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A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/24 23:56:16


Post by: usernamesareannoying


I have a chance to pick up a kickstarter and was wondering if it was a good idea or not.
I really like the minis but was wondering how the game played. It looks like a basic old school warhammer.
Are there plans for expansion?
Would a non game of thrones fan find it entertaining?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/25 03:28:42


Post by: Coyote81


My area is pretty hyped and playing often. (Phoenix, East Valley)

There are already expansions out for it, The Boltons, and Nightwatch are out, with the Wildings at the start of next years and more to be announced for 2019.

I think it's the best wargame like this since I played WHFB in 6th, (7&8 sucked) So Anyone should like this game.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/26 00:49:12


Post by: Seraf


Never played it but watched several gmg battle reports.


While it looks solid, this one IMO is mostly a card game disguised with minis.


I guess then if you take it as a 1v1 boardgame is pretty good.


I played whfb in 5th and 6th and soif does nothing to remind me of it TBH.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/26 01:57:10


Post by: usernamesareannoying


Really?
Cards play that big of a role in it?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/26 23:03:19


Post by: Seraf


 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Really?
Cards play that big of a role in it?



To clarify: there are cards which you draw and you use as sort of "stratagems". But what I meant is that to me it looks like a game that could have been made just with cards and a board with tiles.


Manouvering and shooting look risible, a grid would have been more than enough. The throne mechanic seems out of place in a miniature wargame and taken straight from a boardgame.

Individual models do not really have stats. The whole unit has stats and they degrade when it lose ranks.

It's clearly targeted at miniature wargamers but the core of this game doesn't feel very wargamey. Just my opinion though.

All in all it kinda reminds me of Mage Wars Arena, a game that looks like a card game but it is not in the end.




A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/27 15:15:12


Post by: Coyote81


Seraf wrote:
Never played it but watched several gmg battle reports.


While it looks solid, this one IMO is mostly a card game disguised with minis.


I guess then if you take it as a 1v1 boardgame is pretty good.


I played whfb in 5th and 6th and soif does nothing to remind me of it TBH.


If you've just watched and not played and you think this is a card game, then you need to re-evaluate it.

The Tactics cards/board mostly replace mechanics such as magic in this world, the are far from the end all be all and the movement system imo is what matters in this game. The main difference between this and WHFB is alternating activations, which drastically changes the game, but holy cow positioning is so important, which why this game feels like WHFB.

If has flanking/rear bonuses, which give you armor modifiers to enemy saves, which is a rare ability, thus flanking and rear charges are really important to breaking units, instead of grinding it out.

I say ignore the cards, learnt o play without them and you'll see what I mean, it's a fantastic game. With a tactical card system instead of a magic system.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/27 23:52:18


Post by: Seraf


 Coyote81 wrote:


If you've just watched and not played and you think this is a card game, then you need to re-evaluate it.

The Tactics cards/board mostly replace mechanics such as magic in this world, the are far from the end all be all and the movement system imo is what matters in this game. The main difference between this and WHFB is alternating activations, which drastically changes the game, but holy cow positioning is so important, which why this game feels like WHFB.

If has flanking/rear bonuses, which give you armor modifiers to enemy saves, which is a rare ability, thus flanking and rear charges are really important to breaking units, instead of grinding it out.

I say ignore the cards, learnt o play without them and you'll see what I mean, it's a fantastic game. With a tactical card system instead of a magic system.



Yup just watched and never played. You sure are more reliable on the matter since you play.


What do you think of the throne mechanic? To me that one seems useless (like it adds neither fun neither tactical depth) and not so well implemented.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/30 15:42:27


Post by: Coyote81


The throne is a KS optional rule and not implemented in a standard game. Unless your talking about the tactical board. There is actually a lot of depth to that imo, especially since it compete with your actions. and allows some interesting options since you have to take into account that people might be able to re-activate a unit or two, using that tactics board, so it's a bit of cat and mouse on moving units vs using tactics.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/30 17:42:09


Post by: chaos0xomega


I recently got into it in a big way, picked up a KS pledge and a lot of other stuff.

Expansions are rolling out at a steady (albeit a bit slow) pace. Nights watch just released, Wildlings are out within the next month. The existing factions are getting more units too.

Its a fun quick game, it does have a "gamey" feel that some might not like if you are a strict wargame purist, but I enjoy it. Plus the minis are gorgeous.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2018/12/31 02:35:22


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


Having a blast with it in Central California. It's doing pretty well here. Expansions have been confirmed through 2020. Pretty vibrant future we can hope.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/01/28 15:50:20


Post by: Coyote81


I've gotten a lot more games in and at bigger point values, the game feels even more fleshed out and miniature tactics based.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/01/28 21:54:05


Post by: BobtheInquisitor


I've heard that this game is very easy for boardgamers with no Wargames experience to get into. How true is that?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/01/29 12:49:03


Post by: Achilles


Not true.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/01/30 06:51:08


Post by: BobtheInquisitor


Good to know. Thanks.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/01/30 10:48:44


Post by: usernamesareannoying


I could see it being a good starting point for board gamers.
The minis are preassembled and it seems like movement is a little more forgiving than say old school fantasy battles.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/23 08:20:56


Post by: stonehorse


In a lot of ways it reminds me of Kings of War, that is to say I can see a lot of similar game design. However it does offer enough differences to stand on its own too feet. Namely alternative activations, and the tactic board.

The models while nice are a bit pricey, they may come assembled, with a movement tray, and rules, but it is only 13 infantry models.

I recently received the Freefolk starter set, and I have to say those are good value for money. I think one of the best ways to build up a bigger force may be to buy two starter sets for your faction of choice. It won't offer the full variety however.

It is a ni e game, and I hope CMON can keep up with the demand, it was hard to track down my set, and I have heard that people struggle to order unit boxes as they sell out very fast.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/23 12:43:10


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


I don't know how the game can be called pricey. :-p A starter set gets you 80% of the way to a legal, normal tournament sized list, plus options of Commander, for $60-75. Additional units are complete and again often come with an attachment which can further change other units, for $25-30. It being so cheap has been a huge part of its success locally.

One of my FLGS just easily pulled twenty players for an event, so while it is far from 40k, it isn't an unplayed, unknown dud either. :-)


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/23 15:22:06


Post by: stonehorse


I play a lot of historical game, Fireforge Mongolian infantry roughly €25 for 24 models. That is why I view ASoIaF as being expensive. The core sets are as I mentioned great value, however they don't offer a lot of options. I play Freefolk, while Raiders are workable, Followers of Bone and Spearwives do a fair bit of heavy lifting in the faction.

Just because the starter set is cheap it doesn't mean that players are going to stick with the contents of the box for their force, what if I wanted to field a force where Trackers, and Cave Dwellers were the bulk of my force? It would soon add up as they are roughly €25 a box.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/23 16:08:56


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


Yes, which is a perspective I understand, but historicals are famously cheap, and literally any miniature game compared to those is expensive. :-)


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/23 20:04:34


Post by: BobtheInquisitor


Also, there's a big discount scene for these minis. I've bought four or five different unit boxes for about $15 each over the last year or so.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/23 21:55:14


Post by: Argive


Are they going to release the dragons as models? Or kings guard?

I get they would be OP in a game setting but id buy one just to have and paint...


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/24 00:16:55


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


 Argive wrote:
Are they going to release the dragons as models? Or kings guard?

I get they would be OP in a game setting but id buy one just to have and paint...


Kings Guard are already available, usable as one unit or individually. Super value rich in game terms for $24.

Dragons are confirmed and will be done in stages, IE newly hatched, young, and way down the road, full sized.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/24 00:36:04


Post by: Argive


I see.
I had another look and they are part of 'Lannister Heroes II' box set.

I was expecting them to have a tri-ridge crested helmet design like in the show and similar armour.. That's disappointing.

Looking forward to the dragons.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/25 15:26:05


Post by: usernamesareannoying


anyone have a scale shot with an AOS fig?
some of these would make nice freeguild.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/26 07:00:52


Post by: Manchu


I played it once and the experience just made me very glad that I do not like ASOIAF.

Because if I did, goodbye money.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/26 18:54:06


Post by: Nurglitch


I hear good things about it, mainly why I'm in this thread looking for info.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/26 20:32:31


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


For what its worth, I tend to broadly divide games into categories where I feel the designers intentions clearly allow one to do so... IE Frostgrave and This is Not a Test are clearly narrative games, intended to let two players craft personal cres through which fun stories get told...

To that end, among "competitive" games, I find ASoIaF to be my favorite after ten years in this hobby, and five years working as a designer. Its just a really good, clean, skill-based system that understands the line between interesting list building choices, tactical movement, etc... while stopping short of the kind of sometimes abrasive crunch of something like tournament war-machine.

Here a good player will almost always beat a bad player, but the gulf isn't such that it has to become a full-time job to be competitive.

Really excellent game so long as you know its intent which is to be a good, competitive face-off.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/27 02:15:39


Post by: Manchu


I only played it once but that rings completely true to me. The only thing I don’t like that much is the side/mini game of “politics” but I get how that is thematically important and it certainly adds another level of strategy.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/27 12:55:49


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


 Manchu wrote:
I only played it once but that rings completely true to me. The only thing I don’t like that much is the side/mini game of “politics” but I get how that is thematically important and it certainly adds another level of strategy.


I'd argue it completely makes the game. You're often dueling over those finite, powerful resources with your opponent, and weighing order of operations, those versus the battlefield, all modified by the bonuses from tactics cards, makes really nice, tough choices that are THANKFULLY more than just mathhammer.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/29 20:18:02


Post by: stonehorse


NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
For what its worth, I tend to broadly divide games into categories where I feel the designers intentions clearly allow one to do so... IE Frostgrave and This is Not a Test are clearly narrative games, intended to let two players craft personal cres through which fun stories get told...

To that end, among "competitive" games, I find ASoIaF to be my favorite after ten years in this hobby, and five years working as a designer. Its just a really good, clean, skill-based system that understands the line between interesting list building choices, tactical movement, etc... while stopping short of the kind of sometimes abrasive crunch of something like tournament war-machine.

Here a good player will almost always beat a bad player, but the gulf isn't such that it has to become a full-time job to be competitive.

Really excellent game so long as you know its intent which is to be a good, competitive face-off.


I strongly disagree, the game is good, however there are too many layers of special rules which get in the way of tactics, and can lead to a situation where the better player can be taken by surprise. A lot of the time I played it desends into 'my special rule trumps yours'. I honestly think that each objective does not need a unique rule, and terrain needs to lose a few special rules.

CMON, can't help themselves for adding these types of rules, they are almost as bad as GW for it. Games that adopt a Keep It Simple Stupid approach to the rules and interaction of said rules produce tighter game systems, where the game allows the better player to demonstrate their skill, and thus player interaction creates the complexity.

The core mechanics, are sound... the addition of NCU's really make the game shine. I just hope that CMON can keep up with demand for the game.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/07/31 15:20:37


Post by: Gallahad


I've only played three games, but I find this an excellent game that rewards good play and forces interesting choices. The side board is brilliant.
Night's Watch I find to be a bit over powered, but otherwise the game is also nicely balanced between factions that play very differently.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2019/12/29 23:59:22


Post by: stonehorse


Just had another game with the Freefolk, and they are utterly crap.

Seriously they are a joke. Their tactic cards have far too little pay of for a large investment to achieve, compared to other faction cards they are out of sync.
The main heavy hitter in the faction can be easily countrered by simple not attacking it, as it will do 2-4 wounds when it attacks... which can be easily healed by either a Tactic Card or a place on the political track... also it costs 7pts, 7pts for 2-4 wounds is simply laughable. On the flip side the same model can be removed far too easily without getting to do anything. The Savage Giant, incase anyone was wondering which model I was on about. I see wat CMON aimed for with the rules for this monster. However it simply doesn't work, in all my 30 years of gaming I have never encountered a unit that can be countered by simply not attacking it.

For the record I play mainly against Stark, and Nightswatch, so the panic shenanigans that are all to common with the Freefolk do very little. Both factions can hit a lot harder than the Freefolk can, and can tank against me very easily. Oh, and they can take Neutrals, which again not having access to limits the Freefolk, sure it makes sense thematically, however give the Freefolk something to make up for this handicap.

In all honesty, I started with Freefolk, but I may just quit this game, which is a shame as the core mechanics are fantastic. However the gaming experience is ruined by the Tactic Cards. They are nowhere near balanced, just go look at the Freefolk ones and the Nightswatch ones. I once had a game where it was advantagous to attack Ghost with a unit of trappers, I caused 1 wound due to his power armour save. The Nightswatch player had a card that then allowed a nearby unit to heal 3 wounds because I attacked his unit. Which meant a Tracker returned to a nearby unit. So my attack rewarded my opponet more than it did anything for me. This has so far been my experiance with the Tactic Cards.

I wish I wasn't so negetive about the game/Freefolk, as the core system is very nice, but starting with the Freefolk has put me off, I think I've managed to win 1 game, most games I lose by 8-10 victory points. Sure winning and losing aren't the aim of a game, but after a while getting kicked that badly on a regular basis makes the game not fun.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/01/07 15:21:07


Post by: Gallahad


 stonehorse wrote:
Just had another game with the Freefolk, and they are utterly crap.

Seriously they are a joke. Their tactic cards have far too little pay of for a large investment to achieve, compared to other faction cards they are out of sync.
The main heavy hitter in the faction can be easily countrered by simple not attacking it, as it will do 2-4 wounds when it attacks... which can be easily healed by either a Tactic Card or a place on the political track... also it costs 7pts, 7pts for 2-4 wounds is simply laughable. On the flip side the same model can be removed far too easily without getting to do anything. The Savage Giant, incase anyone was wondering which model I was on about. I see wat CMON aimed for with the rules for this monster. However it simply doesn't work, in all my 30 years of gaming I have never encountered a unit that can be countered by simply not attacking it.

For the record I play mainly against Stark, and Nightswatch, so the panic shenanigans that are all to common with the Freefolk do very little. Both factions can hit a lot harder than the Freefolk can, and can tank against me very easily. Oh, and they can take Neutrals, which again not having access to limits the Freefolk, sure it makes sense thematically, however give the Freefolk something to make up for this handicap.

In all honesty, I started with Freefolk, but I may just quit this game, which is a shame as the core mechanics are fantastic. However the gaming experience is ruined by the Tactic Cards. They are nowhere near balanced, just go look at the Freefolk ones and the Nightswatch ones. I once had a game where it was advantagous to attack Ghost with a unit of trappers, I caused 1 wound due to his power armour save. The Nightswatch player had a card that then allowed a nearby unit to heal 3 wounds because I attacked his unit. Which meant a Tracker returned to a nearby unit. So my attack rewarded my opponet more than it did anything for me. This has so far been my experiance with the Tactic Cards.

I wish I wasn't so negetive about the game/Freefolk, as the core system is very nice, but starting with the Freefolk has put me off, I think I've managed to win 1 game, most games I lose by 8-10 victory points. Sure winning and losing aren't the aim of a game, but after a while getting kicked that badly on a regular basis makes the game not fun.

We spoke over on the CMON forums, but for the benefit of others reading this, you really do need heroes box 1 and another pair of raider units to make FreeFolk work. I definitely agree they take a lot of effort to play and are not a very forgiving army to play. They seem clearly less powerful than the Night's Watch for example, but I think you would have a much better experience with heroes box 1 and another pair of raider units in your list.

Also, as I mentioned, you should definitely be taking Styr as a NCU and giving fury of the Thenns to your giants. They smash face with that combo.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/03/09 10:52:34


Post by: stonehorse


Bought a lot more, now have at least one of everything, and played a lot more games. Think I am at the point where I have to admit the following.

This isn't a fun game.

Little bit of background before I delve into the review, I’ve been playing table top miniature games since the mid 80’s, worked briefly for GW, designed a few games, and have won several Wargaming tournaments. So this isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to miniature gaming.

You can tell from the opening that this isn't going to be a glowing review, which is sad as the game comes close to being a great game. However the game's designers didn't know when to stop. What makes this game not fun is the sheer glut of special rules, and how the game encourages players to be jerks. I'll talk about these points more in depth, but if you want the TL/DR of why the game is not fun to play... this is it right there.

Glut of special rules.
Less is more, more creates an ugly mess of interactions. The core mechanics of the game are elegant, alternative activations, simple combat resolution, choice of actions, etc. A small smattering of unit abilities is fine, and helps to add flavour to units to make them feel different. However some of these abilities are simply too much, and due to the game having a wide host of ways to add to abilities, it can and does create a situation where abilities quickly become broken and rob players of their agency. On top of unit abilities the game has unique tactics cards for each faction and general, again in isolation these are fine, but how they interact with other special rules floating around can be quite unstable. The game has a nice idea of adding a political intrigue element, however as the units which use this seldom use just the various parts, but rather add their own unique special abilities on top of those already available. To top off the overwhelming nature of having too many special rules and abilities to factor in, the game adds a random selection of special rules for each objective. There is simply too much to try to keep track of, factor in, and again too many interactions makes the game groan under its own weight.

Forcing players to be a Jerk.
The aforementioned tactics cards boil down the gaming experience into a game where a player's enjoyment comes at the expense of their opponent not having a good time. Essentially they are a collection of 'gotchas' and 'counters'. It isn’t so much as putting an opponent in a position where their options are limited due to clever movement of units, but simply having a card in hand that is unforeseeable, and punishes the opponent for making what is usually the right choice at the time. In all the games I have played I have lost because my opponent had better access to special abilities that shut down my turn, robbed me of my choice, or countered my choice. None of this came from my opponent being a better player, but sheer dumb luck of choosing a faction with good tactic cards (like any card game... not all cards are designed equally), and having a good tactic card in hand. It cheapens the game experience.

In all my decades of gaming I have never encountered a game that offers so poor an experience. The worst games I have ever had, have been from this system. It is frustrating as the game does have a fantastic engine, but sadly like the car that Homer Simpson designed... the game too was a mess of clutter which ultimately made the game a piece of trash. I really wish I could have fun with this game, but constantly encountering situations where opponents have abilities to deny me my activation and instead choose which unit I have to activate is simply not fun. For the life of me I am struggling to see why this game has such a strong appeal. Last game I played it was 13-0 victory points to Lannisters. I managed to kill 6 models the entire game, due to having all my choices and actions cancelled or dictated for me, my agency was taken from me.

Even if there were ways to mitigate the sheer Jerk behaviour this game encourages, it simply isn't worth it. Forcing players to adopt a Jerk like behaviour in order to combat Jerk behaviour just makes both players into Jerks, and erodes the social contract that gaming is founded on.

The models are nice... if expensive for what they are. They don’t offer much in the way of creativity as they are pre-built, so no to little chance to position them as you want.

If someone was new to the hobby and wanted a fun Miniature game, I'd point them in the direction of Kings of War, Warlords of Erehwon, or Dragon Rampant. Those are systems that encourage players to have a mutually fun gaming experience. Also I strongly suspect that they will stand the test of time... which A Song of Ice and Fire won't.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/03/16 00:00:19


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


 stonehorse wrote:
Bought a lot more, now have at least one of everything, and played a lot more games. Think I am at the point where I have to admit the following.

This isn't a fun game.

Little bit of background before I delve into the review, I’ve been playing table top miniature games since the mid 80’s, worked briefly for GW, designed a few games, and have won several Wargaming tournaments. So this isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to miniature gaming.

You can tell from the opening that this isn't going to be a glowing review, which is sad as the game comes close to being a great game. However the game's designers didn't know when to stop. What makes this game not fun is the sheer glut of special rules, and how the game encourages players to be jerks. I'll talk about these points more in depth, but if you want the TL/DR of why the game is not fun to play... this is it right there.

Glut of special rules.
Less is more, more creates an ugly mess of interactions. The core mechanics of the game are elegant, alternative activations, simple combat resolution, choice of actions, etc. A small smattering of unit abilities is fine, and helps to add flavour to units to make them feel different. However some of these abilities are simply too much, and due to the game having a wide host of ways to add to abilities, it can and does create a situation where abilities quickly become broken and rob players of their agency. On top of unit abilities the game has unique tactics cards for each faction and general, again in isolation these are fine, but how they interact with other special rules floating around can be quite unstable. The game has a nice idea of adding a political intrigue element, however as the units which use this seldom use just the various parts, but rather add their own unique special abilities on top of those already available. To top off the overwhelming nature of having too many special rules and abilities to factor in, the game adds a random selection of special rules for each objective. There is simply too much to try to keep track of, factor in, and again too many interactions makes the game groan under its own weight.

