- Got Board Game Stark Strategy Against
- Got Board Game Stark Strategy
- Got Board Game Stark Strategy Tactics
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A Game of Thrones is a strategy board game created by Christian T. Petersen and released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2003. The game is based on the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series by George R. Martin.It was followed in 2004 by the expansion A Clash of Kings, and in 2006 by the expansion A Storm of Swords. Honestly, I think you've hit upon the best Stark strategy. It's dependent on everyone else playing well, but Stark's ability to convoy into multiple castles late game is strong. Diplomatically as Stark I'd say you should give genuine advice and try to help prolong the game.
It looks like Greyjoy can always beat Lannister to Riverrun in the first turn, no matter what, and from that point on, Lannister is in a world of trouble. Now, I know that there are other considerations, such as the potential exposure to Stark aggression such a focused deployment would create, but Stark doesn't always go after Greyjoy, especially if they're not a very aggressive player or if Baratheon is menacing their Eastern fleet.
So is it actually possible for Lannister to take Riverrun if Greyjoy is going for it? Oh, and yes, I'm assuming one is switching the King's Court track as per the FAQ.
The way I see it, Lannister's best bet for getting in there is to March(+1) the Knight and Footman from Lannisport into Riverrun, use the Support(+1) in Stoney Sept, and use the ship to raid Ironman Bay (switching to Defense(+2) if Greyjoy goes for a naval attack instead). The March bonus won't actually help, since Lannister will be forced to move in first, and then defend from Greyjoy (who will be chaining their orders). So they'll take it, and then have a Combat Strength of 5 when they try to defend Riverrun.
But Greyjoy can still win, even if their fleet support is raided (so they might as well attack the Golden Sound). All they have to do is March(-1) their Footman in Greywater Watch to Pyke, forcing Lannister to move first, and then March(+0) the Knight and two Footmen to Riverrun. That gives them a Combat Strength of 4, but they have the Sword, and if both players play their 3, it'll be a tie, which will go to Greyjoy, given his higher position on the Fiefdoms.
I just don't see what Lannister can do to prevent this, and they'll probably lose the Golden Sound too, leaving them in an extremely perilous situation heading into turn two. And God help them if a Muster comes up in turn one (which has happened many times). Can anyone point out a fault in our logic? Otherwise, it feels like the only alternative is to nerf Greyjoy a bit, maybe by removing one of his Footmen.
Character Cards By the Numbers
- Follow me as we discuss how to put House Stark (Da King In Da Norf!) in his rightful place as ruler of the Iron Throne. Let me know your strategies & ideas.
- With the new season of Game of Thrones I got inspired to do this video for one of my favorite games of all time. Hope you enjoy and feel free to chime in wit.
In the Game of Thrones board game, each House has a set of characters cards that they cycle through as they participate in combat. These cards add a lot to the theming of the game and a lot of suspense and double-think as you try to guess which card your opponent will play.
So let’s cut to the chase. Which house has the best cards? On the face of it, every house has seven cards with the exact same strength: a ‘4’, a ‘3’, two ‘2’s, two ‘1’s, and a ‘0’. That’s where the similarities end, though. Different cards have different numbers of sword or fortication icons, and many cards have text that describes a unique power.
What’s a sword or a fortification worth?
We’re working on the premise that a point of character strength is worth 1 ‘house point’ which is equivalent to the value of a footman. Since a sword can kill a footman and a fortification can save one, they are each potentially worth a point – but only if you win (sword) or lose (fortification) a battle.
So initially I figured each of these should be worth about half a point to reflect they’ll be effective half the time. Then I realized that a sword on a low-strength character won’t be as useful as a sword on a high-strength character – if you’re always losing battles who cares how may swords you have, you never get to use them. In contrast, you’re only going to play your 4-strength character on battles you expect to win; in that case, any swords on your character will likely take effect. So, on a 4-strength character, a sword is worth 1 point. But even a 1-strength character can win sometimes, so I went with this:
Got Board Game Stark Strategy Against
- strength 4 – +1 pt / sword
- strength 3 – +.8 pt / sword
- strength 2 – +.6 pt / sword
- strength 1 – +.4 pt / sword
This makes Eddard Stark worth 6 points (4 strength + 2 swords) and Sir Jaime Lannister worth 2.6 points (2 strength + 1 swords * .6). Melisandre, with 1 strength and a sword, is worth only 1.4 points. This seems right to me – with that strength, I’d rather Melisandre had a fortification so I throw her into a lost cause and mitigate the damage.
So fortifications work the opposite way. A fort on a strong character will be often wasted, but a fort on a weak character will often come into play:
- strength 4 – .2 pt / fort
- strength 3 – .4 pt / fort
- strength 2 – .6 pt / fort
- strength 1 – .8 pt / fort
The ideal character for a fortification would have strength 0, but there are no such characters.
Special powers
Next I subjectively valued each of the different powers. Some of these are simple:
- Nymeria Sand (strength 1) gains a fortication when defending and a sword when attacking and has a strength of 1. One or the other will come into play. I give her .4 points for the sword and .8 points for the fort and divide by 2 since each will come into play half the time – so her special power is worth .6 points.
- The Queen of Thorns (strength 0) removes an order, but only when it’s adjacent to the embattled area. The power’s worth 1 point when it can be played, but you often won’t be able to use it or won’t want to lose a battle to use it – .5 points.
Others are tougher. Some examples:
- Arianne Martel has a great ability to prevent an attacker from advancing when she loses. Her strength is 1 so I figure her power will kick in frequently, and it effectively kills most of someone else’s command (1 point). I give her the full point because even though it may not always come into play, when it does it’s very strategic (e.g. foiling the Knight of Flowers).
- Asha Greyjoy gets two swords and a fortification when not supported – but with strength 1 how likely is she to win without support? I give her no credit for the swords but .5 for the fortification (not the full .8 since you have to have no support to use the fortification).
And some really subjective ones:
- Balon Greyjoy’s power is almost a guaranteed win – 4 points for the special power!
- Ser Loras Tyell’s power is tactically amazing – 3 points!
- Patchface and Tyrion can mess with opponent’s decks, but you usually pay the price of a lost battle. 1 point!
- Ser Roose Bolton – probably the hardest card in the deck to assess. An awesome card that might allow Stark to play an average card strength of over 3.5 all the time. That’s worth… hmm… 3 points!
Conclusion – Stark, Greyjoy, and Tyrell to the front!
Got Board Game Stark Strategy
The following chart shows that Stark, Lannister, Martell, and Tyrell are about even until you take into account special powers – and special powers help Greyjoy shoulder Lannister and Martell aside to join Stark and Tyrell at the top:
According to this, if everything else was even between the houses, Stark and Greyjoy have a 3 house point advantage (think three footmen) over Martell and Baratheon based on their superior cards. Some consolation for Martell though: the Red Viper, at 6.2, clocks in as the best card in the game.
Got Board Game Stark Strategy Tactics
Read on to continue the analysis by looking at each House’s starting units.