The latest smash hit from CMON, A Song of Ice & Fire: The Miniatures Game, showed up BIG at Adepticon this year. Not only was the two-player starter set added to every Premium and VIG swag bag, there was a host of events and tournaments running all weekend long.

Andrew’s thoughts – Let’s get the bad out the way first. This was the first time an ASOIAF tournament had been run at Adepticon – and it showed. Simply put, the tournament was poorly run. There was no tournament packet so the players did not know when the rounds started or ended. Or what scenarios would be played for each round. Some of the rounds used new scenarios that are not included in the rulebook so players had to look up the PDFs on their phones. Games were allowed to run over time and there was no clear decision on a paint requirement (there wasn’t one) until two weeks before Adepticon.

Ok, all that being said, I had a blast. The one-day, four-game tournament was a joy to play in. I love this game and it was super fun getting to play four games in a row. It speaks to the strength of ASOIAF that even with all these issues with the event, I still had an awesome time. All my opponents were great to play against and Ben and I even got to play each other in Round Three. I ended up going 0-4 for the day, as I expected, and I had a smile on my face the whole time. CMON has a gem of game on their hands and there is great momentum to move this game forward.

All my gripes with the tournament are easy fixes and I am looking forward to playing again next year. Plus, I’ll have a fully painted army by then!

Ben’s thoughts – Having played maybe 10 games of ASOIAF before going into this tournament, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The game is fantastic, but new, so I was intrigued to see what it would be like in a tournament setting and whether there was an established meta already. I had heard of a few things, like everyone bringing Varys as an NCU, but beyond that it was wide open in my mind.

Matching what Andrew has said, the organization of the tournament on Saturday could have used some work. An organized event packet is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and have all the info you need right out front, for scenarios, game timelines, etc. Also the question of whether things needing to be painted not being fully resolved until about two weeks out meant we were in full on panic mode for a while as we were still working on armies for other tournaments.

However, the games were a lot of fun and the TO’s were active and helpful. I ended up losing my first two games and winning my final two to end up a dead even 2-2 with the Night’s Watch, including some great moments like the dire wolf brothers Ghost and Grey Wind snarling at each other through a palisade, and Tywin Lannister being forced to Take the Black and then destroying a unit of Lannister Knights through Lannister Supremacy.  All in all, I fully intend to play in an ASOIAF tournament at Adepticon 2020, and am hopeful that CMON will improve and streamline their tournaments to make it an even better experience!