Looking back at my Plans for 2021, I was able to finish everything I set out to do (and then some). The House Arryn Expansion made 2021 Board Man Gaming’s most successful year ever. I have no plans to design another army at this time, as I’d like to learn more about CMON’s upcoming release schedule before I put the effort into something similar. If I do, the most likely candidates would be the Others or Ghiscari (Slaver’s Bay).
One of the coolest things I got to do in 2021 was make a guest appearance on Tourney Ground, the weekly show from Mickey and Carlo at ASOIAF Stats. We had a great discussion about game balance and how it effects both competitive play and the type of narrative scenario play found on Board Man Gaming (with house rules and more controlled lists). You can listen to the episode here:
As someone who creates content for ASOIAF:TMG, I really appreciate all Mickey and Carlo have done for the community and how they continuously put out excellent content.
In 2021, I spent a lot of time revising every custom scenario to match the updated rules and game modes. This is already happening for 2022 as I’m slowly going through each scenario and removing the '+1 VP for Commanders controlling objectives' rule. I don’t post about it, but scenarios are constantly being updated to make small improvements, add new units and characters, or add-in new rule changes from CMON. A good example of this is the Battle of Blackwater Bay. I’ve recently playtested Blackwater a few times and decided to make a few adjustments to help out the Attackers. I don’t think CMON will spend much time reimagining Castle Walls, so I wanted to give them some attention. This led to a new rule being added to Castle Walls in all my scenarios: Combat Units with Ranged Attacks may now target Castle Walls and deal them 1 Wound with an Attack Action. It just makes sense to me that archers would be heavily involved in a siege, shooting at the enemy soldiers manning the walls.
With House Greyjoy’s release, I was able to fill in a lot of blanks and complete almost all the major battles from phase 1 of the War of the Five Kings. If Edmure Tully and Beric Dondarrion are released in 2022, I’ll be able to finally finish the other key battles from the books. If this happens, I hope to find some time in the summer to put all the War of the Five Kings scenarios together, from the Battle of the Mummer's Ford to the Red Wedding, in a Middle-earth SBG style 100+ page supplement with campaign consequences and detailed army breakdowns.
As for the battle reports, I’m really enjoying working on them and they’ll continue to be posted regularly over the next few months. Battle Stories will return with a 120-point Battle of the Bastards showdown and a 200+ point Watchers on the Wall bloodbath (the first Battle Story, Battle of Blackwater Bay, took over 5 hours to play, which is why they’re not posted as often). The Campaign of Thrones will continue with 5 more battle reports to take the timeline up to the end of A Clash of Kings. After those 5 battle reports are posted, I’ll take a few months off in the hopes more hero boxes are released so more characters can join in.
The first part of the Campaign of Thrones will end with a huge clash between Stannis and Renly, a Blackwater-sized siege that moves the battle from the bay to the castle walls. Renly will have the power of the Reach behind him, but Stannis will not be rolling up to King's Landing empty handed…
Have a great new year and thanks again for all your support!