Forcing players to be a Jerk.
The aforementioned tactics cards boil down the gaming experience into a game where a player's enjoyment comes at the expense of their opponent not having a good time. Essentially they are a collection of 'gotchas' and 'counters'. It isn’t so much as putting an opponent in a position where their options are limited due to clever movement of units, but simply having a card in hand that is unforeseeable, and punishes the opponent for making what is usually the right choice at the time. In all the games I have played I have lost because my opponent had better access to special abilities that shut down my turn, robbed me of my choice, or countered my choice. None of this came from my opponent being a better player, but sheer dumb luck of choosing a faction with good tactic cards (like any card game... not all cards are designed equally), and having a good tactic card in hand. It cheapens the game experience.

In all my decades of gaming I have never encountered a game that offers so poor an experience. The worst games I have ever had, have been from this system. It is frustrating as the game does have a fantastic engine, but sadly like the car that Homer Simpson designed... the game too was a mess of clutter which ultimately made the game a piece of trash. I really wish I could have fun with this game, but constantly encountering situations where opponents have abilities to deny me my activation and instead choose which unit I have to activate is simply not fun. For the life of me I am struggling to see why this game has such a strong appeal. Last game I played it was 13-0 victory points to Lannisters. I managed to kill 6 models the entire game, due to having all my choices and actions cancelled or dictated for me, my agency was taken from me.

Even if there were ways to mitigate the sheer Jerk behaviour this game encourages, it simply isn't worth it. Forcing players to adopt a Jerk like behaviour in order to combat Jerk behaviour just makes both players into Jerks, and erodes the social contract that gaming is founded on.

The models are nice... if expensive for what they are. They don’t offer much in the way of creativity as they are pre-built, so no to little chance to position them as you want.

If someone was new to the hobby and wanted a fun Miniature game, I'd point them in the direction of Kings of War, Warlords of Erehwon, or Dragon Rampant. Those are systems that encourage players to have a mutually fun gaming experience. Also I strongly suspect that they will stand the test of time... which A Song of Ice and Fire won't.


I've been pondering all of the above. Just recently I stated to someone that I prefer a game like Kings of War, where all rules are available theoretically ahead of time, not trickled out over months. It seems Ice & Fire is getting increasingly convoluted.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/03/17 18:16:33


Post by: Zond


I disagree with a lot of what has been said. I'm a huge ASOIAF fan and I have multiples of each release. I play the game casually, and have no tournament experience or design experience. It is currently one of my favourite games to play perhaps the favourite. I'd like to address some points raised.

The Free Folk complaint is not without merit. They were one of the weaker factions when the complaint was posted and shortly recieved a massive update. Now they are a very strong faction. Many underperforming units were tweaked and the morale system in the game was changed to stop lovely units of Raiders with rags for armour and the morale of yellow custard being swept off the board. They will still crumble but can at least absorb all but the most dedicated charges.

Part of the Free Folk design is terrible units, overpowered Commanders, NCUs and attachments. No other faction has such a plethora of ability granting heroes that would be frankly overpowered with access in other factions. There are good, semi- elite units of course. However the faction revolves around the dichotomy of chaff, chaining activations and powerful Commander abiltiies. Out of the starter set they're probably a poor gaming experience compared to nearly all other factions so I can sympathise if this is what you felt.

Of he two factions you mention fighting against the first, Nights Watch also recieved balancing toning them down. They are still an elite faction that revolves around healing and sustaining their troops, with an emphasis now on shooting, siege weaponry and durability. It can be frustrating to play against, just as being mobbed to death by Free Folk can. Free Folk vs Nights Watch becomes the classic match of the stalwart versus the horde. In addition the changes to morale similarly hurt elite factions as they are more likely to have 1 or 2 guys run away per engagement, which can lead to weaker enemies chipping them to death.

Lannisters are the control faction. They are going to shut you down. They politic and scheme and stop you playing cards or find ways to use their wealth to make your units weak to panic tests or to make units durable. So yes, it can be an 'anti-fun' play style but they can only stop so much of what the Free Folk can do because you have so much more than them, and every loss is keenly felt. And whilst the Lannisters certainly have offensive units and Commanders they are not aggressive combat monsters.

With all factions the trick is to identify what political zones they need, control them, try and claim your own and maximise your faction/Commander playstyle. With Free Folk units being so cheap they can easily dominate the political board and invest more points in that aspect whilst still swarming their opponent with quantity.

You mention the Savage Giant as bad design. Again this was before the update. The Savage Giant rolls a single dice on attack. On a 2+ he deals straight wounds without a save. It's a giant! He starts off dealing a D3 + 2 wounds, and deals an additional one wound for each wound lost. So minimum is 3 wounds plus anything suffered from panic tests. Yes particularly brave units can stymie him a little however damage like that can straight delete a rank of infantry at a time weakening your unit. You certainly can choose to ignore attacking him and he doesn't get stronger. Free Folk now have more tricks to make him stronger and his ability to just cause casualties cannot be ignored. There are 2 sources to turn off that massive damage I can think of in the game. I don't see this as bad design. You cite your experience at GW. GW has had death star units. Giant balled up units that typically had high durability and damage output and low movement. You shot the other troops away and focussed on them or objectives. I'm not sure if this is bad design either, or simply a playstyle? I think this complaint is quite overblown.

I will move on to the 'gotcha' issue. To a small extent this is true. This is ASOIAF! It's politicking and outmanuevering and sudden brutal surprises. The command cards mimic the books. However there's also a free app called War Council. The argument about electronic methods of updating rules and stats is one for another day, however CMON produce an official app that has the latest rules and every released model plus the most up to date unit stats. A handy thing also is you can see all the cards a Commander has in his deck. Every faction has 7 staple cards that go in the deck. A commander adds a further 3. There are two copies of each card. Yeah, I might never know what cards my opponent has in his hand, but I can easily work out what me might have. For example the Lannisters have a card called Counterplot which can stop one of your cards working. If they play it twice, barring Tyrion being able to bring a card back as commander then that's it. I can't get hit with that affect more than twice. Perhaps this requires too much mental tracking than you wish and I understand. For myself Lion Rampant just feels too bare bones. The game doesn't encourage you to be some sort of jerk no more than strategems in 40k make you a jerk. They're extra abiltiies you have access to. Not every one is a counter. Some are played when you attack or when you are attacked, if your charge, if you pass morale, if you engage with the politics board. Some heal, make you hit harder, defend more, allow you to retreat more easily... They're only gotchas in the sense your hand is hidden. Your hand is hidden and nothing else is. Information otherwise is freely available. Strategems are freely available in 40k and your opponent tells you when he uses one and you can respond in kind, but he's under no obligation to telegraph his turns or ideas so obviously. I don't see the difference here. I would go far as to say if you and your opponent feel like you're being jerks then that's on you. Nothing in this game forces unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Units can have unique and special rules but they're all self contained on their card and nothing is hidden. If I need to know what Tully Sworn Shields can do when charged by Bolton Bastard Girls and vice versa it's all on the card. Like all wargames there can be poor wording but I don't see this mass of convoluted complexity.

There could be a criticism levelled that older factions with more releases are more developed and have more options than newer factions. Certainly Hero Boxes add so much value they're mandatory purchases. This can be a negative if you play Baratheons which currently only have a starter set and little else compared to the Stark line up with a wide variety of heroes and units. This is a wargame and this is how things are released unfortunately. Ignoring agnostic model or setting rules it's hard when any faction has just been released and has a more constricting playstyle. The distribution of the game is shoddy however and that is something new players should consider.

The game does get more convoluted the more is added. Welcome to obvious statements. The same is true of new Mantic factions, 40k supplements, Erehwon warbands... you name it, adding more means more to know. That's life. The level of complexity of ASOIAF may not be for some as the simplicity of other games might not be for others. Some of us prefer Pepsi to Coke and all that.

I think you've had a few bad matchups at a time the game was undergoing some revamps and that sucks. And it might not bw your cup or tea. But I think there's a lot of hyperbolic complaining and factual errors which undermine your critique.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/03/19 17:33:37


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


I agree with Zond 1000%. ASoIaF has many valid reasons to be criticized, namely its ABYSMAL distribution and availability, but the game is an excellent exercise in tactics, positioning, constant meaningful decisions, etc. One of the best purely competitive systems out there right now IMO.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/03/23 23:28:02


Post by: stonehorse


@Zond.

Quite a lot to reply to there.

I strongly disagree that the Freefolk have overpowered Commanders, NCUs and attachments. Take Mance and add him to a unit of Cave Dweller Savages... He makes the unit worse, ok not by much. Having looked at what the game has to offer I honestly don't see what it is about the Freefolk Commanders, NCUs, and attachments overpowered, care to elaborate what makes them such.

Free Folk most certinly are a 'fill the board with chaff' style army. The games I have won have been by sitting Raiders on objectives with a unit of Raiders parked in front of them, none of the Raiders engage with the enemy, that is what Cave Dweller Savages, Followers of Bone are for. It is boring, but it does win.

I play mainly against Nightswatch, Lannisters, and Stark. Of those 3 Lannisters have done the most damage in a game. Knights of Casterly Rock with the Mounted Mountain unit Attachment and Tyrions card that allows a unit to be activated again. That thing hits hard, is fast, and has great mobility. in one round it killed a Giant, a unit of Raiders with Raid Leader & Skinchanger, and the bonded Bear. Next round I went to charge with a Giant, Lannister player played the 'you can't activate your unit, the Lannister player chooses', so was robbed the ability to deal with the threat. The unit then went onto kill two more giants in the same round... the Lannister player had the activate a unit again card. so at this point Round 3, I had lost 3 Giants, a unit of Raiders, a Raid Leader, a Skinwalker, and a Bonded Bear. 26pts of my 50pts force. I had yet to cause a single wound to the Lannister force. Not sure where you get the idea that the Lannisters don't have combat monsters.

Giants are still hot garbage, even after the changes. They are just too easy to neutralise. Cancelling their ability hurts them more than any other unit in the game, or just don't attack them. D3+2 damage isn't that hard to recover from. Turning it off leaves the Giant with 1 attack that hits on 2+... not very scary. The only good thing a Giant can do is hold/contest objectives, however for their points that buys two units of Raiders and a Raid Leader, which is better as they can be in two areas, and don't give up a victory point when killed.

In all my years of gaming (30+ years), the most unenjoyable experiences have been with this game. Once before the 1.5.1 update, and once afterwards. Each time it has boiled down to the Tactics cards, they for me ruin the game. I understand that they are used to add flavour to the game, but taking a great meal and adding lots of salt ruins the meal, it is the same with this.

Yes, the War Council is a free app that has all the game rules, I have it on both my phone and tablet. However, I fail to see how that undoes the 'anti-fun' cards. Knowing that certain cards exisit doesn't make it any better. I could devote hours to learning all the tactic cards, however I don't think a game should put players in a position where a player has to learn the text of sevral decks of cards in order to have fun. Learning what a unit does and how they play is easy, as players will have a point of references to use... Orcs are tough brutes, Elves are fast skilled troops, Dwarfs are stubbon tough grumpy buggers, etc.

It isn't about forcing players to be bad sportsmen, but rather the tactics cards (and some abilities), create a game that isn't fun for the player on the receiving end, thus it feels like a jerk move. Not that the player is being a jerk. For example the Lannister Tactic Card that allowd the Lannister player to choose which unit the opponent has to activate on their turn, is something that shouldn't exsist in an alternative activation game, it is a force multiplier, also as you pointed out Tyrion can retrieve cards that have been played, so can do this 4 times in a game. That isn't fun, and cheapens the Lannister players victory. Winning because you denied your opponent the ability to play is well... a very cheap victory and gaming experience. Persoanlly I'd rather win a game due to better play and not the ability of some random card that essentially plays itself giving me the victory.

My complaint about complexity in the game is about how the game has needless rules that add very little to the game, other than to add rules. Each objective having a unique random special rule? That is adding more for the sake of adding more in the hope that it will make the game appear to have more depth... it simply isn't true. Some of the most complex games have the most simplist of rules. Go, Diplomacy, etc. Allowing complexity to emerge organically through player interaction is far better than front loading a system. Also the more layers or moving parts that are added to a system allow for unforeseen issues with interaction to creep in. Keeping a system simple mechanically is a way to safe guard against this. Adding more for the sake of adding more is a recipe for issues to arise.

You mentioned the Strategems of 40k... yeah, those are also a horrid thing, and a big part of why I gave up on that game.

Dragon Rampant, maybe bare bones, but that is the strength of the system. The game is more about what a player does on the table, and not about tailoring a list to get the most out some combo-wombo. In that system a player can build a force based on what models they like, and with a good grasp of tactics can achieve victory while having a fun game. The activation system always makes the game tense and adds in a good levelof uncertinty.

Again, if the game removed the Tactics Cards, it would vastly improve the system. With them, and it is margainly better than 40k, which is a very back handed compliment.

Luckily I should get a good deal for my stuff on eBay due to how hard it is to get.

Sorry, but this game is one of the worst I have played in all my life. if you think that is hyperbolic, fair enough.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/11 14:29:59


Post by: Pacific


For a newcomer to this, is it possible to get the game essentials/rulebook without having to get the starter set (or should that be a recommended starting point in all cases?)

On the comments above, Wow.. it's incredible how subjective some things can be. But, I guess that is why it's a good thing there are so many different games on the market - it's possible for anyone to find the kind of game that they like.
Also the joys of the 'bay which means it should be pretty easy to trade away the things you want to get rid of!

It does sound like this game has a lot of tactical complexity, meaning you can get beaten down quite easily if you haven't been prepared to spend the time learning those strategies. I came across that a lot with Infinity, where I thought I was a reasonable player (small group, playing every other week or so) but then tried to play in some tournaments and got torn a new one (there is no kinder way of putting it!) against the guys on the tournament scene - absolutely brutal. I'm surprised actually that some of the losses didn't result in my actual death. I didn't do the tournaments often, but it was there if you wanted it, and fortunately there was enough fun and depth to the game that just play in the casual setting with friends was enough. I'm hoping ASOIAF is similar to this, because I love the look of the miniatures and am a big fan of the books and TV show.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/12 19:18:50


Post by: BobtheInquisitor


I’m a huge fan of the minis, so I hope the game is successful for a while. Not that I play it or ever will.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/14 00:52:49


Post by: NewTruthNeomaxim


 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’m a huge fan of the minis, so I hope the game is successful for a while. Not that I play it or ever will.


You should! Between the wife and I, we own 2-3 of every release for every faction. It is one of the most rewarding and skill-based games we have ever played, yet doesn't have the obnoxious learning curve where you're expected to lose fifty games before winning one. Its quickly climbing my favorites of all time, list.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/14 11:07:01


Post by: Pacific


You are not the only person I have heard say that NewTruthNeomaxim.

I am now massively torn between this and AoS as my next 'big' project. Have started reading the background for AoS and it's just not grabbing me. It might just be a personal thing, of preferring 'low fantasy' to the utterly bonkers (although I must admit, very imaginative) world of AoS. I don't feel I can connect to the latter without the help of psychedelic substances. And for me that connection is a big motivator for the many hundreds of hours I will spend building and painting.

A friend is collecting for AoS which is what initially pushed me in that direction, but reading about how good ASOIAF is in terms of design is not helping!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/14 18:11:11


Post by: Vertrucio


You'll be playing full games sooner with ASOIAF than than with Age of Sigmar. With Ice and Fire, your figures are pre-built, and you need less units on the table to have a satisfying and interesting game. Meanwhile Age of Sigmar is mainly mass battle, you assemble everything yourself, and there's the stupid double turn mechanic. Ice and Fire has alternating activations, an interesting off-table strategy/scheming system with non-combat characters there.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/14 19:40:02


Post by: auticus


If i had to choose between ASOIAF and AOS, AOS would remain smouldering in my dumpster lol.

ASOIAF is not my favorite game, but it beats AOS hands down.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/14 21:59:11


Post by: Inquisitor Gideon


 auticus wrote:
If i had to choose between ASOIAF and AOS, AOS would remain smouldering in my dumpster lol.

ASOIAF is not my favorite game, but it beats AOS hands down.


And yet you still feel compelled to post in the board at every opportunity.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/15 01:08:18


Post by: auticus


Yep sure do. I have about 10 grand sunk into my gw fantasy collection so I'll likely continue to post in AOS boards until I die or until they release a game that I can use that investment in.

Cheers.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/15 08:55:42


Post by: Cyel


 auticus wrote:
Yep sure do. I have about 10 grand sunk into my gw fantasy collection so I'll likely continue to post in AOS boards until I die or until they release a game that I can use that investment in.

Cheers.


Isn't the 9th Age popular where you live? Here it seems to be played everywhere, while AoS is apparently relegated to home groups. I have seen AoS played in public (club or store) maybe once in the last couple of years. I guess it is considered a shameful activity better performed at home


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/15 09:50:01


Post by: Pacific


Thanks for the comments Vetrucio and Auticus.

9th age is another game I have considered. I used to love WHFB and also I admire the community spirit behind it, it really is quite heartening and shows that hobbyists can go their own way and not just be spoon-fed whatever the companies want you to play.

The more I read and see about ASOIAF the more I like the look of it.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/08/15 14:38:58


Post by: auticus


Cyel wrote:
 auticus wrote:
Yep sure do. I have about 10 grand sunk into my gw fantasy collection so I'll likely continue to post in AOS boards until I die or until they release a game that I can use that investment in.

Cheers.


Isn't the 9th Age popular where you live? Here it seems to be played everywhere, while AoS is apparently relegated to home groups. I have seen AoS played in public (club or store) maybe once in the last couple of years. I guess it is considered a shameful activity better performed at home


Nope nobody plays 9th age where I am. The only real fantasy game is AOS because I live in an area that is dominated by GW. Getting other games going is hard. I have championed Conquest and we have a good size group a year later but the corona virus has really crushed that effort.

AOS however is everywhere here. Once they brought in official points that is. It was not seen anywhere except for my campaign group for about its first year until the first GHB dropped.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/12/27 13:58:04


Post by: Gurkhal


Just want to him in and say that I don't play the game yet, but hope to get something up and going by this summer at the latest.

I've been checking over the rules and am looking to get into action.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/12/29 12:51:57


Post by: Red Viper


Gurkhal wrote:
Just want to him in and say that I don't play the game yet, but hope to get something up and going by this summer at the latest.

I've been checking over the rules and am looking to get into action.


It's a great game, and in my experience... a pretty easy sale to anyone who played WHFB.

If they are a fan of the books/show... and a wargamer... they really should be playing already.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/12/30 11:27:48


Post by: Arbitrator


Gurkhal wrote:
Just want to him in and say that I don't play the game yet, but hope to get something up and going by this summer at the latest.

I've been checking over the rules and am looking to get into action.

There's a very active Discord community for it via Tabletop Simulator and the guys who made the mod have tried their best to mitigate a lot of the usual clunkiness of using TTS for wargames. It might be worth a look in the mean time.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/12/30 19:54:57


Post by: Gurkhal


 Arbitrator wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:
Just want to him in and say that I don't play the game yet, but hope to get something up and going by this summer at the latest.

I've been checking over the rules and am looking to get into action.

There's a very active Discord community for it via Tabletop Simulator and the guys who made the mod have tried their best to mitigate a lot of the usual clunkiness of using TTS for wargames. It might be worth a look in the mean time.


Thanks! I'll check it out.

EDITED

 Red Viper wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:
Just want to him in and say that I don't play the game yet, but hope to get something up and going by this summer at the latest.

I've been checking over the rules and am looking to get into action.


It's a great game, and in my experience... a pretty easy sale to anyone who played WHFB.

If they are a fan of the books/show... and a wargamer... they really should be playing already.




A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2020/12/31 20:20:23


Post by: Hecaton


Played a game yesterday with my quarantine pod. Had a lot of fun with it.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/03 09:30:59


Post by: Gallahad


Oh my word, I wish I'd seen this sooner.

If you are on the fence about this you should absolutely give the game a go.

