Ugh, so hard to justify him at all.  I mean if he didn't kneel in military offensively and defensively or if he gave plus 2 strength. 

Just ahh man, Core Balon for days over this guy.

He's a card I'll want to abuse a ways down the line, when some of the king attachments and such have cooled, and valar has settled in. He's the least-conditional multi-renown in the game right now, just in the middle of the kings cycle is a bad time for kings debuffs (not to mention milk right now; might change a bit post-valar). Multi-stealth and multi-pillage with great kraken or salt and rock is always good too.

The strength buff is pretty meager though. Couldn't have at least thrown "or attachment" on that if it's only 1 STR?

The Str buff is pretty bad considring we are talking about some of the best locations in the game. I want to kneel Raiding Longship, Seastone Chair, and Iron Mines for their effects; not to give +1 Str to loyal characters.

Not kneeling for Mil is pretty nice on a renown guy, but he is 7 gold for 5 str and is vulnerable to Tears in an Int weak faction.

This is all ignoring the fact that there is a powerful Balon already.

Well I say he still has more chance to be played than King Robb, espc if Greyjoy get a card that allows you to make 2 military challenges in the future. 

His ability is weak tho, most of the time it only makes him 7 cost 6 6 which he should have been already. 

He's +1 for each loyal character, not just himself, and he doesn't have to be in the challenge. Which means that he can help threaten multiple challenges on both attack and defense, as well as probably winning two challenges a turn and stacking up the Renown. The strength buff isn't  something you're going to want to use all the time, but even turning an unneeded Sea Tower or Iron Mines into a combat trick can be useful.

Is he 'broken'? No. But he's a solid character, though one who probably isn't quite ready to shine - at least partly because of how much Greyjoy depends on it's unopposed challenges, and Core Balon being the poster child for it. He'll get better as the game goes on, when we get more loyal characters, more locations that don't kneel for their effect, and Greyjoy hopefully gets it's other themes fleshed out a bit more.

Knowing FFG i think they made him 7 for a reason, so this Failon will become the dominant Balon. One day, though its probably pretty far off.

Hey i just played a mirror Greyjoy match and my opponent knelt my Iron Mines to give his King Balon +1 Str. Doesn't really sound legit.