A Season 2 Update Delivered!

Farewell Season 1, Hello Season 2

The dust is only just starting to settle on the on the drop of this newest update, Version 2021 Season 2, but it's a perfect time to give some initial feedback on this latest revision to the game we all know & love so much.  I posted a Season 2 Wishlist back in February, so I thought I'd look back on that to shamelessly praise myself for what I got right, completely ignore things I got wrong, & give some general feedback on the update as a whole. (Just kidding, I'll briefly & begrudgingly acknowledge what I got wrong too - mostly.)

The Wishlist - What I Wanted & What We Got

Lannister

I wanted to see Brigands go to 6 points, & that's exactly what we got!  Then add in the bonus of Halberdiers dropping to 5 points, & Lannister have already gotten more buffs than a handful of other factions in this update.  I mentioned Casterly Rock Honor Guard as well, but had no clue how to change them into something I could get excited about using.  CMON heard myself & others on this subject & did change them too by dropping to 7 points & adding 1 movement, but their clunky ability remains (in a landscape with less tokens, no less) & I don't think I'll be bringing them to the battlefield any time soon.  But it's change in the right direction, & it's somewhat interesting to see our first ever 3+ armor infantry with 5 movement.  Crazy enough, what does excite me is the change to Joffrey Commander.  Losing the extra Victory Points on death & gaining an ability to be more maneuverable from the Crown, I believe have made him go from terrible to quite viable simply by changing his attachment from a liability to asset.

When they previewed the change to Hardened, I really thought my prediction to eliminate the Addam + Warrior Sons would happen as well, probably by having Warrior Sons spend a faith to gain the ability Hardened, but that did not come true - Addam Sons will now simply block 1 less wound each attack, but I think they're still probably the best unit for Addam Commander.  I had also hoped for some tactics card changes (this was a wish for pretty much all factions), but none were seen here.  Additionally, the Mountain that Rides also stayed the same, so he will remain a staple in nearly all Lannister lists.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +11 points = improving)

Stark

Sadly, this is not the season that Starks will remember wolves, nor will Robb Stark improve by gaining a better version of Hit & Run.  In an update that focused on global changes, I think the developers missed an opportunity to touch similarly named tactics cards (i.e. Hit & Run) & make them perform on the same level across all factions & commanders.  Drogo can still shoot with Assault Orders, but Stark cannot.  Benjen can still Hit & Run from a charge, but Robb must start engaged; and so it will remain for the time being.

Instead Starks got an improvement to Bruisers by dropping a point, a side-grade (possibly a nerf?) to Karstark Spears, & a microscopic improvement to their Bowmen (+1 morale).  All 3 of these units needed help, but I don't know if any of the changes are enough to move the needle & make up for loosing a lot of the potency of She-Bears via War Cry.  To expand on that though, I think Starks do benefit from the War Cry & Hardened changes, despite being impacted by both, simply by catching less nerfs to their key pieces than most other factions did.  The clear top choices were Eddard & Great Jon commanders in Season 1, & as long as you continue to bring either of them, Stark players will probably continue to do alright.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +3 points = relatively unchanged)

Free Folk

Now this is a big one.  Mance got hit hard, to no one's surprise.  Losing the morale bubble was definitely the right call - adding the King Is Dead! seems a little extreme, but I actually think Mance can weather it and remain a decent commander choice.  Will he be out shined by other commanders now, including 5 point Mag C (I called for a 2pt discount, so we'll see if 4 is too much.) I'm not sure of the answer to that question, but it's a good sign that we're even asking it.

Outside of Mance, Free Folk also saw the most Tactics Cards changes of any faction (2 meaningful changes to the base deck and 1 totally irrelevant one, at least in this faction).  I'm a big fan of the Endless Horde change (Euron players may disagree), since you can no longer bring on a free Raider round 1 and the opponent can play into and has some control over choosing to kill a unit that has this card attached.  There's Too Many was an insanely powerful card - I wouldn't have been surprised (and would have been happy) to see it go to a flat +1 wound, similar to Hear Me Roar!, but no extra wounds makes a lot of sense too.

I would have liked to see Varamyr change, but he's pretty new, so I'm not terribly surprised they left him alone for now.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +4 points = relatively unchanged)

Greyjoy

I'm honestly mostly just confused by the Greyjoy changes.  They did nothing to help pillage or the Greyjoy Tactics Deck. In fact, Erik suffered a confusing change that is in almost all respects a nerf and Blacktyde Chosen lost Divide the Spoils for Embolden.  While I think this change to the Chosen goes a long way to make them playable, it does nothing to help pillage or any of the other units that try to use it.

And then there's Asha, a low ranked, imitation Mance, who caught most of the same nerfs as him just for having a similar suite of abilities (but terrible cards to back her up, which are now also slightly worse). She was a fall back for a lot of Greyjoy players, but I think a better answer would have been to make the other stuff more tempting to play than to make her even worse.

Hopefully the changes to the landscape via other factions helps Greyjoy this season, but I'm not sure if I see it happening and it must surely feel like a tough starting place for the faction.  The only true positive I have to say is at least bowmen escaped untouched.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +1 point = relatively unchanged)

Night's Watch

I'd argue Night's Watch saw the most changes, but not strictly for the worse, & I'm curious to see what their most competitive lists look like now.  Losing the Watch Captain was huge, as nearly all competitive Night's Watch lists relied on 1 if not 2 units with Watch Captains to pad activations.  With Relentless changed, Night's Watch will be joining so many other factions who now have to debate if they want to bring a powerhouse 7 activation list or a more diluted 8 activation list.  This certainly opens up changes list building for the faction & so I view it as a positive change, whether or not it makes the faction strictly better or worse.  This is not the change I expected for Relentless - it's better!