Been playing rank n flank wargames for 15+ years and ASOIAF is the best I've played hands down. Only thing that comes even moderately close is golden period WHFB 6th edition with some house rules.

ASOIAF is the perfect example of a game that is easy to learn but hard to master. Core mechanics are very simple and most unit special abilities are just the core abilities combined in different ways.

Army building can be endlessly entertaining with attachments allowing you to power up units or give them more specialized roles while commanders can give the same faction a completely different play style allowing you to get lots of play styles out of the same army. For example, play Lannisters but are tired of playing control and panic style lists? Take the Mountain as your commander, throw in the hound and a couple units of the Mountain's Men and you've got a very aggressive face punching Lannister list. Tired of playing horde style FreeFolk? Take Rattleshirt as your commander along with a couple units of followers of bone and watch your guys get more and more deadly (elite) as you start to rack up kills.

However, while list building is fun and there are some elements of synergy that reward list building it isn't too combo whombo like I hear Warmachine/Hordes or WHFB 8th was. You can show up and still have fun (and win) with very basic and obvious list builds.

Then, on top of your standard rank and flank game, you have a nice little worker placement (tactics board) and card game ( tactics cards) in addition. These reward you by giving you mostly small benefits when you setup certain conditions on the battlefield through clever positioning and activation order.

The best players are able to combine several small bonuses from tactics cards and the tactics board to add up to great on the field effect.

Lastly, the miniatures have much to recommend them. They are preassembled, and mostly in only one or two pieces. This allows for very realistic draping of beards, hair, and clothing (capes/cloaks/etc.) along with dynamic poses (The Night's Watch sworn brothers have the best two handed sword poses I've ever seen on a miniature). Once I realized how nice natural looking hair and clothing can be, I have a hard time going back to the weird hover beards/hair/cloaks/ scabbards, etc. that are common on multipart miniatures. It just makes them look like toys to me. While mono pose with some repeat sculpts might seem like a downside, all modern GW kits are really monopose as well, frequently with only five unique poses compared to the 4-5 you'd typically see in a ASOIAF unit. Multipart miniatures you have to build are a downside when there aren't really any choices about how you build them. Also, the ASOIAF minis are easy to convert for more variety, and I've enjoyed doing so for a big chunk of mine.

I could go on, but this is already a wall of text.

For what it is worth regarding the poster up thread who didn't enjoy the game, the website ASOIAF stats has compiled very advanced faction and player power rankings from tournament results (similar to chess ELO score) and FreeFolk are currently at the absolute top of the power rankings. Maybe he or she was playing against very talented commanders or there was just something that wasn't clicking for them. I'm not casting aspersions btw. We all enjoy different things, and the game clearly wasn't working for them.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/04 20:16:31


Post by: Red Viper


 Gallahad wrote:

If you are on the fence about this you should absolutely give the game a go.

Been playing rank n flank wargames for 15+ years and ASOIAF is the best I've played hands down.
ASOIAF is the perfect example of a game that is easy to learn but hard to master. Core mechanics are very simple and most unit special abilities are just the core abilities combined in different ways.

The best players are able to combine several small bonuses from tactics cards and the tactics board to add up to great on the field effect.



I agreed with your whole post, but I wanted to highlight the above.

My regular opponents can now guess what tactics cards I have based on my battlefield decisions, so now we've entered another layer of depth: bluffing. It's been a lot of fun and nails the theme of the setting.

I've been playing for 18 months now, and it's still easily my favorite wargame ever.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/05 17:20:30


Post by: Red Viper


I guess I'll post news in this thread:

https://asoiaf.cmon.com/news/politics-of-salt-and-rock

More Greyjoy previews, they look great. The minis keep getting better also


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/05 21:14:03


Post by: Gurkhal


 Red Viper wrote:
I guess I'll post news in this thread:

https://asoiaf.cmon.com/news/politics-of-salt-and-rock

More Greyjoy previews, they look great. The minis keep getting better also


Cheers!

While no House can naturally be as awesome as the Lannisters, the Greyjoys can still look good while trying.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 13:35:15


Post by: warboss


What type of plastic are the minis made of? I remember the KS but didn't really follow it nor have I seen the minis used in person (admittedly in large part due to the pandemic) so just recently took my first look at the line. I was really surprised at the quality of the sculpts as frankly I was expecting lower detail more similar to previous CMON board game minis even though this is a dedicated minis game. I was also expecting sprues when I watched my first unboxing video but was surprised to see fully assembled minis. How good is the typical assembly? For those who paint minis, do you frequently need to do gap filling/fixing or are the joints pretty well done?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 14:38:42


Post by: Red Viper


 warboss wrote:
What type of plastic are the minis made of? I remember the KS but didn't really follow it nor have I seen the minis used in person (admittedly in large part due to the pandemic) so just recently took my first look at the line. I was really surprised at the quality of the sculpts as frankly I was expecting lower detail more similar to previous CMON board game minis even though this is a dedicated minis game. I was also expecting sprues when I watched my first unboxing video but was surprised to see fully assembled minis. How good is the typical assembly? For those who paint minis, do you frequently need to do gap filling/fixing or are the joints pretty well done?


I haven't had any major issues, especially with the newer minis. Some of my Stark Outriders had a "lean" to them, I think the horses ankles were slightly stressed or something. I've heard of some issues with detail being lost (most famously, in Melisandre's face), but nothing major and none of my group has.

The minis are really, really good for the price and preassembled. Duncan Rhodes has a few he's painted, worth checking them out. I think the Baratheon army looks awesome on the tabletop, and the Greyjoys look awesome. They remind of the Dark Elf Corsairs in style.

I think the Stark/Lannister starter set probably has the least detail. But my Tully Cav or Tully Sworn shields are right up there with LOTR minis


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 15:44:33


Post by: warboss


Lol, if anyone can polish a turd, it's Duncan Rhodes so he may not be the best judge of what is possible for a decidedly average painter like me!

That said.. these definitely don't look like turds! There is a little bit of softness to the details and I'd put them on par with the best possible from a modern fully tuned resin 3d printer which is a compliment for a mass market preassembled game and not meant as damning praise. I've so far only looked at a few factions of minis (mainly free folk and Stark and Nights Watch factions) and have been impressed. I've mainly focused on minis that I can use for my RPG characters rather than for the actual game itself.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 18:45:02


Post by: Gallahad


 warboss wrote:
What type of plastic are the minis made of? I remember the KS but didn't really follow it nor have I seen the minis used in person (admittedly in large part due to the pandemic) so just recently took my first look at the line. I was really surprised at the quality of the sculpts as frankly I was expecting lower detail more similar to previous CMON board game minis even though this is a dedicated minis game. I was also expecting sprues when I watched my first unboxing video but was surprised to see fully assembled minis. How good is the typical assembly? For those who paint minis, do you frequently need to do gap filling/fixing or are the joints pretty well done?


The minis are made out of the slightly stiffer pvc than their boardgame minis are made out of, but the weapons are hard abs plastic.

I find the assembly to generally be very well done, but it can depend by box. I'd say something like one out of every 24 miniatures would require gap filling. Cavalry is definitely the rougher of the miniatures in my experience with the worst mold lines and horse body joins, but I may have just got a bad Targaryen box. In general, since cavalry are cast in more pieces there are more points for failure. I consider myself picky when it comes to gaps.

I find the FreeFolk raiders and early Starks to have some of the softest details, but they still paint up very nicely.

If you want pictures of specific miniatures just send me a message. I have purchased an embarrassing amount of the miniatures...


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 18:50:16


Post by: warboss


 Gallahad wrote:
I find the FreeFolk raiders and early Starks to have some of the softest details, but they still paint up very nicely.

If you want pictures of specific miniatures just send me a message. I have purchased an embarrassing amount of the miniatures...


Thanks for the details and I appreciate the offer. Your post (specifically the part quoted above) does bring up the next point that I was planning on asking about. I had heard over the last few days watching youtube videos folks referencing softness of details on the earliest kickstarter releases. Was that pretty much everything in the kickstarter or just some items? I'm not sure if it came out in waves or one single lot. Luckily for my roleplaying needs, I'm looking for a druid and the free folk skinchanger box is a good fit and doesn't need too many sharp edges but I was curious if that was one of the examples folks cite.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 20:02:04


Post by: Gallahad


 warboss wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:
I find the FreeFolk raiders and early Starks to have some of the softest details, but they still paint up very nicely.

If you want pictures of specific miniatures just send me a message. I have purchased an embarrassing amount of the miniatures...


Thanks for the details and I appreciate the offer. Your post (specifically the part quoted above) does bring up the next point that I was planning on asking about. I had heard over the last few days watching youtube videos folks referencing softness of details on the earliest kickstarter releases. Was that pretty much everything in the kickstarter or just some items? I'm not sure if it came out in waves or one single lot. Luckily for my roleplaying needs, I'm looking for a druid and the free folk skinchanger box is a good fit and doesn't need too many sharp edges but I was curious if that was one of the examples folks cite.


Stark bowmen and Sworn swords are the two that come to mind. Umber berserkers are fine. Some of the special characters like Brynden Tully are a little small. Crannogman are great. One pose of the Lannisters halberdiers face didn't come out well.

Other things that came out of the Kickstarter are fantastic, like the Bolton Cutthroats that look like resins (especially the dreadfort captain)

The Skinchangers kit is just a little on the softer side imo, but still paints up very nicely.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/06 21:29:30


Post by: warboss


 Gallahad wrote:

Stark bowmen and Sworn swords are the two that come to mind. Umber berserkers are fine. Some of the special characters like Brynden Tully are a little small. Crannogman are great. One pose of the Lannisters halberdiers face didn't come out well.

Other things that came out of the Kickstarter are fantastic, like the Bolton Cutthroats that look like resins (especially the dreadfort captain)

The Skinchangers kit is just a little on the softer side imo, but still paints up very nicely.


Thanks again. The Umber berserkers were actually the other kit I was specifically looking at (for the champion as I'm doing a druid/bear-barian build, lol). Yeah, I had some questions about the detail on the fur on back of the skinchanger models as it looked a bit soft but ultimately I was ok with it given the detail on the rest. Do you have pics of your skinchangers kit that you can post?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/07 06:29:56


Post by: Gallahad


Hopefully these help. My Skinchangers are painted, but the fur texture is fine. The faces are a touch soft on both sculpts. You can also see an Umber Berserker along with a few old empire models and a Perry for scale.





I think the images are higher quality in my gallery:


https://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-search.jsp?u=77209


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/07 17:02:05


Post by: warboss


Thanks! The skinchangers look quite nice and the detail looks crisper than I initially thought watching the unboxings. Perhaps it was the material color mixed with the lighting that made it look worse than it actually was.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/07 18:20:00


Post by: LunarSol


Models are PVC and the quality is pretty good for PVC. They're not particularly outstanding; I can't say a single one of them ranks among my favorites, but they're accomplish a large scale battle very efficiently.

A few things completely worth praising though; from what I've seen, weapons are very straight. No droopy spears or bendy blades. The sculpt quality also creates a good variety of faces and poses. Sometimes things like finer bears get lost in the jawline but on the whole the faces give a lot of personality to what would often be faceless goons. I've also not cleaned a mold line or filled a gap in my collection. I've noticed a couple minor assembly problems across a hundred or so figures, but nothing I thought needed to be fixed outside of horse who wasn't properly glued into the base.

All that said, its still PVC, so if you're in it for the fine details you're likely to be a bit disappointed. You see a lot of the usual PVC problems; stuff like quivers kind of turn into these blobs of plastic against the side of a figure and stuff like the fletching on arrows can be pretty sloppy. Relatively simple figures are fine, but when you get to stuff like Daenerys, its really easy to see how PVC just can't capture things like ornate tribal jewelry. Horse bridal gets simplified into this weird hunk of plastic that fills the entire space between the mouth and neck of a horse as well.

So like... I wouldn't call these things showcase models, but for what they are and the scale of the game they're a great value. They have some of the best straight out of the box and onto the table playability this side of X-Wing and there's absolutely nothing really wrong with them; they're just not as ornate as what you can get from other companies, but... you definitely get what you pay for.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/07 19:48:21


Post by: Gallahad


 LunarSol wrote:
Models are PVC and the quality is pretty good for PVC. They're not particularly outstanding; I can't say a single one of them ranks among my favorites, but they're accomplish a large scale battle very efficiently.

A few things completely worth praising though; from what I've seen, weapons are very straight. No droopy spears or bendy blades. The sculpt quality also creates a good variety of faces and poses. Sometimes things like finer bears get lost in the jawline but on the whole the faces give a lot of personality to what would often be faceless goons. I've also not cleaned a mold line or filled a gap in my collection. I've noticed a couple minor assembly problems across a hundred or so figures, but nothing I thought needed to be fixed outside of horse who wasn't properly glued into the base.

All that said, its still PVC, so if you're in it for the fine details you're likely to be a bit disappointed. You see a lot of the usual PVC problems; stuff like quivers kind of turn into these blobs of plastic against the side of a figure and stuff like the fletching on arrows can be pretty sloppy. Relatively simple figures are fine, but when you get to stuff like Daenerys, its really easy to see how PVC just can't capture things like ornate tribal jewelry. Horse bridal gets simplified into this weird hunk of plastic that fills the entire space between the mouth and neck of a horse as well.

So like... I wouldn't call these things showcase models, but for what they are and the scale of the game they're a great value. They have some of the best straight out of the box and onto the table playability this side of X-Wing and there's absolutely nothing really wrong with them; they're just not as ornate as what you can get from other companies, but... you definitely get what you pay for.


Yeah, I agree with that. They don't have the same crispness as GW kits for sure, but they are also easy to convert, and I find that I really prefer the single piece casting for heads and cloaks and furs. GW still suffer from cloaks heads and hair that are always hovering around the model and never really lay right

I do find then easier to paint than smaller scale plastic kits like Frostgrave and Perry just because of the scale.I also find them if a higher quality than the boardgame pvc from CMON. For example, they are much better than say Zombicide Invader models.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/08 09:47:51


Post by: Hecaton


 warboss wrote:
How good is the typical assembly? For those who paint minis, do you frequently need to do gap filling/fixing or are the joints pretty well done?


I have a *big* FF army (2 starters and lot of boxes) and I think I've found 3 problems. One was a miscast and the supplier got me a replacement, the other two were arms that I re-glued.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/08 12:48:11


Post by: warboss


 LunarSol wrote:

A few things completely worth praising though; from what I've seen, weapons are very straight. No droopy spears or bendy blades.


Thanks for the detailed rundown. I agree that the part above deserves special mention. Obviously I don't have personal experience with the models but one of the YouTube unboxing video demonstrated the above. The spears were very straight and the unboxer was basically twanging the end like he was playing a tune in a coffee stirred held over a table edge. While I reflexively cringed at the danger of doing that to a model, it neither broke nor deformed.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/08 18:51:15


Post by: Hecaton


Man, and a game where the designers talk openly about their design goals and aren't trying to jerk the playerbase around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2SD5BNlTI


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/11 17:29:47


Post by: Red Viper


Hecaton wrote:
Man, and a game where the designers talk openly about their design goals and aren't trying to jerk the playerbase around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2SD5BNlTI


On the Table Gaming is a great channel for this game.

Lots of solid content and he's got a good thing going with the Designer/Developer.

If there's any lurkers in this thread, definitely check out Chase's channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfmdCCJ9Usa686sLnlnVN6Q

Another good one, which has a lot of beginner content is 3 Sails Gaming: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI1uIGVRnREC5mhS4AzAC2g


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/13 16:03:35


Post by: warboss


I'm still going through the various lines and saw the mummer zebra light cavalry. I really like the guy with a spear and shield in the upper right but I have to admit that I literally LOLed when I noticed the poor zebra on the lower left. And, in case someone gets their panties in a bunch, that's been my body type for most of the last 20 years (just add copious body hair!).



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/13 19:52:03


Post by: Gallahad


 warboss wrote:
I'm still going through the various lines and saw the mummer zebra light cavalry. I really like the guy with a spear and shield in the upper right but I have to admit that I literally LOLed when I noticed the poor zebra on the lower left. And, in case someone gets their panties in a bunch, that's been my body type for most of the last 20 years (just add copious body hair!).



Lol. I have those models. Gotta figure out a way to make the lower left zebra look like he is really sweating and just praying there isn't a hedge to jump or something.

Fwiw, my box of mummer cavalry had a number of assembly problems. I don't know if I just got a bumb box or if is the models on the whole.

Also, Troll Hoard games sells a bunch of the miniatures as singles and they have good photos up of most of them.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/14 15:46:47


Post by: LunarSol


Hecaton wrote:
Man, and a game where the designers talk openly about their design goals and aren't trying to jerk the playerbase around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2SD5BNlTI


Most games start that way. Developers get burned when their attempts to talk to the public get thrown back in their face by a minority of players that get upset that someone moved their cheese.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/16 22:34:53


Post by: Hecaton


 LunarSol wrote:


Most games start that way. Developers get burned when their attempts to talk to the public get thrown back in their face by a minority of players that get upset that someone moved their cheese.


I really disagree. GW, for example, isolated itself from the community so that any flak for making exploitative decisions is directed amongst the community rather than at them.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/01/21 17:36:46


Post by: Red Viper


 LunarSol wrote:


Most games start that way. Developers get burned when their attempts to talk to the public get thrown back in their face by a minority of players that get upset that someone moved their cheese.


Game has been out for a couple of years now. Not sure if it still counts as starting out.

They are doing an open Q&A tomorrow at 1 pm EST



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/06 06:29:10


Post by: Gallahad


Big update for the Baratheons.
https://cmon.com/news/visions-in-the-flames-baratheons-in-2021

Baratheon players seem pretty happy with the tactics card changes, which while less powerful have less overlapping triggers so you can actually get more off.

Stannis now leans heavily into being the token dispensing faction. Several abilities around putting down, switching around, and sacrificing tokens for in game abilities.

I can definitely say that I'll be trying to grab the crown when facing Baratheons.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/09 17:19:35


Post by: Red Viper


My baratheon pal is happy.

Every game we played would start with him drawing his hand and saying "this is garbage"

It's not that the cards were bad, it's just that he wouldn't be able to use them. While I play Starks and always get to use my cards.

So far, I really like the direction the changes are going


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/09 18:36:40


Post by: Arbitrator


King's Men leaked out.



Stag Knights are only a point more, but it's raw offence versus utility. Be interesting to see which wins out in the meta.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/09 18:48:09


Post by: Red Viper


Yeah it's tough to say, especially how they are stressing they want attachments to be worth it more often... that extra point difference could be big.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/11 16:40:31


Post by: Gallahad


I feel that those guys would be pretty darn useful, Stag Knights are more dependable, but the versatility of these guys lets you add buffs to other units, where as the Stag Knights can only kill what ever is in front of their face.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/11 17:13:21


Post by: LunarSol


I'm having a hard time caring much about individual unit previews. It feels like so much is changing that individual updates don't mean a whole lot without being able to see the big picture.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/11 22:07:48


Post by: Gallahad


 LunarSol wrote:
I'm having a hard time caring much about individual unit previews. It feels like so much is changing that individual updates don't mean a whole lot without being able to see the big picture.


Yeah, I wish they had just dropped 1.7 like a bomb rather than the slow trickle. It puts everything on pause.

I try to paint my units based on how likely they are to see play, so it the updates definitely have me questioning what to paint next.

I guess I should be painting Bloody Mummer Zhorses?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/12 23:55:07


Post by: Mangod


 warboss wrote:
I'm still going through the various lines and saw the mummer zebra light cavalry. I really like the guy with a spear and shield in the upper right but I have to admit that I literally LOLed when I noticed the poor zebra on the lower left. And, in case someone gets their panties in a bunch, that's been my body type for most of the last 20 years (just add copious body hair!).



I think the "poor zebra on the lower left" is meant to be a reference to a minor character from the books, so that's cool.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/18 12:54:24


Post by: Arbitrator


 Gallahad wrote:
 LunarSol wrote:
I'm having a hard time caring much about individual unit previews. It feels like so much is changing that individual updates don't mean a whole lot without being able to see the big picture.


Yeah, I wish they had just dropped 1.7 like a bomb rather than the slow trickle. It puts everything on pause.

I try to paint my units based on how likely they are to see play, so it the updates definitely have me questioning what to paint next.

I guess I should be painting Bloody Mummer Zhorses?

