Join the new world

Hey there.

Game of Thrones has been running for a week now on the UK Forum, with six of the seven houses set up and recruiting members. They’ve had a busy week, and all sorts of threads and IRC channels have popped up which is fantastic to hear and be a part of. At the outset I thought it was important to give the houses a chance to set themselves up properly before allowing them to compete, and the progress they’re making suggests that this was a good decision.

The purpose of this article is twofold; first, to review the houses so far. I have some statistics and graphs to share with you, and some ratings purely based on what I’ve seen so far. The second section of the article will preview for you some of the gameplay coming up. When the game was announced a week ago, we were still very much at the ideas stage with regards to the nitty gritty of gameplay for the houses, with a vague idea of what was to come. I’m pleased to report that we’ve spent the week refining those ideas and have some concepts to share with you, but more on that later.

First up, our houses!


The sigils and mottos of the great houses of Westeros.


All of the houses have been created, and have been active in recruiting members. At the time of writing, the numbers of members look like this:

We have 94 members playing the game in total, spread across the houses as such:



Here’s a breakdown of each house; their members, what they’ve been up to, and Talon’s current ranking.


House Baratheon



House Baratheon, my own house, has progressed well in the last week. Sitting comfortably on 18 members currently, the Storm Lords have not sat idle, rather taking the opportunity to grow by the antlers. The Baratheons have been active in the press, producing a couple of articles, have forum avatars and signature banners and based on their member count they’re going strongly.
Talon’s current ranking: 2/9


House Stark




House Stark, led by Daniel Thorrold, has made the most progress in terms of members, with a whopping 31 members at present! This isn’t surprising, since the Starks are the main protagonists of the first series of the GoT TV show, but is impressive nonetheless. They haven’t released any articles yet, but do have forum avatars and signature banners so are doing well.
Talon’s current ranking: 1/9

House Tully

House Tully haven’t really gotten off the ground yet. They were taken by his Lordship Baroness Margaret Thatcher, but need to put some effort in to recruit new members!
Talon’s current ranking: 8/9


House Greyjoy

The Greyjoys have made some progress under Bella, having recruited a couple of members and taken avatars and signature banners, but are lagging a bit behind the other houses in terms of members just now.
Talon’s current ranking: 6/9

House Tyrell

The Tyrells have had a strong start under Lord Frerk, having released an article and recruited a few members. On the cusp of doing well, other houses just have the edge for now.
Talon’s current ranking: 5/9

House Lannister

House Lannister was always going to be popular, and under Lord Invalidation they haven’t disappointed. They have customised avatar borders, signature banners, and even their own anthem in ‘The Rains of Castamere,’ a great song and well worth a listen. They’re doing ok for members at the moment, on 15, but are slightly behind the Starks, Baratheons and Targaryens just now.
Talon’s current ranking: 3/9

House Martell

The Martells were only created today, so need some time to bed in!
Talon’s current ranking: 7/9

House Targaryen

The Targaryens are going strong under Lord Apronchef, with 16 members so far, and plenty of presence on the forums too. The only reason I’ve put them behind house Lannister just now is The Rains of Castamere, which I liked so much I downloaded it! They’re doing great though, and will be more than ready for the strategy side of the game.
Talon’s current ranking: 4/9

House Arryn

House Arryn was just created today, under Lord Rodney Mckay. The Crown wishes them well as they get their house in order.
Talon’s current ranking: 9/9




Still in production, but getting closer!

So then, onto the preview of what is to come!

I’m pleased to report that we are now in a position to begin the game in earnest. If you read the points influence thing last week for electing a king, ignore it; it’s been superseded somewhat now and all will be explained in this article. The first (and to me one of the most exciting!) thing I’d like to show you is the strategy map. This map shows you in great detail where each House is located, what regions are a part of their kingdom, and the statistics, armies, mines, docks and fortifications / terrain are located on each. A great deal of care and attention has gone into this map to ensure its accuracy, balance between the houses, and that it just plain looks good! It is currently under construction by Invalidation and will be released when complete, but for now take a look at the basic template- this map shows the regions each faction will have.


This map shows the basic layout of each region and to whom it belongs.

