Category Archives: game of thrones

game of thrones

Dragons on the Iron Throne

Game day, game of thrones

After a week of doing nothing gaming wise and silence on here I finally have something to write about!

There was no gaming Friday night. However half term did get a good start with a game of A Game of Thrones the boardgame second edition on Saturday afternoon.

Dave (Stark), Jeff (Targaryen), Jonas (Arryn), and myself (Baratheon) gathered together to fight for control of Westeros and to sit on the Iron Throne. That left Greyjoy, Lannister, Martell, and Tyrell becoming vassal houses.

Our battlefield was the base game plus the Mother of Dragons expansion and the awesome playmat (below).

We also used the Tides of Battle deck during combat.

Usually I’d use either the A Feast for Crows or the A Dance With Dragons expansions for the relevant player count. They can still be used with the Mother of Dragons expansion. But not in the same way. However I love how the Mother of Dragons turns the unused houses into vassal houses that are controlled by the players.

Control of those vassal houses can change each round. So you are in that difficult position when using them of trying to use them for your own tactical advantage. But not leaving them in a state that if controlled by someone else they can hurt your plans.

You can watch our game condensed down to a thirty odd second video below.

I decided to look at the history books of my game plays that is the bgstat app, and I have never won a game of AGoT! Never!

And yet I love the game.

I get to play with my friends. I love the banter, dealing and backstabbing. And that’s before I even start on the other aspects of the gameplay/mechanics that I love.

Our game only went five rounds before Jeff and his dragons won.

A great afternoon gaming. A great way to start the half term.

Wiener, wiener wiener, wiener wiener

Big Game Saturdays, Game day, game of thrones

Saturday saw the long overdue return of A Game of Thrones the boardgame second edition (that’s a mouthful to say) to the table.

The impetus to get it back was to play it with the third and largest expansion for the game Mother of Dragons.

I bought the expansion early on during the big global event if memory does not fail me on this. For sure it was during said event.

So at some point I was going to want to play this again.

To help encourage getting it back to the table I did add it to two of the gaming challenges I set up at the start of the year.

So a couple of months back I setup an event on the Fenland Gamers discord server. I had three players (including myself) able to commit to playing the game. With a fourth unsure.

We needed four players to be able to use the new map of Essos and House Targaryen. Which is one of the major attractions of the expansion.

In the days, even weeks before I did try getting the playmat for the game. Sadly there were none in stock, those on eBay that looked affordable had a massive (£70+ postage!). Even a couple of pleas on a Facebook gaming group went unanswered.

On the day the unsure sadly was not able to make it. But as I was getting that news and about to start putting away the extra map and Targaryen pieces in walked Jimmy and an unexpected Nathaniel. We had a fourth.

A brief note on setting up before the players arrived. Which you know I like to do. For this game I setup as much as I could before everyone arrived. However which houses were controlled by players and which were to become vassal houses couldn’t be done until everyone had arrived. Luckily everything a player needed for each house was bagged, decks ready. So once selected all they had to do was grab everything for that house. Then it was just a matter of getting the components needed for each vassal house from the houses components.

Whilst waiting for Jeff to arrive we started choosing our houses for the game.

I went first and chose Targaryen. I wanted this house in the game, the only way to guarantee it was to choose it myself.

Here are how the houses ended up being chosen.

  • Stark – Jimmy
  • Baratheon – Nathanial
  • Targaryen – Me
  • Tyrell – Jeff

The vassal houses were: Lannister, Greyjoy, Martell, Arryn.

Oh we were also using the Tides of War deck in combat.

Then battle commenced.

Despite repeated warnings throughout the game about Jeff and how he was clocking up strongholds and castles in the name of House Tyrell. Jimmy and Nathaniel kept attacking me whilst leaving Jeff mostly alone.

Then the moment came when I declared Jeff had won the next round. By then there was nothing they could do. They tried in vein to delay the inevitable. But their efforts were futile.

It was interesting that even at the moment I had declared Jeff’s impending victory he too had not fully seen it.

If only someone had warned them earlier!

