VARIANT OF PLAY - 4 players game (questions)

[dt2 0]

 Hi,

I've played my second GoT 2nd edition and it was with a total a 4 players (the first one I played was 5 players). We were 3 playing our 2nd game, while the forth player was a big veteran of the 1st edition.

The experienced guy was Stark. The outcome was Lannister winning on the 3rd tie breaker at 5 victory points (along with Baratheon and Greyjoy), Stark was the looner at 4.

As many, we talked about the possible unbalance in the south and I've been thinking about a way to make things a little harder in the south and force Baratheon and Lannister to win by fighting other players and not only neutral grounds. I've had some ideas and it won't be possible for some time to try it out, so I would like to ask the active community here what are their thoughts on my ideas since I'm new and I probably will miss a lot of subtle things.

I've read some threads here and elsewhere proposing a lot of good suggestions and noticed that "jhagen" seems to know the game really really well (I hope you can comment on my thread!! )

So, here are my ideas:

- Place a garrison of 2 (or maybe a neutral 3 ?) on Highgarden to at least make Lannister "work" for it a little;

- Remove the possibility to use Support Orders when marching on neutral territories;

- Make the Siege Engines power to 0 (or 1?) when attacking neutral territories;

 

To me, this will make the battle for the South less trivial for Baratheon (and Lannister) and force players to fight over the same castles and strongholds in the North. None of my ideas make sense lore-wise, but well….

Eager to read you!
Thanks

[jhagen 4]

then only option for the map as it is made to be accurate for the lore and not for game balance is:

4 players- leave greyjoy and baratheon out.

trust me you will love the game. it opens the board up so much.

[dt2 0]

 alright, we will definitely try this option. But what do you do with Greyjoy and Baratheon territories ?

[player999299 2]

DT1 said:

 alright, we will definitely try this option. But what do you do with Greyjoy and Baratheon territories ?

The islands (Pyke and Dragonstone) should be made inaccessible.

Some people also treat Riverrun as a castle (instead of a stronghold).

You can add some other garrisons, but removing the islands from the game is the important part.

[dt2 0]

 Ok, we will try that in our next game, thanks a lot

Solution simpler than mine hehe