A GAME OF THRONES: THE BOARD GAME - DIGITAL EDITION Review - Worth The Wait

Steam code provided by Asmodee Digital

It’s here. One of the board games I’ve waited for the longest has finally been released in a digital edition. Asmodee Digital has done it, along with the esteemed Dire Wolf Digital who is the developer behind several awesome board game adaptations.

Yes, the final season of A Game of Thrones (and maybe two or three before that) buckled under its own cultural weight, tripped over its own success, and fell face-first into a pile of direwolf scat.

A painful experience for many of us.

But we can close the door on that chapter in our lives and rejoice at the launch of A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - Digital Edition. It’s a mouthful, I know. Really doesn’t roll off the tongue and the frequent punctuation makes it a chore to type out.

And yet, I don’t care!

Because now I can play one of the strategy games that I never get to. Online. With friends! Strangers are okay, as well, but it’s also nice when you know the person that you’re stabbing in the back.

The fantasy series led to the television series, which led to the board game, which led to this digital adaptation. George R. R. Martin gave way to Benioff and Weiss, who hadn’t yet ruined their work before passing the baton to Fantasy Flight Games, who were succeeded by Dire Wolf Digital with this latest edition of the game. It’s like Inception but there are a lot more ideas involved. And a healthy degree of bloody violence.

Let’s not waste any more time, though. What’s going on in Westeros since our last visit?

STORY

This is not a story told with broad strokes in the pages of a history book.

It’s a tale of alliances made, pacts broken, battles won and lost, castles seized, territory taken, enemies made, and heroes born. Well, maybe not heroes. But kings and queens certainly.

The game to win the Iron Throne is one of life and death.

I’m reminded of a final scene in Kingdom of Heaven, which is a fantastic movie if you take the time to find and watch the Director’s Cut. In it, Orlando Bloom’s character Balian asks the conquering Saladin the worth of Jerusalem. The wise ruler dismissively answers “Nothing” before walking away, only to stop and turn back. Then he raises his fists in the air and claims “Everything.”

That’s how I feel about the A Game of Thrones board game. Each combat, every betrayal, and all of the effort. It means nothing. But, then again, it means everything. It’s a grand narrative of strategy, tactics, cunning, and determination.

Whoever has the chutzpah to get the job done will come out on top as the victor. The ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay in this digital adaptation is really smooth, especially when compared to the physical tabletop game. Orders are placed on land owned by the players, orders are revealed, and then orders are resolved. Then the round is over and it starts again.

Of course, it’s more complex than that, but that’s the gist of the game and it plays rather fast, which is a good thing for a frequently long strategy game like A Game of Thrones.

Once orders are confirmed, the player with the Messenger Raven can examine them and replace one of their own if they so desire. Raid tokens are applied first, disrupting plans in adjacent locations. Then March orders are activated, proceeding in turn order until all players have moved and initiated whatever combats were planned or decided upon. During combats, players use their military strength and supplement House cards to determine the victor. Once all March orders are complete, along with the involved Defense and Support orders, players can resolve all of the Consolidation tokens to gain more Power for use in bidding and territorial control. Finally, the end-of-round cards are drawn and their effects resolved, typically resulting in the redistribution of the armies’ Supply, biding for the three Influence tracks, mustering of troops, and the invasion of the Wildlings. There are other cards but those are four of the main ones.

Then players do it all again.

If you’ve played the board game, you’ll have no trouble adapting to the digital edition of the game. It uses the same rules. And speaking of rules, the integration of the rules and mechanics into the digital edition is quite nice. Essential text is visible wherever it’s needed by additional rule clarifications are always available by hovering over the icons, symbols, cards, etc. It helps players to avoid having to refer to the in-menu rulebook during play for the most part. I very much liked that aspect and think it’s part of what makes digital editions better than physical board games on occasion.

The other element that I absolutely have to mention is the pace. A Game of Thrones is normally a three- to six-hour game. I think this effectively halves that time. Everything that’s slow about the game in-person is sped up thanks to the digital format. Looking at other players’ cards. Chatting about alliances. Looking around the map to see what each player controls. Considering the Influence tracks, Supply count, or Castle seizures. All of that is easier to see in the digital edition. It’s at-a-glance rather than something that inhibits forward movement.

My gaming group did encounter some bugs that interfered with play, but I’m confident that these can be fixed. And I don’t think those minor problems outweighed the benefit of being able to play this game with family, friends, and strangers remotely. It’s too big of a point in the plus column.

I imagine that with further play, I might discover more bugs that haven’t affected me so far—maybe ones that other players have had issues with—but overall I’m very pleased.

