"You know, we could play Duel of Ages."
Mar. 4th, 2007 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyBut no, AGoT it must be.
Our first deal of the house start cards had us in exactly the same positions as last game, with just me and Aaron swapped. So we redealt, and got *exactly the same thing again*. ("What are the chances of that?" "1 in 120".) So we redealt again. I'm Tyrell, Aaron's Lannister, Noah is Greyjoy, Grant is Stark, and Peter is Baratheon.
On the very first turn Aaron marches straight into Searoad Marches. What the - ? Well, fine, as it so happens, I have a march order on Highgarden. I wanted to move into Oldtown and The Arbor and start farming, but looks like it's time for a change of plans. Aaron apparently failed to realize that Searoad Marches was right next to my capital and says he just wanted the barrel; still, this cannot stand. I attack and drive him back to Lannisport.
On the second turn, I point out to Aaron, I am getting *out* of Searoad Marches. I could do so by means of Blackwater and kill off the guy he has positioned there, but I decide I'd rather take the Reach. I also figure I should leave Aaron alive as he'll help me keep back Baratheon. I probably should have claimed Searoad Marches, but I forgot.
Meanwhile, Noah, having built up his navy, moves from the Sunset Sea into the Golden Sound; he overwhelms the Lannister fleet, and they, having nowhere to retreat, all die. Aaron is now left without any navy. Will he be eliminated?
Grant approaches me and suggests I move into Sunset Sea. (I think I had a march order on Redwyne Straits at the time; I was originally planning to move into Summer Sea.) So I do so, figuring it'll be useful to hold; maybe I can attack Flint's Finger at some point. So begins the Tyrell-Lannister-Stark alliance against Greyjoy, as up until the last few turns I use that spot to continually raid Greyjoy.
Soon enough I begin my attack on Baratheon. Where to strike first? Well, the Kingswood seems weakest. I'd like to take Sunspear but I don't have the strength yet, at least not in position. I take the Kingswood without much trouble. Peter, meanwhile, gets to Sunspear before I do.
Meanwhile Greyjoy is advancing on Lannister. He takes Riverrun, reducing Aaron to just 2 cities. At some point later I think he took Harrenhal as well, reducing him to just one. With my raids on Greyjoy, however, Aaron manages to recover. Unfortunately he has no time to fight Baratheon like I had hoped... but neither do I have any good way to attack him.
The turn after I take the Kingswood, I have things ready: I'm going to take Storm's End and Sunspear, both at once! Unfortunately this is going to require a bit of maneuvering and I'll have to be careful if I'm going to do this without violating supply limits. Then Grant approaches me with a better idea: Take King's Landing! Well, it's only one city instead of two, but it's simple and direct. Peter curses me and says this was the only way he could not have won the game this turn; the rest of us have a hard time believing him. I start to say about how I originally planned to take two of his cities this turn, then realize I should quickly shut up about that.
I think it's around this point that Noah, losing a battle with Grant, decided to retreat one of his knights to the Searoad Marches. If I had claimed it earlier he couldn't have done that! Well, way too late now... he gets out of there next turn, only to quickly end up retreating *another* one of his knights there. Aaron marches in and takes him out. My, that's quite a large force you've got next to my capital, Aaron... looks like I'd better prepare for the stab. [ADDENDUM: I remember now that *I* could have taken him out as well... and yet for some reason I actually encouraged Aaron to do it (probably wasn't thinking about that, wanted to keep my own forces in position)... I mean, Aaron went first in turn order at that point, so he could have done it before me, but I could at least have suggested that I do it for him! Not that he probably would have agreed.]
...shit shit shit! Why the hell wasn't I defending the Reach?! Highgarden remains mine but the Reach is now in Lannister hands. I lose a footman and retreat my knight into the Dornish Marches. Aaron has recovered to an OK score, though certainly not enough to win at this point.
Last turn. Supply. Clash of Kings. Storm of Swords. Well... I hadn't mentioned it so far but the second deck behaved pretty badly that game. It was basically all Game of Thrones for the first half and Clash of Kings for the second half. I should probably have been farming the Arbor, but when the first Clash of Kings hit I had 3 power; the next least was Aaron, with 8. Nice. I ended up in last place on all three tracks, even though I spent all 3 bidding on the King's Court. As this happened turn after turn, my disadvantage in the bidding lessened, though I still tended to end up in last. Though once the Iron Throne passed from Peter to Noah, I always wouldn't end up quite in last anymore. Eventually, on the third-to-last turn, we had ACoK followed by a Wildling Attack for 2. At the end of ACoK, however, there was only one power left between us, held by Grant. Noah had had 8 going in, more than any of the rest of us, but he didn't think to keep one. Grant spends it so Noah (holding the Iron Throne) can't screw him over, and Baratheon takes the brunt of the Wildlings' invasion instead.
...where was I? Right, last turn. Supply - Peter and Noah, already tied at 5, are now tied in Supply as well! If they remain tied, this could come down to power tokens! And appropriately enough, the second card is A Clash of Kings. Grant spends all his power on Iron Throne just so he can end the game with the Iron Throne, while I somehow end up with the messenger raven. Unfortunately for me Lannister gets the sword. And... shit. A Storm of Swords. Great way to make a bad situation worse. My forces are split, with Lannister holding the Reach, directly inbetween my guys in Highgarden and my people in King's Landing and the Kingswood. And now the best I can do to defend them is to have them support each other. Well, at least it makes retaking the Reach pretty easy. I also take Sunspear somehow - probably not a good idea to split my forces so much but at this point it doesn't matter anyway. Peter, however, invades the North (actually he already held Widow's Watch, but I wasn't really paying attention to that so I don't know when it happened), takes Moat Cailin, and gets 7 for automatic victory.
