How To Win At The Game Of Thrones Board Game: Part 6- Taking the Win, Meta-Game and Alliances, and Alternative Ways to Play

Hello, and welcome to the final part of my guide on how to win at the Game of Thrones board game. If you have missed any of the previous parts, they can be found below:

- Part 1- Territory Control and House Cards

- Part 2- Combat, Managing Troops and Power Tokens

- Part 3- Stark and Greyjoy
- Part 4- Lannister and Baratheon
- Part 5- Tyrell and Martell

7: Taking The Win

“In War.

Prize victory,

Not a protracted campaign.”

Sun Tsu, Waging of War

So, having discussed general strategy and potential issues for each house I am now going to look at making the winning move. There are two ways to win; take a 7^th castle, or hold the most castles at the end of the game. Depending on the house you are playing is as the best option will vary.

Obviously taking 7 castles is a safe and instantaneous win, but you are unlikely to be able to reliably do this. Since hitting 6 castles makes you a big target you should try to hover around 5 castles and then aim to take two in one turn. Obviously this means splitting your resources more, and requires careful timing of housecards to give guaranteed or probably victories. Bear in mind that ties are initially broken by number of strongholds, followed by supply track position. This has an important bearing on what each house should attempt. For example, if Greyjoy are sitting on 5 castles, 3 of which are strongholds, and every other player is on 5 or fewer castles, they are probably a strong contender to win the game in turn 10. Conversely, if Martell hold 5 castles they are unlikely to be holding more than one stronghold, meaning they should probably push for a 6^th or 7^th castle.

The best time to make the push to 7 castles is turns 8 or 9, as other players will not necessarily be prepared for this when compared to turn 10. Another great time to do this is if the Westeros cards deal a “no support orders” card, as this allows territories considered “safe” to be taken (Crackclaw Point, Storm's End etc). If making the push for 7 castles it is important to put the rest of your orders down in a defensive strategy that mitigates risk; unless you can be certain of the victories required to take your final castles then you need to prepare for the worst.

The last aspect of endgame to talk about is turn 10. Turn 10 is different to the rest of the game, mainly because no one has anything to lose. As such, players will be much more reckless and will throw units and house cards at any problem. How you respond to this will depend on your position; if you have a comfortable lead you should play defensively and aim to prevent all attacks. If you are slightly behind you should prepare to march on the loser in any large battles. A particularly good strategy can be suddenly mobilising units that have existed all game as power token farmers. A sudden march from the Arbor or Dragonstone can be unexpected and allow you to easily taken an undefended castle.

I had to get a picture of Stannis in somewhere, and here is as good as anywhere.

Generally if you are in a strong position you should be aiming to end the game in turn 9 and avoiding the unpredictability of turn 10, as it is easy for the rankings of all players to change in the final turn.

8: Meta-game and Alliances

“Words of peace,

But no treaty,

Are a sign

Of a plot.”

Sun Tsu, On The March

One aspect of the game that is often linked to it that I have hardly touched on is the table game, including alliances and deals. Obviously this is not a formal part of the rules, but is thematically encouraged. Depending on the group you play with will depend on how often alliances come into play. That said, once two players make an alliance in a game it is only a matter of time until other alliances form to counter this (for more information, see World War 2).

Generally the most effective alliances are not made between neighbours. Greyjoy and Lannister may make an alliance in good faith, but having a large military presence on your doorstep is something that can only be ignored for so long. Rather, alliances can be mutually beneficial between houses that lack common territories. This could include:

Baratheon/Tyrell

Stark/Lannister

Stark/Martell

Greyjoy/Baratheon

Lannister/Martell

Greyjoy/Tyrell

All these focus on a “pincer” attack on a common enemy. Of course, if you find you cannot trust other players with even this kind of alliance, another option is an alliance that only lasts for a certain time. For example, an alliance up until the start of turn 6. This means both players are aware of when aggression is acceptable whilst not worrying about being the one to be stabbed in the back.

