Game of Thrones board game

[Gay-Lussac]

Is anyone familiar with this? I've played it a dozen times or so with friends and it was insanely fun. Wonder if we could get a play group to play it through that online board game engine thingie. Could be good times.

 

[Latro]

tricking dumb friends into letting you win is a good part of that game

 

[Forest Dweller]

Yeah I've played it. I own it too. I'd be up for it, but it's really one of those games where you need 6 players for it to be properly balanced (I've thought of a way for it (I think) to be balanced well for five players, but I don't know if modifications like that can work in Vassal). UNLESS you're playing with the Feast for Crows expansion, which is for four players.

Also not sure if you know, but there's already a thread about possibly starting a board game group:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-vassal-table-top-simulator-and-others.99740/

 

[hello friend]

I've only played it with three players so far. It's fun, but with three players the Starks have a stronger starting point than the Baratheons and Lannisters, as you have a bit more room to grow without fighting for every inch. The southern parts of the board has many quite valuable areas, so it's not really an option to let the other guy take it. You're basically locked into constant war from the start, while the Starks can take it more at their own pace.

 

[Xathrodox86]

It's awesome altough the Greyjoy house is absolutely OP. Or at least was in the previous edition of the game.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Yeah, the vanilla game was horribly imbalanced. At 4 players, house Baratheon is almost guaranteed a win because of easy access to the neutral castles and keeps. At 5 and 6 Greyjoy and Stark have a significant edge, Martell, Tyrell and Baratheon are all on about even footing and the Lannisters have to pull off some crazy stunts to have a chance. All that said, the winner is often determined by simply who has the most dimwitted neighbors to take castles from and the 6 man game is infinitely more fun because it lends itself to more conflict, alliances and treason.

I think the variety is part of what makes the game so addictive though, despite the imbalance. Our play group of 6 consisted of people with very little board game experience or interest and yet we were all still hooked from start to finish even when the game lasted 7 hours and we always came back for more.

I'd be super up for trying out a match on vassal (with a Skype call, otherwise it gets pretty dull). Do they support the Feast for Crows expansion? That would be better since it is balanced for 4 players and games take only 2-3 hours (supposedly). If we get 6 people interested I'd still be down for the vanilla game or Dance with Dragons.

So far we have me and Dicksmoker I guess.

 

[Sranchammer]

I'd play but the skill gap would be an issue

 

[Forest Dweller]

Let's throw down.

 

[Ulminati]

Thay made a v 2.0 that was slightly less retarded. But it still suffered from the same drawbacks as its predecessor. Some players were at a massive advantage unless every house was in play. And for many players, the first 3-4 turns you either performed the exact same moves every game or you'd be so far behind you had no chance of winning.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Thay made a v 2.0 that was slightly less retarded. But it still suffered from the same drawbacks as its predecessor. Some players were at a massive advantage unless every house was in play. And for many players, the first 3-4 turns you either performed the exact same moves every game or you'd be so far behind you had no chance of winning.

Yeah, I was talking about version 2.0, never played the "original" original. I think the game was partially balanced by how dynamic play is around which alliances are set up at the beginning and the randomness of the event cards you flip every turn, so I don't see how there's optimal plays for 3-4 turns, our games were always very diverse, but it could be because we were all just noobs. Unless you're referring to the 4-man game of course, where Baratheon will always take King's Landing, and so on, but that shit was horribly unbalanced and not nearly as fun as 6 man.

I'd play but the skill gap would be an issue

I doubt it, I haven't played in ages and we could just play one of the expansions (both of which I have 0 experience with). Apparently they're both on Vassal as well:

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:A_Game_of_Thrones:_The_Board_Game_(Second_Edition)

So, that makes 3 of us so far, me, Dicksmoker and Sranchammer. If we get one more we can set up a session of a Feast for Crows, if we get 2 we can go for Dance with Dragons.

 

[hivemind]

I'd like to play but would have to read up on the rules of the game itself and on how vassal works first as I have no experience with either.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Here's a good tutorial:

 

[Heechee]

I'm interested. Played the game five times or so in the physical form, but never used the Vassal - hopefully it's user friendly.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

So that makes us, so far:

-Me
Dicksmoker
Sranchammer
hivemind
Heechee

What times / days can you guys play at? Bear in mind I think both Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons last from 2-4 hours.

Don't worry about vassal, I only ever used it once and had no problems with it, it's fairly intuitive.

 

[hivemind]

I can play literally any day any time just need to know at least a week beforehand.

 

[Heechee]

I'm in the CEST time zone.

Working days this week: 5 p.m. - 1 a.m.
This weekend: any time except 2 a.m.-6 a.m.
Next week I'm on business trip, so scheduling would be difficult.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

I'd be cool with a game at 6 p.m CEST this thursday, but hivemind would need a week to set up so I don't know how that works out. Maybe this weekend?

My own schedule is also pretty flexible as I'm just studying at home, can go any time, any day.

 

[hivemind]

The week is not really a figure set in stone I just kinda meant that I need to know a few days beforehand so that I feel comfortable staying late given that we are probably going to be using NA timezones.
Probably didn't communicate it all that well.

Anyhow Thursday/weekend both work for me.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I'm actually unemployed at the moment, so I'm pretty much free whenever lol. North American time zone. However, Saturdays are when I play board games with a local group, so that day's pretty much out (for me). However if there's five of us at the moment we could do without one person for the Feast for Crows expansion if there's a time that works well for all but one person.

Are you wanting to do the Dance with Dragons expansion over the base game if we get six?

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Yeah, I'd preffer Dance with Dragons over vanilla, it's supposedly a lot faster.

How about we set up a game for this thurday 6 P.M CEST (just convert it into your timezone) and we'll pick the Feast for Crows if just us 4 show up, vanilla 2nd edition if 5 and Dance with Dragons if 6?

 

[Forest Dweller]

For five-player vanilla, I've thought of a variant that (I think) is more balanced than the official rules. My idea is that for five players, remove Stark from the faction list, and cut off the areas of the board from roughly the Neck upwards (i.e. they're not accessible). Would this be something that could be done in the Vassal module? Also what do you think of the variant, if it could be done?

 

[Gay-Lussac]

I'm not sure, there's tons of variants for 4-5 player games on vanilla, it could work, but I'd rather we do that as a last case scenario since the original game takes so long to finish.

hivemind
Heechee
Dicksmoker

Can we settle on thursday (aka 02/07, aka tomorrow) at 5 P.M GMT?

 

[hivemind]

works for me

 

[Forest Dweller]

I'm okay with that. Should we do a voice chat thing on Skype or something?

 

[hivemind]

I can make a skype anytime.

is this happening then?