zone on the board and is an influence ability for a friendly unit to ignore some keywords of terrain just like the ability pathfinder. In addition, all enemy units treat the entire battlefield as having dangerous, hindering, and rough keywords. This is way too strong! If it is all terrain pieces it would be too strong. If dangerous has not changed this is brutal. Honestly could be one of the best NCUs in the game for this alone.

Howland has an additional rule for when he takes the manoeuvre zone. He can generate a weakened token on an enemy within long range and line of sight of the unit targeted by the zone’s effect after it has completed the action. Howland is far too good here as I do not like the idea of taking D3+1 wounds on each unit when he has gotten his influence out. I guess we should be glad that this is not finalised at this stage.

Ramsay Snow - CMON

Ramsay Snow - The current version of NCU Ramsay Snow provides an influence ability for fueled by slaughter. This matches the attachment Ramsay and one of his commander cards which is a nice way to keep his theme consistent. It is useful for Boltons especially for the Flayed Men and Bastard’s Girls who would be hitting the hardest in the faction.

Ramsay has been completely changed and for the better. He has gained an effect which triggers once per round when a battlefield unit is rolling charge distance dice. If Ramsay hasn’t claimed a zone on the council board then you can reroll the charge dice and if successful the enemy unit becomes panicked. Furthermore, if he takes the swords zone on the board, then the unit attacked from the zone suffers -1 to their panic test for each rank destroyed.

This version of Ramsay is going to allow the Bolton players to make bolder charges relying on the reroll, whilst also getting a stronger attack from the swords if Ramsay is lucky enough to take it. It feels a lot like Ramsay hunting which is a perfect theme for him, and it synergises with almost everything in the roster nicely. He will be a firm favourite if he is not taken in the list as an attachment which is still very strong.

Walda Frey - CMON

Walda Frey - Walda is not a great NCU. She gains a benefit depending on which of three zones she takes. Crowns generates a weakened token, letters trade the zone for pulling a commander card from the deck or discard pile, and coins allow you to heal an additional wound instead of removing a token. The effects are okay but nothing ground breaking, the commander can be strong however you are trading a strong effect from the board for mediocre cards, but this would change depending on the strength of the cards the commander brings.

She now heals a wound every time she claims a zone to a battlefield unit, and keeps the weakened token generation when she takes the crown zone. The biggest point of confusion is the new once per game rule. Once per game you can target any number of battlefield units and restore a total of one plus the round number. However, the wording is weird; “... when Walda would claim a zone, instead you may target…”, is this instead of the claim effect of the zone thus replacing the zone? Or is it instead of taking a zone on the board? It needs some slightly better wording to clear this up, but if we look at the Sansa card, replacing a zone looks a lot different. I do believe this is instead of taking a zone on the board.

This new version of Walda is going to allow her to be more active throughout the game, tallying up slight usefulness and then exploding with healing when needed like Tycho Nestoris. I think it is a great change that is thematic to the character’s history, whilst also being an interesting competitive choice.

Jeyne Poole - CMON

Jeyne Poole - Jeyne Poole is such a great NCU that I wouldn’t have bothered changing her at all. Her influence for +2 morale shortens up one of the weak points of the Bolton infantry and is impactful throughout the game, but it is her once per game ability to become the first player but pass her on to the opponent which is the strongest part about her. Stealing first player can allow you to prepare a gamble to hammer your opponent and it isn’t one every player is often aware of to counter it. I really like the strategy she would bring to your game plan.

Jeyne lost this ability and the morale influence is now +1, likely to fall in line with minimising changes to morale in the game which has made it less intractable. She did gain an effect for taking the crown and letters zone however. For taking the crown zone, if the unit she targets fails a panic test then the owner of the unit must randomly discard a card. A great ability and I like that there are more effects to failing panic tests for the Boltons than just damage.

It is what she gains from taking the letters zone that intrigues me though. It says she counts as two council units for the zone’s effect which boggles my mind. Does that mean letters trigger twice? Has the council board changed in the way that the effects are different? Is it something similar to the recent tactics board for large games where there are two zones? So many questions that we will need to wait for answers.

