Game of Thrones - 6th February

A first outing for A Game of Thrones for James, Kieron, Andy and David. I'd set everything up prior to everyone's arrival and funnily enough we sat down next to our usual colours, so James played Lannister, Kieron was House Barathon, Andy was Stark and I played Greyjoy.
First impressions were of high quality production, but the army playing pieces were nice looking but the different types (footman, horse and siege engine) were too similar in appearance. This certainly caused a few mistakes as attackers miscalculated the strength of defensive forces.

The initial setup is very asymmetric. Stark had plenty of space in the north, but not enough to enable a victory. Greyjoy and Lannister are placed close together and could easily spend all game fighting, forcing a certain level of diplomacy. In the four player game Baratheon is left with a large swathe of valuable southern territories to take uncontested, forcing the other players to do something about it or lose.

Gameplay has lots of interesting features. Victory is achieved by controlling 7 castles or strongholds. There are mechanisms for supply and mustering troops that mean you have to watch out for over extending. You don't know when you will be able to muster new troops, or when you will be forced to account for them. And the order system is neat - you simultaneously place counters face down on troops and then reveal. Orders are then resolved one by one, allowing you to adapt a little. Finally there are tracks representing control of various political entities giving the controlling players certain advantages.

The game went in waves - early on Baratheon made the most of the easy pickings and raced to 5 victory points. Stark pottered around securing the north. Greyjoy and Lannister raced to secure territories nearby and rattled sabres but avoided out and out fighting. It quickly became clear than Baratheon was going to win quickly and only Lannister was close enough to do much about it.

The next round saw combat ensue as Lannister successfully launched an attack to stem the Baratheon onslaught. Meanwhile Greyjoy who had felt totally squished between Stark and Lannister and unable to do much suddenly realised he could use his fleets to bypass Lannister territory and transport a force into the soft southern underbelly - opening the opportunity for a second front.

Lannister was now in the lead. Baratheon and Lannister traded blows resulting in an exchange of territories but no gains. Greyjoy, moving last found that Baratheon had retreated leaving the second front unchecked. There was no opportunity to attack Baratheon but instead Greyjoy was able to pick up a couple of cheap castles and move to 6 points.

So as time was running out we played one last round. Greyjoy needed one more VP and gambled it all on a single attack - everything else set to defend existing gains. It worked and then we realised we hadn't quite appreciated the endgame rule - the game ends the instant someone reaches 7. One of those rules that although mentioned hadn't quite sunk in. So it was a somewhat hollow victory, but hey in the Game of Thrones you play or die (bet you didn't think I'd say that).

Overall I think this is a great "war" game. It takes a lot of preparation but the mechanics work well and provide a number of interesting choices. The asymmetric startup forces you to play differently and make the most of what you have.  James commented that it felt a bit like the typical whack the leader type of game, which is how it played out, but I do wonder if that was at least in part us not realising how we should have been playing until a couple of turns in. None of us contested Kieron's advance until it was almost too late - we should have been pressing in a lot faster. Also reviews suggest that 4 player is not the best configuration.