Update 1 (February 5, 2024):
CMON dropped a bunch of info about A Song of Ice & Fire: Tactics on February 2nd and that included some juicy House Arryn news.
The custom House Arryn faction now has another official CMON character model to join Sansa and Littlefinger.
Lyn's model is absolutely amazing (like all the models they've previewed so far). There's been some discussion around whether it makes sense for Lyn to be on the Targaryen side when he fought for Robert during the Battle of the Trident and even killed Lewyn Martell during the battle, but he definitely adds some much needed main series name recognition to their team. Along with Lyn, we have two actual Arryns.
The Hand that started it all, Jon Arryn a.k.a Jonald Sutherland.
Jon has arrived from Panem to the riverlands to clash with the Dragon Prince and his army. If there is no news of an official House Arryn faction in the next few motnhs, I'll definitely be adding a commander Jon to the custom roster. Joining him is his distant cousin, the Darling of the Vale.
Denys brings a lot of big duck energy to the battlefield. Hopefully he's a preview of the Arryn aesthetic for their infantry units: blue, birds, feathers, and heavy armor.
I'll continue to update this page with any breaking House Arryn news. I'll also update my Plans for 2024 page once the Gamefound campaign is over, as we already have a lot of answers to the questions I posed in that post.
Original Post (October 4, 2023):
I decided to create a new post about official releases so that the post that contains the custom Arryn faction doesn't get too bloated.
The first unit from the Vale of Arryn is coming to A Song of Ice & Fire: Tabletop Miniature Game :
Neutral Stone Crows will be arriving in the near future and I thought this would be a good opportunity to go further into detail about my own design for the Stone Crows and the Vale mountain clans. I don't think this release foreshadows the imminent release of a House Arryn faction, but it will be the first ever mention of the Vale in the game, which is a good first step.
Adding the mountain clans to the House Arryn faction was probably the only part of my project that was openly criticized, and I understood the argument: House Arryn's mortal enemy is the mountain clans, and they would never fight alongside them.
I first thought about adding the mountain clans when I realized the House Arryn faction would be visually repetitive, mostly lots of guys in feather-shaped armor. CMON added the Faith Militant and Pyromancers to Lannister and siege weapons to Night's Watch to give the unit's some aesthetic and game play diversity, and I thought House Arryn needed something similar. In the first version of the House Arryn faction it was just the Burned Men, with the Black Ears and Stone Crows being added during a later update.
The other thought I had was about how I might bring the idea of the defensive benefits of being surrounded by mountains to a game with no large-scale terrain options. Instead, I added rules like Natural Defenses and the ability to hand out lots of vulnerable tokens to kind of represent the Mountains of the Moon. Adding the mountain clans would be a more dynamic, visual way to continue this idea as anyone who tries to enter the Vale proper has to contend with the mountain clans, like Tyrion and Catelyn in A Game of Thrones. The rules for the mountain clans demonstrate their disdain for House Arryn, as it is nearly impossible to score victory points from these units. There was originally a Tactics card that changed this, but I got rid of it with one of the more recent updates as the faction expanded and the mountain clans' role decreased. The idea is not that they are fighting together, but they are fighting in proximity of one another, and for this one time not directly against each other. A stretch? Definitely. But they were fun to design and led to some interesting discussions.
My Stone Crows are the toughest of the mountain clans. They boosted the others and made it possible to run an army of just Stone Crows, Burned Men, and Black Ears. I don't think the CMON version will be anything like this and instead be a cheap (likely 5-point) infantry unit with poor defense and morale and some offensive tricks like a Greyjoy or Free Folk infantry unit. Boltons, Bloody Mummers, Stormcrows, and Golden Company all saw multiple units released, so I'm hopeful Burned Men could also be released in the future. I would be surprised if there are any more than that as they are all quite similar (Burned Men just have the coolest name). I would think that Shagga, Timmett, and Chella will be released in a future Neutral heroes box, which will be pretty cool.
If I designed every faction from scratch I would have released the Stone Crows as a Lannister unit, though I understand the choice of Neutrals. They only worked with Tyrion for their personal gain, and have their own army that always has their own goals in mind. It is funny that after all the "House Arryn would never fight with the mountain clans!" comments I received that if/when Arryn is released they'll be able to fight alongside Neutral Stone Crows.
Once the Stone Crows are released, I'll do another update discussing their stats and design. And of course, if CMON ever releases an Arryn faction I'll do the same. Though with the recent advent of Mini Factions, I would think House Tully, House Tyrell, and maybe even the Golden Company and Brotherhood Without Banners will be released before them, so it's probably still a few years away. Until that day, you can always try the Board Man Gaming version: