Guest Article: Brotherhood NCUs & Attachments by Warfactory

Welcome Bannermen,

All good things must come to an end.  Before we say our goodbyes, let’s discuss the last elements of Brotherhood Without Banners Starter Set.

Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens.

― G.R.R Martin, Storm of Swords

NCU are one of the elements which makes A Song of Ice and Fire so unique and they are an integral part of any army. We already know that the Brotherhood’s units can stand against any enemy, but what about their NCUs?

 

 

Ghost of High Heart, The Wood’s Witch is a mysterious woman living in the Riverlands. Some said she is of the children of the forest, some say she is the same woman who was a friend of Jenny from the Oldstones, some said she can see the future. They are probably all true.

What can she do on the table? Well, first she gives +1 Morale for the unit she influences. You already know how important Morale is to the Brotherhood. The second effect: two tokens when we lose rank is also good, especially when we can heal Wounds quite easily. That’s a fair deal for 4 points. Given the name of the ability, we were hoping for some form of card manipulation.

 

 

The second (and last) from our NCUs is Ravella Smallwood, Lady of Acorn Hall. She is a friend of the Brotherhood, who often supports our noble outlaws. Her ability allows us to heal Wounds (with the possibility of removing Condition tokens too). We can do it thrice during the game, but every use will cost us a Tactics card. Its effectiveness depends on the situation on the table. Ravella however cost us 4 points, so we shouldn’t expect something that impacts the turns too much.

 

 

We should expect something mind-blowing from someone whose nickname is Azor Ahai though. Beric Dondarrion, Azor Ahai is the first non-commander attachment we’ll talk about. He starts with 1 Faith token and receives additional tokens after passing the Morale test. We can use tokens for two effects. Adding +2 Dice to our Melee Attacks. Yes, that’s not a mistake. TWO ATTACK  DICE.  Wow, just wow. Possible number of attack dice generated by his unit is huge (and we should remember about possible Gang-up). 10 dice from King’s Men? 12 dice from Berserkers on last rank? Yes, please! The second effect allows us to make a final attack before our unit is removed and – if we destroy the enemy unit – we stay on the table with 1 Wound remaining. We can obviously support this attack with +2 dice if we have faith tokens. That’s an amazing attachment but the cost is high – 2 points, but bear in mind that attachments cost us 1 point less and 1 point for such attachment is just a steal.

 

 

Thoros of Myr, Faithful Believer costs us also 2 points and comes with Relentless and Reinforcement. Another source of healing! Enemies will also need to think twice before attacking Thoros’ unit, thanks to Relentless too.

The real question is: is it better to have Beric as commander and Thoros as attachment or vice versa?  We can’t wait to see the discussions! This battle will be legendary, but it will definitely be worth it to try them both out!

Usually, we would see some generic attachments here, but there are none in the Brotherhood Without Banners Starter Set. Does it mean we have just two attachments? Absolutely not. The generic attachments were replaced with unique characters – a fitting choice for the Brotherhood. It’s hard to imagine Veteran Peasants.

 

 

Tom of Sevenstreams comes with Order: Taunt and Lem Lemoncloak with Battle Scars. Each of those characters cost just 1 point – no surprise here. Both abilities should be familiar to you (and are useful). However, we could speculate on which units could make good use of their abilities. We could force enemies to charge the Peasant Levy to create an opening for a flank charge. Or maybe one of the units we could borrow from Starks or Baratheons will benefit greatly from Battle scars? Again, no simple answer here.

That’s all folks. It was a pleasure to guide you through the Brotherhood Without Banners Starter Set. Please let us know what you think about our series. Did you find it useful? Would you like to see more such articles in the future? Let us (and CMON in the first place) know. We’re sure there will be many more releases in the future to cover.

Warfactory Team