Board Game Analysis – Game of Thrones
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Introduction My group chose to play and analyze Game of Thrones: The board Game. It is a resource based strategy game for three to six players. You play as one of the six available houses and the goal is to conquer seven castles or to have conquered the most amounts of castles after ten rounds. You do this by managing resources, moving your units to new zones or attacking your enemy player’s zones. The game is about risk and reward since the movements of the units are restricted and you never know what the other players are planning to do next until you have established your own plans.
Best and Worst Sides The worst side of the game was that it was hard to get in to as a new player since there were many different objects to keep track of. You got busy keeping track of them that you never really got time to think of the strategies. The best side was that similar to the actual story the game is based on there appeared agreement between the players that based on trust in your enemy – agreement that could be broken at any point of the game. Intrigues and the doubt if you could really trust your allies or not made the game more interesting and dynamic. Core Game System Analysis The resources are objects containing properties, behaviors and relationships. The resource system consists of the Units, the Order Marks and the Power Tokens. The Units The amount of soldiers a player can put on the map is determined by the Supply system. This system is briefly described like this: on certain zones on the map there will be one or more barrel icons. If a player has conquered one or several zones with these icons the player will move up on the supply board which determines how many groups of soldiers the player can put on the map and how strong these groups are allowed to be. All of the Units behaviors are based on the order marks which also are resources that will be analyzed further down. There are four different types (objects) of Units, each one with small variations of properties, behaviors and relationships between them. – The Footmen (objects) are the weakest of aggressive units with the properties of having the worth of +1 Strength during combat, and is worth 1 during creation meaning that only one footman can be created at a small castle while two footmen can be summoned at a big castle. Their behaviors are movement, combat (attack and defend), and support. Their relationships are towards the other units, the order marks, house cards, enemy units and free castles – strengths between friendly units adds to each other and they can cooperate with the ships, the order marks determines what the units will do next, the strength of the units will be added to the house cards during battle, the strength of the units will be measure towards the enemy units during battle and the strength of a free castle will determine what strength your footmen needs. – The Knights (objects) are the strongest of aggressive units with the properties of having the worth of +2 Strength during combat, and is worth 2 during creation meaning that they can only be created at bigger castles or upgraded through a footman for 1 point. Their behaviors are movement, combat (attack and defend), and support. Their relationships are towards the other units, the order marks, house cards, enemy units and free castles – on the same conditions as the Footmen. – The Ships (objects) are non-aggressive units. Their properties are that they are worth 1 during creation and can only be created in castles that have a port. Their behavior is water zone restricted movement, and their relationships are towards the order marks, and that they work as bridges over water for other friendly units. – The Siege Towers (objects) are aggressive units. Their properties are worth 2 during creation and +4 Strength if (relationship) the area they are attacking holds a Castle with extra defense. The Siege Breaker can only attack (this is a behavior) if it is positioned correctly and can therefore only attack during the mentioned conditions. Other relationships are towards the other units, the order marks, house cards, enemy units and free castles – on the same conditions as the Footmen and the Knights. The Order Marks The Order Marks are played during the Planning Phase of the game. They are placed faced down on zones which the player owns, and are revealed when the Planning Phase is over and it is time for the Action Phase. There are five different types of Order Marks and each type with three different ranks of strengths. Some of the Order Marks have a star on them, and the player can only place a certain amount of Order Marks with stars on per round. The amount is determined by the King’s Court Influence track. The higher up on the track, the more stars you can use. The player therefore has a limited asset of Orders they can use and therefore the Order Marks works as resources. – March Orders (objects) properties is unique to each type of March Order – -1 Attack, +0 Attack or +1 Attack with a star. This property will be added to the targeted units if they are attacking an area. The behavior of the March Orders is that you allow your units move to an adjacent zone. Their relationships are only towards the players Units. – Defend Orders (objects) properties is unique to each type of Defend Order similar to the March Orders except it concerns Defense instead of Attack. This property will be added to the targeted units if they are being attacked by another player. The behavior of the Defend Orders is ———————. Their relationships are only towards the players Units. – Support Orders (objects) properties is unique to each type of Defend Order similar to the March Orders except it concerns Defense or Attack depending on how the player chooses to use the Support. This property will be added to the units the player chooses to support with the units targeted by this Order. The behavior of the Support Orders is that it allows the player to without moving the targeted units use their strength to support friendly units in an adjacent zone – either for attack or defense. Their relationships are only towards the players Units. – Consolidate Powers Orders (objects) properties is (as for the above mentioned) unique to each Consolidate Powers Orders and some of them gives a bonus. (———————–). The behavior of the Consolidate Power Orders is that it allows the player to either collect Power Tokens (one extra power token per crown mark in the zone) or creating Units (but only if there is a castle mark in the zone which decides the strength of the Unit that is possible to create) during the rules mentioned above. The Consolidate Power Orders therefore have relationships with the Power Tokens, the player Units, the castle marks on the zones and crown marks in the zone. – Raid Orders (objects) properties is (as for the above mentioned) unique to each Raid Order and some of them gives a bonus. The behavior of these orders is that is allows the player to destroy one Support Order or Consolidate Order from an enemy player in an adjacent zone. Their relationships are therefore targeted towards the enemy player’s Order Marks rather than the player’s own Units. Power Tokens The Power Tokens are similar to gold or money in the most games. They are used during bets and auctions and/or to buy zones that your Units are about to leave. – Power Tokens (objects) properties are that they are worth 1 when using them in bets and auctions, and are worth one zone if you are to buy it. The behavior of the Tokens are that the player can use them during auctions concerning what ranking he/she will get on the three different Influence Tracks (which each gives certain bonuses in the gameplay for the player at the top ranking), they can also be used during bets in order to stop the Wildlings from invading if that certain event card is drawn (if all of the players manage to bet a certain amount of Power Tokens together they will stop the Wildling attack), and that they can be used to pay for a zone. The relationships are towards each other, the enemy player’s tokens and the Consolidate Powers Orders. The Most Interesting System The most interesting system was the actual interaction between the players and how you were able to create allies as well as create enemies by verbally taunting them. This gives the gameplay a depth to it with interactions and conflicts similar to the ones in the story the game is based on. Throughout the entire game the players were trying to read each other’s plans in order to plan your own moves and counter-moves. Target Group Analysis The game is claimed to be targeted to 14-year old players and up, but I would say that not any 14-year old would have the interest or patience to learn the complex rules of the game. Due to the complexity and the strong connection to the books and the TV-series the player might quickly lose interest in the game without any personal association to those two. Summary This game is a very interesting game if you as a player have some kind of connection to the story or world that it is based on, is interested in strategy and has some good friends to play it with. It is a good idea to play it several times in order to fully understand the complex functions and rules within, and to be able to use them in a fun, strategic way.
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