There are some questions still unclear to me:

a) Plot card Rule by decree saying "player with the most cards (in hand) has to discard down to 4 (cards)". What if there are more players having the same (most) number of cards. Do they flip a coin about who will be the target or does the first player determines the player who will discard?

b) Timing of Ambush ability. Ambush ability says "Any phase: you may play this card by paying its cost in influece instead of gold". I am not sure, whether I may play such cards (supose I have a character card with ambush ability):

i) during the challenges (after enemy declares attackers) in his challenge phase or during my challenge phase

ii) in the dominance phase (at the begining) so that the strength of this character would be counted in when determining dominance

c) The Bran Stark ability relating to revealing new plot cards is only valid to MY plot deck (not to any opponents plot deck), OK?

If I use it, I suppose that the effect of my previous plot card (played this round) is stil valid (is not canceled)?

d) Are there some cards which can destroy/discard locations? (For example to deal with enemy Bear Island (Stark location))

Thanks for your answers.

Hi Artemis!

Even I'm being just a newbie to this game too, I'll try to answear at least one of your questions, since I think I can do that effectively. Just trying to help, while also trying to train my abilities with the rules. :]

b)

i) Ambush is an any phase action, so yes, you can put a card with Ambush into play by paying it's cost in influence, instead of gold, during any phase, even the challenge phase, even when an opponent is the active player in that phase. You could do that after he declares the attackers, because any action that has Challenge or Any Phase can be played before or after each step of the Challange Phase, that is, 1- Declare the attackers, 2- Declare the defendants, 3- Resolve.

ii) You could put a card into play in the Dominance Phase, but it wouldn't count for determining dominance since the rules for that phase state that any action done in Dominance Phase must be made after dominance resolves. I am not sure, but I think the only exception is when some effect has the "at the beggining of dominance phase", such as Daario Naharis.

c) ktom wrote that "characters are always read from the point of view of the controller. So "choose and reveal a new plot
card" only applies to Bran's controller, not to all players at the table." But I'm not sure if the plot you revealed as a traditional step of Plot Phase still works if it has a lasting effect.

d) There are some cards with effects that affect locations in the Core Set, such as Chella, Daughter of Cheyk ability. But I guess you already know that. There is an almost complete list of all AGoT cards in tzumainn's website. The link is here: http://tzumainn.com/agot/cards/ .

Artemis said:

If there are two players tied for the "highest number" of cards in hand, then no one has the "most" cards in hand. I don't have the "most" cards in hand if you have exactly the same number. So there is no player who meets the play restrictions and the plot effect doesn't do anything. So if two players are tied for the highest number, no one loses any cards.

Artemis said:

Keep in mind that "playing a character" and "putting a character into play" are totally different things. I say this so that you know using Ambush to put a character in to play will not let you use effects that Respond to playing characters - like Xaro's Home and Lady Daenerys' Chambers.

You can Ambush a character into play any time that you could take a Player Action - like triggering a character ability or playing an event card. So yes, you can Ambush a character into play during the Challenge phase after attackers are declared. (If you want that character to defend, you're going to have to do it before defenders are declared, which also give the attacker a chance to bypass it with stealth.) You could not Ambush a character into play at the beginning of the Dominance phase in order to have its STR count for Dominance (because standing STR is counted and Dominance awarded before any player can play an action), but you COULD Ambush the character in at the very end of the Challenge phase to do essentially the same thing.

Artemis said:

Yes, Bran's ability only applies to Bran's controller, not to the whole table.

As for whether or not the previous plot is "still valid," that depends on what you mean. Bran cannot be used between revealing a plot and resolving the effects of that plot, so revealing a new plot with Bran is no different than revealing a plot normally at the beginning of the Plot phase. The previous plot is no longer active, but you don't undo anything that it has already done. For example, if you had the plot that said "when revealed, kill all characters" and then revealed a new plot with Bran, the characters that died are not brought back to life when the new plot goes into effect. But if you had the plot that said "your characters get +1 STR if it is Summer" and revealed a new plot with Bran, that +1 STR bonus is gone because the plot is no longer active.

Simply put, think of revealing a plot with Bran the same way you think of revealing a plot at the beginning of the Plot phase - but just for you.

