Part 2

Blog of the underappreciated models part 2

After the success of part one, I have created a poll to ask you which unit or attachment (NCU’s are units as well) do you think is not good in your humble opinion.

The poll results made this a Lannister episode: The hound, the mad dog, and the boy king. Sounds like a song out of the books but it isn’t. Now technically the Nights Watch Captain was number 3 and not Lord Tywin’s mad Dog, but I’m going to move him to part 3 in order to Make this a Lannister only entry.

One last thing. In case it wasn’t clear, you can play any combination of unit with commander and attachment that you like. I’m not going over every possible combination and also tell you that you are wrong or dumb to use a certain combination. This is more about “I can’t seem to do anything with this model, I’m not using it anymore, it sucks!” “Well have you tried this?” approach.

 So if you have a combo that works, feel free to comment on this but this is more for the people who don’t want to use the model at all.

Let’s get started!

The Hound

First up is Sandor Clegane the Hound.

I’m not going to type the abilities anymore because you can read them unless I have to go into detail on a certain part. The first ability gives you a +1 to hit and Vicious in exchange for D3 Wounds. Is this a good trade people often ask? Well yes it is. Don’t look at how many extra models it makes your opponent lose compared to you. You should look at the ranks that he loses, because this will be the only factor in how many attack dice they will roll on their turn. There are 2 popular options in form of units for this fellow: The Halberdiers and the Warrior’s sons.

Let’s take a look at them both.

My personal preference goes to the Halberdiers. Here is the reason for it. Sandor kills your own men, they don’t lose attacks until you have lost 8 men. By the time you are losing dice you should have healed them with either fealty to the crown or by the [Wealth Zone]. The second reason why I like them more is because of the order Set for charge can be combined with The hound’s Fury. This was even before the new FAQ. So the enemy charges you in the front, you get 7 attacks hitting on 4-3+ with Sundering and Vicious. That is going to hurt! The third part why I like them over the Warrior’s sons, is that they cost 2 points less than the Warrior’s Sons. And with an army that has no free direwolves or cheap units except the mountain that rides, you want to keep the cost of infantry below the 10 points at all costs in games up to 40 points. By all means, if you play with your friends at the 50-80 point level, go nuts!

For the next part of his card we cannot talk about him without the tactics cards of his big brother.

 

With The Fury of the mountain, you can have 7 attack dice hitting on 3+ (reroll able if you charged), Sundering, Vicious with 5+ critical blow. This will decimate a lot of your opponents and will do more damage than whatever unit the mountain is in or the mountains men. Little tip: don’t use that card on the mountains men if you don’t have to, they already have critical blow, +1 to its effect is nice but it is better to give a unit that doesn’t have critical blow one on a 5+.

Orders to destroy is handy because in the middle of the game your opponent most likely will forget that this card is in there. Especially forgetting that your Halberdiers can charge because of this card and not just attack. 9 attack dice, hopefully rerolling, hitting on a 3+ with vicious and Sundering almost any Stark unit will hurt because of this so much that they have to heal in order to do any damage ever again. So do make sure that you use that zone before he knows what is happening. Even if you don’t need to heal, that is why this card is so deadly.

Overrun is so handy because if you play the Mountain, you are probably going to be outnumbered at this point of the current available models. You cannot have the Mountain that rides with you and so the cheapest unit you have cost 5 points and don’t fit much in a Clegane list. You are probably going to have a lot of 7-10 point units in there. With this card you can have an extra activation of sorts to destroy the enemy and pin then down. You already have the combat abilities to kill them and here is the twist. “Before rolling dice, this unit’s Melee Attack gains +1 to hit and Vicious. If it does, after this attack has been completed it suffers D3 Wounds.” The underlined part is exactly as the Hold the Line order of Brynden Tully. It has been FAQ’ed that the order lasts for the duration of the turn. So in that regard you can assume that The Hounds Fury also lasts for the turn. And you only suffer the D3 once. Seems like a very good trade off don’t you think?

Gregor Clegane, Lord Tywin’s mad Dog.

Now let’s talk about his Big Mean brother, Gregor Clegane.

-“OMG he is 3 points and you don’t get a direwolf with him!!! Also, I can’t use the Mountain that Rides either!!”

All is true but there are some good things he can do in a Lannister list. First of all, he increases you Combat potential.

-“But Lannisters are not good at combat and should focus more on fear based tactics!”

No not really. If you think that Lannisters are not good at combat, you never looked at the Knights of Casterly Rock or The Mountains Men have you? With his Inhuman Strength he gives your unit 2 additional dice ALWAYS and on ALL ranks! Not to mention they get Sundering as well.

-“But his uncontrolled Rage! My opponent can provoke a charge from me and I have to make that!”

True but not completely. You can only declare a charge you within range and within line of sight. If your opponent is within 11” of you, take a look if you have a NCU available and if the [Manoeuver Zone] is still vacant. If it is, claim it. Now you manoeuver 5” towards him and then you are at 6” away from him which you always make. If you think your opponent will not fall for this, then you have to make some weird changes. Block your line of sight by sending other troops in front of Gregor so he can’t see any enemies. When he is in charging range, shift the unit and prepare for the assault. If you don’t have enough units to spare (which is a possibility), then use another facing for the end of turn 2. With this technique you must be the first player at the beginning of the game. In this manner, you move your unit closer at the last activation so you are within charging distance and be able to make it as your first activation on round 3. If you are not the first player in round 1, then keep an eye out for the [manoeuver Zone] or activate him as soon as you can. Make sure you use Pycelle to Weaken any enemy that comes close to Gregor. And try to zap them as well with the [Crown Zone] in order to make them easier to destroy or weaken them enough that they won’t do as much damage to Gregor’s unit.

