I was contemplating a way for experienced players to settle their differing opinions on the relative values of different house cards, board locations, and track placements. The idea behind this variant is that house cards, starting locations, and influence track positions are all drafted. I'll admit that it's very susceptible to creating an uneven game, but those games should be quick, and I think this will allow for a lot of interesting plays that would not be otherwise seen. Drafting would be done in a 1,2,3,4,5,6,6,5,4,3,2,1,1 fashion. Every time it's a players turn, they may choose a house card to add to their deck, choose a location to place units, or choose a starting spot on one of the influence tracks. Below are some of the specifications I think would keep the game closer to balanced.
House card decks would still be required to follow the 0,1,1,2,2,3,4 number combinations. This will require solid-backed card sleeves. I have little experience outside of the base second edition, so I don't know if including any of the expansions' decks' would be terribly unfair.
Location choosing would most likely have to have the most rules put forward. I think any stronghold or castle would be allowable as a home base selection. Home bases would begin with a footman and knight, and would be given a garrison strength of two. I think King's Landing or the Eyrie, if chosen as a home base, would have their neutral force strenght instead of the usual two strength they are given. On the next draft pick, an adjacent territory could be chosen to place one footman on, or an adjacent sea (or port) could be chose to place a ship. The two island strongholds would allow for the adjacent footman to be over a sea (and might come with a free ship in the adjacent seas). In all cases, the second footman would not be allowed to start on a strong hold. As usual, initial supply would be determined by the number of barrels on starting territory.
Influence track selection and the King's court, as well as the sword and throne would likely be chosen quickly. I also think cards like Loras, Balon, Roose, and Arianne would be chosen quickly. Starting locations is the aspect of the game that I'm the least sure of the value of. I think King's Landing and the black water as starting locations might be popular under these rules, but I think a number of playthroughs would be required to know better, and all location's goodness would highly depend on other player's. Any games played like this have a large chance of possibly eliminating players early, but I think they would be an interesting experiment in the value of different aspects of the game, and in possible effective combos.
I've already posted a topic on the game of thrones board game reddit about this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AGOTBoardGame/comments/598cnn/agot_bg_draft/
Some of the points brough up were the power of Riverrun and Ironman's if gotten together, (hence the island strong hold balance). On thing to add even more options would be to upgrade any castle chosen as a home base to a strong hold and to downgrade all strongholds adjacent to castles. I also think that any coastal home base should be given a port. All of these board modifications would be much easier to do in a non-physical format.
tl;dr It'd be interesting to see how a playthrough where house cards, starting locations, and influence track positions are drafted would turn out. It would allow for unique situations and cool combinations of plays, and would let player differing opinions about the value of different aspects be arguably settled in game.
UPDATE:
It looks like this has garnered a bit of interest. What we need to do next is finalize the rules, figure out hosts, and develop display resources.
Rules as they stand as of Nov 3 11:47PM Eastern Time:
Players will be randomly assigned a number between 1 and 6. Drafting will be done in a 1,2,3,4,5,6,6,5,4,3,2,1,repeat fashion.
~~Things that take a draft pick~~
* Initially, you may pick a house card, an influence track position, or a capital. Once a capital is selected, the next draft pick a footman or ship may be placed in adjacent an territories or sea.
A. selecting a house card for your deck
B. selecting a position on any of the influence tracks
C. picking your capital(which automatically comes with a garrison of 2, a footman, and a knight) takes a draft turn
Ca. picking a territory to place your footman in (see rules on below)
Cb. picking an adjacent sea or your captial's port to put a ship in or another territory to put a footman in (see rules below, particularly for land locked castles)
~~Additional Rules~~
House Cards
1. Decks must still follow the 0,1,1,2,2,3,4 format
2. Which cards are allowed can be decided game to game (for the first playthrough, I recommend only using the 2nd edition base game cards)
3a. All house card abilities will be made non-house-specific (for example, Saladhor will have "non-Baratheon ships" changed to "ships of other houses", Kevan will have "Lannister footmen" changed to "footmen of your house", and Victarion will have "Greyjoy ships" changed to "ships of your house". This list is nonexhaustive- for example, if ADWD cards are included Paxter Redwyne's ability would have to be changed as well)
--- location specific cards may be made generic as well, though I have little experience with them
Influence Track Related:
1. You may choose any spot on the influence track, you do not have to pick the top one
Land Related (These need the most specification. In general, I tried to make picking territory first more of an advantage so land might be drafted at a similar time to cards and influence. "----" denotes a discusssion of the rule above it):
