Designer: Christian T. Petersen
A tense, strategic territorial control game built on the George R. R. Martin books, you control one of the great houses of Westeros, and live out your fantasy of just punishing the Lannisters just because fucking Joffrey, man.
Game of Thrones is a surprisingly simple game, at least mechanically, where players attempt to claim 7 castles in fewer than 10 turns. Each turn starts with random events (some good some bad), and then players plan what they’re going to do. Possible actions include attacking, defending, supporting a nearby army, earning command points you can bid for bonuses, and others.
Interesting Mechanic: Simultaneous Action Reveal. This is really the meat of the game – each player has a host of tokens that they can place, face down, on each of their armies, which gives other players some idea of where their focus is, but you don’t see what they actually plan to do until all tokens are revealed simultaneously. At this point, players resolve these actions one at a time in turn order. This way of commanding your troops does a great job of creating tensions, creating opportunities to bluff and feint, and to draw your opponents into a trap.
Game of Thrones has a lot going on for it beyond the license, which it captures very well. It has allusions to Diplomacy without destroying friendships, and has a feel of Risk without taking 6 hours to play. While it’s not my favorite territorial control game, it still is very, very good.
(Photo Credit: Shut Up & Sit Down)
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