Experiences/comments?

By Bonzinho, in A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - A Dance with Dragons

Just received my own copy yesterday. Quick look at starting positions, cards and rules seemed a nice change of pace for the basic game although I'm not convinced the new cards are a step up from the old ones. Hopefully I get to try this out ASAP. :)

Does anyone have any experiences on playing this? How was the balance and new cards?

I'd say that this expansion emphasizes cardplay over other game mechanics. The cards have great combos and also key off of other mechanics, such as the wildling threat track, power tokens, and the number of cards in hand. I found this variant quite puzzling. Experienced players of 1st edition seem to have figured out the best way to play each house. Most of that wisdom has transferred to 2nd edition, but this expansion makes the whole game new, so that no one can rely on their old, well-established strategies.

I agree, and i think it does not improve the game. I also sense a certain power creep in the cards and that is not welcome.

I like the new starting positions though, it just gave a twist to the game so everybody has to come out of their "traditional" house strategies which is welcome indeed.

I am sorely tempted to do card mixing between both sts for both the stadndard set up and the expansion.

Moebius said:

I agree, and i think it does not improve the game. I also sense a certain power creep in the cards and that is not welcome.

I like the new starting positions though, it just gave a twist to the game so everybody has to come out of their "traditional" house strategies which is welcome indeed.

I am sorely tempted to do card mixing between both sts for both the stadndard set up and the expansion.

I have a feeling that this expansion was intended to shake things up for the players who already think they know the "best" way to open the game for each house. It completely skips over the portion of the game in which players gain control over neutral territories and puts them in immediate conflict.

I also think it would be fun to allow players to construct their own hand of house cards with the following limitations:

1. You may only use cards of your own house.

2. Select one card each of strength 4, 3, and 0.

3. Select two cards each of strength 1 and 2.

I have, however, studied the house cards and found only a few combos that use cards from both sets. One good one for Lannister is Tywin Lannister (gain 2 power tokens if you win) and Qyburn (spend two power to give Qyburn the strength and combat icons of any house card in any discard pile). Adding the 2nd ed. Roose Bolton to the ADWD Stark hand would allow for the Ramsey Bolton/Reek combo to be used more often. Having both versions of the Queen of Thorns could really shut down an opponent's combat by negating their house cards' text effects sometimes, and other times removing support orders.

It might also be fun to develop a set of draft rules that allow the players to select cards from any house for their hand. Then there would be a greater chance for some overpowered combos.

On the other hand, the strength of each house's hand of cards is part of the balance in this game. Upsetting this balance may result in an uneven playing field. Of course, many people are already complaining about this game's balance issues. Perhaps creating more balance problems isn't the way to go…

I added osme of the DWD cards to the base set for base games to tweak the balance and try to help lannister a bit.

I Have posted about this here

Monsterberger said:

I also think it would be fun to allow players to construct their own hand of house cards with the following limitations:

1. You may only use cards of your own house.

2. Select one card each of strength 4, 3, and 0.

3. Select two cards each of strength 1 and 2.

I had the same idea, but with the addition of only one House Card for a particular character allowed (i.e. only one Queen of Thorns).

I agree, and i think it does not improve the game. I also sense a certain power creep in the cards and that is not welcome. 

Anything that takes Balon out of the game is a good thing. I've not used the DWD cards yet but I am sorely tempted with our playgroup to equal up Lannister. Plus Addam Marband replacing Kevan Lannister, since Knights are commonplace compared to Footmen.