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Monday, 15 August 2016

How To Win At The Game Of Thrones Board Game: Part Other posts

2- Combat, Managing Troops and Power Tokens Home

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In the last part I talked about the key strategies relating to territory control and effective use of
house cards. In this part I will talk in depth about effective combat strategy, how you should Popular Posts
muster units, and how to manage and use power tokens with maximum efficiency.
How To Win At The Game
3: Combat Of Thrones Board Game:
Part 1- Territory Control and
House Cards
"Know when to fight With the current Game of
And when not to fight" Thrones obsession still
holding strong after several years in the
limelight, and the season 6 finale having
- Sun Tzu on Waging War
been...

How To Win At The Game

It goes without saying that the most important part of combat is deciding which orders to place, Of Thrones Board Game:
Part 3- Stark and Greyjoy
and without a doubt the most useful, and therefore the most important order, is the support order.
In this part I am going to
Support is so valuable for several reasons; firstly, any supporting army can participate in both start talking about the
offence and defence in the same turn, which means you can re-use the same units repeatedly. specifics of playing as each
Furthermore, if a supporting army lose they do not become routed, meaning you can continue to house. I have broken this discussion into 3
use them that turn. parts, as each...

How To Win At The Game

Another great strength of supporting armies is that they are completely protected from swords Of Thrones Board Game:
and skulls, meaning you cannot lose them in combat no matter how badly you lose. This means Part 5- Tyrell and Martell
that you can still attack with a very strong army but only have a single footman on the line if you In this article we will look at
the strategies for the two
lose. This use of support orders should form the backbone of any attacks.
remaining houses, Tyrell
and Martell. If you have missed any of the
Whether it is a hangover from Risk or just something that is hard-wired into board game players is previous s...
unclear, but there seems to be a psychological desire to move a big army into an enemy territory,
How To Win At The Game
when the smart thing to do is move a single unit in and support with a large army. One of the
Of Thrones Board Game:
most effective uses of support orders is to have two large armies next to each other that support Part 4- Lannister and
each other. This means that you are giving strong support to all areas around both those Baratheon
territories, whilst also ensuring that the supporting territories have a strong defence due to them In this article we continue
our look at the specifics of
supporting one another.
playing as each house. If you missed any of
the previous articles, they can be fo...
For example, let's say that, as Lannister, you have taken Riverrun, and maintained an army on
Stoney Sept. How To Win At The Game
Of Thrones Board Game:
Part 2- Combat, Managing
Troops and Power Tokens
In the last part I talked about
the key strategies relating to
territory control and effective use of house
cards. In this part I will ta...

How To Win At The Game

Of Thrones Board Game:
Part 6- Taking the Win,
Meta-Game and Alliances,
and Alternative Ways to Play
Hello, and welcome to the
final part of my guide on how to win at the
Game of Thrones board game. If you have
missed any of the previous pa...

How to Win at Codenames

By putting a mutual support in both territories you are effectively protecting both of these and (Part 1: Spymaster Side)
making them very difficult to take. Moreover, this gives you a strong claim on Harrenhal and the Vlaada Chvatil's
Blackwater, and once these are taken they can be effectively defended with a single unit. This Codenames is a very
bankable board game. If you
strategy of keeping your main armies off the frontlines not only protects your army but helps with are going to a board game
supply limits, as you do not have to focus on having big armies on all your borders. meet up with a bunch of randos, you could
do...
The other key use of support orders is on ships. Unless you are moving your ships in position for
Guide to setting up your HDTV for gaming

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better troop movement or consolidating power in a port ships should be supporting or raiding by Dave Lamb This is a
follow up to my first guide on
every turn. Of course there will be times when another player makes an offensive naval move that
how to pick a HDTV for
might require a defence token, but due to the necessary telegraphing of this by mustering and gaming . After you've
moving ships this is fairly easy to predict. selected the prefect TV for
ga...
Effective supporting and raiding with boats can often decide the long-term winner of a game, and
The Emotional Core of
much like with ground troops, the supporting boats should ideally have a barrier of a smaller army Geese
that they are supporting. A classic example of this is for House Martell and the Sea of Dorne. I'm currently in the regretful
habit of 'doing requests' for
blog content. I asked my
good friend Judy for a
suggestion in good...

