House Martell : The poison masters

The Martell Faction – Masters of Poisons – is one of the most feared in ASOIAF, thanks to its cunning tactics and ability to weaken enemies. Their specialty lies in the use of toxins like Manticore Venom and The Strangler, which disrupt opposing strategies.

A faction that takes its time

A quick overview of the faction: out of its nine units, five attack on a 3+, which gives them an excellent success rate. However, their movement speeds are relatively slow.

With the arrival of the Skyreach Bowmen in January, the Martells gained long-range lethality — a weakness since the faction’s creation. Previously, Sand Skirmishers helped offset that flaw through their “Rapid Fire” order, which allows them to make an attack following a maneuver or retreat action.

On the defensive side, five units have a 4+ save — about a 50% success rate on dice rolls. Nothing exceptional, but still respectable. As you might guess, their power doesn’t come from overwhelming numbers, sheer strength, or toughness, but rather from debilitating their enemies.

Many of their orders and character abilities inflict conditions like Vulnerable, Weakened, or Panicked, often combined with rerolls. Thanks to these stacking effects, the Martell Faction prevents opponents from regenerating and forces them into a defensive posture.

You’ll need to be a general with a devious mind to master Martell trickery.

Doran Martell and his updates

When the Martell faction was first released, the starter set included the NCU Doran, Prince of Dorne. As an NCU, Doran adds a new zone to the tactics board — The Water Gardens. This zone cancels the effects of both the tactics board and enemy tactics cards for the round. Be warned though: your opponent can use that spot too. The real focus, however, is Doran’s evolving abilities, which have seen two major updates.

Initially, Doran could grant 2 victory points. His card “Secrets of Sunspear” allowed him to accumulate order tokens. Each round, when he occupied one of two designated zones, he gained one token. At the end of a round, if you had four or more tokens, you earned those precious 2 points.

That ability was extremely powerful — those 2 points could easily swing a late-game score. Yet managing his activations and tokens required precision, or you’d lose the advantage.

The ability was later reduced from 2 points to 1.

Since the latest 2024 update, our dear Doran no longer scores victory points directly. Instead, his order tokens now grant beneficial effects to friendly units.

A major shift in gameplay for the Prince of Dorne — he’s no longer just a “win-stealer” but a solid support NCU who adds genuine value to your army, improving both mobility and survivability.

Tyene Sand: an underrated Martell asset?

Sweet Tyene doesn’t show up on many tables, but she’s far from harmless. At 5 points (same as Arianne Martell), she’s a tough inclusion in every list.

Beyond healing a friendly unit, she can disrupt opponents through her “Strangler” card, which allows her to trap a tactics board zone starting from round 2, applying cumulative effects each turn.

Loss of abilities, being treated as not controlling a zone, forced NCU activation, and finally, NCU destruction — nasty stuff.

Sure, your opponent can simply avoid the trapped zone, but doing so means denying themselves a key action (see our article on Action Advantage).

So the dilemma is clear: avoid the poison or cripple your own strategy?

Oberyn Martell: overpowered combo or risky strategy?

Oberyn Martell is a cornerstone of the Martell Faction, combining lethal offense with progressive debilitation of the enemy.

Once applied, the defender can no longer heal and suffers a wound whenever they receive a Vulnerable token — and becomes Vulnerable again upon activation.

Then there’s Oberyn’s ability “Viper’s Fangs”, which applies Vulnerable if the attacked unit hasn’t activated yet.

The NCUs Doran and Ellaria Sand can also inflict effects — the first through his order tokens, the second when claiming the Swords zone.

If Oberyn joins a Royal Guard unit at full strength, they can roll 7 attack dice. Their order “Martial Training” grants rerolls of any die, while also applying Vulnerable to the target.

Add Oberyn’s “Precision” ability, which one-shots a model on a natural 6 — and you’ve got a deadly combo capable of massive damage output.

Okay, that’s a lot already!!!

Indeed — but it gets even nastier when combined with tactics cards like “Sands Diplomacy,” “Dune Tactics,” or “Clever Stratagem.” You could potentially stack up to six Vulnerable tokens on an enemy unit in a single round.

An unstoppable technique?

I can already see some of you getting excited — “So, this is the ultimate way to wipe the board clean?”

Not quite, my friends. Timing is everything, and any experienced opponent won’t just let you pull it off.

It’s hard to apply all those effects efficiently — your poison strategy can easily be disrupted. The simplest way to counter Oberyn’s venom, for instance, is to avoid combat with your general or key units. The same goes for NCUs: outpacing them can block their activations.

And don’t forget the rare tactics cards that can nullify poison effects.

The Martells are a faction that rewards patience and precise strikes on weakened targets. Forget brute force — bring out your most devious neurons if you want to outsmart your foes.