Board Game Analysis: A Game of Thrones

For the first board game assignment of our game design course, my group decided to play A Game of Thrones: The Board Game, Second Edition.

Game of Thrones is a 3 to 6-player game, the objective of which is to own the most castles on a world map. There are a total of 20 castles laid out over the map, and the first player to own 7, or to own the highest amount of castles by the end of the game’s 10 rounds, wins.

Game of Thrones is unquestionably a game about risk and reward, and this design element shines through in the most important systems of the game.

In this report, I will attempt to summarize how the game is played and examine various systems of its design. Some terminology I use may differ from the official terms, simply to make things a bit easier to read both for people unfamiliar with the game, and the franchise it’s based on. I will also be omitting some rules and details of the game which I simply don’t have time to explain, as it’s a very complex game. I will, however, do my best to cover what I believe are the most important factors of the game’s design.

Basic Summary of Gameplay

The game board.

Each player starts with ownership over two provinces on the game world, one of which contains a castle. During the course of the game, players must build armies and move them out into the game world to conquer more provinces and acquire ownership of more castles.

When two players’ armies collide, they initiate combat, and the player with the highest army strength combined with special cards they play win ownership of the province.

Using Consolidate Orders during the game lets players collect Power Tokens, which is essentially the game’s currency. Players can use these either to retain ownership over a province after they’ve moved their army, or to gamble over a variety of different things during the game.

Summary of Game Phases

The round and victory counter. Each player has a token on the victory counter which is moved around depending on how many castles they own.

The game flow is split up into three major phases for each round, an Event Phase, a Planning Phase and an Action Phase.

The Event Phase occurs at the start of every round except for the very first one. In this phase, three event cards are drawn, and these cards can have a variety of effects. For example, they may prevent certain orders to be used in the next planning phase, and they may make players gamble their power tokens to change the standings on the Influence Tracks. These event cards may also trigger a Wildling Attack, which leads to another card being drawn from a separate wildling deck. These cards can cause a variety of negative effects on the players if the attack isn’t prevented.

The wildling counter and deck space on the game board. The counter determines how many power tokens the players will have to collectively gamble to prevent the attack, and may be increased by certain event cards.

The next phase is the Planning Phase, where all players may distribute orders across every province they have units or power tokens in. This is done by utilizing Order Tokens, of which each player have fifteen, sorted into five different types. Players can only use one order token per province they own, and all players must put their tokens face-down on the game board before the next phase can proceed. There’s one special token of each of the five types which may only be used by players depending on their standing on the influence track.

The five different types of order tokens are as follows:
March Orders let players move their armies to adjacent provinces. These can have both a negative and positive strength bonus to be added if combat occurs.
Defense Orders let players add a strength bonus to their army if they are attacked by a marching player.
Support Orders lets a player add the combined strength of a chosen army to any other army fighting in an adjacent province, even armies owned by other players.
Consolidate Orders lets a player collect a power token, or two if placed on a province with a crown symbol. The special consolidate token may also be placed on provinces containing castles to acquire army units instead of power tokens.
Lastly, Raid Orders can be used to nullify a support, consolidate or raid order in an adjacent province. The special raid token can also nullify defense orders.

After every player is done planning, the Action Phase is executed. At the start of this phase every player must reveal their order tokens. Then, in the order of the players’ standings on one of the Influence Tracks, each player executes the actions they planned.

The action phase is the primary phase where players can expand their territory, gather more power tokens, and get into combat by moving their armies into an opposing player’s army.

Summary of Combat

Combat occurs during the action phase, if one player uses a march order to move their army into a province occupied by another player’s army.

First, both players count the combined strength of the units in their separate armies.

Secondly, modifiers are applied depending on the order tokens used. If the attacking player used a march order with a -1 or +1 modifier, that’s applied to their combined strength. If the other player planned ahead and placed a defense order in their province, they add either +1 or +2 to their strength.

Both players apply the combined strength of any of their armies with support tokens in adjacent provinces. Even a player that is not participating in this battle may help one of the contributing players if they have an army with a support token next to the combat province.

There is an optional rule which utilizes a deck called tides of battle. If this rule is used during the game, the players draw one card each from a separate deck. These cards provide the players with another additional modifier, which may be negative, positive, or simply zero. This adds an element of randomness to combat.

