I will be playing the 2 on 2 game variant but the instructions in the game are unfortunately vague on an important detail:

They specify that team mates are "partners" but this concept is not previously defined in the rulebook (rather "support" and "opponent" are defined in the melee context) and hard to find on forums. What I would like to know is the following: can "partners" mutually defend each other from opponent attacks as defined in the Support paragraph?

Thank you for your help.

Prisme said:

After a couple of games with the core set, seems that the player with the lamest start would end up being held down by his two opponents who would gain power points simply by winning uncontested military, intrigue and power struggles. Meanwhile the strongest of the weakest pair can't really hurt either of the other two substantially and has to also keep his guard up. When Lannister played "opponents plots cards are worth 0 gold" on second turn, that was the nail in the coffin on turn 2 twice out of four games.

This game makes much more sense 1 versus 1.

The game clearly wasn't designed to work with teams (though it makes sense both in 1 vs 1 and free for all). Blocus would be a lot more reasonable in 2 vs 2 if it affected "other players" instead of "opponents".

Also, there are some people who amended the variant rule to allow each player to defend for their partner once per turn.