Customer Reviews

A Game Of Thrones

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an experienced gamer who has tried out a wide range of strategy-oriented products, I have found the Game of Thrones to be an especially strong one (which is fairly surprising given that it was not designed as a stand-alone product but instead grows out of a series of genre novels). It is a nice game in all of the superficial ways: gorgeous board, sturdy and attractive pieces, strong box in a convenient size to add to shelf and with attractive artwork that would make you proud to have it there. But what especially impressed me is the overall unity of the design.

Most niche board games come with extremely thick manuals filled with idiosyncratic rules to govern every situation. They may be enjoyable, but they take forever to learn and you generally cannot get non-gamers to invest the time. We feared this game would be the same, but I sat down with my wife, kids, and a family friend so that we could walk through the manual and we quickly realized that the rules were especially consistent and logical. Even my 12-year-old daughter picked them up quickly.

If you're looking for a comparison, I'd say that among the traditional war games this one most closely resembles Diplomacy, and anyone who has played Diplomacy will find the rules particularly comfortable to learn. The action choices are similar, and determined in advance in a similar fashion. Randomness plays little role in battle outcomes. And, like Diplomacy, the game even permits the addition of a negotiation session as players make non-binding deals with one other.

But don't take these comparisons too far. This isn't Diplomacy with a new thematic overlay. It would take too long to go into all the unique features of this game, but I'll highlight three big ones:
(1) Different territories offer different resources: Troops, Supplies, Power. If you also factor in whatever direct military advantage taking a territory might bring, the result is that players must make uncertain choices about which advantages to pursue and when to pursue them.
(2) Players periodically bid for positions of political influence that can help them out later, producing a nice tension between saving your resources vs. investing them in gaining potentially useful advantages.
(3) A group of savages called "wildlings" will attack occasionally, threatening all the players at once. The rules set up an intriguing collective-action problem: Contribute too much to repelling the invasion, and your rivals will have gained a relative advantage. Contribute too little and the marauders roam the countryside, killing your people before they return home.

Does the game have problems? We've noticed one: The arrival of troops and supplies is governed by event cards, so sometimes a strategy will be stymied not because of any strategic error but because the needed card stubbornly refuses to pop up. But, by the odds, that kind of difficulty would only appear in a small percentage of games.

Finally, please note that I have not read the George R.R. Martin novels that served as a point of departure for this game. I cannot testify to its level of success capturing the world depicted in the books, only its success at creating a fun and exciting gaming environment. At that task the game designers have succeeded brilliantly.

This is a great game. If you like games of strategy with a great story behind it, this is the game for you. The game doesn't require that you have read the books though. If you've read the books then you'd probably agree with me that this board game really brings out the best of the books. It's a very well designed game. Honestly this game is very balanced and it's hard for one player to run away with it. It's fun. A lot of fun. And yes... Winter is coming...

The wonder of this game is matched only by it's complexity. To compare it's similarites with Risk, the only other strategy board game I have played, is to say they both have armies. The differences then take flight with an innovative battle system which involves no luck only strategy, ships to give a whole new element to consider with the transport and aid they offer, a system of bidding for three seperate offices which greatly affect the players ablities to operate on the field of battle. Consider before purchusing the depth of the game, as not only dose it take time to memorize the rules but the game itself takes time to set up with its many pieces. Yet there is no board game I have ever played that rewards skill rather than chance the way this one dose. Simple games are fun to pass the time, but to play A Game Of Thrones is a rich and rewarding exsperiance. All in all it takes one game to fully comprehend the game and it's workings and after that things go much smoother as exsperiance grows. To me worth every cent.

This game is alot of fun that I think everyone can enjoy, even if they have never read the books. In the game you put down orders to your troops and then everyone reveals what they are doing at the same time, so that way your alliances and startegies are always in question a little. "Is he gonna attack me, if he does I wont be prepared cuz im taxing the people this turn..." stuff like that. Its alot of fun but trying to get four or five people together to play is tough. Its a really fun game, good buy!!

I play this game about once a year with friends and have never been disappointed with the amount of fun that has resulted. I have never read the books but it has not taken away one bit from the enjoyment of the game. The game itself takes about 3-6 hours to play all the way through, depending on how deeply the people you play with like to think about their actions. Allow yourself about another hour on top of that to read through the instruction manual before you play, as there are likely to be many circumstances requiring you to peruse through the booklet during gameplay. The entire game consists of 10 "turns". The beginning few turns usually take longer because everyone is still rusty with the instructions, and the last few turns take equally as long because more pieces are on the board and thus require more strategic thinking. The game is extremely balanced and even seemingly insignificant actions by each player can end up making huge differences all within one turn. The one who takes the lead early in the game is rarely the one that ends up winning!

I haven't read all the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series but I don't think that is necessary to enjoy this game. The game is easy to setup and the rulebook and rules aren't as complicated as other Fantasy Flight Games. And this game is ideal for over three players but still enjoyable enough with just three.
Each player plays as one of the major houses from the book and the objective is to control the most strongholds by the end of the game. The game is divided into ten rounds and each round is composed of phases. The first phase is a martial phase followed by a planning phase where players place their orders for the current round. In the next phase players take turns executing their orders and in the final phase players make arrangements for a new game round. Most of the action takes place during the execute orders phase where players can move troops, attack to control territory, collect power tokens, as well as other strategic orders such as raid, defend, and support nearby troops in combat. There are other rules such as drawing cards at the beginning of each game round. When cards are drawn, they can trigger specific events and conditions that affect the overall game. Cards can also allow mustering of troops and reinforcements, voting on the three power icons of the game: the Iron Throne, the Valyrian Sword, and the Raven, whose name I forget at the moment. Each power icon grants special abilities for the player who controls them. There are other situations where players must vote and give power in order to prevent changes in the game.
This game is as much of a tactical strategy game as it is a negotiation and game of voting with power tokens. Players for the most part are competing against one another but in certain situations can cooperate to gain an advantage against other players. The game is not overly complex and is a must for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire series. The game can last around 3 to 4 hours and as previously stated is ideal for more than three players but still enjoyable with just three.

