Hail bannermen!

In this Season 7 Summer Update we want to take a moment to share the latest balance changes coming to A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game.

The development team has been taking a close look at the current state of the game, with a particular focus on competitive balance, tournament health, and making sure that skillful play and meaningful decisions remain at the heart of A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game.

This is a deep strategic game with years of releases, metas, rulings, and community experience behind it. Rather than rushing changes before we fully understand their impact, we have spent the past month working closely with the Bannermen program; players who run events, compete at the highest levels, and have extensive experience seeing these units and abilities perform on the table.

This update is primarily a balance pass. Our goal is to address units and abilities that were taking games away from the opposing player while, wherever possible, removing excessive layers from cards rather than simply increasing their points cost.

There is one card that gets stronger in this update. Almost every other change makes an ability more focused or gives opponents more ways to interact with it, rather than simply making the unit weaker.

How to read this update

For each change, we’ll explain three things:

The problem: What we identified as an issue with the card as printed.

The change: The card text and rules as they will be published, removing ambiguity about how they work on the table.

Moving forward: The reasoning behind the change and, where appropriate, what we will be watching moving forward.

Some changes may not be the final word on a particular unit. For example, Giants have been the subject of a larger redesign discussion within the community. The changes in this update address one part of that problem, while a larger redesign remains something we can revisit in a future update if necessary.

Effective Date

All changes in this update are effective September 15, 2026.

Updated card files will be available on the CMON website and in War Council.

Summary of changes

Baratheon

R’hllor Lightbringers

R’hllor’s Fire and Light of the Lord are reworked, Dying Light is removed, and the ranged profile becomes 7/6/5.

R’hllor Lightbringers. 6 points. Speed 5. Loyalty: Stannis Baratheon.

R’hllor’s Fire: Ranged, Long Range, 3+, 7/6/5. Daggers: Melee, 5+, 5/4/3. Defence 4+. Morale 6+.

R’HLLOR’S FIRE: Vicious. If the Defender fails their Panic Test, they suffer +1 Wound for each enemy R’hllor unit in Short Range, to a maximum of +2.

LIGHT OF THE LORD: After completing this Attack, you may target 1 other friendly R’hllor unit in Short Range. They restore 1 Wound.

Dying Light is removed.

The problem: For 6 points the unit did three strong things at once. The panic bonus counted every R’hllor unit in Long Range of the target with no cap, the heal was 2 Wounds and could target the Lightbringers themselves, and a kill put Vulnerable on every enemy in Long Range. Each piece is fine on its own. Together they made the unit the best long-range option in the game by a margin that decided games on its own.

The update takes the layers off rather than repricing. The panic bonus now counts only R’hllor units in Short Range of the target, capped at 2, so bunching your army up around a target is a real cost the opponent can play around. The heal drops to 1 Wound, reaches only Short Range, and can no longer target the Lightbringers themselves. The Vulnerable splash goes entirely. I believe that is the piece Baratheon players will miss least.

The profile moves from 7/7/4 to 7/6/5. The unit loses a die at the second rank and gains one at the third. With True Conviction, the unit at two ranks was throwing 7 dice with re-rolls as if nothing had happened, so the opponent had to deal 9 Wounds in one go before its shooting was reduced at all. Now every rank lost costs something, which gives the opponent a reason to chip at the unit, and the last rank is less of a cliff.

Moving forward: If the unit is still oppressive after this, the next look is at Davos and True Conviction, not the dice. The profile has moved once and will not move again without reports behind it.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card. Cost unchanged.

Thorn Watch

Overwatch is removed. Unyielding is added. Points and profile are unchanged.

Thorn Watch. 7 points. Speed 6. Loyalty: Renly Baratheon.

Highgarden Crossbow: Ranged, Long Range, 3+, 7/7/4. Longsword: Melee, 4+, 7/6/4. Defence 5+. Morale 6+.

ORDER: OVERWATCH: removed.

HIGHGARDEN CROSSBOW: Precision. Sundering. (unchanged)

SKIRMISHER: unchanged.