As you will eventually see, we have some main statistics for each region: Manpower, Mines, Ports and Terrain. These numbers are quite relevant to the gameplay! Each region will require a steward, who will be one of the members of the house (a real person, in other words) that has been assigned the region by the House head. So long as the region has a steward, it can use its manpower, mines, and ports to recruit armies, ships and accrue money for the house. Terrain isn’t used to recruit anything, but rather adds a bonus to the defender should the region be attacked.

This system will allow many people to participate in the game, and not just the house heads. The Steward assigned to a region is responsible for its defence with army units and ships if necessary.

Manpower is the number of military units that the region can recruit, it is expended in the process, but becomes replenished every 4th turn.
Ports work exactly like manpower, except that they represent the number of ships that can be recruited.
Mines provide an income equal to 10x their level every turn.
Terrain gives the defending side a bonus in combat, it represents fortifications or favourable terrain or conditions to the owning faction.
Each faction also has a capital region. A faction's capital is their most powerful region, and the house head is always assumed to be steward of it even though they may also be a general or the king. When an enemy enters the capital region, 12 units are instantly raised to fight the enemy and can add to the defender's army already present.

Armies, Recruitment and Upkeep.

To recruit a military unit it costs 10g and 1 manpower. To recruit a ship costs 10g and 1 port slot.
When a military unit is recruited, it is added to the province which provided the manpower. It can move and embark on the turn of recruitment.
Each military unit and each ship costs 5g each turn to maintain, this is taken from the total income of that faction's lands.
If a faction goes into negative gold, their manpower and ports will not replenish until it is in back in the plus. They can disband units that they cannot maintain.
Military units form together into an army, they can move without having a general attached, but if they share a region with hostile troops in, they will all be lost.
Military units can embark onto ships, 1 unit per ship, they cannot disembark on the same turn, and they cannot move from the region they disembark into that turn.
A single military unit represents one thousand men, and a single ship represents one fleet.
A general is a family member who is in charge of an army in combat, they are most useful for war in lands the faction does not own.
A steward is also considered a general, but they cannot move from their region without resigning stewardship, so they are only useful for leading a defence combat.
From this you can see then, that there are actually two options for each person in a house; to be a region steward, or to be an offensive General. Finding the right balance will be important, and many more stewards will be needed than generals.

War

War will obviously exist in GoT, and must be declared by a faction in order for them to attack someone else. There will be a public orders thread on the forum and it will go in there, as will all recruitment / movement orders by all factions. All orders, then, will be public. Discussions won’t be, so there’s still plenty of secrecy to the game.

A battle will occur whenever two opposing armies occupy the same region, and will use a formula that takes into account the number of armies, the level of the general on each side, the terrain for the defender, and any offshore navies. Naval battles work in exactly the same way but don’t take terrain into account. Battles can last for multiple game turns and the formula will be used once per turn.

At any point in a combat one or both armies can retreat. This retreat must be into either a friendly region, or a hostile one that contains no armies. If the attacking side can inflict no losses, they will automatically retreat. On the round that the army retreats, the opposing side gets to deal a final round of damage, and the retreater does none. The side that has been retreated from cannot make a move on the round of the retreat, as they are still considered in combat. Both sides can retreat on the same round, and neither will take damage from the opposition- this will be used whenever a peace treaty is signed, allowing both sides to disengage bloodlessly.


The King and Prestige

At this time we won’t be allowing a King to be appointed; that will come in not less than a few days time after the houses have been set up fully on the map. For now though the prestige system will be active. This system will replace the points system I laid out last week, and will be used in forging alliances for the throne. To be appointed a King will need at least 51% of the influence backing him, though this number can drop after the appointment.

Each individual in a house will accrue prestige for things like the lands they steward, their experience as a general, wearing a house avatar, battles won and other aspects. The total for each individual is added up to give a house influence total- alliances between houses, cemented by a marriage, will allow kings to be appointed. For now houses can accrue their prestige and form alliances in preparation for this appointment.

How We Proceed

Houses can check the map and start appointing stewards now. We’ll be starting Game Turn 1 in a couple of days, and turns will last for 3 days. They will run for Monday – Wednesday and Thursday – Saturday, with Sunday being a rest / article update day.

There will be a detailed set of concise rules on the forum, so this article will not be your only source of information on the specifics. In addition there will be a publicly viewable GDoc spreadsheet with plenty of info on it too.

That’s all for now, if you haven’t signed up yet, make sure you do!