Hey there folks,

First let me explain something. I'm a new player to AGOT LCG and a newbie in card games in general. My girlfriend bought me the core game set for my birthday as I'm really into the whole George RR Martin universe.

Now last night we played our first game which went sloooooooooooow as neither of us have any real experience with such games. And a couple of questions arose, especially during the Challenge phase of a round.

I'm just going to sketch a couple of situations here:

1. I issue a military challenge, with a combined STR of 13. She decides not to block, do I immediatly gain +1 power because of the unopposed challenge? If a character has renown, do i gain an additional +1 power on top of it?
2. I issue an intrigue challenge and she does not attempt to block it either. Do I gain 1 power or do I get to pick 1 of her cards she needs to discard? (depending on the plot card)

That's all for now, but if I have any more questions I'll post them in this very post :-)

Edit: Oh yes, is there a video on youtube that displays an actual game? I've watched the tutorial videos but an actual game might provide a better view on certain situations.

Resolving a challenge goes like this:

1. Determine winner
2. Apply claim (if the attacker won)
3. Reward unopposed (if the attacker won against 0 STR)
4. Award Renown

In both of your examples, you win the challenge unopposed, so you get a power on your House for that and any character with Renown gets a power, in addition to the claim effect.

Hello Yipster and welcome to the game!

Just to add to what Khudzlin has said, in any instance where the challenge is unopposed the attacking player gets to resolve the claim of that challenge and as a bonus get 1 power for the challenge being unopposed.

Right, thanks for answering!

And if I win an unopposed military challenge, does she still need to discard one of her character cards?

Right, thanks for answering!

And if I win an unopposed military challenge, does she still need to discard one of her character cards?

Yes, assuming the claim on the plot card was one and there were no increases in place.

And just to avoid any confusion in terminology, in satisfying military claim the losing defender has to kill (not discard) a number of different characters equal to the claim value. This is relevant primarily because of the inability to play another copy of a unique card already in the dead pile.

Note that the power you get for an unopposed challenge is IN ADDITION to the regular effects you get for winning that type of challenge. The defender cannot avoid the consequences of losing a challenge by deciding not to defend.

That explains a lot, thanks.

I'll keep asking questions in here if I have them

One other thing i noticed in your initial post about renown.

Just to clarify, when a character you control participates in a challenge and wins 'they' claim the power not 'you', which means that it goes on the character and not your house card.

This is important because power on characters cant be moved via a power challenge but will be lost if the character is removed from play for any reason (killed, discarded, returned to hand etc)

Keep asking questions, this game has a lot of subtle interactions and even the basic timing structure and rules can be a little daunting at first

One other thing i noticed in your initial post about renown.

Just to clarify, when a character you control participates in a challenge and wins 'they' claim the power not 'you', which means that it goes on the character and not your house card.

This is important because power on characters cant be moved via a power challenge but will be lost if the character is removed from play for any reason (killed, discarded, returned to hand etc)

Woah! We've been playing it wrong then.

I really need to read up on that it seems.

Am I correct to assume that the power coins that's claimed by a character counts for the total power of that House but when that character is killed/discarded/returned to hand it is put back in the 'throne room'?

One other thing i noticed in your initial post about renown.

Just to clarify, when a character you control participates in a challenge and wins 'they' claim the power not 'you', which means that it goes on the character and not your house card.

This is important because power on characters cant be moved via a power challenge but will be lost if the character is removed from play for any reason (killed, discarded, returned to hand etc)

Woah! We've been playing it wrong then.

I really need to read up on that it seems.

Am I correct to assume that the power coins that's claimed by a character counts for the total power of that House but when that character is killed/discarded/returned to hand it is put back in the 'throne room'?

Yes that is correct. It will take half a dozen games before you get more fluid with everything and in the meantime keep posting questions as there will be numerous

There are quite a few tournament games available on You Tube - probably best to look at uploads by Team Covenant (though they also have several other LCG games)

Watching the vids could be a good thing to get a general feel for the game play, but it's often not too clear as to what is going on unless you are fairly familiar with the game and the cards

There are quite a few tournament games available on You Tube - probably best to look at uploads by Team Covenant (though they also have several other LCG games)

Watching the vids could be a good thing to get a general feel for the game play, but it's often not too clear as to what is going on unless you are fairly familiar with the game and the cards

Yeah, I've watched a couple of them now and it is indeed hard to get a good idea of what is going on. I can easily distinguish the various phases in their games but I cannot tell what each card does.