"I did warn you not to trust me"

How alliances work will likely develop between any group of regular players. Another aspect that normally develops between a group of people who regularly play together is a local metagame. This means that there are certain strategies or moves that become the expected move amongst that group. This, in turn, leads to those moves losing value due to being predictable. For example, if a group always used my suggested Lannister opening then the Greyjoy player would likely use a different opening in response to this. This is something that will inform your strategy when playing with this group; how this manifests depends entirely on who you play with.

9: Alternative Set-ups and “House” Rule Suggestions

The last area I would like to discuss is some suggestions for alternative ways of playing that either give the game some variety or help address balancing issues. These are of course not official set ups but give variety to the game.

Rumble In The South (4 players): Block off Pyke, Moat Cailin, Greywater Watch, Flint's Finger, and everything north of them. Houses in play are Lannister, Baratheon, Martell and Tyrell. This set up lets Tyrell have the Valyrian Steel Blade and puts Martell second on two influence tracks, making Doran a more interesting card, as well as giving each house limited space to work in. This also works for groups who want to use Tyrell and Martell but don't always have 6 players.

No Salt Or Sand (4 players): Block off Pyke and Dorne (Prince's Pass, Yronwood, Starfall, Salt Shore, Sunspear), and have Lannister, Baratheon, Stark and Tyrell in. This is less claustrophobic than Rumble but does not give any one player too many resources. It also means Lannister have some breathing room without having too easy a time of things.

All But The Lion (5 players): Block off Lannisport and remove Lannister. This 5 player set up keeps the middle of the board empty, meaning that Baratheon, Tyrell and Greyjoy expand further than usual and get into blows with each other. Since Lannister do not have a lot of uncontested territories this does not substantially change the goals for any house, but does remove the house that suffers most in a 5 player game.

Custom House Decks: The Dance With Dragons expansion adds a new set of house cards for each house, and this can be used to create custom decks. The most balanced ruling is that each house chooses a 4, a 3, two 2s, two 1s and a 0 from the two decks, and these are not publicly announced until the cards have been played. This allows for a lot more strategy and planning for players, who can tailor their house to their play style. This can create some ridiculously powerful house decks, which can put a greater focus on combat. A second alternative to this is to randomise which house gets which cards (e.g. Baratheon use Lannister cards etc).

Army Building: Each house in the base game starts with either 5 or 6 mustering points worth of units. This set up allows players to choose how these are deployed. Each player in turn must place a land unit on their home territory. They can then place on any territory they own or any adjacent territory (with boats required when crossing the sea). Each player places a unit each turn until they have used their mustering points up. Players cannot place into a territory that contains any unit belonging to another player. This allows players to mix up the starting set ups, and thus the starting moves. There is also strategy in deciding how much land to take versus having a stronger army.

Pre-Game Influence Bid: Rather than using the usual influence track positions, each house is given 10 power tokens and a round of bidding occurs before turn 1. This means each player can decide what they want to prioritise, as well as how many power tokens they want to hold on to. This gives some variety to the opening of games, as well as giving each house different opening options.

Messenger Ravens: One group I play with came up with the idea of using “messenger ravens” to send messages in secret to other players. These are written on scraps of paper and handed directly to the player you wish to message, with all players seeing who is messaging who but not the content. This creates a lot more depth to the table game, as alliances and coordinated moves can be created in secret. One optional rule with this is to only allow players to use ravens on alternating turns, meaning private communications are limited.

Summary:

That is about everything I have to say about the Game of Thrones board game. Due to the size and complexity of it it is a game that allows for a lot different ways of playing. I haven't really discussed either of the two official expansions, nor have I talked about the innumerable fan expansions that seek to add various houses. I hope this has been useful and provoked thought and discussion. Thank you for reading, and thank you to all the people who put up with playing this game with me and helping form this article.