UNYIELDING: This unit suffers -1 Wound from failing Panic Tests for each of its destroyed ranks. (added)

The problem: The unit played during the opponent’s activation. Overwatch turned every enemy March or Maneuver in Long Range into a decision about a 7/7/4 Precision Sundering shot. At 7 points with that profile it did not need a reaction to be worth taking.

Without Overwatch the unit sits next to Golden Company Crossbowmen and comes up a little short, so it gets something back. Unyielding is a small defensive keyword: it helps the unit stay on the table as it takes damage, and it does not put control back on a card I just took control off. The price stays 7.

Moving forward: Unyielding is the ability that keeps Thorn Watch worth 7 points without a reaction. If that proves untrue, we look further into it.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card. Points unchanged.

Cressen

Cressen costs 5 points.

Cressen, Maester at Dragonstone. 5 points. Ability text unchanged.

Too much for 4. At 5 he plays the same and the NCU lineup becomes a real choice again, which is what a cost update is supposed to do.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Kingsguard

Kingsguard hit on 3+, have Morale 5+, lose Disrupt and gain Precision. Points, Defence and everything else are unchanged.

Kingsguard. 6 points. Speed 5.

Masterwork Blade: Melee, 3+, 7/7. Defence 3+. Morale 5+.

KINGSGUARD: unchanged (8 models including Joffrey, 2 ranks, 2 Wounds per model, maximum 2 Wounds per failed Panic Test, Baratheon Banners on Crown).

COUNTERSTRIKE: unchanged.

PRECISION: added.

DISRUPT: removed.

CHARACTER: unchanged.

The problem: Stacked layers. 2+ to hit, 3+ armour, Disrupt, 4+ Morale, Counterstrike and 16 Wounds at 6 points. Raising the price changes the list around the unit, not the unit, so that was not the answer.

Moving forward: The update removes layers. One offensive (2+) and two defensive (Disrupt, 4+ Morale). It keeps 6 points so Joffrey stays a real commander choice, and 3+ armour because these are not poorly equipped men. Disrupt is the layer that made the unit impossible to trade into, which is why it goes and Counterstrike stays. Precision comes in so the unit keeps a way through heavy armour now that it hits on 3+.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card.

Cersei Lannister

Cersei costs 5 points.

Cersei Lannister, Queen Regent. 5 points. Ability text unchanged.

The problem: Two separate denials off one 4-point Influence. She cut a unit off from Orders and Tactics cards, and holding Crown or Wealth stripped the attachment on top.

Being in every Lannister list is not the problem in itself. It is a problem only if she is too powerful for what she costs.

Moving forward: 5 is where she sits for this update. If 5 turns out not to match her power level, one of two things happens in the next update: her ability is adjusted so she does less and maybe we decrease her cost, or her cost goes up again. Which one depends on what the reports say she is actually winning games with.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Stark

House Mormont She-Bears

Resolute Strikes is capped at two effects instead of one per Condition token.

House Mormont She-Bears. 6 points. Speed 5.

Resolute Strikes: Melee, 3+, 7/5/4. Defence 4+. Morale 6+.

ORDER: SHE-BEAR’S FURY: unchanged.

RESOLUTE STRIKES: Critical Blow. Before rolling Attack Dice, target 1 friendly unit in Long Range. It restores 1 Wound or removes 1 Condition token. If the Defender has more than 1 Condition token, you may choose to do both or repeat one.

The problem: The unit makes the tokens that scale its own healing. She-Bear’s Fury puts Panicked and Vulnerable on a target, and Resolute Strikes repeated once for every token on it. Two tokens was three heals, a third token from anywhere else made it four, and none of it cost anything.

The cap removes the scaling, which was the point, without touching what the unit does. The ceiling is two heals or cleanses, not one per token. The Stark roster deserves its own pass, and that is the next update, not this one.

Moving forward: I do not like nerfing a faction that is not too powerful, and Stark is not. That is why the Stark roster and attachments are at the top of the buff list for the next update. If those buffs land and the She-Bears then prove stronger than they should be, they get looked at again, but only once Stark as a whole is on the stronger side of the table.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card.

Targaryen

Brazen Beasts

Motley Armaments hit on 4+ instead of 3+. Profile and abilities are unchanged.

