Having played A Game Of Thrones once a couple of years ago, I liked it but couldn't justify buying it because I was saving up for a house. Now that I've finally bought a house, I was asked for ideas for housewarming presents; being largely self-sufficient I've already got most of what I needed, but between friends and family I became the proud possessor of a dining table and chairs, a fridge, some ornaments and the Game of Thrones boardgame with Clash of Kings expansion.

Naturally, I couldn't pass up the chance to get the games broken in, and joined in a game by a friend of mine was about to get embrolied in by email, using my board game as a personal backup so I could track what was going on. I find it easier to see what's going on with the board in front of me than just working off a graphic, and sadly I don't have enough friends living where I live now to get a game in. I know, it's a tragedy... although hopefully I'll get another PBEM game in soon.

I can't really comment much on what the other players strategies and tactics were intended to be, as I only knew one other player involved personally; I drew Stark, and he drew Tyrell. It being an email game, I didn't talk to two of the players beyond a couple of emails, and only one other player on a regular basis. I'm afraid that makes this session report a little narrow in scope.

The game was played with the standard Game of Thrones rules, using the Greyjoy/Tyrell Raven track change as stipulated in the FAQ. The only exception to the standard rules was that the house cards were played using the select-three and draw one randomly rule from Clash of Kings; this was described as an attempt to try and level out the field a little between players who'd played more than one game before and... well, me.

My Strategy:

I knew already that one problem common to the game is hitting a stalemate where expanding against one player runs the risk of getting hammered by another in response; that's what had happened in the game I'd played before, with a stalemate that seemed to last four or five turns around the Neck. I also knew from reading on here that Lannister is in a tough spot to start off with. I didn't want to find myself being the only player without an ally in game, just in case I found Greyjoy and Baretheon teaming up to carve the north up between them, or something.

As Stark, I wanted to be able to concentrate on either the west or the east; that meant either making sure I was able to safely ignore Greyjoy and try and pile in south of the Neck into what was likely to be Baretheon territory, or ally with Baretheon and concentrate on getting at Greyjoy as much as possible.

My first effort was to contact the Baretheon player, who rather directly pointed out that he was going to whatever it took to win and wasn't interested in any sort of alliance at the start of the game. While I was working out what to do with that response, I had an email from the Lannister player, suggesting that he and I work together to stop Greyjoy romping around; evidently, the Lannister and Greyjoy players knew each other of old and regularly end up sparring in games together. Allying with Lannister seemed like a reasonable idea; hopefully, the two of us would be able to scotch Greyjoy early, and that would leave me free to eye up some Baretheon territory.

I heard back from my friend playing Tyrell that he'd made an agreement in principle with both the Lannister and Greyjoy players that they wouldn't attack each other unless victory was on the line, so he'd be concentrating on Baretheon.

The Early Game - Gathering Strength.

The first turn saw everyone expanding outwards; in what I understand is probably the standard pattern for a Stark player, I took Karhold, Moat Cailin and the Fingers, moving my boat down into the Narrow Sea. Baretheon took Kings Landing, Tyrell took Old Town and The Arbor, Lannister moved into Riverrun in strength. Greyjoy took Seaguard and tried to sink the Lannister navy, but the random card selection scuppered him - the Valyrian blade made it a draw.

I remember that the first draw on the Westeros deck produced a muster; I dropped a ship in the Bay of Ice, a second ship in the Narrow Sea and footmen in Moat Cailin and Winterfell. Everyone seemed to be boosting their fleets; Lannister, Baretheon and Tyrell all bought two new ships, while Greyjoy bought one. A plethora of footment appeared around the board, and the next two turns were marked by people expanding. By the end of turn 3, Greyjoy had taken Flint's Finger, Lannister was in Harrenhal - albeit with not much - and Baretheon and Tyrell had carved up most of the rest of the board. Sunspear was still independent as was the Eyrie; I'd intended to move more troops into the Fingers/the Twins, but ended up staring defensively at Greyjoy after Baretheon beat my navy back into the Shivering sea. Greyjoy battered at Lannister, but the random card draw kept Riverrun in Lannister hands.

The early game seemed fairly quiet; people were moving into empty territories, and other than the frequent Greyjoy attacks and raids on Lannister, it seemed to be more about moving armies into place for later turns than trying to draw other players into early battles.