Even some of the bigger voices in the community were doomsaying that CMON had left ASoIaF to rot and that MoD would be the final death knell before the game dies completely. November/December was a pretty dreary time and one of the biggest complaints - if not the biggest - was the radio silence from CMON.

It might be that 1.7 was originally meant to drop like a bomb (although the Card Packs would've been leaked by retailers eventually) but all of the negative surrounding the game probably spurred them to play their hand early and trickle the information out.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/18 15:29:14


Post by: LunarSol


Yeah. I have some... issues... with the way those voices work, but I understand the issue. Certainly good to get information about the changes out and I'm really interested in the large scope changes planned. It's just the discussions about "how good" changes to a specific unit are that I try to avoid. The scale of the change is just too much for me to be able to gauge whether or not a specific model's new rules are positive or not.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/18 19:46:15


Post by: Gallahad


Big changes to Dothraki/Targaryens

https://asoiaf.cmon.com/news/visions-in-the-flames-house-targaryen-in-2021



Dothraki players seem generally positive about the changes. Some are a little mixed, but that is probably a good sign.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/18 20:25:08


Post by: warboss


 Mangod wrote:


I think the "poor zebra on the lower left" is meant to be a reference to a minor character from the books, so that's cool.


Indeed it is! I'm glad they did that as a nod to those who know.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/18 21:39:20


Post by: LunarSol


Screamers lacking a debuff mechanic on their charge was the most mind numbingly dumb thing. Very nice change there.

A big overview like this is WAY more interesting.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/19 20:12:57


Post by: Red Viper


I really like the changes they've done to the Targs. Dothraki should be rightfully feared, and I think they will be.

Khal Drogo seeking out enemy characters to duel is also badass.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/21 07:57:03


Post by: Gurkhal


Maybe this is just me, but I wished they could add some Westerosi Targaryen loyalists to the game.

Or give the Targaryens the same treatment they gave the Baratheon split between Renly and Stannis, but now between Daenerys and Aegon.

Say Danaerys gets dragons, Dothraki, Unsullied, Freemen etc. while Aegon gets the Golden Company and Westerosi Targaryen loyalists that can serve either Targaryen?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/22 14:20:59


Post by: Red Viper


I hope Golden Company makes it into the game as a "neutral focus" like the Boltons have.

So... neutral heroes 3 and then 3-4 units.

I like the idea of having them Neutral, because they way they could ally with the Targs, or the Martells, or stand alone on their own. So far in the books, it's unclear which direction they'd go.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/23 17:55:20


Post by: Gallahad


I'm pretty hopeful we'll see Golden Company at some point. I think Michael Shinall mentioned said as much during some podcast or something.

I can't remember or find where, and I might just be remembering wish listing, but I still think it is more likely than not likely.

I'm hoping we see Free Folk on today's Vision in the Flames. I've been finishing painting and basing many units lately, so I hope they end up a fun and still true horde army.

I really enjoyed being able to bring a bunch of chaff units.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/26 04:20:24


Post by: Gallahad


https://asoiaf.cmon.com/news/visions-in-the-flames-free-folk-in-2021

Free Folk got some reveals today.



Everything is 5 points. I'm not real thrilled about the new Chosen of Styr, as I really liked the old version.

That being said, it looks like it will be a fun finesse army. Lots of weak chaff that can pull off combos if you play cleverly.

FF are my main army, and I'm reasonably happy with this update.

Cave Dweller savages with an Alpha look like a lot of fun... They are basically worse umber berserkers, but I'll take it.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/27 14:52:43


Post by: Cyel


What would be your advice for a Free Folk player who has the starter set and want sto expand. I guess a hero box, but what units would you say are must-have?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/27 16:24:00


Post by: Arbitrator


Cyel wrote:
What would be your advice for a Free Folk player who has the starter set and want sto expand. I guess a hero box, but what units would you say are must-have?

The Hero boxes (just Heroes 1 in this case) should pretty much always be your first port of call.

Right now everything else is a bit up in the air with 1.7 coming out soon and shaking up the meta, although the upcoming Mammoths are probably made with 1.7 in mind. The most common advice I see for Free Folk is to buy the Starter Set again owing to their horde tactics, particularly since you can often find it cheaper than other factions. Followers of Bone are quite good at the moment as well, but again, everything's liable to be shaken up soon. Thenn Warriors will probably remain as a reliable bunker for your Commanders going into the future though, so those are probably 'safe'.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/27 17:45:49


Post by: Cyel


Thank you! These units look cool, so that's an added bonus

What's 1.7? A new edition / "half-edition" of rules? Is it just for model rules or general ones too?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/28 04:59:10


Post by: Gallahad


Cyel wrote:
Thank you! These units look cool, so that's an added bonus

What's 1.7? A new edition / "half-edition" of rules? Is it just for model rules or general ones too?


Based on the spoilers we saw a couple days ago for 1.7 I would say Cave dweller savages would be your first buy after heroes box 1.

Thenns look like a pass for right now, but we haven't seen the whole faction yet, so there may be some piece or attachment that makes them worth while.

If I were you, I would buy in this order:
Heroes box 1
Cave Dweller savages
Followers of Bone
Spear Wives

Then maybe another box of raiders... But by that point we should know a little better how the faction is playing, and Mammoths might have finally gotten released.

1.7 is basically a new version of the rules with all (basically) units getting stats adjustments and new tactics cards.

The designers say it is just a half edition, but the community feels otherwise. They are calling it 1.7 rather than 2.0


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/28 10:52:40


Post by: Cyel


Thank you guys! Very helpful!

So any boxes I buy now will have outdated rules inside?

Is this site going to be a good source of updated cards once 1.7 goes live? : https://asoiaf-stats.com/builder


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/28 13:07:05


Post by: Gallahad


Cyel wrote:
Thank you guys! Very helpful!

So any boxes I buy now will have outdated rules inside?

Is this site going to be a good source of updated cards once 1.7 goes live? : https://asoiaf-stats.com/builder


Yes, boxes sitting on the shelf will have outdated rules unfortunately.

Yep, the site you linked will have updated unit stats, CMON will also provide a free printable PDF of the cards on their website, and they will also sell a card pack with all updated cards for each faction.

The free and official army building app (War Council) will also have the updated stats.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/02/28 13:25:41


Post by: Cyel


Great news! Thanks again.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/03/04 23:03:33


Post by: Gallahad


Starks got some 2021 updates today:
[/url]https://www.cmon.com/news/vision-in-the-flames-stark-in-2021[url]


Everything looking really good. Glad to see wolves finally cost points by themselves. Grey Wind looks super solid for 3pts.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/03/09 13:00:07


Post by: Red Viper


I'm a Stark player and I really like the update.

I'm glad the wolves got beefier to justify their price. Grey Wind looks great for 3 points, any players complaining about him really need to stop thinking about "what was", and look at him with an open mind. He'll be a nice blocker to any unit with 4+ to hit (there's more now) and can debuff elite units to give your relatively soft Stark units some defense.

Sworn Swords are still the best 5 point unit imo. I knew they'd lose the 3+ to hit, but gaining sundering was a surprise. I like it, makes them an all-arounder.

I saw people saying the Greataxes were bad, but I disagree. 5+ morale and 4+ save is very good defensive stats, and their offensive stats are solid also. Not a bad bunker for your commander.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/03/10 20:42:07


Post by: Gallahad


 Red Viper wrote:
I'm a Stark player and I really like the update.

I'm glad the wolves got beefier to justify their price. Grey Wind looks great for 3 points, any players complaining about him really need to stop thinking about "what was", and look at him with an open mind. He'll be a nice blocker to any unit with 4+ to hit (there's more now) and can debuff elite units to give your relatively soft Stark units some defense.

Sworn Swords are still the best 5 point unit imo. I knew they'd lose the 3+ to hit, but gaining sundering was a surprise. I like it, makes them an all-arounder.

I saw people saying the Greataxes were bad, but I disagree. 5+ morale and 4+ save is very good defensive stats, and their offensive stats are solid also. Not a bad bunker for your commander.

Yeah, I think the changes are fair. I agree with your assessment of Stark Sworn Swords as absolutely fantastic for 5pts.

Of course I'm a FreeFolk player so all the Stark stuff looks amazing to me! I'm glad that the wolves have an appropriate cost now.

I think people are discounting the Greataxes taking zero wounds on average on their last rank whole simultaneously causing an extra two wounds to opponent. That resolves a lot of protracted combats in favor of Greataxes.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/03/12 12:49:06


Post by: Gallahad


CMON spoiled some of the updated tactics cards coming down the pipe for the Lannisters today.

They look flat out scary and very thematic.
https://cmon.com/news/visions-in-the-flames-lannisters-in-2021



I'm excited to see the Lannisters get some of the spotlight as they have suffered a bit under the last edition.

If you are unfamiliar with the game, you might not be able to tell it, but this army plays very thematically with lots of counterplay, and frustrating your opponents plans.

Tywin is an absolute beast on the tactics board as he should be.

These Lannisters look like tons of fun to play with and a good challenge to play against. I'm pretty excited by these reveals.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/06 15:00:59


Post by: Pacific


Has anyone had any experience of painting the ASoIAF and know whether contrast paints will take well to them?

Are they very nicely detailed/textured surfaces on the minis? Unlike some people who I know, in between leaving their last will and testament and all wordly belongings to Contrast Paints, and are now using Contrast to paint their houses and cars because it's so amazing I've had very variable results - really struggled with some board game pieces (Arcadia Quest in particular) and larger flat surfaces. However had great result with Star Wars Legion droids.

Many thanks in advance!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/06 15:34:21


Post by: LunarSol


I'm... not sure. There's not a lot of surface detail, but there's enough cloaks and the like that they might take contrast fairly well. I haven't tried it personally though.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/08 19:43:15


Post by: Gallahad


 Pacific wrote:
Has anyone had any experience of painting the ASoIAF and know whether contrast paints will take well to them?

Are they very nicely detailed/textured surfaces on the minis? Unlike some people who I know, in between leaving their last will and testament and all wordly belongings to Contrast Paints, and are now using Contrast to paint their houses and cars because it's so amazing I've had very variable results - really struggled with some board game pieces (Arcadia Quest in particular) and larger flat surfaces. However had great result with Star Wars Legion droids.

Many thanks in advance!

What miniatures in particular?

I used it to nice effect on many of my FreeFolk. Black templar was a godsend for my nights watch. Didn't work as well on my Lannister guardsmen tunics.

Lots of people in the community paint up their stuff with contrast. The results depend 60% on the miniature sculpt (does it have lots of texture/wrinkles) and 40% on painter skill (did you undercoat with appropriate color, thin properly, apply the right amount, etc.)

If you are thinking about some miniature in particular I can give you my opinion on whether I think it will work out not.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/09 08:11:24


Post by: Cyel


 Pacific wrote:
Has anyone had any experience of painting the ASoIAF and know whether contrast paints will take well to them?

Are they very nicely detailed/textured surfaces on the minis? Unlike some people who I know, in between leaving their last will and testament and all wordly belongings to Contrast Paints, and are now using Contrast to paint their houses and cars because it's so amazing I've had very variable results - really struggled with some board game pieces (Arcadia Quest in particular) and larger flat surfaces. However had great result with Star Wars Legion droids.

Many thanks in advance!


I have!

https://www.gry-planszowe.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=71117

I can translate this tutorial when I have a moment. But it's mostly contrasts straight on grey seer primer, less than 20minutes/ miniature.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/09 13:41:12


Post by: Gallahad


Cyel wrote:
 Pacific wrote:
Has anyone had any experience of painting the ASoIAF and know whether contrast paints will take well to them?

Are they very nicely detailed/textured surfaces on the minis? Unlike some people who I know, in between leaving their last will and testament and all wordly belongings to Contrast Paints, and are now using Contrast to paint their houses and cars because it's so amazing I've had very variable results - really struggled with some board game pieces (Arcadia Quest in particular) and larger flat surfaces. However had great result with Star Wars Legion droids.

Many thanks in advance!


I have!

https://www.gry-planszowe.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=71117

I can translate this tutorial when I have a moment. But it's mostly contrasts straight on grey seer primer, less than 20minutes/ miniature.


Your link doesn't work for me. Could you drop some pictures here?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/09 20:35:53


Post by: warboss


Is minis gaming big in Poland now? Whether warmachine or board games (I love that they snagged the polish equivalent of boardgames.com!). The only problem is that (at least for me) you have to be a member of the forum and log in to see what is on your board game link.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/09 20:43:02


Post by: LunarSol


Poland has had some of the strongest teams at the Warmachine WTC for as long as its been running.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/09 21:14:17


Post by: Cyel


First grassroots initiatives for international team tournaments started with Warhammer Fantasy (ETC) and Poland has always done really well there.

The idea actually originated in 6th ed WFB when Polish and Danish players were in disagreement on The Warhammer Forum, with the bone of contention being the usefulness of huge Black Knight units in VC armies The only way of determining who was right was to pack 5 Polish players into a car and travel to Denmark where they (or should I say - we ) faced 5 Danish players in 5 rounds of everyone-plays-everyone.

After that a friend of mine who organised the whole thing decided that it could be a very cool thing to have 5-strong teams from all over Europe compete against each other and the Warhammer European Team Championships were born (and included not just teams from Europe but from all over the world). with the first organised in Poland.

It later spawned similar initiatives, like for example the World Team Championships for Warmachine&Hordes.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/16 08:09:07


Post by: Cyel


Ok, I made a shorter version of the tutorial. Just names of paints and time it took.

Started from zenithal priming (Vallejo black spray then Grey Seer)



STAGE 1 (45min)
Aethermatic Blue (30minutes), Seraphim Sepia (15min). Lightest tones first as they will be easier to paint over later.


STAGE 2 (30min)
Wyldwood on bases


STAGE 3 (60min)
Bases - Abbadon Black (20min), mixed with white on stones (10min). Wyldwood on shields (30min).


STAGE 4 (60min)
Various paints on leather: Wyldwood, Gore-Grunta Fur, Nazdreg Yellow, Vallejo Skin Wash


STAGE 5 (170min!!!)
Ironbreaker. The only stage where I had to be relatively careful with a smaller brush - by far the longest as a result!


STAGE 6 (60min)
Nuln Oil on metal parts.


STAGE 7 (70min)
Details left
Gold - 30min
White wolves- 20min
Facial hair - 20min

500minutes/26 models, so ~19minutes/model (not counting adding tufts/unit tray)




Some brushes used


1- Nuln Oil wash
2- metal
3- drybrush (stones)
4- cloth
5- leather


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/19 16:29:27


Post by: Gallahad


Very nice! Love the blue and the brown together.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/19 17:01:16


Post by: warboss


Indeed.. very nice work!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/20 02:58:38


Post by: Gurkhal


Seems I don't know when I'll get into this game. Had a mess in my life so its a bit on its head, but we'll see when I can get hold of the starter set in the future.

***

In regards to the painted figures above. Those are very nice although from a pedant point of view those are the Arryn colors, not the Stark ones. :(


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/20 07:06:13


Post by: Cyel


Gurkhal wrote:


In regards to the painted figures above. Those are very nice although from a pedant point of view those are the Arryn colors, not the Stark ones. :(


Yeah, I know. But painting my armies in the "generic studio colour scheme" has always been anathema to me. I think I haven't painted any army that was just copying the default scheme in my entire, 25y history with wargaming, bar my earliest attempts with Warzone and a White Scars army later (which I still felt was "uniquely mine" despite the generic red-white livery, due to abundant conversions)

Hence


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/22 01:33:23


Post by: Gurkhal


Cyel wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:


In regards to the painted figures above. Those are very nice although from a pedant point of view those are the Arryn colors, not the Stark ones. :(


Yeah, I know. But painting my armies in the "generic studio colour scheme" has always been anathema to me. I think I haven't painted any army that was just copying the default scheme in my entire, 25y history with wargaming, bar my earliest attempts with Warzone and a White Scars army later (which I still felt was "uniquely mine" despite the generic red-white livery, due to abundant conversions)


Cheers!

You can naturally paint your models any way you like. I'm just a huge fan of Asoiaf and a bit of a pedant at times so I hope my words didn't come across as some form of attack of your creative right as a painter of models.

EDITED

By the way I like the look of your blue Lannisters. They kind of look like they are from my native country with that color scheme.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/22 05:16:27


Post by: Gallahad


Nice Cyel! I dig the different colors. Very nice painting.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/23 18:31:43


Post by: Arbitrator


Alt-paint schemes can easily be handwaved as them being levies from one of that House's Bannermen - House Clegane units usually have more yellow than (if any) red for instance.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/26 19:36:42


Post by: Cyel


These models take contrast paints extremely well. Ramsay's doggos were so easy to paint with contrasts it felt unfair





I definitely recommend them to anyone who'd like to have their army finished in no time.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/04/27 04:51:41


Post by: Gallahad


Wow! Looking great! I really like Graywind (?) The wolf. The blues you picked really pop against the brown of the bases. A pleasure to look at.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/07 16:43:49


Post by: Theophony


Miniaturemarket just got the new wave in. I am still tempted by Free Folk models, but I have not yet decided to get into the game. There is a pretty decent group of players here in Saint Louis Missouri from what I've heard and seen.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/07 21:18:35


Post by: LunarSol


I really wish we could get the 1.7 update so I know what I need to run dragons after the change.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/08 02:13:24


Post by: nels1031


Have the developers given any indication as to when we’ll see White Walkers? Really digging the mechanics of the game and the mini’s, but I’m doing my best to hold out for them. Probably end up buying a Targaryen set just to paint.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/08 21:31:25


Post by: Aeneades


 nels1031 wrote:
Have the developers given any indication as to when we’ll see White Walkers? Really digging the mechanics of the game and the mini’s, but I’m doing my best to hold out for them. Probably end up buying a Targaryen set just to paint.


I would suspect not until the next book is released at the earliest (and only then if they appear more prominently there). The trouble is that as the game is based upon the books there is very little source material they can use to turn into models. Coldhands was previewed back in 2017 so hopefully he gets added at some point (not sure if there is an approval issue there or if he will be appearing in Nights Watch Heroes 2).


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/12 12:27:13


Post by: Arbitrator


 nels1031 wrote:
Have the developers given any indication as to when we’ll see White Walkers? Really digging the mechanics of the game and the mini’s, but I’m doing my best to hold out for them. Probably end up buying a Targaryen set just to paint.

I wouldn't expect them at least until all the Great Houses are done - there's still the Martells, Arryn and maybe Tyrells to go. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if Boltons became a separate, non-Mercenary faction at some point. My understanding is all the designs actually have to go past GRRM, so that might stunt things if they're going to get fleshed out more in Winds/Dream.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/22 00:01:55


Post by: Arbitrator


Seems distribution might be un-sucking itself a bit more? US appears to be getting She-Bears and King's Men not long after Asia. Looks like some stores in the UK will have them soon too.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/25 09:16:44


Post by: Cyel


Any rumour about the 2021 faction card packs? I'd love to start playing the game but don't want to learn the ropes with outdated rules. Tactic cards have been made available to print, but without unit/character cards it doesn't help much.

The app is not enough - first, I don't think it works on a PC and also, while it may be enough for a more experienced player who just has to check something occasionally, I think it will be far more convenient for me to have everything clearly visible in front of me, while I'm learning.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/25 13:39:45


Post by: LunarSol


Is anyone else having issues with recent posts? I see newer stuff, but the thread stops at a couple weeks ago...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Weird, even my own post can't be seen.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Third time's the charm!

The card packs are delayed due to a paper shortage in China. No ETA on when that will be resolved. I have seen some PDFs created out of the app data. I think that's the best bet for now without the app.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/26 07:06:55


Post by: Cyel


I tried googling it but couldn't find it. Could you post a link to such printer friendly pdfs with unit/character profiles 2021 ? Thank you!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/26 13:42:38


Post by: LunarSol


I'm not finding it now either unfortunately. I'd seen it on Discord earlier, but now I can't find it. :(


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/26 16:39:39


Post by: Arbitrator


Cyel wrote:
I tried googling it but couldn't find it. Could you post a link to such printer friendly pdfs with unit/character profiles 2021 ? Thank you!

