A Song Of Ice and Fire: Karstark Loyalists Expansion

House Stark receives reinforcements in the form of their distant kin’s bannermen. The Karstark Loyalists are an attack-oriented unit for use by House Stark in the A song of ice and fire tabletop miniatures game. Wielding maces as well as shields and armour they are capable of pinning enemy forces and dealing damage in equal measure. They also have some great synergy with other stark units and are especially good when used with their spearmen counterpart or lead by their lord ‘Rickard’.

Stats

They have some respectable stats with okay armour of 4+ and a mid-level attack. But they make up for mediocre base stats with Precision on their attacks and a self-heal whenever they make an attack which compliments some of the Stark cards/attachments for good synergy. They also have a loyalist captain attachment who can be inserted into other units to provide a buff to them instead. They are also cheap at 5 points a unit. This puts them comparably to Stark Sworn swords who clock in with the same base stats but with differing special abilities with the loyalists more capable of survival due to their healing power.

The attachment is the Loyalist Captain who also has some nice special abilities. Furious Charge and Superior Numbers. The first making enemy units vulnerable on a successful charge while the latter gives a combat bonus against enemy units with fewer remaining ranks. An ability that combos nicely with the healing buff. If we consider the loyalists with their captain as a whole unit for 6 points then we have a unit with unremarkable stats but with some very nice abilities that make them extra dangerous on the charge but also able to hold out while they are still able to fight.

However, unlike most Stark units they need to hit hard and stay on top while the other units e.g. Sworn Swords hit harder as they take more damage which is a recurring Stark theme. This leads to a case of a unit that is somewhat atypical to the army playstyle that is already established and as such is one that is versatile but excels when used in conjunction with a meatier unit. Luckily a heavier unit exists in the form of the Karstark spearmen who can pin and camp an area of the board with relative ease.

Although it is reasonable to use the loyalists as a sticking/pinning unit you run the risk of losing their momentum and losing out on the captain’s bonus. They would also seem to struggle with higher armour units despite their precision and I can already see real problems using them against heavy infantry such as the Baratheons or other factions elite units. The spearmen/loyalist combo is however exceptional against lighter units and absolutely eats through Freefolk and Greyjoy units while taking minimal casualties in return. I can also see other healing units being an issue such as the Nights Watch roster.

Tactics

The best way to view the Karstark loyalists are as an alternative rank and file variant of the sworn swords that allow you to eschew the Stark’s general play style. A loyalist regiment with captain is almost a straight parallel option of a Sworn sword unit with Stark captain. As such they are a very versatile pick and there is a reasonable argument to be made for mixing the two units together as used in conjunction you can lay down some serious hurt and adapt to a nuanced situation. In terms of leaders, they have some good synergy with Rickard Karstark who is similar to a souped-up version of a loyalist captain with some self-sacrifice cards that can then be mitigated by the healing but then falls into the same pitfall that if the unit loses its superior ranks then it is playing at a disadvantage. You can also double down on the healing and use Eddard to get 3 heals on every attack(+1 in loyalists and +2 on another friendly unit). This is also a reasonable unit to put your commander in due to the extra survivability from the self-heal and the Starks lacking in many high armour units.

Components

The models themselves are very nicely sculpted and have a nice mixture of the classic Stark northern style with some more Sallets and plumes thrown in. One thing that is a little curious though is that the box art displays them in blue with red plumes…something which makes me think this was originally a Tully unit that got repurposed as the Karstark colours are black and white. But that is purely a theory, the end result either way is a very characterful and well produced unit that fits in nicely as part of a Northern horde. The card components are also nice although as is standard for this game they are likely out of date and the app should be used instead to make sure you are playing the latest/most balanced version.

Final Thoughts

The Loyalists are an interesting unit from a tactical viewpoint with some slightly different use cases from the standard vanilla Stark unit choice. It also means there are several of the Northern houses with good representation of multiple units and heroes now e.g. Stark, Mormont, Umber, Bolton and now Karstark so you have a lot of themed choices to pick from as well as mix and matching to make a diverse army. For instance, the incredibly ‘loyal’ force of Boltons and Karstarks… It is good to see that the lesser houses are getting frequent releases but it does also mean that the Stark core force is barely the largest sub-faction with only three/four unit choices to pick from If you want to go purely Stark. But this is a minor complaint and one that will probably be fixed with the release of more units.