First, I don't care for the book so I'm not interested in this game because of that.

I am looking for a game for my gaming group but we need something that's hard to find in one package, I stumbled upon A Game of Thrones: The Board game and I think this is it. What I am looking for in a game is found in the list below.

1. Diplomacy (form alliances, betrayal, pacts, deals..etc)

2. Military Conflict (Declare War or Back Stab other players)

3. Easy to teach the Rules (games like Descent for instance is a No No for my gaming group because it is TOO complex with TOO many rules)

4. Economical side of the game OR other forms of Game Winning Conditions (other than destroy everyone else, If any?)

5. A Satisfying War System (I know this game doesn't use dice, but I wonder if the combat system has some depth in it?)

6. The Game Session doesn't exceed 2 hours

Thanks!

1. Absolutely yes. You can say fragile alliances and betrayal are the bread and butter of this game.

2. Yes. There are cases of "If you do that it's war!" but mostly your former allies or indifferent neighbours will send their troops to get the message across, which should qualify as backstabbing.

3. See the thread "Learning Curve?"

4. Yes. There is only one winning condition: control six fortresses. But to gain control of these you can't rely solely on military might. The three influence tracks are very important and you need power tokens to compete for those, which you earn by giving some of your units orders to "Consolidate Power" preferably in special regions.

5. Yes. The House Cards make for a nice little bluffing game during battles and you don't win a battle by killing every enemy unit. Usually only 0 to 2 of the losers units are killed and the rest retreats. A fighting retreat can be a viable strategy in this game.

6. Absolutely no. Average playing time is somewhere between three and four hours.

Thank you Sinderlin for your help.

Everything you mentioned is great except the playing time; I don't think my gaming group will be able to digest a 4 hours game. Not now at least, need a softer game with military/political conflict (maybe Cosmic Encounter, but I need a fantasy or mideival theme).

When it comes to comparably short playing time cosmic encounter might indeed be your best bet. I've tried to come up with a game that comes close enough to what you're looking for and has a playing time of less than 2 hours but everything I looked up had a playing time of at least 2 to 3 hours.

The only weak recommendation I could come up with:

Small World

1. Kind of. You need to divert aggression from yourself to others. Scores are secret so during most of the game everybody tries to convince the others they are not in the lead.

2. Kind of. Small World is small. There's no room to play nice or maneuver but when you get beaten you can simply abandon your current race and begin a new life somewhere else. The feeling is very different to other games that feature military conflict. In Small World your rise and fall and then simply start again.

3. Absolutely yes. Small World is a very easy game to teach. It's easy to memorize the racial and special powers and then the fun starts.

4. Absolutely no. You're bound for destruction.

5. Not really. The one with more troops wins unless there's a power meddling with the numbers but that's open information.

6. Absolutely yes. 1 1/2 hours is a long game in Small World

Yewsef,

GoT board game is one of my top games ever. After several sessions you'll find that you need less and less time. In some of my play-groups we can make it till the end in 2 - 2,5 hours (playing 4-5 houses) so it's not so definite to take 3 or more hours :-) Besides, if you accept all above points Sinderlin said, I'm preety sure you won't regret a bit more time spent for first few games :-)

this looks like a good game.

The Storm of Swords Expansion can cut playing time to around 2 hours (again after everyone has mastered the rules).It does limit the # of players to 4 and of course it's an extra purchase.You also Leaders & minor Houses(which can make for more backstabbing).

OD

The Storm of Swords expansion features a smaller, 4 player game board which cuts gameplay times to around 2 hours. Best game ever, I highly recommend it. One question: How on Earth did you not enjoy the books?!

How do you manage to squeeze out a game in 2 hours?

Anyway: what about Condottiere?

The downside is, of course, that it takes about a half dozen tries to master A Game of Thrones to a degree that it is playable within 2 hours...expansion or not. And if yewsef's gaming group is anything like one of mine, they will give up long before they reach that point. I tried to play Warrior Knights with them and even though the rules are not that complex and they are pretty smart they zoned out about half-way through. Same will happen to yewsef, I'm afraid.

The Game of Thrones card game by fantasy flight would also serve for a similar game experience to what you are looking for that is shorter than 2 hours.

It has diplomacy in multiplayer, military conflict, the base rules are not too complex to learn, there are multiple ways to reach the winning condition, and the option to buy more cards and customize your decks after you play with the base set means you can increase the options later if you so desire, but you can support 4 players right out of the box with one core set and never HAVE to buy more cards to have a fun game.

Other great board games you might check out are Chaos in the Old World:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43111/chaos-in-the-old-world

and Cyclades:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54998/cyclades

Otherwise browse thru all the games at www.boardgamegeek.com for tons of reviews and I am sure you can find something that will fit what you are looking for.

Except the card game does not supply all the criteria mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

sounds interesting , must look into getting a group together .

While not exactly matching up exactly to your list, if you are looking for a game involving alliances and backstabbing, I would recommend Steve Jackson Games' Illuminati. It is probably the single most cutthroat, vicious, backstabbing games I have ever played. And with two possible pathes to victory, one general and one specific to each Illuminati, paranoia about your opponents being close to victory runs extremely high. One of my all time favorite games. May be blasphamy to mention it on a FFG site, but I have now spent enough on their products to say whatever I like here!