Why is the acting in

Firewatch so good?
I asked Yogesh Raut for a
blog topic this time around.
Yogesh wanted to know
what made for a good acting
performance. Without any further i...

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By mustering ships into the Sea of Dorne Martell can create an unraidable naval support for all
the connecting land areas, as well as the East Summer Sea, which should then have a raid on it Followers Contributors
to disrupt Tyrell and Baratheon. This makes it very difficult for Baratheon to hold Storm's End, as
Ben
Martell can support with their navy, but Baratheon cannot whilst Martell continually raid. Seguidores
(12) Dave Lamb
The last thing to say on order placement relates to what I call “mass apprehension”, and is the
Ed Colley
phenomena where everyone assumes that all other players are going to go on the aggressive.
This often happens directly after a mustering, where it looks like all players are going to go on the Jak Marshall
attack, which thus causes everyone to play defensive orders on their borders and effectively have Jen
a dead turn. Whilst a turn where everyone plays defensively is probably not the wisest turn to
L P Fielder
attack, it can be used to get you ahead. A great example of doing this is consolidating power on
areas with crowns on that you would normally play a more aggressive order on, as if you can Peter Smith
predict a turn of turtling you can get ahead on power tokens whilst everyone else waits things out
Tom
to see the lay of the land. These turns are also a good time to throw in some raids to counter any Dransfield
consolidations from other players, which, if you are lucky, might get you the odd pillage.

Overall, defence orders should only really be played when you have no other options (or order
tokens) or are certain a key territory is going to be attacked. Defence orders have a very marginal
combat use, and otherwise paralyse your armies. Wherever possible, march and support, and Seguir
when in doubt, consolidate and raid. Of course, before placing your orders you need to consider
what units you have and where. Blog Archive

2018 (4)
4: Managing Troops
2017 (2)

"In War, 2016 (8)

Numbers 09/11 - 09/18 (1)
Are not the issue. 09/04 - 09/11 (1)
It is a question of
08/28 - 09/04 (1)
Not attacking
Too aggressively" 08/21 - 08/28 (1)
08/14 - 08/21 (1)
- Sun Tzu on The March How To Win At The Game Of Thrones
Board Game: Part...
There is always a palpable excitement when the first mustering card comes up (not least from
08/07 - 08/14 (1)
Greyjoy and Tyrell, who are normally desperate for the opportunity to get new units). Knights are
often seen as the gold standard of GoT units, as they add 2 to both attack and defence. Whilst 05/15 - 05/22 (1)
knights are certainly valuable, they should always be chosen when needed, and not due to 04/10 - 04/17 (1)
wanting a big army. There is often a rush to get knights on the board, when in fact they are best
used mid game to hold key territories and as a supporting army. Indeed, misuse of knights can be 2015 (21)

very costly; sending two knights with a march order only to have them lose to two swords can 2014 (9)
cripple a player permanently. Therefore, I would focus on mustering units with the following 2013 (29)
general priority, and use units for the following purposes:
2012 (67)
2011 (23)
Ships- You should muster a strong navy in the sea adjacent to your home territory as
2010 (22)
soon as possible. Ideally you should have an adjacent sea area that can be used to
raid whilst your main navy supports your initial land areas. Mustering ships also gives
you movement options (vital for Stark, Greyjoy and Baratheon). This should be your
main priority when first mustering units.
Footmen- Getting lots of footmen out can be unappealing, as it eats into your supply
limits. However, early on this is a key part of holding lots of territories; it is always
better to have 5 areas held with footmen than with power tokens. Chaining march
orders is a great way to disperse footmen, and can spread them over a wide area.

