Review: Games of Thrones: The Board Game (2nd Ed.)

Based on the epic fantasy books A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones: The Board Game lets 3 to 6 people play as the different major houses of Westeros to try and claim The Iron Throne.

Designer: Christian T. Pertersen
Artists: Tomasz Marek Jedruszek and Henning Ludvigsen
Publisher: Fantasy Flight
Release Date 2011

BRB-Score-4

When this game landed on my desk I called an “Emergency Gamer Night” to break it out of the shrink wrap and get it on the table. All of my gamer night friends are big fans of this book series and could not wait to come and grace my kitchen table laden with Cola and crisps.

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Gaming night essentials sound off: Cola – check, Pint glasses – check, Crisps – check, tablet displaying various steaming sports…Check

Fortunately, we were caffeine-pumped because this game is complicated, but in a good way. The game rules manual is 28 pages, but it is well laid out and even has an index in the back for those times where you have to quickly clarify a rule or two and it is not mentioned on the separate handy one page quick reference guide.

There is a plethora of small game tokens, counters, unit pieces and cards as well as a reasonably sized game board – so, make sure you’ve got a spacious table! Also with the presence of many small game pieces make sure that if you have young children, keep them safely away out of reach. I am not completely sure, but there might actually be a foot soldier embarking on a quest through my 14 month old son….time will tell.

The basic premise of the game is that you play as one of the great houses of the continent of Westeros, either chosen at random or by player choice, and you win the game by either controlling 7 territories on the map or if after 10 rounds you are controlling more territories than your opponents are. This is achieved in true Game of Thrones style by using guile, deception, forging alliances, deploying brute force or all of the above.

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To cover all the intricacies of this game without making this review 20 pages long is probably an impossibility, but I will attempt to give an overview of the basics:

The Game Board: is a map of Westeros divided into territories that have components in them such as garrisons, ports, supply and power bases. The board also has various different things along the side such as army supply allocations and “influence tracks”. Each house starts on these tracks in a certain position and this acts as a modifier in certain phases of the game – for example, the players position on the Iron Throne track determines who resolves their actions orders first. These positions will shift during the game according to your actions and luck.

The Player: gets a screening card – conveniently printed with game tips. Troop pieces – footmen, knights, siege engines and ships – the amount of which depends on your house. Order tokens, power tokens and house cards.

The game is played to ten rounds and each round is broken into three phases:

The Westeros phase: consisting of global events that can effect all players and is played by drawing and acting on three cards: for example one card could start a muster allowing players to recruit more troops, or one could trigger a Wildling’s attack.

The Wildling’s attack power varies throughout the game ranging from 0 to 12. To fend off an attack of the savages, all players must work together and take part in a bid using power tokens that they’ve earned in a combined effort to total an equal or higher number than the Wildling’s current attack value. Each player is allowed to bid as many power tokens as they like and the lowest and highest bidder has to face consequences for their actions as dictated by a Wildling’s card.

The Planning Phase: the most important part of the game. In this phase each player secretly issues orders to their troops. This could range from consolidating power, mustering more troops, digging in a defense, raising support, planning a raid or ordering a march, each action is decreed by an order token which is placed face down in any troop controlled area.

This phase is the test of any alliances or truces that you’ve have established during the game as what you thought was your friendly neighbour now can suddenly plan to raid you, or choose not to provide that support you thought was coming etc. This is the phase where friends and enemies are made.

The Action phase: all the placed orders are resolved. Players turn over their order tokens and the orders are revealed to all…let the battles begin! Marching into an area that is already occupied by another house triggers a fight. Combat is determined by who has the biggest strength stat and this can be modified by what’s printed on the order tokens and one secretly chosen house card. Armies can also be supported from adjacent areas by the player or allies.

As this is the second edition of the game it has been refreshed with updated graphics and contains elements of previous expansion packs to the original edition game that was released in 2003.

As an optional add-in to the game players can also include the Tide of Battle cards which can bear influence on battles, with factors such as weather or troop morale.

The recommended playing time is approximately three hours, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. It felt like it had only just started when at the back of midnight everyone filed out the door to wend their way home to spouses and warm beds, and we were seriously debating whether to play another session…

Great replay value
Set number of turns really adds to the intensity
Well made with lovely art
A lot of small game pieces that are just loose in the box when packed away
May cause arguments among you and your friends if you’re a backstabbing traitor…

Diplomancy, even if you’re not a great fan of the series, this makes an intriguing and engrossing board game that will occupy a good few hours with your mates….or enemies.

Review copy provided by Esdevium Games

 

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Comments

  1. Awesome review. Game sounds like a serious amount of fun! So did you win or what!?!?

  2. Lauren

    Great review Chris!

    Been interested in nabbing this for while cause I love the books and the show. Thanks for pointing out it contains small pieces, the cats like to eat anything they find small, so we’d have to be mega careful.

    Im glad you enjoyed it Chris cause Ive heard so many slag the game off because its too complicated or gets boring fast. Along with the Walking Dead and Mass Effect board game, this is one I want for summertime when it rains lol XD

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