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How to Move Mountains with House Clegane in ASOIAF TMG Brett Lanpher GenCon 2019 Champion There are few things more frightening in Westeros than the sight of an eight foot […]
There are few things more frightening in Westeros than the sight of an eight foot tall sociopathic behemoth thundering towards your battleline. In the Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game there are few things more frightening than the grin on your opponent’s face as they measure charge distance for the same miniaturized sociopathic behemoth. Let’s spend some time with Gregor Clegane, the Mountain. Gregor has three versions and all of them are exceptionally dangerous to your enemies. Since the Mountain that Rides is still unreleased, and we touched on Tywin’s mad dog already; let’s focus on commander Gregor, my second favorite Lannister commander.
Here’s a quick reminder of Gregore Clegane – the Mountain’s commander cards:
As a commander, Gregor Clegane is one of the most potent attachments in the game. What does this mammoth bring to the table? D3 wounds with every single attack.
Let’s say that again, just in case it didn’t quite sink in the first time.
D3 additional wounds with Every. Single. Attack. Since it is not an order; it can be used multiple times a round. But wait, there’s more! If D3 wounds wasn’t enough; he also automatically panics any unit he charges. The Mountain will leave a trail of death in his path as he cuts a swathe through your enemy. So, his attachment is awesome. But where do we bunker The Mountain?
He’ll fit in any unit other than crossbows, but he really brings the pain in units that already have vicious. But, if you want to go all out on offense and make your opponent weep salty tears then he is absolutely disgusting in Pyromancers. Do the math. Pyromancers with Gregor will panic an enemy on the charge, inflict D3 autowounds, and then hit on a 3+ with six dice that do not allow defense saves. Oh, and if that’s not enough, stack the Vicious keyword from the Pyromancers on top of that big ole’ pile of nasty. Without even bringing his tactics cards into the equation it isn’t unrealistic to expect to wipe out whole units in one charge. A more defensive minded person might like him in Halberdiers or Warriors Sons. Any melee oriented unit will benefit from his presence.. Additionally, any unit he is attached to becomes a House Clegane unit and benefits VASTLY from his commander cards. For this reason, I suggest NOT putting him in a unit of Mountains Men, even though they seem, at first glance, to be a strong match. They already have the keyword Clegane and thus already qualify for the added features of his cards.
Free Things
Gregor Clegane’s Orders to Destroy ability allows him to deal lethal damage to just about any unit in the game. The dream combo is having one of each commander cards in hand and one-shotting a unit and immediately overrunning into another. It’s possible, but don’t gameplan around the combo, just recognize it when that joyful kismet of destruction appears in your hand! His cards do, however, create an “Oprah like” situation for his army. “You get a free attack! You get a free charge! You get critical blows!” And if you needed more ways in which Gregor Clegane is better than Oprah, you don’t have to pay taxes on his gifts.
We can’t talk about the big Clegane without talking about his not-as-big-but-still-bigger-than-average brother, Sandor. He is the only non-commander attachment that gives a unit the glorious “House Clegane” keyword. Although not quite the destructive force as Gregor, his Cut them down ability is still quite painful, adding 2 additional wounds to any failed panic check. Sandor’s ability is also not tied to an order, so use it with as many attacks during the round as you can. Like his brother, I think he is best used in a unit that already has vicious.
If you are brave enough; you can run what I affectionately call “the brothers Grimm” and run 2 units of Pyromancers with each Clegane brother attached. It doesn’t get more glass cannon than that! Cutthroats are another good option for Sandor Clegane, or if you think you can pass morale checks the Lannister Guardsmen would be a decent spot since Sandor will synergize with their supremacy. Personally, I like him in an offensive unit. If you don’t mind wasting his house affiliation ability then Mountain’s Men aren’t a bad choice either. If you bring Cersei, Halberdiers will be a great choice for Sandor as well. If you want to get tricky; you can put him in Bastard’s girls and use their maneuverability and ranged shift to get into a units flank,fire 4 shots (with a potential vulnerable token)and then charge in with their order to bring the pain with the panic check. Sandor Clegane isn’t a super common attachment outside of Clegane lists, but he certainly isn’t bad.
Our last Clegane unit is the Mountain’s Men,the Lannister 6 pt Swiss Army knife. Their attack output is solid with Critical Blow, Vicious, and 3+ to hit with an 8,6,4 attack dice profile. They are already a House Clegane unit and will gain full benefits from Gregor’s cards. While not exactly a tank unit, their 4+ defense save is enough to keep them around through some abuse. But, if you’re using the Mountain’s Men defensively, you’re not playing to their strengths, you want them charging and bringing pain and panic to your enemies. Almost all Clegane lists have at least 1-2 units of his house troops, and sometimes even more. There are a number of Lannister attachments to make them even nastier. Now, the best attachments for the Mountain’s Men are subjective based on your playstyle, but I will say that the Assault Vet is going to add to their potency. If you enjoy the Kingsguard; Preston is always welcome, Meryn Trant will hand out tokens to boost survivability or damage output, Arys Oakhart will also boost survivability, and if you want to pay for him; Selmy will make them a proper tank while also fixing some morale liability. If you want cheap and reliable defense; a guard captain is welcome in any Lannister unit besides poor fellows and warriors sons.