At the cost of losing Relentless, Night's Watch gained a lot of new tools.  I did not expect Donal & Qhorin NCU's to both drop a point in cost while Aemon remained untouched!  I'm more accepting of the Donal change & Aemon non-change than the Qhorin one - his ability seemed worth every bit of 6 points, so we'll see if it's too strong in the new landscape at 5! (Minor positive from this change, we can expect to see Cold Hands solo less often - while he didn't get a change, as I hoped, if he shows up less he'll be less of a problem by default.) It's also worth mentioning here that Gilly finally has the added rules to her card that allow her to function as the Designers always intended!

Finally, while Vanguards with improved defense & a new Outflank seem finally viable really good, Dolorous Ed will have to continue to sit dourly on the shelf for the time being, having received no changes.  I think Outflank could be very powerful now, but it's been unusable for so long, I'm happy to see it get its time to shine now.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +0 points = unchanged)

Targaryen

The Targaryen deck needed help supporting infantry, & with only a minor nerf to Field Control, that is still the case in Season 2.  They resolved the rules disputes & technical non-functionality (which I won't get into here) with their change to that card, & that's a positive thing.  They also eliminated its ability to cancel Endless Horde & Outflank (both of which would no longer be affected anyway) & Robb NCU (which was the ultimate disappointment for an already middling NCU).  All of those are positive changes; I'm only disappointed that it can no longer be used to prevent Enemy Retreats with the Maneuver Zone, which I'd argue was its strongest use outside of those previous hard-cancel effects.

Dragons might be INSANE again!?  As suggested, the extra Victory Points on Mother of Dragons have been removed, but they did not give her back a dragon discount...instead they gave the entire faction the old MoD discount by reducing the cost of all 3 dragons to 7 points each, no strings attached!  It's true that Dragons have weaker damage output than they did prior to Season 1, but a 1 point discount each is a big buff, so I'm reluctantly curious to see how this latest change balances out.  MoD can now bring an 8 activation list with 1 or 2 dragons.  Will it be good?  Time will tell.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +8 points = improving)

Baratheon

They arguably didn't get hit as hard as Greyjoy, but it's no fun to see strictly nerfs to your best stuff & no buffs to take the edge off.  Baratheon is probably still relatively competitive, but they have fallen & I think they may still fall a bit farther.  I feel for Baratheon players with no new things to try out in this update really.

When I saw the updates to make Joffrey Commander better in Lannister, I got my hopes up for the Rainbow Guard despite being so new still, but sadly I think we'll need to wait one more update before they get improved.  I still firmly believe they will be improved, & probably something a simple as dropping to 7 points will be enough for most people (I think they're worth closer to 6, but I've never seen a unit drop 2 points in one update); at this point, it's only a matter of "when."

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: -16 points = significantly worse)

Martell

I'm not surprised nothing changed.  I had kind of hoped some things would change, but since nothing I think they'll be very, very good in this Season. (Since my first draft of this, will I eat my words though?  Martell has dropped farther than any other faction so far this season...)

There's not much else to say about Martell, so I'll mention Expert Duelist here.  Going to 5+ to kill an attachment is quite unreliable now (when it was already pretty unreliable before).  I'm surprised they went all the way to 5+ instead of 4+, but on reflection I'm glad they did.  At a 50:50 chance, I think a lot of players would still be tempted (tricked?) into going for attachment kills & leading to one player or the other being disappointed a lot of the time (the victim, if they succeed, or the user, if they fail).  Expert Duelist was never really brought competitively for anything but the +1 Wound & guaranteed panic check anyway, so in that way, the ability hasn't really changed.  In that sense that sort of makes it the perfect change for the competitive & casual player alike so everyone can be happy with it.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: -18 points = significantly worse)

Neutrals

They honestly haven't changed much.  The change to Petyr is not a change.  Giving him 3 tokens on his main ability might as well be 6 tokens or a 6 million; I've played with him a few times already & you really don't notice a change.  The change to Flayed Men will hurt Neutrals, but the faction wasn't in a great place before, sad to say.  Their main hope is benefiting by catching less nerfs than other factions by not having access to any of the potent abilities like Hardened, War Cry, & Relentless that were changed.

(Faction Elo change since 28 Feb 2023: +6 points = relatively unchanged)

Final Thoughts

Nerfs don't feel great.  I wish more had changed after a year of Season 1.  Overall I think it was a good set of changes that hopefully do improve the game for however long Season 2 lasts, especially if we get a good FAQ in a few weeks time to give us another positive boost to the state of the game & the community that supports it.

I'd be overjoyed with a new FAQ if it includes just a few key things (I've tried to stay realistic):

1. An Errata to Now His Watch Is Ended so that it only triggers when a friendly Combat Unit dies.  This patch worked to eliminate extreme NPE abilities from the game & then might have made a huge one more prevalent with Qhorin trigger NHWIE by his own sacrifice ability.
2. An FAQ on targeting to match their recent article that states Orders target the unit in the trigger.  Hopefully that article was a hint an FAQ to come, as it would be a positive change to streamline targeting a little bit by making the rules for Tactics Cards & Orders match, because right now that's not actually the rules as written.
3. Errata to bring a few more of the varied tactics cards of the same name together - i.e. Hit & Run should be the same across all factions (which could be a secondary buff to Starks & Harma, if that comes) & all versions of Assault Orders & Price of Failure should be allowed to be used on Ranged Attacks or none should be, instead of the mix & match we have now.