This game is the definition of strategy game. Gone is the dice mechanic of Risk and having one guy in Indonesia defending Australia from the invading horde. Gone is the marches across entire continents with improbably large forces from Asia. This set speedily reduces the diplomatic dealings of Diplomacy while still retaining the elements of mystery and subterfuge. This game has ruined me for playing Risk and Diplomacy and has replaced them both on my game shelf.

This game is for five players (six with the Clash of Kings expansion) set in the world of the novels, Westeros, and deals with five of the royal houses seeking the throne after the death of Robert Barratheon. The houses are; Greyjoy, Stark, Barratheon (Stanis), Tyrell, and Lannister. Scattered about the continent, each house is tasked to capture and sway other feifs to their cause, through conflict if needed.

Actions are determined by tokens that are placed face down on the board with your armies. You can try to ally and bargain but, never, are you allowed to reveal your marker until it is time to flip them all. Never are you allowed to be 100% sure of your alliance! Once all tokens are down, they are revealed and resolution takes place by order of influence within the court of Westeros. Army size is regulated by supply limits in areas taken and held, the ability to recruit more soldiers limited by the tides of the Westeros Deck draw at the start of each turn. This one random action in an otherwise planned game forces players to carefully consider conflicts since (as it is really) casualties are hard to replace with more trained soldiers.

Actual conflict is won or lost based upon the size of the armies involved, support from flanking players (if they decide to answer the call), and the general leading the army. Players have a deck of 5 cards of leaders from the novels. These cards are selected by the players in the conflict and will decide the total combat effectiveness and total casualties in the conflict. Generals are balanced in special abilities and power among all players and it now becomes a matter of deciding how powerful a leader you must select versus how powerful a leader your opponent will flop down. Once used, the general is set aside until all generals in a players deck is used anf forcing players to carefully gauge when to use the 'big guns' and how important regions are to hold.

Players, amid all of the conflict, must also bid for influence within the lands they occupy. This is important for two big reasons. The Black Watch on the Wall is undermanned and at a moment's notice may attack. When this action takes place, players must secretly bid influence to drive back the invaders or suffer the consequences. There is also the influence within the courts that must be bid on. The areas of influence are the Iron Throne, Messengers, and Feifdoms. The Iron Throne track determines order of resolution with the person in the highest position breaking all ties of influence. Messengers provides players with the ability to use more 'high end' orders (March +2, Defense +2, etc) and access to the Ravens to switch an order after they are revealed. Feifdoms determines winners in ties of conflict (higher seat assures victory) and the player at the top can use the Valyrian steel once a turn to grant a combat bonus to his army.

A focus on a strategy of cards rather than dice means that actual battle tactics and army size determies victory. No more is the opposing player slicing through your mass of troops because he rolled higher than you. Gone is the single soldier holding off an entire invading horde. More importantly, allied players can lend you help in battles or betray as suits their goal. Unlike Risk, this game permits cooperation and even encourages it as the lone player will be taken down by allied forces.

If you are a fan of strategy and military war games, you will want to pick this up. If you come to enjoy this game, I highly reccomend getting the expansions.

A Game of Thrones is by far the most balanced strategy boardgame I have ever played. Most strategy games that come to mind (Risk, Axis and Allies, Settlers of Catan, etc.) are too dependent on the luck of the dice. AGOT doesn't use dice for anything! This game has battles, political manuvering, supply limits that determine the strength of your army, land and sea units, outside attacks that everyone has to defend against, (like in Settlers Cities & Knights) strategic bidding for positions of power, and a whole bunch of other intricate details that make this game great. Be warned: this game is not for the daft or weary of heart. It takes a long time to know all of the rules... you'll play it serval times before you won't have to consult the rule book ever other second. However, it is worth every painful hour of learning! The game plays best with all five players, though it is still fun and difficult with 4. Don't waste your time with only 3 players; the game doesn't hold up with so few players. That fact is the game's only downfall. One last thing: don't buy any of the expansions. I bought the Storm of Swords expanison on recommendation, and found it seriously lacking. You get some extra house cards and a few new elements that make the game more interesting, but those small improvements are not worth another $40-$50. If the expansions were priced at $[...], I'd say buy both. I don't know anything about the Clash of Kings expansion, but I won't be spending money on it to find out about it. If you love strategy boardgames, you won't be disappointed with A Game of Thrones. Also, I recommend reading the fantasy series this game is based on. George R.R. Martin is among the great writers alive today, and even if you don't like fantasy (I only read 2 or 3 fantasy authors) you'll still love Martin's series. Now buy this game and start ruling Westeros!

i love this game...it is a lot of fun and has a lot of strategy involved. my only complaint is that a three player game can be very boring if the three people aren't overly aggressive. There just seems to be too much map for three people. But, other than that, I would highly recommend this game to anyone.

This game is great. So much more tactical than games like risk or even axis and allies. The only thing I wish it had was an allied victory condition, as towards the end of the game one person just gives up and helps another person end the game quicker.