This is going to appeal to a very niche audience, but I’d like to introduce anyone willing to listen to “A Song of Ice and Fire, the Tabletop Game“.

It’s owned and operated by Cool Mini or Not, for better or worse, and if you click the link above you’ll find all the rules and cards you’ll need to play. Technically, you do need models, but there’s a free online simulator you can play with that runs on your browser. It’s genuinely one of those things where fans of the game just love the hobby and want more people to play, so resources have been developed to play together more often and more easily. Our own Discord has players and offers games, at least at the time this article is being published, and I’m sharing this info in the hope of attracting or encouraging more players.

The Premise

It’s quick to learn. It’s alternating activations, which means you move one unit, and then your opponent moves one unit. This helps reduce issues that I grew familiar with in 5th edition 40k where your opponent would fire all their tank guns at once, then shake hands with you because your army was dead before your turn had started. It also leads to an extra layer of strategy, because once a unit is activated, it can’t be activated again, so if the opponent is wide open to your knights but you already activated those knights this round, too bad! Their activation is used up! Managing activations is a big part of the game.

The main thing that sets the game apart is its “Non-Combat Unit” system. There’s a tactics board, and on it a list of effects.

You can buy as many NCUs for your army as you like, and instead of being played to the field, they’re played to this tactics board. After an NCU is placed on the zone, that zone is occupied, and no other NCU can claim that zone. Given that activating a unit prevents it from being activated again, doing things like taking free attacks or free maneuvers without activating that unit is a huge deal, and competing with your opponent for these zones is a major part of the game. If you choose not to use NCUs and allow your opponent to control these zones at their leisure, you will be completely flattened.

So this creates the core challenge of the game. You have to activate your units in the best possible order, while taking the best zones, while denying your opponent the best zones, without letting your units on the field get killed. Plus, there will always be a set of objectives you need to achieve, such as running off with a dragon’s egg, holding some specific objective, or holding an objective that is on fire and slowly killing your men.

For a little extra spice, NCUs have their own various powers and abilities, which will act as a force multiplier to your troops.

The NCU Basics

If I haven’t made it clear, the best practice when starting off is to make especially careful use of your NCUs and to play them first and frequently if you can. A typical game involves buying two active NCUs and one pass NCU.

An active NCU is going to be someone like Shae, here, who can Weaken an enemy or heal one of your units when she claims a zone. There are a lot of different powers and abilities, but these NCUs don’t get to use their abilities unless they actually make it to the tactics board. However, you might have noticed, there’s five zones, and I’ve recommended playing with three NCUs. If you do the math and your opponent also brought three NCUs, then aren’t you guaranteed to miss out on an ability each round?

Nope! Varys here, one of the most popular NCUs around, can use his powers when an enemy claims a zone, which means he doesn’t have to activate to use his powers at all. Typically, the way you want to use these guys is to, when it’s tactically feasible, activate them, then not claim a zone. You simply “pass” on their turn, but can still use the NCU’s abilities. That lets you retain all of your activations each round if you know your opponent will cut you off, but also potentially lets you grab three zones if you’re the first one to the tactics board.

There are very few practical scenarios where you would want less than three NCUs. First, having only two means your opponent can relax and doesn’t have to rush to board as much. Second, whatever units and attachments you buy are almost certainly nowhere near as powerful as the NCU you chose not to buy. Third, it makes you extremely vulnerable to abilities that mess with NCUs, as you only have two to be messed with. There are some lists, but typically they’re bringing a few ridiculously potent combat units, such as two Tully Cavaliers, and not every faction has a combat unit strong enough to be worth the sacrifice. In fact, most combat units become substantially stronger through NCU support, so NCUs make your military more effective.

Combat Unit Basics

Unless you’re going for a less conventional strategy, it’s usually good to have one cavalry, one archer, and one unit that holds the front lines.

Archers can attack anything within 12″ of their front center, but can also move 2″ forward, back, or side to side (this is called a “Shift”) before they fire, giving them an effective 14″ range. It’s important to bring units like this along because they’re threatening to light cavalry which might otherwise try to pick off vulnerable units who have already spent their activations. They also create more pressure – a ranged unit can fire down the board, so if your opponent is being cautious or trying to bait you into a bad engagement, you can harass them with archery until they decide to either back up further, typically giving you control of an objective, or commit to an assault before they simply die from the pincushion treatment.

You should be aware that there are some units with a short range of 6″ (denoted by having only one chevron above the bow image, instead of two), but these aren’t formally archers. These are skirmishers, which are still useful but provide a completely different role – usually to the tune of harassment. You’ll notice these guys are not as good at shooting as the crossbowmen above, but they’ll kick the tar out of those crossbows in a melee fight; some of these interactions are more complicated and take a little more skill to use well, and a skirmisher is going to need some solid support to not get killed by a better specialized unit.

Cavalry are important because they can take one free Maneuver action at the start of their turn, and depending on the unit, that can let them make some really dangerous progress towards any unfortunate soul on the field. It can also allow them to abandon a fight and then retreat to a rear objective, where they can be healed or otherwise protected from destruction. Some cavalry is meant to attack directly, while others are meant to act in a supporting role. Either way, they give you an important amount of field control and can let you respond to your opponent so that the enemy can’t rampage freely at your rear. Most units can’t attack an opponent they can see in their front arc, but cavalry can use their free Maneuver to turn around and then can charge with their normal action.

Generally every list should have at least one cavalry unit and should be careful to give it ample support. They are fast, which means they can spearhead your assaults, but if they get surrounded and killed then you’ve lost your most mobile force right away, and it’ll be a rough game from that point onward. Typically the only faction that runs a complete cavalry army is the Targaryens, while everyone else will be using a mixed force.

As for the unit that can hold the lines – these are usually going to be elite, 7 pt infantry with a mix of survivability and fighting power. You want them to be able to withstand a charge and then dish out some damage on their own. If the unit can take a hit but can’t fight, the enemy will tend to ignore it (because they can take a hit from it and then disengage) and focus down your other units. Your front-liner needs to be something your opponent is nervous about, that can move fast enough to catch someone, that your opponent will respect. Offense is defense in a lot of cases.

A Typical Army

Most games are played at 40 pts and have seven activations. That is, four combat units and three NCUs. Free Folk break this mold because they have some unusual list-building practices and can do things like summoning an entire zoo to fight you in place of a conventional army. Some armies are a bit lacking in certain departments, and in those cases they can use “neutral” units as mercenaries to fill in the gaps. For example, Greyjoys will typically use some Golden Company Crossbows to fill in their archer line, since their own army’s abilities there are weak, and the Lannisters should turn to one neutral NCU in every list if they want to perform at their best.

All considered, this is all you need to know to get an army together and start playing! To help with list building, there’s a website called ASOIAF Stats that can be used to assemble armies on paper. You can export lists from there and import them into the simulator, making the whole thing simple and streamlined. Stats will also give you a bunch of data on the Elo performance of factions, units, and players.

In Season 5, the Lannisters have been relatively dominant, but faction balance is overall quite close, with no one faction enjoying a huge advantage over any others. Player skill accounts for far more variance than the factions do, so it’s safe to pick your favorite and work from there.

External Resources

Just to summarize, here are all the links you need to start playing the game:
Cmon’s Website, featuring game rules
ASOIAF Stats, for building armies and considering statistical performances (though be aware, the owner is having a meltdown and will delete the site in March of 2025)
The desktop simulator, to play games online