I’ve been a bit lax in posting, so I’m playing a little catch-up. Back on Thursday, June 8, the guys and I finally got A Game of Thrones: Catan – Brotherhood of the Watch to the table. I bought this game for a great price off eBay in December 2021 and have been patiently waiting to play it. We played a 4-player game and it was our first play.
If you want the full, in-depth description of the game, check out the link to the game on BoardGameGeek given above. My brief review of the game is provided below.
A Game of Thrones: Catan – Brotherhood of the Watch is a fun and engaging game. I truly enjoy Catan, but this version is a really nice improvement over vanilla Catan. There’s more going on, as you’ve got to protect The Wall from encroaching Wildlings who are trying to breach it, and smartly use the abilities of special characters to improve your chances of doing that. While this game deals with a specific aspect of Game of Thrones, the Night’s Watch and the Wildlings that menace the lands from north of The Wall, the game captures the theme pretty well.
In our game, it was a slow build until the Wildlings came out and started wreaking havoc. Just two of us (Kevin and me) were putting Guards on the Wall, so our defenses were somewhat sparse for much of the game and it was only a matter of time before the Wildlings breached The Wall 3 times and the game ended in a tragic victory. That’s another cool aspect of GOT Catan; you can win by gaining 10 Victory Points, but the game can also end once 3 Wall breaches have occurred or 8 Wildlings have made their way into your lands (aka: The Gift). It’s a nice way to amp up the excitement.
We had all played Catan before, but learning how the different Heroes could help you and how to deal with the Wildlings while still building roads, settlements, and keeps was new to us. There’s a nice mix of Heroes here. Samwell Tarly, Jeor Mormont, Ygritte, Melisandre, Benjen Stark, Mance Rayder, Bowen Marsh, etc. And Tormund acts as the Robber in this game. The only puzzling thing is that Jon Snow isn’t part of the base game, you have to buy the 5-6 player expansion to get him which is a bummer.
Melisandre proved to be the difference maker in our game, because the rest of us underrated her power – Wally used her often and snagged 4 VPs from Development cards, which was a big factor in him pulling out the win. I honestly thought I was going to win, but the final Wildling movement killed my 5th Guard (costing me 1 VP) and the opportunity to build some valuable stuff which I was ready to do that turn. Oh well, as the wise men say, when you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.
So what’s my overall verdict on A Game of Thrones: Catan – Brotherhood of the Watch? EXCELLENT (9 stars). Klaus Teuber is a terrific game designer, so it’s no real surprise that this is an excellent game. It’s a slick design, thematic, has attractive components, has multiple paths to victory (or pyrrhic victory) and interesting “do I co-operate or not” decisions on guarding the Wall. With experienced gamers, I would always prefer playing this over standard Catan.
Tiny Painted Heroes 