Game of Thrones boardgame expansion – Mother of Dragons

I have gathered information diffrent people placed at fora. I am not the author of any of this, I just combined the onfo and pics.
I want to thank everyone for sharing their info. I’m looking forward to play this game!

I got a chance to play one round of a demo game today at Gencon. It was excellent and I tried to ask everything I could think
of.
The expansion seems to include four “modules” although I am not sure that they are all independent of one another.

House Arryn
The simplest is the inclusion of House Arryn, along with all of the pieces, tokens, cards, etc. Not sure if cards are the same as
Feast for Crows, but you shouldn’t need Feast (and you could totally use these pieces when playing Feast of course). Also
includes an overlay for the vale region which is probably improved.

I assume you can play without Arryn and just leave the overlay out, but I see no reason not to play them if you’ve got them...
House Targaryen
House Targaryen comes with the Essos board (FFG rep said you don’t use the Essos board if nobody plays Targ) and is
mechanically a little different than other houses.

First, Targ starts with three dragons. Dragons start at 0 str but every even-numbered round the strength permanently
increases by one! In addition, dragons can move to ANY location on the board when they march! Targaryen will likely be an
extreme threat late in the game.

Secondly, Targ is ALWAYS in lowest spot in every track, although their spot on King’s Court does grant them some stars (two I
think). FFG guy said they can still bid in Clash of Kings and they just add their bid to a house of their choice - it didn’t happen in
our game so I don’t know how/when they choose.

Finally, Targ does not score points by controlling castles. Instead, there is a forth Westeros deck. The cards in this deck place
loyalty tokens in Westeros (usually someone can influence where it goes, depending on the card text). Targaryen scores by
occupying these specific spaces.

Vassal Houses
One of the coolest parts of the expansion. When playing with Vassal houses, you set up every House including those not being
played (exception, you don’t use Targaryen as a vassal - just leave them out if nobody plays them)

The setup for vassals are different than those of player houses (probably stronger since they kind of double as neutral forces,
but I think fewer ships - with some vassal houses not getting ships at all I think).

Each round, players would choose vassals in turn order. I think you could pass and get something else, but I’m not sure.

Players in command of a vassal got five neutral tokens they could use for that house, and could not attack their vassal, but
could use their vassal to attack other players, support, etc.

Combat involving vassals had players drawing three cards from a deck of neutral house cards, and choosing one.

The vassal houses did not seem to gain power but I assume their controller would be able to muster.

It was unclear in the demo how the vassals are placed on the tracks (if they are at all, and if not, how their turn order works).
Because of the nature of the demo, the organizer was just “vassalizing” houses that dropped and also letting people jump in
and start playing as them. He mentioned you can vassalize a player house if the player has to leave the game - not sure if it’s
“official” but it seems a decent enough rule.
House cards
Targaryen
4 - Khal Drogo - This card gets +1 sword icon and +1 strength for each of your (participating knights? - assuming Danny Knights
are Dothraki) in the embattled area. After Combat resolves, Remove Khal Drogo from the game.
4 - Daenerys Targaryen - After combat resolves, your opponent must discard a number of available power tokens equal to the
difference in final combat strength. (interesting note here, this is win or lose.)
3 - Arstan Whitebeard - Sword, Fortification
2 - Ser Jorah Mormont - Sword, Fortification
2 - Xaro Xhoan Daxos - If you have more ships in the embattled area then your opponent, each of your ships in the embattled
area provide +2 combat strength instead of +1.
1 - Daenerys Targaryen - If the embattled area has a dragon, this card gain +2 combat strength.
1 - Viserys Targaryen - You may discard a house card from your hand to add it's printed combat strength to your combat
strength. If you lose this combat, remove Viserys Targaryen from the game.
0 - Illyrio Mopatis - After combat, gain a number of power tokens equal to the difference in final combat strength. Then if you
have 5 or more available power tokens, remove Illyrio Mopatis.
I can only assume that after the first deck cycle, you add in 4 Daenerys Targaryen and still have the 1?
Arryn
4 - Lysa Arryn - If a defence order is in the embattled area and you win the combat, you may choose to return this card to your
hand, instead of discarding it.
3 - Bronze Yohn Royce - Fortification, Fortification, Sword
2 - Ser Varis Egen - If the printed combat strength of your opponent's house card is 2 or less, this card gains +1 combat
strength and 2 fortification icons.
2 - Harry Hardyng - Sword
1 - Godric Borrell - If you are defending in a sea area, this card gains +1 combat strength for each land area you control
adjacent to the embattled area.
1 - Anya Waynwood - If you win this combat, you and all other players who supported you each gain 3 power tokens.
0 - Robert Arryn - If you are defending, after combat you may remove Robert Arryn and the lowest strength house card from
your opponents discard pile from the game.
Vassal
4 - Bronn - After you reveal house cards, your opponent may choose to discard 2 of their available power tokens to reduce this
cards combat strength to 0.
3 - Beric Dondarrion - If you win the combat after the casualties are taken you must destroy 1 of this vassal's units in the
embattled area.
2 - Jon Connington - If this vassal loses this combat, after combat, you may muster 1 of this vassal's knights in either the area it
retreated to or it's home area (if able).
2 - Janos Slynt - Sword, Sword, Fortification
1 - Syrio Farel - If this Vassel is defending, the combat strength of all non-vassal footman is reduced to 0. (Not sure how this
works if a Vassel house attacks a Vassel house.)
1 - Jaqen H'Ghara - Cancel your opponents chosen house card and return it to their hand. Then, randomly choose a house card
from their hand to reveal as their chosen house card.
0 - Varys - After combat, move this Vassal to the top of the fiefdoms track, shifting all other houses down.
Iron Bank
Finally, the game added an Iron Bank. Players have three additional order tokens that can ONLY function in sea spaces (maybe
ports?) Two are regular March and one is a star order with a stack of coins. This is resolved during consolidate power and
allows the owner to buy one of three advantage cards priced depending on which spot it’s end.
You’d pay power to get the card, and then keep the card. Every turn you’d have to pay one more power or lose a unit. The
cards I saw gave a huge amount of one-time power, a huge amount of figures, and something to allow manipulation of the
Westeros decks which I didn’t understand.

Final Thoughts
The vassal idea and the different “scenarios” it can create at different player counts has me very interested.
It’s hard to see what it will do to game balance (especially as I played one round, and the organizer was playing fast and loose
and mostly trying to just give people a feel for the game - many of whom never played base game)
My gut feeling is that vassals create huge importance for the iron throne (I think this might be problematic and could probably
be handled as a separate bid - potentially even bidding for every vassal individually). This, along with the iron bank, make
power tokens tremendously more valuable.
That might bode well for players who want to act diplomatically, protect their borders, and secure power.
The vassal mechanic in general could be very helpful for houses like Lannister (if Greyjoy and/or Tyrell are vassals).
The presence of Targaryen also will potentially shake up the game in the east, with one more naval force battling for the seas.
It’s also possible there are new setups for existing houses to help balance and accommodate for the two new houses , but I’m
not sure (I didn’t see any such game materials although there were definitely cards with vassal setup instructions)