Hey, new player here and just a few, probably very idiot, questions about a couple of cards in the core set and general timing rules in general.

Firstly, ser ilyn payne (current bane of my stark deck in the early game), can he be marshalled and then immediately go about being the kings justice and wrecking my early game (sansa is a fave target) or does he have to be in play at the start of the marshalling phase? This sort of question arises as me and my playing partner both come from a magic back ground and are used to usual waiting a turn for stuff like this to be used. ie, can abilitys be used in a round sequence (plot/draw/marshalling etc) if the card has only just come into play?

Secondly, the event "winter is coming", when does this get played, it simply states challenges and lasts for the duration, do i play this before any challenges and it effects my whole challenge phase (so any military, intrigue & power i launch), the challenge it is played before (so a military or intrigue or power) or can it be played at any point during a challenge (after defenders are declared and lasts for that single challenge)?

Last the 'poisoned wine' attachment, say it used on jon snow to drop him to str 1 and then ilyn payne does his thing, does the attachment get discarded BEFORE its any phase ability can be used or can jon be happily taken off at the neck and the attachment then moved or does moving the attachment void paynes ability to remove heads? (you may guess that this particular issue caused some issue)


Regards,
Underworld.

Underworld40k said:

1) There is no summoning sickness in A Game of Thrones (The rules don't say there is one, so there isn't one). You can use card abilities whenever their play restrictions are met.

2) Usually, a "Challenges:" ability can be triggered during any Player Action Window in the challenges phase (see the FAQ for a breakdown of the timing structure of each phase). However, because of the wording "for the duration of the challenge", it would need to be played during an actual challenge, either between declaring attackers and determining stealth targets/declaring defenders or between declaring defenders and resolving the challenge.

3) If you kill the character Poisoned Wine is attached to, the attachment leaves play before you can trigger its ability. Again, I strongly suggest downloading the FAQ and giving it a thorough read. It's a bit intimidating at first, but understanding the timing strucutre really helps dealing with most of the situations that come up during play.

Will get on the faq post haste.

Cheers for clearing those up, we hadn't being playing with any summoning sickness type effects but we just found it a little odd that a character can be played then go straight for the throat (or head it would seem) .

Underworld40k said:

Same thing with the cost reducing locations. You can use their abilities in the same marshalling phase you played them.

Reading through the FAQ as Saturnine suggests should be really helpful. Regarding Payne, there is no summoning sickness, but during each phase players take turns taking actions. So after you play Ser Ilyn Payne (which counts as taking an action), each other player at the table gets a chance to take an action before you can use Payne's ability (which also counts as an action). So for example, if the Targaryen player had two influence available he could Ambush in Flame-Kissed onto Ser Ilyn Payne and kill him before he got a chance to kill anyone himself.

Only one player can marshal cards at a time, so the other players' actions could only be playing events or triggering abilities with the "Marshalling:" or "Any Phase:" text. I can't think of any other actions really worth taking with just the Core Set cards. Some cards could kneel Ser Ilyn before he uses his ability, but all of the kneel cards are already in the same deck as him. Lannister could use those kneel effects to keep characters in other decks from using their abilities the turn they enter play though.

Cheers for all the replies, really helping us out.

One last simple one (i hope so anyway), the event card "a lannister pays his debts", does the challenge have to be contested to count as losing, or does letting it go without defending meet the conditions?

Underworld40k said:

A lost challenge is a lost challenge, regardless of whether you had 10 or 0 Str as the defender.

Excellent, the few quibbles we have had have pretty much fallen like dominoes, my thanks for all the swift responses.