Hello, I bought the game recently with 4 core set decks. I read rules book and faq and played several games, but there're some cards I can't understand. Please help me with the following questions:

1. Summer (javascript:void(0);/*1309049176044*/)- this attachment is played on stalwart character only. But this card also has "If attached character is Bran Stark, he gains stealth". I wonder how Bran Stark (javascript:void(0);/*1309049325013*/) can get this attachment if it has no stalwart property? I can suggest that there're some cards that could add stalwart property to Bran Stark so it could get this attachment.

2. Winter is coming (javascript:void(0);/*1309049558161*/) - I don't understand why stalwart icon is drawn in the middle of the text. "Raise the Claim value on each (stalwart icon) player's revealed plot card by 1 for the duration of the challenge". What is stalwart player ? Does it means any player, or any player that has characters with stalwart property, or is this icon is associated with Stark House ?

3. Lightbringer (javascript:void(0);/*1309049906853*/) - the card states: "Vigilant. Vigilant character only." There's no any character with vigilant property in the Baratheon starter deck. So this card is completely unuseful, so I could remove it from the deck, right? Then why this card has been added to the starter pack ?

4. Calm Over Westeros (javascript:void(0);/*1309050546012*/) - "In order to play an event card, a player must give an opponent one gold token from his or her gold pool". So any player must give one gold token to any opponent of his choice in order to play an event card, right?

5. Sometimes we put attachment cards on opponents characters. I wonder how do you attach them to opponent's card so that not to forget to get them back.

Thanks!

Welcome!

barabanus said:

These icons (little heads of wolf, lion etc.) mean House Stark, House Lannister etc.

barabanus said:

Correct.

barabanus said:

Anyway, one of two things is going to happen. Either the card you put the attachment on will leave play (which will discard the attachment to its owners discard pile), or it will be on the table when the game is over. Take a quick look around the table when the game is over and make sure to grab your cards back.

Ahhhh, I see! So those little icons are Houses, not House Specific Keywords! If you look into the rules book, House Specific Keywords section (page 21), you may see that there's an icon in parenthesis after each keyword, so one may think that this property is the same as the icon. Thanks!

barabanus said:

Yes, this can be misleading. They only wanted to show that each House has specific keyword.

barabanus said:

We use differently colored card sleeves in our group, which helps a lot. But it still happens sometimes that one players card just gets scrambled into another player's deck after a game.

Saturnine said:

Well, good habit: you always should count your deck after a game.

Broke out the Core game for the first time tonight, with a bit of initial difficulty. I've found a bunch of answers already, but two super noob questions I have right off the bat from the Stark deck:

1. Distraction S 155: Marshalling: Choose a character with an axe icon. Kneel that character.

I'm assuming that this means to kneel another player's card, for the purpose of affecting the type of cards your opponent's marshall and are able to play in the coming round. Is that correct? If so, is there any other strategy involved in using this card?

2. Ice S 1: Challenges: While attached character is participating in a challenge, kneel and discard Ice from play (cannot be saved) to choose and kill another participating character.

Do you have to use Ice if it is equipped and you are involved in a challenge, or can you save it and choose when to play it? Also, if you are on offense with Ice, is that just an auto-kill on an opponent (assuming there's no other means of protection for that card) no matter what the defense numbers might be? I assume that this is the case, but I was just surprised at the card's power.

I know, super noob, but I would appreciate any help that you could provide.

smadkins said:

Yes. Of course if you really like, you can kneel your character. If card does not say "opponent's" or "your" etc., then it can be any character.

smadkins said:

If you see bold text (marshalling:, any phase:, response: etc.) that means it is optional - card's controler decides if he wants to trigger such effect (hence the name: triggered effect).

smadkins said:

Yep. Note that Ice has 2 gold cost. It's not cheap.

smadkins said:

Just to be clear if I understood the question: Ice kills any participating character (no matter if you are attacking or defending). You can trigger Ice after declaring defenders (though after declaring attackers is also possible, if you really want to kill your own character). Killing that 1 character does not mean you auto win challenge - you still counts STR during resolution to see who wins. Of course if opponent has no participating characters left, then his STR is 0.

Or, if you are playing Stark against Stark, you could attach Ice to the character you wish to kill, and kill it when it participates in any challenge.

Thanks, I appreciate your help! I'm sure I will be back soon with more questions.