Last night my friends and I managed to get a 6 player game of Game of Thrones (plus the Clash of Kings expansion) game going. First off I gotta say that it was a ton of fun. There were lots of battles, backstabbing, strategy, and the game moved along quite smoothly (it was the 5th or 6th time we've played, although there was one person who had never played. The only drawback was that one friend (the host of all people) lost a couple battles pretty early and was more or less out of the game by the 3rd or 4th turn. Also, my wife got a little too bold in the middle of the game, lost a couple battles, and was kind of a sore loser about it.
Anyway, we used the Clash of Kings Battle Variant last night. For each battle players chose three cards (the more powerful ones that come with the expansion) and their opponent randomly chose one of those three to be played. This brought a ton of excitement to the game. A few times when there was a critical battle going on all six of us stood up and watched with nervous anticipation to see how it would play out. This format allows adventurous players to take bigger risks when invading and led to some dramatic moments. It was similar to a poker game when players are all in preflop and everyone watches to see what cards the dealer turns over.
Does anyone else play with the rule? Why or why not? What have your experiences been with this rule?