Afterwards, both players choose one card from their personal deck of cards called the house deck. This card may have an additional strength modifier, and may give other special effects specified on the card, such as letting a marching player march again into another province if they win. House cards must be discarded after use, and can only be used again after the player has used up all their house cards, in which case they may pick up the deck again and start over.

Examples of house cards.

Finally, if one of the participating players is in the first place on the Fiefdom Influence Track, they gain a final +1 strength multiplier.

After combining the strength of their armies, orders, tides of battle cards and house decks, the player with the highest number wins the battle. If it’s a tie, the player with the highest standing on the fiefdom influence track wins.

The losing player must retreat their army into any adjacent area they have occupied. If they don’t have any occupied areas, they’re moved into an adjacent unoccupied area. If there are no available areas at all, their army is destroyed.

The Systems

The two systems I would say are most important to the game are the influence and resource management systems. Of which, I would say resource management is the game’s core. Without the resource management, the influence system would be unusable. Let me explain these systems in an order I think would be best for someone who hasn’t played the game.

The Influence System

I want to get this explanation out of the way first to finally clarify what the influence track is and why you should care. This system is deeply connected with the game’s planning and action phases, and understanding this system is key to gaining clear advantages over your opponents.

This system governs over the influence track. The influence tracks are part of a system that affects almost every other major part of the game. Being well off on the influence tracks gives a clear advantage against players placed lower than you in all cases, and being on the first spot gives special bonuses.

The three different influence tracks, as shown on the game board.

The Throne Influence Track determines the order of which players get to execute their orders during the game’s action phase. The player on spot 1 goes first, etc. The top player also gets to solve disputes over gambles, if two players gambled the same amount of power tokens over something, the player highest on the throne influence track gets to decide who wins.

The Fiefdom Influence Track gives +1 attack to the player ranked highest. As explained earlier, this track also determines who wins a combat in case of ties.

The Court Influence Track has two advantages. First, the player ranked highest may look at the top card in the wildling deck ahead of time in case of an attack. Second, the top 4 players on the track may use the special order tokens mentioned earlier in the phase section. These are the order tokens that let players acquire more army units, nullify defense orders, and also order tokens that give higher strength bonuses in combat.

To summarize.

Players high on the throne influence track gain a clear advantage against the other players; they are the ones who get to execute their orders first in the action phase. You can never be ambushed by an opposing army if you’re the first one playing. After all, you’re the one who gets to activate your march order first.

The player ranked highest in the fiefdom influence track gains an obvious combat advantage. Especially in the later rounds of the game when the strongest players are clutching to grab as many castles across the map as they can before the end, just one point can make a big difference.

And finally, the court influence track. Simply put, if you’re in the bottom two spots of the court influence track, you will be locked out of using powerful order tokens that every other player can use against you. You won’t be able to expand your armies unless a random event card gets drawn during the event phase. During combat, the march, defense and support orders you’ll be using will be weaker than almost every other player in the game. Being of low standing on the court influence track is a huge disadvantage.

Players have a set position on each of the influence tracks at the start of the game depending on which color they chose to play as. The standings may be updated during the event phase, in which an event card might be drawn that calls for a change in standings. When this happens, each players must gamble for positions on every single influence track in order.

Resource Management System

The resource management system covers the power tokens, the order tokens and army units used in the game. These are the objects.

Power tokens may seem negligible to a new player but are perhaps the most valuable resource in the game. Power tokens are what players use to gamble on influence standings and wildling attacks, and are also used to mark territory. Without any power tokens, you can’t get a high spot on the influence tracks. You can’t help out against wildling attacks, and may be penalized for being the lowest bidder. You can’t secure your territory, making it so you’ll only ever be able to use order tokens on provinces where you have units. Power tokens are vital to your survival.

Army units are what you use to move around on the game board, and are used in combat against opposing players. This is simple. With no army units to move around, you won’t be able to expand your territory. You won’t be able to gain control of more castles. And with a low amount of units, you’ll be at a clear disadvantage against other players in battle.

