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I’d recommend checking out the official game website to see the list of factions. Perhaps look at the available units on an online retailer to see which factions’ unit models you like best. Ultimately, when you’re getting started in the game, I’d advise picking the faction you think looks coolest or whose lore you like best. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few factions, then maybe watch some battle reports that feature those factions to see which one you think you’d like the playstyle of most. When I started the game, I focused purely on the faction that I liked the most aesthetically (Greyjoy) and went from there. I play several factions now but only play/paint those that I like the look/playstyle/lore of.

Also, like I mentioned in the video, the official game app, War Council, has all the game’s unit cards, tactics cards, etc bound up into an army builder, so you can see what every single unit does from your phone.

@@imperialminis857 I will! Thank you!

@@imperialminis857 Thank you so much for this Advice. Greyjoy looks Amazing. Stark... I love Targeryan, Riders and Dragons. I will keep you updated!

There are a surprising number of players who aren’t into the books or show! They enjoy the game despite not caring about the surrounding lore. That’s a pretty good indication of a strong game system, in my estimation.

I’m glad some of these top tens resonated with your interest in the game, and that’s awesome that this game rekindled your interest in the world of ASOIAF!

Nasty combo that sounds really fun to try!

Awesome! They’re such cool models. They’re some of the first models in the game but still some of the best. Enjoy painting them!

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed the video! The cloak colors are based off of Scalecolor Boreal Green and Caspian Blue. I add various grays to those to achieve the final look. I believe I explain the colors later in the video.

@@imperialminis857 Thanks! I edited the comment cause I wass till watching but seems like it showed you the original. Anyhow big thank you :)

Thanks. I like to find ways to break up the uniformity a little bit by changing up the colors of certain items. It kind of fools the eye into making you think you’re not looking at the same three or four sculpts.

He could use a rebalance for sure. Whenever any unit or commander becomes an auto-include, some balancing needs to be done. I think he could go up to 6 points, or have some tweaks made to the wording of his ability. Making him the same cost as Tywin NCU seems fitting, given the power level of both NCUs.

@@imperialminis857 I believe 6 pts is a good start. I would perhaps say either the unit that was destroyed comes back without any attachments, tokens, etc... or change the ability entirely and perhaps have him spawn a free unit of Ironborn Reavers instead.

@Consul_Xydias those are all good ideas. You might be on to something with the Reaver spawn, since that’s what we’ve seen before with the Free Folk’s Endless Horde card. Time will tell I guess. There’s another balance patch due sometime this summer, so perhaps Balon will see changes during that patch.

Hola Saludos desde Chile.. sorry for my englsih..... I have a question: when you activate Balon, what happens if the Lannister Tactic Card Intrigue and Subterfuge is played against me... do I lose only the activation for that round and can try again the next round? Or when the card is played, do I lose that ability for the rest of the game?

@osvaldofernandez8641 ¡Hola mi amigo Chileano! Visité tu país y lo disfruté mucho. When Intrigue and Subterfuge is used on Balon, it just removes his abilities for the Round. It does not prevent him from still being able to claim a zone on the tactics board. He just won’t be able to use his resurrection ability that round and effectively becomes a blank NCU. But his ability could be used in another Round (assuming you don’t get his by another Intrigue & Subterfuge first).

Those are some great ideas I’d never considered! I’d like to give Beron NCU more of a chance, and Stormcrow Lieutenant sounds cool! Giving a unit Sundering is always very powerful.

Thanks, I paint the dirt effect by drybrushing a light-colored earth color to represent dried mud, and then drybrush a darker colored mud color toward the bottom of the cloak to represent fresher mud. You'll want to drybrush less of the cloak with the darker color, to show that there's older dried mud at the top.

Great to hear that! It sounds like some of the reasons I mentioned in the video apply to your situation.

Thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos! That’s some serious commendable commitment there. Just be cautious not to bite off too much at once and burn yourself out. I’ve been playing the game for several years now and even I don’t own all the factions. Too each his own, but I feel like if I owned all of them, I might not put as much focus on any one faction, as I’d be jumping around between factions too quickly. Local ASOIAF communities are the life-blood of this game, and being a local champion of the game can be very rewarding if you’re able to grow the game in your area. It’s really a game that sells itself once people see it on the table. I had good success in the past hosting learn-to-play events at local stores, letting people learn the game playing starter box armies. If you have any painted armies yet, those also really help build local interest at these events. Best of luck and thanks for the support!

Any time you can pay under MSRP for BSF sets, that’s a huge win. It took me three years to finally accumulate all of the boxed content for the game (at somewhat reasonable prices).

@@imperialminis857 Recently picked up a combat patrol for 60% off, so might throw up for trade for all 3 card packs in 1 of the FB groups and see if someone bites.

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoy the paint style!

@@imperialminis857 seriousyl making me consider starting BOlton if not them then Knightswatch witht this same grim style you got going

@millburray6676 That’s awesome. ASOIAF is a relatively affordable game, if you’re not already aware. Boltons are a super fun faction to play. They’re currently down at the bottom of the power rankings, but that’s mostly something you’ll notice at tournaments, not so much in local games. Night’s Watch recently caught a big nerf too, but they’re still a solid faction. In the end, I’d just paint and play what appeals to you most, since armies’ power levels will wax and wane as game updates come and go, regardless of which faction you pick.

@@imperialminis857 Oh for sure i am not a power gamer. aesthetics and flavor are all im after.

@millburray6676 Cool, then Boltons sound right up your alley!

