The Great Ranging

“I will not sit here meekly and wait for the snows and the ice winds. We must know what is happening. This time the Night’s Watch will ride in force, against the King-beyond-the-Wall, the Others, and anything else that may be out there. I mean to command them myself.”
   –Old Bear Mormont, A Game of Thrones

Below the Neck of Westeros, priorities are different. The Great Houses have the freedom to play their game of thrones—to jockey for social position and destroy their rivals with military strength or cunning intrigues. Though the Night’s Watch may prefer to stay clear of sordid power struggles, they find themselves inescapably drawn into these schemes nonetheless. 

With the Watchers on the Wall deluxe expansion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, the Night’s Watch receives a significant influx of new cards. But rather than building on their existing theme of defending the Wall, many of these cards fall into a different category. In truly dire circumstances, the Night’s Watch must leave their posts and ride out. Whether they range into the lonely lands beyond the Wall or ride south to join the game of thrones, you’ll find several new cards in Watchers on the Wall that reward you for leading the Night’s Watch to attack your opponent.

The Watch Rides Forth

In A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, many Night’s Watch decks devote themselves to defending The Wall (Core Set, 137). Using cards like The Haunted Forest (There Is My Claim, 66), For the Watch! (No Middle Ground, 67), and Craven (Called to Arms, 26), the Night’s Watch could find great success in negating enemy challenges and using The Wall to consistently gain power. 

Still, defending The Wall isn’t the only path open to the Night’s Watch. With the introduction of the Kings of Winter (Called to Arms, 38) agenda, a new, more aggressive Night’s Watch deck began to emerge, focusing on choking your opponent’s supply of gold and cards and quickly killing any characters that made it to the board. If you’re leading your Night’s Watch on the attack, you’ll find several cards in Watchers on the Wall that could slot right into your deck, starting with Cotter Pyke (Watchers on the Wall, 4).

Cotter Pyke is the commander of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, and he finds a natural home in many Kings of Winter decks. His cost-to-STR ratio is efficient, and for any deck running Winter plots, efficiency is of the utmost importance. And what’s more, Cotter Pyke bears the two most important icons for an aggressive Night’s Watch deck, allowing you to attack your opponent’s board and hand. Finally, Cotter Pyke reads, “Reaction: After Cotter Pyke bypasses a character using stealth, if there is a Winter plot card revealed, choose a Night’s Watch character and have it gain stealth until the end of the phase.” Combined with Cotter Pyke’s own stealth, you’ll be able to push your challenges through, even against an opponent with a superior position. 

You’ll also find two other characters that excel at attacking in Watchers on the Wall—namely, Jon Snow’s friends, Grenn (Watchers on the Wall, 10) and Pyp (Watchers on the Wall, 11). With only military icons and no abilities that work on defense, Grenn and Pyp are unlikely to earn their place in defensive deck. But when you’re launching your own attack, they can prove quite useful, especially together. 

After you win a challenge in which Pyp is attacking, you can choose another attacking Night’s Watch character and give that character insight. And if you win a challenge in which Grenn is attacking, you can move one power from your opponent’s faction card to another attacking Night’s Watch character. Though they need to attack with friends to have the best effect, Grenn and Pyp offer significant value without spending much gold. 

Of course, you may find difficulties when you face a deck that leaves its forces standing to defend, such as a more defensive Night’s Watch deck. That’s where the new version of Maester Aemon (Watchers on the Wall, 5) comes in. With Maester Aemon in play, when the challenges phase ends, you can choose an opponent and a challenge type that was not initiated against you this phase. Then, your opponent must satisfy the claim of that challenge as if you were the winning opponent! In essence, this gives your opponent an incentive to make all three challenges—which kneels more of his characters and creates openings for you to slip through. Or, if he chooses not to make challenges, you can exact additional claim with Maester Aemon. You might even pair Aemon with Bridge of Skulls (Lions of Casterly Rock, 32) or a two-claim plot like Famine (Calm Over Westeros, 100) to truly punish your opponent. 

Embrace the Wild

For many men of the Night’s Watch, the wildlings are their sworn enemies—the very threat that they have sworn to oppose. Others, however, can see that the wildlings are as human as the Night’s Watch, and there are far greater threats in the lands beyond the Wall. Jon Snow (Watchers on the Wall, 1) is one such character. As we’ve already seen, Jon Snow can be used in a defensive deck to stand all defending Night’s Watch characters after he wins a challenge. However, his ability also invites you to stand all attacking Wildling characters after you win a challenge with Jon Snow, and an alliance with the Wildlings may be just what you want for your deck. 

Wildlings like Rattleshirt (Watchers on the Wall, 39) make it very difficult for your opponent to defend if he doesn’t control characters with attachments. Combine that with Weirwood Bow (Watchers on the Wall, 43) and your opponent will have even more difficulty mounting a defense! As an Action, you can kneel Weirwood Bow to reduce the STR of a defending character. And, perhaps most importantly, the attached character doesn’t need to participate in the challenge to use the Weirwood Bow—you can safely fire your arrows from afar and help your other characters push challenges through.

Once you’ve won the challenge, The Frozen Shore (Watchers on the Wall, 42) is an invaluable tool to prepare for another attack. After winning a challenge, you can kneel The Frozen Shore to stand one attacking Wildling for each revealed Winter plot, making this another natural fit for a Kings of Winter deck that brings the Night’s Watch and Wildlings together. You may even call upon Mance Rayder (Wolves of the North, 39) to lead your Wildlings into battle.

Join the Watch

Whether you’re defending the Wall or leading your ranging parties beyond it, you’ll find cards to support your decks in the Watchers on the Wall deluxe expansion. Join us next time for another preview of the Night’s Watch cards in this expansion, and pre-order Watchers on the Wall at your local retailer today!