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Again, this is important to do early on to set up power token farming and grabbing
supply barrels (Tyrell and Stark are the clearest examples of this).
Siege engines- Possibly the most neglected unit in the game, despite being the
strongest when used well, siege engines are important to all players. When you are
ahead they can give you the final push needed to win, and when you are behind they
are a cheap way of taking castles (4 mustering points for an attack strength of 8 can
help a lagging player make a comeback). After using ships and footmen to secure
your home territories you should focus on using a siege engine to start any attacks
against other players. Even the threat of a siege engine on their doorstep can cause
players to panic and misuse their orders. There are two very effective uses for siege
engines. The first is as a supporting army; as stated above, supporting armies do not
retreat, and therefore are not being put at risk. Since a retreating siege engine is a
destroyed siege engine using them to support can mean you get all their strength
without risking them. Again, having one placed on a highly contended boundary
(Riverrun/Seaguard/Moat Cailin, Crackclaw Point, Starfall, Storm's End etc) and then
using ships to march a footman from an unexpected territory allows for a strong and
low-risk offence. The other great use for siege engines is as a continual assault. There
are huge chains of castles on the map (from Oldtown to Winterfell no less) that mean
you can just keep marching them each turn. With this tactic the view is not to hold
each area, but rather to force your opponent back so far that they panic and throw
everything at stopping your progress. By the time they have done this they are
normally in a weaker position. To do this you should make sure you are acting before
your opponent, and also that you have a clear route of uninterrupted castles. This can
be even more potent with the right house cards, as you can destroy a lot of units in the
process (Ser Loras Tyrell or anyone with swords are good for this). Both of these
tactics can be hugely effective uses of siege engines, and get you much more value
for money than knights.
Knights- Putting knights last on the order of priority may seem a bit mad, but as I have
said above; when using a knight you have half the mobility of 2 footmen and half the
attacking power of a siege engine. The other big reason not to rush out knights is the
number of cards that effect knights and footmen. There are a couple of house cards
(Renly Baratheon and Kevan Lannister) that benefit from having footmen rather than
knights, as well as cards in the Wildling deck that reward those who have not fielded
lots of knights. That said, knights can form a key part of the aforementioned use of
support orders, and are definitely the units you want supporting to all your attacking
and defending areas. Also, you never know when you will get a mustering, and when
you have hit your supply limit it is much better to upgrade your footmen to knights than
simply waste the points.

The last thing to say on units and army management relates to areas. As I have mentioned
above, getting lots of footmen out is good, as it allows you to hold lots of areas effectively. This is
obviously good for resources, as you are likely to get at least one card each turn that rewards
castles, barrels, or crowns, but also it increases the number of orders you can place. It goes
without saying that 2 footmen on one area are weaker than 2 footmen on 2 separate areas, as
giving two orders is always stronger than giving one. Also, since single units do not contribute to
supply limits there is no reason not to aim to have a footman on every area you control. This
makes for a stronger overall defence, as well as making more options for raiding and
consolidating, as power tokens are what you need to be focusing on long term.

5: Power Tokens

"War has no
Constant Dynamic;
Water has no
Constant form."

- Sun Tzu on Empty and Full

So let's say you have nailed all of the above, and you are playing all the right orders, mustering
the right units and optimally managing your house cards. If you do this well then you will have a
strong chance of winning in any given game; however, the final main area to consider is the
acquisition and use of power tokens.

Power tokens can be used to bid on the influence tracks, contribute towards repelling the
wildlings, and as a marker for holding unoccupied territories. This latter use can seem the most
straightforward, and for the most part there is not a lot to say about it. The only strategic use of
power tokens to hold areas is making the decision as to whether to set them down when you
know the area is very likely to be attacked. In doing this you force your opponent to complete the
march against an empty territory just to take it from you, but it also means that you are throwing
away a power token. This strategy should only be done in cases where you want to force your
opponent to choose between two strategically valuable marches.

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In terms of generating power tokens it is important to set up a “power token farm” as soon as
possible. This is much easier for some houses than others. Stark and Tyrell have plenty of
territories that are likely to go uncontested that contain crowns, and you should aim to set up a
single footmen on these each turn to generate a healthy flow of power tokens. Greyjoy, Martell
and Baratheon, after an initial set up, can normally rely on consolidating on their home territory
and connecting port for power tokens, which should be safe provided they have used their navy
wisely. For Lannister, Lannisport is out due to the lack of a crown, meaning they should aim to
consolidate on Stoney Sept and Harrenhal when they think they can do so safely. Again,
Lannisport, er, port is another generally safe contender.

