System Analysis – Game of Thrones: The Board Game

This is an analysis of the board game Game of Thrones Second Edition, no expansions or the like. I will first go through the different systems the game has and summarize how all of them work with each other. And then move on to things I did/did not like about these systems and the full game. And lastly discuss what audience this is targeted towards.

Systems – A “Brief” Explanation

The systems found in Game of Thrones are very dependent on each other and that creates a very dynamic and enjoyable game play experience every time you play.

Before I go too in depth I will quickly try to explain what the game is about.

You play as one of the houses/powerful families from George RR Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire. The game is similar to risk in that you move your armies from zone to zone fighting and conquering new land. Your goal is to own 7 castles or have the most after all the 10 rounds are done.

Armies – The Soldier, Knight, Siege Tower, and Boat

There are four different army unit types.

• Soldiers, these units cost 1 point of mustering and provide 1 combat/defensive strength.
• Knights, these units cost 2 points of mustering and provide 2 combat/defensive strength
• Siege Towers, these units cost 2 points of mustering and provides 4 combat strength if the attacked area holds a castle or stronghold but provide none if not, they also do not provide any defensive strength. These units can also not retreat which means they are instantly destroyed upon defeat.
• Boats, these units cost 1 point of mustering and provide 1 combat strength. They can only move and attack water zones, but they can support connected land zones. These units are also not connected to your supply (More on supply under the title Supply).

The different units that can be found in the game.

The Game’s Core – Planning and Conquering

When the planning phase starts each player has five types of orders to place in the zones he owns.

1. March orders are used to move armies from one zone to another.
2. Defend orders gives the army in that zone a bonus to combat if they are attacked.
3. Support orders gives the army in that zone permission to help an army that’s being attacked or is attacking itself if the affected zone is connected to the supporting army.
4. Consolidate Power orders allows the player to collect power tokens or muster armies.
5. Raid orders gives the player an option to remove one support or consolidate power order of another player from a connected region.

Order Tokens

Every order is placed upside down until everyone has put theirs down. This requires you to try to read your opponents and try to figure out what they are planning.

When everyone has placed their orders and the tokens are flipped for all to see. The execution of those orders are started (turn order is explained under the title Hierarchy). And like I said before, the goal is to capture 7 castles or have the most castles after 10 rounds after which the game ends.

But starting with round 2 event cards are played from the Westeros Decks.
 

Westeros Decks – Events

So starting with round 2, events cards from the Westeros Decks are drawn and must be resolved at the start of the round before the planning phase.

There are three piles of events cards and one from each is drawn and resolved in order. These cards can be everything from collect power tokens to the Wildlings attacking.

Westeros Decks and examples of the event cards that can be drawn.

Some of the cards have a Wildling icon on them, when a card that has that is drawn the Wildling meter is increased by one.

On an event card that says that the Wildlings attack, all players must bet their power tokens to collectively get over the number that the Wildlings are currently placed. Everyone reveal how much they bet at the same time, so this is also a bit of a trusting game. The Wildling card is then drawn and it tells what happens depending on if you failed the betting or not.

Economy – Power Tokens

Power Tokens can be collected by placing a Consolidate Power order on a zone you own or through an event card that allows you to collect Power Tokens depending on how many crown icons you have in the zones you own and if you have a ship in one of your ports.

Power Tokens are used to keep a zone, and that zones bonuses, that you are moving our army out of. A token is then placed on that zone and is yours to keep until an enemy army moves into it.

Tokens are also a betting tools when an event card named Clash of Kings gets played. This gives the players a chance to move up in the three different Influence Tracks.

Hierarchy – Influence Tracks

There are three different Influence Tracks that gives the leader in each influence a special power.

• Iron Throne, this influence decides the turn order when it comes to executing your orders. It also decides who wins if two or more people bet the same during a Clash of Kings event card.
• Fiefdom, the player highest on this influence track gains +1 combat/defensive strength. And the order of players decide who wins in an even battle.
• King’s Court, the player highest on this influence track is given the power to look at the top card of the Wildling deck, they can also change one of their own order tokens after they have been flipped. The stars seen on the track show how many orders with stars on them that the player can play during one planning phase.

The three different Influence Tracks. The house that is to the very left is the first in that specific influence.

Supply

Every player has a starting amount of Supply which can be acquired by capturing a zone with a supply icon and that an event card that updates your supply gets played.

Supply decides how many armies you can have and how many units you can have in those armies. The flags are the amount of armies allowed, and the number on those flags is the number of units allowed in that army.

If the army’s size where to exceed that amount at any time during the game, the least valuable unit is destroyed until the number of units are correct.

Combat

A combat phase is started when a player moves his/hers army into a zone already occupied by another player’s army.

The goal in combat is to have more combat/defensive strength than your opponent. This is not only determined on the strength of the players’ armies, but also on what Tides of Battle and House card each player draws.

The Tides of Battle cards are drawn randomly and gives the player extra strength of other bonuses in combat.

The House cards are chosen by the players and all have different strengths to them and must be used correctly to get the most out of them.

