I'll get right to it. So when you are defeated in combat, and your units retreat and are routed, what can you do with them? Can you place any orders on a territory with routed units? Is there any advantage to having a routed unit over a destroyed one? It seems like they are just a waste of space and we would rather have them taken off the board if they are completely useless.

Also on an unrelated note, can you muster units on your home base when there are no units on it?

And lastly, how long have your games been going? I've played this game 3 times now once with 4 players, once with 5, and once with 6, and all three games ended near round 6-7. Is this normal or are most people going till round 10 and counting castles and strongholds?

This game is amazing. That is all.

Badamec said:

1) You cant do anything with routed units for that round except that they allow you to defend the area they occupy, but without adding the strength of the routed units to the fight (you still add non-routed units strength to the fight, both those in the affected area and those supporting the affected area, and you also must play a house card).

2) Order placement is done before any units have become routed. Retreating units that becomes routed to an area with an unresolved order doesnt affect the order in that area.

3) The advantage of routed units compared with destroyes units is that you dont lose the units. Routed units are only in the routed state for the current round, at the end of the round all units are set back to thier normal state. In other words not a waste of space.

4) You arent allowed to place any orders in areas where you dont have units and must place orders in areas where you do have units (if you have sufficient) meaning you cant muster in an empty area regardless of if it is your home area or any other area.

5) I have played 4-player twice, the first time taking a long time (5 hours ending in round 7 or 8) since no one knew the rules and the second time it went a lot smother taking about 3 hours also ending around round 7-8, and i have also played 6-player once, half the group being new to the game it took about 3,5 - 4 hours and it ended in round 10 in a tie that was broken bye counting of strongholds.

The amount of rounds used in games with fewer than 6-players i very much dependent on the meta, mostly regarding how to deal with house Baratheon.

you can muster units in your home area when a westros card which allows you to muster comes up up even if there are no units in the area, just clarify for you.

As for my experience with when games end in my first one there was 5 of us and it it took us about 4 hours and ended in round 8 because of baratheons southern advantage. in my second game there was 4 of us and it end in round ten with lannisters winning when they took the last stonghold they needed and somehow pushing the baratheons back. In my next one there was 3 of us and we just keept going till one of us capture 7 castles or strongholds so it reach about 11 rounds. in my last game there was five of us again but in this one we subsituted greyjoy for martell to try and stop baratheons advantage and it reached about 8. so all of my have been pretty varied.

I agree on the mustering question....

Your home area has a power token physically printed on the game board.
Your home area is always yours unless it is taken over by enemy forces. Basically the Power token that is physically printed on that space on the game board is a freebie Power token for you and stays there even if you have no units on that area. So you always control that area even if you have no units occupying that area (because the printed Power token on the board is in that area). Thus you can muster units in that area even if you do not have units in it.

And for more info....
An enemy can take over your home area and if that enemy leaves the area, they can place a Power token in the area to keep control over it. They place their Power token over the printed power token on the game board to signify they control the area. In this way, they control your home area. If they do not leave a Power token on that area when they leave, then the area automatically goes back to you (because the Power token printed on the game board is then in affect).

I'll respond to your mustering question since all of your other questions seem to have been answered adequately.

There are two ways to muster...using the special consolidate power order or the Mustering card from the Westeros decks.

The special consolidate power order can be used to muster one area with a castle or stronghold in it. As already stated, you can only place order tokens in areas with at least one unit in it.

The Mustering card allows all players to muster in each area they control containing a castle or stronghold. You control any area that contains at least one of your units or a power token that you have placed after marching your last unit out of an area. As stated before, you always control your home area as long as another player hasn't put units or a power token there.

In short, with the Mustering card, you can muster in any area with a castle or stronghold as long as the area contains at least one of your units or aa power token. You. An also muster in your home area without either as long as another player has not established control.

I just realized you were only asking about your home area, so it looks like my post is beating the proverbial horse. So uhhhh...nevermind.

Gian said:

I missed this as well, the first time I played. It still amazes me that the "units are unrouted" in the clean up phase is only mentioned by one sentence, on one page of the 30-page rulebook. It's not even mentioned in the section about retreating and routed units! Ridiculous over-sight FFG! 8)

I have one related question:

Can routed unites control an empty area? For example where they retreated to.

@Gubiam

If you are attacking and lose then you must first account for casualties in battle (i.e. swords & fortifications, skulls, and card text abilities). Then, all remaining units are routed and must retreat back to location they attacked from.

If you are defending and lose, then you must still account for casualties before retreating. This time you must retreat into an area you already control, while still not exceeding your supply. You are able to retreat across ships. If you have no friendly spaces to retreat to then your units are destroyed. An area with an opponents power token placed on it counts as an occupied area, and therefor is not a friendly space that you can retreat into.

So to answer your question, yes. As long as you have units in the area you control it.

Say you control house Baratheon and your opponent controls hour Lannister. Lannister controls Harrenhal and The Mountains of the Moon. Baratheon controls Crackclaw point, Kings Landing, Yronwood, Storms End, Dragonstone, and has ships in both Shipbreaker bay and Balckwater bay. Black Water is unoccupied.

Example One: You attack Harrenhal from Crackclaw and you lose. After accounting for casualties your units must retreat back to Crackclaw because that is where they attacked from.

Example two: Your opponent attacks you from Harrenahl and you lose Crackclaw. After you account for casualties, you must retreat to area you control or an area that is unoccupied. The Mountains of the moon is occupied so that is out off the table. As long as you don't exceed your supply. You can treat into Kings Landing, or across your ships into Yronwood, Storms End, or Dragonstone. If it were safe to do so (i.e. no one has a march order near Balckwater) I would move into Black water and claim the supply barrels. If another opponent plans on attacking there then don't do it. if routed units lose a combat then they are automatically destroyed.

Moving into Blackwater would be the most beneficial because you r units return to normal at the end of the turn and you now control 2 supply.

Hope this was helpful.

-M