Wherever possible try not to consolidate on your borders unless you are certain you won't be
raided. If you hold the messenger raven swapping out an ineffectual march or unnecessary
defence order for a consolidate power can often be a cost effective use of the ability. That said,
often a consolidate power order is the last thing people expect. King's Landing is often highly
contested, so a consolidate power order for a healthy 3 power tokens can often go unchallenged,
as it is not an order other players plan for.

When it comes to bidding against the Wildling's there is obviously an advantage to using the
messenger raven to know the card (it always feels great to see everyone else waste power
tokens only to draw a “Silence At The Wall”). Assuming that you don't know the Wildling card you
should make a calculated decision as to whether or not to push for the victory bonus. Again, this
is very situational, but it is useful to remember what the bonus effects from the Wildling deck do.
Most relate to mustering, improving supplies or regaining house cards; as such, if you have just
got your deck back, are sitting on 5 or 6 supply barrels and had to waste points on the last
mustering, it probably isn't worth going for. Generally you should either be bidding a very high
amount or no tokens at all, as you either want the bonus effect or want to have a power token
advantage. The only time to bid a small amount is in the instance where there is a power token
drought amongst all players and you don't think the Night's Watch will win. In these cases bidding
1 or 2 power tokens can protect you from being stung as the lowest bidding player, which can
often be crippling.

In terms of bidding on the influence tracks there is a lot of second guessing the other players.
There are a lot of different circumstances that can dictate what you should prioritise. Generally
you should be spending all but 1 or 2 of your power tokens on the influence tracks, unless a
Wildling attack is very likely that turn. Generally, in a balanced game it is reasonable to assume
that all players will have roughly equal amounts of power tokens. As such, we can break the
bidding down into two likely scenarios; lots of power tokens in play, or few power tokens in play.

If there are lots of power tokens in play, you should throw most of yours at the King's Court
influence track. Not having any stars makes the game exceptionally difficult, particularly if ther
have not been many mustering opportunities. This is particularly vital for early game Greyjoy and
Tyrell, who start without any special orders. The only time when you should not be prioritising the
King's Court is if your next turn relies on getting the jump on an opponent, in which case you
should go for the Iron Throne. The Fiefdoms track, whilst useful, has a very marginal effect.

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Having the Valyrian steel blade is very handy, but after that point the difference between 2nd and
6th on the Fiefdoms track is minimal.

Conversely, if there are few power tokens in play, perhaps due to a Wildling attack, you should
consider throwing them all after the Iron Throne. If you are successful you are in a strong position
to pick up high positions on the other two tracks for cheap or even free, as you decide the ties
and, if no one bids anything, you get to the top of the track for free. Generally in these situations
people focus on the King's Court, meaning you can often grab the Iron Throne, the Valyrian steel
blade and 1-3 stars on the King's Court for only a few power tokens. This is more advantageous
than having the Messenger Raven but being bottom of the other two tracks.

The last thing to say about the influence tracks is the phenomena of players wanting to defend
what they started with. Often Baratheon will bid a disproportionately high number of power tokens
to hold on to the Iron Throne, as Greyjoy will with the Valyrian Steel Blade (and everyone will be
after the Messenger Raven).

The absolute golden rule for bidding power tokens is to never leave yourself with none. The only
time you should get rid of your last power token is to use it to hold an area in the same turn when
you know you will be successfully consolidating power at the end of that turn. Many players have
been unable to make a winning move due to not being able to hold a castle they are marching out
of due to not having any power tokens.

That is the bulk of discussion on general strategy. In part 3 we will begin looking at specific house
strategies and weaknesses, starting in the north with Stark and Greyjoy.

- Part 3- Stark and Greyjoy

- Part 4- Lannister and Baratheon
- Part 5- Tyrell and Martell
- Part 6- Taking the Win, Meta-Game and Alliances, and Alternative Ways to Play

Posted by Ben at Monday, August 15, 2016

Labels: ben, benspoon, boardgaming, guide, mondays

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