Song of Ice & Fire, George R.R. Martin's popular series of novels, has already led to a collectible card game. But while the card game focused on the various characters' attempts to stick poison-tipped knives into each other, the new board game regards the clashes of military machines, and the difficulties of keeping such machines running smoothly.
The game board depicts the continent of Westeros, divided into Areas containing Crowns (representing political importance), Barrels (supplies) and Cities (sources of recruits). Each player chooses from the Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, Tyrells and Greyjoys, begins at an edge of the board with a stronghold garrisoned by a small army and navy (represented by wooden pieces), and has 10 turns to conquer seven cities and win the game.
Each turn begins by drawing Westeros cards. These determine which of various events happen, such as mustering new troops, checking supplies and generating Political Points. There are also dynamic events, such as Wildling Attack, in which all players bid political points to stop Westeros from being pillaged by barbarians, and Clash of Kings, in which they bid for positions on tracks representing their faction's political, military and bureaucratic efficiency.
After the Westeros Cards are resolved, all players simultaneously put tokens face down in every Area in which they have pieces. These tokens order pieces to move, defend, support each other, raid enemy Areas or consolidate power. All the tokens are then turned face up, revealing the orders to all players.
The players then take turns picking up a token and resolving the orders on it. For instance, if it is a Move token, the player at this time decides where the various pieces in the Area will move. Doing so can result in the player gaining control of new Areas (and perhaps winning the game) or entering combat.
In combat, players add up the strengths of pieces involved (representing footmen, knights and ships), add the strengths of supporting pieces and then simultaneously reveal House Cards. These depict various characters from the books who are rated for their army-leading abilities and sometimes have special abilities. The player with the higher total wins the combat and the Area; the loser must retreat and may lose pieces in the process.
Old ideas ingeniously combined
If there was a separate grade for originality, this game might fall into the "C" range. Nearly everything reminded me of an older game (orders, movement and pieces from Diplomacy, hidden leaders from Dune, barbarians from Cities & Knights of Catan). And the character art is literally identical to that in the Game of Thrones CCG.
But combining these elements has created a manageable game (16-page rule book) with a fascinating level of strategic depth. Placing orders simultaneously requires players to really think about what they're doing and what they expect the other players to do. Deciding in turn exactly how the orders are carried out allows all sorts of opportunism and diplomatic dealings. And the random timing of mustering and supply prevents the monotonous inevitability that can plague simple wargames like Risk.
The Clash of Kings event, and the track positions that result, make the factions more than just pieces on a map; the player with the highest bureaucratic efficiency can accomplish things that the lowest can only dream of.
Each position poses different challenges from the others, which helps replayability. The board, on the other hand, tends to channel the same factions into the same strategies, though diplomacy between experienced players should mitigate this.
Physically, the game is quite nice, with the cardboard counters of each faction having a distinctive coat of arms on the back and symbols on the front, which, while not exactly intuitive, are at least clear once you know them. One potential problem is that since every piece is potentially needed, and must look identical to other pieces of its type when face down, it could be very bad if any were to get lost.
Fans of the books might have wished that the factions were given more individuality, for instance a permanent Greyjoy bonus for raiding, or extra supplies for the Tyrells. But the confluence of the board positions and House Card abilities accomplish much the same thing without completely straitjacketing players into one strategy per house.
So, a great game. And although a lot of the ideas will not be new for experienced wargamers, they have never before been put together in such an understandable and enjoyable way, providing a strategic challenge no other "family" board game possesses.
The short, heavily illustrated rule book is excellent at showing the structure of the game, but does not have solutions to all the abstruse situations that might arise. Hopefully there will be a FAQ. In the meantime I was impressed that a rules question I e-mailed to Fantasy Flight was answered in less than a day.
— Bob
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