Happy New Year! A Season 2 Wish List
A Wish List for Season 2 (Farewell 2022)
We now have almost a year of experience with Season 1 (if you're feeling antsy, remember Season 1 didn't release until 14 February 2022) & talk is increasing of a hopeful balance update in 2023. I've tried my best not to get too caught up in it - after all, nothing's been announced & we have no timeline for such an update (or even confirmation that an update is in the works at all, to be frank). At this point, all we have is a hope based on the past two updates that occurred at the "start" (more-or-less) of 2021 & 2022.
Nonetheless, this article is me finally caving & getting in on the hype with a wish list of things I might like to see in an update. I like the idea of smaller balance updates in general, preferably something more like the Season 1 update than the 2021 update. I'm not going to provide a comprehensive list of everything I'd like to see change, but rather a top 4 or so things from each faction - both overperformers to be tuned down & underperformers to be tuned up. I would love to see more Tactics Deck updates than were present in Season 1 - the Card Update Packs are older product by now & I think that's an extremely useful tool they could lean on more this time around!
Lannisters
Buff:
Lannister is my main faction so for no reason other than that I'm listing them first. (Deal with it!) I'd love to see Counterplot auto-succeed if you Control the Crown. I realize it's already a strong card but considering the pass rate is 90% with the Crown; it's reliable enough that this is a small change, but it goes a long way in eliminating the brutal negative experience of hitting that 10% failure rate at a key moment. (Sometimes my more empathetic opponents will even feel bad instead of laughing in my face when this happens.) I'd also like to see Clegane Brigands drop to 6 points like all the other Light Cavalry did in Season 1. I'm still skeptical they'd be good at 6 points, but I want the chance to try it & be disappointed! I'd suggest a change to Casterly Rock Honor Guard, but I honestly just have no clue what to do with them...
Nerf:
Addam in Warrior Sons might not be game breaking, but it's ridiculous & can really ruin an unaware opponent's day. I think the Warrior Sons' defensive faith ability should grant the ability Hardened for the duration of that attack, so that Addam can no longer stack Hardened in that unit. (The benefit will be that we'll finally see Addam in units other than Warrior Sons.) It pains me to say this, but maybe Mountain That Rides should be 3+ armor & 5 movement. He's undeniably good right now (though extra movement could end up being a buff overall). I'm not sure if he needs that change or change his unblockable hits to boring old Sundering.
Stark
Buff:
Let the North remember wolves. This is a small change, & certainly not all that Stark needs, but it will stop those Northerners from bitching every time we kill one of their wolves! Additionally, let's give Robb Stark the same (better) Hit and Run that other factions have. The Wolf Lord deserves to be a better Commander & it would be in line with their apparent attempts to eliminate inconsistencies between Tactics Cards of the same name. Finally, pick a 7-point infantry unit & buff it; I don't really care which one (or all of them) - Greataxes, Bruisers, Bog Devils; all 3 are decent candidates, though the latter is unlikely being so new.
Nerf:
In this one particular case, I actually don't think I'm going to suggest any nerfs to the faction. Their top units, She-Bears & Tully Cav, are undoubtedly good but not game breaking. Their top commanders, Eddard & Greatjon, are decent but not nearly as highly ranked as other factions' top commanders. There's just nothing outstandingly over-performing in Stark right now.
Free Folk
Nerf:
This is a big one - though that actually makes it fairly easy to write. To no one's surprise, I'm going to suggest changes to Mance - who shores up Free Folk's weaknesses perfectly by improving Morale & can practically ensure an early Endless Horde in combination with The Long Plan. I think Mance should replace Inspiring Presence & Rally Point with Embolden & The Long Plan should only let you grab Commander Cards. From there, remove Insignificant from Raiders, which is a pretty widely disliked ability (by newer players especially), & I think Free Folk will remain strong, but beatable.