The Middle Game - Blood in the water.

The middle three turns of the game were marked by two more musters, and a swathe of battles. Baretheon moved away from the Narrow Sea early on, to push Tyrell back while sparring over the Reach. My alliance with Lannister yielded what the two of us thought was a cunning plan; I'd knock out the supporting ship in the Sunset Sea from the Bay of Ice, and then Lannister would hammer the fleet in Ironman's Bay, to take advantage of the Sea of Storms "no ship may support" card, breaking Greyjoy dominance of the western sea. Random card draws saw my ship in the Bay of Ice being sunk, while Lannister couldn't manage better than a draw; Greyjoy then moved to punish both of us by sinking the Lannister fleet, expanding into the Bay of Ice and landing troops in Winterfell.

The absence of a Baretheon navy in the Narrow Sea let me concentrate on pushing Greyjoy out of Winterfell and into the Stony Shore by supporting my footman in Castle Black from the sea and Karhold, but I was looking at a constant annd probably permanent Greyjoy presence in the North; the chain of ships running back to Ironman's Bay meant that I couldn't stop them moving around, and locked my units into defending or supporting defending units in the north to make sure I kept Winterfell.

Despite the two musterings in the middle of the game, Lannister couldn't keep hold of the Golden Sound, or expand beyond the Stoney Sept, Harranhal and Riverrun; I think the alliance with Tyrell was still holding, but when Lannister occupied the Searoad Marches, Tyrell shoved him back out again... although did then move south leaving the territory unclaimed, something that would bite him later.

Baretheon and Tyrell fought several naval battles around the Summer Sea, with Tyrell trying to push into the Sea of Dorne; as at the end of turn 6, there was a stalemate running. Baretheon had managed to rebuff attacks on Shipbreaker Bay, but couldn't finish the Tyrell fleet off. Tyrell couldn't get enough units together to take Sunspear without leaving the Reach or his home territory back, and Greyjoy looked ready to expand forcibly. Each side had lost units in skirmishes, but the two musters helped rebuild forces quickly; the third closed the playing field dramatically, because Baretheon and Greyjoy hadn't managed to improve their supply situation and simply maxed out on armies. Lannister had four strong armies, one in each of the sectors controlled; the Raven had let him flex support and defence orders around to keep rebuffing Greyjoy, even with the randomised combat draw.

Then the Clash of Kings turned up. The first Clash of Kings saw power chits being thrown around with wild abandon; Baretheon kept the Iron Throne, but I managed to snag the Valyrian blade - and after a three way tie adjudicated by Baretheon, the Raven as well. Ironically, Baretheon had made what seemed a reasonable bid on the Raven and ended up coming last; I think I ended up with the Raven simply because he didn't want Tyrell or Lannister to get it, and didn't see me as a threat. That, combined with the third muster of the game gave me hope that I was going to start moving around the board a little more forcefully.

I finished the mid game with a good turn - for one turn. I successfully pushed Greyjoy out of the Stoney Sept, costing him a footman because of his supply limits, and thanks to the Feast of Crows making power gathering pointless, I took the Widow's Watch to boost my own supply situation while everyone else battered away largely pointlessly at each other.

The End of Summer - Charnel Fields Everywhere.

The closing three turns of the game were very heavily influenced by the Westeros decks. Two Clash of Kings cards turned up, one after the other; a Wildling attack arrived with the second clash, with more strength than the total amount of power left among the players. No muster cards appeared, and at one point footmen couldn't contribute support to a battle - but in turn ten, each deck turned up a Last Days of Summer Card simultaneously.

The two Clash of Kings draws caused me to bounce from the top of the Raven track to the bottom and then back up to second, but I made sure to keep the Valyrian blade; everyone gathered as much power as they could on turn 8, but in the turn 9 clash Lannister ended up at the bottom of every track, with Tyrell in fourth on every track.

The wildlings then decimated the various armies that were around when they rampaged through, and Baretheon chose Greyjoy to take the extra 2 point loss... for no reason I can think of other than Greyjoy looked to be in the strongest position. I think if the choice as Baretheon had been mine, I would probably have hit Tyrell and moved on his territories. Despite the double battering, Greyjoy proceeded to follow up a Baretheon attack on Harrenhal by routing Lannister out of Riverrun.