All I did was sit back and watch events unfold as predicted, whilst inflicting a final bit of humiliation to Nathaniel as payback for the constant naval attacks by capturing the Baratheon castle.

I’m a fan of the earlier two expansions A Feast for Crows (four players) and A Dance with Dragons (six players). But for me Mother of Dragons beats them hands down.

The vassal system introduced adds a new additional tactical element to the game from choosing which house to take control of, to how you are going to use them that turn. Granted it adds considerably to the play time (there are rules handling if a player has to leave during a game, they also become a vassal!) The vassal system replaces the neutral force tokens of the base game, and I really do prefer it.

I liked House Targaryen and the dragons. Although it does add a rather big target to your back. I think Nathaniel and Jimmy were too focused on my threat with the dragons enabling Jeff to exploit that distraction. But they were cool to play and have their alternative win condition. Plus their specific Westeros deck did seem to encourage a bit of wheeling and dealing with the other houses.

The Iron Bank cards were interesting, although Jeff was the only one who bought one. I think more plays are required before I can make my mind up over these.

I like that you can use the other expansions house cards with this one. So if you only play Mother of Dragons they are not just collecting dust. Plus for now another reason to get the game back to the table!

Mother of Dragons will be my preference when it comes to playing A Game of Thrones. Unless time is tight and the player count matches up the other expansions won’t get a full outing.

I had a blast and can’t wait to revisit Westeros to get my revenge and recapture the Iron Throne.

A brief update

apps, Fenland Gamers, game of thrones

I think the Diptic collage below sums up the last couple of days fairly well.

I managed to get into the beta for the A Game of Thrones (AGoT) board game app. So I need to work through the tutorial now, and then get some games in.

I like the physical game a lot. So I’m pretty keen to try this digital version. The hope is once it’s out of beta that I can convince some of my friends to get it and we get a game or two in.

But like my physical collection, my digital board game collection has the same problem. Too many games too little time!

I could play against random strangers online. But I don’t get much enjoyment out of that. For me if I play online I like playing with friends.

Sadly even with app gaming being the only real way to game with friends during this pandemic. After a brief flurry of interest, it died off pretty quickly.

It’s a pity.

But engagement within our gaming group online seems to match that of attendance of gaming sessions. Pretty low.

I started a Discord server for the group so that members wouldn’t get spammed on Facebook from the club page, and/or miss posts. Facebook does seem to have a knack of being inconsistent in what it shows on peoples timelines.

The other positive for Discord for me is that with separate chat areas set up for different gaming interests, members can filter out the stuff they are not interested in. Not to mention the voice functionality it offers whilst gaming.

However the engagement on Discord is just as low.

My latest attempt to help improve things is to try running games of Mastermind (which died off pretty quickly), and the latest attempt a game of Chess.

I’ve not played Chess in decades. And even then I wasn’t very good at it. But we’ll see how it goes.

False Summit! 

Destiny, Game day, game of thrones, star wars

Monday Dale and I met up at The White Lion to do combat using cards and dice playing Star Wars: Destiny. It’s been a couple of months since we’ve had a chance to play like this. Our timetables don’t really sync that much this year at work.


While waiting for Dale to turn up (which wasn’t long) I threw together an Elite Thrawn and Darth Vader Sith Apprentice Deck. 

Dale was playing the nasty combo of Elite Mace Windu and Jedi Instructor.
That Mace die is nasty. 

The day got off to such a great start with Thrawn/Vader getting me the win. Everything went to plan. Vader was doing damage with hate, I got to use Maces dice against him.

But it went to pot after that. For once when you want Dale to roll badly and get lots of blanks, he decides to roll well. Blanks were few and far apart.

I did tweak the deck a couple of times, which included swapping Vader for an elite Kylo. But still my arse got handed to me.

These weren’t quick games. One or two were nearly victories for me. In those games the dice really did love Dale.

I think both my combos with Thrawn have potential just need to sort the deck out. It needs more removal I think.

Still despite lots of losses I had a lot of fun. 

