Partially out of necessity and partially out of respect for Roose Bolton after reading ADwD, I am buying up the Brotherhood Chapter packs that feature the Boltons.

While I don't have the cards in hand (they are ordered through a store in my home town, and I'm currently across the country), I have discovered the Dabbler and been reading up on the Bolton cards. The main Bolton theme seems to be alternating control between players. And this leaves me with a few questions:

1.) Why (besides for flavor) do the Boltons have this common ability? I noticed many of the Bolton cards are low in gold cost, high in STR, but tend to switch sides. Is there some strategy that benefits the Stark player here that I'm missing?

2.) Several locations either return a Bolton card to their owners hand or take control of it. Once again, what is the benefit here?

Thanks in advance for helping a new guy out!

BenStark said:

1. Cause the Boltons are sneaky, traitorous, opportunistic bastards. Yes, Boltons tend to be really strong for cost, but with the rather significant drawback that they have very little loyalty. And no there isn't much you are missing. The side switching is basically a drawback for them being cheap and strong. Now, that said there are some things you can do with it in there. First Reek is a controlled swap. Use him to take your opponent's best character. Just don't let him come back after you and take yours. There is also an Event called In Ramsay's Name that let's a Bolton claim power ever time it changes control. If you timed it right maybe you could win a game by claiming power as your wayward characters migrate about the table then bring them all home to roost with Roose. Boltons are also a great way to draw cards with the Dreadfort.

BenStark said:

2. Well the first best option here is if you lose a Bolton to an opponent and they attack you with them then you can send them back to your hand to play them again yourself. If you have a way to manipulate traits: Old Nan, Copper Link and a maester, or the Bolton attachment Dubious Loyalties you can use the Abandoned Fort to send an opponent's attacking characters back to their own hand getting them out of play. An ability that let's you take control back like Roose's means that all your wayward strays come home again where they belong.

Playing a Bolton deck is sorta like herding cats, you never quite know which way they're gonna go. Sure they're huge and cheap but without stealth it's still easy to lose the occasional challenge and character. In Joust you have a bit more control if you can control initiative you can often control the board quite well through their sheer weight of strength. If you opponent is going first though you will probably find yourself in trouble. In melee, well melee with Boltons is interesting and that's probably about enough said about that.

Thanks for the response and clearing this up for me!

Reek is AWESOME!

He WILL make you a target when you drop him, though I find you can use that to your advantage. Every week the table communally squeals like a girl as soon as I put Reek out and they spend 3 turns trying to handle him and leave the rest of my guys unmolested.

Make sure you run him X3 so you can see him as fast as possible and Dubious Loyalties X3.

Put loyalties on Reek, attack, use Reek's response to hand him over and steal something great (Double Bob, Beric, etc etc) then use the response on Dubious to immediately regain control of Reek to use him again next turn.

Alright so here's a list of a Bolton deck I'm working on. I'm working with a Core Set, and the following Chapter Packs: Isle of Ravens, and all of the Brotherhood packs EXCEPT Song of Silence and Of Sand and Snakes.

I'm hoping to pick up the wayward packs of Brotherhood I'm missing to pick up "In Ramsay's Name" "Steelshanks Reserves" "The Weeping Water" and "Steelshanks Walton".

So, without further ado, the deck:

Stark Deck – Bolton Betrayal
60 Cards
Plot Cards: 7
Building Season
Valar Morghulis
Stoic Resolve
Mutual Enemies
Holding the Trident
Snowed Under
The Power of Arms

Locations: 15
Abandoned Fort x3
Winterfell
Godswood
The Dreadfort x3
Great Keep x3
Northern Fiefdoms x2
Lord Eddard’s Chambers
Street of Steel

Characters:29
The Bastard of Bolton x3
Roose Bolton x3
The Bastard’s Elite x3
Reek x3
The Flayed Men x3
Bolton Loyalist x3
Trident Reinforcements
Greatjon Umber
Eddard Stark
Winterfell Reserves
Warhost of the North
Ser Rodrik Cassel
Knight of the Tumblestone
Benjen Stark
Hodor
Robb Stark
Grey Wind

Other: 16
Dubious Loyalties x3
Bloody Scourge x3
Terror in the Dungeons x3
Bran the Builder’s Legacy
Winter is Coming
Distinct Mastery

My primary concern is balance and sustainability. The other players in my group are all new players as well, so I won't be facing a skilled player. So, any feedback?

