Last week I got together with the gang from the local chapter of Brotherhood Without Banners (the George R. R. Martin fan group) to play the Game of Thrones board game. I’ve never been much of a wargamer. (I’ve never even played Risk.) Most wargames I’ve tried to play have taken too long and have seemed to mostly involve endless arguments about the rules. But this game was a hell of a lot of fun. The rules are simple enough to actually apply, but complicated enough to provide enormous strategic variation. The game is basically a very complicated five player version of rock-paper-scissors, and success lies in anticipating, surprising, and manipulating your opponents. The game does a remarkably good job of replicating the power struggles, fragile alliances, and backstabbing of the books. I don’t usually like games that involve bluffing, as I feel bad about lying to my friends, even within the context of a game, but something about the milieu of Westeros just unleashed my inner schemer, especially since I was playing House Lannister.
Only about 10% of the rules had been explained when we started playing, and I had no idea what I was doing. I figured that if I played conservatively, the other players, who’d played the game before, would inevitably edge me out, and so my only hope was to do something bold and unpredictable, and either win or lose big. As Clausewitz says, any movement is better than no movement at all. Besides, I still didn’t understand how the rules for combat worked, and I wanted to figure it out early in the game. So I threw every resource I had into warfare and immediately marched on Highgarden (the seat of power for House Tyrell). This surprised everybody, and I seized the city before any defenses had been set up. The Tyrell player probably could have taken it back, but I told her, “I’ve got Highgarden now and I’m keeping Highgarden. If you let me have it, I’ll leave the rest of your territory alone. But if you try to take it back, I will march on you with every army I have. I’ll clear out Lannisport [my seat out power] and let these guys have it. I don’t care if I lose the game in the next two turns, I’ll take you down with me. Wouldn’t it be better to just let me have it?” She decided that it was, and I kept Highgarden.
I’d also taken Riverrun, and was facing a Greyjoy army. I kept reinforcing the city, but he never attacked. His power was growing faster than mine, so I couldn’t just wait him out. I figured he’d wait at least one more turn before attacking, as there was undefended territory to the east he could still grab, so I set the city to production rather than defense. Then he attacked, the bastard, and took the city, and was then poised to march on Lannisport. I told Tyrell I’d let her have Highgarden back if she’d ally with me against Greyjoy, and she agreed. I gave her Highgarden back. I couldn’t hold Lannisport anyway, so I withdrew my armies and marched south, planning to take back Highgarden in a surprise betrayal. Fortunately, I got more troops the next round, which reinforced Lannisport, and Greyjoy took Highgarden, so I could take it back without betraying my ally. I told Tyrell I was going to sit on Highgarden for another turn and see if I could get any troops out of it, then I’d turn it back over to her. The last round was quickly approaching. Now there were dozens of units on the board. I conceived a grand scheme that involved simultaneously betraying two allies and taking back Riverrun. If it worked, I’d hold 4 castles while Greyjoy held 5, so I’d still lose, but it would still be pretty damn impressive. When Tyrell saw my marching orders, she said, “I thought we were going to attack Blackwater?” and I said, “Yeah, I lied,” and took one of her castles. Everybody laughed (except her). I had also promised to help Baratheon attack Harrenhal, but I left him out to dry, moved all my forces around, and attacked Riverrun instead. Riverrun wasn’t set to defense, since Greyjoy had expected our attack to come at Harrenhal, but he still had a hell of a lot of troops there. It was going to be a close one. I would have won, but he played some special card I’d never heard of that negated my leader, and I lost. If I’d known that card existed, I could have easily played a different leader and won the battle. Oh well.
I was still pretty happy with my performance. Everyone said it was the best they’d ever seen House Lannister do. (Lannister is felt to have a weak starting position.) I made a bunch of stupid errors thanks to not understanding the rules, so I’m curious to see how I could do now that I actually understand how the game works. On the other hand, maybe I’d do worse, since now they all know not to trust me worth a damn.
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