Oh last night FFG decided to finally release a rules update. It’s massive. FN,Unkar,Phasma (2 player version) and Poe get their point costs adjusted upwards in what FFG are calling Balance of the Force. It’s a bit like the Netrunner Most Wanted List. There are some card errata as well. The main one nerfs Vibroknife. And the overwriting of upgrades gets changed to dial back FN and Rey. But in Reys case it’s still possible to do a big action cheat with Force Speed and an Ambush weapon and her ability, but there are tools to at least stop it now. Overall not a bad update. You can read it here.

Yesterday also saw the Justin and Liz alliance once more in full swing as we played our first six player game of A Game of Thrones the boardgame. We played with the A Dance With Dragons expansion.

The expansion replaced the combat cards from the base game. These cards could be used in the base game all the time if I wanted to. It also had starting scenario cards for all the houses. 


I liked the expansion a lot. The new combat cards shake things up a little for those that have learnt the cards in the base game. Whilst the starting scenarios jump you more into the action, speeding the game up a little. The game also plays over 6 rounds with the highest score being the winner at the end of the 6th round if no-one has gained the 7 points before then. So it’s a shorter game too. Forcing people to be aggressive and grab those castles and strongholds. 

In our game it almost worked out that it was one side of the table/board against the other side. With puppet master Justin trying to manipulate the unholy alliance on his side to his benefit. Luckily the Tyrell’s were placed on the Iron Throne denying the axis of evil. My last round was spent attacking Liz (Starks) to cut down her points. Which would deny her a shot at victory. A lesson not to side with Justin.

As the Greyjoys I was last. But I think everyone enjoyed the game. I think Cry Havoc would be a good game for Liz to try next.

Married Couple Fight Over Iron Throne

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game of thrones

It’s funny how things work out. I hadn’t planned it this way but we played A Game of Thrones the board game the opening weekend of season 7.  And now we were playing the game once more straight after (well the Saturday after) the season 7 finale. 

Those gathered to compete for the Iron Throne, or with delusions that they had a claim to the throne were myself, Jeff, Diego and Monia (aka Mrs Toaster – I do hope Monia doesn’t mind the nickname because I’m bad at pronouncing some names, so I do almost everything possible to avoid struggling to say them and embarrassing myself).

I had drawn House Arryn, Jeff was the Starks, Monia was the Lannisters and that leaves Diego with Baratheon. Yep we once again were playing with the A Feast for Crows expansion. 

Monia hadn’t played AGoT before, so we didn’t use the Tides of Battle cards. Mind you I haven’t used them yet. And I think I’m about ready to try them. Next time. Jeff also acted as a “consultant” to Monia when choosing a card to play in battles against Diego.

With Diego being Baratheon, and Monia controlling the Lannister forces, husband and wife were pitted against each other right from the start. Kingslanding is critical to both of their house objectives.

I was playing House Arryn for the first time. My house objective needed me to have more power tokens than the other houses at the end of each round along with control of the Eyrie. The special abilities on the combat cards for Arryn are slanted in aiding this. I managed to pull this off once, the first round, along with completing one other objective. That was it my total points for the whole game. 

While I was waiting for the opportune moment (which in the end never came) to snatch Kingslanding off the warring couple to gain another objective and two points. I was trading blows with Jeff and his Stark forces.

Jeff did query his house objective. But we couldn’t remember how we ruled it. So he did a quick search on bgg and couldn’t find an answer. So we went with he had to hold Winterfell and five castles/strongholds.

The Westeros cards only came up once with the opportunity to bid on the influence tracks. But I did get to steal the sword off Jeff after we successfully defended the only wildlings attack. I could move to the top of the influence track of my choice after bidding the most. It’s as if I knew what would happen before hand if we defeated them, and to put lots in. So I took the sword.

I had three crappy objectives that I wouldn’t achieve. I wasn’t triggering my house objective. I needed to be churning my house combat cards more than I was to do that. I cycled the deck once during the game. It wasn’t good enough. The others were chalking up victory points left right and centre. There was no hope in hell I’d catch them up. But despite that I was having a blast.

In the end Diego made it across the finish line to grab the Iron Throne.

All hail King Diego. Who we hope survives the many assassination attempts we are sure his Queen will be making to grab the throne for herself. 