Does this work? https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASOIAFTMG/files/


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/05/26 17:51:04


Post by: Cyel


Unfortunately it doesn't :( It asks me to log in, apparently it is not a public group.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/06/27 18:09:58


Post by: Cyel


3 months in and I have painted:
8 infantry units
2 cavalry units
2 Dire Wolves
8 heroes
4 officers

108 small based models and 10 cavalry size models. These contrasts really do the job! Definitely recommend them for ASOIAF.




A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/07/29 18:09:12


Post by: Cyel


 Gallahad wrote:

However, while list building is fun and there are some elements of synergy that reward list building it isn't too combo whombo like I hear Warmachine/Hordes or WHFB 8th was. You can show up and still have fun (and win) with very basic and obvious list builds.



I got into the game mostly because of the comments like that but now I keep hearing about poor balance, disparity between similarly priced units and certain builds being dominating. So what is it, really? A game where builds don't matter much or do they trump skill like with so many other wargames?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/02 12:59:56


Post by: Arbitrator


Cyel wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:

However, while list building is fun and there are some elements of synergy that reward list building it isn't too combo whombo like I hear Warmachine/Hordes or WHFB 8th was. You can show up and still have fun (and win) with very basic and obvious list builds.



I got into the game mostly because of the comments like that but now I keep hearing about poor balance, disparity between similarly priced units and certain builds being dominating. So what is it, really? A game where builds don't matter much or do they trump skill like with so many other wargames?

In my experience, the game is largely balanced... except when CMON manage to miss a few, glaring bugs that really stand out. In 1.6, there was a decent amount of parity between the factions - far from perfect, of course - if you excluded Stark and their 'free Direwolf' activation spam which stuck out like a sore thumb. In 1.7 you've got the Night's Watch, who're hilariously overtuned compared to the rest of the game which, with a possible exception of one Lannister build, works pretty well overall.

To be fair, the overwhelming majority of "the balance sucks, feth you CMON!" are regarding Night's Watch dominating the meta pretty much immediately, but these are coming from people who spent a year waiting for CMON to fix the afore mentioned Stark dominance only to wander straight into Night's Watch dominance, so the frustration is pretty understandable.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/02 21:13:34


Post by: Theophony


 Arbitrator wrote:
Cyel wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:

However, while list building is fun and there are some elements of synergy that reward list building it isn't too combo whombo like I hear Warmachine/Hordes or WHFB 8th was. You can show up and still have fun (and win) with very basic and obvious list builds.



I got into the game mostly because of the comments like that but now I keep hearing about poor balance, disparity between similarly priced units and certain builds being dominating. So what is it, really? A game where builds don't matter much or do they trump skill like with so many other wargames?

In my experience, the game is largely balanced... except when CMON manage to miss a few, glaring bugs that really stand out. In 1.6, there was a decent amount of parity between the factions - far from perfect, of course - if you excluded Stark and their 'free Direwolf' activation spam which stuck out like a sore thumb. In 1.7 you've got the Night's Watch, who're hilariously overtuned compared to the rest of the game which, with a possible exception of one Lannister build, works pretty well overall.

To be fair, the overwhelming majority of "the balance sucks, feth you CMON!" are regarding Night's Watch dominating the meta pretty much immediately, but these are coming from people who spent a year waiting for CMON to fix the afore mentioned Stark dominance only to wander straight into Night's Watch dominance, so the frustration is pretty understandable.


So they are basically doing the GW thing of releasing a new line with crazy insane rules for better than average win rates and then toning it down later when they release a new army?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/03 14:18:05


Post by: LunarSol


No, not at all. The stuff that is way over turned has generally been pretty old. The newest armies have actually struggled to get going (though COVID had more than a little to do with that). They just did a massive rebalance of the whole game and Night's Watch came out of it better than it should have; I suspect in part because it was a strong faction before that underperformed in the prior meta dominated by activation spam. They got unneeded buffs while other things got much needed nerfs and the result is the two crossing in the night.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 08:22:10


Post by: Cyel


Maybe I had my expectations too high, but the game disappointed me after a few plays. I was hoping for maneuver being king, but it seems to be trumped by combos and on equal footing with randomness (random charges just stand out as a sore thumb among very elegant movement rules and Diorderly Charge was unanimously named "worst rule since time immemorial" ...and we play A LOT of games).

All in all it's a neat little game but not the competitive rank& file utopia I was expecting it to be after reading this and similar threads.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 12:26:19


Post by: Arbitrator


Cyel wrote:
Maybe I had my expectations too high, but the game disappointed me after a few plays. I was hoping for maneuver being king, but it seems to be trumped by combos and on equal footing with randomness (random charges just stand out as a sore thumb among very elegant movement rules and Diorderly Charge was unanimously named "worst rule since time immemorial" ...and we play A LOT of games).

All in all it's a neat little game but not the competitive rank& file utopia I was expecting it to be after reading this and similar threads.

The charges are far less random than the majority of rank-and-file games where if you don't connect, you simply don't move at all. Always moving at least your movement speed gives a good deal more weigh-in compared to 2D6 and potentially getting anything from 2" to 12". Having to commit to the movement and potentially being in a very bad position also adds to the risk factor. Do you risk getting closer for a guaranteed charge, or do you leave it up to chance and potentially be out of position and open to getting charged in turn? To me that feels better than "I'm 10" away but I could get lucky on a dice roll, what's there to lose lol?"

I do think Disorderly Charges across open terrain, as well as having to roll to see if you get a 1 when you're fully within your Move is one of the weirder rules, but I think naming it the "worst rule" is a weird one - all you lose is the ability to reroll your first attacks, which is great to have, but usually will only land you a couple of extra kills. I'd keep Disorderly Charge as a thing for going through terrain however.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 14:45:12


Post by: Cyel


The thing with Diorderly Charge is it is 100% unnecesary, just a random kick in the nuts now and then for no reason or purpose.

And the fact that many games use some rule doesn't mean it's a good rule (especially in such a stale genre as wargaming). We all left 8th ed WFB with disgust mostly because of the introduction of random charges and in Asoiaf it also doesn't add anything to the experience.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 14:51:27


Post by: LunarSol


I think random charges are a bit of necessity in the era of premeasure. They prevent threat range from being absolute king in a lot of cases. The version ASoIaF uses is certainly a lot better than most, but I'm a bit surprised the same logic hasn't been applied to ranged attacks.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 16:22:28


Post by: Cyel


Shielding, redirecting, sacrificing, jamming etc work perfectly well in Warmachine with both premeasuring and no random charges. And they are interesting, player-driven tactics instead of passive "let's roll and see if you die to my charge or me to yours"


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 16:52:47


Post by: LunarSol


I'm not entirely sure. Warmachine regularly breaks down on threat ranges, though to be fair, some of that is an issue with specifically how stats get pushed by the developers. I've just found over a literal decade at this point, that the desire for charges to be both reliable and decisive results in it being exceedingly difficult for the game to find room for slower models. Without premeasuring, the difference between SPD6 and SPD5 was noticeable but nothing like the advantage that absolute certainty provides. I love love love Warmachine and would play it in a heartbeat over ASoIaF, but I'm not totally convinced it doesn't have room for improvement either.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/04 21:03:54


Post by: Cyel


I agree Warmachine needs changes but I disagree adding randomness to movement is the way to go. It is not my experience that threat range means everything, there are somany ways to counter that, despite the all or nothing nature of WM alpha strike and the importance of scenario.


http://momentofclarity.eu/constance1-vs-asphyxious3-polish-team-championship-round-4/

I like this report as an example. Despite oppressive threat ranges and going first the Cryx player has his army carefully corralled, contained and taken apart by a much slower enemy. He loses because tactics, not because he didn't roll enough for his charges.

I'd much rather see things like that in Asoiaf too.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/05 09:36:36


Post by: Pacific


Absolutely beautiful work above Cyel, really enjoyed looking at the painted miniatures you have posted over the past few pages.

You have convinced me to give Contrast paints a go with results like that!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/05 11:16:27


Post by: Cyel


Happy to hear that! Contrasts are so quick, easy and fun it's almost like having them prepainted

As always, remember not to neglect bases - even simple ones improve the looks of even mediocre models by a lot.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/05 13:27:32


Post by: LunarSol


I've been really happy with contrasts. They effectively act as a base coat and wash and look great as long as you do highlights after.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/05 16:28:40


Post by: Pacific


They are actually one of the reasons I'm seriously considering getting into this game.

The last mass-battle army I finished (if I discount Epic, which is kind of cheating) was a Vampire Counts army for WHFB 6th edition, so a while ago! It's just such an investment of time and energy, and blocks out all other hobby activity if there is other stuff you are interested in, so cutting down on the number of coats and overall painting time needed is a big thumbs up.

Now just have to settle on a bloody starter set..



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/06 13:10:40


Post by: Cyel


 LunarSol wrote:
I've been really happy with contrasts. They effectively act as a base coat and wash and look great as long as you do highlights after.


Have you checked the battle report I sent you on the previous page as a comment to your statement that games with premeasuring break down on threat ranges?

And with Asoiaf's less decisive alpha there's even less need for making charges unreliable IMO.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/06 15:07:09


Post by: LunarSol


Cyel wrote:

Have you checked the battle report I sent you on the previous page as a comment to your statement that games with premeasuring break down on threat ranges?

And with Asoiaf's less decisive alpha there's even less need for making charges unreliable IMO.


It's a well played game. A lot of players panic in that situation, but definitely well leveraged the advantage of having a surplus of pawns to sacrifice. One of Warmachine's greatest strengths is that it refuses to simplify unit interaction and allows for this sort of thing, though often to the detriment of it's iconic warjacks. Also a huge part of that win is just that Alexia solves a LOT of scenario problems. Without some of her rather loose ways to manipulate models, that game would have gone the other way on scenario pretty quick, which is the kind of games where I see the problem more often. A lot of times you see situations, particularly with the circle zones where a player is able to safely threaten anything that's put in the zone. That may just be an issue with those 12" circles in general I suppose, but I've definitely seen the ugly versions of this matchup where Connie goes first.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/06 19:17:38


Post by: Cyel


Yeah, I guess that's what I was hoping for with Asoiaf when I heard it's a great competitive game - more skilled maneuvering and perfecting my positioning. The game being more about dialing wound counters up and down with cards and special skills was an unfortunate surprise.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/06 20:12:31


Post by: auticus


Cyel wrote:
Yeah, I guess that's what I was hoping for with Asoiaf when I heard it's a great competitive game - more skilled maneuvering and perfecting my positioning. The game being more about dialing wound counters up and down with cards and special skills was an unfortunate surprise.


That is why I did not buy into the game. It reminded me too much of AOS design - just played a little differently.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/06 20:55:46


Post by: Cyel


It's still a neat little wargame-boardgame hybrid, just not something I was hoping it to be.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/08/11 08:45:51


Post by: Pacific


Finally took the plunge and got a good deal on the main Stark vs. Lannister starter set.

Now going to be borrowing Cyel's very helpful painting guide using Contrasts on the last page

Have only spent an hour reading through the rules, which seem nicely focussed - I'll be honest I don't see much of AoS in there other than the buffing elements (which I think to be fair is probably one of the few positive elements of that ruleset).


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/10/01 19:26:58


Post by: Stoni42


Cyel wrote:
Happy to hear that! Contrasts are so quick, easy and fun it's almost like having them prepainted

As always, remember not to neglect bases - even simple ones improve the looks of even mediocre models by a lot.


Hey Buddy,

just found your bunch of beatifully painted models with contrast paints. They look really great. Would you mind giving a short intro how you painted all the lannister/neutral units (there is currently just the Tut for the stark units, right?)? Maybe just a short list of the paints with the order you painted them?

Bye,
Stoni


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/11/23 03:46:27


Post by: Gurkhal


I haven't been very active but I'd like to come in for a bit and say that my entering into the game has been postponed due to an injury I have sustained. Hopefully I'll be back and work and be able to enter the game next year, which should also hopefully allow me to be a bit more active here as well.

Just so you know I haven't given up on this project or faded into the void.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/11/24 11:59:07


Post by: Pacific


Oh dear well hopefully it's not an injury that stops you painting Gurkhal!

I have got hold of the starter set too so have an awful lot of painting to do over the Christmas hols! Hopefully the contrast paints, and the very helpful guide on the previous page, will help


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2021/11/26 01:13:12


Post by: Gurkhal


 Pacific wrote:
Oh dear well hopefully it's not an injury that stops you painting Gurkhal!


Thanks, but I'm afraid I am returning pretty fresh to the hobby and so have neither miniatures nor paints in my home at this point, and the combination of not being able to work alongside of medical bills makes me unable to get either of them for now. :(


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/01/31 08:36:02


Post by: Cyel


I've heard there's some tules update coming in January. Is it true? I can't find any info anywhere, including the official Cmon website.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/04/13 08:43:05


Post by: Pacific


Has anyone done any work on their minis recently or got involved with the game?

I have finally started getting some stuff together to paint (just some Stark Sworn Swords for starters) and started using the War Council App - which is extremely useful.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/04/13 14:01:06


Post by: LunarSol


I picked up Night Watch Heroes 2 but haven't really been playing. It's a fine game for sure, but not one of my top priorities at the moment.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/04/14 13:34:14


Post by: Theophony


 Pacific wrote:
Has anyone done any work on their minis recently or got involved with the game?

I have finally started getting some stuff together to paint (just some Stark Sworn Swords for starters) and started using the War Council App - which is extremely useful.


I just bought into the game in the last week. Bought the Free Folk starter, The Giant Special Characters and the War Mammoths. Also picked up a damaged copy of the Lannister army box for $30 . I haven't taken any pictures yet, but also just this morning found another gaming store 15 minutes from my house that carries ASOIAF and GW, but mainly a card game shop.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/04/18 08:56:05


Post by: Cyel


I have played maybe a dozen games and unfortunately didn't love it. I liked how movement is solved, very elegant and the politics worker placement is a nice touch.

The game was too predictable, though, and I don't mean randomness. I actually like only a little randomness in games. Random charges are an awful solution and disorderly charge is probably one single dumbest rule I have seen in a while.

By predictable I mean that when a player's turn comes they have a choice of 2, maybe 3 sensible moves and just perform one of them. No surprises. My main wargame is Warmachine and it is so exciting to think a situation one of the players is in is insurmountable only to see them use the game's toolbox so creatively and cleverly that to everyone's surprise they manage to get out of trouble.

I haven't experienced this in Asoiaf, player moves are predictable and obvious and as a result the game also is prone to snowballing -first person to get an early upper hand is going to win most of the time.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/04/22 22:07:01


Post by: LunarSol


I don't hate random charges. It's a somewhat reasonable solution to the issue of binary threat advantage. Having a 1" threat advantage isn't quite as all powerful and in a way I kind of like that. I always thing random charge range coupled with static ranged attack range is a bit weird though.

The predictable critique is interesting. I hadn't used that word myself, but it rings true. I think I've used "mechanical" in the past to describe it and I appreciate the thought.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/04/25 09:22:51


Post by: Cyel


 LunarSol wrote:
I don't hate random charges. It's a somewhat reasonable solution to the issue of binary threat advantage. Having a 1" threat advantage isn't quite as all powerful and in a way I kind of like that. I always thing random charge range coupled with static ranged attack range is a bit weird though.



My main wargame is Warmachine and there threat ranges are static, but the game gives players a deep toolbox of things they can do to lessen the impact of the opponent having a few inches of threat range advantage. Baiting, jamming, sacrificing, redirecting, screening, using terrain, buffing/debuffing, clever scenario play ... all depending on players' decisions and choices. In my opinion it makes for a much more engaging game than a one where you just generate a random number to arbitrarily tell you whether what you are attempting to do makes any sense or not.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/05/01 22:51:46


Post by: Theophony


Got to sit n and watch a game yesterday. A lot easier to grasp (for me) in person than watching videos.

Lannister’s bent the knee to a Greyjoy army on turn 2 or 3. It really was decisive, but only because of the Greyjoy’s passing every dice test and the Lannister’s botching every roll. Sometime luck is not on your side.

My Free Folk army is growing

Have:

FF starter
FF characters boxes 1+2 (more giants)
Followers of bone
Thenns

Just ordered neutral characters box (miniature Market sale)

Also have a Lannister starter box
Lannister attachment box

And a Stark attachment box.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/05/02 13:25:15


Post by: Gurkhal


Ok, I just ordered Baratheon starter box and I'm pretty pissed to be honest that the Stannis box is apparently "sold out" which will make it a harder sell to get people I know into the game.

Still, a first step has been taken. Now I just need the Lannister and Stark starter boxes during the summer and I should be able to start playing this. Then me and my group can see if we want to go on or if its a pass from us.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/05/02 14:06:52


Post by: LunarSol


Cyel wrote:
 LunarSol wrote:
I don't hate random charges. It's a somewhat reasonable solution to the issue of binary threat advantage. Having a 1" threat advantage isn't quite as all powerful and in a way I kind of like that. I always thing random charge range coupled with static ranged attack range is a bit weird though.



My main wargame is Warmachine and there threat ranges are static, but the game gives players a deep toolbox of things they can do to lessen the impact of the opponent having a few inches of threat range advantage. Baiting, jamming, sacrificing, redirecting, screening, using terrain, buffing/debuffing, clever scenario play ... all depending on players' decisions and choices. In my opinion it makes for a much more engaging game than a one where you just generate a random number to arbitrarily tell you whether what you are attempting to do makes any sense or not.


Yeah, Warmachine is probably my most played game and I largely agree. I think its threat ranges have gotten a little nutty, but I do really appreciate the ability to position models defensively that most other games simply cannot replicated with more steamlined combat mechanics.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/05/20 23:45:19


Post by: Theophony


Some extra work funds came in and my wife said I could splurge. Great timing with the Miniaturemarket’s 15% off sale and the arrival of the Free Folk Heroes 3 box.

Just ordered the rest of the boxes for Free Folk, I’ll pick them up in the morning. Also bought some sterilite totes, magnets and supplies to get them all magnetized.

Hoping to get a game in a couple weeks.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/05/21 20:13:47


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


This game has taken off again in the Central Valley now that a store is supporting it. They are having a good time. I had issues with it, but I think it's truly a fun game.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/05 20:50:35


Post by: Theophony


Just played my first game today. Love it. I played Free Folk Raider spam against a solid Watch List and won. I will say that my dice were hot as all get out and he failed a couple critical panic tests. I won the game 2-0 as I killed off two units of his and he killed off two units of insignificance of mine. Also Wun-Wun the Giant was an absolute beast.

I love the tactics cards, NCU board and alternating actions. None of the Warhammer “I go first, so why don’t you sit and eat a pizza while you wait stuff”.

I jumped in and bought Free Folk a couple weeks ago. Another guy played a demo game last week and has his brother buying in as well. Might have tempted another friend into it as well. I was going to get into 30k, but GW has tricked me too many times over the years with the”cheap buy in” but then killing me with codex prices.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/10 12:24:06


Post by: Gir Spirit Bane


The free folk Mammoths intrigue me, but I cant find any pictures of the mammoths and giants vs other models to get any sense of scale of them at all!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/11 23:43:20


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


 Gir Spirit Bane wrote:
The free folk Mammoths intrigue me, but I cant find any pictures of the mammoths and giants vs other models to get any sense of scale of them at all!
a friend might be able to snap one for you. What comparison model do you want?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/13 05:07:52


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


Last Tuesday:



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/14 10:12:40


Post by: Gir Spirit Bane


 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
 Gir Spirit Bane wrote:
The free folk Mammoths intrigue me, but I cant find any pictures of the mammoths and giants vs other models to get any sense of scale of them at all!
a friend might be able to snap one for you. What comparison model do you want?


Ideally a GW scale mini, any other 28mm mini and a SoFaI infantry mini thank you!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/17 16:02:49


Post by: Theophony


 Gir Spirit Bane wrote:
The free folk Mammoths intrigue me, but I cant find any pictures of the mammoths and giants vs other models to get any sense of scale of them at all!


I'll try and snap some pics tonight. I have a game tomorrow with my Free Folk vs ???. I have my giants and Mammoths boxed up, but should be able to take some pics.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry, the gallery is still not letting me upload. If you PM me your email I can send you picks of the Giants and Mammoths.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/18 20:20:32


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


 Theophony wrote:
 Gir Spirit Bane wrote:
The free folk Mammoths intrigue me, but I cant find any pictures of the mammoths and giants vs other models to get any sense of scale of them at all!