Buff:
There are plenty of places to improve Free Folk balance as well. Buff the Bear Riders - they're weak currently & a tough sell at 8 points; we all want to see Bear Riders on the field more. Mag Commander is such a unique idea, but needs a boost too, especially considering he replaces the very strong Free Folk Base Tactics Deck. I'd say give him a 2-point Commander discount. (& reduce Varamyr to a 1 point Commander discount while we're at it. Yes, I'm sneaking another nerf into my paragraph about buffs; such is the life when you're the top dog.)
Greyjoy
Buff:
Let every unit in the army collect Pillage, whether they can benefit from it or not. The Pillage system needs a boost & this alone is probably not enough. At least this way you're improving Erik Commander, Asha NCU (probably still bad), Raiding Call, The Iron Price (as long as you also remove the wording "if this unit has Pillage, place the removed Pillage token on this unit"), & various other parts of Greyjoy all at once. Give Kraken's Wrath re-rolls all the time, Precision if you or your opponent controls Swords, & Vulnerable or Panicked if you or your opponent controls Bags. I'd also consider giving Finger Dance re-rolls to your Melee Attacks (but not the opponent's - they don't know the Finger Dance) so that it becomes useful on something other than Bowmen.
Speaking of Bowmen, I think they need a subtle nerf, but nothing that eliminates them from list building. Stark Bowmen hit on 5+ in melee & have 6+ armor at 6 points. As long as that remains true, I think Ironborn Bowmen deserve a similar profile at 4 points. I think they would still be used with that change (& probably still be somewhat spammed even).
Night's Watch
Nerf:
Solo Cold Hands is too strong. Ben Stark is cool but will rarely see play as long as Cold Hands is so powerful (& tied to him in some way that future books might reveal). I think his respawn should be a Once per Game ability; I have no doubt that he'll still get use with that change. The Watch Captain should then trade abilities & cost with Qhorin attachment. Relentless is an important ability for the balance of the game, but I think having it on unnamed Characters is a poor choice, for theme as well as balance. (Spoiler alert for when you reach the Targaryen section!)
Buff:
The Vanguard can probably afford to decrease to 6 points like the other light cavalry for as long as Outflank remains more-or-less useless. I'd love to see that fixed also, but until then, I think that change would suffice. Then there's poor Dolorous Ed. At 2 points, I'd be comfortable seeing him gain Boisterous Charisma (for the irony of it, alone) & change Gallows Humor to give +1 to Hit with 1+ rank(s) missing & re-rolls on Melee Attacks with 2 ranks missing, or something like that (build-your-own Stark Sworn Swords).
Targaryen
Buff:
The Targaryen deck needs help supporting Infantry. While I'm not sure how to do this, my first suggestion could help & is an idea that probably interests me the most. A subtheme of the Targaryen faction is 4 Commander Cards instead of 3, with a specific one replaced from the Base Tactics Deck in each case. Rather than removing a specific card though, I'd be interested to see how allowing the player to select which pair of duplicate cards is removed from the deck instead. (Davos can too, why the heck not?) Is Belwas better with Field Control? What about Marsalen? Is Drogo a menace with Sudden Retreat? I'd be disappointed though if, instead of becoming an additional list building tool, we just saw the same "worst" card that always gets removed in favor of the 4th commander card. Speaking of card improvements & helping Infantry, I think Fire & Blood could benefit from a double trigger - "When a friendly unit is performing a Charge or Attack Action, before resolving that Action." This would help start to assist Targaryen if they get stuck in an engagement.
Nerf:
Since the faction is already struggling, I'm not going to suggest much. I think all I'd like to see is a nerf to Mother of Dragons - oh wait, sorry! That's from my 2021 notes! Well since I mentioned her, let's instead give her back a 1-point discount to 1 Dragon, lose the 2 VP from killing her, & give Dracarys!, Dragon's Flight, & Fire Made Flesh a "Start of Turn: Draw a Card" secondary ability (because every other commander card that can become useless has this ability). Her nerf was overdone & it would allow 3 Dragon lists to reach 7 activations again (even if just barely!). ANYWAY, like Night's Watch, I'd suggest trading the Unsullied Officer's cost & abilities with Grey Worm attachment. Multiple instances of Relentless are less common in Targaryen anyway, but I need to suggest something & Grey Worm deserves to be played more!
