I know that I’ve already raved and raved about how much I love the George R. R. Martin series that begins with the book, “A Game of Thrones”. Last week I finally had the opportunity to play the well-received board game of the same name.

Five players take control of five of the major houses of the land of Westeros. Houses Stark, Greyjoy, Lannister, Baratheon, and Tyrell. Each of the houses starts in a geographically unique position with different starting units and different positions on the various power tracks.

The unique features of this board game are the randomness of many events. Recruiting new units does not happen every round like many other war games. The game contains different influence tracks that players must bid on to take control. However, this event also does not take place every round. In our first game we waited until halfway through the game for the first round of bidding. Being unfamiliar with the procedure, everyone spent all of their available power, and had none to spend when the bidding event occurred two more times.

The army limits also made the game very interesting by limiting the number of units that can occupy the same space. By preventing players from piling up units in one space, the game is made much more interesting and balanced. Strategic maneuvers are absolutely important because of the limits placed on each player.

My group enjoyed this game very much and look forward to the next opportunity to try it again.

But remember, winter is coming, and a Lannister always pays his debts.