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About this whole Renown keyword:

Another sketch of a situation, just to make sure I get this right.

I'm playing as House Stark and have Eddard Stark in play. He has 'Deadly', 'Renown' and 'Stalwart' as keywords I believe.

• I issue a Military challenge: When won my opponent can choose one of his/her characters to move to the dead pile, depending on the claim value of the plot card. Because of the 'Deadly' keyword 1 additional character needs to be killed assuming the defender doesn't have equal or more 'Deadly' participating characters. + Eddard claims 1 power because of 'Renown' (which counts towards the total of House Stark.)
• No Intrigue challenge can be issued because Eddard Stark doesn't have Intrigue available.
• I issue a Power challenge: When won my opponent loses one or more power tokens from his House card depending on the claim value of the plot card. These power tokens go to my House card. + Eddard claims 1 additional power because of 'Renown'

When Eddard gets 'killed/discarded/returned to hand' he loses all these power tokens he gained but because he is 'Stalwart' he is put on top of my deck instead of the discarded or dead pile.

This might seem extremely basic for all you lot but for an extreme beginner like myself this is quite a handful to wrap my head around.

A few things:

1) Remember that you issue each challenge separately, one at a time, with as many characters as you want and resolve it completely before you initiate the next. So, after you issue your military or power challenge with Eddard, he will be knelt. If he's knelt, you cannot use him when you initiate your next challenge (or to defend in a challenge initiated by an opponent). You won't be able to issue both a military and a power challenge with Eddard unless you find a way to stand him between the challenges.

2) The extra character that dies for the Deadly keyword must be a participating, defending character. That means the defending can avoid killing someone for Deadly if they don't have any defending characters - or if their only defending character was already killed for claim in a military challenge.

3) Deadly works in any challenge type. So if Eddard issues a POWER challenge, the defending player will have to kill a participating character if they come up on the losing end of the Deadly count, too.

4) Remember that Deadly works whether the attacker wins or loses the challenge. You can LOSE the military challenge and the defender could still have to kill a character for coming up short on the Deadly count.

A few things:

1) Remember that you issue each challenge separately, one at a time, with as many characters as you want and resolve it completely before you initiate the next. So, after you issue your military or power challenge with Eddard, he will be knelt. If he's knelt, you cannot use him when you initiate your next challenge (or to defend in a challenge initiated by an opponent). You won't be able to issue both a military and a power challenge with Eddard unless you find a way to stand him between the challenges.

2) The extra character that dies for the Deadly keyword must be a participating, defending character. That means the defending can avoid killing someone for Deadly if they don't have any defending characters - or if their only defending character was already killed for claim in a military challenge.

3) Deadly works in any challenge type. So if Eddard issues a POWER challenge, the defending player will have to kill a participating character if they come up on the losing end of the Deadly count, too.

4) Remember that Deadly works whether the attacker wins or loses the challenge. You can LOSE the military challenge and the defender could still have to kill a character for coming up short on the Deadly count.

1) Yes, I was aware of this. I only stated the different possibilities I had with just that single card.

2) Indeed, it has to be a participating defender.

3) I wasn't aware of this fact! Something more to add to the list 'not to forget' when I next play.

4) and another rule I wasn't aware of ;-)

you see, lots and lots to learn. But enjoying every minute of it :-)

Next question is about the 'Limited' keyword.

You're only allowed to play 1 card with the 'Limited' keyword per round. So if I play a location card with the 'Limited' keyword in the Marshalling phase I'm not allowed to attack with a character which has the 'Limited' keyword (if there are any, not sure) in the Challenge phase am I correct?

The limited keyword means you can only play 1 limited keyword per round, aside from that it does not stop you using that card in the round you played it, so if you payed a Northern Fiefdom you would be able to use its marshaling action in the round you played it.

The limited keyword only interacts on cards you 'play' from you're hand.

This is one of those wonderful nuances that we mentioned.

First when you 'play' a card you are marshaling it for its gold cost (even if that cost is 0) from your hand, a put in to play effect is not 'playing' the card and bypasses the usual restrictions raised by the limited keyword, see the greyjoy character first mate for an example.

