Hi all...

Couple months ago I purchased the core set along with a few expansions, just now got around to taking them for a spin. Smooth rules & flow of play, surprisingly easy to learn! It was my girlfriend's first experience with LCGs of any sort (closest other would be the Catan card game) but she had the basic mechanics down within a few turns.

My main question for the experienced folks out there is - are there any rule variants and/or strategy approaches (deck-building or play itself) that improve the 2-player game? That's primarily what we'll be playing. The core rules "joust" variant simply cuts out the Titles phase, which IMO seems insufficient to address the differences from 4-player to 1-on-1.

In our first couple 2-player games (Lannister vs Stark, core decks only to start) we noticed things got a bit static: there were a couple things I could do that she obviously couldn't counter well, and vice versa. Because there was only 1 other player to worry about, the outcome of challenges became somewhat predictable. It just felt like a lot of strategy was lost by reducing the # of players.

Off the top of my head, seemed that adding a higher ratio of challenge-related event cards might stir things up predictability-wise.

Ultimately we'll just want a few mutually-competitive decks for casual play at home, nothing too deadly. I have the main Stark, Targaryen, & Baratheon expansions which I have yet to incorporate... am open to buying new sets but want to get an idea what the best approach is first.

So - any suggestions for new (casual) players to make 2-player games more dynamic?

Lanni Vs Stark Core set might seem that way because they are so different. Stark will win all the Military challenges and Lannister will win all the Intrigue. Did you try different decks, such as Baratheon Vs Stark or Targ Vs Lannister and still feel the same way?

Mixing in the deluxe expansions you have will certainly add more excitement as there's plenty of new cards and it allows a few different strategies for each house. Lannister will be screwed though until you get the Lions of the Rock expansion.

Its true, untill my girlfriend and I got a few expansions for our favourite houses we found the core set decks to be really predictable and unbalanced, for 1-on-1 play the expansions are deffinatly the way to go, each box contains enough cards to make one or two unique deck types with their own tactics and with each expansion you buy your pool of plots and neutral cards increases.

As for variety in game play you could always try the Civil War or Hand of the King game modes, the rules for both of which can be found via the Resource tab on the Game of Thrones page!