1. Any castle or stronghold can be your captial. If it is a castle is immediately upgraded to a stronghold.
---- This is to allow for more diversity in the board and create interesting scenarios
2. All strongholds adjacent to a chosen capital are immediately downgraded to castles
---- This is to balance the number of mustering points on the board. Under this system, choosing Flint's Finger, Starfall, Storm's end, or the Eyrie as a capital increases the number of mustering points, while choosing The Reach, Moat Cailin, or any stronghold bordering another stonghold will decrease the number of mustering points on the board. Under this system, the board will contain between 25-34 mustering points, where it usually has 30. I think this keeps the board in acceptable range, and the resource of mustering points being more or less valuable could be interesting.
3. Any coastal capital gets a port if it did not already have one. Any capital bordering two seas gives a choice of which sea their port is connected to, at the time of that capital selection. Port locations cannot be changed if a territory already has a port.
---- Ports are important. This also encourages players trying out new capitals, and choosing a capital bordering two seas give your more options but makes you more vulnerable too.
4. All capitals (even King's Landing or the Eyrie) get a garrison strength of two if chosen as a capital.
5. If the Eyrie or King's Landing are not chosen as a player's start territory, only then do they get their neutral force tokens.
6. No capitals adjacent to territory controlled by another player, except sea (however, non captial placements can be adjacent to another player's non-capital placements)
---- This is to force a little bit of breathing room. Seas are too big, however, and I don't think being able to have THAT much control with a boat should be allowed.
7. Both island strongholds come with a free boat in the adjacent sea if chosen as capitals.
---- Island captials are high risk high reward.
8. If an island stronghold is selected as a capital, the player may place their non-capital footman on any territory that borders the sea surrounding it as long as that territory is not a stronghold
---- Just like the base game
9. If The Reach or Harrenahl (the two landlocked forts) are chosen as a captial, a second footman may be placed in a second adjacent territory instead of a ship. (This costs a draft pick, same as placing the ship).
---- This is to make landlocked strategies viable.
10. Initial supply is determined by the number of barrels started on, as usual
Unrelated
- since houses are not card or location specific, you can name your house whatever you want and make it whatever colour you want
House card decks would still be required to follow the 0,1,1,2,2,3,4 number combinations. This will require solid-backed card sleeves. I have little experience outside of the base second edition, so I don't know if including any of the expansions' decks' would be terribly unfair.
Location choosing would most likely have to have the most rules put forward. I think any stronghold or castle would be allowable as a home base selection. Home bases would begin with a footman and knight, and would be given a garrison strength of two. I think King's Landing or the Eyrie, if chosen as a home base, would have their neutral force strenght instead of the usual two strength they are given. On the next draft pick, an adjacent territory could be chosen to place one footman on, or an adjacent sea (or port) could be chose to place a ship. The two island strongholds would allow for the adjacent footman to be over a sea (and might come with a free ship in the adjacent seas). In all cases, the second footman would not be allowed to start on a strong hold. As usual, initial supply would be determined by the number of barrels on starting territory.
Influence track selection and the King's court, as well as the sword and throne would likely be chosen quickly. I also think cards like Loras, Balon, Roose, and Arianne would be chosen quickly. Starting locations is the aspect of the game that I'm the least sure of the value of. I think King's Landing and the black water as starting locations might be popular under these rules, but I think a number of playthroughs would be required to know better, and all location's goodness would highly depend on other player's. Any games played like this have a large chance of possibly eliminating players early, but I think they would be an interesting experiment in the value of different aspects of the game, and in possible effective combos.
I've already posted a topic on the game of thrones board game reddit about this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AGOTBoardGame/comments/598cnn/agot_bg_draft/
Some of the points brough up were the power of Riverrun and Ironman's if gotten together, (hence the island strong hold balance). On thing to add even more options would be to upgrade any castle chosen as a home base to a strong hold and to downgrade all strongholds adjacent to castles. I also think that any coastal home base should be given a port. All of these board modifications would be much easier to do in a non-physical format.
tl;dr It'd be interesting to see how a playthrough where house cards, starting locations, and influence track positions are drafted would turn out. It would allow for unique situations and cool combinations of plays, and would let player differing opinions about the value of different aspects be arguably settled in game.
