ASOIAF Buying Guide: Starks

Hello Westeros!

After the Lannister buying guide, which has actually been the most popular article so far (wouhou, Rains of Castamere time!), time to head north, in the cold dominion of the Starks!

This article will try to give some answers to the common question “How do I expand from this starter?”

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Stark Starter

So first, what is in the Stark Starter?

There are 2 existing starters for this faction: the old one, dual with Stark faction, and the new one, on their own. There is only one unit change between both, so this guide will touch on both.

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Heroes

There are 4 heroes in the starter: Robb Stark, Greatjon Umber, Catelyn Stark and Sansa Stark.

Both Robb and Greatjon can be used as Commander or Attachment to put in Combat Units, while Catelyn and Sansa can only be used as NCUs.

The two commanders vary greatly in style:

• Robb Stark is a movement focused commander, counting on unexpected retreats and repositioning.
• Greatjon Umber is the offensive commander of the Stark faction, counting on increased damage and retaliation after enemy attacks.

Both the starter NCUs have very different abilities:

• Catelyn is one of the most useful NCUs of the faction, removing condition tokens while influencing a unit to boost their attack.
• Sansa is also a great one, allowing you to return tactic cards from your discard pile into your hand and playing them again (who mentioned “Assault Orders”?).

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Units

This is where the difference between both versions comes in.

The Stark starter comes in, as any other starter, with 2 basic infantry units and 2 more specialist ones. But Starks wouldn’t be that interesting without their direwolves, so Greywind is also included!

• 2 Stark Sworn Swords
• Umber Berserkers
• Karstark Spearmen
• Greywind

The Stark Sworn Swords are the basic unit of the faction. For 5pts, they are a bit different from the Lannister Guardsmen, more aggressive but still capable enough defensively. They become better the more ranks they lose, gaining extra offensive abilities.

The unit comes with a Sworn Sword Captain, whose Order allows the unit he is in to reroll their attack dice while giving a Vulnerable token. This is a good way to boost the attack of an already engaged unit.

The Umber Berserkers are the common specialist unit to both starters. For 6pts, you get an even more offensive unit than the Sworn Swords, with great morale and who can dish out up to 9 attacks on the last rank.

This unit comes with the Umber Champion attachment, whose Order allows the unit to use their highest attack die value and cause more panic thanks to the Vicious keyword.

The old starter comes with a cavalry unit, the Stark Outriders. For a cheap cost of 6pts, they give you a mobile unit able to outmaneuver your opponent efficiently. They work pretty well with Robb’s tactic cards, but can also be a good unit in other lists, providing some distraction and hit-and-run tactics while the rest of your army makes more damage.

The new starter comes with the Karstark Spearmen, this time a very defensive unit. They have a special rule giving them a 2+ defense as long as they do not take any actions during the round, while also cancelling charge and positioning bonuses from opponents attacks. They work really well as an objective holder.

Finally, both starters come with Robb’s companion, Greywind. This is a solo unit, costing 3 points, which makes it a cheaper activation than an NCU or normal unit, but can only be taken if Robb is in your army. He doesn’t hit very hard, but brings the “Disrupt” ability, making opponents attacks weaker, acting as a nice support for more offensive units.

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What should be my first purchase after the starter?

Same as for the Lannisters: the faction’s Heroes 1 box.

Heroes play a huge part in the ASOIAF game, and are the best way to add a lot of flexibility to your lists, at the lowest price. Plus, for book readers or show watchers, it is much more engaging to play the Blackfish in a unit instead of “Unnamed Captain #1”, and makes for a more interesting game.

The Stark Heroes 1 box brings you 5 new characters and a wolf unit.

For Commanders, you can now have Eddard Stark, the Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell, Rodrik Cassel, master-at-arms of the castle, Howland Reed, lord of the Crannogmen and fierce ally of Ned, and Brynden “The Blackfish” Tully, the uncle of Catelyn Stark and main council of Robb Stark.

Every commander is very different and brings a lot to the table. Ned is a more offensive one, who also brings healing to the table thanks to his “Rally Cry” ability, as well as an improved version of the Stark Sworn Swords, the Eddard’s Honor Guard, hitting and defending better than the normal Starks. Rodrik is playing a lot with tokens, putting Vulnerable tokens on opponents and making them lose some advantage or improving his own units. Howland is a control oriented one, using terrain, line of sights and the Crannogman affiliation to give maluses to the enemy. Finally, Brynden is the most defensive one, mostly focusing on improving the units defensive abilities in order to make more damage, with cards like “War Cry” and “Set for Charge”. He also grants the Tully affiliation, which is a quite popular house and has great units so far.

Out of these 4, only Brynden can be used as an attachment, to boost the morale of the unit he is in. He comes at a quite costly price of 2pts, so is rarely used.

Bran & Hodor is the second attachment of the box, bringing along Summer the direwolf for the ride. They are the most lacking of the attachment/direwolf combo, but can still provide a cheap activation, and Hodor’s autowound is nothing to sneer at if in an appropriate unit.

Finally, 3 out of the 4 commanders can be also used as NCUs. Ned Stark is probably the most useful, bringing healing and panic resilience, for a costly 6pts however. He was an auto-include at 5pts, but is now harder to justify bringing, costing as much as a good combat unit. Rodrik is my personal favorite, but works better with some specific units or attachments: he can dish out Vulnerable tokens when placed on the Swords zone, but most importantly, can reset already-used Orders twice per game, which is a very nice ability to have. Finally, Howland Reed can work well with Greywind to really neuter an enemy’s attack, while bringing some maluses thanks to terrains.

