I had this thought, about how the Iron Throne tends to be the least valuable and most ignored of the influence tracks.  Which makes little sense from a lore perspective, but also leaves an opening to make things a little more complex and interesting in the bidding phases.  So to spice things up, I thought it might be interesting to give the Iron Throne token a usuable ability like the Valyrian Steel Blade and Messenger Raven have.  Two ideas occur to me to start:

Royal Prerogative - One of the reasons I think the throne track gets neglected is that despite the potential benefits of tie-breaking, it can be a toss up whether it is actually an advantage to move first or last in a given round.  So there isn't a huge incentive to be sure you move first, generally. To counteract this, the Iron Throne token could be used once per turn by the King to skip his turn on the track order, allowing them to save a march for a counterattack, or perhaps a raid until its confirmed that an ally has kept faith with their own moves.

The Kingsguard - The other route would be to allow the King to deploy the Kingsguard to one battle per turn, adding 1 Sword and 1 Fortification icon to their house card before the cards are revealed.


I think with either change, you would see more competition for the Throne in the bidding, and potentially have it drawing more focus from Doran.  If anyone wants to suggest other options, and/or try out one variant or another in their home game and report back, please do.

Excellent point!

I think the Royal Prerogative is a brilliant idea, as moving last during turn 10 is often decisive. For this reason I strongly prefer it to the Kingsguard option.

However I am not sure it would really help to save a raid order thanks to the Royal Prerogative, because it is (almost) always better to raid first during the raiding phase. Alternatively, a raid order could be saved and used during the marching phase, but I think this variant would modify the original game too much, and might require additional rules to be implemented properly.

Edit: still, it could make sense to save a raid, in order not to use it against an ally's raid order, unless the holder of the Royal Prerogative is designated as the target of this ally's raid. In which case the saved raid order would take effect first during the turn of the ally.

Last edited by _LoGo_ on 2020-Dec-22 00:46, edited 6x in total

Hmmm. I think the Iron Throne is neglected indeed, but more by misplay than by its value.

Just look at the Loiaf season 11 and 12 div1 games, the ones I won. I end on the throne 5 times out of my 6 wins (and absent from it only as Stark). If you spend some time predicting your opponents orders, you will definitely gain a lot from getting the throne, putting the raids where they have to be and the supports where they have to be.

I actually prefer being on the Throne, even at turn 10, for every house, except possibly Stark and Martell.

For Tyrell, it is easy because thanks to Loras, you should play 4 or 5 marches so you still have last march.

For Bara and Greyjoy, your supports are key, so having the first raid to save your support is absolutely required.

For Lannister it is useful the reverse way to save RR against a GJ support in IB.

Martell and Stark are more discussable, but as these two are my weakest houses, perhaps shall I try grabbing the throne as well more often.

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Judge
LoI&F: Seasons 10 and 11 King
France WCup team
2021: Bronze
2022: Silver

I generally prefer to be ahead on the Iron Throne as well, but it's rare that such preference translates to a bid of more than 3 tokens or so.  Whereas bids for the Fiefdom or King's Court track can regularly be 8 or 12 or 14.

The way things are, the bidding process shakes out through reverse engineering who can bid what while still retaining enough tokens to guarantee at least one star order on the final bid. If there was more interest in the first track, it would complicate these calculations when it comes to the second bid, and even more when that gets into the third, increasing the potential for sweet, sweet chaos.

Indeed, agree with your analysis. Much different in MoD though with the vassals.

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Judge
LoI&F: Seasons 10 and 11 King
France WCup team
2021: Bronze
2022: Silver

The Royal Prerogative would be a huge strategic advantage more effective than Stannis+1 in most cases so I would vote yes at least as a custom option
Congrats for the idea Ser Hodor son of Hodor

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"No man gives me a crown. I pay the iron price. I will take my crown."

The Royal Prerogative sounds good and is more logical. Chapeau, my Lord!