Hello Westeros!
It’s been a while since the last “Buying Guide”, so let’s keep it going with the “twofactionsinone” faction: House Baratheon!
Are you furious? Are you torn between dark and brooding or fabulous and flamboyant? Well, House Baratheon is made for you!
Loyalties
The most important concept in the Baratheon faction is the one of loyalty.
At the death of Robert, the house is divided between Stannis, the now elder and rightful heir, and Renly, the “younger, bolder and far more comely” one.
Stannis resides on the island of Dragonstone, leading an army of men faithful to his claim and others faithful to the Lord of Light, R’hllor.
His whole loyalty is mostly focused on dealing panic tests to the enemy, through fire arrows and red priestesses, all the while being quite resilient to panic themselves, putting emphasis on higher morale than usual and faith, in their King or the Red God.
On the other hand, Renly resides in Storm’s End, and the bulk of his army is composed from men of the Reach, including the Tyrells.
Healing is the most efficient part of Renly’s loyalty, representing the very large number of men enrolled in the Reach armies compared to other kingdoms. As a result, the Tyrell units are overall cheaper than the Dragonstone ones, trading high morale for speed and numbers.
Between them, they also have some Baratheon units loyal to both, which can be used by both loyalties and represent the House Baratheon bannermen from the Stormlands for the most part.
Baratheon units are mostly resilient, with strong defensive capabilities, but equally as capable of retaliating offensively, albeit slower than usual.
Baratheon Starter
Heroes
There are 4 heroes in the starter: Stannis Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, Alester Florent and Shyra Errol.
Both Stannis and Renly can only be used as Commanders to put in Combat Units, one for each loyalty, while Alester and Shyra can only be used as NCUs, loyal to both brothers.
The two commanders vary greatly in style:
- Stannis Baratheon, the Rightful Heir is a token machine. He allows you to put a large number of tokens on enemy units, and to use these tokens for various purposes, from cancelling abilities to dealing extra-wounds.
- Renly Baratheon, the Righteous Heir, is very good at healing. He also provides a small boost in offensive power and morale for his units, reflecting his central part in his army.
Both the starter NCUs have very different abilities:
- Alester Florent is a great NCU for Baratheons, who really enjoy controlling the Crown and Letters zones. He allows you to use a zone’s effect, then go on another one, empty or occupied, to control.
- Shyra Errol is interesting in that she works pretty well with the zones Baratheons want to claim, the Crown and Letters, by giving you an added bonus when claiming these zones, as well as the Bags.
Units
The Baratheon starter, like all the other starters, comes with 2 basic infantry units and 2 more specialist ones.
- 2 Baratheon Wardens
- Baratheon Sentinels
- Stag Knights
The Baratheon Wardens are the ultimate cheap bunker: with a defense of 3+ and a morale of 6+, they are the most resilient 5pts unit in the game. Moreover, their “Counterstrike” ability will definitely make enemies think twice before attacking them, for any failed dice will lead to a counter-hit. If this wasn’t enough, their war hammers cause the enemy they attack to get Weakened if rolling 1 on their defense, further augmenting their defensive/countering ability against the next attack.
The Wardens come with the Master Warden attachment, which brings the “Hold the line” order, turning units into auto-hits machines at their activation.
The Baratheon Sentinels are more of an offensive unit, but similar to the Wardens, they have a counter-attack ability, the “Sentinel” order. This makes them a very good deterrent for units attacking some important units you want to be left alone, as a Sentinel counter-charge can lead to devastation on the enemy unit. Their only issue is their 4+ to hit, but this can be helped through attachments and cards.
Finally, last but not least of the starter units: the PAINTRAIN. Sorry, the Stag Knights. Well this nickname isn’t that far from reality. They are at their best when joining the battle a few rounds after the other units, rolling on their opponents thanks to the multiple abilities they got during the previous ones. At 8pts, they are on the expensive side, but they are a real gem if used right, and quite resilient at that (yes, they do have the “Resilient” order as well!).
The Stag Knight Noble is the linked attachment in the box, a costly but potent one, focuses on increasing panic resilience and retaliation damage.
What should be my first purchase after the starter?
