A player takes on the role of one of the Seven Kingdoms Houses - Lannister, Baratheon, Tyrell, Martell, Stark, Greyjoy - and tries to vie for the Iron Throne. You as a player command your armies and try to take control of a certain number of cities or strongholds (7) to win the game or you try to have the most seized cities and strongholds after 10 turns.
The set up and going through the rules for the first time takes quite a lot of time so you should be prepared for that. Otherwise it takes about 10 minutes to set everything up. The game board is seperated into regions which represent cities, strongholds and what not. Regions can have icons printed on them - a support barrel and/or power icon. Each player starts with a units in a certain region(s) and 3 of the players wilh have special tokens - Iron Throne, Valyrian Steel Blade and Messenger Raven.
The game is divided into 10 turns and one turn has 3 phases - Westeros phase, Planning Phase and let's say Execution Phase. Westeros phase is skipped in the first turn.
Westeros Phase
In Westeros phase cards from 3 Westerosi decks are showed to all players and are resolved. There are several things that can happen. Players can be allowed to muster forces, bid for positions on the influence tracks or reevaluate supplies. There are also cards that restrict players in placing orders. Some cards have a Wildling symbol on the card (which increases Wilding power) and some cards simply say that Wildlings attack.
Planning Phase
In the planning phase players choose and place order tokens to each region where he or she controls a unit or controls the region. There are 5 types of orders and the number of the tokens is limited(3*5). There are March orders that allow movement of units and can initiate a battle if the region is already occupied. Defend orders add a bonus to the defending units/army. Support orders allow players to help other units in neighbouring regions. Raid orders allow players to get rid of opponents' Support and Consolidate Power orders from neighbouring regions. Consolidate Power orders allow players to collect power tokens that are used in bidding on positions on the influence tracks and fighting wildlings. Some orders (1 of each) are marked with a star. A player can play a certain number of starred orders. This number is determined by the standing on the King's Court Influence track. A player who has a Messenger Raven token can replace his existing order with another one (unused one) after all the order tokens are revealed.
Execution phase
After all order tokens are revealed players execute the orders. The player being number one on the Iron Throne influence track starts followed by the second, third etc. First the Raid order tokens are executed. Then marching orders are executed. If such an order initiates a battle the battle is resolved. In a battle poewr of the units is compared. Each player can ask for help from any player who has a Support order in the neighbouring regions. Finally players choose a card from their hand to have an effect on the battle. House cards have various effects and some are unique. The player with highest total wins the battle and the losing units/army has to retreat otherwise is destroyed. A tie is decided by higher standing on the Fiefdoms influence track. Once per turn, the player having Valyrian Steel Blade can use it to add +1 to their side of the battle (no matter if attacking or defending). Lastly players claim powers according to the number of Consolidate Power order tokens and Crown icons in the corresponding regions.
The game ends when one player seizes 7 cities or strongholds or after 10 turns. The player with most cities or strongholds wins the game.
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