I'll try and snap some pics tonight. I have a game tomorrow with my Free Folk vs ???. I have my giants and Mammoths boxed up, but should be able to take some pics.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry, the gallery is still not letting me upload. If you PM me your email I can send you picks of the Giants and Mammoths.


Thanks Theophony, I wasn't able to deliver on my efforts. Cheers.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/19 07:15:06


Post by: Theophony


Gallery ate one of mine, but you can see the tail end of one mammoth here compared to the giants, some line humans from ASOIAF and a Khorne Blood bowl player/lineman. Sorry, the rest of my collections are boxed up as my painting spacehas moved multiple times in the past couple years for.....reasons.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/06/24 15:59:11


Post by: Theophony


My next game is on Sunday. I'm not sure what my opponent will field as he was part of the kickstarter and has been keeping up with purchases. I'm tempted in trying out an all giants list, but it almost scares me due to not having much on the board with 40pts.

I played a second game vs Targy's. I almost surrendered as my giant (Wun-Wun) was not making a dent for the first 3 turns. But he came alive at the end of turn 3 and was not polite to all the horses. It didn't help that I kept forgetting War Cry and Raid Leader abilities. Though my opponent kept forgetting a few of his rules as well. I wiped him out, but he won by points and that stupid High Senchenal says we wet our pants and ran away. LIES...no one ever believes the Free Folk.

I did pick up more Lannisters units as I got the 2player starter set direct from CMON for $79.99 with free shipping and the miniature Market sale I picked up 2 units of Clegane Brigands and the Lannister Heroes set #3 (The Mountain that Rides). I am thinking of making an (almost) all Clegane army. A unit of Mountain Men with Tywin, and 3 units of Brigands with The mountain that rides. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/07/11 14:30:03


Post by: Theophony


Got my third battle in last week, I lost, but had a good time playing the game. Too good as the only photo I managed to get was of my army before set up. Not completely painted, but much further along than I usually get.


Free Folk painted

I've done some more work on them since, but have failed to take pictures of them.

In the mean time I have exploded and purchased Starks (and Lannisters), and actually took part of my extended weekend last week to get lots of painting done.

A winterfell Guardian and Grey Wind

Stark Outrider unit

Caetlyn and Sansa Stark as well as Great Jon Umber

A unit of Umber Berserkers. The bases have been snowed since.

The Mormonts have also joined the army, including both characters and a couple of extras from the Stark attachment box.

I got the bases started on the two units of Stark Sworn Swords this morning before work, but they will need to be rushed for Saturday as we have rekindled the interest in the game here in Saint Louis. We have a Meet Up at the Manchester Miniature Market location this Saturday @ 1pm.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/10 13:44:57


Post by: Pacific


That's a lovely looking army Theophony.. that Jon Umber is definitely a big boy!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/17 16:09:38


Post by: BalerionTheBlackDread


Collecting at the moment, Starter set starks painted... Lannisters still needing to be painted, Intrigued by the Greyjoy range but most probably add the Lannister and Stark starter sets to what I have some heroes and attachments..

Not sure..


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/17 16:35:16


Post by: Shrapnelsmile




Contrast paint experiment a while back. Just returned to the game.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/22 03:59:09


Post by: Gurkhal


And I'm trudging on, or so I hope, and I hope to be able to get a second starter set during this fall so that I can finally start to learn the rules properly (I learn best by doing) and then get some games with the friends and brothers and feel out if this game is for me.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/22 19:42:27


Post by: nels1031


Looking forward to the House Martell stuff that was previewed a few weeks ago.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/22 21:47:11


Post by: warboss


Looks good! I think for the next batch of cavalry, you may want to go one contrast shade darker for the horses to give them a bit more color compared with the rider.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/23 02:29:33


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


Gurkhal wrote:
And I'm trudging on, or so I hope, and I hope to be able to get a second starter set during this fall so that I can finally start to learn the rules properly (I learn best by doing) and then get some games with the friends and brothers and feel out if this game is for me.


if you can swing it that is the best route. Two starter are so convenient with everything one needs to play. Might be an easy sell for your friends and fam! What two armies will you do?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/23 04:58:27


Post by: Gurkhal


 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:
And I'm trudging on, or so I hope, and I hope to be able to get a second starter set during this fall so that I can finally start to learn the rules properly (I learn best by doing) and then get some games with the friends and brothers and feel out if this game is for me.


if you can swing it that is the best route. Two starter are so convenient with everything one needs to play. Might be an easy sell for your friends and fam! What two armies will you do?


Thanks!

I already have the Baratheon starter and I'm looking at the Starks for the second, with the Greyjoys as a backup in case the Starks would be out-of-stock when I get around to order the second starter. At heart I am a Lannister fan of but right now their starter is not available from where I order my gaming material (local store here in Sweden) and so I will have to go with a second choice for now. Although I think that both Baratheon and Stark would be more palatable, in terms of lore and such, for the tastes of my friends and my brothers than Lannister and Greyjoy.

But really looking forward to get some Westerosi action. I just can't have to much Asoiaf in my life.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/24 16:18:10


Post by: Shrapnelsmile


Gurkhal wrote:
 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:
And I'm trudging on, or so I hope, and I hope to be able to get a second starter set during this fall so that I can finally start to learn the rules properly (I learn best by doing) and then get some games with the friends and brothers and feel out if this game is for me.


if you can swing it that is the best route. Two starter are so convenient with everything one needs to play. Might be an easy sell for your friends and fam! What two armies will you do?


Thanks!

I already have the Baratheon starter and I'm looking at the Starks for the second, with the Greyjoys as a backup in case the Starks would be out-of-stock when I get around to order the second starter. At heart I am a Lannister fan of but right now their starter is not available from where I order my gaming material (local store here in Sweden) and so I will have to go with a second choice for now. Although I think that both Baratheon and Stark would be more palatable, in terms of lore and such, for the tastes of my friends and my brothers than Lannister and Greyjoy.

But really looking forward to get some Westerosi action. I just can't have to much Asoiaf in my life.

Exciting plan! I hope you have a blast. I encourage your dedication to building several armies for demos and spreading the love of the game. Our local pack leader here started with no one playing Ice and Fire. We now have one of the biggest communities in California thanks to him. Cheers and enjoy!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/09/26 21:17:32


Post by: Theophony


Got into the local group. So far I have Free Folk (All except 6skin), Starks (Need the Crannogman and Umber Great axes), Bunch of Lannisters and I just picked up all the Greyjoy (except the ironborn trappers, which I will get this week). The game is a blast. There have been at least 3-4 games where I thought I'd lost by end of turn 2 to come back and win. Nice mix of objectives, alternating actions, list building and NCU mechanic. I don't think any 40 point game I have played has gone over 2 hours unless we were both just jawing away. Though terrain can be somewhat samey, I like that a lot better than the arguements over 3D terrain.

Playing with water effects on my Greyjoys




Trying to get the feeling of them coming ashore late at night getting ready to pillage.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/10/03 16:06:06


Post by: Gurkhal


I don't have much to say but its a joy to read AARs for the game and see some pictures of hobbyist painted miniatures.

Keep it coming, Theophony!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/10/20 20:44:57


Post by: Theophony


Martell's are out in the world now. I have a possible game scheduled for Saturday, but it may be put aside as we have gotten some intrest from other locals in learning. 4 of us experienced players are going to be there with extra armies to hopefully teach a few newer players.

I have gathered all the Greyjoys now and need just one unit for starks and one unit for freefolk. Even though it has been a bad buying splurge, it's still been so much cheaper than 40K. Painting still at a standstill, more due to two new kittens in the house and having COVID a few weeks back.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/11/30 17:21:26


Post by: Theophony


Been slowly painting recently using contrast paints and the Slap Chop 2.0 method. Trying to get some Bolton's Painted up for this weekend. I didn't have any skin colored contrasts till last night.




Picked up Neutral Heroes 2 to go with Heroes 1




My opponent for this weekend had no issue with me using Cleganne Brigands as Flayed men since they are impossible to purchase at a reasonable price. This is the first guy I used the Guilliman Flesh Contrast on.


After this unit gets done it's back to doing Greyjoys with the Slap Chop 2.0 as that really speeds things up for me.




A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/02 20:02:49


Post by: Gallahad


Nice work! I really like that Daario and Flayer in particular

I'm absolutely a huge fan of this game. So much fun. I'll post up some of the stuff I'm painting up.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/04 10:19:49


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
Nice work! I really like that Daario and Flayer in particular

I'm absolutely a huge fan of this game. So much fun. I'll post up some of the stuff I'm painting up.


Please do. I have a game today, my Lannister’s with Bolton allies against a Stormcrow Neutral army. He’s letting me field the Brigands as Flayed men as we have not seen flayed men for less than double the price anywhere. Initially my army was going to have a mounted Sir Gregor, but the last two times I fielded him he died way too quickly. Also the two turncoats and maimed Jaime will not see the field today even though they just got painted.



Also one of the Cersei models will be an NCU along with Peter and Joffrey.


I’ll try and post game pics later.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/04 14:32:56


Post by: Gallahad


One of the secret and best uses of the Mountain that Rides is to trigger A Lannister Pays his Debts.

I'm working on some Knights of Casterly Rock atm. I'll post some WIPs here


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/05 06:37:13


Post by: Gallahad


Here are my WIP Knights of Casterly Rock:


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/05 14:37:58


Post by: Theophony


Very nice Gallahad.

What do you plan on doing for the basing? That's where I am getting lost with Lannisters.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Theophony wrote:
Very nice Gallahad.

What do you plan on doing for the basing? That's where I am getting lost with Lannisters.


finally updated the pics from this weekend.

My army arrayed before set up. Close up of Guardsmen.


started priming my Greyjoy last night.

24 Reavers
started adding some color this morning before work.

Greyjoy are going to be my main faction.




A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/05 15:13:59


Post by: Gallahad


Looks like a nice start Theopheny! Greyjoys seem really fun to play.

I just plan to do green static grass with yellow flowers which I think will contrast nicely with the red and tie in with the gold.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/06 14:26:04


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
Looks like a nice start Theopheny! Greyjoys seem really fun to play.

I just plan to do green static grass with yellow flowers which I think will contrast nicely with the red and tie in with the gold.


Kind of what I had planned for my Lannisters too.

So, there are 6 people in our ASOIAF group that rotate through different armies. The monthly meet ups have gotten up to 10 people showing up, but we have had multiple people buy armies after watching the game and intend on coming in to play. Out of the main group 2 of us play Greyjoy (the other guy has Greyjoy and then has done some Neutrals/Boltons). He plays a completely different way than I do, leaning more on their healing abilities and different NCU's. I play looney toons Viking raiders with Victarion and Nute as commander and only character in a flood of basic troops. Playing against him has been interesting with my Greyjoys being Victorious more often than not, but all have been close games. I play the Greyjoys as just all-around better Starks than the Starks. Victarion is a better Great Jon Umber, Theon is a better Robb raiders are better berserkers. We just don't have dogs .

Some slight progress with painting this morning, but nothing really to show. The next step will probably finish off the units.

My typical Greyjoy army is

Victarion in a unit of Reapers
Nute in a unit of Ironmakers

2 units of naked reavers
1 unit of ironborn bowmen
1 unit of ironborn trappers

NCUs:
Wendamyr
Rodrik Harlaw

Though I might swap out the trappers for a second unit of bowmen in th enext game.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/10 06:20:19


Post by: Gurkhal


I'm mostly lurking but I can't express how itchy I am not play this game.

Hopefully I'll get some money this Christmas so that I can get a second starter set and start to play it.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/11 09:54:10


Post by: Pacific


Yes I am in the same boat Gurkhal! Please keep these updates comimg they are really.interesting to read.
Im finishing off a large Epic project which will be done by early next year and the ASOIAF starter set is next on my list of projects.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/12 13:57:11


Post by: Theophony


So, you want an update...


Ironmakers, Victarion, Nute the Barber, Erik Ironmaker, Wendamyr and Rodrik Harlaw have all been primed with the Slapchop 2.0 method and I got Guilliman Flesh on the skin and hair. Hopefully they will turn out better than my archer units who I failed to brighten up enough before using the contrast.

I will amend my list for the ASOIAF meet up on Saturday to the following.

Victarion in a unit of Harlaw Reapers
Nute the barber in a unit of Ironmakers
unit of Ironborn Reavers naked
second unit of Reavers naked as well
two fully naked units of ironborn archers

Wendamyr
Rodrik Harlaw

I could drop the second archer unit and take either Erik Ironmaker or Petyr Baelish. Either way, they are all 8 activation lists which works out well.

archers who didn't get enlightened enough


I am seriously contemplating a second Greyjoy starter box, But I am also looking at possibly another army as I got a decent bonus from one job this week.

For you guys considering jumping into the game.
https://shop.asmodee.com/cmon/song-of-ice-and-fire-minis/a-song-of-ice-1-fire-5-stark-vs-lannister-starter-sif001
$79.99 for a force of both Stark and Lannisters, I think free shipping too, but I could be wrong depending on where you live. It's a decent start, cheaper than the individual starter sets and has twice as many models. The book and the cards are out of date, and it comes with one generic set of dice and all the terrain you need for the game. If either of those armies fit your style it's a great start. I recommend getting the heroes boxes for whichever army you go with, and probably the neutral heroes 1+2 as well. After that it really just depends on what army you want. All the cards are up to date in the warcouncil app (Free) and you can download and print the cards from CMON. I do not recommend the card packs as I think they will get updated around February next year with some balance changes.

Any other questions feel free to ask.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/12 15:57:40


Post by: Gallahad


Put in some work on my Warriors Sons and Gregor



Warriors Sons with a Champion of Faith attachment are the all stars of the Lannisters imo. Pretty reliably putting out a panicked and vulnerable token is so powerful. You throw hardened into the mix (the block more and more hits the more ranks are missing) and I've had them to toe to toe with tooled up Night's Watch Sworn Brothers.

I second Theo's recommendation on the 2p starter box (or really anything related to this game)




A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/12 18:21:12


Post by: Theophony


Those guys turned out awesome . Very vibrant colors on the cloaks.

Also saw the 2 player starter on Walmart.com for $67.99 with 3 day shipping. I had gotten my set from CMON on sale for $68 before the price rise and free shipping. I'm always scouting deals.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/12 18:26:37


Post by: Gallahad


Thank you Theo.

The Warrior's Sons sculpts have this kind of funny mullet effect where from the front they are a tide of steel but from the back they look like a rainbow. I like them both ways. The cloaks will get toned down once I hit them with a wash.

I also ordered some Roman helmet crests bits (paid a stupid price) I plan to add to their helmets as I just don't like them as is. Hopefully the guy ships soon.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/13 14:07:39


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
Thank you Theo.

The Warrior's Sons sculpts have this kind of funny mullet effect where from the front they are a tide of steel but from the back they look like a rainbow. I like them both ways. The cloaks will get toned down once I hit them with a wash.

I also ordered some Roman helmet crests bits (paid a stupid price) I plan to add to their helmets as I just don't like them as is. Hopefully the guy ships soon.


Wish I could get my printers set back up, but with the mother-in-law moving in temporarily after her surgery, it's not happening, in fact i'll be losing my space for a while. When I get back to lannisters I may have to print some heads for some models as I don't like some of the older sculpts.

Meanwhile in Greyjoyland...

Ironmakers are coming along nicely. Probably some of my favorite sculpts in the game.






Helmets and the tentacles on the hammer heads have been painted faux-gold since. Almost done with all the units for Saturday, just characters left.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/13 22:55:44


Post by: Gallahad


Those Ironmakers looking very good Theo! Very scary sight


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Theophony wrote:


Wish I could get my printers set back up, but with the mother-in-law moving in temporarily after her surgery, it's not happening, in fact i'll be losing my space for a while. When I get back to lannisters I may have to print some heads for some models as I don't like some of the older sculpts.


I'm curious: What heads do you plan on replacing? I'm pretty fond of the old Guardsmen if you change that one head so he isn't looking over his shoulder and I like all the Halberdiers. I'm not a fan of a couple of the Mountains Men heads or the Warriors Sons

I think the sculpts since that time period have improved a lot. Red cloaks, Lannisport City Watch, etc.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 04:11:36


Post by: Gurkhal


Just gonna throw in that I really appreciate the activity in the thread. Christmas can't come fast enough for me.

But anyway if we're talking aesthics we don't like, I will confess that I'm not a fan of the Renaissance-ish look of some Lannister troops. And I really dislike the feathers attached to the helmets of some.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 13:29:48


Post by: Theophony


Gallahad wrote:Those Ironmakers looking very good Theo! Very scary sight


Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Theophony wrote:


Wish I could get my printers set back up, but with the mother-in-law moving in temporarily after her surgery, it's not happening, in fact i'll be losing my space for a while. When I get back to lannisters I may have to print some heads for some models as I don't like some of the older sculpts.


I'm curious: What heads do you plan on replacing? I'm pretty fond of the old Guardsmen if you change that one head so he isn't looking over his shoulder and I like all the Halberdiers. I'm not a fan of a couple of the Mountains Men heads or the Warriors Sons

I think the sculpts since that time period have improved a lot. Red cloaks, Lannisport City Watch, etc.


Heads and helmets are the main design I would change. I did a head swap on my stormcast eternals a while back, when I get my modeling area back and can fix my printer I will try and rescale the heads to fit the lannisters.




Gurkhal wrote:Just gonna throw in that I really appreciate the activity in the thread. Christmas can't come fast enough for me.

But anyway if we're talking aesthics we don't like, I will confess that I'm not a fan of the Renaissance-ish look of some Lannister troops. And I really dislike the feathers attached to the helmets of some.


Yes, heads and helmets are the main things I dislike about the ASOIAF models. Lots of heads have really bad hair sculpts, at least to my liking.

update brought over from my newest P&M Blog.

This morning I knocked out 4 characters.

Rodrik the reader

Wendamyr and his raven

Nute the Barber in a fresh smock before doing some barbering. The blown up picture makes me realize I need to paint the buttons on the tunic.

Victarion, being the better Great Jon than any the Starks could find.

I need to do Erik Ironmaker, but not necessary for this weekend, just as a possible swap out for next time. I'll be going with both archer units this weekend instead of one archer and one trapper. We will see how that works out.





A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 16:39:07


Post by: warboss


Are new models still being previewed/released for this game line?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 17:32:52


Post by: nels1031


The released House Martell a few months back, in October I believe.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 18:23:57


Post by: Gallahad


 warboss wrote:
Are new models still being previewed/released for this game line?


Yes! Really solid release schedule with 3-4 new boxes every quarter. Massive amount of options for all factions except Martells which just recently got their starter plus an elite infantry unit


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 18:36:31


Post by: Theophony


 warboss wrote:
Are new models still being previewed/released for this game line?


Biggest issue is some of the older sets sold out right away and no restock (Mother of Dragons ), but long out of stock items are starting to come back in now. Some areas of the world get boxes months or even a year late (Very rare, but tournament organizers are good about communicating shat can and cannot be used). Specifically Red Cloaks were not released in England for a long time, still think they have not received them, so the national tournament said no one could bring them to use. Still my group is fine with allowing proxies on the correct unit tray as all cards are available to be printed out.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/14 19:57:04


Post by: warboss


Thanks for the confirmation and good to hear. While I don't plan on playing the game, there are several kits that are on my random RPG bucket list of kits for minis.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/15 14:07:22


Post by: Theophony


 warboss wrote:
Thanks for the confirmation and good to hear. While I don't plan on playing the game, there are several kits that are on my random RPG bucket list of kits for minis.


There are some really great models that would work for just about any fantasy setting. The Free Folk in particular have fantastic models for any sort of cold climate fantasy RPG.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/15 23:11:01


Post by: Gallahad


Finished up a scenic base for one of the best NCUs and an auto include in every list for me : Pycelle

Hoping the colors contrast nicely with the deep scarlet I plan to paint his robes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Gurkhal wrote:
Just gonna throw in that I really appreciate the activity in the thread. Christmas can't come fast enough for me.

But anyway if we're talking aesthics we don't like, I will confess that I'm not a fan of the Renaissance-ish look of some Lannister troops. And I really dislike the feathers attached to the helmets of some.


