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Ours is the Fury! Getting Started with the House Baratheon Starter Set for ASOIAF TMG Aleksandr Hewitt Baratheon Faction Specialist The Baratheon’s have arrived for the A Song of Ice […]
The Baratheon’s have arrived for the A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game and it is officially hammer time. Like all faction starters, the box is just shy of a 40 point list. However, the 35 points included really packs a punch. If you want to get to 40 points on day one, you could purchase the Stag Knights Unit Box for an additional 10 points, or a second Starter Box to double your combat units and generic attachments. Alternatively, you can also toss in a neutral unit or two to make up the difference.
The primary choice you have to make when creating your first Baratheon list is to whom do you declare loyalty. Loyalty is a new mechanic to the game and will limit your unit choices by commander in future expansions. Right now, you can choose between Renly or Stannis Baratheon. Fortunately, the base box doesn’t have any units with specific loyalties, so the decision will solely be based on the commander’s abilities and tactic cards.
Stannis Baratheon – The Rightful Heir
Age before beauty, Stannis Baratheon – The Rightful Heir provides his attached unit with the CRITICAL BLOW ability (on melee attacks, rolls of 6 cause 2 hits) and the UNYIELDING keyword, which prevents the placement of condition tokens on the unit. Of course, Stannis believes that he is the true and rightful king, so he also has Loyalty to himself, meaning he can not be used in an army that Renly commands, even if a non-commander version of Stannis is released in the future.
Renly Baratheon – The Charismatic Heir
Perfection incarnate, the King of the Peach, Renly Baratheon – The Charismatic Heir graces his chosen unit with the two abilities as well. First is BOLDNESS AND COURAGE: When this unit makes a Melee Attack, it is always treated as having one additional rank. If it already has full ranks, it rolls +2 attack dice. Renly’s second ability is the EMBOLDEN keyword, which gives +1 to morale tests to any other friendly unit within short range of this unit. Unfortunately, this morale bonus does not apply to his own unit, as Renly’s glory is slightly less glamorous to the soldiers fighting at his shoulder. Finally, Renly believes in Renly and has Loyalty to himself.
Alester Floren – the Lord of Brightwater (4 Points)
Alester’s ability, SHIFTING LOYALTIES, starts the game with two order tokens. After resolving the effect of a claimed zone, he may spend an order token to either move to an empty tactics zone or switch places with an NCU already on a tactics zone. This will allow for board control and can insure that you have the tactics zone you need for your strategy. Check out our article on the Tactics Board Dominance strategy, in which we pair Alester with Lord Varys and Petyr Baelish.
Shyra Errol – The Lady of Haystack Hall (3 Points)
Shyra Errol, one of the most well-known and universally beloved characters in the Song of Ice and Fire universe, has the ability, SUPPORT OF HAYSTACK HALL. Whenever she claims the tactics zone, she can remove one condition token from one friendly combat unit. When she claims the wealth zone, she can add one condition token to one enemy combat unit. This is in addition to the zone effects that are placing or removing condition tokens as well.
Baratheon Wardens (5 Points)
In brief, the Wardens are your go-to defensive unit. With a defensive save of 3+ and an ability to Weaken their opponents, they will be perfectly content to park themselves on an objective or serve as a bunker unit for commanders.
Baratheon Sentinels (6 Points)
The Sentinels are the offensive option for the starter set. With an attack profile of 8/6/4 (Hit on 3+), they can pack quite the punch. With attachments, they can be the assassin squad of your army. Renly, Bronn, and Brienne are perfect options for these units.
Baratheon Stag Knights (8 Points)
Finally, the Stag Knights have the potential to be the greatest or worst unit of the box. They require a lot of strategic and tactical mastery to play, as they are most powerful when their at their lowest ranks. They are also an 8 point unit, leaving many to argue if they are too expensive for what they do. Check out the deep dive articles on each of these units to see how they fit into the army composition for the Baratheons.
It also comes with two Master Wardens and one Stag Knight Noble. The Master Warden has the STAND YOUR GROUND order, which prevents your opponent from gaining charge, flank, or rear attack bonuses on attacks (melee or ranged). Coupled with the Baratheon wardens 3+ armor save, the Master Warden turns them into a defensive powerhouse, able to hold objectives against the toughest foes.
The Stag Knight Noble attachment has the RECKLESS VENGEANCE order, which triggers when the unit is attacked with melee. By issuing the order, the Stag Knight Noble’s unit suffers two wounds and then makes one free melee attack targeting the attacker.
Tune in for our future articles featuring how to get the most out of your Baratheon tactics cards, unit deep-dives, and more in our future Baratheon Tactics Talks!
A lot of interesting stuff, but I’m not seeing the upside on the Stag Knights really. For instance – vanilla NW Sworn Bros are 6 pts to take and profile 7/5/4 (3+) with critical and sundering baked in already and the same save. So when Stags are down to their last rank they’d theoretically achieve the same kit with the only additional benefit being +3 dice. Nice to have in that moment but Sworn Bros would have had that punch all along if healthy. Not terrible IMO, but I feel like since their usefulness comes with great risk they are priced quite high.
Totally agree, they don’t make sense at 8. They don’t even start with one of the perks like cave dweller savages, they have to lose a rank first.
Yeah, but nobody likes the cave dwellers. 😉
I agree with you that eight points is quite expensive, but think about how cool you will look on the battlefield. With high fashion comes high costs.