As I am just starting to play AGoT LCG and learning the rules/basics, I was wondering if any of the experienced veterans on the board could offer some general gameplay tips and strategies? I intend to play Lannister and Targ decks, but universal gameplay tips are more than welcome.

Basically, what are some things you wish you knew when you first started playing that would have made you a much better player? Thanks in advance.

1. Don't overextend yourself. Between Valar Morgulis, Wildfire Assault, Fleeing to the Wall, Rule by Decree, and Westeros Bleeds, there are plenty of resets in the Core Set alone. One well-timed reset against an overextended opponent can be the difference that wins or loses a game.

2. Power wins games. Killing people, claim, kneeling, burning... they are only tools in your arsenal. Only 15 power matters in the end.

The answer isn't know everything i know now.

The best way to get better at this game is to play. As you know the cards more you get caught off guard less and less each time (though it still does happen). Its really hard to say, oh yeah always do this or that this trick really helps. Its hard because the games are so tactical and situational. For example with the same deck against the same opponet and the same deck there will be games where i never declare a military challenge and then others where i win every time i attack on military.

One genral tip i can give to new players is that losing a challenge or two a turn is no big deal (generally, but game situtation again could change this) and to not over commit to defending (if at all) especially if you have not attacked yet.

Lars said:

This is perhaps the best advice for new players, who often seem to feel the need to defend everything. There are a lot of good reasons not to defend challenges, particularly if you can't win them anyway.

Another piece of good advice is to look for effects that let you draw cards. The more cards you draw during a game, the more options you will ultimately have.

And conversely, try and restrict your opponents actual choices. The fewer options you give your opponent, especially if they are all middling to horrible for him, the better. Empty out his hand if possible. Kneel or burn, or otherwise make useless his favorite/most powerful characters.

Disrupt your opponents game. Everything you do that takes them out of operating at 100% efficiency is a good thing. This may mean controlling the tempo of the game (either by forcing him into situations where he is forced to slowly build his Strength rather than rushing, or puttin ghim in a situation where he can't afford to wait until his pieces are in place and must act before he is prepared.

Attack your opponents resources. All cards are resources, but some are more important in the short term and some more important in the long term. Find ways to prevent your opponent from drawing cards. Force him to discard cards from his hand, or even from his deck. Each card gone is a resource denied. Remove or otherwise limit your opponents gold or reducers. If he can't afford to play a card it is far less dangerous.

This reminds me about the article I was writing about Sun Tzu's Art of War for A Game of Thrones. Oh I wish my hard drive had not died. Maybe I should give it a go again now that we are in the CG environment.

There's alot of good advice here already with the most important thing might be to not overextend.

If I were to add one thing then it would be in deck building. Don't try to do too many things at once with your deck. Stick to one or two themes and strategies and make sure that you have cards that work well together. Don't build a deck that is too big. Try to stick to 60 cards so that you actually get your deck to work well. If you have too many cards in your deck you have less chance for diffrent cards that work well together to actaully come out together. Also try to have your deck well balanced between characters locations attachments and events. Your most important cards are always going to be characters. Try to have around 30 charactes in your deck. Make sure to have a sensible cost curve on them as well. If you have too many cards that cost 4 or more then you risk not getting them out until you have buildt up more income. You solve this by having quite a few 1 cost characters and 0 cost locations. This will give you better setups as well which is always good especially for a new player. Try to look at other peoples decks on the web to get a feel for what proportions to aim at.

Similar Topic

Thanks for the help. This community is great.

My advice is to be familiar with the different Houses and what you can expect from them. Playing against Baratheon is generally quite different than against Martell, Lannister, etc. Know what your deck is designed to do, and how best to accomplish that against the variety of opponent's options.

Also, one-on-one decks generally don't do as well in multiplayer. For a multiplayer game, design a multiplayer deck. Be aware than in multiplayer, there are many more opportunities for resets as well.

Finally, if an out-of-house card fits well in your deck, consider including it. Sometimes the utility more than makes up for the gold penalty.

like devious intention in a baratheon deck.

This applies if everyone is relatively new to the game, but getting yourself into a sanctioned tournament (and getting your head handed to you) will do a *lot* for you. I started out just playing the game with just a buddy of mine, and he and I actually went out of state to get into a tourney. I was completely destroyed, losing every round, but the experience and knowledge that the veterans in that tourney shared with me later was well worth the drubbing I took as I never looked at, or played, the game the same way since. So, I guess just reaching out to a "local" person who's been playing a while and can sit down and look through your deck to advise you on the maximizing of card slots and your gold curve and things like that.

I couldn't agree more. Having Rings and company regularly kick my head in honestly did wonders for helping me not only understand the flow of the game, but all the various surprises an opponent will hit you with.

Other people have already mentioned these, but just for the sake of adding momentum/consensus:

• Make sure you have a strong draw mechanic, if not more than one, built into your deck. That probably means some quick draw events, as well as something more sustainable. (So some draw 2 or draw 3 events for early game, and several characters/locations that will let you draw 1-2 cards each turn.) Of course, don't forget cards that give you 'discard pile-to-hand' recursion--these function as draw. Note that having a lot of draw cards will allow you to recover more quickly after resets so that you don't have to worry so much about overextending.
• Develop a good cost curve. I prefer to have at least 10 cards that are 0-1 gold so that I ensure my start up and early rounds are quick. (Low gold curves are also good when playing against Blockade and reduce the need to run lots of +gold locations.) In general, I try to have around 20 0-2 gold cost cards.
• As others mentioned, you don't need to win every challenge, and losing can be advantageous, especially if playing with revenge mechanics (such as A Lannister Pays His Debts).
• Have a decent number of challenge-phase tricks in your deck. You want your opponent to have to think hard during their challenge phase. (These are usually events, but other cards played from hand like Bannermen and ambush characters also count.)
• Most importantly--or second most importantly after draw--is to really think about how you want your deck to win. This likely goes without saying, but I've had a huge problem with this in the past, as I personally tend to focus on the mechanics of the deck rather than the win condition. When deckbuilding, really consider if you're going to win through (a) unopposed challenges (and if so, by killing/kneeling/stealthing?), (b) controlling your opponent's hand/characters and win over a long time, © rushing with lots of renown, etc. That way, when you have to make a choice between including card X and card Y, you can always decide based on if it's going to help you win rather than which tends to be the better card. (Just because a card is generally better doesn't mean it is always better in every deck.)

One more thing I could add is that when you have decided on a strategy for your deck it's a good idea to see if there are any cards in the game that when they come into play make your deck sompletely worthless. I can't give an example right now because I don't know the current meta game but someone might have an example to share. Anyawy, if there is such a card it's a very good idea to have some sort of was of dealing with it. If it's a location that screws your deck over then make sure to have some form of direct location destruction. If it's a specific character then make sure you have targeted character hate, preferably something useable during marshalling or otherwise without winning a challenge which can be tricky if your eck is locked down.

If the deck is buildt around a specific character then you need ways of keeping that character in play like immunities, "Cannot be killed", saves or discard pile and dead pile recursion.