I couldn’t see myself going back to any game that doesn’t utilize alternating activations. It’s just so much more interactive and you’re not stuck sitting there for 30min while your opponent has their way with you. Although ASOIAF has lots of characters it, those characters really just add additional abilities or stat modifiers to the units they’re in. There isn’t really any hero-on-hero single combat going on, so it still feels very much like an army game thankfully.

I don’t play Lannisters at the moment and don’t own any Lannister minis, so it’s not likely that I’ll paint CRHG any time soon unfortunately. I have a mountain of other units still to paint for my other factions I play.

Thanks Brent! Well, everyone needs one set of lucky dice. 😄

I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Clarence!

Thank you for your service. 🫡

Thanks Tony. That’s one of my favorite aspects of this match, and a good lesson for the game in general: how a game can start to look hopeless, but then the cavalry arrives, literally and figuratively!

Good call-out, thanks!

Thanks a lot for the compliment! Yes, these do take a lot of work, so I appreciate that the effort comes across in the final product. As a rough estimate, I think these take between 12-18 hours to produce, but I’ve never kept close track of the time, especially since I space it out an hour here, and hour there, over the course of weeks. Thanks for the supportive feedback!

Definitely felt nice to get them early! I don’t recall ever having them both that early before.

​@@imperialminis857 Great report as always, if you're ever visiting the UK I'd love a game

Thanks, I’d love to visit the UK. I’ve never been!

Thanks for the kind words and long-time support Woody!

This was a pretty casual local tournament with a lot of new or newer players. I played an unrecorded game versus Thom, the Lannister player, and didn’t consider any of the things you mentioned to be ill-intentioned or malicious in nature. There’s also a certain degree of nervousness that comes with being filmed during a tournament game which is already, by its nature, a stressful situation.

There’s definitely a factor of personal preference in any of these “top 10 reasons”. That said, I would argue that most players would rather bring a free 30 page softcover rulebook to a game than multiple tomes they had to pay for. Less required hobbying on the minis is another matter of personal preference, but is definitely one that is more approachable to newer tabletop hobbyists or those without the time, desire, or resources to assemble minis. That said, there are a bunch of people in the ASOIAF community that customize and kitbash their ASOIAF minis, so the option is still there.

Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you’ve found this video and the Wardens video helpful as you continue your miniature painting journey. As for priming, I use airbrush primer for a couple of reasons: first and foremost, it’s a lot cheaper than using spray primer, and second, you have greater control when using an airbrush. But for me, the cost-effectiveness is the biggest factor. If rattle can primer was a lot less expensive, I’d use it 100% of the time for convenience purposes. But as it is, a bottle of airbrush primer costs the same or less than a rattle can and lasts me five or six times as long, easily.

@@imperialminis857 Thanks for the reply! I use hardware store rattle can primers but I can't seem to find black-brown color, nor do I have an airbrush, so I was wondering if you had tried applying ProAcryl black-brown primer with brush and if you did, if it worked well.

@sh4dewarrior576 I think that applying the Black Brown primer with a brush would work just fine, assuming you had already applied a black primer underneath. The Pro Acryl Black Brown is thin enough that it should go on pretty smooth. In fact, I often find myself touching up the minis with a brush after airbrushing the primer on, because there are inevitably little nooks and crannies that I miss with the airbrush. So I’d definitely recommend giving the Black Brown a try with a brush if you don’t have an airbrush (again, assuming there’s already another primer layer underneath).

Thanks Woody!

The setting of ASOIAF lends itself to some grimdark treatment, I think. It’s a pretty brutal, merciless, and violent world…

Thanks man!

I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Great, I hope this can be of some use to you as you paint your Baratheons!

Thanks, good to know. ;)

Thanks Sean!

Thanks Brent! It’s a pretty simple process for the armor and doesn’t require a lot of detail work at all. You could simplify the tabards by combining a couple of the steps (like base coating in 50/50 choc. brown and Iroko and doing 50/50 Iroko/Sahara Yellow for the first highlight).

I’ll have to give that a try!

The only differences between 3D terrain and 2D terrain for the purposes of this game are aesthetics and ease/difficulty of playing around the terrain. The company actually produced official 3D terrain versions of all the terrain in this game. It can be used in-game. People also make their own 3D versions of the terrain that they’ll overlay on top of the 2D versions and then move off of the 2D version once a unit needs to traverse that terrain. The developers have, on multiple occasions, encouraged players to design their own custom pieces of terrain with their own mix of keywords or new keywords. Most players just choose to stick with the terrain described in the rules. In games that use movement trays (ASOIAF, WH: ToW, Conquest, etc.), it can make gameplay feel clunky when movement trays are balancing at awkward angles on 3D pieces of terrain. I enjoy the 2D terrain. It makes gameplay much smoother than using 3D terrain. A good balance that some players use is to, as I described above, lay 3D terrain on top of the 2D cardboard terrain and simply remove the 3D version when units get close enough to traverse them or engage in combat over them.

Thanks a lot Woody!

Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you’re enjoying the battle reports! I’m generally more punishing on myself than my opponents, but sometimes things work out for me. I love playing this game and trying out new lists, and it helps that the community in this game is almost universally amazing. I can count on one hand how many unenjoyable games/opponents I’ve encountered during my entire time playing this game.

@@imperialminis857 Same, I'm still fairly new to the game, but you can really feel the passion for it that others have. I'd be interested to see how you'd play using my baratheon list.

@TeethSink Stay tuned. I’ll be playing a Stannis list in the next battle report!