Game of Thrones: The Board Game

Escapist TV series, movies and games have become more prominent and sought after. Fantasy epics, sci-fi voyages and post-apocalyptic futures are more and more prevalent in popular culture today.

This puts me in my happy place. I can't get enough of The Walking Dead, MARVEL & DC movies, etc etc.
The only sucky part is that once a season or movie is done you are left and empty and dead inside. OK I am exaggerating but when Game of Thrones season 2 ended, I quickly grabbed an onion and began chopping.

When a friend of mine mentioned that he bought the Game of Thrones board game: instant NERDGASM :O
We arranged a meet, got together some friends and gave it a go. Westeros here i come!

Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition)

We were glad that Matthew (said friend) played a couple of games before ours. The rule book is 32 pages long and quite involved and complex. There's approximately 100 little bits and bobs that make up the game. I have never played Risk, or Settlers of Catan before so I was proper n00b and by the time you finish this you will understand why I still am.

The playing area AKA Battlefield

It took about 1.5 hours to learn how to play and then another 3 hours and we had to call it quits for it was a work night. Why so long? Well the rules for one are quite expansive. There isn't a dice in this game. There are many factors that influence the outcome including my favourite: Backstabbing!

Don't you dare expect me to go through the rules in detail 'cos quite frankly I'm not too sure about them myself. Basically, you play as one of the houses in the series; Stark, Targaryen, Lannister, Greyjoy, Baratheon, Martell, and Barnaby. Seriously if you thought that last one was one of the houses please go watch the series or read the books and leave this blog now! There is one winning condition and 2 sub conditions if there's ties. He/she who controls the most castles and strongholds wins, followed by most strongholds and finally most supply.  

Once you choose your house you get to place units in your designated areas and and then give them orders; Support, Defend, Move Out or Raid. Depending on who has the Iron Throne sigil (Baratheon to begin with), the order of play is decided. Randomness enters with 3 cards being revealed at the start of each turn. These can be dire game changers.

View of the playing field from above

Sometimes Wildlings attack! Other times supplies are depleted! Armies are mustered, battles are fought, lands are sieged! There is so much to this game that this post is an injustice. You have to experience it for yourself at least 3 times... before you get the actual hang of it :)

All in all a really enjoyable experience. Just make sure you allocate enough time to learn and then some more to play. Once you get the rhythm going it  makes for truly enjoyable escapist experience.

I can't wait till I'm good enough to actually start playing good strategies and employ confuzzling mind games with the other players.

I leave you with these great words by my favourite character Tyrion Lannister: 

"The Lord of Light wants his enemies burnt. The Drowned God wants his enemies drowned. Why are all the gods such vicious c-nts? Where is the god of t-ts and wine?"