Same as for most other factions: the faction’s Heroes… well, now we’re in trouble.
Heroes 1 or Heroes 2? Stannis or Renly?
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 loyal Davos Seaworth or the valiant Loras Tyrell in a unit instead of “Master Warden #1”, and makes for a more interesting game.
The Baratheon Heroes 1 box brings you 7 new characters.
- Stannis Baratheon, the One True King: the R’hllor version of Stannis is strongly focused on morale, turning his army into even more fanatical warriors than before.
- Davos Seaworth, his Hand of the King: his commander is a weird one, trading the “Final Strike” card for some healing, movement and control tricks. He is sadly outshined by his attachment, who can heal nearby units and works fantastically well in a range unit like Lightbringers.
- Andrew Estermont, First of the Kingsmen: his commander version is the offensive one of the faction, at his best in a unit of Kingsmen. His attachment provides some offensive boost to a unit as well, which can work well in some units with subpar offense.
- Axell Florent, First of the Queensmen: his commander version is very heavily panic focused, and is a fun addition to the R’hllor roster. His attachment is a bit expensive but can do some strong work in the right unit.
- Devan Seaworth: a fun attachment to help you get the charges you need, while potentially giving you the upper hand if the charge proved a little bit too reckless.
- Selyse & Shireen: this is a very handy and powerful NCU, albeit expensive, allowing you to avoid death once per game, while boosting a unit morale and giving auto-wounds. One of my favorite NCUs ever.
- Melisandre: the Red priestess is a very powerful but dangerous NCU, driving terror in the hearts of friends and foes alike. She is at her best when used with the One True King version of Stannis, who somehow dampers her negative effects on your troops.
On the Renly side, the Heroes Box 2 brings:
- Renly Baratheon, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands: this second version of Renly is a less straightforward than his previous incarnation, but brings some interesting control abilities to the table, including protecting his unit from all types of threats.
- Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers: the Expert Duelist of the faction, for both his Commander and Attachment options, he also focuses quite a bit on healing and increased offense.
- Cortnay Penrose, Castellan of Storm’s End: the full control hero of the faction, his Commander and Attchment options are over shined by his absolutely fantastic NCU version, a master of healing and/or Tactic board control.
- Eldon Estermont: one of the strongest commanders in the game, put him in a unit of Stag Knights and watch your opponent grinding intensely. Bringing “Hardened” to a unit, he turns an already resilient faction into a moving castle.
- Brienne the Blue: she is a very simple attachment, representing her time as Renly’s protector while in his Kingsguard, retaliating against any unit attacking her King.
- Margaery Tyrell, the Little Rose: a great NCU which works perfectly with a unit of Rose Knights. Claim the Bags zone with her and enjoy the unit engaged with the Roses take 2 auto-wounds, just like that.
- Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns: the definitive control NCU, which can cancel NCU abilities or deal auto-hits to units, and you get to choose!
Due to the loyalty mechanism, both boxes are incompatible with each other.
This makes the Baratheon faction a bit special: do you want to go full in one loyalty, or be able to alternate between brothers depending on the games?
I would say the Renly side is probably easier for beginners to start with, but I personally find it less interesting than the Stannis side. However, I am also a little biased since Stannis is in my top 3 characters in the books (Stannis, Tywin Lannister and Victarion Greyjoy, for anyone who cares).
So you have basically two options:
- If you have sufficient funds, take both. This allows you to vary playstyles and pick the best tools in the faction depending on the opponent and game mode. You don’t even have to go fully into both loyalties directly, since all the starter units are “loyalty-neutral”, so getting both Heroes boxes definitely makes sense to at least have a sense of all the difference tools you can get.
- If you can only afford one side, pick one. Seeing that the units abilities are subject to change, I would advise you to make your choice based on aesthetics, love for the characters and overall style. Do you prefer an overall more defensive loyalty (Renly) or a more offensive one (Stannis)? Are the Tyrells your favorite characters or are you fully driven by the Lord of Light?
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.
Now depending on the choice you made earlier regarding Heroes, the answers vary a lot.
So let’s check for each option, shall we?
