The Butcher Variant

[18HopeCSF]

I bring you all a variant I saw first in TM and never had the chance to try... but now I do

- The Butcher Variant -

The basic idea is that each House gains points per unit they kill, instead of castles and such. There's currently a game going on with this options in testing: https://swordsandravens.net/play/c851d8 ... 9ef7d2e569

And a spreadsheet tracking progress: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... share_link


Rules & Points

The Point-Value of each Unit is related both to the mustering cost and battle value:

• Footman: 1 Point
• Knight: 2 Points
• Ship: 1 Point
• Siege Engine (Attacking): 4 points
• Siege Engine (Defending): 0 points
• Dragon: Points equal to current Strength

The basic idea proved easy on paper and assigning points per Footmen, Knights and Ship was a straightforward thing.

But Siege Engines and Dragons showed later in game that they should be counted differently and Combat Value was the factor generally agreed. That way, killing a Fully Grown Dragon is more valuable than killing a Wyrmling.

I personally have my doubts about Siege Engines, I agree with keeping the 4 value for destroying a Siege that is attacking you, but I think that going out of your position to destroy someone else's Siege Engine should have a good value too. Maybe 1 or 2 Points. This would encourage player to go hunting Siege Engines walking around.

We also found mid-game that there are other instance where units get killed and should be taken into account:

• Wildling Attacks: These should be counted per above rules, and assigned to a neutral list
• Iron Bank: When a house fails to pay their debt, the holder of the Valyrian Sword chooses to kill one of debtor's units. We're counting these in favor of Valyrian Sword holder, but I think should be also counted in the neutral list.
• Faceless Men: We counted these in favor of the player taking the Loan, but maybe should also be counted as neutral.
• Routed Units: Despite having 0 battle value, we count them as normal for points sake.
• Garrisons: We assigned them the value they have (2 in general and 4 for The Eyrie) despite not being strictly units. This encourages players to conquer other House's Home Areas. Pentos' garrison, that resets each time Targaryen gains control, should maybe only be counted once.
• Neutral Garrisons: For the moment I assigned them 0 Value. Doing otherwise would mean an important easy collection of points to the players near both King's Landing and Braavos.

The idea of a Neutral Counter for other fallen than the Houses' comes from the idea that the realm is in a bigger danger than just a tyrant King. I always thought that for the last turn should be some kind of threat that ends up with everyone losing. I still have to see/count if that would be possible, but it's an idea.

Comments

The game is currently in round 5 with standings well distributed, and curiously enough, not directly related to normal game control. One of the leading Houses (Lannister) is in a though spot and probably won't be able to hold the pace much longer.

Baratheon is curiously in 0 Points after a disastrous attack on Martell that ended with an attacking Siege destroyed. I expected Baratheon's points to be low due to not having much swords, but not this low. We'll see how it goes... maybe the Neutral garrisons should indeed be counted, Braavos could be challenged by Stark (as in this game) or Arryn.

[18HopeCSF]

Next to Come: Analysis of Swords & Towers available to each House.

[18HopeCSF]

Update!

The game is now close to finish (Turn 9), with both Tyrell and Stark in the lead. Current Standings are:

• Tyrell 34
• Stark 33
• Baratheon 9
• Greyjoy 8
• Lannister 7
• Targaryen 6
• Martell 5
• Arryn 9 (Vassalised)

The whole game proved to be very fun and balanced in terms of gameplay, although the standings look problematic because the difference between the leading players and the rest is too big for the rest to catch up.

Reviewing a bit the cards of each house is easy to see that Stark has a slight advantage with Ramsay Bolton having 3 swords and being able to return this card over and over to their hand. The rest of the houses don't seem to have big differences in terms of cons or pros, although the starting decks of both Tyrell (Garlan+Loras+Mace) and Lannister (Ser Gregor+Jaime+The Hound) look like the 2nd best in terms of gameplay.

Conclusion

I personally think (and the rest of the players agreed), this might become a playable variant. However, some adjustments are still needed.

• Length: Considering the difference between leading players and the rest, it might be better to shorten the game to 6 turns. So that everyone has a shot, and when it's impossible the catch up the game is about to end and you don't have to wait 4 more turns.
• Start: If the game lasts 6 turns it would be a good idea to start with Vassal Positions in order to start hostilities right away.
• Settings: Starting settings should include a modification of win points (To 9 or more), so that the winner is decided by vote instead of the automatic win.
• Tides of Battle: These little cards add a quote of random most players don't like. BUT, in this case they might help to equalize the kill points. The deck not only provide a battle value, but also swords, towers and skulls, that could help any house despite the house cards each has.
• Siege Engines: in the first game we established a value of 4 to Attacking Siege Engines, and 0 when they were defending. In order to simplify, a value of 2 in both cases should be applied. This will also encourage players to go butcher any static siege around them.
• Winter Victory (Neutral List): In order for this list to be a real threat and for players to feel that everyone might end up losing every casualty outside battles will be counted separately. This is different from what we did in the first game and would include:
  • Iron Bank: The "Faceless Men" Iron Bank card, Iron Bank interest failed to pay
  • Supply reconciling army casualties, whether this is triggered by the Supply or Famine events of Westeros Deck I or the Wildling Card "Rattleshirt Raiders"
  • Wildling Cards that destroy units: Crow Killers, Mammoth Riders, Preemptive Raid, The Horde Descends. All count units as established before.
  • Wildling Cards that don't destroy units: Add as many points to the list as difference between the bid and the wildling threat.

[18HopeCSF]

New Game created!!

• Game includes the use of Tides of Battle
• Gaining condition set in 10 castles so we can move around and butcher without caring about auto-finish
• Game set with "Mixed Westeros Deck 1" that gives a bit more variety including the cards "Famine" (Supply is reduced), "Rally the men" (Mustering only in castles) and "The Burden of Power" (Throne chooses Decrease Wildlings or Mustering).
• Points Arrangement: Footman/Ship = 1 Point. Knight/Siege = 2. Home Garrisons = Base Value (Pentos only counts once). Dragons = Current Strength.

https://swordsandravens.net/play/4dc426 ... c5803aba92
Password: Skull