Brazen Beasts. 5 points. Speed 6.

Motley Armaments: Melee, 4+, 7/6/4. Defence 5+. Morale 6+.

ORDER: SENTINEL: unchanged. MOTLEY ARMAMENTS: unchanged.

The problem: Season 7 buffed both the to-hit and the profile, and the unit pushed the other Targaryen 5-point options off the table.

Moving forward: Reverting the profile to 6/5/4 on 3+ leaves the bottom rank with too few dice, and a 5-point unit hitting on 3+ was the problem in the first place. The abilities are the interactive part and the reason to take them, so they stay.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card.

Greyjoy

Stony Shore Pillagers

Abundant Promises restores 1 Wound for the first Pillage token and 2 for the second, instead of 2 for every token.

Stony Shore Pillagers. 5 points. Speed 5.

Polespear: Melee, 4+, 7/5/4. Defence 4+. Morale 6+.

ORDER: SCAVENGE: unchanged.

ABUNDANT PROMISES: Precision. After completing a Melee Attack, remove any number of Pillage tokens from this unit. This unit restores 1 Wound for the first token removed and 2 Wounds for the second.

The problem: Attacking them was what paid for their healing. Scavenge hands them a token when an enemy attacks, and Abundant Promises turned every token into 2 Wounds, so there was no line of play that did not feed it.

Moving forward: Healing is its theme and it stays. It just stops outpacing the damage. Armour stays 4+: the heal made them oppressive, the armour makes them playable, and dropping it would take out Greyjoy archetypes that are not the problem.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card.

Martell

Sand Skirmishers

Skirmisher’s Bow hits on 3+. Everything else stays as Season 7 printed it.

Sand Skirmishers. 7 points. Speed 6.

Skirmisher’s Bow: Ranged, Short Range, 3+, 7/5/4. Skirmisher’s Blade: Melee, 3+, 7/5/4. Defence 5+. Morale 6+.

ORDER: QUICK FIRE, SKIRMISHER and PATHFINDER unchanged.

The problem: The unit was nerfed three ways in Season 7 (profile, Scout Opening removed, Skirmisher and Pathfinder added), and the to-hit was the one that went too far.

Defence 5+ is what stopped the triple-skirmisher lists and it stays. 3+ on the bow gives the unit its job back.

Moving forward: The Skirmisher keyword itself, in particular the charge-bonus half, gets a proper look with more time than this update had.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card.

Nymeria Sand

The Escalating Tensions ladder is reordered and the +2 Attack Dice rung is removed.

Nymeria Sand, Lady Nym. 4 points.

ESCALATING TENSIONS (Influence): While Influencing a friendly Combat Unit, they gain the following based on the total number of Controlled zones (friendly or enemy):

1+ This unit gains +1 Movement.

2+ Their Melee Attacks gain Vicious.

4+ Their Melee Attacks may re-roll any Attack Dice.

5+ Their Melee Attacks gain Critical Blow.

The problem: The top of the ladder. By the time you reached it you already had Vicious, Critical Blow and a re-roll, and the last rung was +2 dice on an attack that had already been smoothed out.

+2 dice is gone. Movement comes first because it is the most Martell thing on the card, and the killing power comes last, when you have earned it.

Moving forward: The order of the ladder gets looked at again with data, in particular whether Vicious should come before Movement.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card. Cost unchanged.

Free Folk

Savage Giant, Giant Spear Throwers, Wun Wun, Mag the Mighty

The Giant rule is the same on all four cards: 7 Wounds, halving unchanged, maximum 2 Wounds from failed Panic Tests. The Savage Giant loses Critical Blow. Giant Spear Throwers lose the unlimited range and ignore line of sight option.

GIANT (all four): This unit has 7 Wounds. This unit only suffers 1 Wound for every 2 unblocked Hits from any Attack or effect. This unit can only suffer a maximum of 2 Wounds from failing Panic Tests.

Savage Giant. 7 points. Speed 5. Mighty Swing: Melee, 3+, 4 dice. Defence 4+. Morale 5+.

MIGHTY SWING: Vicious. Defenders do not roll Defence Dice. Rolls +1 Attack Die for each of the Defender’s remaining ranks. Critical Blow removed.

