A GAME OF THRONES BOARD GAME REVIEW

''When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.''
 - Cersei Lannister

Hello gamers and welcome to another blog post from us here at Games Knight. If you are a Game of Thrones fan you have come to the right place this week as me and Gravius review the Game of Thrones board game by Fantasy Flight Games. If you are not familiar with a Game of Thrones but like your board games I am sure you will find this review just as enjoyable.

Presentation.

Upon opening the box one thing is quite clear, the product oozes quality. This is no surprise to me as Fantasy Flight is a household name in RPG and board games and the level of quality is something to be commended.  The game board is a stunning display of the continent of Westeros and also several important game tracks such as the round track, victory track, supply track, influence tracks and the wildlings track.  The artwork on the cards and player screens is as equally impressive representing important characters from the great houses of Westeros called upon during combat. Combined with the well cut tokens and plastic units that represent the military might of your house, the components of the game are all very impressive.

The continent of Westeros beautifully displayed on a superb game board.

Overview.
A Game of Thrones: The board game is a game for three to six players, based on the George R.R. Martin’s bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Players each control one of the six Great Houses seeking dominance over the lands of Westeros. By mustering armies, conquering territory and forming alliances, each house strives to control the most castles and strongholds so it may ultimately claim the Iron Throne. At the end of the 10^th game round, the house that controls the most areas containing either a castle or a stronghold is declared the winner. If, at any time during the game, a player controls seven such areas, that player immediately wins the game.

How the game plays.

1. The Westeros Phase (skipped in game round 1) The top card of each Westeros deck is drawn, after which each card is resolved in order (1, 2 and 3). Westeros cards represent important game procedures and events. Some cards show a wildling icon in the upper right corner. During the advance wildlings track step, the wildlings threat token is advanced one space for each of these icons present on the drawn Westeros cards.

2. The Planning Phase. Each player simultaneously assigns facedown order tokens to each area containing one or more of his units. Orders a player can place are defence orders, march orders, support orders, raid orders or consolidate power orders.  (It is during this phase that players (Ciaran) can pander mewlingly to the other players to help them out).  
Whats really nice about this phase is that the orders are placed face down, so you can say 'yeah, i'm going to attack this area so if you push north we can work together.' Then, when orders are revealed at the same time (in the action phase) you've actually moved your army somewhere else, hopefully the now poorly defended area of your too trustful opponent.

The Great Houses of Westeros muster their bannermen.

3. The Action Phase. The order tokens assigned during the planning phase are now resolved. The majority of player activity takes place during this phase.

After each action phase, a new game round begins, starting with another Westeros phase.

Alliances.

Players are always free (in any phase, at any time) to make promises and seek alliances with other houses. Promises and alliances, however, are never binding and can be broken for any reason. Even the staunchest ally cannot be 100% sure of the good intentions of his partners. The Iron Throne, after all, can seat only one.

The Six Great Houses of Westeros are all vying for the Iron Throne. Which house will you be?

The Games Knight Court.

Ciaran> Being a Game of Thrones fan, and this also being my board game, I have tried to look this product without bias as best as possible.  After 2 sessions of playing the game however I am totally in love with it. The rules are fairly complex when reading them but once you have had a few games, with at least 2 people looking  at the rules,  the game is very easy to pick up and by the 4^th game round you will have the basics nailed down.

Gravius  > I agree, the first time we played it, it took about 3 hours to get through 4 turns! However, things do quickly fall into place and by the end of the second game everything was mostly second nature.

Ciaran> The artwork and the overall presentation of the game totally blew me away. What I really appreciated was the original artwork used on this product, not photos of the cast from the popular tv series which would have been very easy to do.

Gravius > I think this game was originally released before the tv show, hence the original artwork.

Ciaran > The first edition of this game was released before the tv show but this is the 2nd edition which was released just after the tv series hit the screens. It would have been very easy for Fantasy Flight to take the commercial path and gone for photos of the cast so it is credit to them for sticking with the original artwork.

Stunning artwork can be found throughout the rule book.

Ciaran > The element I love the most of this game is the ability to negotiate and form alliances with other players, much in keeping with the political intrigue in a Game of Thrones. In my 2^nd session playing this game, I played as House Tyrell and formed an alliance with the House Baratheon player. House Baratheon is a strong house to play in the game so I intended from the start to align myself with that player and pit them against the 2^nd strongest house in the game, House Lannister. Gravius was playing as House Lannister and didn’t enjoy having to contend with 2 houses harrying his borders and soon succumbed to greater numbers. Then, in typical Game of Thrones fashion, myself and the House Baratheon player both revealed our intentions to betray one another in the 8^th game round in an attempt to secure more castles and strong holds and ultimately claiming the Iron Throne.  House Baratheon prevailed and defeated me outright and won the game securing the Iron Throne by a comfortable margin. This for me was brilliant. It was a true representation of the stories and plots from the novels and TV series and it came to life in the board game. 

Gravius > This is the best part of the game, whilst I didn't do a whole lot of allying, mostly because my neighbours were both attacking me and the other houses were too far away to really help, I can see the opportunity for teamwork and backstabbing.

Conquering a Kingdom is a bloody business.

Ciaran > I am a massive fan of this game and I cannot wait to play it again. I would recommend this to any Game of Thrones fan and also to any gamer who is into board games. It is very close to being like Risk only I would say this game requires a lot more resource management abilities to be successful.  So here in the Games Knight court I here declare that the Game of Thrones board game by Fantasy Flight, first of its name, shall be rewarded with a 5 out of 5 rating from me. 

Gravius > I too think Game of Thrones is an excellent series (both tv and book) and therefore am obviously more inclined to like this game. However, I think if you're a fan of strategy there are plenty of things here beyond the Game of Thrones finish. As Ciaran elluded to, it's very similar to risk, in that you recruit armies and march them about a map of the world attempting to dominate all. There is, however, enough difference to make it worth adding to your boardgame collection, even if you own risk.
The only real negative for me is the definitive end goal. With risk, players have a few cards which have objectives on, which none of the other players know about, and this keeps a level of uncertainty about who is truly in the lead. With the Game of Thrones Boardgame everyone knows how many castles each person has, and how close someone is to winning, and therefore makes the last few turns just everyone allying against the person with 6 castles. If the final objective was to hold a few places of interest (drawn at random perhaps) or 7 castles it might make the finish a little less definate.
Overall, a solid strategy game, with enough replayability and interesting elements to stay near the top of our boardgames pile for a while yet. 4/5