Roose Bolton - CMON

Roose Bolton - Roose Bolton NCU has mostly been the same for the whole game. He has order tokens which can be spent for panic tokens and can replace a zone with a panic test. He is quite strong in both Bolton and Neutrals for generating more situations where morales can fail in the Boltons, and generating tokens for adaptive methods in the Neutrals. He has changed a lot in the Boltons now.

Just like Ramsay, Roose has an effect where if you do not take a zone on the council board then you have access to triggering an effect when an enemy battlefield unit gains a condition token (which will happen a lot since this is the new identity of the faction). You target another enemy unit in long range and give them a token of the same type. In addition to this rule, when Roose claims the crown/sword zone he can make a unit suffer a hit per condition token on them. The current Roose Commander is really good at generating tokens, and I do like that this is Roose’s theme now. His Council unit can further the faction identity whilst also dishing out some hurt where he can. I think it will be quite useful for putting pressure on the opponent making sure they are filled to the brim with condition tokens.

Overall, the changes are stellar, and this is mostly because the NCUs for Boltons are not that great at the moment. The face lift as council units is shaping up to cast an interesting shadow over the battlefield and this interests me as to what lists people will start to fashion.

Vargo Hoat - CMON

Vargo Hoat - Bolton Commander

We finally get a look at the new commander for the Bolton faction with Vargo Hoat. We have seen his attachment before which we now learn is the same as the commander version. The card will have a cost you will need to pay if it is being taken as an attachment or free if it is your commander. I think this is for the best as it will allow the game to not be as bloated in the future.

Vargo lost Vicious, and both Weakened Resolve and Sadistic Mutilation saw some changes. Weakened Resolve had some wording changes for targeting mechanics. Sadistic Mutilation has the same wording changes to include some targeting clean up, whilst also offering two wounds if you do not want to single out an attachment. This is a change from the previous version we saw which was for unblockable hits, so I am unsure which is right. Changing it from wounds to hits seemed to fix issues with giants and abilities like resilience. I guess only time will tell here.

This is a much stronger version of Vargo looking to join the new Blackguard to dish out weakened tokens from Horrific Visage whilst adding two wounds to their improved attack. He may find himself in the Bloody Mummer Skirmishers to use their ability Mummer’s Trick to strip abilities. But how does he play with his cards?

Vargo Hoat Tactics Card - CMON

Savoured Suffering - A new card for Vargo and gives you some sustainability on the battlefield. This card lets you spend a weakened token for some healing or highest attack dice for a melee attack. If it is used on Vargo’s unit you get both. Unless you are on your last rank I can’t see you taking the highest attack dice for your attack outside of the Cutthroats or Zorse Riders who really suffer when they lose a rank. That being said, would the heal get you back up to a higher rank anyway? The highest attack dice feels pointless and unlikely to be used. Rerolls might be a better option and cause a tougher decision for which to pick.

Vargo Hoat Tactics Card - CMON

The Crippler’s Infamy - Some targeting cleanup to help understand who is targeted for purposes of triggers. There is also a change to the additional effect where it now focuses on being within long range of Vargo’s unit rather than being engaged with a Bloody Mummer unit. The changes to this card will give it more opportunities to be played, and stacking this with a corpse pile and vicious is going to be nothing but pain for the opponent. A powerful card for the Bolton faction to use.

Vargo Hoat Tactics Card - CMON

Butcher’s Work - A new card for Vargo and works similarly to price of failure in that all your attack dice automatically hit but the attacker then becomes vulnerable. But, if it is also Vargo’s unit then it is counted as having sundering for the attack until the end of the turn. For the first time ever I am saying that this would be great for Dreadfort Spearmen. 4+ to hit sucks, but imagine doing this on set for charge where you also don’t have rerolls? All other Bolton units hit on a 3+ so I am unsure how useful it will be, the sundering is a big deal though.