Baratheon
Nerf:
Buff:
Is Rainbow Guard too good? Nope. I'd advocate for dropping their unit cost by a point (at least). I'd also love to see the banners re-worked into something more useful for Renly, instead of a copy of Joffrey's Banners (they're much better suited to Joffrey & Lannister currently). Additionally, give Renly 3 an NCU version; Baratheon got robbed of that option on box release & Renly is more a politician than a warrior.
Martell
I don't expect them to change at all (& I don't think they need a change yet). If anything, I think we'd see Supply Aid &/or Battle Endurance get small, downward tweaks globally - maybe lose the +1 Wound from Supply Aid & even just a different order of buffs on Battle Endurance, i.e. Critical Blow first, then re-rolls, Sundering, & then extra attack dice. This idea comes from our local Stark player who, looking at Sworn Swords, views the re-rolls as higher value than Critical Blow. The more extreme suggestion I've heard (& don't necessarily disagree with) is limiting the card to Infantry only.
Much like Greyjoy last year, I don't think we should expect any changes specifically for the newest faction though.
Neutrals
They're perfect as-is. What else is there to say? More seriously, adjusting Neutrals is exceptionally difficult, as you need to consider (nearly) every other faction & the impact any changes would have on them. I don't envy the designers for that task.
Since I'm not paid to re-balance the game, I'll simply say that I like the idea of reducing Neutral allowances. However, where people frequently say 25% (or 10-max in a 40-point list), I will go far more conservative & suggest only that your army be a majority in-faction. Yup, I'm suggesting limiting Neutrals to 19 points rather than 20 points. Would that even matter? It would prohibit double Flayed Men + Petyr, so that's something (but honestly, I rarely see it anyway). Many players believe it needs to go farther, but I'd like to see this super conservative approach first. (I'm 100% biased, as a player who frequently runs Bolton-heavy Lannister lists.)
Final Thoughts
Moreover, I wouldn't mind seeing a few general updates for the game. I would love a new Game Mode & would be more than happy to settle for an update to an existing one. I haven't given much thought on what I want to see there, but any Game Mode change brings an interesting & refreshing change of pace, simply because it will matter to every faction, every player, & (nearly) every tournament.
I'd be interested to see NCU's give up a VP when they die, exactly like Combat Units. There's quite a few NCU self-sacrificing abilities now, & even a way to poison your opponents' NCU's. I think this would be a positive change for several reasons. Qhorin NCU along with Now His Watch Is Ended can be oppressive; Night's Watch players happily sacrifice Cold Hands at the cost of a Victory Point to trigger it in a similar way, so I think it'd be fair to do the same with Qhorin. Eddard Hand of the King would probably need a point decrease, but I don't think that'd be a bad thing for him either. (We already have a 6-point Eddard NCU that rarely gets used, we hardly need two of them.) Cressen is probably still fine, but it's hard to know right now (as the saying goes in this community, "not enough data"). This would be a boost to Tyene, but at 5 points most players feel that her ability is a little underwhelming at the moment, so gaining a VP from it could be just what it needs, hopefully without pushing it into overpowered territory.
These are the types of things I'd like to see for this game. I'm certain I'll be happy with whatever the game designers come up with whenever the next update is released though. I'm not holding my breath & I'm continuing to enjoy the game as it exists today, as I recommend everyone continues to do. It's still the same game so many of us fell in love with & it still excels compared to so many other games out there!
Enjoy 2023 & every game you play this year. I'm looking forward to hearing about them! (& of course, let me know if you hate my ideas & think my proposed "balance" changes are crap; those are always the most fun comments to read!)
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