Epilogue:

Many many hours later, minutes before midnight Jeff finally mastered Google and found out he could have won! We decided wrongly on his house objective. It was five Castles/strongholds including Winterfell. So potentially Jeff could have claimed the Iron Throne if his Google skills had been better. But I suppose it’s hard using smart phones stuck up in the cold north. Cell reception must be a nightmare!

All hail King Diego

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game of thrones

It hadn’t been planned this way but to be playing A Game of Thrones the boardgame the same weekend series 7 of the tv show is due to air seemed a great way to celebrate the shows return.

Jeff, Diego and myself faced off across the battle field using the A Feast for Crows expansion. Yes I know there was only three of us, and the expansion us for four players but we have a reason for doing so. We were expecting a fourth player, and had set up for four players using the expansion. But after waiting 40 minutes we got the impression they were not turning up. So we decided to go ahead using the expansion but take out the Starks. Any objectives that involved the North and Starks would be discarded and a new card drawn. This also meant that we were playing in a pretty compact part of the map. Very much in your face. 

So who played who? Well I played the Lannisters for the first time, Diego was House Arryn, and that leaves Jeff as the Baratheons. 

Naturally because of the house objectives Jeff and I are at instant conflict over control for Kings Landing. We both needed it. I also had a normal objective that needed control of it. So if I could keep control for one turn that’s two points. I managed to keep it for the first turn and score those two points. But if I had been braver and attacked Jeff with my forces at Kings Landing instead of defending I think I could have held it for a couple more turns, and possibly got the win. However hindsight is a great tool. And after revealing orders that first turn I was regretting my decision. 

The above photo shows me learning from my earlier indecisiveness by attacking Diego’s knights before he can reinforce them and attack me.

Like most games there are moments that stand out. Diego and Jeff were ganging up on me. They had mean most of the game. I had zero influence, Jeff had one (iirc) and Diego had two I think. The Westeros phase was making us bid for the influence tokens. I was looking at losing the Iron Throne token. Jeff and Diego were discussing how they were going to split up the three tokens between them. We all put our bids in for the Iron Throne. Jeff and Diego bid nothing! They had screwed up. One of them should have bid something but they hadn’t. As the current holder of the Iron Throne I got to decide draws. So guess what? I was still in first place and kept hold of the Iron Throne.  That was so funny. When that realisation of how they had screwed up hit them. Boy did I laugh. It also meant I was able to hold on to being able to use to power tokens in the power phase.

But that was an unexpected victory. In the end I still lost the war. There was a chance to make a final grab for power and steal the win. But miscalculations, poor execution and Diego attacking me in one area I needed to control put an end to any little chance I had.

Jeff and Diego both had 7 victory points. So it was down to tie breakers. Which saw Jeff lose to Diego on the second tie breaker.

Well done to Diego our new Overlord. May your reign of tyranny be short. 

I liked how A Feast for Crows worked with three players. The compact nature of all the armies being so close together I thought worked well. 

Right I’m off to start up the resistance/rebellion to Diego’s reign. 

Infamy, infamy, they all have it in for me!

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game of thrones

It wasn’t planned this way, but yesterdays and the game in two weeks time are a brilliant way to celebrate the start of the much anticipated new series of The Game of Thrones this month. In fact I think the next game is the same weekend. It’s also that weekend I can start taking holiday also. An exciting weekend indeed. 
Yesterday the people rose up with the aim to over throw the current incumbent of the Iron Throne Jakub.


Four players again meant that we were playing with the Feast for Crows expansion. Justin was playing for the first time, and drew the Starks. I drew the Baratheons, which was a first for me. Chris got the Lannisters and reigning tyrant Jakub was once again Arrayn.

Chris was the first one scoring, his House objective automatically kicked in. I had to attack Chris because we both needed Kings Landing. I wanted it more! 

And I managed to hold on to it for a large chunk of the game. Chris and Jakub formed an unholy alliance and ganged up on me. Whilst Justin was doing a good job of being a distraction to them. Sadly not enough for me to sneak the victory.

Chris took back Kings Landing with me one round away from winning. I was left with two ships as my only forces left on the board. I desperately needed a mustering to ocurr.

