How do you stop the Boltons Flayed men?
I have played with and or against the Boltons Flayed men in almost every game Ive played so far (approx 8 games). In each of those games the Flayed men have been a central part of the players strategy and soaked up tremendous damage. In about half of these game the flayed men were eventually killed but usually with a tremendous effort to the losing side. In fact I have not played a game yet where the player using the flayed men lost. Out of the base set and units availabel in the kickstarter, the flayed men seem to be the strongest unit of all. Yes they are expensive at 10 points, which may make them too much of an investment for 30 pt builds. But with 40 point builds its easy to afford 1 and with 50 pt builds two are possible. Lets take a look at them.
10 pt cost
5 speed and Cavalry, so extra manuever action every turn which makes them very mobile and able to flank units easily.
8 amd 6 dice hitting at 3 War Flail gives Critical Blow for extra hitting power and Vicious which is good against lower moral (possibly higher armor foes).
Spread fear which works great with vicious and ,any builds.
And what makes them really stand out, the best armor in the game at 2 and decent morale at 6. Killing this unit is extremely difficult!!!
So those are some great stats, so how can we deal with them:
1) Obviously you could use another Bolton Flayed men unit against it, Duh.
2) The Lannister Cavalry with The mountain attachment can probably win one vs one, but costs 11 points.
3) If you send multiple hard hitting units against it from the rear or flanks that will work (which is easier said than done against a highly maneuverable cavalry unit), but its probably exactly what your opponent wants you to do while they capture objectives and destroy your other units. Also hard hitting units such as Mountains men, berserkers, and Stark Bowman are just not very effective against the flayed men's great armor and all will lose a prolonged fight one on one.
4) You can ignore them and focus your attention against their more vulnerable units. This is a problem because the flayed men unit hits hard and will carve you up if you don't deal with them.
To me, all of the above ways, play in to your opponents hands, and are not ideal.
There are only a few viable ways of dealing with the flayed men that I can think of with the current builds available.
1) For 4 points The mountain that Rides, if you can get him into the flank or rear of the flayed men can do some real damage. This is especially effective if you use a good anvil type unit such as the Lannister guards to take the brunt of the flayed men's damage and hold the line against them.
2) Cercie and morale/panic attacks. If you can use the tactics board and Cercie's No confident influence and create panic attacks against them, their 6 morale is somewhat vulnerable. This to me is the best tactic against them, but obviously not available to Starks. Starks and Mercenaries could do something similar with a Roose Bolton build possibly.
Either way, even for 10 points, I think the Boltons flayed men are a value and one of the best units in the game. I'm trying to create some builds with two of them or one of them with the mountain that rides or Lannister cavalry with the mountain attachment. They work excellent with any faction but are especially useful with Lannisters against Stark armies.
I would love to hear what you guys think? How do you stop the Boltons flayed men, or how will you use them to your advantage?
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks