From the Streets of Meereen and the High Seas to the Battlefield
The island fortresses of Lys are filled with hardy pirates ready to sell their services to the highest bidder. They’re not interested in personal glory, only the thrill of the raid and whatever plunder they can gather before embarking once more on their ships and heading to home port. Those wanting to employ their services can get a hearty unit of troops!
Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, the Brazen Beasts were created by Daenerys Targaryen in an effort to ease up pressure on the Unsullied, who were patrolling the streets of Meereen, keeping the peace. The Unsullied had been targeted for assassination, so Daenerys commissioned the Brazen Beasts, giving them their bronze masks, from which their name comes. These ruthless warriors are fearless in their goals in keeping the streets safe.
Players of A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game will be able to access these 2 different but equally valiant warriors soon! Let’s take a look at these units.
Lysene Sellswords are a moderately priced unit at 5 points. For that, they have a speed of 5, their sea legs keeping them from going faster on land. They are well-versed in the use of their cutlasses, however, rolling 7 dice at full ranks and hitting on a 3+. We’ll come back to why that’s important in a minute. As wearing heavy armor aboard a rolling and pitching ship is a sure-fire way to end up at the bottom of the ocean, the Sellswords are only outfitted in their regular clothes, giving them a Defensive Save of 5+. However, their lust for gold gives them a Morale of 7+.
The Sellswords have two special abilities on their card. The first is Pillage. This gives the unit a special Pillage Token whenever the unit destroys an enemy rank in melee. They can have up to two Pillage tokens at a time. These play into the unit’s other special ability on their Pirate’s Blades. This is broken up into two parts. The first is that the unit has Precision when attacking. The second involves the Pillage Tokens. First, they gain +1 die when attacking for each Pillage token they have. Second, if they have two tokens, the unit always rolls its attack dice as if they were at full ranks. So, that 7 attack dice, with two tokens, turns into 9 dice, no matter how many Sellswords are left in the unit.
The Lysene Sellswords unit box also comes with a Unit Attachment, the Lysene Bosun. The Bosun comes with two abilities of his own. The first, called Interrogate, lets the player look at their enemy’s hand of Tactics Cards and discard one card whenever the unit he’s in destroys an enemy. The second ability is called Domineering Pride, which gives the unit he’s in the ability to automatically pass Panic Tests if they’re engaged with an enemy that has fewer ranks than they do. This means that the Sellswords’ moderate 7+ Morale might not even be an issue if they’ve managed to have more ranks than their opponents.
The Lysene Sellswords are a strong melee unit. They can quickly cut through enemy forces. But smart commanders will make sure that they don’t get tied down for too long, since they don’t always have the most defensive abilities to back them up.
Meanwhile, the Brazen Beasts come in at 6 points, giving them a moderate points cost. Used to having to move swiftly through the streets, they have a Movement score of 6, making them fairly fast on the battlefield. Each Beast chooses their own weapons they want to use, letting them use whatever they’re most proficient with. This results in them having 6 dice at full ranks and hitting on a 3+. The unit doesn’t armor up heavily, as such, they only have a 5+ Defense Save. In terms of Morale, the Beasts have a good 6+.
The Brazen Beasts have two different special abilities. The first is an order, Sentinel. The Brazen Beasts can be given this order when another friendly unit in Long Range is attacked. The Beasts can immediately make a free Charge or Maneuver. However, if they Charge, it must target the enemy unit that made the attack. But this makes the Brazen Beasts very fast on the battlefield, being able to support allied units easily.
The other special ability is tied to their Motley Armaments melee attack. It gives the unit two different bonuses: +1 Attack Die and Critical Blow OR Defender loses all abilities. If the Brazen Beasts attack from the Flank, they can pick one ability. If they attack an enemy from the Rear, they get both.
Included in the unit box is also the Brazen Beasts Captain. This Unit Attachment comes with three special abilities. The first is an Order: Incite. It allows the unit the Captain is in to gain Vicious on their melee attack as well as roll their maximum number of Attack Dice. The second is Furious Charge. When the unit the Captain is in successfully Charges, their target becomes Vulnerable. Finally, there’s Iron Resolve. Here, the unit gains +1 to Panic Test rolls and suffers -1 Wound when they fail.
The Brazen Beasts bring a melee-centric infantry unit to House Targaryen. They are surprisingly fast, able to strike quickly at enemies who dare attack their allies. And the Brazen Beast Captain really plays into that, with multiple ways to boost the unit.
The Lysene Sellswords and the Brazen Beasts will be coming to retail this Friday, March 17th! Stay tuned for more A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game releases.
Pre-order the Lysene Sellswords here.
Pre-order the Brazen Beasts here.
