With friends and family, I have been playing the basic version of A Game of Thrones, the board game (no ports or other elements from the expansions, etc.). I have a question that I think essentially boils down to the following:

When should one "pick up" a march order from the board?

Let's say the Lannisters have two footmen and a +1 march order on Stoney Sept, and the Baratheon's have two footmen and a +1 march order on Crackclaw Point. For the purposes of this hypothetical, all other (raid and) march orders have been dealt with already, there are no relevant support orders, and all House Cards are available to both sides). It's the Lannisters' turn, and they move both footmen into Harrenhal. The Baratheons follow by doing the same (marching both footmen into Harrenhal). What are the Combat Strengths of the two sides?

(A) Both are 3.

(B) Lannisters are 2 and Baratheons are 3.

© Something else?

In this particular example, Lannister still has Vargo Hoat available to play in the battle... but are Lannisters' forces no longer considered attacking? Does Vargo Hoat's special ability (attacking footmen are +2 each) no longer apply?

I fear we've been playing this wrongly (we've gone with option A -- I can explain how exactly if it matters)... and yet I worry that the way we should be playing (option B?) negates many of the advantages of sitting higher on the Iron Throne track. There still remain some advantages to playing earlier: (1) getting to raid sooner can be advantageous -- one can plunder a crown before someone else can raid that raid; and (2) getting to attack sooner means one can disrupt a chain of March orders. And yet, being able to wait until one's opponents commit to moving in a particular direction, then adjusting ones attacks accordingly seems to be pretty handy as well, especially in the above scenario (not to mention getting to see where they put their armies when placing units,

There's no inherent advantage to being lower on the Fiefdoms or King's Court track. But for the people who do not possess the Iron Throne -- is it worth it to be higher on that track?

Lannisters move in two footmen with a +1 march order into Harrenhall. After movement is resolved the token is removed from the board (if there was a battle, the token would remain until the end of battle).

Baratheon moves in with two footmen and +1 march order, making it a strength 3 force. Lannister only has two footmen and no order, therefore it's 3:2 in favour of Baratheon.

Also bear in mind that -1 and +1 marches only affect the units that are moving with that activated order. A footmen defending a region with a +1 march order does not benefit from this order. He has to attack to get that +1 bonus.

As far as the attacker card bonus dilemma, there are three types of armies in AGoT:

Attacking army - The army marching into enemy territory.

Defending army - The army protecting the attacked region

Supporting army - Any army that is adding it's combat strength to either side in the battle via Support order

nobbery said:

And getting to play first puts the enemy on the defence, because it's you that's picking the field of battle.

Of course, getting to play last also has it's advantages because you get to play unopposed, or wait for the enemy to overextend, but generally speaking it's better to make the first move.