Hello Westeros!
After the glory that was the Stannis box “Baratheon Heroes 3”, let’s see what we get with his brother’s one, “Baratheon Heroes 4”…
The Rainbow Guard has been heavily required by players, and it apparently disappointed quite a lot of them in terms of rules…
Definitely not in terms of sculpts, as these are absolutely fantastic, each member having a very distinct look and pose (I’m looking at you, Kingsguard…)!
The box is similar to the Joffrey’s Kingsguard one: 1 unit, the Rainbow Guard, which can only be used with Renly commander, and one attachment per model (except the Commander this time, but since we already have 3 Renlys, not a bad thing). The attachments and the unit cannot be played at the same time, and you cannot bring Loras Tyrell or Brienne of Tarth in your list if you bring the Rainbow Guard.
Thanks to Samuel Stohl for the card pictures!
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The Rainbow Guard Unit
This unit is fantastic, but there’s a catch: you can only bring it with Renly commander inside, and none of his previous versions, only Renly King in the South.
Let’s start with the unit itself. It has 2 ranks and 8 wounds, each wound representing 1 member of the Rainbow Guard and Renly Baratheon himself. 5 movement, 2+ to hit, 7 attacks on both ranks, 3+ defense, 5+ morale. Not bad! The 5+ morale is the worst part, but quite lore-accurate seeing how nearly half of them deflected to Stannis once Renly died. Still, the 5+ morale is transferred to surrounding friendly units thanks to “Rally Point”, making them a centerpiece for Renly’s loyalty average morale units. “Perseverance and Valor” completes the card nicely: a unit with only 8 wounds who really wants to attack will highly benefit from the 1 wound healing every time they do!
The final feature of this unit is the same as Joffrey’s Kingsguard: 4 Baratheon Banners, each of which can be used once per game, at the unit’s activation.
These bring fantastic bonuses, and the last one in particular suits them perfectly, thanks to Renly’s “Swift Strike” ability (see below).
Now to Renly’s profile card: brilliant card!
First, his unit gets “Swift Strike”, meaning they can charge and retreat in one single turn, allowing them to decide the tempo of the game, while forcing their opponent to make pivoting decisions. Bring a Thorn Watch or Riders of Highgarden unit and watch your opponent struggle on choosing which unit to show his front and flank to! Thanks to their Baratheon Banners, the Rainbow Guard can also reroll their charge distance roll, which makes their retreats a very dangerous threat for their opponent.
“Claims to the Kingdom” is basically the same ability as Andrew Estermont’s commander: the unit in which Renly is placed counts as controlling both the Crown and the Letters zones. This really makes them the centerpiece of the list, being the primary recipient for cards such as Ours is the Fury or Baratheon Conviction.
Now to his tactic cards, and the main reason why this box has been welcomed with the warmth of Walder Frey…
“Overconfidence” is quite good: for the price of a Vulnerable token, you get a free “charge”. Yes, it’s not a “charge ending in a melee attack”, BUT, it’s a charge. And a charge doesn’t simply mean rerolling dice: it also means moving a total distance of at least your movement and 1 inch. Rose Knights are slow you said? Well, they just moved a minimum of 5” in their opponent’s direction BEFORE ACTIVATING. They failed the charge? No worries, now they activate and are auto-in, surprise! They passed the charge? You take 6 hits and I don’t even have to reroll. Oh and now it’s my turn to activate, you take 7 attacks at 3+. All this for a Vulnerable token which you can “Stag’s Wit”, pretty good bargain!
“Knights of Summer” is a decent card, especially if fighting against a low morale or average morale army, or playing the “Dance with Dragons” or “Feast for Crows” game modes. It is a “Start of friendly turn” trigger, so easy to play, and doesn’t give you any negative effect if failed. Play it on a turn when you at least have 1 or 2 of the zones required, and you should have a good chance to make a few opponent units take a panic test. Not a game changer per say (unless you manage to make the last remnants of a unit to flee, which is possible), but a sufficiently easy to play card to not spit upon.
“Lavish Encampment” is a control card, which you must play with care. It helps quite a lot with zone control if you want to remove an enemy NCU from the Crown or Letters, only giving you a Vulnerable token in return. It can be a bit more dangerous if removing an enemy NCU from the Swords or Bags, making one of your units panicked and taking a panic test. Still, I like it. It is a very good round 1 card, as it allows you to get both the Letters and the Horse zones straight away (simply move the enemy NCU on one of them to the Swords or Crown). Second, Baratheons have access to the “Stag’s Wit” card, which would cancel the Vulnerable or Panicked token dished out, and could even put them on an enemy unit if the targeted unit is engaged. So play it when you have “Stag’s Wit” in hand and enjoy the double bonus. Third, if by any chance you have Bronn or a unit/attachment needing the Bags in your list, simply move away the NCU from there, and failing the panic test doesn’t matter since you can heal your unit with the Bags effect. You won’t get more healing on another unit, but maybe just the fact of controlling the zone was enough for you. So quite a lot of options for a supposedly terrible card, which also has a very easy trigger to play.
