So I have finally after months of collecting started to play this last week with a friend and then taught another from out West when he was here visiting on the weekend. We are going to play on OCTGN and my other friend will be here.

Here is my conundrum, Ben has decided he really likes Stark, so did Shawn but hes far away. I myself love Stark as they are my fave from the books. I bought Ben the Lords of the Winter for his birthday to get him started but it seems silly all of us playing Stark so I am thinking I might dump them. But, what other faction is close to Stark that I could pick up?

I already plan to play Baratheon as my second faction, Targaryen seem a bit more complicated to play but I do like the Dragons and I do like the Dothraki theme that is being expanded now.

Lannister I hate due to the books, I admit they do play nicely in the game.

Greyjoy, I like the discard theme but thats it.

Night's Watch I already plan to build with the new neutral house or maybe Baratheon house.

Martell will likely be played by our friend who's last name is Martell if he wants to play, got a stack of cards to give him so that should help.

So next to Stark, who is the next big "military house" ? Would it be fine for us to have Stark against Stark or would that just get boring and lack diversity ?

Stark seem to be the one everyone likes, might be due to the being a bit more simple to learn and the getting to kill alot of stuff easily.

Toqtamish said:

The next big military house is Greyjoy, but they kill differently than Stark. Most of their coolest cards function off unopposed challenges, my favorite being Assault of the Kraken. Go on a 2 claim military challenge, use stealth, intimidate, or a card effect to make it unopposed, and then play Assault of the Kraken to grab another military challenge. Lots of dead people.

Stark v. Stark can be fun when the decks are different. With Lords of Winter, there are plenty of different Stark flavors to choose from: direwolves, Tullys, Stark defense, or just Stark kill...

I've been teaching the game to my friends as well, and my impressions are similar: Stark is a big favorite for newbies simply because they can be very straightforward to play, and they focus a lot on military.

Baratheon and Greyjoy are probably the most easily adapted to a military strategy; but they'll have their own little quirk, which may actually open up your friends' eyes to the non-military possibilities of the game.

I personally like Lannister and Targaryen now that I've played more games. And as I'm also reading the books, I've become more interested in Tyrion as well. The game does a great job of allowing the players to do some kind of mental / social manipulation; rather than just having the "brute force" of "who has the most strength".

Perhaps once you or your friends play more games, you'll learn more about the non-military strategies; and that will allow for the other factions to shine.

I am a Stark/Greyjoy player cause I like kill... in different ways :-)