Finally, the order tokens. These are placed during the planning phase, and are limited in quantity. There are five types, with three of each kind. If you’re low in standing on the court influence track, you can only use two of each kind. The usage and placement of order tokens are one of the main components of creating a strategy element in the game. These tokens are what you use to do everything in the game’s action phase, expanding territory, attacking other players, etc. These tokens even lead back to the power tokens and army units, as orders are the resources you’ll be using during your planning phase to generate more of power or armies.

Carefully managing these three resources is fundamental to the game. You always have to think about when and how you want to utilize your resources. Do I want to gamble half my power tokens on this difficult wildling attack, risking not being able to secure high influence standings later? Do I want to split up my army into two provinces to cover more ground, risking being weaker in battle against other players? Do I use a defense order here, in case I get attacked, risking wasting a turn? Do I use a support order here to help my other army, risking being raided and nullified? Do I use this consolidate order to gain more power tokens, or do I use this consolidate order to strengthen my army?

I believe resource management is the greatest contributor to the game’s risk and reward factor. This is also why I find it to be the game’s most interesting system, as I personally went into the game expecting to just have to push around a big army across the game board to win. In reality, there is a huge element of strategy to how you manage your resources.

Target Audience

Finally, let’s talk about target audience. On the box, this game is advertised as being for teens ages 14 and up.

I don’t have any objections to this label. 14 might be pushing it with the complexity of the game’s ruleset, but I think if someone were to carefully explain and walk a 14-year old through the game’s mechanics, they wouldn’t have any problems playing once they understand.

Outside of the age recommendation, it’s important to consider that this game is a franchise tie-in game. Originally released in 2004 and based on the A Song of Ice and Fire books, it was rereleased in 2011 when the TV adaption of the series was started. It’s clear that they’re targeting people who would be fans of either the books or the TV series, particularly the TV series given the rerelease.

However, other than references in terminology, I don’t think this game relies too heavily on the existing Game of Thrones franchise. If you were to change the title of the game, I think it would be a pretty standard Risk-like board game about battling over territory in a medieval fantasy setting. I think someone with no knowledge of either the books or the show would have no problems enjoying this game.

I think a fan of the franchise who bought this game could easily introduce it to their clueless friends and have no problems playing together. I think the game stands well enough on its own without the franchise tie-ins, and could easily be further spread around and enjoyed by anyone who enjoys strategizing and taking risks.

Pros and Cons

I think the objectively best part of this game is its clear instructions. It’s a complex game, and while it’s not perfect, there are several elements of the design that make things much easier for a first-time player.

Firstly, every player is handed a card corresponding to the color they chose to play as. Not only does this card tell the player what units they start on in what positions on the map, this card also contains a short description of what every order token in the game does.

There are also two copies of a reference sheet that provide similar information, which can simply just be passed around the table or put in a place where everyone can see it. This reference sheet details icons on the map, different cards, and other tokens.

Lastly, the back of the instruction manual provides a simple step-by-step guide of the game’s phases.

While you won’t quite understand all the intricate details of the game just with these things, they provide a quick explanation of what the game is about for a first-time player. The player cards, reference sheets, and back of the manual can also be easily consulted for reminders of basic game elements.

To be honest, I’d say the worst part of the game is that it’s a franchise tie-in. I really did not expect much going into the game other than an overcomplicated self-referential mess. While this did make it so that the game vastly exceeded my expectations, I think the game does itself a disservice tying itself to a media franchise.

It might just be my personal bias, but I more easily dismiss tie-in works than I do original content. I did explain earlier that this game can be enjoyed by people who don’t know anything about the series. But, I think the fact that just having the same name as the tv show immediately makes non-watchers think “I don’t know anything about that. I’m not really interested in trying that game.”

Conclusion

Despite initial skepticism I had a lot of fun playing this game. It takes a bit to learn all the rules, but I think it’s a really well-designed game. Everything in the game ties back to resource management, and the risk and reward of using your various resources wisely. The influence system also adds another layer of strategy to the game, making it so you don’t just have to think about what you’re doing with your resources in the planning and action phases, but also how you might have to spend them in the future for influence benefits.

The game sells itself short tying itself to an existing franchise. I think it’s a really solid game that could be enjoyed by anyone who’s just a fan of fantasy or strategy, and if this write-up made it sound interesting to you, I definitely recommend you try it out.