Brent P. Newhall's Blog

This is a tough review, because I simply didn’t like the Game of Thrones card game. It’s not my kind of game. However, I’d like to play it again at least once, because it has interesting strategy implications.

And that is both the positive and negative of the Game of Thrones card game. Imagine Magic: The Gathering with 50% more rules. It’s deep and complex. This can be good or bad, depending on your temperament.

Each player represents a faction, and gets a deck of cards to represent that. The deck include characters, locations, events, and various enhancements (weapon, armor, etc.).

The deck also includes seven special Plot cards. Those are set aside; more on those later.

Play does not proceed in any normal order. To begin, you set up a little board that contains six plastic tokens. Starting clockwise (but in a different order in later rounds), each player chooses one of the tokens. Each token confers a specific benefit; more on those later.

Each player then chooses and reveals a Plot card. This card confers its own special benefit or drawback, such as making certain cards easier or harder to field.

Plot cards also include an initiative value. The player with the highest initiative doesn’t go first, though! The player with the highest initiative chooses who goes first.

Each player in turn (proceeding clockwise) then gets money based on a money value printed on the Plot cards. Each card in the deck has a cost, and the player can only play as many cards as he can afford. He places the cards he can afford face-up in front of him, and they remain there until killed.

Characters and Locations are placed normally, while enhancements must go on a character.

Then, each player in turn can attack other players. But wait! There are three different kinds of attacks, each represented by a special icon. Some characters can only perform some of these attacks.

This is pretty much what we looked like (from this review)

Make sense so far? Just wait!

Getting back to those plastic tokens: Each one gives you a bonus (more gold, an extra few points of power when performing a certain attack, etc.), and some tokens prevent you from attacking a player holding another token. It’s different for each token. Of course.

And all this can be modified by certain cards in play. There are even cards that kill the enemy, even if you’re not performing a killing attack.

It blew my mind. Information overload, and I don’t know how much I’d enjoy it even after playing it a few times. So many things can affect your strategy that I feel I’d always be gasping for air.

But that’s just me. The game does provide a huge range of options and tactics, and is sure to appeal to gamers who relish that sort of complexity.

Dominion came out of nowhere a few years ago to become a hugely popular game. Folks just adore this game.

I decided to just straight out buy it, based on all the praise I’d heard for it. When I opened the game box, I was taken aback. The base game includes hundreds of cards, and they all seem different.

In play, the game makes sense. There are only a few main card types: coins, victories, and resources. You use coins to buy resources and victories, you use resources to affect the other players and gain more victories, and you win by having more victories than the other players once the largest pile of victory cards is depleted.

It’s the draw mechanic that makes the game sing. Each player starts with a couple of coin cards and victory cards. On your turn, you draw a couple of cards from your deck, use any coins you have in your hand to buy more cards, play one or more resources, then discard everything. Because your deck starts small, you quickly get to the bottom of your deck, then shuffle your discard pile back into your deck.

This is a brilliant mechanic that feels very weird. Players reach the bottom of their decks by the end of their second turns. When I first played, this seemed like a frustrating, artificial constraint, then I realized: I know what’s in my deck. I know what I’m likely to draw, but I don’t have total control over it.

This adds just enough randomness to keep experienced players from completely dominating the game.

Also, the game comes with 20 different types of resource cards, but each game can only use 10 different types. They’re put out in piles, and the game ends when any 3 resource piles are depleted. Thus, you may develop a killer strategy for one set of piles, but start a new game with a different set, and your strategy must change.

Every type of resource card has some effect on the game: they give you more coins, force other players to discard cards, prevent other players from attacking you, provide more actions per turn, etc. But no card stays in your hand; it’s either used or discarded, every turn. So the game moves quickly, and players can’t amass power.

Dominion features a beautifully balanced set of mechanics that are simple enough for a tween to understand, but offer enough complexity to satisfy an adult. I’m stunned.