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?

That's exactly right.

Rhaegal in the core set has the ability to search the deck for another copy of himself and attach it as a duplicate.

If you starting to add cards to the decks you already have you will often find that this is the dangerous issue with unique characters.

Next one

In our Lannister (me) vs Baratheon (girlfriend) game the following situation occured:

She has Robert Baratheon in play (Renown. STR 3, MIL+POW - When Robert Baratheon claims power for renown, he claims an additional power) and Lightbringer is attached (Vigilant. Response: Kneel Lightbringer to save attached character from being killed).

I have Ser Jaime Lannister in play (Deadly. Infamy. STR3, MIL+INT - Ser Jaime Lannister does not kneel to attack or defend a MIL challenge.)

What happens if I attack with a MIL challenge and she decides to defend with Robert.

Both STR is 3, but the attacker gains the advantage which means I win that challenge. I have Deadly but the attachment on the defending card has a response to save him from death. Because of the claim on the plot she still needs to kill one of her characters. She chooses another one which has not been used to defend my challenge.

Is this the correct way to go about this? It feels like the Robert Baratheon card is immensely powerful with that attachment and the two extra power tokens he gets from renown.

It's mostly correct: claim happens before Deadly. So you can defend a military with a weak character you were going to kill for claim anyway, and avoid Deadly (since there would be no eligible character to kill for it).

Yep, the scenario plays out like you describe. Military claim is at the defenders discretion (for choice of who to die) so it can be any character they have in play, deadly can only be applied to a participating character.

In the core set decks you have limited control options (the decks are designed more with the 4 player melee system in mind in my opinion). The best counter that i can think of is lannisport brothel that can keep robert knelt.

Yep, the scenario plays out like you describe. Military claim is at the defenders discretion (for choice of who to die) so it can be any character they have in play, deadly can only be applied to a participating character.

In the core set decks you have limited control options (the decks are designed more with the 4 player melee system in mind in my opinion). The best counter that i can think of is lannisport brothel that can keep robert knelt.

True but because of Lightbringer Robert gains Vigilance which can make him stand after the Baratheon side wins a challenge (say MIL for example) and then issue a PWR challenge so he can again 2 extra PWR tokens if victorious.

The Baratheons in the core set are hard to beat imo

Take another look at Lightbringer. The ATTACHMENT itself has vigilant. It does not give vigilant to the character it is on. So when the Bara player wins a challenge, the attachment stands (ready to save again), not the character.

Take another look at Lightbringer. The ATTACHMENT itself has vigilant. It does not give vigilant to the character it is on. So when the Bara player wins a challenge, the attachment stands (ready to save again), not the character.

Cheers mate, we've been doing that one wrong

Like i said, lots of subtleties.

Its a big thing to watch for with keywords that some things have them as part of the card (like light bringer being vigilant itself) while others grant the keyword to the attached character (like gutter rats cunning).

i am also a newbie with no prior card game experience who needs help if i am ever going to be able to understand gotm lcg

some of the card attributions are kind of confusing us (my wife and I)

such as

Baratheon Stinking Drung< Condition: Attached character gets -4 while participating in a challenge.

does this mean she can attatch it to one of my opposing defending or attacking house cards to lower my strength if not how would this -4 help to attache it to another Baratheon card

Stinking Drunk is an attachment, so the baratheon player can attach it to a character, his or his opponents, during the marshaling phase. Unless the character has the no attachments keyword like The War Host of The North. Since this is a negative attachment you normally would want to place it on your opponents characters.

When the character with Stinking Drunk is in a challenge he has -4 strength; with a minimum of 0 strength.

Suppose a character with 3 strength has stinking drunk attached and it participates as a defending character. It's strength would immediately drop to 0. If neither player takes an action the challenge will be considered unopposed due to your total strength of 0.

Now if the character received a Strength boost I'm You Writ Small which gives a character +2 strength he would have 1 strength. (3-4+2= 1).