Now, what are the best ways to build a Clegane list? Start with choosing where you want big papa Gregor Clegane. Once we have established that, we need to decide if we want to run “naked” Mountain’s Men with no attachment or stiffen them. One thing I often see overlooked with Clegane lists is cavalry. Will they benefit from his cards? Not so much. Both cavalry choices already have critical blows (knights on charge) and neither one will get a free charge action from “orders to destroy” but BOTH would certainly love overrun, especially Knights of Casterly Rock with those lances. I like Flayed Men in my Clegane list because Orders to Destroy will benefit them well in a static fight. They actually have the same attack profile as mountains men (including Vicious) and benefit exactly the same in a static fight. Cavalry will keep your opponents on their toes and prevent sneaky wolves (I’m looking at you, Starks. And you, Jon Snow) from darting behind a wall of infantry and wreaking havoc.
Once we have our combat units done and a good idea of our army’s theme we will need to choose NCU’s. Again, none are a bad choice, but Tyrion works really well with the big guy. Clegane’s cards are game changing and his combos are tear jerkers. We need his cards. Tyrion gives us 4 to start with a redraw of up to 4 every round. His second ability is icing on the cake, twice per game allowing you to force your opponent to show you two cards from their hand and discard one of them (on his NCU activation). A basic Lannister deck has card control, but it never hurts to have more. Plus, you know, more tears to watch if we manage to make them discard “Sudden Charge” or “Counter Charge”. Varys is always a solid pick, more control means less of a chance something bad happens to your unit before it can make something bad happen to your opponent.
Cersei excels in Clegane lists because of her vicious synergy. I also view her on the crown zone as a free attack action. Pycelle is also great because we don’t necessarily have the best defense and he can help us stay alive. Tywin is a clutch ace in the hole, but he might not be our best bet here. This isn’t exactly designed for control and Tywin does add some control aspect. We want to kill kill kill and there aren’t too many units that we need to strip of defensive abilities here. Petyr is an alternative to Joffrey if we want kingsguard but want to pass on the panic check. He can sit on the crown and do something else for us but still trigger our kingsguard. Joffrey is obviously a good way to always trigger kingsguard and ensure we get the most out of Lannister’s basic deck. I’m not sure we want those tokens on our Clegane boys though. Sparrow and Roose are obviously not options for us because Gregor is our com
Check out my personal favorite House Clegane list below. Using it has brought me great success, and many corpses to the feet of Lord Tywin.
Faction: House Lannister
Commander: Gregor Clegane – The Mountain
Points: 40 (14 Neutral)
Combat Units:
Non-Combat Units:
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How are you going to move mountains with your Cleganes???
I ran a clegane list in my very first tournement and won. Seems like it had the more gradual learning curve than some lists that are more steep. It’s basically see enemy, kill enemy.
Halbadiers with the mountain attached.
2 units of mountains men
Bastards girls with sandor
Guards with guard captain to camp objectives
Tyrion the imp
Pycelle to help units to survive
I like the idea to use the Flayed Men as a tank to intercept units that are looking to take out the Pyros before they can do anything, as well as mentioned above being able to trigger 2 panic tests with the Bastard’s girls. However, if your sole aim is to kill, maybe an even more aggressive list would suit.
I would stick Sandor with the Pyros instead to keep Gregor alive, stick Gregor in Cutthroats to make them a Clegane unit, then MM with Jaime for the extra dice to take the tally to 12 dice with 5+ critical blow with cards. Only criticism of such a list would be the entire army is a glass cannon with no tank unit, so everything relies on ending the game as quickly as possible with complete destruction, even possibly ignoring objective camping.
Personally to complete the list I would add either another naked MM or a Crossbow unit with a guard captain or Preston Greenfield (doing that with Crossbows would mean a Pycelle for 3 NCU list).
NCUs would be Cersei, Tyrion and Varys. I just can’t let go of Cersei’s influence with that much Vicious, maybe I’m wrong.
Im still a new player relatively so im still working on it. But when I sat down to focus on an offensive list I saw panic as icing instead of a focus. That’s why I felt comfortable leaving cerci out. The bastards girls might be my favorite unit in concept and flavor, but they’re pretty difficult to use correctly. I ended up dropping them in favor of knights of casterly rock and moving sandor to the unit if guards.
Getting an Overrun on a unit of knights is absolutely devastating
Cyrus, panic can give a huge swing in the number of wounds a unit takes. I agree with you on the Bastard Girls as being a challenging unit, certainly a high-risk-high-reward unit, but with some practice, they can be devastating.