Boat Variant to Balance the Game and Make it More Fun!

[WinX 0]

My previous games were not necessarily imbalanced, but easily won by players with the most ships -  usually a Greyjoy or a Baratheon, and often a Stark.  

 

Greyjoy can win without much land-based attacking - just needs ships in 3 sea zones and march in across giant "bridges" of ships to win. Stark can have ships in 3 enormous sea zones and have access to 6 castles/strongholds - just seems overly strong.

 

I also am not comfortable with the whole Lannister/Greyjoy imbalance - Lannister is at Greyjoy's mercy (I know, diplomacy can work, etc...)

 

So here are some potential variants:

1. Amphibious assault: -1 attack strength (still can use support order to mitigate this)

2. Support only 1 land area from a sea zone per turn (you support in Riverrun from Ironman's Bay, you can't support in Flint's Fingers or Seagard)

3. No ship-to-land support at all - ships are for transport and raiding only (there were no cannons, after all, so what does this "support" even entail, really?)

 

Which do you think is best?

[Borealian 81]

Hard to say. I haven't actually seen fleets as a problem. A large enemy fleet can cause a lot of headache, but a large well positioned fleet will quickly attract a raider. Having one of your large supply slots continually raided is pretty frustrating, which means you will need another large fleet to protect the first large fleet, thus cosing you two large supply slots. Not to mention at least half your available ships. But you are perfectly right that a player relying solely on land armies will find it difficult to face amphibious assaults and I also agree that some players have a better opportunity to take advantage of large fleets.

 

If you feel like experimenting, I'd go for your option 1. The third option is too draconian by far and will make Greyjoy's and Baratheon's positions untenable. The second option seems harsh as well and almost designed to crush an early Baratheon hold on King's landing.

 

Tell us how it goes!