-Harry
Our first deal of the house start cards had us in exactly the same positions as last game, with just me and Aaron swapped. So we redealt, and got *exactly the same thing again*. ("What are the chances of that?" "1 in 120".) So we redealt again. I'm Tyrell, Aaron's Lannister, Noah is Greyjoy, Grant is Stark, and Peter is Baratheon.
On the very first turn Aaron marches straight into Searoad Marches. What the - ? Well, fine, as it so happens, I have a march order on Highgarden. I wanted to move into Oldtown and The Arbor and start farming, but looks like it's time for a change of plans. Aaron apparently failed to realize that Searoad Marches was right next to my capital and says he just wanted the barrel; still, this cannot stand. I attack and drive him back to Lannisport.
On the second turn, I point out to Aaron, I am getting *out* of Searoad Marches. I could do so by means of Blackwater and kill off the guy he has positioned there, but I decide I'd rather take the Reach. I also figure I should leave Aaron alive as he'll help me keep back Baratheon. I probably should have claimed Searoad Marches, but I forgot.
Meanwhile, Noah, having built up his navy, moves from the Sunset Sea into the Golden Sound; he overwhelms the Lannister fleet, and they, having nowhere to retreat, all die. Aaron is now left without any navy. Will he be eliminated?
Grant approaches me and suggests I move into Sunset Sea. (I think I had a march order on Redwyne Straits at the time; I was originally planning to move into Summer Sea.) So I do so, figuring it'll be useful to hold; maybe I can attack Flint's Finger at some point. So begins the Tyrell-Lannister-Stark alliance against Greyjoy, as up until the last few turns I use that spot to continually raid Greyjoy.
Soon enough I begin my attack on Baratheon. Where to strike first? Well, the Kingswood seems weakest. I'd like to take Sunspear but I don't have the strength yet, at least not in position. I take the Kingswood without much trouble. Peter, meanwhile, gets to Sunspear before I do.
Meanwhile Greyjoy is advancing on Lannister. He takes Riverrun, reducing Aaron to just 2 cities. At some point later I think he took Harrenhal as well, reducing him to just one. With my raids on Greyjoy, however, Aaron manages to recover. Unfortunately he has no time to fight Baratheon like I had hoped... but neither do I have any good way to attack him.
The turn after I take the Kingswood, I have things ready: I'm going to take Storm's End and Sunspear, both at once! Unfortunately this is going to require a bit of maneuvering and I'll have to be careful if I'm going to do this without violating supply limits. Then Grant approaches me with a better idea: Take King's Landing! Well, it's only one city instead of two, but it's simple and direct. Peter curses me and says this was the only way he could not have won the game this turn; the rest of us have a hard time believing him. I start to say about how I originally planned to take two of his cities this turn, then realize I should quickly shut up about that.
I think it's around this point that Noah, losing a battle with Grant, decided to retreat one of his knights to the Searoad Marches. If I had claimed it earlier he couldn't have done that! Well, way too late now... he gets out of there next turn, only to quickly end up retreating *another* one of his knights there. Aaron marches in and takes him out. My, that's quite a large force you've got next to my capital, Aaron... looks like I'd better prepare for the stab. [ADDENDUM: I remember now that *I* could have taken him out as well... and yet for some reason I actually encouraged Aaron to do it (probably wasn't thinking about that, wanted to keep my own forces in position)... I mean, Aaron went first in turn order at that point, so he could have done it before me, but I could at least have suggested that I do it for him! Not that he probably would have agreed.]
...shit shit shit! Why the hell wasn't I defending the Reach?! Highgarden remains mine but the Reach is now in Lannister hands. I lose a footman and retreat my knight into the Dornish Marches. Aaron has recovered to an OK score, though certainly not enough to win at this point.
Last turn. Supply. Clash of Kings. Storm of Swords. Well... I hadn't mentioned it so far but the second deck behaved pretty badly that game. It was basically all Game of Thrones for the first half and Clash of Kings for the second half. I should probably have been farming the Arbor, but when the first Clash of Kings hit I had 3 power; the next least was Aaron, with 8. Nice. I ended up in last place on all three tracks, even though I spent all 3 bidding on the King's Court. As this happened turn after turn, my disadvantage in the bidding lessened, though I still tended to end up in last. Though once the Iron Throne passed from Peter to Noah, I always wouldn't end up quite in last anymore. Eventually, on the third-to-last turn, we had ACoK followed by a Wildling Attack for 2. At the end of ACoK, however, there was only one power left between us, held by Grant. Noah had had 8 going in, more than any of the rest of us, but he didn't think to keep one. Grant spends it so Noah (holding the Iron Throne) can't screw him over, and Baratheon takes the brunt of the Wildlings' invasion instead.
...where was I? Right, last turn. Supply - Peter and Noah, already tied at 5, are now tied in Supply as well! If they remain tied, this could come down to power tokens! And appropriately enough, the second card is A Clash of Kings. Grant spends all his power on Iron Throne just so he can end the game with the Iron Throne, while I somehow end up with the messenger raven. Unfortunately for me Lannister gets the sword. And... shit. A Storm of Swords. Great way to make a bad situation worse. My forces are split, with Lannister holding the Reach, directly inbetween my guys in Highgarden and my people in King's Landing and the Kingswood. And now the best I can do to defend them is to have them support each other. Well, at least it makes retaking the Reach pretty easy. I also take Sunspear somehow - probably not a good idea to split my forces so much but at this point it doesn't matter anyway. Peter, however, invades the North (actually he already held Widow's Watch, but I wasn't really paying attention to that so I don't know when it happened), takes Moat Cailin, and gets 7 for automatic victory.
-Harry
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Date: 2007-03-04 10:57 am (UTC)