What are you hoping to get for Christmas Gurkal? Have you been able to play the game yet with anyone? I've managed to hook a whole group of people in it and now have a great playgroup going.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/16 00:13:04


Post by: Gurkhal


 Gallahad wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Gurkhal wrote:
Just gonna throw in that I really appreciate the activity in the thread. Christmas can't come fast enough for me.

But anyway if we're talking aesthics we don't like, I will confess that I'm not a fan of the Renaissance-ish look of some Lannister troops. And I really dislike the feathers attached to the helmets of some.


What are you hoping to get for Christmas Gurkal? Have you been able to play the game yet with anyone? I've managed to hook a whole group of people in it and now have a great playgroup going.


Money and money. As I think I've mentioned I'm still recovering from a serious accident in februari 2021 and have not yet been able to return to work, hence my inability to get this project off the ground properly yet. Thus I sit at home with a single starter set for Baratheon but hoping that with Christmas, if things goes right, I'll be able to get hold of one or two more and start to get people over to my place for games.

And no, I haven't been able to get a single game going yet due to this accursed accident and the drawn out recovery phase.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/16 00:31:56


Post by: Gallahad


Gurkhal wrote:


Money and money. As I think I've mentioned I'm still recovering from a serious accident in februari 2021 and have not yet been able to return to work, hence my inability to get this project off the ground properly yet. Thus I sit at home with a single starter set for Baratheon but hoping that with Christmas, if things goes right, I'll be able to get hold of one or two more and start to get people over to my place for games.

And no, I haven't been able to get a single game going yet due to this accursed accident and the drawn out recovery phase.


Dang man, I'm sorry to hear that! I hope your recovery speeds along.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/16 10:35:18


Post by: Gurkhal


 Gallahad wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:


Money and money. As I think I've mentioned I'm still recovering from a serious accident in februari 2021 and have not yet been able to return to work, hence my inability to get this project off the ground properly yet. Thus I sit at home with a single starter set for Baratheon but hoping that with Christmas, if things goes right, I'll be able to get hold of one or two more and start to get people over to my place for games.

And no, I haven't been able to get a single game going yet due to this accursed accident and the drawn out recovery phase.


Dang man, I'm sorry to hear that! I hope your recovery speeds along.


Thank you. Your concern is welcome and appreciated.

But anyway, Asoiaf TMG isn't my only interest so we'll see if I take the plunge after this Christmas or if I hold out for my recovery to, hopefully, come to an end relatively soon and start to invest in this game after I'm back at work.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/16 16:18:05


Post by: Theophony


Gurkhal wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:


Money and money. As I think I've mentioned I'm still recovering from a serious accident in februari 2021 and have not yet been able to return to work, hence my inability to get this project off the ground properly yet. Thus I sit at home with a single starter set for Baratheon but hoping that with Christmas, if things goes right, I'll be able to get hold of one or two more and start to get people over to my place for games.

And no, I haven't been able to get a single game going yet due to this accursed accident and the drawn out recovery phase.


Dang man, I'm sorry to hear that! I hope your recovery speeds along.


Thank you. Your concern is welcome and appreciated.

But anyway, Asoiaf TMG isn't my only interest so we'll see if I take the plunge after this Christmas or if I hold out for my recovery to, hopefully, come to an end relatively soon and start to invest in this game after I'm back at work.


Good luck with the recovery, work injuries are a pain from my own experience.

Also of note, The Martell Cavalry units and the Dune Vipers hit retail at Miniature Market today. We have the monthly meet up tomorrow and I have a game scheduled with my newly painted Greyjoy vs. a friends Boltons. I normally don't take the Crown very often on the NCU board, but I have a feeling I may be bringing Petyr Baelish tomorrow to hold that spot and take another. Though the last time I played my Greyjoy I was making all my moral checks on 11 and 12s.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/17 21:33:50


Post by: Theophony


ASOIAF monthly meet up today. Good turn out, 11 or 12 people. Wanted to get 2 games in but the first person was an hour late, so I played someone else and was worn out by the time the first game was done. It was good seeing new faces today.

6 units for my army

Victarion in reapers
Nute in ironmakers

Two units of longbowmen with NCUs Rodrick Harlaw and Wendamyr

Two units of reavers

Realized I need to still paint the reavers axe handles , I forgot I didn’t have a brown I wanted.

Victarion hitting the flank of the night watch rangers?(Cavalry). They did 11 hits and 10 wounds, but they survived. Rear Flanked by Ghost, who then got Barbered by Nute.

Game was basically over turn 4 with a win from me 11-8. He still had John Snow in a unit agains 3 units of mine with me holding 2 objectives.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/19 12:32:31


Post by: Gurkhal


Theophony wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:
Gurkhal wrote:


Money and money. As I think I've mentioned I'm still recovering from a serious accident in februari 2021 and have not yet been able to return to work, hence my inability to get this project off the ground properly yet. Thus I sit at home with a single starter set for Baratheon but hoping that with Christmas, if things goes right, I'll be able to get hold of one or two more and start to get people over to my place for games.

And no, I haven't been able to get a single game going yet due to this accursed accident and the drawn out recovery phase.


Dang man, I'm sorry to hear that! I hope your recovery speeds along.


Thank you. Your concern is welcome and appreciated.

But anyway, Asoiaf TMG isn't my only interest so we'll see if I take the plunge after this Christmas or if I hold out for my recovery to, hopefully, come to an end relatively soon and start to invest in this game after I'm back at work.


Good luck with the recovery, work injuries are a pain from my own experience.

Also of note, The Martell Cavalry units and the Dune Vipers hit retail at Miniature Market today. We have the monthly meet up tomorrow and I have a game scheduled with my newly painted Greyjoy vs. a friends Boltons. I normally don't take the Crown very often on the NCU board, but I have a feeling I may be bringing Petyr Baelish tomorrow to hold that spot and take another. Though the last time I played my Greyjoy I was making all my moral checks on 11 and 12s.


Thank you. Your concern is also both welcome and appreciated.

Theophony wrote:ASOIAF monthly meet up today. Good turn out, 11 or 12 people. Wanted to get 2 games in but the first person was an hour late, so I played someone else and was worn out by the time the first game was done. It was good seeing new faces today.

6 units for my army

Victarion in reapers
Nute in ironmakers

Two units of longbowmen with NCUs Rodrick Harlaw and Wendamyr

Two units of reavers

Realized I need to still paint the reavers axe handles , I forgot I didn’t have a brown I wanted.

Victarion hitting the flank of the night watch rangers?(Cavalry). They did 11 hits and 10 wounds, but they survived. Rear Flanked by Ghost, who then got Barbered by Nute.

Game was basically over turn 4 with a win from me 11-8. He still had John Snow in a unit agains 3 units of mine with me holding 2 objectives.


Nice looking army and good work in getting a win. I've understood that Targaryens and Night's Watch are the, statistically speaking, two top armies from tournaments. Although I don't know where the Greyjoys stands in relations to Targaryen and Night's Watch.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/19 22:17:39


Post by: Gallahad


I would say Nights Watch is definitely a top tier army, while Targaryen and Greyjoy probably aren't.

Free Folk and Martells are currently very good and probably top two armies in mega competitive scene.

That being said, the game really does have great balance and most games are decided mostly by player skill and experience. How well your faction does also depends to some extent by the local meta and how connected it is to the online TTS meta.

For example, I find Targaryens super hard to play against, while in the online global meta they are bottom third type faction.

Congrats Theo on the win against NW. They are a tough army no matter where/who you are playing. So much healing!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/20 13:28:11


Post by: Gallahad


Here is my Pycelle I just finished:



Giving out weakened tokens is so powerful. He is one of my favorite NCUs.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/20 15:59:16


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
Here is my Pycelle I just finished:



Giving out weakened tokens is so powerful. He is one of my favorite NCUs.


He looks excellent. Plus I would always put him on the board facing away from my opponent as he looks like he is sneakily trying to poison the cup.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/20 16:06:13


Post by: Gallahad


 Theophony wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:
Here is my Pycelle I just finished:



Giving out weakened tokens is so powerful. He is one of my favorite NCUs.


He looks excellent. Plus I would always put him on the board facing away from my opponent as he looks like he is sneakily trying to poison the cup.


Ha! That is a great idea. I'm going to do that from here on out.

Thank you


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2022/12/20 21:16:01


Post by: Theophony


And always offer your opponent a luke warm beverage before the game .

I have a bunch of those bases. I may have to use them on some of my Lannister NCUs when I get back to them.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/04 19:03:47


Post by: Gallahad


The Mountain who rides:






A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/04 20:09:55


Post by: warboss


Nicely done! He looks like a beast. Speaking of beasts...

Spoiler:


I finally decided to check out the CMON website and there are a ton of new units there that weren't previously available the last time I checked (admittedly a while ago!).


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/05 01:25:33


Post by: Gallahad


Thanks warboss!

Yeah, the game has a really nice and pretty regular release schedule. Assmodee will still miss some dates, but there is a ton of units for every army.

The bear riders are great miniatures, especially for the price.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/05 14:55:48


Post by: warboss


I did read in this thread that the newer figs are better in terms of detail/sculpt quality than the older ones. Are they at the point in the lifecycle of the game where they've mentioned redoing some of the initial kickstarter releases?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/06 05:29:37


Post by: Gurkhal


Very nice job on Ser Gregor.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/06 07:08:52


Post by: Gallahad


warboss wrote:I did read in this thread that the newer figs are better in terms of detail/sculpt quality than the older ones. Are they at the point in the lifecycle of the game where they've mentioned redoing some of the initial kickstarter releases?

They redid most of the initial Stark v Lannister set, so new Stark Sworn Swords and Umber Berserkers and Lannister Guardsmen and Halberdiers. No mention of anything else getting redone. The original Bolton stuff is very nice and doesn't need any redoing. I also think the original Lannister stuff was nice as it was, if maybe just a little boring. I find them very enjoyable to paint.
Gurkhal wrote:Very nice job on Ser Gregor.


Thank you. I'm very pleased with how my conversion turned out. He makes it into most of my lists, so I wanted him to be snazzy.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/06 13:05:00


Post by: warboss


 Gallahad wrote:
warboss wrote:I did read in this thread that the newer figs are better in terms of detail/sculpt quality than the older ones. Are they at the point in the lifecycle of the game where they've mentioned redoing some of the initial kickstarter releases?

They redid most of the initial Stark v Lannister set, so new Stark Sworn Swords and Umber Berserkers and Lannister Guardsmen and Halberdiers. No mention of anything else getting redone. The original Bolton stuff is very nice and doesn't need any redoing. I also think the original Lannister stuff was nice as it was, if maybe just a little boring. I find them very enjoyable to paint.


Thanks! Have folks posted comparison pics? The Umber berserkers coincidently were one of the units I was interested in and a quick image search doesn't reveal any before and after pics that I can find nor any difference that I can tell at least.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/06 15:41:06


Post by: Gallahad


I can get you some comparison pics maybe next week.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/06 16:36:34


Post by: warboss


 Gallahad wrote:
I can get you some comparison pics maybe next week.


Of the Umber Berserkers or the initial releases in general? Regardless, thanks and I appreciate it! I've been clueless to their resculpting all this time so no rush and whenever you get the free time. Would you in the meantime personally say the difference is noticeable?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/12 18:46:29


Post by: Pacific


Fantastic job on the Mountain who Rides Gallahad! Sure that looks a fearsome miniature indeed on the tabletop.

I am just coming up to the end of another project so now looking for the next one. They take me years to get through so has to be carefully considered

My current shortlist is: 1) The ASOIAF Stark & Lannister starter set. 2) Fallout (probably Raiders and should be a small miniature count, but I have some terrain so it could escalate) 3) Age of Darkness/Horus Heresy. Was really getting into the idea of this, but the pretty soul-less AoD rulebook and the fact my project I am just finishing is pre-heresy related has knocked the wind out of my sails a bit.

Is it possible to dabble with ASOIAF and throw some minis down on the table, or is it an Infinity/Necromunda-type game where you have to live and breathe the game to get the most out of it?



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/14 06:29:34


Post by: Gallahad


Umber Berserkers
Left to right alternates Old, New, Old, New, Etc.



Sworn Swords with GW chaos guy and painted Umber Berserker.
Alternate New, Old from left to right



I find the new units to be just a tad sharper and more dynamic poses.

I think the old stuff still holds up really well though.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Pacific wrote:
Fantastic job on the Mountain who Rides Gallahad! Sure that looks a fearsome miniature indeed on the tabletop.

Is it possible to dabble with ASOIAF and throw some minis down on the table, or is it an Infinity/Necromunda-type game where you have to live and breathe the game to get the most out of it?



Thank you for the kind words! I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. He is very imposing on the tabletop.

I think ASOIAF works great for dabbling. The rules are tight enough to be enjoyable even in casual settings. Easy to learn, hard to master. I play with casuals all the time and have a lot of fun. even though I'm more experienced. They have fun too! I've gotten several people locally into the game after a single intro game.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/14 14:03:29


Post by: warboss


 Gallahad wrote:
Umber Berserkers
Left to right alternates Old, New, Old, New, Etc.

Spoiler:



Sworn Swords with GW chaos guy and painted Umber Berserker.
Alternate New, Old from left to right


I find the new units to be just a tad sharper and more dynamic poses.


Thanks! This may seem naively stupid on my part but I half expected that they were just tweaking the existing moulds with added detail or using the same sculpt. The details seem crisper/sharper and the sculpts are indeed more dynamic but I think I prefer the originals overall strangely except for one of the figs (top picture, last on the right). Are these only in the new starter or are the booster boxes of just the unit being redone with the new sculpts?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/14 14:32:11


Post by: Gallahad


The new sculpts are only in the starter. Booster boxes are old sculpts. Glad the pics helped.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/15 19:17:06


Post by: nels1031


Solid paintjob on that Khorne Reaver!

Patiently waiting for the White Walkers/Others to get some mini's...

edit: I think someone said previously that they are still a ways away, as the game is built around the books where they haven't appeared in full force just yet. Its just my excuse to not dive into this game, as I don't have the time. Really like watching the batreps on youtube when I'm not watching AoS content.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/17 08:28:59


Post by: Pacific


 Gallahad wrote:


Thank you for the kind words! I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. He is very imposing on the tabletop.

I think ASOIAF works great for dabbling. The rules are tight enough to be enjoyable even in casual settings. Easy to learn, hard to master. I play with casuals all the time and have a lot of fun. even though I'm more experienced. They have fun too! I've gotten several people locally into the game after a single intro game.


Thanks Gallahad, that's really good to know. I had joined some of the ASOIF Facebook groups and I'll be honest got disenchanted a little by all of the 'chasing the Meta' type videos being posted on there. I have no desire to treat the game as though I'm taking part in a professional sport, so I'm glad the game is playable at a more casual level.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/17 10:40:01


Post by: Theophony


 Pacific wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:


Thank you for the kind words! I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. He is very imposing on the tabletop.

I think ASOIAF works great for dabbling. The rules are tight enough to be enjoyable even in casual settings. Easy to learn, hard to master. I play with casuals all the time and have a lot of fun. even though I'm more experienced. They have fun too! I've gotten several people locally into the game after a single intro game.


Thanks Gallahad, that's really good to know. I had joined some of the ASOIF Facebook groups and I'll be honest got disenchanted a little by all of the 'chasing the Meta' type videos being posted on there. I have no desire to treat the game as though I'm taking part in a professional sport, so I'm glad the game is playable at a more casual level.


Kind of the boat I’m in. A group of us have been playing at the miniature market retail store for months and now they (Miniaturemarket and some new guys) want to start a league this Saturday. I liked the casual games, but some of the new guys came in from 40K and the vibe I get is win at all cost. I have not joined yet, mainly because of family obligations and cannot guarantee being able to play every week. While we do play to win, we also do like trying lists that are thematically fun. All Berserkers, all Cavalry or favorite characters. Facebook is Facebook, no matter what you call it. I just dropped the stark ASOIAF group as it was so slow with the few posts only being welcome the new guys and how do I win with stark?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/17 16:00:00


Post by: Gallahad


 nels1031 wrote:
Solid paintjob on that Khorne Reaver!

Patiently waiting for the White Walkers/Others to get some mini's...

edit: I think someone said previously that they are still a ways away, as the game is built around the books where they haven't appeared in full force just yet. Its just my excuse to not dive into this game, as I don't have the time. Really like watching the batreps on youtube when I'm not watching AoS content.


Thank you!

I think the Others getting released depends entirely on if George releases the next book, which seems very unlikely.

That being said, the game itself is great. Best game I've played bar none.

And if you really really want an Others army, there are people on the community who have created custom stats... but really for very casual play, as they are pretty tricky to balance.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/23 19:17:23


Post by: Theophony


My friend is blowing up my phone with info from a live stream about new rules update. All will be available on the 28th of this month.

Lannister Halbediers going to 5 points.
War Cry gives either Vulnerable OR Panicked.
Outflanked does not need someone taking the horses now, the unit comes on at the start of the round.

We just started a league at Miniature Market with the kick-off last Saturday. I think my Greyjoys may be using that outflank a bit more. Victarion outflanking in the side...yes please.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/23 23:47:14


Post by: Gallahad


Ha! My Stark buddy is absolutely gutted about changes to WarCry and Hardened..I think they are good changes overall but do hope the Starks and Greyjoys get some buffs.

I'm excited to see the full set on the 28th.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/24 06:04:26


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
Ha! My Stark buddy is absolutely gutted about changes to WarCry and Hardened..I think they are good changes overall but do hope the Starks and Greyjoys get some buffs.

I'm excited to see the full set on the 28th.


The points adjustments will be important for this update. I’d like to unshelve my Starks and see more Greyjoy love as well. Think the outflank will help both armies. I’m. Hoping for some Baratheon Nerfing as well.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/24 07:22:19


Post by: Gallahad


Yeah, Outflank is going to be great now. You can really throw off the tempo of first player by forcing them to either take the horse or get charged in the rear...

Very powerful. Hrakkars and NW Ranger Vanguard looking very good. Will definitely be a buff to Greyjoys.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/24 15:28:22


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
Yeah, Outflank is going to be great now. You can really throw off the tempo of first player by forcing them to either take the horse or get charged in the rear...

Very powerful. Hrakkars and NW Ranger Vanguard looking very good. Will definitely be a buff to Greyjoys.



My Greyjoy can place half on the board, bring half in on a flank and in games where your trying to grab objectives that can be great. Set up heavy right with your reserves off the board, what does the opponent do? does he come at that group hard and leave the other side open? does he split which could let you bring all on the right to sweep his spread out forces off the table....Fun. It's what I don't see in GW games anymore.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/24 16:47:23


Post by: Gallahad


 Theophony wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:
Yeah, Outflank is going to be great now. You can really throw off the tempo of first player by forcing them to either take the horse or get charged in the rear...

Very powerful. Hrakkars and NW Ranger Vanguard looking very good. Will definitely be a buff to Greyjoys.



My Greyjoy can place half on the board, bring half in on a flank and in games where your trying to grab objectives that can be great. Set up heavy right with your reserves off the board, what does the opponent do? does he come at that group hard and leave the other side open? does he split which could let you bring all on the right to sweep his spread out forces off the table....Fun. It's what I don't see in GW games anymore.


I think the wording of the ability only lets you bring in one unit from reserve per round, so probably no more than two per game. And I guess two units would be roughly half your army in a 40pt game!

Still, it is definitely going to be fun!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/02/28 16:20:51


Post by: Theophony


 Gallahad wrote:
 Theophony wrote:
 Gallahad wrote:
Yeah, Outflank is going to be great now. You can really throw off the tempo of first player by forcing them to either take the horse or get charged in the rear...

Very powerful. Hrakkars and NW Ranger Vanguard looking very good. Will definitely be a buff to Greyjoys.



My Greyjoy can place half on the board, bring half in on a flank and in games where your trying to grab objectives that can be great. Set up heavy right with your reserves off the board, what does the opponent do? does he come at that group hard and leave the other side open? does he split which could let you bring all on the right to sweep his spread out forces off the table....Fun. It's what I don't see in GW games anymore.


I think the wording of the ability only lets you bring in one unit from reserve per round, so probably no more than two per game. And I guess two units would be roughly half your army in a 40pt game!

Still, it is definitely going to be fun!