UPDATE:
It looks like this has garnered a bit of interest. What we need to do next is finalize the rules, figure out hosts, and develop display resources.
Rules as they stand as of Nov 3 11:47PM Eastern Time:
Click for details.
Players will be randomly assigned a number between 1 and 6. Drafting will be done in a 1,2,3,4,5,6,6,5,4,3,2,1,repeat fashion.
~~Things that take a draft pick~~
* Initially, you may pick a house card, an influence track position, or a capital. Once a capital is selected, the next draft pick a footman or ship may be placed in adjacent an territories or sea.
A. selecting a house card for your deck
B. selecting a position on any of the influence tracks
C. picking your capital(which automatically comes with a garrison of 2, a footman, and a knight) takes a draft turn
Ca. picking a territory to place your footman in (see rules on below)
Cb. picking an adjacent sea or your captial's port to put a ship in or another territory to put a footman in (see rules below, particularly for land locked castles)
~~Additional Rules~~
House Cards
1. Decks must still follow the 0,1,1,2,2,3,4 format
2. Which cards are allowed can be decided game to game (for the first playthrough, I recommend only using the 2nd edition base game cards)
3a. All house card abilities will be made non-house-specific (for example, Saladhor will have "non-Baratheon ships" changed to "ships of other houses", Kevan will have "Lannister footmen" changed to "footmen of your house", and Victarion will have "Greyjoy ships" changed to "ships of your house". This list is nonexhaustive- for example, if ADWD cards are included Paxter Redwyne's ability would have to be changed as well)
--- location specific cards may be made generic as well, though I have little experience with them
Influence Track Related:
1. You may choose any spot on the influence track, you do not have to pick the top one
Land Related (These need the most specification. In general, I tried to make picking territory first more of an advantage so land might be drafted at a similar time to cards and influence. "----" denotes a discusssion of the rule above it):
1. Any castle or stronghold can be your captial. If it is a castle is immediately upgraded to a stronghold.
---- This is to allow for more diversity in the board and create interesting scenarios
2. All strongholds adjacent to a chosen capital are immediately downgraded to castles
---- This is to balance the number of mustering points on the board. Under this system, choosing Flint's Finger, Starfall, Storm's end, or the Eyrie as a capital increases the number of mustering points, while choosing The Reach, Moat Cailin, or any stronghold bordering another stonghold will decrease the number of mustering points on the board. Under this system, the board will contain between 25-34 mustering points, where it usually has 30. I think this keeps the board in acceptable range, and the resource of mustering points being more or less valuable could be interesting.
3. Any coastal capital gets a port if it did not already have one. Any capital bordering two seas gives a choice of which sea their port is connected to, at the time of that capital selection. Port locations cannot be changed if a territory already has a port.
---- Ports are important. This also encourages players trying out new capitals, and choosing a capital bordering two seas give your more options but makes you more vulnerable too.
4. All capitals (even King's Landing or the Eyrie) get a garrison strength of two if chosen as a capital.
5. If the Eyrie or King's Landing are not chosen as a player's start territory, only then do they get their neutral force tokens.
6. No capitals adjacent to territory controlled by another player, except sea (however, non captial placements can be adjacent to another player's non-capital placements)
---- This is to force a little bit of breathing room. Seas are too big, however, and I don't think being able to have THAT much control with a boat should be allowed.
7. Both island strongholds come with a free boat in the adjacent sea if chosen as capitals.
---- Island captials are high risk high reward.
8. If an island stronghold is selected as a capital, the player may place their non-capital footman on any territory that borders the sea surrounding it as long as that territory is not a stronghold
---- Just like the base game
9. If The Reach or Harrenahl (the two landlocked forts) are chosen as a captial, a second footman may be placed in a second adjacent territory instead of a ship. (This costs a draft pick, same as placing the ship).
---- This is to make landlocked strategies viable.
10. Initial supply is determined by the number of barrels started on, as usual
Unrelated
- since houses are not card or location specific, you can name your house whatever you want and make it whatever colour you want