Compared to the current Vargo commander, I do think this one is better overall with the attachment hitting harder. However the replacement tactics card don’t seem to be that impactful. Butcher’s Work will be good at certain points in the game but you don’t get a lot of value when most of your army hits on 3s anyways, perhaps there is a Neutral unit that would benefit from this? Just adding sundering to Flayed Men or Bastard’s Girls whilst not needing to worry about dropping some hits can be beneficial.

Savoured Suffering is a small heal card for the most part and I would much rather have Careless Aggression or even Exploit Weakness from the Neutral version as rerolls have more applicability. Although, it does help keep the Zorse Riders in the game if they get hit hard. This Vargo is better, but some tweaks to the cards might be needed.

Rorge - CMON

Rorge - My biggest issues with Rorge and Biter was that it didn’t fit with the list building in the Neutral faction, the same with Widower and Jokin. Thanks to free attachment points and adaptive from Stormcrow Mercenaries, a 0pts attachment didn’t have a place to go. The change has them no longer tied to each other and are now their own entities for you to build your list with. Rorge is completely different, he used to boost your retreats and give out vicious and highest attack dice, both abilities worked well with the Mummers. Now he is a token generator where he can make you vulnerable or panicked on the charge and spend weakened tokens as if they were vulnerable tokens. In comparison to all the other attachments the Boltons have, this will be at the bottom of the list. There are so many other options with better effects to pull from and generating one token on a charge which is not the token you are flexible with is lackluster. Rorge needs some work.

Biter - CMON

Biter - Biter brought gang-up before which is actually great ability for the Neutrals but you just didn’t have space for both him and Rorge whilst utilising all your attachment points. His rework is incredible since he gives you +1 to your charge rolls for each destroyed rank (first of its kind in the game), sundering on melee attacks, and you roll two charge dice discarding the lowest. For a 1pts attachment, this is far too much. He will be taken in many lists no doubt and I am eyeing him up for the Bastard’s Girls. Biter may need to be toned down in this instance.

Podcast from Developer on Spotify

Podcasts from a Developer

Before 2020, a developer of ASOIAF:TMG used to make podcasts talking about the development process of the game. These have now returned with three episodes as I am writing this. These provide some further context into the changes that are ongoing as well as some hints at what else is down the line. I will not be able to sum up everything and I may take some aspects out of context since I do not know the full picture. I would recommend listening to the podcasts but if you want a quick summary I will provide it here.

Link: https://open.spotify.com/show/5oMh2upcVvrglLyz4COnh4

Instead of doing a Vision in the Flames livestream as they have done in the past, Michael will be making these podcasts as they do not have the resources to reveal the updates in another way. Furthermore, Michael can produce the podcasts faster.
No mid-year update scheduled. Next update scheduled for Q1 2026, but could change.
The reveals in the FaceBook group are official, but they are in development rules.
This is not 2nd Edition, it is something similar to the 1.6 to 2021 version in scale. So large overhaul.
There will be crossovers between the main game and Tactics.
Wasn’t happy where Boltons were specifically, no mid-year update but could help the Boltons sooner.
Targeting aspects have gotten out of hand and need clearing up.
Drastic changes were drafted up and released to the public to understand the community’s opinion.
A version of the Bolton files are planned to be released instead of the mid-year update to help them.
Needed something for Boltons to go up against and this is why Starks have been getting changes.
Every named character will get unique abilities.
Tactics Card balancing, somewhere between impactful but not determining the game.
NCU changes are about deciding which zones you want to take at list building rather than from a faction identity.
Debating increasing the game to be at standard size 50pts instead of 40pts
Free Attachment Points are here to stay.
They are looking at two factions at a time, but no commitment to timelines.
Doing everything they can to push projects forward.

Above is from the first podcast which is really informative on what the team are doing with the game. The following two podcasts are more focused on the changes to Boltons specifically. I am in a positive outlook with this and enjoy the open dialogue with the development team. I am looking forward to seeing what their hard work has produced in time.

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