Tyranids just do not make sense in Forbidden Stars. They'd have to develop a totally new way of them to pay - perhaps eating planets. They don't strike in and take objectives like the other races.
 
Tau and Necrons do, however. Both would fit thematically and wouldn't require a huge overhaul of how the game works.

I have hosted and taught several times, and one of the very first things I explain is that no one should be enemies nor allies for the entire game. This is a hard concept for players of different types of games to accept.
Then I go over the common new player errors:
1. Placing an order token where there are no units
2. Mustering at all Castles and Strongholds simply because they see someone mustering at a single Castle/Stronghold (with a CP* order)
3. Placing too many Star orders, or any at all when they are not allowed to do do
4. Placing Raid orders where they can only raid themselves
5. Placing a raid order on a land space thinking they can raid a ship providing support to an attack
6. Placing a raid order thinking they can stop a march order by "raiding" it
7. Consolidate Power order tokens (CP orders); all aspects, new players seem to always be generally confused by what a CP order token is, and what it does
8. Attempting to resolve all march orders at once on their turn, instead of understanding that each player resolves ONE march order at a time, in IT turn order
9. R-R-M-C, I ask players to memorize this: "Raven - Raid - March - CP"...this helps a lot
10. Always asking "Who goes first" - the IT track determines player turn order
11. Ports - everything about Ports, new players have a difficult time with the rules around Ports (these rules do take getting used to)
12. Why does a Garrison get to use a House Card, and can be supported, but I can't support a neutral force token to stop an opponent from taking that space?...a common question in our group

We exclusively play the T6 Rules, you need the DWD expansion for this, and we play a variant with "Mission Cards" from the FFC expansion, for 6 or 7 players...loads of fun...we wouldn't play any other way (and certainly never 6p RAW, never).  We also play 7p T6 Rules with House Arryn, with or without the FFC Mission Cards...it's awesome!

No, to answer question 1, a ship in the port of Pyke may only move to Iron Man's Bay.  In order to move your ship from the port of Pyke to Sunset Sea, you must first march to Iron Man's Bay, then, on a subsequent turn, you may march to Sunset Sea.

Friendly ships in a sea space adjacent to the embattled area only add combat strength if there is a support order placed in the sea space containing said ships, the ships do not add combat strength to the attack on an adjacent land space simply by virtue of transporting land units to an embattled land space.

That's a fair point Siffer. I never understood that attitude: if someone finds a question bothering, then, don't answer. Nobody is forced to answer any questions they don't like; but everyone is free to post any doubt he may have on the game. We all have different levels of comprehension of the rules and of the game (and often this change throughout the years; when I started playing, back in 2007, I had problems with Arkham Horror rules and I was helped by friends via forum), and we should all left free to ask when we don't understand something.
 
Generally speaking, FFG fora are much better than BGG under this point of view: 99.9% of people posting here are polite, respectful, mature. It's a good and safe environment to stay and talk about games.

There are no "silly" nor "dumb" questions IMHO.  If it is a question in your mind, then you should feel free to ask it, and receive nothing more than a simple answer, without threat of derision.  (I'm not saying Julia did that, but there are folks on these forums, and elsewhere, like BGG, where people seem to feel the need unfortunately to condemn people for asking questions to which they believe the answers are obvious)

Does anyone know if a variant of the Battlelore-scenario-editor will be published for Battles of Westeros?

Hi,

Long story short. 4 players game variant seems to be highly unbalanced. It's almost 80% Baratheon wins & 20% Lannister wins (in case if Pyke player invades Stark instead of Lannister).

There's almost no chance for Pyke of Stark to win if all the players are good enough.

So we tried closing all the south of the map (like the 3 player options) which is more honest to play and basically  anyone can win now.

I recommend to try this option

Getting Reach instead of Three towers or Prince's Pass?
I am not sure that Tyrell can defend the Reach and if defending it is a worthy idea.
To be honest, practice shows that even few PT would be enough to get at least 1 star on a King's Court track. That is more than enough for mustering units. Tyrell doesn't need to be aggresive early on.
 
Also, after the first clash of the kings usually all of PTs will be spent for all players, so it doesn't really matter if other players will have more of them. The next Clash of Kings card will come and till then you'll be able to get more PTs.

And more - having high position on any influence track will make you a tasty cupcake for Martell to attack you early on. It's better to make Martell use Doran card on Baratheon.

No, buy Battles of Westeros, it's a better game.

Rulebook, Page 23
 
While land areas connected by ship transport are
considered adjacent for purposes of marching and
retreating, they are not considered adjacent for any other
purpose (including supporting and raiding).

I completely agree with you actually...the problem is that it takes Stark too long in most cases to build the forces necessary to push back Greyjoy "early game" - and in RAW, Lannister cannot defend themselves against Greyjoy with the Sword - So..."yes" Tyrell and Stark "Mid Game" or "Late Game" can proceed as you suggest (no doubt, I have seen this multiple times), but the issue is (for me at least) that Lannister cannot adequately defend themselves in RAW "Early Game."
 
Since you have clearly played the game a few times...and you know that the expert players in the "Early Game" fight their first few battles for House Card advantage (ie, play low cards 1st to see if they can sucker their enemy into expending their best cards), positioning 2nd (positions which can provide support to multiple key spaces), and VP's 3rd (again, this is in "early game")...imagine Lannister with Qyburn and Ser Addam Marbrand...having started with 2 Knights.   Now, Greyjoy with the Sword will still win all of the early battles in game rounds 1 & 2...but at what cost (?)...when Lannister can counter with Qyburn or Ser Addam Marbrand..."Balon" (Greyjoy) is no longer the immediate "auto-victory" - try the T6 Rules...trust me...anyone can win...Lannister no longer needs to depend on the benevolence of Greyjoy - this makes for a much better game.
 
Just fyi, I have won a game on Vassal in RAW 6p with Lannister...but honestly...ONLY because both Baratheon and Greyjoy in that game were complete newbs and sucked.
 
thanks for your post.

4-player fix:
Swap Greyjoy for Martell, shut-off Tyrell Fortress, shut-off Pyke
 
5-player fix: swap Greyjoy for Martell, shut-off Pyke
 
I haven't played a lot, but I've played with these non-standard set-ups and I thought they solved the balance issues.

Fantastic review!…WoW!…that's an amazing effort.  Nicely sums up why BoW is a superior tactical level wargme to all the "C&C's (:A&N)," BC, Mem'44 and BL.  Very well done on your part.