2024 has been a big year for ASOIAF: The Miniatures Game, from a major update that reshaped the state of the game, a whole new skirmish game that opens up different eras of the world, and a brand-new Faction that was hotly anticipated. Let’s review the major moments throughout the year and look ahead.
Season 4 – Rules Update
Season 4 was a big update to the game with some impactful changes to the game state which set it up for the next year or two.
Towards the end of 2023, events were dominated with Golden Company Swordsmen with most players bringing the stellar 7pts Unit as it was far too good to pass. CMON did an emergency nerf to the Unit before the Season 4 update, and it was a precursor to a big update that will shake the game.
Starks were overhauled, their Units were suffering from power creep with their abilities being lackluster in comparison to more recently released Units for many Factions. Umbers took center stage however and have been a constant menace at events for the entirety of the year. A super aggressive Faction with some of the best Units in the game in the form of Infantry, Cavalry, and NCUs.
House Bolton didn’t see enough changes to give them a boost to their performance and the result of which has kept them still at the bottom of all Factions in the game. Neutrals are not far behind them receiving hit after hitting due to their roster being abused in other Factions, even Boltons took their pound of flesh from them. Stormcrows saw a much-needed buff whilst Mummers saw nothing, and Golden Company started lending out a lot of crossbows.
The biggest changes come from The Wall. Free Folk lost a lot of tools that kept them competitive and have slowly drifted away from relevance at events with players preferring the multiple attack actions of an aggressive list. There are still some teeth to the Free Folk but mostly they are no longer the favourite toy to play with. Speaking of no longer a favourite, Night’s Watch had been a ridiculous Faction for a while but got hit so hard with the nerf bat that they fell far from grace. They remain however with unique combinations and designs, but just like Free Folk and some other Factions, the internal balance is a huge problem and mainly from their Commanders.
Baratheons and Targaryens stepped up to the plate with Targaryens looking to be a firm favourite, whereas Baratheons had me nervous as it didn’t seem to be enough, but I was for sure wrong. Stannis forces started to shine more and more with King’s Men, whilst Commanders like Cortnay Penrose started to have a place in the meta.
Season 4 was an incredible shakeup to the game, injecting a lot of new life into almost all Factions and especially what was considered good for events. There were a lot of different lists stepping up to take center stage in their forces with some never seeing the tabletop much before. It was a good start to the year and to updating the game. This quality needed to continue come the next update in six months.
ASOIAF: Tactics
A brand new game to the miniatures we know and love but in skirmish format. CMON launched their crowdfunding campaign on Gamefound that was fully funded in 1 hour 45 minutes and have been working on the game throughout the year ready for release in 2025.
Hot on the tails of the Season 4 update, CMON announced a skirmish game that also opens the game to several new eras. Previously, the game was a “What if?” scenario of events that could happen after the death of Robert Baratheon; however, with the skirmish game, the eras of Robert’s Rebellion, the Blackfyre Rebellion, and the Dance of the Dragons are now open for people to pull characters and Units from. This could even extend further with Aegon’s Conquest or even the Age of Heroes. The book is now open.
But the best part of this game is the several new models of characters people have wanted for a while in the form of a new Tully character in Hoster Tully, or even the Brotherhood Without Banners finally arriving. It does also leave it open for a small force of The Others with White Walkers, Wights, and undead animals, that doesn’t seem possible in the main game.
I did get to sit down with Fabio Curry, one of the lead designers of the game, and played the new skirmish version of ASOIAF. I can see this game being well loved as there is a lot of creativity at your fingertips when designing your warband to achieve the win, but on top of that each character is far more realised with a whole card and sometimes a second card of rules specific to them rather than a buff to a Unit they join. It gives a lot more narrative to a Robb Stark or Jaime Lannister model in your forces.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the game when it releases. We have done several reviews for the different boxes that you can get for Tactics. They should all be coming to retail apart from the Battle Beneath The Wall set and Dunc and Egg set in 2025.
Slow Unit Box Releases
Throughout the year there has been a slower trickle of releases instead of a larger wave that CMON is used to. Almost every Faction saw a new release this year in some form or another.
CMON have tried something new with this year’s releases where instead of releasing a whole bunch of boxes in one large wave every quarter, they instead slowly burn the releases over the year. The cons of this have been less releases than what we previously had and a disproportionate addition to Factions that could boost them ahead of others who did not get their equal participation cake.