That unholy alliance wouldn’t hold out, I was sure of it. Both thought they were able to grab the win. Sadly for Chris Jakub was in a better position than he was.  Jakub completed an objective for the final point he needed to get the win and strengthen his hold on the Iron Throne.

We had alliances, deals, no betrayals that I remember. 

So well done to Jakub for successfully defending your throne.  Sadly for you, but luckily for the rest of us you are unable to defend it next game. So enjoy your short extended reign. 

Dethroning King Joffrey The People’s Uprising

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game of thrones

Unable to avoid the rabble any longer, King Joffrey had to muster his forces yesterday to try and quell the revolt.

But before armies clashed, clandestine deals had to be done over in Chatteris between Gavin and myself. Gavin and I had been talking a day or so earlier and fallen into a deal where for his copy of Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small I would hand over in exchange my Dice Masters stuff and my spare copy of Dice City (yeah I ended up with two copies of the game this week, an opportunity arose last weekend to get the base game along with the All That Glitters expansion for £15). 

Once we had verbally come to our agreement I was straight on to my FLGS The Hobbit Hole to secure the copy of the second expansion for the game Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small – Even More Buildings Big and Small (rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?)

So after goods were exchanged in the car park Gavin and I paid John a visit in his establishment, and our FLGS. I picked up the expansion, plus the latest Netrunner data pack. And somehow walked out also with a copy of Suburbia Subdivision (a tenner!). Gavin didn’t leave empty handed either. He had bought some boosters for Dice Masters.

 

Life stuff had dwindled the forces opposing the tyrants rule down to just three armies against him.

The battle field had been decided A Game of Thrones the boardgame (second edition) using the A Feast for Crows expansion. It was a bit scarey, our first game without our “game master” Jeff. Luckily Jakub was more familiar with the rules than us. But still we would need to dive into the rules from time to time to clarify a point or two.

I was the Starks once more. So I was going to sweep down from the North. Diego was the Lannisters and moving out from the East. Jakub was the Arryn stuck between Diego and myself. That left Jonathan as Baratheon, and an auto victory point until that was stopped somehow.

Round one and Arryn attacked me! Wait that isn’t part of the plan or deal! We all attack King Joffrey. The King can’t be allowed to hold on to his throne. At least the Lannisters were staying on message. 

It would take two rounds before that Baratheon auto point was silenced for good.

Whilst fighting a rare guard action defending the North against invasion from the Arryn betrayers, I did manage to get a force together to sweep down and take on the tyrant. A rather successful foray I will say capturing Kings Landing (and completing a secret objective). 

There was some to and fro between Arryn and Lannisters as a side distraction to the Lannisters having a go at Baratheon.

These skirmishes outside of our coup attempt were down to trying to complete secret objectives. Curse them for stopping our upraising from totally crushing the Mad King Joffrey. 

Jonathan had admittedly given up part way through. He had three objectives he wasn’t able to complete. And if I had to criticise this expansion that would be it. Get stuck with secret objectives that you can’t do and that’s it you are screwed and can’t do anything about it. There should be some mechanism that allows you to dump a plan and redraw. Maybe add a penalty for doing so, such as loose an influence token, or military unit. I can see a house rule being added.

King Joffrey was on 4 points. While the rest of us were going to reach the magic total of seven victory points at the same time from our house objectives. So taking into account any secret objectives that could also be completed that turn, Jakub won with 10 points, Diego got 9, and I got 8.

The tyranny of King Joffrey had come to an end. There was a new King on the Iron Throne. A new date has been set to try and bring his rule to an end. We underlings of Westeros are very fickle, and like to keep our despots on their toes. 

Viva la Rebellion! 

The Iron Throne Round Two

Fenland Gamers, game night, game of thrones

Our skirmish over the Iron Throne seemed so long ago. But the memory of the other houses betrayal still stung with how they gave the Iron Throne to Jeff the Baratheon. 

Mid week once I knew how many could still make our planned fight club for the Iron Throne, I ordered the A Feast of Crows expansion for the game. 

This was my clever plan to gain the Throne. A Feast of Crows is a four player only expansion that replaces the win condition for the game, introduces a new house, House Arryn, objectives, a new setup. 