Thank you so then I would assume also all attachment cards strength bonus cards and such all need to be presented in played during the marshaling phase not just as needed to defend orattack during the challenge phase

Unless it is a scenario of attaching two characters such as Sances start to lady to defend an attack to gain strength together Dearing the challenge face or does this to me to be done during the marshaling say I know most of this is probably common sense

General plea: When posting with something that uses autocorrect, please proofread....

All attachments, locations and characters must be played in the Marshalling phase. If you don't play them from your hand then, you cannot access them from your hand during other phases. (Unless some card effect specifically says you can.)

Once they are in play, you play the effects as they are written on the card. The effects could be continuous (ie, "always on"), passive (ie, when the condition happens, the effect happens whether you want it to or not), or triggered (ie, the controller chooses to use it during the phase indicated by the first, bold word of the effect, or as a response, as similarly indicated).

This is not a rule question but I'm thinking about expanding the core game set with the Deluxe expansions from the 4 houses. These expansions, are they the same cards like the core set or are they brand new? Or should I start investing in the cycle packs rather than the Deluxe expansions?

There is some small overlap between the Core Set and the different Deluxes (mainly economy locations like Great Keeps, Summer Seas et al.) They are a good way to expand out your card pool, but be wary of adding them at different times since they definitely will give a significant power boost to their respective houses.

There is some small overlap between the Core Set and the different Deluxes (mainly economy locations like Great Keeps, Summer Seas et al.) They are a good way to expand out your card pool, but be wary of adding them at different times since they definitely will give a significant power boost to their respective houses.

Cheers mate, I will be upgrading each deck simultaneously. Just need to find a local retailer here who is able to get these Deluxe expansions and ship them to me

Based on what appears to be your playing experience i would suggest each picking a house and buying the respective expansion for this house. Also keep in mind that there is an expansion for the Martells which you may find interesting.

Also generally speaking you start to get a feel for what a cost of a character/ card should be and normally if a card seems ' over powerful' you have probably missed something or read incorrectly. Obviously there are some cards more powerful than others which is why there is the restricted list.

I mention this because the Lightbringer/ Vigilence scenario thinking the character gains vigilence and not just the attachment is a common mistake

Next newbie question!

When a character has stealth, can I choose not to use that ability when on the offensive?

Well, the practical answer is yes, you can choose not to declare stealth.

The mechanics are much more involved, though. Assigning stealth is a framework event. You can't skip it. When you get to that point in the timing structure, it happens whether you want it to or not. BUT, when it happens, the definition of the keyword allows you to choose 0 targets for stealth. So, the technical answer is that you can choose "no stealth," but you DO have to make a choice.

Thanks

And how does the framework work when challenging.

'A' declares attackers

'B' declares defenders

<player actions>

'A' declares who he declares stealth upon from the chosen defenders by 'B' (this is the part i'm not so sure about)

Resolving of Claim

Check for Deadly characters and resolve this

End challenge

I believe i'm missing something, it's late here

• Challenge Declared: The attacking player determines which of the three challenge types will be contested, choosing one for which they have at least one eligible attacker.

• Declaration of Attackers: the attacking player declares which eligible characters are attacking, and commits them to the challenge, paying any costs needed to do so (often kneeling, although with non-kneeling characters this is not the case, and with some cards such as Motley (Core) a further cost must be met).

One thing to note - because it's something people often miss - is "challenge declared" and "declaration of attackers" above are two steps in the same process of initiating/declaring/calling/issuing (whatever) an attack. The challenge cannot - and does not - begin until both things have happened. And, in fact, you cannot do one without the other. They cannot be separated.

The same is true for the "declaration of stealth" and "declaration of defenders" steps above. They are two steps in the single process of defending the challenge.

The description of "challenge resolution" above may be a little misleading, just because there is so much going on in it. To further break it down, you do the following (in order) when resolving a challenge:

And when you resolve the claim of an Intrigue challenge, do I pick my own card to discard or does my opponent get to choose one blindly?

It has to be at random, so you can't pick it yourself. Having your opponent pick it blindly is the accepted method.

Stupid ? Of the day

I am confused on the player actions aspect of the challange phase can anybody please explain this process ( with a card example) more please

Thanks you guys have been such big help!