One thing I love about this game is the depth of all the little things going on it. But at the same time it leaves a lot to keep track of. So I was wondering what tricks other people might have, if anything, to help keep track of all the cards in play and in hand without having to be glancing over cards after every little thing to see if any action/response should occur.

Well i like to order the card in my hand so what I'mmarshalling that phase is the first thing I see with alternate possibilities immediately behind. When Marshalling is done I reorder my hand so any cards I might play in the Challenge phase are what I see first. I shuffle before my opponent selects for intrigue challenges to prevent them from being able to deduce what type of card they may be discarding. I check my hand every player action for two reasons, to make sure I'm not forgetting something, and to make my opponent think I may have a response or effect that will change things up. I then put my Dominance cards in front as we end the challenge phase. This means I move my cardsa around a lot inmy hand which is a useful bluff but also forces me to constantly keep aware of the phases of the game and what cards I'm holding.

I turn cards in my dead or discard pile that I need to keep track of 90* from the other cards. These may be cards which I can bring back when certain conditions are met or the like, or a Ravens card I want to shuffle back into my deck.

I place attachments on characters or locations so I can always read the text, even when I know it by heart. Reminds me that it is there and has some effect.

I group my characters for attack and defense in front of my play area, furhtest from me, with my locations closer to me with my resource locations and characters to one side and my special effect locations to the other. I keep the cards in Shadows closest to me. I keep my House card on my left next to my plot deck with my daw deck and my dead and discard piles to my right.

I think it is really just a matter of finding a system that works for you and then not verying it so that keeping track of cards is easier.

Well, I like to think that as I play more, I make fewer play mistakes. The truth is that no matter how many times I play my Targ deck, I still forget to return Forever Burning back to my hand every once in awhile. The same is true with other houses--this game just has so many choices to make each round, it's hard to keep track of everything. (That's definitely a strength of AGOT, but it does make keeping track of everything easy.)

Beyond the obvious "build a rush deck" or building a deck that interacts less with your opponent's cards so that you minimize the number of real play decisions/mistakes you make, one thing that I find helps the best is getting a lot of sleep and eating well before a tournament, and drinking water as opposed to soda during the tournament. It sounds funny, and AGOT isn't exactly a full-contact sport; yet I notice a huge difference in the number of play mistakes I make early in a tournament vs. during later matchups, and the later mistakes are usually because I'm tired. These, however, are drastically reduced if I ate/slept well.

If that advice isn't very helpful, I suppose there are a few things you can do. Writing down your opponent's plots as they hit the used pile can be helpful. Even if you remember what your opponent's plots are, writing them down forces you to think about each one and can clue you into keywords or other mechanics that you may have missed. (This is less of an issue now, but when "Others" and "Kingdom" plot cards were played a lot, it was important to keep track of how many the opponent had in his/her used pile.) Writing down cards that are shuffled back into your opponent's deck can also be useful--if an opponent's raven's cards are shuffled back into the deck, it's important to keep track of that. Of course, any card that will come back to hand from the dead or discard pile is laid there horizontally so that it stands out from the others, which I lay vertically. Like dormouse, I like to keep the cards I plan to play each phase in the front of my hand, so that I can remember to play them (and in the appropriate order).

In the end, playing regularly is probably the best way to avoid play mistakes, not only because you will remember more of the elements in your deck, but also because you'll be less surprised by other deckbuilds. I find I make the worst play mistakes in response to (or immediately after) someone surprises me with a particularly brutal or unexpected play. After someone throws surprise deadly with I'm You Writ Small to kill my Daenerys Targaryen with 4 renown, it's easy to forget about the Forever Burning in dominance.

while i find i usually can play just fine with something less than a full 8 hours, the eating well before a tournament is a very important thing. hunger is a killer when it comes to my attention span. short of that, i can't say i do anything special to keep track of things short of playing a lot. the more games you play, the better you get keeping track of the whole board.

It may be annoying for my friends but I usually use the graphics of the FAQ and say loud in which phase we are, when players can do actions…

Something like: "Now it's dominance, let's count our total. Ok John Doe, you win the dominance, take one power. Now if nobody has any action to do we can go to standing phase…".

I have to admit that my friends don't know the rules very well so it helps them knowing when they can do actions, when not… Besides by clearly saying that they can do an action, and letting them the opportunity to think about it, it prevents possible debates about "you went too quickly, I had an action to do…".

So, by playing slowly, everyone has the time to check all the cards in play and we wait for everyone's agreement to go further.

At the beginning of the most complex phases (Marshalling, Challenges & Dominance in my opinion), I usually ask if someone has in play a card or an effect that influences the development of the phase or that takes place during this phase (passive effects generally, or plots). So we are less subjects to forget about the plot card in the upper-right corner of the table, under the coffee cup…

Good answers on all of these suggestions... though I will say that at GenCon I just felt the momentum making me feel better throughout the day... though maybe that was "The Glow" or the blessed touch of the Seven... since I couldn't have taken rings twice in one day without some sort of divine intervention.

The strange thing was we (Dave Myers, my 1st opponent in the top 8) joked about using the Gold tokens from teh Core Set (since the gold pool rules were not yet in effect) to count our play mistakes. I got dinged for not picking up Meera Reed.... But I had a Flame Kissed waiting for her anyway. >:]

Twn2dn said:

Obviously casual play is a different story, but this reminds me of a question that Dobbler asked years ago. Can you use a notecard in tournament play... not to record your opponent's actions, since that gets dangerously close to stalling... but just to remember little things, like "Be sure to use your Brothel." or "Pick up the Forever Burning" or "Play Massing @ Twilight in the pre-draw PAW to avoid the chance that they draw a Paper Shield."

I think in the end you want to get away from crutches like that... but I do agree that the game has a lot to keep track of. Pain is the best teacher, and forgetting to use Bronn's ability before challenge resolution a couple times is usually enough to keep you from forgetting in the long run.

Maester_LUke said:

How about this on your notecard: "If you have Ygritte in hand, and Gold for Bribes on a Character, make sure you clearly trigger Gold for Bribes and say 'Night's Watch' before you marshall Ygritte". I could have used that one.

You know, I saw your name on the "most recent" post header, and was thinking to myself..."Don't make be rebut you with the words, 'Pyat Pree,' Greg. I will feel bad..." just not as bad as I'm sure you've felt. Though frankly, if you'd won that match up, I might not have had to play Tzu or Geoff and that would have made me nearly as pleased.

Maester_LUke said:

Nah, I'm glad you won. It was part of your journey of you winning it all. I'm just mad at myself for the boneheaded mistake. Its a juxtaposition I can live with.

apparently some annoying magic players keep track of the number of mistakes they make throughout a tourney on a d20, prominently displayed for their opponents to see