So despite my initial disdain for his cards, and after analyzing them a bit more thoroughly, I actually really like the overall unit! It hits hard, heals well, has tons of movement and charge shenanigans, and acts as a morale helper for surrounding units. Plus a decent amount of control.
It does cost 8pts, which is quite an investment, but is an interesting alternative to a Stag Knights or Champions of the Stag unit, while being much more maneuverable than Rose Knights.
Looking forward to try them!
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The Rainbow Guard attachments
Let’s start with the Lord Commander of the Rainbow Guard, Loras Tyrell!
In short, he turns a unit into a mini-Rose Knights unit, thanks to “Deadly Bloom”. Or a complete Rose Knights unit if you put him in Pikemen. This is definitely not the worst idea you could have, giving the enemy less incentive to hunt your Pikemen down, as Renly’s healing capabilities are legendary.
Next, we have Bryce Carron with “Taunt” order. This is an order which many players do not like, but I still think it can have value depending on who your opponent is. Everyone keeps saying “To beat Rose Knights, avoid them”. Well, now you can’t if they don’t want you to. It is still highly situational and will usually only work on low morale factions/units, but to force an opponent to charge your Rose Knights instead of your Pikemen could be a good option.
The fourth sculpt of Brienne comes with “Battle Scars”, which is a really good ability on a resistant unit. If you are confident in your Pikemen’s healing, having this ability could turn them into an absolutely terrifying unit. Rose Knights are another great option, as they do not have any keyword straight away, but your opponent will probably try to avoid hitting them altogether with the double incentive of auto-wounds + improving them. I could see her in Thorn Watch too: with their retreat ability, they could get out of combats, heal and improve their melee quite nicely.
Parmen Crane is the winner of the box for me: “Rally Cry” is an exceptionally useful ability, and is so far mostly accessible on cavalry units with the Glory Seeker attachment. To have it on an infantry unit is fantastic, allowing your Champions of the Stag to be healed rather than healing others. I could see him on a Sentinel unit or even a Stag Knights unit, both enjoying later rounds smashing, fully benefiting from his healing ability. In a Wardens or Rose Knights unit in the center of the table could work well too, helping the surrounding units to keep more ranks.
Next is Guyard Morrigen, bringing “Counterstrike” and “Dauntless”. I really like the first ability, which is already on the Wardens, meaning you could have a whole list of “hit me get hit” units. He is 2pts however, and I never really valued “Dauntless” that much, too unpredictable for an overall medium morale subfaction, so for me probably the worst attachment of the box (which is a shame, as he is my favorite of the box lore-wise).
Emmon Cuy brings “Vengeance of the Crown”, like Boros Blount in the Kingsguard. This is a Crown zone dependent ability, and a retaliation one, which means is quite easy to play around for the opponent. As such I don’t really like it, although I could see it on a Pikemen unit to make the opponent second-guessing attacking them.
The final member of the Rainbow Guard is Robar Royce, who also costs 2pts, and brings some offensive power to his unit: “Furious charge” is an added incentive to get your Pikemen charging, while “Reckless Strike” is a double-edged sword, which can either go fantastically well or fantastically bad (if you’re like me and usually roll 1s on this particular ability). He is good, but there are only two units hitting on 3s in Renly’s infantry: Rose Knights and Stag Knights. He unfortunately does not synergize well them (Rose Knights too slow for reliable charges, and Stag Knights already benefitting from Critical Blow and already costing 8pts). I could see him in a neutral unit such as the Bolton Cutthroats or the Bloody Mummers, for a quite cheap but potent glass-canon.
So all in all, some interesting attachments but a few which do not synergize that well with the Renly side.
Side note: I’m quite sad that Guyard Morrigen is not double loyalty and usable in a Stannis army, since he went on to become the commander of Stannis vanguard at the Battle of the Blackwater, and his profile would have synergized fantastically with Stannis units. Same with Bryce Carron, a Queensmen unit with “Taunt” would have been particularly nice…
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For sure, this box is probably the least interesting option-wise of the four Baratheon Heroes boxes, but I still find it a worthy addition to the Renly side, being very lore-accurate in its representation of the Rainbow Guard and the Knights of Summer: a deadly force eager to fight, but flawed.
It’s a 7/10 for me, most of the points going to the Rainbow Guard unit for their lore-accuracy and gameplay, the negatives being the lack of double-attachments with Stannis and the lack of synergy with Renly most of the individual attachments have.
Plus I prefer Stannis so I’m biased…
Grob’
Chez Grob 