VISUALS

I don’t own the board game, but I’ve played enough with my brother and family members to remember the aesthetic of the game and the digital edition emulates that very well.

The cards, the map, and all of the other elements in the game have been rendered quite faithfully into the digital format. Combat has been elevated as well, with 3D visuals of the land and sea units moving around and clashing in battles across Westeros.

Even the dense set of rules and mechanics has been condensed into a pretty effective user interface. It’s easy to check on the Influence tracks. It’s fast to examine anyone’s House cards to consider the likelihood of victory or defeat in combat. And all of the additional rules or reminders that are essential to a well-paced game and smart tactical decisions can be accessed by hovering over the relevant game piece.

The menu, the user interface, and the simplification of rules that frequently happens with a digital adaptation all exist within A Game of Thrones and players will likely appreciate the smooth and (mostly) painless experience.

If you’re looking for an immersive visual tabletop game, this is not really that. It’s a military and political theater that focuses on the essential rather than the beautiful. This is a map in a war room where generals move around small figures and determine the course of the conflict. It doesn’t have a lot of atmospheric detail or alluring art. The best illustrations are on the House cards and the event deck that is drawn from every round.

For those familiar with the game, this won’t bother you. Other gamers who were hoping to be transported to a different world might be let down by how simple the presentation is. But I think it was done tastefully with strong consideration of the tabletop source material.

REPLAYABILITY

Game length and player count imbalance are two of the biggest problems with this otherwise thrilling strategy game.

A Game of Thrones: The Board Game is a difficult game to get to the table. It’s hard to find enough players who are willing to spend that amount of time in a game that could easily turn against certain Houses early on.

Also, for the best balance, you really want six players so that each of the six main Houses can be controlled by someone. That gives Stark and Greyjoy a chance as Lannister and Baratheon are no longer able to just sweep south unopposed. Martell and Tyrell are necessary.

This is why this digital adaptation is so promising. You can find random players to start an online match. You can join up with friends and play remotely—in one session or in smaller ones. And you can even play solo. That means that players will likely get much more opportunity to play the game than in person, especially with an ongoing pandemic that makes larger game nights less feasible, if not impossible.

Replayability is a big value for the digital edition then because it actively corrects two of the larger criticism of the board game. Digital wins in this battle.

WHAT IT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

The last Asmodee Digital game that I played and reviewed was Blood Rage. It was a board game I was really excited about playing with friends, but the digital adaptation floundered. It was rife with bugs and crashed frequently. The initial experience ended up disappointing me as the game required a whole host of fixes before I thought it would be worth the time.

That was not the case with A Game of Thrones. Let me be clear: there are still bugs and problems with this game.

March orders were difficult to confirm sometimes. In one instance, it skipped a player’s March order entirely. House card rules text was sometimes hidden behind the cards themselves. End-of-round cards were resolved too quickly sometimes without any knowledge of what had transpired, especially with Wilding cards that have consequences and rewards based on player bidding. Bidding itself was sometimes strange with inaccurate Power totals compared to the accurate count on other player screens.

As far as the user interface, some aspects were unwieldy. The camera doesn’t snap to active orders on other players when the map isn’t centered on that House. Combat between other Houses keeps appearing and disappearing when moving to different spots on the map. The alliance system and other minor gameplay elements occur strangely in the digital adaptation.

And the biggest problem is likely the online matchmaking system and AFK settings. Thankfully, I did not have to deal with these issues as I was playing with friends while on video chat, but there are numerous reports of these issues.

So, yes, I want all of that fixed. I want the expansions too, like the Mother of Dragons content. But the game is still very playable and it turns a 3-6 hour game into a 2-3 hour game with a speedy UI and accessible gameplay.

Fix these bugs and bring in the expansion content and the quality of life will improve while ensuring that tabletop fans will flock to this digital adaptation.

VERDICT

There were some bumps along the way, but for the most part A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - Digital Edition is a fantastic opportunity for fans of the tabletop strategy game to play the board game remotely and experience the political manipulation, military maneuvering, and struggle for the Iron Throne without having to gather several friends together for half the day.

It plays fast and it successfully replicates the joy of the board game without too many complications. Yes, there are some bugs and some matchmaking issues. But with some updates or patches to address these problems—as well as future content drops bringing the expansions—this could easily become a 9/10 or 10/10 for me. It’s an awesome start to my digital experience with the game and I can’t wait to get some more games in.

A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - Digital Edition delivers a sharp, beautiful adaptation that simmers with intrigue, boils with conflict, and shines with tabletop magic. Dire Wolf Digital knows what it’s doing and I look forward to more great translations from table to screen.

It’s well worth the $19.99 price tag and it’s been worth the wait to get this game into the digital world.