Hey guys

I was trying something at home regarding a different 3 player set up. I think I came up with something different but I would greatly appreciate some feed back from you guys. Your minds are far greater than mine, more experienced and will give a more accurate critique. Couldn't find anything similar on the forums but let me know if there is.

The main aim was to use Tyrell and Martell as (IRL) we tend to play 3 player more often than not and would like to play as the other houses more.

The following areas are closed off: The Eyrie, The Mountains of the Moon, The Fingers, The Twins, Moat Cailin, Seagard, Pyke, Greywater Watch, Flint's Finger, The Stony Shore, Winterfell, White Harbor, Widow's Watch, Karhold & Castle Black - The entire north, fingers and the neck. The whole of the south is now open, with a +5 neutral defence at Lannisport and +6 neutral defence at King's Landing.

Playable houses are: Tyrell, Martell and Baratheon. The set-up for all 3 remains the same in regards to unit placement.

Influence Track placements are as follows:-
Iron Throne:  Baratheon - Tyrell - Martell
Fiefdoms:     Tyrell - Martell - Baratheon
King's Court: Martell - Baratheon - Tyrell

My main issue with this though is Baratheon. I feel their house cards are too weak against both Martell & Tyrell. Not sure if maybe it would be more balanced to use Greyjoy house cards or just replace Baratheon with Greyjoy completely but keeping Baratheons unit placements...

Strongholds and Castles I feel are balanced in terms of numbers and location. Barrels and power icons are roughly the same. If I remember correctly; there's 2 less supply barrels and power icons using the Southern areas instead of the North - but I feel that would make it more challenging?

Anyway; what are your guys thoughts? Any improvements or alternatives? Any and all feedback would be appreciated. Haven't given it a proper run through yet which I will do but would rather get some feedback before implementing IRL

Thanks in advance, My Lords and Ladies

Last edited by JackKenobi on 2018-Nov-05 18:55, edited 2x in total

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Ours Is The Fury!

Riverrun is fully open? I can't see anyone beating Tyrell to Lannisport or Riverrun, which puts them in control of 4 strongholds. Which means Martell and Baratheon would have an alliance out of necessity in most situations I can see. Also, Martell doesn't have much access to the new territory, just has to be a thorn in the side of whoever is grabbing the new territory.

I almost think Lannister instead of Baratheon would be a better fit, and block off Baratheon waters. But then Tyrell is pretty squished. Them starting with a star is a huge boon, though. 3p is tough.

If the goal is to keep both Tyrell and Martell I think either Baratheon or Lannister are the right calls. The idea of using Greyjoy's House cards is interesting but I think this would make Greyjoy too overpowered and they would be wipe out either player, although most likely Martell, fairly quickly.

With regards to Baratheon's house cards, I think their deck should be alright. Sallahdor can prevent a naval invasion by Martell and Patchface can be used to eliminate the more threatening cards of either hand, be it Loras, Qot, The Red Viper, Doran, etc... I think Baratheon's main advantage will be multiple places to safely consolidate power tokens, allowing them to do well in the bids, although Doran will be a threat to this which might be where Patchface makes himself most useful.

With regards to derangers concerns about RR, I think leaving it available on the board is the right call. Martell's "home castles" will be Sun Spear, Yronwood, Starfall, and most likely Storm's End while Baratheon should be able to hold on to Dragonstone, Kings Landing, Crackclaw Point, and Harrenhal without being seriously challenged. That leaves Tyrell with Highgarden and Oldtown as their only uncontested castles, although the reach should be Tyrell territory as well. Lannisport's location means that the earliest Tyrell could take it would be round 2 and that's only if they manage to must a siege in Highgarden and get it to Searoad early enough. This leaves all 3 houses with 4 home castles, with Starfall and Storm's End under threat from Tyrell and Baratheon respectively. The only area for contention between Bara and Tyrell would be the Reach, but by adding in Riverrun, another hotspot is created between them, helping to ease some of the pressure on the sandwiched Martell, making for a more politically balanced game even if Riverrun is out of Martell's reach. Maybe add a neutral force there to make it a bit more challenging to take?

Otherwise I think you should be good to go, good luck with your southern ambitions!

Tyrell should pretty easily be able to take the reach, but more importantly, Lannisport and Riverrun are strongholds. Tyrell could pretty easily sit on 9 mustering points while the other two are at 5-6. Tyrell gets the majority of Lannister territory, and can keep it quite well with sea support, Bara maybe gets a tiny bit, and Martell gets none.

True, I guess one solution would be to downgrade Lannisport and Riverrun to only being worth one mustering point but I don't think it's a forgone conclusion that Tyrell will always have Riverrun. Baratheon might be able to get over there and at the very least it creates another Baratheon/Tyrell border at RR/Harrenhal. It makes Stoney Sept more valuable to as a launchpad for offensives/support/raids, making an otherwise undesirable space into a hotspot.

Let us know how it ends up Jack, curious to hear what parameters you set and how the game turns out

Thank you to both of you for your thoughts

I ended up placing neutral force tokens in RR & in Lannisport - this certainly slowed both Tyrell and Baratheon. In future I think RR will be set as a Castle rather than a Stronghold - whoever claims RR & Lannisport becomes an absolute beast.

Our play through was fun though, nice playing as the other houses for a change - I will confess that being the more experianced player (and randomly picking my favourite house (Martell)) gave me a slight advantage and ultimately the win BUT playing against players with similar experiance or more would make winning as Martell fairly tricky.

CP is tight as well as supply, which certainly makes it more challenging but not unplayable by any means.

I think in future it might be interesting to try something I've read in the forums where players take it in turns to pick a house card from any house deck and rotate through until all 3 players have a set of 4,3,2,2,1,1,0. Doran and Arianne (as I thought they would) are what won it for me.

Overall I think it worked - a few tweaks here and there but overall a nice change to the usual Stark, Baratheon and Lannister line up.

On a side note - there's another card game called The Hand of the King. Fun little game for 2 - 4 players. I like the idea of playing that first to decide the order of picking house cards (if that idea appeals).

Again, thank you for your thoughts and certainly give it a go if either of you feel like it

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Ours Is The Fury!