n the east: Dragons are reborn and barbarians gather. In the north: The undead stalk the remnants of the defenders of humanity. And in the center: Vain, fickle, shortsighted, selfish or just plain evil lordlings vie for a throne that seems sure to be melted or frozen in the near future. Such is the world of George R.R. Martin's series A Tale of Ice and Fire, and also the context of a new collectible card game.
A Game of Thrones' first set, the Westeros Edition, focuses on the struggle to be king. Players choose from three houses: the Lannisters, Baratheons and Starks, and make decks from cards representing characters, locations and events from the books.
The sequence of play is a twist on what CCG players will be used to. Each turn begins with the Plot phase, when players simultaneously reveal their top plot card. This displays that player's Income, Initiative and Claim Value for the turn. The player with the highest Initiative chooses who will go first for the rest of the turn. Next, in the Marshalling phase, each player plays cards from their hand with total costs not exceeding their Income.
Following this is the Challenge phase. Players kneel (rotate 90 degrees) character cards to challenge other players. Each character has the ability to participate in Military, Intrigue and/or Power challenges, and each player can launch one challenge of each type per turn.
Characters can defend against a challenge, but must kneel to do so, thus giving up their chance to attack that turn. Attacking characters compare total strength with defending characters. If the attackers at least tie, the challenge succeeds; if the defenders win, the challenge fails and
nothing happens.
If the attacking player wins a Military challenge, the defending player loses as many characters as the challenging player's Claim Value. In an Intrigue challenge, the defender loses that many cards from their hand. In a Power challenge, they give the attacker that many points of power. If there are no defenders, the attacker gains an additional power point.
Finally, in the Dominance phase, the player with the strongest standing (non-kneeling) characters gains an additional power point. The first player to reach 15 power points wins.
Faithful, elegant and new
Fans of the series will immediately find a lot to like in A Game of Thrones. Every card is taken directly from the books, and most have relevant passages printed on them. And though not every image is exactly a masterpiece, the joint effect of a row of sly Lannisters, smug Baratheons or grim Starks is impressive.
But it is in the rules that A Game of Thrones triumphs. Once I got used to the interlaced turn sequence, I immediately realized that this was something special. Every move has to be judged with an eye toward what the other players will do immediately afterward, but without Magic: The
Gathering-style interrupts and timing problems. The high-Initiative player's decision of who goes first can be very tense: What helps during the Marshalling phase can prove fatal during the Challenge phase.
Two-player games go quickly, and often feature one player getting an early lead and the other struggling to turn things around. But they remain fun, because there's always something to do and some weakness to exploit. Multiplayer games are longer but extremely rewarding, as even a third player is enough to create shifting alliances to cut the lead player down to size.
And through it all, the tone of the series is there. Powerful characters die through treachery or self-sacrifice while pathetic ones live by their wits. Every character has an appropriate special ability or limitation, and other cards allow such goodies as Syrio Forel training a character to fight or Green Dreams predicting and altering the future. And on the fringes of the game lurk the undead, represented through Plot cards and events that kill the weak and send the proud north to the Wall.
Advanced deck construction (moving beyond the semi-preconstructed starters) could involve more speculative territory, as characters from the different houses mix and members of the same house fight each other (in-character for the Baratheons, not so for the Starks). But I expect the level of fun will only increase with this and with future editions.
The one substantial flaw in the game is occasional confusing card text, which I hope will be clarified online.
Altogether, a very good time and one that revives my flagging faith in the future of CCGs.
The one CCG that A Game of Thrones reminded me of at first was Dune, though they turn out to flow quite differently. This is actually appropriate, as the books have superficial parallels as well. Stark equals Atreides, Lannister equals Harkonnen, Baratheon equals Corrino? At first glance yes, on second, not quite.
— Bob
Back to the top.
