Off the beaten path: Alt game types

Every now and again, I need a break from competitive play. Fortunately, AGoT provides 3 alternate rule sets, with each set providing some interchangeability. If you are familiar with AGoT in general, you can play any of them and, perhaps most importantly, they require little or no additional investment to get into. This week, I'm going to highlight the Civil War variant.

Civil War rules, which were introduced in the Martell deluxe set, are both the most time consuming to set up and the easiest to play. Since a single player provides all 100-180 cards all players draw from the communal draw deck, that player needs to set aside some prep time. The deck can't contain duplicates of unique cards and, if you want a coherent experience, you'll need to crunch some numbers (or practice a lot of trial and error) to get its gold curve right.

Civil War's biggest advantage is that it takes away a big advantage veteran players have over new and beginning players: deck construction. The deck-providing player can even provide each player's plots, either pre-built sets for each player or for each player to draft.

Civil War's second, and perhaps most overlooked advantage is that it support's 2-6 players. Why? Who knows? Regardless, seating 2 additional players (especially new players who don't have prebuilt decks) can be very useful.

Combined, these two advantages make Civil War ideal for brick-and-mortar retail. Specifically, this format allows a retailer to keep a 'store deck' on hand that can teach more players the game with fewer staff. Moreover, while 180 can contain a lot of card text and game mechanics, being limited to one house (plus neutrals) cuts down on a bit of the learning curve.

Now, if only FFG sold some sort of product that contained random assortments of agendas and plots for players to draft using this method, AGoT would have a great in-store product...

A Game of What Ifs? House Umber Unique Characters

This week's what if fan cards feature the unique characters of House Umber. The Greatjon's Uncles and their Father are pretty self explanatory. Lady Umber, while not specifically noted in the book is presumed to exist... unless the Umbers reproduce via spores. I modeled her card text on the notes that Umber Ladies of the past have been carried off in Wildling raids, which has in turn put the Umbers in a killy mood.

Next week: Locations and Plots!

A Game of What Ifs? House Umber fan cards

In the pre-LCG days, the House Umber trait was a common in Stark. While the Greatjon is really the only significant member of the house in the books, I've always had a warm place in my heart for these klingon'y barbarians from the upper north. 

So, In the spirit of filling time while FFG readies the next cycle, I present to you 6 non-unique "What If?" characters from the house. Each is my own take on possible expansions to the Umber themes already in the game (Melee format, creature support, multiple challenge participation), expanding underutilized mechanics (Bannermen/banner traits), or just what I think is Umber'ly thematic.

Thoughts and outrage are welcome in the comments. I'll post unique characters next week.

(EDIT: I designed the modified card art, the illustrations are modified but shamelessly pilfered from existing cards or around the internet)

DC's January Tourney: bust or beat down?

The DC Meta delivered a total beat down to team Baltimore in yesterdays tournament. Excluding casual play and Baltimore on Baltimore games, our score stood at an embarrassing 1 win and 11 losses. This was a surprise considering HOBO's team captain placed 2nd against similar match ups in last month's tourney. Here's the breakdown:

The Prophit - 1 bye 1 win (vs Robot Martini) 3 losses - Lannister KotHH

Robot Martini - 1 bye 3 losses - Stark Siege

Ayon - 1 bye 4 losses - Martell KotHH 

So was it bust or beat down? While any deck can deliver a fail sandwich on setup, and thus face an uphill battle against strong competition, 5 straight losses (up to 10 setup hands with mulligans) points to issues with the deck's construction and/or pilot error. I can't speak for the other's but I would rate my own experience 40/60, with the greater going to beat down.

In Game 1, I failed to draw a producer/reducer after a mulligan nor anything better than a sea for the rest of the game and spent the lion's share of my time slowly losing to Dan's No Agenda Martell. My biggest error was ignoring the consequences of Dan's game of thrones plot, which made my feint pointless as it knelt no characters, reduced my defender count AND gave Dan's Red Viper an extra power for renown. I also missed the chance to blank Ser Drinkwater with my Frozen Moat, netting Dan a power for renown and an unopposed challenge I could have otherwise blocked. I'm confident I could have taken this game with a better set up.

Game 2 was a bye. 

Game 3 against Steven's GJ Maesters repeated my setup fail, though this time I did eventually draw 2 gold producers, at the same time, after a Valar. (complete fail) I remember much less about this game, outside steven slowly grabbing his chains but not being able to use them or his locations most of the game due to my plot choices. However, I'm pretty sure I wasted a Meera Reed to kill a Conclave with 5 chains and 2 power on it, because I knew I couldn't get her back out of play and a Valar was coming. Regardless, the most interesting backfire was in round 2, where Steven's Forgotten Plans blanked my Assault on Kings Landing, which allowed him to protect quite a lot of his board position. In all, Steven plays very fast and, intentional or not, will push past your response windows and resolution steps if you don't rein him in and I was much more comfortable doing that this tournament than last time.

Game 4 reversed my setup woes, almost too much in the opposite direction. After a mulligan my hand was still clogged with locations and events and after a few kills and controls I conceded to The Prophit and Lannister Hollow Hill deck in disgust.

Later, I defeated Ayon and managed two narrower losses against Eric's Targ KotHH jumping burn deck in casual play.

What's my take away? Not drawing cost support in 5/6 of my setup hands, nor for 2 rounds after is statistically unlikely for a deck with 13/61 production cards in it. So, while it was very annoying, I don't see my curve as the core problem. While it never got off the ground, I encountered a reasonable number of the 10 draw/search effects in the deck - so adding cards in that category also seems unnecessary. 

My plots remain very effective and, more importantly, surprising/unpredictable for my opponent. However, grudgingly, I will retire Wildfire Assault in favor of Valar. While I still hate Valar's stats (especially it's gold curve) and I find it near useless against Greyjoy, there were too many scenarios where my opponent had too few characters and/or crucial targets I could otherwise not reach.

Lastly, I will also retire some or all of my epic phases. Epic phases OWN when they work - easily netting extra power and board position or forcing the opponent to Valar prematurely. Unfortunately, well built hard control decks can shut these cards down and heavier agro decks (namely Clanni and Dothtarg) can out muscle my more balanced approach to Stark. In tourney play, they either backfire, do nothing or close games I've already won. I will probably replace them with targeted location control or, possibly, some cancels. (paper shield, probably)

Star character in the deck goes to Bouncing Cat this time. She saved my ass many a time :)