A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

It's been a while since I created a new thread, but here I am again with a thread about another wargame I have encountered. I've never seen Game of Thrones myself but according to some of @NIGHTBRINGER's threads and discussions it is still popular here, so I thought I would put in a little discussion about it here in case you are interested.

Yesterday I was having a look around a Forbidden Planet store and once I'd finished looking at D&D and Star Wars stuff I was about to go when a load of figures in a glass display case caught my eye. I went over to investigate and found that the shop was displaying the contents of the core set for a wargame for Game of Thrones, officially called A Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game. The minis looked very well sculpted and represented starter armies for the Starks and Lannisters - the Stark figures were in grey plastic and the Lannister ones were red. Each of the two armies featured a couple of regiments of basic infantry, a unit of stronger infantry and some specialist units, as well as some of the characters from the series - Jaime, Cersei and Tyrion Lannister and Robb and Catelyn Stark among them. The set also included rules, tokens and even movement trays for all the figures, which I thought was pretty good. I couldn't find a price at the store but from later research it looks as if this core set was around £90 in price, which is about the same as Dark Imperium and Soul Wars. However, despite the figures being on round bases, the inclusion of movement trays (which are actually most similar to the War of the Ring ones) means that it's a rank-and-flank game and although the core set is costly the minis are very well done - better than GW's ones in places I'd wager.

I looked the game up on its website and found that quite a few individual unit packs have been introduced too for both the Starks and Lannisters, as well as starter sets for the Night's Watch and Free Folk AKA Wildlings, and sets for neutral houses like House Bolton who can ally with any of the main factions.

The game looks fun and tactical to play too - you can download a PDF of the rules from the website:
https://cmon.com/product/a-song-of-ice-fire-tmg

I'd be interested to see what all you Game of Thrones fans out there think!

 

[Aginor]

Are there pictures of the actual miniatures somewhere?
(yes I am too lazy to google)

 

[Xasto]

I can see where the difference in models would come from factions like White walkers and Free folks, but I fear that any of the other factions will mostly look alike as it's just humans vs more humans. Maybe I'm terribly wrong and there are blatant differences with the many human factions, I sure hope so.

After playing such a high fantasy game with AoS, I find it hard to be interested in a wargame that is somewhat more ''grounded'' , if you know what I mean.

Still curious about the look of those mini's! (The laziness is strong in here @Aginor )

 

[The Red Devil]

@Aginor @Xasto You can see a 3d image of the models if you go here:
https://cmon.com/product/a-song-of-ice-fire-tmg/starter-set-stark-vs-lannister

The idea of the game sounds interesting, but the models itself does not seem to be intended to be painted but played as they come. At least that is how it seems from my side.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I can see where the difference in models would come from factions like White walkers and Free folks, but I fear that any of the other factions will mostly look alike as it's just humans vs more humans. Maybe I'm terribly wrong and there are blatant differences with the many human factions, I sure hope so.

After playing such a high fantasy game with AoS, I find it hard to be interested in a wargame that is somewhat more ''grounded'' , if you know what I mean.

I do see what you mean, and this is one thing that has made me more sceptical of Game of Thrones in some respects - even though I’ve never seen it I do know that the vast majority of the warring factions are humans and that Westeros is largely devoid of fantastical beasts. I think though that they have tried to make the factions as diverse as possible by having, for example, the Lannisters’ forces resemble medieval knights and infantry in full-plated armour as they would have been in the High and Late periods, while the Starks mainly have troops much more similar to Saxon and Viking warriors which, in Earth’s timeline, appeared several hundred years before the troops seen in the Lannisters’ armies and are thus quite outdated, representing how the Lannisters have been able to afford only the best and most up to date troops while the Starks, who are significantly less well off, have resorted to more traditional warfare. Similarly the Bolton mercenaries are lightly armoured thugs and the Wildling infantry are more like Dark Age/Early Medieval peasantry.

Nevertheless, I still agree that GoT as a fantasy universe has relatively little diversity compared to, say, Middle Earth, Narnia or the worlds of Warhammer.

Are there pictures of the actual miniatures somewhere?
(yes I am too lazy to google)

Still curious about the look of those mini's! (The laziness is strong in here @Aginor )

You wanted pics? You’ve most certainly got them!

Here’s a good image of some of the Lannister infantry:

Knights for the Lannisters:

Some of the Stark infantry, the Sworn Swords:

And the Stark Cavalry and Berserkers:

And last but not least a video showing the unboxing of the Core Set:

And yes, the minis are already pre-assembled! While it means you can’t have so much variety as with, say, Warhammer boxed games, it does save you time when getting all the minis painted up.

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

@The Red Devil They can be painted - here are some painted versions:

 

[Aginor]

They look pretty good!

 

[Warden]

Pretty nice models!

Wonder which other factions will be represented? Possibly all the great houses? I always loved the heraldry in the books.

 

[Xasto]

I must say these models are quite good!