However, the pros far out weigh the cons in this situation. The game remains relevant for longer with the releases drip fed over time rather in one go like you’re binging a TV Show. This also helps with distribution with less stress on having several boxes released and instead just need one. When they do step up to multiple boxes, delays tend to happen, and releases are pushed back, and this has been quite evident with the end of the year releases.
This has been rather successful with stocking being less of an issue this year than previous until the release of the Brotherhood, but what takes this further is leaks. CMON have started to promote some early looks at new releases which seems to have stopped leaks from surfacing whilst also generating a significant amount of hype on big ticket releases. The Brotherhood rules revealed over several weeks had a lot of people turning up to see what was coming and was likely the biggest engagement time for CMON on their socials.
CMON should continue with these releases, and when it comes to much larger releases they still need to improve. 2025 feels like it should have a large Heroes box wave which has does a great job of keeping the game fresh for little, however,
Season 5 – Rules Update
Season 5 was a lackluster update which was little more than a small patch to Season 4 and should have been referred to as a mid-season update instead.
This update was considered one of the worst updates that CMON has ever done for the game. If it was called a mid-season update, it wouldn’t have had the outrage that the community commanded. This was to be considered as a major update enough to warrant it being titled as its own season. But the few updates that were present weren’t enough for almost all Factions. The best word I can use to describe this season is neglect.
Boltons did not get a substantial update to bring them in line with the rest of the game. Heavy Cavalry were slightly touched that didn’t change much other than firm their usefulness in their Factions. Free Folk, Night’s Watch, and Neutrals, weren’t addressed thoroughly. The only outlier is Targaryens who have been neglected for a long while, with Season 4 and 5 both pushing them to almost a full rework.
Season 5 was a letdown, but context changes everything. It is quite likely that CMON didn’t have time to do a substantial update due to working on finalising the ASOIAF: Tactics ruleset. A massive priority would be to try and make it on time for the Gamefound campaign’s release but limit the delayed time as much as possible, which is way more important at this stage than the main game. If CMON came out and said this, then advertised the update as a minor mid-season update, then this would have been handled far better.
I hope this was a valuable lesson for 2025 around giving the audience context to the situation, but also one to the community to take in consideration of what may be happening behind the scenes. Yes, this was disappointing, but it could be far worse, and you may not understand what is going on behind the scenes to amount to this.
Brotherhood Without Banners
The Brotherhood Without Banners made their debut to the game in ASOIAF: Tactics, but their full Faction release was not far behind for the main game. Whilst some are still waiting for the release others have got their hands on the miniatures with them painting up a storm.
Perhaps one of the most anticipated Factions in the game, the Brotherhood Without Banners took the community by storm with their incredible rules enough to make people curious about their potential in competitive play. There are a lot of aspects to this Faction that may result in them being a dominant force to be cautious about in events. It certainly puts the rules behind the Bolton Faction to shame.
It is always a good time when a whole new Faction is added to the game, and this is a special case with people not expecting to get them for a while with Tactics. I hope we see more Factions as there are still several corners of the world that need to be explored. Most people are looking forward to House Arryn, but more Mini-Factions could be on the way too.
2025 will see a huge release in Tactics, so we may see attention split from the main game to the skirmish game. Due to the sheer number of models coming with rules for the main game because of Tactics, we may not see a new Faction next year, or it will be towards the end of the year just like the Brotherhood.
Events
There are far too many events for the game to list, but throughout the entire world there has been huge portions of the community turning up for gaming days and weekends. The Realm of Battle event had 200 players from several different countries attend! Wherever you are in the world, events are on the rise, and it has been one of the constant highlights of the year.
2025 has several incredible events to look forward to, with one of the biggest looking to be the return of Carlo from asoiaf-stats to tournament organising. The Invitational will be a huge event with people all around the world attending. GTs in several countries are continuing ahead and with the growth for the community on the up, this could be one hell of a yeah for events.
If you have an event you would like to notify people on, then do reach out to myself!
Final Thoughts
2024 was a pulse of energy at the start that began to dwindle into the middle. Big events and hyped releases saw it rise once again, and hopefully this will continue on into 2025. There is a whole new Faction the community is only just exploring, and a whole new game that awaits. Happy New Year Everyone!
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