During setup I drew the Starks, Jeff got House Arryn, Jonathan House Lannister, and Diego House Baratheon.

Looking back on our game my tactical error on turn one that I missed until too late, of attacking House Arryn instead of the Lannisters, helped towards giving Jonathan his well deserved victory. If I had gone after the Lannisters I would have completed my special objective for my house and started racking up victory points, while denying Jonathan and his Lannisters 

The others helped towards his victory also by not taking him on, on their side of Westeros.

I liked this expansion a lot. The house specific objectives, the objective deck. Such a great idea. Completing them is the only way to earn victory points. It forces you to be aggressive. You can’t afford to turtle. 

It was a quick game, four turns! Not including setup time, our playtime was about an hour and a half. 

Setup especially contributes to the forced aggression, effectively shutting down the southern part of Westeros. You are also starting off with more developed forces if my poor memory of our first game isn’t playing tricks on me.

This is definitely my preferred way to play with four players now. I’ll happily play the original way. But this expansion for me is a far better playing experience. 

There is a six player only expansion also, which if we get a six player game together I will definitely get. I do wonder why there isn’t a five player expansion. 

The postman bought my Kickstarter copy of Tiny Epic Western Deluxe Edition yesterday morning. So after sleeving the player boards the game along with Bang the Dice Game and it’s first expansion Old Saloon were put in my game bag along with A Game of Thrones the boardgame.

Having seen Jeff usurped from the Iron Throne, only to see Jonathan placed on the throne instead. It was time to hit the old west and play Tiny Epic Western.

Naturally with the game being so new, none of us knew the rules. So this was a learning game, reading the rules as we played! 

Within a turn of playing I think we had the majority of the rules down. 

So we have an area control, worker placement, set collection, variable player powers game with a poker element too!

Yep there’s a lot of boxes being ticked here. But it works.

I like the duelling, although I think I only duelled once! It’s a cool way to resolve control of a space on the board.

Having player aids on the back of the character boards is a good use of real estate. Which means unused boards instantly become player aids. 

I loved the poker element of the game. It was rare I wasn’t with a five value card. So rare if I was wearing a long sleeved top the others would be rolling up my sleeves checking for cards.

The unique player boards with their player abilities is a nice touch. The four we were playing with didn’t seem over powered. 

Being the Kickstarter deluxe edition we had extra bullet dice, one in each players colour. But the whole overall component quality was good. We also got a plastic wanted card with a see through window. Which looked better to me than the standard included card.

I liked the wanted card as it encouraged duels. Ownership went to the winner of the last duel. It gives a bonus if you have it on phase three of the game, and if you have it at the end of the game two victory points. 

We did find the rule book a bit confusing in places. It was handy having a mini FAQ inside the box.

The only thing I regret is not buying the optional playing mat. But I’ll correct that soon.

Tiny Epic Westerns is a nice game. I like it, and definitely can see it coming to the table again. And I’m not saying that because I won!

So is this the best Tiny Epic game? Does it beat Tiny Epic Galaxies? 

For me I think TEG is still the best Tiny Epic game. But this easily takes second spot.

A great day gaming. Plus we pigged out on Krispy Creme donuts!

Winter Is Coming

Fenland Gamers, game night, game of thrones, Uncategorized

Here is a short time lapse of my first time playing A Game of Thrones the boardgame with Jeff, Ben and Jonathan.


In all I think we played our four player game in little over two hours. Surprisingly quicker than I thought it would be. 

In the end Jeff won taking the required seven castles, whilst I had been knocked back into last place. Yes I was in the lead early on before the others ganged up on me. 

I was surprised how little conflict went on in our game. I seemed to be the main aggressor. Something I paid for in the long run. 

I enjoyed this first play a lot, this will definitely be coming back to the table.

My only complaint about this game and the up and coming Iron Throne game (based on Cosmic Encounter) is the minimum number of players is three. So unless I can find a third volunteer when I visit Nath, neither would see the table. And I know that Nath would enjoy this game.

If you are able to get the players together this is a nice game to bring to the table.