Hi all,

I am the recent proud owner of a core set and have played through a couple of warm up games where more time was spent reading rules than doing anything else! This is the first card game of this type I have played and I'm impressed and slighty scared by the depth of the rules but reading through this forum has been a great help in answering many of my questions. There is a wealth of information here for the new player but one comment I do have is that it can be a little hard to find exactly what you are looking for. Has anyone considered making a condensed document of rule/card clarifications and examples from the posts in this forum? There are many rules that only started to make sense after reading discussions on them here - there seems to be a particular way of thinking that needs to be employed to understand the way text is phrased on each card and this is not altogether clear from the official documents.

A specific question I have: The Bran card in the stark deck has a strength value but no challenge symbols. From this I assume that this card cannot participate in a challenge either as defender or attacker but that this strength will count in the dominance phase? Are there attachment cards that would give Bran the ability to participate in challenges?

Another is where a card says that it can be played out of the hand as part of a challenge (I don't have the card in front of me but it is in the lannister deck - lannisport army?). Does the gold cost of the card still need to be met in order to do this or can you essentially get it for free?

Also I have bought this game to play with friends and if they get into it I will be interested in expanding the cards we have available. I will be buying for everyone so any advice on the best bang for my buck (prod for my pound?) in terms of expansions that add to all decks would be appreciated.

Thanks

Parabola said:

Have you read FFG's official FAQ and Rules Clarification document? Most of the thinking you find on these boards has their origins in that.

Parabola said:

You are correct. No challenge icons means the character cannot participate in challenges, but the STR would still count for Dominance. And yes, there are effects that would allow Bran to participate in challenges by granting him specific challenge icons (like Summer from the Core Set). Of course, that particular Bran is used almost entirely for his ability.

Parabola said:

If a card effect says to "put a character into play," including the card itself, you are considered to be triggering the effect, not playing the card. So you would only have to pay any costs associated with triggering the effect, not a cost you would have to pay if you were playing the card some other way or at some other time - like your turn during Marshaling. For example, in the Targ Core Set deck, there is a version of Khal Drogo that says to put him into play from your hand after winning a challenge. If you choose to trigger that effect, you do not have to pay the 4 gold printed cost you would have had to pay if you just played him normally during Marshaling.

Parabola said:

There are a couple of threads on the main General Discussion forum that address this question - which can be kind of subjective.