Giant Spear Throwers. 7 points. Speed 5. Giant’s Spear: Ranged, Long Range, 3+, 3 dice. Giant’s Spear: Melee, 3+, 3 dice. Defence 4+. Morale 5+.

GIANT’S SPEAR: Vicious. Sundering. If the Defender is Cavalry, Monster or War Machine, this Attack deals 2 Hits for each success. Ranged only: Defenders do not roll Defence Dice. The option to suffer -3 to Hit to ignore Line of Sight and gain Unlimited Range is removed.

Wun Wun. 9 points. 7 Wounds. Everything else unchanged.

Mag the Mighty. 9 points. 7 Wounds. Everything else unchanged.

The problem: Giants hit too hard and were too hard to kill for the points, and that combination takes the game away from the other player. This game is built on activation sequencing: softening a unit and then breaking it with two well-timed attacks. A body that cannot be softened turns that into a grind where the death star walks forward and dice get rolled.

One keyword means one thing, so all four cards carry the same rule. The halving stays, so a giant is still a giant. 7 Wounds means a giant dies to two good activations again. The panic cap moves from 1 to 2, so panic factions have tools that work against them. The Savage Giant, for its point value, hit too hard for the defence it had, so Critical Blow goes while denying Defence Dice stays. The Spear Throwers lose unlimited range and ignoring line of sight because together they took some of the positioning game off the table.

Moving forward: Activations are the other half of the giants’ problem, and this update does not touch points. If giants are still a problem after it, the next direction is the opposite lever: give some of the abilities back and put the points up, so a list cannot run that many giants and that many activations at once. Mag as a free commander is part of that same conversation.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Big boys are now a little smaller. Cost unchanged.

Frozen Shore Chariots

Chariots cost 5 points. Spear Toss hits on 4+ with 4 dice.

Frozen Shore Chariots. 5 points. Speed 6.

Spear Toss: Ranged, Short Range, 4+, 4 dice. Deadly Impact: Melee, 3+, 4 dice. Defence 5+. Morale 5+.

CHARIOT, DEADLY IMPACT and ORDER: SWIFT RETREAT unchanged.

The problem: A 4-point, 6-move unit with a ranged attack that hit on 3+ with 6 dice. That is the best ranged profile in the faction outside the Spear Throwers, on the cheapest fast body in the game.

5 is the cost the unit had before the ranged attack existed. The ranged attack goes from 6 dice on 3+ to 4 dice on 4+, so it becomes a support tool instead of a second main attack.

Moving forward: 4 dice on 4+ is where I believe a support ranged attack sits on a 5-point body. If the unit drops out of lists entirely at this profile, the dice count is the first thing to revisit.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Updated card.

Brotherhood Without Banners

Peasant Levy

Peasant Levy costs 4 points and loses Sentinel. This is the one card in the update that gets better.

Peasant Levy. 4 points. Speed 5.

Spear: Melee, 5+, 7/5/4. Defence 6+. Morale 6+.

ORDER: SENTINEL: removed.

DISRUPT and GANG-UP: unchanged.

The problem: Season 7 added Sentinel and raised the cost to 5, and there was no job that combination did. The unit did not need a reaction Order, and at 5 it stopped doing the one job it had. Brotherhood list building is built on two cheap peasants freeing the points for three elite units, and Season 7 took that away.

This is the Season 7 card at 4 points with Sentinel removed, not a full revert: the Season 6 attack profile was 6/4/3, and the 7/5/4 profile stays.

The new card with updated points cost and statline.

Neutral

Jaqen H’ghar

Jaqen costs 5 points.

Jaqen H’ghar, Follower of the Red God. 5 points. Ability text unchanged.

The problem: How often he shows up, not what he does. He cost the same as the NCUs he copies, so there was never a reason to take the original.

The ability is the best-designed thing on the table and it stays. At 5, taking him over the NCU he would copy becomes a real choice. This lands hardest on pure Neutral players. The Neutral-only price and the other ideas for the faction are new mechanics, and a new mechanic needs more time to evaluate than this update has.

Season 7 card, before this update.

