House Cards

The House card is pretty simple. It represents the faction you are playing. There are currently six different Houses, and you can read more about them on the House description page.

Your House will typically impact your choice of cards in your deck. Some cards have the text "House X only", meaning only a player using that house can have that card in his deck. In addition, character, location, and attachment cards usually have a House shield in their top right corner. If that House matches your House (or is neutral), you can play that card at cost. Otherwise, you can still play that card, but must pay an additional 2 gold penalty.

We'll get into further details below.

Character Cards

Characters are the meat of the game: they provide most of the action. Look at the name on the card first. You'll notice that Eddard Stark and Cersei Lannister have a little flag to the left of the name. Feuding Clanswoman does not. That flag indicates that the card is unique. Each player can only have one of a unique card in play (although two players can each have the same unique card in play). If a unique card ends up in a player's dead pile, that player cannot play another copy of that card. There are other uses for having multiple copies of a unique card, which we'll get into later.

Non-uniques do not have that restriction. You could have two characters in play, and if one of them dies, you can play another from your hand.

Next, let's look at the cost - the number within the gold coing on the top left corner of the card. Eddard Stark has a cost of 4, Cersei Lannister has a cost of 3, and Feuding Clanswoman has a cost of 2. This is the amount of gold you will have to pay during marshalling in order to play the card. There are some circumstances during which you will have to pay more, and I'll describe that next.

In the top right corner is a House shield, which represents the card's affiliation. Eddard Stark is a Stark, Cersei Lannister is a Lannister, and Feuding Clanswoman is. . . well, she has a blank shield. That blank shield means that she is Neutral.

If a card has a non-Neutral affiliation, then you must play as the matching House in order to play that card without a gold penalty. Otherwise, you must pay 2 extra gold. So, if you wer playing as House Stark, you could play Eddard Stark for 4 gold, but you would have to pay 5 gold for Cersei Lannister.

Any house could play Feuding Clanswoman at cost - 2 gold.

The next statistic is strength, commonly abbreviated within the game as STR. Each character has a certain STR, denoted by the number in the grey shield in the middle-left of the card. Eddard Stark and Cersei Lannister each have a STR of 3, while the Feuding Clanswoman has a STR of 1.

STR is used when attacking or defending during challenges. The side with the greatest STR wins (ties go to the attacker).

We'll take a look at the challenge icons next. There are three types of challenge icons: the red military axe, the green intrigue eye, and the blue power crown. If a character possesses a challenge icon, he can participate in that type of challenge as attacker or defender. These icons are located in the bottom left of the character card. Eddard Stark has the military and power icons, Cersei Lannister has the intrigue and power icon, and Feuding Clanswoman has the military icon.

Crests are next. Look at the bottom right corner of Eddard Stark and Cersei Lannister. See the green ring? That's the Noble Crest. These crests are referenced by other cards, so a card that gives all Nobles +1 STR would affect Eddard Stark or Cersei Lannister, and you could pay for an event that requires you to kneel a Noble character by kneeling either of those characters. Not all characters have crests; in fact, most of them do not. Look at Feuding Clanswoman for an example.

The other crests are Holy (a chalice), Learned (a book), and War (crossed swords).

Finally, look at the text box. The italicized text is a Trait. Almost every character, location, and attachment has one or more Traits (events can have them too). Eddard Stark is a Lord; Feuding Clanswoman is a Clansman. Other cards might reference cards with a specific Trait.

Below the Trait is the game text - special abilities that each card has. They're self-explanatory, except for keywords such as stealth or renown. We'll look at those in the sample game.

Location Cards

Let's take a look at Locations next. In Iron Throne Edition locations are marked by the earthy background behind the name of the card. In previous editions, "Location" is written upon the card.

Like characters, locations have a cost, House affiliation, traits, and game text. Locations tend to be more steady than characters; it's a bit harder to get rid of a location.

Some locations have the Limited keyword, such as Fallow Fields. You can only play one Limited card during each of your marshalling phases.

Many locations provide a resource. Fallow Fields has a +2 Gold icon; this means that you count 2 extra gold at the beginning of your marshalling phase. It also has a +2 Influence icon (the scroll). You can kneel the location to provide 2 influence. We'll see examples of this in the sample game.

Narrow Sea is a pretty straightforward location, except you'll notice that it has two House shields in the House affiliation area. This means that the card is dual-house: both House Stark and House Baratheon can play Narrow Sea with no gold penalty.

Attachment Cards

An attachment looks a lot like a location, except it has chainmail as the background behind the card name. Prior to Iron Throne Edition, attachments had the word "Attachment" on the card.

Like locations, attachments have a cost, house affiliation, traits, and game text. The difference is that attachments are always attached to a character, unless the card says otherwise. If that character is killed or discarded from play, the attachment goes into your discard pile.

Event Cards

Events are "surprise" cards that are played from your hand at specific times in order to produce an effect. They have no gold cost or House affiliation; however, some, such as Guilty, might say "House X only". Prior to Iron Throne Edition, Events had the word "Event" on the card; now, they are marked by the flight of ravens running up the left side of the card.

Events can be broken up into three parts: a play restriction, a cost, and an effect (after X happens, pay Y in order for Z to happen). A play restriction determines when you can play the event. Guilty says "Dominance", meaning you can play it any time during the Dominance phase. A Lannister Pays His Debts says "Response"; that means that you have to wait for a certain action to happen, specified on the card. In this case, the action is that you have to lose a challenge.

Events usually have a cost. Guilty says that you must kneel 3 influence or a Noble character. A Lannister Pays His Debts says that you simply have to kneel a Lannister character. All costs are assumed to refer to your own cards, so you cannot kneel your opponent's Noble to pay for Guilty.

Finally, there is the effect. Guilty is simple: kill an opponent's non-Stark character! A Lannister Pays His Debts is a bit more specific: you have to kill an opponent's character that was participating in the challenge you just lost.

This "after X, pay Y to do Z" paradigm can also appear in the game text of characters, locations, and attachments.

Plot Cards

Finally, there are the Plot cards. These are the only cards that are oriented horizontally rather than vertically, so they're pretty easy to recognize. When playing the game, you will have seven plot cards in their own plot deck. Plots do not go into your play deck.

Most plots can be played by any house; however, like events, some have the "House X only" text. Each plot has three numbers - Gold, Initiative, and Claim - and some game text.

Gold is the number inside the gold coin. It determines the base amount of gold you have at the beginning of the marshalling phase. Hear Me Roar has 5 gold, and Respect of the Old Gods has 2. There are some cards, such as Fallow Fields, that will give you additional gold.

Initiative is the number inside of the brown diamond. After plots are revealed, the player with the highest initiative gets to determine who will be the first player - the player to act first during each phase. There are some cards that will give you initiative bonuses, such as Feuding Clanswoman. Hear Me Roar has 3 initiative, and Respect of the Old Gods has 2.

The last number is located within the grey circle and indicates your Claim. Claim determines how much damage you will do when attacking successfully in a challenge. If you win as an attacker in a military challenge, your opponent has to kill X of his characters; in an intrigue, he has to randomly discard X cards; and in a power challenge, he has to move X power from his House card to yours. In each case, X is the claim. Hear Me Roar has 1 claim and Respect of the Old Gods has 2.