If you picked Stannis, the answer is quite easy: R’hllor Lightbringers.
This range unit is one of the best in the game, and aesthetically very pleasing. For 6pts, they are a very capable damage dealer, and have surprisingly good defensive characteristics. With a defense of 4+ and a morale of 6+, they are one of the most resilient range units across factions. Their shooting attack is fully focused on Panic: they have Vicious, and if the defender fails their panic test, another unit takes a panic test as well, representing the very scary event of seeing the unit next to you suddenly catching fire.
They also synergize very well with the whole faction: Davos in them can make them reroll after taking a few wounds, which he can easily make happen by sending troops to other units, plus, they have the R’hllor keyword, meaning every Stannis OTK and Axell Florent cards apply to them.
So all in all a very good range unit, which allows you to dish out lots of damage at a distance, something Baratheons struggle to do due to their overall low speed and absence of movement tricks.
If you picked Renly, the next unit choice is a bit harder. The Renly range unit, the Thornwatch, is not as efficient, and while it has great value in some lists, it requires more shenanigans to pull their weight. The Rose Knights are a fantastic defensive unit, but I find them a bit redundant with the Baratheon Wardens, albeit more able offense-wise, and synergizing way more with NCUs such as Margaery or Cortnay.
The Highgarden Pikemen are a cheap unit, very potent on the charge, but very flimsy, similarly to the Riders of Highgarden, which are basically the same but on horses. I would say the choice depends mostly on your playstyle: if you enjoy having a shieldwall very tough for your opponent to go through, Rose Knights are the way to go; if you want to add some much needed mobility in a slow faction, the Riders of Higharden can fill this role efficiently; if you want to get cheaper units to put more attachments or more expensive NCUs, such as Olenna, the Pikemen could be a good option.
If you picked both Heroes boxes, and are still unsure which loyalty to start with, the Champions of the Stag are the last loyalty-neutral unit in the faction at the moment, and are… tough. For your opponent.
With a defense of 2+ and some surprisingly strong offensive power, they can hold their own through most battles. They work very well with both loyalties, beneficiating from Renly’s healing powers to turn into a basically unkillable unit, or bringing many tokens to the Stannis side, as well as mobility. These juggernauts cost 8pts so are on the expensive side, but they more than proved their worth in most games I’ve seen them played.
So there you have it for the first unit box for each loyalty!
What next?
Once you have purchased your Heroes and the unit box above, 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.
If you keep going with Stannis, all his units are good:
- Queensmen are his version of Rose Knights, with 2 very neat abilities for supporting your troops and surviving. They synergize perfectly with all R’hllor focused lists.
- Kingsmen are less defensive, but full on offensive, with the same surviving ability as the Queensmen, coupled with a free pick of the Baratheon offense card “Ours is the Fury”. They synergize perfectly with Andrew Estermont commander and more offensive lists.
- R’hllor Faithful are also, as you could have guessed, R’hllor focused, and have a Faith token mechanic to help them deal damage, either offensively, defensively or even after dying. They synergize perfectly with Selyse & Shireen NCU, as well as the Stag Knight Noble attachment.
I would probably go with one of the 2 first ones next, which can be more reliable than the Faithful, a bit on the flimsy side.
If you go full in Renly, I would probably pick Rose Knights if you they weren’t your first unit box choice, mostly for their synergy with NCUs and the deck.
If you went for both brothers and for the Champions of the Stag, now would be a good time to pick the Lightbringers for Stannis, and one of Renly’s units (details above)!
The Baratheon faction has some fantastic options, and being separated into two loyalties is both a curse and a blessing.
A curse, first for your wallet, as you may want to get all the units, but also in terms of more limited options: the fact that a third of the units available cannot be used in one loyalty makes list-building less diverse.
The blessing part however, comes in the very different tools available to both loyalties: they may share a tactics deck and loyalty-neutral units, but the playstyles of each is very different, making you feel like you are playing 2 diverse factions, all in one!
I would end this by saying that in my completely unbiased opinion, the Stannis loyalty units are the most stunning ones in the whole range, and that definitely should encourage you to join the army of… the One True King!
Grob’
Chez Grob 