by Umbratus
The second expansion to the A Game Of Thrones boardgame is named after the third book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series: A Storm Of Swords - and thats a name well picked
Unlike the first expansion to the game which expanded max number of players by one, from 5 to 6, A Storm of Swords (ASOS) does actually reduce number of players to 4 on a whole new map. You get plenty of material with the expansion box, some of it can also be played on the base game board and in combination with the first expansion. But you cannot play the new board with this box alone, it is not a stand-alone expansion, you'll need the base game mainly for the unit and order tokens. But you dont need the first expansion A Clash of Kings for playing with this one either.
If you found yourself with just 4 players before, wanting to play the Game of Thrones, this expansion might be a perfect buy for you. If you are with 3 or 4 players just occasionally, it might still be worth a closer look.
1. The New Map
This is not an overlay, this is a whole new map, same size as the original one but a rather different concept for playing on it as well. Its not just a new map, its a completely new approach to fit Westeros into a boardgame. First of all, the map does focus on the middle part of Westeros around Kings Landing and the Riverlands. The whole north and south is rather spared out while there is at least some connection to Winterfell. There are 4 playable factions, Baratheon, Lannister, Stark and Greyjoy. There are several new elements on this map.
a) Cities and Strongholds as regions of their own
Each city has one or two ressource icons shown at the top center. At the bottom right it shows whether its a city or a stronghold according to the icons already known from the base game. Basically there are now just 4 strongholds which are factions capitals. All other spots as this are cities. The only difference is that strongholds provide 2 mustering points while cities just provide 1, as known from the base game. Additionally a stronghold is worth 2 claim and a city is worth 1 claim as indicated on the bottom left of each location. The concept of claim is totally new and its a great addition as you now dont win by gaining control over Westeros militarily alone, you also have to make certain political claims. Whoever has at any time 8 claim under control wins the game. The map shows that its pretty hard to take 8 claim militarily, so you can also gain claim through bids or by allies, more on this later.
b) there is a new ressource 'town' which provides 1 mustering point which can only be used to muster a footman. Its not worth anything else.
c) no more sea areas on the map and thus no more ships ! Ship units are not used at all in this expansion. Instead there is a very limited number of movement arrows which provide for a fixed connection and transport route between two points. Dragonstone for instance may be reached by three connections as you see on the pic above. One of these routes can only be used by house Baratheon. The other movement arrows involve the Island of Pyke and Winterfell which is a good way up north and thus only reachable by certain routes as well. Movement arrows may be used for marching and retreating but they cannot be used for giving support or carrying out raid orders.
d) Fords and Weather Track
Since the game is now focussed on the middle part of Westeros, there are no Wildling Attacks anymore. Instead there are some river crossings that can only be used on fair weather conditions, otherwise the fords are closed and uncrossable. The Weathertrack has 4 positions which are advanced by symbols on certain Westeros Event cards. First two positions have the fords opened, the next two have the fords closed and then its going around to start over. So its a rather long term condition and not changing over that much from turn to turn.
e) Garrisons
Garrisons function as a static defensive force. They may never move around the map and they may never give their strength in support of a nearby battle. They only add strength for defending the area they are placed in. They serve as a control marker of the region as well but they still cannot take orders on their own. Orders are still only assigned to units in an area. Each capital of each house contains a garrison of strength 2. Additionally, Kings Landing has a garrison of 6 which is under Lannister control since Lannister starts with a unit in Kings Landing.
If Garrisons are beaten in battle they go off the board and may never come back for the remained of the game. So garrisons may never be taken over by another house either. Too bad they didnt include two more tokens for Highgarden and Sunspear so you could take this feature over on the old map. I dont see anything speaking against modding it though and I have done it in some games by myself.
f) Track positions
Nothing really new to most of the tracks. Areas of influence (IronThrone, Fiefdoms, KingsCourt) are adapted and adjusted for the new map. Supply track for ASOS provides more space to maneuver armies than it did in the base game. Generally the same level of supply allows more and bigger armies, while you dont even have to supply fleets. It is now even possible to form an army of 5 units !
There is a new turn count track and there is a whole new track for political claim. Houses may put power tokens here to mark political claim gained by allies and claim bids. If the track is full, political claim that was placed the longest while back may be pushed off the track. In addition to political track you will have in front of you tokens for all cities/stringholds currently under your control which represents military claim by the same symbol. Your total amount of claim is always your cumulated political and military claim.
2. Leaders
Another new element which is desgined to fit to the new map but may be taken over to the base game as well. Each house has 2 leaders, additional ones may come by allies (more later). A leader may accompany the houses units, but doesnt eat supply and cannot ever be left alone without units. Each leader has two sides, regular and triggered. On the regular side you can see the icon of the leader, his basic strength(top left) and his trigger order(bottom). The trigger order is the type of order that may be used to activate (trigger) a leader. Some go with raids, some with marches and others with consolidates. It generally marks the phase during which the leader may act. Some act sooner (raid) other later in a given turn (consolidates). No matter which kind of trigger order they got, you basically have to assign and discard that kind of order to flip the leader to the activated side and you will always get a march order for discarding your order token. So you will have another free march on that leader and any number of units also in that area may go with it. After marching you flip the leader token back to its regular side. You may have different strength values on the two sides. Some leaders are stronger when activated, which may be used to initiate a battle. Of course you may also just march leaders with troops using regular march orders, you dont HAVE to trigger them in order to move them along.
There is also another icon on the activated side, which is either a sword or a crown symbol. A sword may inflict another casualty in battle, a crown icon provides for 1 power token each time the leader is triggered. Any leader may triggered several times a turn, if you set your plans up cleverly and got enough of the according trigger orders at your disposal. A triggered leader that starts a battle has to join combat, other than that you may also split-march your units and leaders. Several leaders may be stacked at one place but only one of them may be triggered at any time.
Finally, leaders may be taken hostage if there are more casualties inflicted in battle than you opponent can cover, you may opt to abstain from one casualty and pick an enemy leader instead. If thats a house related leader you may place that token in your holding cell. If its an ally related leader you may take over that token to serve in your own army now. House related leaders may be traded back for power tokens and/or own leaders of your house during negotiations. Negotiations may be started when picking up power by your consolidate power orders. Also, house related leaders may be executed when the according event in deck III comes up.
If a leader is executed he is out of the remainder of the game and his according house card is also removed from the game. There is a new deck of house cards (more later) especially for ASOS. Each house have their two leaders connected to cards of strength 4 and 2 of their deck.
3. Tactic Cards
Another mandatory element for ASOS which may be taken over to the base game as well. Tactic cards are secretly picked along with assigning your orders. They are revealed as you reveal your orders. After the raven, tactic cards immediate effects are resolved before raid phase, ongoing effects may be carried out during the turns cause. Each house has all the same tactic cards available but one unique card which marks a special objective of the game and may be played once when matching that certa"
No comments:
Post a Comment