Then, just for fun, this would still allow responses for a location entering play.

No. Playing and attacking are completely different things. "Playing" only refers to Marshaling a card (other than an event). Once the Limited card is in play, it acts like any other card of its type.

without introducing too many complications ...

Support of the South is a event - kneel 2 influence to put up to 2 locations with total cost into play (from your discard pile)

As you "put into play" - as opposed to "play" - these cards, there is no limited restriction

Recognising the difference between the two is very important - Limited is just a "play" restriction

Aha, thanks for the explanation!

I got some more questions later on, in the middle of a Stark (me) vs Targaryen (girlfriend) game at the moment.

Another newbie question

In my Stark deck I have the 'Great Keep' location card. It got 0 gold cost and gives me +1 gold every Marshalling phase. There are 2 more of these in my deck. When I get a second one in my hand am I able to play it during the Marshalling phase of the next round and will it count as a seperate location card or do I have to treat it like a duplicate?

I know these are very basic questions, in half a year I'm going to look back to the start of this topic and I'm going to tell myself how stupid I was

A card is either unique or non-unique. Only cards with the flag next to the name (like with Eddard Stark) are Unique and are allowed to have duplicates.

You can have more then 1 non-unique cards with the same name in play at the same time. So you can have 1 or more Great Keeps in play and you cannot duplicate it (unless another card would specifically allow it)

A card is either unique or non-unique, Only cards with the flag next to the name (like with Eddard Stark) are Unique.

You can have more then 1 non-unique cards with the same name in play at the same time. So you can have 1 or more Great Keeps in play.

Thank you :-)

Don't worry, some of us who have been playing far longer often come on here and ask a question that causes a few raised eyebrows in the 'you know this already' way.

All cards fall into one of 2 categories, unique and non unique as denoted by the little black flag to the left of the cards name.

If there is a little flag present then that card is considered unique, you can not have more than one of the card in play at any given time (or take control of a copy of a unique card you already control). If a copy of a unique card is in your dead pile then you can no longer put any copy of that card into play.

This is where duplicates come into play, you can play another copy of a unique card as a duplicate that grants a response to the unique card that basically reads 'discard duplicate to save from kill/discard/return to hand/deck/shadows'.

Duplicates are NOT attachments (a mistake i made when i started as you 'attach' them).

If there is no flag the card is considered 'non unique' and you can have up to 3 copies (the max you can have in your deck) in play at any given time, each card acts a separate entity, so if you played 1 great keep in set up, a 2nd in the first round and a 3rd in the second round in the 3rd round you would count plot gold+3 (and +1 and +2 in the previous rounds)

If they where characters like the direwolf pup they all can be declared in challenges individually (i want to attack with 1, and leave 2 for defense or any combination of such). They are killed individually and saved individually.

Don't worry, some of us who have been playing far longer often come on here and ask a question that causes a few raised eyebrows in the 'you know this already' way.

All cards fall into one of 2 categories, unique and non unique as denoted by the little black flag to the left of the cards name.

If there is a little flag present then that card is considered unique, you can not have more than one of the card in play at any given time (or take control of a copy of a unique card you already control). If a copy of a unique card is in your dead pile then you can no longer put any copy of that card into play.

This is where duplicates come into play, you can play another copy of a unique card as a duplicate that grants a response to the unique card that basically reads 'discard duplicate to save from kill/discard/return to hand/deck/shadows'.

Duplicates are NOT attachments (a mistake i made when i started as you 'attach' them).

If there is no flag the card is considered 'non unique' and you can have up to 3 copies (the max you can have in your deck) in play at any given time, each card acts a separate entity, so if you played 1 great keep in set up, a 2nd in the first round and a 3rd in the second round in the 3rd round you would count plot gold+3 (and +1 and +2 in the previous rounds)

If they where characters like the direwolf pup they all can be declared in challenges individually (i want to attack with 1, and leave 2 for defense or any combination of such). They are killed individually and saved individually.

Thanks for explaining!

Just to sketch an example to determine if I get this right

My girl plays Targaryen and she has the Rhaegal card in play. For whatever reason he dies and gets put into the dead pile. When she draws new cards and Rhaegal comes along the second time she cannot put it into play because the first card has already been killed?