I would be interested in what you think about the expansions: Do they keep the balance or are there some imbalanced units/cards/maps? Should you always buy expansions "in pairs" – one for House Stark, one for House Lannister? Which expansions would you recommend and which not – and why?

We've played only the Wardens expansions so far, but also own (or will get soon, in case of Brotherhood) the others. So far, I like them all.

There are some scenarios that seem to be balanced more to one side (especially 15 - Before the Kneeling Man), but not unwinnable. Me, I like to call it "challenging" rather than "unbalanced".

I would definitely recommend getting all the extensions, if you can play regularly. We've found it to be the most fun when each player takes one side, and buys the expansion for his faction - e.g. Stark player buys Wardens of the North, Lord of the River, Brotherhood Without Banners, and Lannister player buys Wardens of the West, Tribes of the Vale (and hopefully a soon-to-be-announced further expansion).

I own all expansions except Brotherhood one. They al have their pros and cons, but I do feel that the Tully Archers are awesome and maybe too powerful (they can all fire as one if touching hexes).

I dpnt think I'll but the brotherhood expansion. I'm getting board playing expansion vs core game. I know you can create skirmish to have a good mix of units, but most skirmish games are pretty bland.

I'd like FFG to come up with some well thought out battle plans to include multiple expansion units that are used by each player, e.g.

Stark, WOTN and Tully vs Lanister, WOTW and Tribes...

monk said:

Brotherhood actually contains one scenario (26) that uses units from Wardens of the North, Wardens of the West, and Tribes of the Vale.

I like that they have scenarios that use multiple different expansions.

I have also heard rumours on BGG of a House Barantheon expansion the size of the main game. Perhaps another base set? Will it have two houses? Or will it be a full Barantheon army? Great news though. Hopefully regular Battlelore gets some news soon too.

I havn't had too much bother with unbalenced scenarios. Most are usually about finding the most efficient way of ordering/commanding your units. Good/bad dice rolls at opportune moments can swing the outcome of any battle. If you find that one side consistantly wins, you can easily adjust the rank of a unit to compensate. I have found that red rank foot soldiers take virtually the whole number of rounds just to reach the battlelines, let alone have any impact.

As for expansions, my vote would wholeheartedly be for new houses. Baratheon seems obvious with the 3 brothers - they could even fight each other! Melisandre (with Stannis) could add a bit more 'fantasy' in the way of 'magic'. And who wouldn't want to see Greyjoy longships sailing up water courses (new terrain tiles) to raid and pillage? Dare we ask for Dragons in the future! Everyone loves Dragons - unless you are being attacked by one! Cheers!

argwinkle said:

That's good to know (still haven't got my copy of Brotherhood yet). Nonetheless, more blender Scenarios should (and could) be created, to be downloaded for free (1 or 2 $?) from the site. Many people don't have all expansions, hence a printed something isn't probably a bestseller, but some cool stuff could made be available on-line

With my little experience in the game I think the skirmish cards are underestimated.There are endless scenarios with the use of these cards and if you want to use units from different expansions just choose the cards for units instead of drawing random.I have tried a couple of skirmishes and found them maybe better from many scenarios.The replayability of the game with 7 scenario summary and 34 skirmish setup cards is off the charts.Anyway for me the true value of the expansions are the skirmish cards.Just add 15 minutes to your game for the setup and no battle will ever be the same.As for balance well I dont think that a game that uses dice and random cards can be very unbalanced for one side or the other.Win or lose I have much fun with this game and that is more than enough for me(I admit I lose more often than I win)