This past weekend I finally got the chance to break out my Game of Thrones 2nd Ed board game with a group of friends.
First a quick review:
This game has very simple mechanics for managing supply and armies, and for issuing orders to armies and resolving combat, but the permutations of options in orders and planning makes the game very deep and intense, and even in the last turn the winning spot was open to 3 players. The downside is that it took a long time to explain the mechanics and the game itself took over 4 hours to complete (but it was well worth it).
On To The Report
The first few turns of the game saw us slowly expanding and rubbing against each others borders, get the hang of the march, defend, and support orders. March means move into adjacent area, possibly initiating combat, defend means not moving but getting a bonus if someone attacks, and support means not moving but throwing your combat strength into any battles in adjacent territories. There is also raid orders to try and remove other players' orders, and consolidate power orders which gives more power tokens for the political bidding side of the game.
We finally got to muster on turn 3 (i.e. get new units, its not guaranteed every turn) and by the start of turn 4 the stage was set. The six of us had formed into three alliances: Myself as Baratheon working with Lanister in the middle, Greyjoy and Stark in the north, and Tyrell and Martel in the south. This would turn out very bad for my alliance; I had counted on Tyrell and Martel fighting each other while I went north with Lanister but in hindsight our alliance forced them to ally rather than being left on their own.
I took King's Landing from the neutral army sitting on it since the start of the game and the real game began.
Stark came south along the east coast and I moved armies to meet him around Crackclaw point while Lanister pushed north along the west coast. Greyjoy was looking beaten so I hoped to push stark back as well so we could turn around and hit the southern forces. But my attack against stark failed and Tyrell, secured in his alliance with Martel, launched a surprise assault on kings landing from the west and took it.
Near the same time, Greyjoy launched a brilliant flanking move on the Lanister armies, cutting them off from retreat and destroying a routed army! I launched a counter attack on Kings Landing and retook it, but my strength was waning and my ally falling back, with Stark still breathing down my neck.
At 6 castles Tyrell was only 1 away from the immediate win condition but he lacked the orders to take one more.
Tyrell suffered counterattacks from the Lanister, Stark, and Martel in turn 9 to try and prevent his victory, while I tried to rebuild a fleet and Greyjoy moved into weakened Lanister territories. There was a lot of castle trading between Martel and Tyrell but eventually the game ended with both Greyjoy and Martel at 6 castles, one away from clear victory. The first tie breaker was whoever had the most strongholds (i.e. big castles) and Greyjoy controlling his own plus the two Lanister strongholds came out on top.
Lessons Learned:
- be careful making alliances with regards to who is going to ally against you in response.
- double check your math calculations before initiating battles.
- don't over extend
- maybe build up a little more before attacking to agressively
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Get back in your Atron. We have work to be done!
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