Agenda: The Old Way

House Greyjoy Only.

After a challenge resolves, the player who counted the lowest STR must choose and kill a participating character he or she controls.

So if the challenge goes unopposed, am I that player? I counted the highest STR, but also the lowest STR.

That would...suck.

Or is it you, because you counted 0 STR in the challenge, you just have no participating characters to kill.?

When you win a challenge unopposed it is (typically) because the other player counted no strength. For you to win you have to have a total strength greater than zero, so you won't have the lowest strength.

Good thing too - this agenda would be trash if unopposed challenges forced you to kill one of your characters

More to the point, when a challenge is unopposed, the defender counts 0 total STR for the challenge - whether they have participating characters or not. Of course, most of the time, they will not have any participating characters to kill.

Just like Deadly, the surest defense to this for a defender is to let the challenge go unopposed (or to chump-block in military and kill that defender for claim). Of course, if you can win on defense, you can force the attacker to kill someone, but because of this, I doubt that anyone is going to attack much when there is enough defending STR showing that they know they are unlikely to win (which is how a lot of people tend to play, anyway).

That's why I think this agenda is not going to be the earth-shattering game changer that everyone seems to think it will be. Defense decisions will be easier and more unopposed power will be claimed, though, so maybe games will go faster. But that's about it.

Well, maybe there will also be a resurgence of "win by 4" effects for GJ players, too.

Right, Ken: I think the objective of it is not to kill more dudes, but to force through more unopposed. But that turns on a lot more Greyjoy unopposed responses, so that's what I'm trying to build right now--that and just high claim in general. All I have to do is include a chump in the challenge and I force the defender to overcommit on defense or else eat my claim from Chintarion+Hammerhorn Raiders+Victarion's Scheme.

I just had a moment of panic when I thought that the agenda might need a Supersaver or Power of Blood build in order to function.

Yeah. The Old Way is a really crazy agenda. I'm a little afraid of it.

Scarey agenda!

After a challenge resolves, the player who counted the lowest STR must choose and kill a participating character he or she controls.

I take it that this applies to all players and all challenges (thinking melee)

It sounded great when I first read it but now I am thinking that most challenges will go unopposed ... which is bad news if my oponents are doing more challeges than me

I'd also be worried about having to over-commit my attackers ... there's a lot of strength reducers or cancellers out there!

I like this agenda a lot for greyjoy. I can see it help to get a lot more unopposed with the right deck. With the thought that they won't attack unless they are sure of having more strength, I am not so sure that this will be much of an issue for greyjoy considering they have so many saves. I think they could almost use this as an intimidation factor, because they know that if they lose they could just save a character. So, (best case scenario) the opponent thinks the attacking greyjoy has hidden strength or abilities, even though they may not, and unopposes the challange in fear of lossing. Either scenario sounds pretty good to me. In the first scenario they kneel more stength than you to defend (with Moqorro, Tarle, Maester Kerwin, salt wife, the iron mines, and the iron cliffs this most likely will not be a problem), and in the second you get an unopposed.

Greyjoy's ability to Strength Pump is going to shine in this agenda.

I make a chump Intrigue challenge with Damphair's Drowned. I also have Asha Greyjoy (FF) standing by with naval icons, and three Warships, one of them a Naval Escort. So, that challenge could jump from 2 to 9, or even 12 if I have a third character to activate NE for +3 +3 +3 rather than only +2 +2. Might be a better idea just to let it go.