Need help crushing your rivals in the Game of Thrones board game?
Luke Plunkett over at Kotaku has an excellent post up detailing some good strategies for winning at the A Song of Ice and Fire board game. Oh, yes: there is a board game. Launched in 2003 as A Game of Thrones, Fantasy Flight Games followed up with two expansions based on books two and three, then re-launched the game as a “second edition” in 2011, coinciding with both the television show and the release of the fifth book. Expansions now include all five of the published books, hooray! Anyway, time to understand the way this game is played…
As someone with an extensive history of gaming, I find the discussion of balance between the Houses fascinating. Apparently, they are also unintentionally hilarious and pertinent to current events:
And the Greyjoys…well, look, if you want a hard time (or a satisfying win), use the Greyjoys. It’s brutal starting the game with no star tokens, and their place in the game’s “meat grinder”, where much of the main battles seem to take place (at least in the north), doesn’t help.
The Greyjoys: stuck between a salty rock and cold hard place. Another way the board game simulates the series? Having the Iron Throne–and therefore the advantage of going first–is not always useful:
The Iron Throne can be fun if you’re deciding tie-breaks, but its main value – that you go first – is nowhere near as useful as the other two positions (unless the game is nearing it’s end and you can win the game before other players take their turn).
Fiefdoms (the sword) give you a big advantage in combat, the game’s bread-and-butter. So holding that sword is good if you can swing it.
Luke finishes up with one heck of a good analogy, albeit one that diminishes my faith in the game’s overall fun factor slightly:
In Mario Kart, the best way to win is by staying back. Hover around 2-4 place for most of the game, under the radar, then when whoever is out front is knocked out with the finish line in sight, surge and make your move. You do the exact same thing in Game of Thrones.
Now if only the Starks could somehow rubber-band themselves back into the good graces of the Iron Throne… In any case, Luke has lots more good tips, so if you’re looking for yet another way to exercise your fandom and are into board games, this may be the ticket.
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