Thanks in advance!

-Ben

You've only got 3 influence locations, so you might struggle to play terror in the dungeons.

Hmm....alright. Back to the drawing board. Thanks for pointing that out!

Here is what I did with Boltons in joust

http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/index.html/_/game-of-thrones/got-tournament-reports/flaying-around-with-house-bolton

A stealth heavy environment will eat you alive unfortunately. I swept against Darknoj round 2 because I could not handle two smugglers coves.

Mathias Fricot said:

Alright, besides getting Song of Silence and Of Sand and Snakes, any other suggestions? I'm dropping Streets of Steel (Boltons are fairly cheap anyways) for a Crossroads for the extra gold and an influence. I could probably squeeze another one into the deck, but I'm not sure what to drop to do it. I'm considering the Godswood. I like the blanket +1 Winterfell provides, and I could probably do without the Godswood lowering costs...

I dont think you need the +1 from winterfell, your already paying 2 for 5 str armies.

if your planning on using the influence, crossroads are a really solid option. I'd throw in core set Arya Stark as another influence dump, and use the fiefdoms to get influence for when your not marshalling lots. Moletown brothel and Feigned Retreat are other good dumps I like.

I've tried out a Bolton deck, slightly inspired by Mathias' deck, and honestly it has not been doing well at all. Some of it has been me just making dumb calls, losing track of some bit of the Bolton mechanics and it blowing up in my face. But an even bigger problem I've had, and I suspect this is a problem you face too Ben, is that I have not yet been able to buy Lords of Winter, which puts a major hamper on just how much I can really do building a Bolton deck, or really most Stark decks. Once I do finally get a copy of Lords of Winter, I'll definitely try my hand at Boltons, but for now I'm scuttling the deck I have.

One idea though that I've been toying with is some sort of Bolton/Maester trait manipulation deck. Using Old Nan, Copper Links, Dubious Loyalties, and Abandoned Forts to pretty much get rid of attacking opponent characters whenever possible. I have no idea if I have all the cards I'd need to make it work, or if it would even operate like I'm imagining, but it'd sure be fun.

alpha5099 said:

My one serious complaint with FFG is leaving us in limbo with the Deluxe expansions. I would rather have those than the smaller chapter packs.

I just got an email a few hours ago from CoolStuffInc, letting me know that Lords of Winter had just come back in stock; I pretty much immediately put in an order for it, some sleeves, and the King' Landing packs that will hopefully be available in the next week or two.

I'm not sure if CoolStuff just got lucky, but given that the Lords of Winter reprint was scheduled for this month, I think we can hopefully expect to see it more widely available shortly.

Looks like they found some copies of the old one, or either the "new" version will only have 55 different cards.

Either way, I'm going to have to wait until either I a.) find out more or b.) find out this is the revised version. Since my wife plays too, she wants us only to buy the new, revised packs.

No need to worry about revised editions of Lords of Winter. It was always available with three copies, and it was always 55 cards. It's the same with all the Deluxe Expansions for the Core Set houses. Only the Greyjoy and Martell expansions needed revised editions.

Oh really? Didn't know that. Thanks for the info. That makes me really want it now.

alpha5099 said:

Abandoned Fort is seen in a lot of trait manipulation builds out of Lannister. It's good bounce. Running it out of stark might be easier now with Maesters, but I think Lion's Gate is still the best option to give a power character a desired trait for Abandoned Fort, Dissension, or (what I think will be released in the Lanni Deluxe) King-Killing Jaime.