Artemis said:

Yep. They're out there. There were a couple of good ones in Kings of the Sea and some of the King's Landing CPs.

ktom said:

ktom, about effects in the dominance phase... if an effect states that it aplies to the "beggining of the dominance phase", than it would apply before dominance is resolved? (in the rulebook, when they explain the dominance phase, they say that dominance resolve "in the beggining of dominance phase" too). I'm thinking about Daario Naharis.

Pedro Lunaris said:

Correct. The same with "out of shadows" effect.

Artemis said:

BTW The quickest way to find such cards is to write "discard%location" as a search phrase. This works at tzumainn.com as well as at my site. At my site, after you get search results, you can also use browser quick search (slash key) to highlight and quickly find the string you are interested.

Forgot to say that it's necessary to find also second combination of words (i.e. location%discard).

Rogue30 said:

Keep in mind that Shadows and things like Daario are not Player Actions. Daario is a passive effect while Shadows is a game effect.

So yes, if a passive or game effect specifies that it activates "at the beginning of the Dominance phase," it does indeed apply before the Dominance count. However, there is no place in the timing structure for a Player Action like a triggered character ability or event card to be used before the Dominance count.

Alright, got it. Thanks!

Thanks you all for your answers (and to Ktorn for his detailed insight ).

Yet few more questions:

a) Military challenge. My opponents bloks with one character but I manage to lower this blocker's strength to 0. Is this challenge supposed opposed or not?

b) What is meaning of a strange symbol appearing like laying number 8 on cards like Pentosh Guildmaster (Targaryen charactre) or Forever burning (Targaryen event)?

c) Ability of Crown Regent (title): Redirect one challenge. Is the only restriction here (as to a legal target) possibilty to declare challenge against a given opponent?

Example:

3 players game. I have the title Crown regent. Opponent A declares a military challenge against me. As I have all characters knelt I use the Regent's ability to redirect the challenge against Opponent B. So unless either of Opponents A or B has that plot card that forbids declaring military challenges among them (or if Opponent A has a title that would support Oponent B), this redirecting is normally legal, OK?

d) And one more questions to redirecting challenges: like Lord Commander, Crown regent titles or when using Supports features of the titles: Is this redirecting declared after declaring a type of chalenge or after also attackers are declared? Are always Stealth, Deadly, Renown abilities applied to the new target (i.e. to opponent to whom it is redirected)? Claim should be applied to the former target (except Lord Commander title), OK?

Artemis said:

No. In order to oppose a challenge, the defending player must have both a participating character and a total STR greater than 0 when the challenge resolves.

Artemis said:

The infinity symbol is just a visual cue that the cards have abilities that can be triggered from the dead or discard pile in order to return them to your hand or play. It's easy to forget about them.

Artemis said:

The controller of Crown Regent does not get to choose who the new defender is when they redirect a challenge. The attacking player gets to choose - and they must choose; they cannot abandon the challenge. (Granted, in a 3-player game, that isn't much of a choice.) As you observe, though, there must be at least one other player that the attacker can legally attack, or else the redirect effect cannot be used on that challenge.

Artemis said:

It's different in each situation because of the timing:

1. Crown Regent redirects immediately after the attacker announces the challenge and kneels attacking characters. The new defender becomes the only defender the challenge ever had (so the new defender is on line for claim, Deadly, Renown, etc.). Since the redirect happens before Stealth is assigned, the attacker can still use Stealth. Essentially, the redirected challenge happens as if the attacker had chosen the new defender from the beginning.

2. Lord Commander redirects after the original defender (does not) declare defenders. The Lord Commander becomes the only defender of the challenge (and so is the only person on the line for claim, Deadly, Renown, etc.). The redirect of the Lord Commander is the only thing in the game that actually "jumps backward" in the timing structure because when a challenge is redirected against the Lord Commander, the attacker may reassign Stealth targets, even though they already had the chance to do that against the original defender.

3. In a "title supports" situation, it is important to realize that the challenge is not actually redirected. The supporting player declares defenders only if the original defender does not declare any - as part of the same "declare defenders" step (so there is no opportunity for the attacker to reassign Stealth targets). If they win, they may trigger effects as the winner of the challenge (including collecting Renown), but if they lose, the original defender is still considered the defender of the challenge (and is thus on the line for claim). Note that Deadly kills a participating defending character without referencing who controls it, so the supporting player could end up losing a character to Deadly, win or lose.

Thanks again, Ktorn, for your comprenhesive explanations (mainy in the redirecting challenges question).