Baretheon suddenly seemed to have more armies and units than he had orders, and went from pushing aggressively against Lannister and Tyrell to scrabbling around to hold the territory he had. Tyrell pushed into the Sea of Dorne, bouyed by the ability to play special orders - but lack of cities and Settlements meant he had fewer units than anyone else, and Greyjoy promptly bounced an attack off the Tyrell home sector, and ended up occupying Searoad Marches when the attack failed. Remember that I said Tyrell would later regret not leaving a power chit there?

I spent turn 8 with more units than orders, so I simply consolidated what I had while the other players attacked each other; I think Greyjoy had planned to come romping into Moat Cailin or even Winterfell, but with defence and support orders dotted around and a pair of my Knights in Winterfell, he instead followed up on Baretheon's initiative and punished Lannister.

The third Clash of Kings on turn 9 saw me with more power than anyone else - a staggering 3 chits; bidding a single chit moved me back up to second on the Raven track, with Greyjoy in first. Turn 9 saw no footmen able to defend, so the bloodbath continued. Greyjoy had given up his ship in the Bay of Ice to the Wildlings, and I wanted to reoccupy the area as soon as I could if a muster came up.

With only two ships left, Greyjoy couldn't seem to decide whether to attack me or punish Lannister and Tyrell - but ended up going for the latter. Baretheon had pushed Tyrell hard in turn 8, so I got in touch with my friend and suggested that he and I work together to try and hammer Baretheon a little. Baretheon was heavily dependent on his ships in Shipbreaker Bay and Blackwater Bay to support his holdings on the mainland, and they were what had stopped Tyrell being able to build up any strength.

Tyrell agreed to support me with his ships in the Sea of Dorne and the Summer sea; that was enough to let me move a ship down from the Narrow Sea, attack with the Valyrien blade and take advantage of Baretheon being down to a handful of poor house cards to push him out of Shipbreaker bay completely, sinking one ship due to lack of supply and pushing the other into Blackwater Bay. To add insult to injury, as Baretheon had left Dragonstone bay empty I moved a footman I had been planning to move into the Twins down to occupy Dragonstone instead.

Turn 10 rolled around; no mustering, no support, no Game of Thrones... just increasing Wilding strength in the last days of summer.

Only Tyrell and myself as Stark had any power tokens; Lannister was down to two locations (Stoney Sept and Harranhal), Greyjoy had been busy moving troops around to attack Lannister, and Baretheon had ended up supporting out of Kings Landing and fighting with Tyrell again over the Reach and Storms End. Everyone bar me had lost units in the previous two turns, and I was firmly at the bottom of the initiative tree in the final round.

Baretheon moved into Harrenhal and Storms End, but didn't have a power marker to put down in Crackclaw point; it seemed pointless to me to simply trade one city for another, but I think he was trying to make sure that if attacked, he could retreat back into Crackclaw and King's Landing rather than being pushed back into the sea. pushed into the Mountains of the Mist. The turn saw Lannister effectively knocked out of the game, with both of his armies broken and one then annihilated. Baretheon moved out of King's Landing to take the Reach in retaliation for losing Storms Reach and having his navy battred, but had no power token to leave in Kings Landing. Greyjoy emptied Seagard to reinforce Lannisport, and then moved troops from the Goldensound down to attack Tyrell's home city; that left Seagard open for me to take, which I promptly did.

It was while Baretheon was routing Lannister out of Harrenhal and I had a quiet couple of days as emails flew elsewhere that I realised I was holding five cities - Winterfell, Moat Calin, Seagard, White Harbour and Dragonstone. More than that, nobody had many armies left in play; Baretheon and Tyrell were trying to hold locations with single units, Greyjoy had spread his two strong armies across Flint's finger, Riverrun, the Golden sound and his newly conquered Tyrell city.

When it came around to my second and third march orders, I moved first to take the Eyrie; I had the points, and it seemed a fairly unaggressive move. Baretheon had moved a knight and a footman into the Mountains of Mist in the midgame, but had moved out when he wanted to attack Lannister instead of stare at my units in the Twins. My third March order was the last March order of the game - so with an apology to my friend playing Tyrell, I took a chance on the valyrian blade and an almost full hand of house cards being enough to let me take Storm's End. It turns out that thanks to bad luck on Tyrell's part, I had enough - and I finished on 7 cities.

