So I played this for the first time yesterday. It's awesome.

There were 5 of us, 3 were newbs. I played as Tyrell. I've seen people mention a fan variant that makes the game better, but no links. What do the vets here suggest? I actually thought it was a really fun game, but I do see possible balance issues. Greyjoy and Stark allied early on and Stark ended up pretty much walking to victory without much trouble, while it seemed like Lannister and I were really up against it. I think I would have been doomed if Martell had been a human player. When Lannister joined the Greyjoy and Stark alliance I was sort of forced to join Baratheon, and we were ground down quickly.

I really want to play again with 6 players.

Bakura83,

Wecome to Westeros!

It's a great game, which can break down with certain combinations of Houses...especially if Lannister and Greyjoy lock horns early-on, which allows Stark free reign in the North. Having enjoyed the game with five (5) players, you really had the best of all worlds. It has hit our gaming group's table about a dozen times in 2014, with only 25% of the games involving five players, with 50% at four players, and another 25% at three players. It's a bit shaky at three players, and shines brighter the closer you get to five.

You may want to check out BGG, as it's much easier to search for Variants on that site, and die hard players will post comments, variants, sessions, etc on both sites.

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,

Whats BGG?

@Bakura, Alliances are good and bad for the game, if you don't have one, you're F'd.

If people are sick of you winning (like me), you're F'd. But a few times I have won, I've formed alliances, stuck to them, until winning was in my grasp, we tend to break an alliance and take the last castle the player does not have guarded because he thinks you have an alliance. Crumby, I know but its a game of thrones.

BGG is boardgamegeek.com

HJB,

Kauai beat me to the punch Yes, BGG is the largest gaming community on the internet and one of the top 100 sites visited (I believe that I read it somewhere). Definitely check it out...as a number of us move from one site to the other (or among many others), you can maintain the same pseudonym for ease of recognition.

As to alliances...very true! We played the Feast for Crows expansion last night and it was great, but I felt badly for our friend who played House Arryn, as it's almost a free ride to win if you don't harass the owner early.

Cheers,

Joe

The 5p variant we play is RAW House Cards, RAW unit set up; but No Greyjoy (Pyke is unassailable).

We put a 5 strength neutral force token on Seaguard and a 4 strength neutral force token

on Flint's Finger.

Works for us...lots of fun.