Visions in the Flames: Character attachments
Bannermen! Fábio Cury here, Lead Developer for A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game. In today’s visions we’ll address changes to Character Attachments, their role in lists, and how they are able to change units. Most Character Attachments experienced changes in form or another as a consequence to all the other changes that have occurred so far (power shifting, some Abilities being combined, etc etc), but once again this opened room for us to look at the entirety of each faction’s available Characters and how they contributed to that faction’s playstyle.
Let’s start with a point about points! As we’ve mentioned in the first article in this set of Visions, we’ve re-evaluated the points cost on each and every Attachment. As a rule of thumb, Character Attachments are costed at 1 to 2 points, with the 3 points cost being a rare exception, where the Attachment is bringing something truly impactful to the Battlefield.
While in general the boosts that Attachments bring has been ever-so-slightly enhanced, Characters got a bit of a bump even beyond this, due to their uniqueness in list-building (only ever going to be one Jaime out there in your army, can’t spam Kingslayers). This opens room for Character Attachments having abilities that wouldn’t normally be included in a specific faction, creating options for players to vary slightly from the faction’s core playstyle. At the same time, many of them serve as synergy pieces, reinforcing an army’s original faction behavior and bolstering their performance in what they were meant to do.
This might seem vague or an oxymoron, but that’s just because it is! Character Attachments have to be regarded case-by-case specifically because they are unique and because they must represent their counterparts in the Books.
That brings us to the last point: keeping Character Attachments in line with their Book counterparts. When choosing Abilities for Character Attachments, it was important to consider if it was possible to represent this Character through combinations of existing abilities or if they needed a unique ability altogether. Many unique abilities that existed previously differed just slightly from other more widespread abilities and so, in these cases, they were usually replaced with that already widespread ability. We noticed that these changes hardly ever came at a cost of that Attachments “flavor” and, when it did, adjustments were made accordingly. Personality is paramount.
Once again, since Character Attachments should always be considered case-by-case, we’ll show four of them to exemplify and explain the reasoning behind each of their changes, helping paint a better picture of what is to come.
Jojen’s Greensight ability was changed so that it is not dependent on a die roll as well as having its effects slightly altered. While before some of the effects where very powerful, their uncertainty and possible drawback hindered tactical play. With the featured ability, not only does the player have a choice of what effect to pick but the effects themselves are also reliable, maintaining Jojen’s points cost of 2. He also brings the Crannogman Affiliation, so naturally opens up list-building options for those thematic armies. Jojen is an example of what a singular, yet powerful, ability can bring to a unit (with Affiliation as an added bonus).
Jaime Lannister, The Young Lion, now has the updated Martial Training ability, as well as Stalwart. This version of Jaime is the one that is the living legend himself, the shining golden lion to the common soldier, and just by being around his soldiers they are instilled with arrogance confidence that they will win. Jaime combines a powerful offensive boost and one of the best (and rarest) boosts to Morale available, enhancing his unit without forcing them into a “specialized” role.
Qhorin Halfhand, Grizzled Ranger, received almost a complete “overhaul” for a number of reasons. While both Abilities that he currently had do still exist (Stubborn Tenacity, Go Down Fighting) we felt that the Halfhand could use a boost in the flavor department. As a result, he’s been given To the Last! Which we feel really represents the nature of the character. One thing that is important to note here is that, given the elite nature of the Night’s Watch faction (with an average Morale Stat of 5) Qhorin synergizes extremely well. But part of that is the nature of Night’s Watch Attachments when factoring in the rest of their army- they are a low unit-count-highly-elite army, and their Attachments factor that in.
The Weeper, Cruel Tyrant, was previously an Attachment that was themed around “failing and passing Panic Tests”. Now, we’ve kept his theme on Panic but emphasized his battlefield presence with a focus on the failing side of Panic instead of him being a crutch to help your own units pass the test. Free folk have the largest variety of Abilities through their Attachments, as well as being able to field more than any other army. As a result, many of their Attachments are very specialized in what they offer. The Weeper is one of your key “Panic Pieces”.
And there you have it Bannermen! We have a few more surprises to talk about in this Visions, so keep in check in the coming weeks for more! Until next time.