The victorious player moves into the zone they were attacking, or if they were defending they stay in that zone. The defeated played is moved to a connected zone owned by him/her and it must be a zone in which the player loses the least units.

Correlations – What Affects What?

Correlation and synergy between the different systems I have mentioned here.

Order/Movement

• Power Tokens.
  By placing a Consolidate Power order you receive a Power Token.
• Supply
  Moving into a zone with a supply icon increases your supply after a Update Supply event card is drawn.
• Combat
  You move into other zones to engage in combat.

Event Cards

• Order/Movement
  Event cards that forbids the use of a certain order token for that round can be drawn.
• Power Tokens
  Event cards that makes the player collect Power Tokens depending on the zones the own can be drawn.
• Supply
  Event cards that update supply can be drawn
• Combat (Arguable)
  Because there are event cards that change what order tokens you can place as well as updates your supply, I feel these do indirectly change the way combat is played that turn.
• Wildlings
  Event cards that increase the Wildlings forces as well as cards that initiates a Wildling attack can be drawn.

Power Tokens

• Order/Movement
  If a player moves an army out of a zone he/she can leave a Power Token to still have that zone under his/hers control, otherwise he/she have to split up your army.
• Influence Tracks
  You bet Power Tokens when the Clash of Kings event card is drawn to increase your influence in these tracks.
• Wildlings
  You bet Power Tokens to stop the Wildlings from invading when the corresponding event card is drawn.

Influence Tracks

• Order/Movement
  Depending on the player’s position on the King’s Court track, he/she is prohibited to play a certain amount of order tokens with stars.
  Depending on the player’s position on the Iron Throne track, he/she executes his/hers orders first.
• Event Cards
  Event cards that requires the leader of a certain influence track to choose what happens can be drawn.
• Power Tokens (Arguable)
  Event cards that has an option for a leader of a specific influence track to choose that makes everyone collect Power Tokens can be drawn.
  The leader of the King’s Court track can look at the top of the Wildling Deck card and trick others into spending more or less Power Tokens.
• Combat
  In a battle that is even the player highest on the Fiefdom track wins.
  The leader of the Fiefdom track has +1 combat/defensive strength
• Wildlings (Arguable)
  The leader of the King’s Court track can look at the top card in the Wildling Deck and either lie, tell the truth, or say nothing at all of what it is. This changes how players react to a Wildling attack.

Supply

• Order/Movement
  Supply affects the amount of armies you can have and therefor how you split/move your armies around the board.
• Combat (Arguable)
  Depending on the player’s supply he/she will have a different amount of units in his/hers army which in turn affects the outcome of battle.

Combat

• Influence Tracks (Arguable)
  House Martell has a house card that gives the player playing the card the ability to change the opponent’s position on one of the Influence tracks.

Wildlings

• Power Tokens
  You bet Power Tokens when Wildlings attack and therefor changes how many Power Tokens each player possess.
• Influence Tracks
  There are Wildling cards that change either the highest or lowest bidder’s position on one of the Influence tracks.
• Supply
  There are Wildling cards that change either the highest or lowest bidder’s amount of supply.

Likes and Dislikes

The Influence system is really interesting and probably the thing I liked most about the game. It changes how you play the game and it makes every game session different depending on what position you are able to reach in each Influence track. But if you wish to get higher in hierarchy you have to wait for the right event card to be drawn. And that random element is very annoying. Maybe you manage to climb really high after such a card has been drawn only to see the same card be drawn the turn after and have you lose your position because you’ve run out of Power Tokens.

Speaking of Power Tokens, the whole game depends on them. Well, maybe not that drastically but still. Without Power Tokens, you can’t clam a zone without leaving an army in it, you can’t climb higher on the Influence tracks, and if you fail to defend against a Wildling attack you can lose a lot of resources. And that kind of resource management is something I enjoy greatly.

Tides of Battle cards, the bane of my existence, or my savior. Random. That describes that part of combat. You don’t know what you will get, even though you outnumber your enemy greatly, they can get a really good Tides of Battle card and you get a shit one, and they win! While it adds a bit of excitement to the combat and a feeling that anything can happen, it can be frustrating at times. Having tried, I can definitely say that it is much more fun to play with them than without them, but they can still have you scream in despair over a battle you should have clearly won.

Target Audience

The first edition of this game was released in 2003, and seeing the success of George RR Martins books and now later the show, this revised second edition that they released the same year as the show, I feel, tries to hook on to the success of said show and bring in fans, of both board games and the TV series/books, to play.

As the house cards in particular displays the traits of the characters from the book very well and accurate. I can see, that by making the game have about the same feel as the books and show, they tried to lure some of that audience in.

Of course this board game can also be played without any prior knowledge of the Song of Ice and Fire universe. So being pretty close to risk in game play, but adding a political like system and giving the game its own twist might bring some risk players over whom wants to try something a little different.

My thoughts are that the first edition was aimed more towards risk players looking for a different experience, while the second edition also tries to aim at viewers of the show.

That was all I had to say for now. What do you think?

Have a good one!