OBJECTIVE OF RISK GAME OF THRONES: Obtain the most victory points or eliminate all other players!
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-7 players
MATERIALS:
- 2 game boards
- 315 figures
- 7 Seat of power figures
- 7 player boards
- 187 cards
- 68 Special unit tokens
- 75 Golden Dragon coins
- 20 player board score trackers
- 9 dice
TYPE OF GAME: Risk adaptation
AUDIENCE: Teens, Adults
INTRODUCTION OF RISK – GAME OF THRONES
It was only a matter of time before the famous TV series Iron Throne and the legendary board game Risk joined forces. Playing Risk – Game of Thrones feels like the two worlds were made for each other. The Iron Throne universe is very well represented with the main families of the 7 kingdoms, Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Tyrell, Martell and Ghiscari (Essos slaver family), the characters, the maesters, the gold and the 2 game maps that serve as game boards are quite awesome. Dive into a fantasy world at war, forge alliances, betray and fight all your opponents to achieve your objectives in order to get victory points.
GAME SETUP
- Depending on the number of players, each player takes his army pieces. In 2 player games you will use the Essos game board while 3-5 player games will be played on the Westeros map. Finally, the World at War game mode allows to use both maps to play at 6-7 players.
- Take the territory deck corresponding to the map(s) you play on.
- Shuffle the territory deck and deal all cards between players (in a 2 player game, only 12 cards per player)
- Each player places two single-army pieces on each of his territories (do the same for remaining neutral terrtories with neutral single-army pieces)
- Collect again all territory cards, shuffle them, take the bottom half and shuffle the End game card into it, then place the top half on the bottom half.
- Roll a dice to determine first player
THE PLAY
The game is divided into 3 different modes, skirmish, domination and world at war.
SKIRMISH
Skirmish mode is very similar to the original Risk. If you are already familiar with the Risk franchise, you will recognise this game mode, which uses the rules of classic Risk. In this mode, you must be the player who gets the most points before the Valar Morghulis (endgame) card comes into play. You can only play with 2 to 5 players. There are four actions per game round:
- Reinforcing your armies: Take the number of armies you are entitled to according to the number of territories you own, your territory cards and the number of castles you own.
Then deploy these armies on your territories in a strategic way in order to win over your opponents. - Invading enemy territories: Fight your enemies without weakening yourself too much
- Moving your armies: Manoeuvre by moving your troops to have the best possible defence when your opponents play.
- Drawing a territory card, if you managed to conquer an enemy territory this turn.
DOMINATION
This is the really interesting and original part that makes Risk Game of Thrones a really interesting Game of Thrones game. Domination mode is played in the same way as Skirmish mode with some added aspects and provides a much more interesting and in-depth experience. Individual boards, character cards, objective cards, maester cards, gold coins and special units will be used in this mode.
During the initial setup, each player receives a Seat of Power piece that he places on his House’s Seat of Power territory with a three-army piece (that doesn’t count in the starting armies). The initial deployment is also less random:
- place two neutral armies on 10 territories drawn randomly from the territory deck
- players are then allowed to place one army, one after the other, on neutral/owned territories until the entire board is filled.
You will have 7 actions per turn in this mode:
- Reinforcing your troops
- Buying maester and objective cards
- Resetting character cards
- Conquering enemy territories
- Moving your armies
- Achieving objectives
- Drawing a territory card if you are entitled to one.
Reinforcing your troops
The amount of armies you can take is counted in the same way as in skirmish mode, but you will also receive 100 gold coins per reinforcement army added. Also,
- Each port you own will earn you an additional 100 gold coins.
- Controlling all territories in a region grants more gold coins
- You can recruit Special units by trading a Territory card instead of using it in a three card set like in the normal rules. The pictogram at the bottom of a card indicates the special unit it unlocks.
Buying Maester and Objective cards
Each of these cards costs 200 Gold. Maester cards provide one-time abilities for a cost when played, while Objective cards allow you to adjust your strategy. You have two strategy cards at the beginning of the game, and you can buy a new cards to replace one of your objective cards in hand.
Resetting character cards
Each player has four characters cards of his faction, that can be used once per turn, by paying the cost indicated on the card. After using a character card’s power, flip it face down, and refresh it at the beginning of your next Resetting character cards step.
Conquering enemy territories
You have the ability to trigger some effects during battles thanks to Character/Maester cards and Special Units.
Special Units do not count as army figures, they therefore cannot be killed, and are removed when the army they are with is destroyed. They also must always follow an army that they have helped conquering a territory.
- Knights increase by one the result of your highest battle die during a battle, this bonus stacks on the same die roll for each Knight.
- Siege Engine units improve the battle die of one unit in your army, from 1d6 to 1d8, this bonus cannot be stacked on the same unit by several Siege Engines.
- Fortifications cannot move, they always remain on the territory where they were built. They improve the battle die of all armies defending in their territory, from 1d6 to 1d8.
Moving your armies
This phase plays the same as in Skirmish mode.
Achieving objectives
If you have achieved any of your objective cards in hand, reveal it (only one per turn) and advance your victory tracker of the indicated amount of victory points.
Drawing a territory card
This phase plays the same as in Skirmish mode.
WORLD AT WAR
This mode is exactly the same as the previous mode with the difference that it is played from 6 to 7 players and with both boards. You will need a big table for this!
Main changes:
- At 6 players, only House Martell is not played.
- The Territory decks of Essos and Westeros maps are shuffled together.
- The connection between Westeros and Essos maps is made by the ports of Essos west coast and Westeros east coast, which are all connected to each other
- During initial deployment of armies, do not add neutral armies, as there are enough players to fill both game boards entirely
WINNING
In Skirmish mode:
- When the Valar Morghulis card is drawn, the game ends and each player counts his points: one point per territory, and one additional point per castle and port.
- If a player manages to eliminate all the others before this card is drawn, he automatically wins.
In Domination/World at War modes:
In order to win in this mode, you must earn 10 or more victory points or take over the world by eliminating all your opponents.
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