Endgame

I finished with 7 cities; Winterfell, White Harbour, Moat Calin, Seagard, The Eyrie, Dragonstone and Storms End. Three of those seven I held all game; the other four I took in the final two turns.

Greyjoy controlled Flint's Finger, Riverrun, Lannisport and the Tyrell capital (whose name escapes me), finishing second thanks to his strong supply level.

Baretheon held Harrenhall, Crackclaw Point, Storms End and the Reach. Kings Landing stood empty.

Tyrell finished with six territories, but only one city - Oldtown.

Lannister had been forced into the Stoney sept with two routed units, and nothing else.

Sunspear was never attacked; House Martell obviously managed to stay free of the war for the Iron Throne, while everyone else battered each other.

Observations

Baretheon scuppered himself, I think. He managed to annoy everyone else playing, so when he could have done with support - or at least, a nonaggresion treaty to concentrate on just one person at a time - he instead ended up constantly trying to hold on to those territories bordering Shipbreaker Bay once he lost the ability to play many special orders.

Greyjoy managed to keep both my Stark forces and Lannister on the run for half the game, on his own. The valyrian Blade made enough of a difference to win four or five battles large and small for him, sometimes simply because it put him at the top of the Fiefdoms track. It was only when he gave up naval units after being ravaged by the Wildlings to concentrate on his land forces that he stopped dominating both of us.

Chatting with Robbie about playing Tyrell, he was frustrated initially by the lack of mustering; he had the best supply situation, but was only mustering up 4 points of troops at a time, and trying to keep his home city and the Reach secure while also constantly replacing ships just left him too thin. He made good headway against Baretheon when the special orders favoured him, only to then lose a couple of key battles due to random house card draws.

The Lannister player took his malletting in good spirits from what I can tell; emails between us tailed off around turn 7, when it became obvious that I couldn't do anything to help. Losing the Raven crippled him; he couldn't defend against both Baretheon and Greyjoy, and some speculative raids from Baretheon when he was playing orders just to play orders let Greyjoy kill off several Lannister units at the worst possible time.

Playing Stark, I was unsettled at how easy it is to be forced into playing defensively without much of a base for mustering. If it wasn't for the random house card draws, I think Lannister and I would've been able to push Greyjoy back to Pike, but around the midgame I seemed to spend most of my time trying to defend against possible attacks via the Bay of Ice, the Narrow Sea and the Neck. It got easier to hold territories like the Twins when Baretheon gave up on the Narrow sea to concentrate his navy on Tyrell, but the game only started going my way due to luck, I think; with no choice but to play defensively, I ended up acquiring power chits when others were busy killing each other, and that let me secure a good spot on the Raven track at the right time.

I think there's a fine balance to walk when it comes to fleets in the game - you need to have enough that you can take control of an area, but not so many that you can't then disperse them out to one-ship strong armies when you need to concentrate on moving around on land. The pattern of quick musters in short succession followed by a long closing stage with no mustering at all made navies strong defensive tools to support coastal holdings, but difficult to be aggressive with.

Drawing random house cards is a real pain, and feels even more randomly disruptive when everything is so strategically played. I can't speak for everyone else, but I'd rather take my chances with guesswork and picking the card I want to use than continue to draw blind from the best of three - it was frustrating to have two cards that would achieve what I wanted and one that wouldn't in the hand passed to the GM, only to have that one card appear and deliver a failure.

I went for Karhold and the Fingers early, but I think I would've been better served possibly to secure Widow's Watch and the Stony Shore early instead; there was only one muster where I had more than 2 supply, and that left me feeling very vulnerable and issuing a lot of support orders with 1-strong footman units where I'd rather have been doing something else.

I enjoyed the game, and I definitely like winning - but I wish I could say I felt I won because of strategy and tactics; it feels more as if I won simply through luck. There's been no mention of a rematch yet on the work net, but I'm trying to persuade some friends of mine to join in setting up a PBEM amongst us - but this time, using the basic rules with the ports from Clash of Kings added in, and no random house card draws.