Well, just under an hour till they release the update. Hopefully some choice changes that I can implement for this weekend to get my Greyjoy doing some harm in out league. Lost my first game vs. freefolk 10 to 5.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/04/09 15:25:13


Post by: warboss


Just curious if anyone has tried converting ASOIAF figures. I'm considering getting the Varamyr Sixskins pack and was wondering if it's possible to non-destructively remove the figure from the bear mount for use on another mount potentially. I don't know how strong the glue is or even if it'll be possible (is his lower half the same mould/piece as the bear or is his body glued to the bear's saddle instead?). I looked online for videos and pics of unboxing but haven't found any (admittedly my google-fu can be weak though) so I figured I'd ask here if anyone has the fig and, if so, how was it sculpted/cast/preassembled. Also, has anyone tried to detach preassembled parts and, if so, how did you successfully do it or unsuccessfully fail with a particular method. Thanks in advance!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/04/11 20:44:35


Post by: Gallahad


I'm 95% certain that varamyr's legs are molded with the bear body but I can check tonight.

That being said, a I've done a ton of conversions with ASOIAF miniatures. I find them very easy to work with.

They are cast in two types of plastic: ABS for the weapons, shields and some arms. And PVC for everything else.

The ABS parts are generally glued with super glue to PVC parts. They can be snipped off or you can leave the minis in the freezer and the glue becomes brittle and sometimes the ABS parts can just be broken off at the joins.

Once the ABS parts are removed I use a heat gun to heat up the PVC at which point it becomes very easy to cut and even can be slightly reposed.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/04/11 21:43:15


Post by: warboss


Thanks. I appreciate the info and you looking to see how the mini is assembled. Varamyr is definitely a great stand-in for an RPG druid.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/04/19 17:03:31


Post by: Theophony


New pics have popped up on facebook showing the next releases.

House Bolton is getting a starter set with new models including some great looking archers. Dice are pink and red. Hopefully they get the Stormcrow treatment where they get their own unit cards, but still get Neutrals. Supposedly the models in the starter box are not the current models, possibly redone cutthroats.

Also Martell Heroes box #2 previewed.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/05/05 04:02:07


Post by: Gurkhal


I don't have a Facebook account any longer but the idea of a House Bolton starter set and all sounds very good.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/06/19 00:44:36


Post by: nels1031


Got the Targaryen Starter set headed my way, for delivery tomorrow!

Does the plastic of these figures work well with GW Primer/Contrast?

Will I need anything else to play? Anything that I might be in danger of buying that could be outdated?

I joined a couple ASOIAF facebook groups, but I’d love some recommendations on other websites.



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/06/24 14:37:35


Post by: Gurkhal


 nels1031 wrote:
Got the Targaryen Starter set headed my way, for delivery tomorrow!

Does the plastic of these figures work well with GW Primer/Contrast?

Will I need anything else to play? Anything that I might be in danger of buying that could be outdated?

I joined a couple ASOIAF facebook groups, but I’d love some recommendations on other websites.



Take what I say with a grain of salt as I've yet to start playing this game as I'm recovering from an accident. And that recovering is sloooooow...

But from what I know you only need an opponent with an army to start playing. Everything else from measure stuff, to cards, to die and so on should be in the starter set.

One thing that might be useful is the app "War Council". To my understanding the rules as seen on the cards for the units are not to seldom updated and that update is found in said app which allows the current rule set to be used with the models that you have bought. Hence you can almost count on that the physical cards you get with the models to be outdated, but you can without cost get the current rules from the app.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/06/25 00:30:09


Post by: brumbaer


The plastic takes contrast well.



In the starter box, you've got all material you need to play, but ...

the cards will be outdated, the update packs currently in stores are also outdated, so do not buy them. The current version is 2021-S02 the newest one in the stores is 2021-S01.

The current revision of cards can be downloaded from the cmon website. Print them and put them in card sleeves, use the original cards for backing.
During play you must have only the Tactic Cards and probably mission/objective cards (m/o cards should be ok, if you have a box with a rule book marked 2021).

You do not need the unit cards to play. They are only for convenience. The War Council App is always up to date and has a good army builder. You can print the army list from within the app and the printout will have all information, you would find on the unit cards.

Have fun.

PS.
There are some battle reports on youtube. You should restrict yourself to the last 3 month or so, so that they use 2021-S02 rules.
They are a bit boring, especially if you are not familiar with the game. After a while they may grow on you and you will learn what parts to skip.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/07/01 08:41:00


Post by: Pacific


Those look good Brumbaer. I can attest to using contrast/speed paints too, they work fine.
Actually if you scroll back through this thread a few pages there are some great examples and recipes by a few of the posters.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/07/05 16:51:33


Post by: nels1031


Thanks dudes!

I didn't get my scheduled game in last week, too much family stuff happening for the July 4th week/weekend.

I have gotten a few Dothraki painted up, as well as some Neutral Heroes Box 1 and Lannister Heroes box 1 mostly painted up.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/08/24 16:56:00


Post by: Pacific


Have finally finished a unit off for this game! A Stark Sworn Swords unit. Many thanks to Cyel earlier on in this thread for the Contrast Paints recipe - the tabards, wood and skin are contrast, while I've used conventional paints for the metals and leathers.

Next up - something else from the 100 or so minis left over in the starter box, hopefully it will take a bit less time to get to than these (2 years!)






A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/09/17 12:15:38


Post by: Pacific


I see I have managed to get another unit completed in less than a month after my last unit post, which isn't bad for my usual glacial painting speed! This is just a unit of Lannister Guardsmen. I've tried to use a few more brighter and bolder colours compared to the Starks, and also a lighter base with less mud and more brighter/spring colours. Next up a Stark Unit, have to see what else there is amongst the rest of the box set



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/10/24 03:12:12


Post by: frankelee


My Bolton starter set arrived in the mail a few days ago, which got me to thinking, now that it's out the announcement for the next faction to be released could be only 2 to 6 months away!

I feel like the biggest missing actual faction would be House Arryn. I saw some talk about Tyrell, or even more neutral forces like the Golden Company or Brave Companions, as they've already got quite a few units, and even the suggestion they could throw those existing units in the box like they did with Stark/Lannister/Bolton. That sounds like a real problem to me though, as it's one thing to redo the Kickstarter miniatures (some of which had their problems) and sell those in new starters, it's another thing to package up existing models people already own and try to sell them again. I don't think CMON's quite that brazen.

Though you could give those forces three brand new units. I'm still skeptical that they'd do any more mercenary forces though, I feel like Bolton has appeal because they're the Boltons, I don't know that the Brave Companions are going to inspire that kind of purchasing.

Anyways, anybody else have guesses about what they'll do next? Seems like the game remains selling decently, so I'm assuming we'll keep getting product.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/10/24 12:14:23


Post by: warboss


 frankelee wrote:
My Bolton starter set arrived in the mail a few days ago, which got me to thinking,


That it's flaying time? Congrats on the pickup. I hope to someday get (when I think I'll actually paint them up!) some freefolk kits for general fantasy use.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/07 15:05:49


Post by: warboss


How viable are non-massed infantry builds in this game? Is the answer faction dependent? I've been looking at free folk on and off for years and all the units I'm interested in are big models like giants, elephants, skinchangers, and bear riders for example. I'd be buying them for the models specifically but I'm curious if I'd have a competent army when, from what I've read, the free folk are known as the low cost horde faction.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/07 18:26:05


Post by: brumbaer


Typical game size is 40 points.
There are two "standard" kinds of builds. One uses 3 giants as core and adds Mammut(s) or Varamyr and his zoo or even another giant or whatever unit you fancy.
The other uses lots of activations of cheap infantry with a sprinkle of quality. May be a single giant or Bear Riders. Often Varamyr and his zoo are added to the mix.
There are also lists without the quality but even more activations.
Those two kinds play completely different and need you to implement different tactics.
There are other ways to built an army, but those are the most common.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/08 13:28:49


Post by: warboss


brumbaer wrote:
Typical game size is 40 points.
There are two "standard" kinds of builds. One uses 3 giants as core and adds Mammut(s) or Varamyr and his zoo or even another giant or whatever unit you fancy.
The other uses lots of activations of cheap infantry with a sprinkle of quality. May be a single giant or Bear Riders. Often Varamyr and his zoo are added to the mix.
There are also lists without the quality but even more activations.
Those two kinds play completely different and need you to implement different tactics.
There are other ways to built an army, but those are the most common.


Thanks. Yeah, that giants/mammoth list with Varamyr is similar to what I was going for as I'd be buying the models that I like rather than the units that are useful but at the same time I don't want to screw myself over. I've traditionally heard that free folk are the out activate your opponent horde army and this would be kind of the opposite in that regard.

The more recent videos though talk of major changes in the past year (and prior videos talk of previous years' changes as well). Are you basically guaranteed to NOT get current rules out of the box if you buy figs? I know the game has been around for five years but it seems like they're going at the very least in a yearly update AOS type of schedule and lots of rules have changed (at least for the free folk that I've been purposefully looking at). Raiders (which admittedly I'm not focusing on) losing insignificant, other units frequently losing half their special rules (whether for better or worse), etc. It seems like the cards are all outdated. Is tourny play that strong of a focus for the game? I know there is a free online app but the idea of getting significantly outdated rules (as opposed to minor FAQ/errata clarifications) right out of the box is a turnoff for me. The free online app/builder helps but my point still stands.

On a more positive note, I see that more units are on the horizon including some more giants. I think these are my favorite sculpts for the giants so far.



And apparently they recently announced a skirmish game coming next year to crowdfunding as well

https://cmon.com/news/cmon-revisits-westeros-in-a-song-of-ice-fire-tactics


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/08 14:22:54


Post by: brumbaer


Most people play 7 activations regardless of faction.

3 Giants and Varamyr plus zoo gives you 9 Activations.

You can consider the cards in the boxes to be outdated. Even the upgrade packs will often be.

It's a pain, but at least the cards can be downloaded for self-printing.
The only Cards you really need are tactics, objective and mission cards. Objective and mission cards haven't changed for ages and the one in the starter box are still valid. Anyway all three card types can be downloaded from the cmon website as pdfs and you can print them out and be done.
The same is true for unit cards, but often there are only the cards available that changed since the last revision. But all the text on those cards can be found on the print out from within the WarCouncil of your armylist.
And you might find pdfs of all current cards somewhere on the web.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/08 15:01:34


Post by: warboss


Thanks. I'm surprised they still offer the outdated cards for sale instead of prepping ahead of time to have the new ones in stock including buying back the unsold old ones from stores for credit. I don't want to sound too miserly but it was a bit of a let down watching back to back videos and seeing completely different takes/stats on the same unit frequently.

Regardless, I'm glad there is a viable big guy build. I'm not sure what Varamyr plus zoo exactly is (I assume it's when you add his two animal bases that the fig comes with). I was a bit surprised that I didn't see any cavalry heroes/attachments to add to the bear riders. At first I thought you might be able to add Varamyr himself but he only seems to be listed as a solo and I have zero idea how survivable those types of units are since I've been looking at the models instead of the base rules first.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/08 17:43:50


Post by: brumbaer


If Varamyr ist your commander, you have to choose shadowcat and the wolves. In a Giant list, you would choose Mag as commander and if you add Varamyr you can do so with none, one or both of them. They are no big fighters. There main role is to add activations and being a deterrent. Preventing a giant from being charged or enemy unit to move where they would be a danger or at least a nuisance. For starters, you would get the starter box and Heroes 2 (Mag the Mighty and WunWun). The starter box will give you everything you need to play and the Hero Box will allow you to play a Giant list. You can use 4 giants or three plus some units from the starter to get a feel for the game. Once you're comfortable and have some experience you will realise how Varamyr could add to your game. Or add Mammuts if you fancy them.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/08 18:18:49


Post by: warboss


Thanks. Stupid question... if you part on a spot on the tactics board with an NCU, do you keep getting that benefit every round? I'd assume from the rules it only applies when you move to a new unoccupied spot but figured I'd ask.

Also, do CMON ASOIAF figs have any primer restrictions/requirements like the old Reaper Bones figs had? I know that's sometimes the case with PVC types of plastics.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/09 18:25:35


Post by: brumbaer


Regarding Primer:
I've never heard about any problems. I use GW Primer and for Movement Trays some spray from a local DIY.

Regarding NCUs
I'm not sure what you are talking about.
When a NCU claims a zone he will stay at it until the end of round. At the end of round he will be removed from the tactics board.
There are also one or two characters that can move a NCU to a different zone, but I'm not aware of any way to remove a NCU from the tactics board at a time other than end of round.

What benefit are you taking about ? Influences ? If so, the influence ends at the end of round.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/09 19:04:41


Post by: warboss


brumbaer wrote:
Regarding Primer:
I've never heard about any problems. I use GW Primer and for Movement Trays some spray from a local DIY.

Regarding NCUs
I'm not sure what you are talking about.
When a NCU claims a zone he will stay at it until the end of round. At the end of round he will be removed from the tactics board.
There are also one or two characters that can move a NCU to a different zone, but I'm not aware of any way to remove a NCU from the tactics board at a time other than end of round.

What benefit are you taking about ? Influences ? If so, the influence ends at the end of round.


Thanks. The part about removing them from the tactics board wasn't in the tactics board part of the rulebook when I did a quick lookup and I noticed it in the cleanup section after posting. I'm glad the primer works well on the figs as I always worry potentially with board game plastic style figs.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/09 23:17:17


Post by: brumbaer


I started in April this year (2023). Began with Nights Watch, now playing Free Folk most of the time, but tried myself at a Neutral army lately.

That's what I painted since April.



Looks more impressive from higher up probably.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/10 04:16:01


Post by: warboss


Very impressive especially given that they're painted too! For what it's worth, i think the first more frontal view makes the greater effect.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/27 13:07:17


Post by: Gurkhal


I will admit that I was pretty eager for this game but now when Old World seems to come out soon I don't know which way to swing when I get back to work from my sick leave.

I suppose that time will tell.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/27 13:16:19


Post by: AllSeeingSkink


Gurkhal wrote:
I will admit that I was pretty eager for this game but now when Old World seems to come out soon I don't know which way to swing when I get back to work from my sick leave.

I suppose that time will tell.


Warhammer Fantasy is the game that got me into wargaming back in the mid 90's, but I haven't been able to get excited for it. Warhammer was a good game back then, but I think it needs some modernising to make it less complex and more streamlined, and it doesn't look like it's going that way.

If I were going to play any rank and file game a month from now, it'd probably be either ASOIAF or KOW rather than Old World.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2023/12/27 14:05:36


Post by: Pacific


Brumbaer I will just say that it honestly the most impressive single collection of miniatures I have seen for this game..

I am not sure how many players will leave ASOIAF for Old World - I think even though both games are rank and file, they give such a different experience (I am assuming, based on previous WHFB games, I haven't kept up with the Old World news and which version they are basing the new edition on). And ASOIAF has such a good tournament community going for it.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/14 13:48:57


Post by: warboss


Hope everyone is doing well in the new year! I started a new rpg campaign as a player recently and that always gets me looking at figs (even nonsensically for virtual online play!) and I discover more and more from this line each time I do. They really do knock it out of the park for human minis in terms of their sculpts in terms of variety and styles that still look cohesive together as well as realistically proportioned.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/15 09:44:21


Post by: Pacific


Yes happy new hobby year guys!

A lot of ASOIAF in my hobby plans, hope to get two playable forces (Lannister and Stark) on the tabletop for this year.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/16 00:18:07


Post by: warboss


Looking forward to seeing them posted! I just bought my first ASOIAF figs this weekend but, in my case, a couple of singles for RPG purposes... or at least that's what I'm telling myself/using to justify the purchase despite only playing online now for years! It'll be interesting to see how they'll stack up next to my D&D minis. I'm guessing they'll probably dwarf the old true 25-28mm figs D&D prepainted minis I have but would probably fit in well with current AOS.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/25 03:28:23


Post by: Gurkhal


My normal provider for hobby items had a sale with the Greyjoy starter going for a 50% reduction in price during this month, and so I struck.

Plan is to use this and my Baratheon starter set to play some games with myself to learn the rules and see if I like this game. If I do like it and I've learned the rules, I can start to have my friends come over and play some games. From there we'll be able to see if there's an interest in playing and investing more into this.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/25 05:30:14


Post by: warboss


The Victarion model from the Greyjoy starter is quite nice!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/26 02:49:32


Post by: Gurkhal


 warboss wrote:
The Victarion model from the Greyjoy starter is quite nice!


Yes.

My own favorite faction from the books are the Lannisters so if I decide to get deeper into the game I hope I'll pick up the Lannisters and make them one of the armies that I expand to a large degree. On the condition that I like their playstyle. If I don't like their playstyle I'll have to look at some other faction.

All that I know is that Stark, Baratheon (Stannis) and perhaps Targaryen would be taken by other prospective players due to fandom reasons.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/26 17:47:41


Post by: Theophony


Just a heads up that Season 4.0 is coming out on Monday. I hope they tweak Greyjoy some more. I lost all interest after the last Update to the rules. I'll be printing out new cards next week when they release the update online.

https://asoiaf.cmon.com/news/season-4-coming-in-1-week

I did pick up the Umber Ravagers last Saturday. Still looking at the Bolton Faction too.





A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/26 17:52:26


Post by: warboss


As a fan of the chonky zorse rider and Belwas, I approve of big boy barbarians on horses! Arya looks like a nice fig as well for a waif type kid in an RPG.


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/29 18:01:18


Post by: warboss


Update is apparently out. I only follow the game for the minis so can't comment on the rules personally.




https://asoiaf.cmon.com/news/season-4-changelog



A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/01/30 04:36:21


Post by: Gallahad


Update is good. Stark, Targaryen and Baratheon all got a nice and deserved polishing up. NW and Lannisters got nerfed (deservedly).

Almost everyone but NW players who are sad they won't be playing on easy mode anymore are happy.

My little gaming group is stoked to get regular games going again.

Excellent update for an excellent game!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/02/19 07:47:27


Post by: Pacific


Getting back to painting some ASOIAF stuff from the starter set and finished off these Stark Outriders. Actually quite nice painting something grounded in reality (horses!) and had to actually do some research about what colours they are, as I realised I had no idea!



Can anyone recommend a good ranged attack unit for Starks/Lannisters and also a mounted unit for Lannisters that would be fun to paint?


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/02/19 14:23:02


Post by: Gallahad


 Pacific wrote:
Getting back to painting some ASOIAF stuff from the starter set and finished off these Stark Outriders. Actually quite nice painting something grounded in reality (horses!) and had to actually do some research about what colours they are, as I realised I had no idea!



Can anyone recommend a good ranged attack unit for Starks/Lannisters and also a mounted unit for Lannisters that would be fun to paint?


Hey Pacific, nice painting on those Outriders!

For Stark Cavalry I highly recommend the Tully Cavaliers. They are beautiful models and one of the best cavalry units in the game right now. Stark ranged unit that would be fun to paint...the bowmen are pretty basic historical models if that is what you are into, but I don't see them in many lists these days. The Crannogmen Trappers have nice but limited sculpts, so they would probably be my recommendation.

For Lannisters the Knights of Casterly Rock are a great unit and I found them fun to paint, but you might enjoy the Clegane Butchers more for painting if you are enjoying lots of horse flesh. Both are good cav units.

All the Lannister ranged units are pretty boring sculpt wise imo. The Crossbowmen are great in game, but just very basic historical sculpts. Not sure what you find enjoyable! They do paint up fast though which I enjoyed.

Some neutral ranged units whose sculpts I really like are the Stormcrow Archers and Golden Company Crossbowmen.

Look forward to seeing what you paint!


A song of ice and fire - anyone playing?  @ 2024/02/19 14:38:38


Post by: warboss


 Gallahad wrote:
 Pacific wrote:
Getting back to painting some ASOIAF stuff from the starter set and finished off these Stark Outriders. Actually quite nice painting something grounded in reality (horses!) and had to actually do some research about what colours they are, as I realised I had no idea!

Spoiler:


Can anyone recommend a good ranged attack unit for Starks/Lannisters and also a mounted unit for Lannisters that would be fun to paint?


Hey Warboss, nice painting on those Outriders!


Lol, not me in this thread! I wish I had painted those like Pacific did! Nice job on the painting. Is the shield wolf detail embossed or is it a decal? Do you use the same basing technique for the whole army? It looks good as well.