The Starks have 3 heroes boxes so far, and both Heroes 2 and Heroes 3 bring good value: Heroes 2 brings lots of new attachments and the almost auto-include Rickon-Osha-Shaggydog combo, while Heroes 3 offers 3 new commanders, including a mounted one.

I still think Heroes 1 is overall the best one to expand directly from the starter, bringing a good batch of commanders and NCUs, for more replay ability at a lower cost.

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Heroes done, how about units?

Now that you have your starter and your heroes, you basically need only one more unit box to get to 40pts consistently, which is the most common for games.

In both starters, you get the same 2 Stark Sworn Swords and 1 Umber Berserkers base, meaning you are all set with infantry.

One of the best choices for both starters would be the Stark Bowmen: they give you a range unit, which is currently lacking in both and can bring a lot of control to the battlefield.

Range units are an important option to have in an army, and the Bowmen are both very efficient and synergize well with both Robb from the starter and Rodrik from Heroes 1.

The only problem is that the models are, to put it nicely, the worst of the range, being quite old and flat in appearance, but in game, they are definitely a great addition to any list!

The second contender to best new unit for both starters would be the Mormont She-Bears. They are still an infantry melee unit so more redundant with the others, but their “Warcry” Order brings a lot to the table. Having the possibility to put 2 tokens on a unit once per round is very good, and their offensive and defensive abilities are similar to Stark Sworn Swords, making them quite polyvalent and reliable. With the Heroes 1 box, Brynden Tully is a good commander or attachment to put in them, to make their “Warcry” more passable, while Rodrik NCU is a good option to use the Order twice in a row. Rickon and Osha from Heroes 2 are the usual go-to for this unit, being cheaper than Brynden and offering the opportunity to bring Shaggydog, but Brynden is still a great option for them.

Moreover, the She-Bears box comes with one of the best attachment in the game, the Mormont Veteran. For 1pt, she gives her unit access to the “Hardened” keyword, a highly defensive keyword keeping the unit a threat for a way longer time than usual. The Mormont Veteran combos particularly well with Umber units who are immune to more and more panic damage the more they lose ranks, so a Mormont Veteran in an Umber Berserkers unit is a common sight in Stark lists.

Those are the 2 units I would advise for both starters equally. Now, for each starter, I will give one more option.

For the old starter, since you already have a cavalry unit with the Stark Outriders, you are pretty much all set on this front. A good objective holder could be a great option, such as the Tully Sworn Shields. They are different than the Karstark Spearmen but fill the same function, to stay on an important objective and defend. Having both Brynden for the Tully keyword and Rodrik for renewing their Order twice in a round, they can become a real threat.

For the new starter, due to the absence of cavalry, the Tully Cavaliers would definitely be a good investment. Similarly to the Knights of Casterly Rock for the Lannisters, they bring you a real mobile hammer, able to destroy 2 ranks in one charge, and even more if helped through some cards. Cavalry is another important element in the game, bringing some different maneuvering and flanking options, and the heavy Cavaliers bring the best of offensive and defensive worlds. They are however costly points-wise, at 8pts, meaning they will limit a bit your lists in terms of flexibility. They also act as a morale boost for nearby units, which is a nice addition in an already good morale army, making it that much harder for the opponent to tear your units down thanks to panic.

So with this in mind, this gives you 3 different options for both starters. I would say all choices are worth considering, but might depend on your play style, your favorite commander or even your taste in units (some may hate using cavalry for example, or are particularly averse to shooting in games, so will not even consider Bowmen).

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What next?

Once you have purchased Stark Heroes 1 and 1 unit box of your choice, you should definitely try a few games. This will give you an idea on what your strong suits are, and what you think is missing from your usual lists.

For example, if you went for anything except the Stark Bowmen, you might want to purchase them next, to vary your play style and get a drastically different type of unit in. Or if you really enjoyed playing the Stark Outriders and think cavalry is where you shine, investing in the Tully Cavaliers or Bolton Flayed Men for a heavy cavalry list could be a smart choice.

You can also decide that you really like a certain subtheme and go for it: the great thing with the Stark faction is that it is divided into the smaller houses of the North, representing Robb and his bannermen going to war to liberate Ned.

Picking a smaller house is a fun way to bring a thematic atmosphere to a list: for example, you are really into Greatjon’s Umber destruction and your units getting better the more men they lose, so Umber Greataxes are a natural fit in your Umber list. You may want to try a range unit but also want to try out Howland Reed and his guerrilla-warfare tactics, so Crannogmen will definitely be a great purchase, as well as the Stark Heroes 2 for Meera and Jojen Reed. The new Heroes box 3 also brings the Karstarks and the Mormonts to the front line, opening more possibilities.

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The Stark faction is quite fun to play, with some strong tactic cards and units, and a very strong identity. The wolves are definitely one of the best parts of the faction, both in terms of gameplay and narratively: it is great fun to see Greywind tear down ranks of Lannisters after attacking them from the rear, while Robb Stark charges the front.

Every Stark unit adds a new dimension to existing lists, so you can’t really go wrong with any of them. Well the Mormont Bruisers are a bit lackluster for their cost, but even then, a good tool in some lists…

So last advice, if you are not aiming for tournaments or really competitive play, choose the units you like lore-wise or sculpt-wise, it will be that much more rewarding to play them!

Grob’