As someone who has just ordered the core set but hasn't gotten it yet, I have read the core rules and looked through all of the cards that have been revealed in the news section. My question is how does the game become summer or winter and how does it change?
Thanks.
Hi!
There are 2 cards:
- Black Raven F2 Song of Summer
- White Raven F24 Winds of Winter
Those are 2 attachments that have to be attached to your HOUSE card, have the "Raven" trait and are IMMUNE TO NON-RAVEN CARDS.
When the Black raven comes into play, it's summer. With the White one it's winter.
When you play one of them, the card text force you to discard ALL OTHER RAVEN ATTACHMENTS, so you'll NEVER see both summer or winter together.
You can build several decks around the summer or winter mechanic and you can CHOOS to run the proper agenda, if you can afford the "drawback" (that's not a problem, because the winter/summer agendas rely on seasons for both the advantage and the drawback).
In other words, most of the time you'll be "in trouble" when you face the opposite season.
Hope this made sense.
Obviously I haven't seen agendas yet and I understand I won't until I start buying chapter packs. So that part is a little fuzzy plus I'm not sure what the drawbacks are that you mentioned but I do now know how the game changes from one season to another. Thanks for the reply.
i HIGHLY reccommend you to visit (and register at):
Wonderful fan site...Something like a "MUST" here
You'll find complete databases and deckbuilder.
Then, you may find useful this "LCG ONLY SEARCH PAGE".
http://info.wsisiz.edu.pl/~szczesnj/index.php
In this way, you'll have the chance to know what you're buying, taking a look to other decks and understand quickly some "quick reference" answers to the thread.
Anyway, an AGENDA is an OPTIONAL card you use to improve a strategy.
I.E.
Kings of Summer
Agenda
If it is Summer, draw 1 additional card during the draw phase.
If it is Winter, draw 1 less card (to a minimum of 1) during the draw phase.
An agenda is PLACED on your house card to show it. Remember that you'll find some cards that rely on agendas ("if you are running an agenda do this" or "if you're not running an agenda, kill that" and so on...).
An agenda contains informations about your strategy, usually giving you a big drawback in exchange of a big advantage (usually your focus).
In this case, Summer let's you draw 3 cards per round instead of 2, that is a great advantage, in Agot terms. On the other side, winter reduces your resources, making you draw just 1 card
Another example is:
Treaty with the Isles
Treaty. Ignore the out of House gold penalty on all cards.
Each opponent without a Treaty agenda needs 5 fewer power (to a minimum of 10) to win the game.
In this case you give you're oppo the chance to CLOSE THE GAME quickly...But you can play Greyjoy cards ignoring penalties, allowing you to build up strategis that would be unavailable, otherwise.
Running an agenda requires great building-tactical skills, cause you're not playing a deck in normal condition, but you're going to be very strong as well as very weak if you're not able to control the drawback.
Hope it helps.
rickert:
Short answer is that there is nothing in the rules that changes the season. "Summer" and "Winter" are entirely driven by card effects.
More to the point, there is only one card in the entire game that will make it "Summer" and only one (other) card that will make it "Winter." Neither of those cards are in the Core Set. They are in the Song of Summer and Winds of Winter chapter packs respectively. So to make it Summer or Winter, someone has to play a card (specifically, a neutral card that attaches to your House card).
The whole cycle of 6 "Time for Ravens" Chapter Packs, and all the season-related cards in the game, are entirely dependent on those 2 cards.
So until you get to the Ravens CPs, "Summer" and "Winter" are non-issues.