Hey guys, just got my hands on the core set and the plan is for some friends and I to each get a deluxe expansion, maybe a couple of chapter packs and share cards out as need be. Thing is, some of us aren't sure which Houses we'd rather play or would suit each of us better in play.

So I was wondering if someone could sort of spell out how each House plays, strengths and weaknesses and other little descriptives to help us make our minds up. Thanks in advance!

Stark - Strong in Military, Strong in Power, Weak in Intrigue, focus on direct kill and winning challenges. Have a rush build focusing on Military challenges.

Bara - Strong in Military, Strong in Power, Weak in Intrigue, focus on Knights, Lords, and Renown. Mostly a power focused house that wins through power grab.

Targ - Moderate in Military, Moderate in Power, Moderate in Intrigue, focus on Dragons. Can rush a win with the right cards out of a dragon build.

Greyjoy - Strong in Military, Strong in Power, Weak in Intrigue, focus on unopposed challenges. Can rush a win with an unopposed build.

Martell - Weak in Military, Moderate in Power, Strong in Intrigue, focus on game changing effects, weak rush build out of the expansion box

Lannister - Weak in Military, Moderate in Power, Strong in Inrigue, focus on kneeling effects and gold, weaker rush build out of the expansion box

This focuses on just the expansion boxes and core set. Though one core set really isn't going to add much. There are just too many cards in there that you need multiples of. How big is your play group?

5-6, obviously on rotation for four-player games. I have seen a lot of people mention the necessity of a second core set at least, so we might get another.

And no Tyrell?

Thanks for the reply!

Haergrim said:

Tyrell much like in the books are under Baratheon or Lannister in the LCG.

So here is a significant consideration for you. There are a couple plots in the core set that border on critical for the game to work properly in certain settings. I would say that if you try to play any sort of melee games without every player having a copy of "Wildfire Assault", the game may not play particularly well. This is just something to keep in mind so that you may just decide to have everyone able to play Wildfire Assault. There are also several "deal-making" plots in the core set that significantly increase the intrigue and dynamicness (word? LoL) of Melee games.

Valar is the other option, but Valar can get particularly irritating in a Melee game as it just makes the game crawl. On the other hand, Valar tends to be the reset of preference in Joust games.