Roose Bolton

Roose Bolton costs 5 points.

Roose Bolton, Calculating and Cruel. 5 points. Ability text unchanged.

Too much for 4. Three guaranteed Panicked tokens and a Panic Test on every zone claim is a 5-point ability, and at 5 he is a strong NCU that costs like one.

Updated card.

Relentless

The Relentless keyword

Relentless becomes an Order. It triggers once per round, after an enemy attack on the unit, and lets the unit make one melee attack. The change applies to every card that carries the keyword.

ORDER: RELENTLESS

After an enemy completes an Attack on this unit: This unit may perform 1 Melee Attack Action.

The problem: The ability had no limit and no answer. Two Relentless units keep attacking each other until one is destroyed. On the Unsullied Swordmasters, the best melee profile in the game with re-rolls, Precision and Weakened immunity, it is the part that turned a very good unit into one with no counterplay. The Swordmasters card itself does not change: the problem comes from the keyword the Unsullied Officer grants them, so the keyword is where the change is.

As an Order it can be cancelled and does not stack with another same-trigger card, so there is an answer. An Order is used once per round, which ends the loop. Everything else about the ability stays as printed: any attack triggers it, and the unit chooses its target.

Moving forward: The Order alone is the smallest change that ends the loop. If it is still too much on the Swordmasters, the next steps are narrowing the trigger to melee attacks or requiring the attack to target the attacker.

Cards that carry Relentless and are updated by this change:

• Unsullied Officer (Targaryen, 2-point infantry attachment)
• Watch Captain (Night’s Watch, 2-point infantry attachment)
• Victarion Greyjoy, Master of the Iron Victory (Greyjoy, 2-point infantry attachment)
• Thoros of Myr, Faithful Believer (Brotherhood, 2-point infantry attachment)

Unsullied Officer (Targaryen, 2-point infantry attachment)

Watch Captain (Night’s Watch, 2-point infantry attachment)

Victarion Greyjoy, Master of the Iron Victory (Greyjoy, 2-point infantry attachment)

Thoros of Myr, Faithful Believer (Brotherhood, 2-point infantry attachment)

What Comes Next?

Balance updates are an ongoing process, and this one is only part of that process.

For the next update, we want to expand our use of battle reports. Future updates will include buffs as well as nerfs, and those decisions will be built on written reports from the wider community rather than relying only on feedback from the Bannermen program.

We are currently putting together a short form for these reports. Until that is available, you can help simply by recording:

• Your list.
• Your opponent’s list.
• Three sentences describing what each changed unit did during the game.

That information will help us understand not only whether a unit is winning, but why it is winning.

Current Watch List

The current watch list, in order, is:

1. Cersei at 5 points
2. The Kingsguard block
3. Giants at 7 Wounds with a Panic cap of 2
4. Relentless on every carrier
5. The Frozen Shore Chariots’ ranged attack
6. Thorn Watch with Unyielding

Keep in mind that none of these changes has more than one month of games behind it at the exact published text.

Play them. See what happens. Tell us what you find.

The next balance update will be announced following the SIF team’s September planning meeting.

The Stark roster, Neutral faction, and Skirmisher keyword are already on the list for further examination.

Until Then, Bannermen…

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the founding members of the Bannerman Program for their active contribution to bringing this update to fruition:

Mark Hillman
Henning Radtke
Wisnu Arbani Mochdie
Karl Kersten
Jeroen Felix
Brian McGonigle
Joshua Zhang
Esad Metjahic
Thomas Whitworth
Chris Henning
Christopher Cullen
Kurt Pucci
Jaime Lorenzo Alampay
Jun Jingco
Brad Blackburn
Samuel Kmita
Kenny Ketner
Supasit Siriwong
Grant Stacey
Jonathan de Joseph
Michael Arnold
Miquel Navarro Martínez
Owen Sanico
Filip Rydzewski
Piotr Bąk
Brian Beck
Robert Lankers
Zakari Jean-Rousseau
Thomas Pitzer
James Kua
Kornel Kurantowicz

These updates are built around the games being played at the table.

So play the update, keep track of what happens, and share your results with us.

That is how we build the next one.