Take them by surprise played by 2 players

By Gualdo, in 2. AGoT Rules Discussion

If 2 players play this first round how we act?

Firstly I thought the "head/tail" result would decide if someone has lost initiative or not. At last tourney somebody told that when you have exact initiative nobody wins it but the "head/tail" give one of them the possibility to appoints first player.

So nobody has to discard the hand.

What do you think?

Ps and if both have same initiative but different powers? also in this case nobody win initiative but the one with lesser power have the right to appoint first player?

You determine the winner of initiative in all the cases (power difference, random).

Gualdo said:

If 2 players play this first round how we act?

Firstly I thought the "head/tail" result would decide if someone has lost initiative or not. At last tourney somebody told that when you have exact initiative nobody wins it but the "head/tail" give one of them the possibility to appoints first player.

So nobody has to discard the hand.

What do you think?

Ps and if both have same initiative but different powers? also in this case nobody win initiative but the one with lesser power have the right to appoint first player?

Gualdo said:

If 2 players play this first round how we act?

Firstly I thought the "head/tail" result would decide if someone has lost initiative or not. At last tourney somebody told that when you have exact initiative nobody wins it but the "head/tail" give one of them the possibility to appoints first player.

So nobody has to discard the hand.

What do you think?

Ps and if both have same initiative but different powers? also in this case nobody win initiative but the one with lesser power have the right to appoint first player?

What!? Nonsense.

From the Rulebook (emphasis mine):

After the plot cards are revealed, first determine
who wins the initiative. The player with the
highest total initiative (the sum of his plot card’s
initiative and any initiative bonuses on cards he
or she controls) wins initiative. In case of a tie,
the tied player with the least amount of claimed
power in total (between his House and his characters)
wins initiative . If both players are still
tied, then the winner of initiative must be determined
randomly.

We had this situation at our tourney yesterday. Two players, both with the Knights of the Realm agenda, flip Take Them... first plot. The winner of the die roll had seven cards in hand and drew three cards per round. The loser had zero cards in hand and drew one. Boy, was that game over fast.

~We probably shouldn't tell prospective players, who are comtemplating getting into the game, that matches in this game can be decided by a die roll at the start.

Seriously, Take Them By Surprise is the Devil's plot. I wouldn't run it if you paid me.*

* Well, it would kinda depend on the sum. But you'd better be prepared to break the bank.

Ratatoskr said:

Seriously, Take Them By Surprise is the Devil's plot. I wouldn't run it if you paid me.*

I used to run it quite a bit. Never ran into another Take Them By Surprise, I think, but I'd always make sure I'd have some intiative boost. I used to have a Greyjoy deck that ran Bay of Ice and high ini plots + Ahead of the Tide for additional draw.

I had Take Them backfire on me twice, once in a casual joust game, and once in a Game Night melee game. I had total control of the board and felt quite safe playing Take Them because of my KotHH agenda. Alas, Ulrich, who was going for that achievement where you had to win a game without ever being First Player, had Ahead of the Tide in his hand, and that was that.

Even without the drawback, I think Take Them is just not that good. What do you get? 5 gold and you most likely win INI. BFD. There's almost always better plots.

Ratatoskr said:

Even without the drawback, I think Take Them is just not that good. What do you get? 5 gold and you most likely win INI. BFD. There's almost always better plots.

True in most cases. I play melee, mostly, and there winning initiative is much stronger than it is in joust. But yeah, I don't run it in any of my current decks, I think.