What is a perfect benefit of having a negative ability on him? Well, nobody is going to zap his powers from him anytime soon. Not by an objective or other means so you will keep your sundering and 2 additional dice for as long as you want. 

Now, which unit do you put him in? I see only 1 that is worth the 3 additional points (at this moment in time that is)

Off course, they are named after him for a reason. 10/8/6 3+ to hit, 4+ def, 7+ moral, Critical Blow, Vicious and Sundering. With those abilities and dice, not much will live after being assaulted by this unit. Not to mention that there are some commander tactic cards that will make sure you wipe out a complete unit. With Cersi influencing the enemy and then attacking them, with a minus 4 to their morale, what can survive this? Even units like the Flayed men might not take this punishment unharmed. With Hear me Roar and Fealty to the crown, this unit will heal and do more damage each time you kill at least one of the enemies models. And I’m going to assume you are going to kill more than 1. Also, try to get a vulnerable condition token on your victims as well. Pycelle excels at this by claiming the [Tactics Zone], Starks most likely want to get rid of the Weakened token then a Vulnerable Token.

Now, about which commander do I speak of? Well, this guy:

Joffrey Baratheon

I’m going to talk about him first and then I’m going to resume talking about Gregor in this guy’s army.

Let’s take a look at Joffrey’s Attachment card.

Jesus, why would you ever play with this guy? …… A special Bodyguard unit, you say?

For 6 points, this is a great unit.

-“But I can’t heal them! EVER!”

True, but you don’t lose any attacks with them either. Grant, you want to heal units but with their moral and Defence save and the fact that they don’t take penalties to Morale and never become panicked, you can say that they won’t die easily. Do be careful of any Sundering units that try to flank you or units that have attacks that never let you use Defence saves. This includes special abilities like traps. Do remember that they are fast for 3+ save unit. Keep them away from serious combat until you have weakened your opponents enough or already engaged them with another unit. If this unit ever has to make a Panic Test, they cannot lose more than 2 Wounds. That by itself is extremely powerful and some armies won’t be able to function near Joffrey’s unit.

Not to mention that this unit has a special card as well.

Giving them a free maneuver in order to make a unsuspected charge, or get them the hell out of a certain combat is very good. Not to mention that the other abilities make sure you put enough damage into your opponents that they are too weak to fight back. This one time Swiss army knife is handy to find your opponent’s weak spot and get you advantage out of it. Bad morale? Vicious and panicked. Okay Defence save? Critical blow and Sundering. A good fighting unit with a good save but you are waiting for a unit of Knights or The mountain’s Men to flank them (with Gregor)? Make them vulnerable and weakened so they won’t be able to kill you when they attack and then get decimated in the flank.

Now, let’s take a look at his Tactics Cards.

 

“You Will Obey Me!” Is a good one to use for Gregor and his men. Yes he will be Weakened but 12 dice hitting on 2+, reroll able by the charge, 6’s will be 2 hits, Sundering, Vicious. It is not unlikely to have 14 hits with this attack. This means on average you just killed a unit of Berserkers. Believe me, that will hurt a Stark Player. Even if they use Last Stand on you, this is something that they won’t see coming as often as you might think.

“Traitors! I Will Have Their Heads!” This one is very powerful because you can make a unit Panicked and then target a completely different unit with the panic Test. You might want to set up a Panicked unit that you are going to attack with Gregor or another Vicious unit and then target a completely other unit that is annoying you. Best part is, this is not your activation. This is a free thing. So after this is done, you can now charge that unit, make them do another test by claiming the [ Crown Zone] or heal a unit etc. This is handy if you need to prepare your battlefield positioning but want to do some damage at the same time. If your opponent is trying to lure your Gregor Clegane unit with a heavily damaged unit, this might even kill them before you have to try and charge them.

“I Am The King!” This card will keep your precious kings guard unit alive and well. You can play this AFTER you have rolled your defence dice. Meaning, you can see if you need to intervene or not. Remember, Losing 2 or 3 Kings Guard is no reason to panic. This also means that you can play Wealth of the rock first to help block some of those hits, and then see that you still have to many wounds. Or in case of the “Don’t allow Defense saves” you can still block those wounds. Even if you didn’t roll those dice, you can still use the trigger.

Now we all know that an unit becomes panicked after these cards and some become weakened and vulnerable. You do realise that Joffrey’s unit cannot get Panicked and you have got 1 point attachments that kill a model if you do not make a panic test in order to make it? Other tokens like weakened might be annoying but this all depends on what unit gets which token. Weakened Guardsmen will not affect you that much as weakened mountain’s men. And even so, 3+ to hit is no joke even if you have to reroll successes.

Let me know in the comments what you guys think and if you agree or disagree with my writing.

Also, the watch captain will be featured in the next blog but what will the others be? Let me know who do you want. This can be NCU’s and actual combat units as well!