The Road to Winterfell Chapter pack expansion for A Game of Thrones LCG

The Road to Winterfell is the next chapter pack for A Game of Thrones LCG Westeros cycle.

“I shall have to borrow the money. No doubt the Lannisters will be accommodating. We owe Lord Tywin some three million dragons at present, what matter another hundred thousand?”
   –George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

 

 

Ancient evil awakens in the lands beyond the Wall. The last Targaryens bind their future to the Dothraki lord, Khal Drogo. From the heights of the Eyrie in the east to the heart of Casterly Rock in the west, the Great Houses of Westeros plot to increase their own power. Now, you can continue to follow the events of A Game of Thrones in The Road to Winterfell.

 

Like the other packs in this cycle, The Road to Winterfell is filled with iconic characters and locations from the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire. Here, you’ll meet iconic characters like Rakharo and Syrio Forel, and you’ll find a Targaryen attachment so powerful, it’s limited to one copy per deck! The Road to Winterfell also quickly expands the number of available plots with two new neutral plots and one plot loyal to House Lannister.

 

Time to dive in and take a look at what we get.......

 As the previous chapter pack it comes in a nice clam shell with some great art on the front

 

 As before the card that is showing on the rear of the pack, it gives you a mini overview of what is in there, and has an excellent feature, where you can scan the QR code to see a list of the contents.

 

Winterfell Kennel Master is a 2 cost 1 strength card for house Stark.  He has a challenges action, that if you control a participating Stark character you may kneel a Direwolf or a character with an attached Direwolf to have it participate in the challenge.

 

Winterfell Castle is a 3 cost location.  During power or military challenges if you control 2 or more unique Stark characters they get +2 strength each.  This can make swing the Challenge in our favour.

Lady in Waiting is a house Tyrell card, 2 cost, 1 Strength with an intrigue icon.  She can be marshalled as a duplicate on any Lady traited character you control, so she is handy to soak up some damage.

 

Lady Sansa's Rose is a 1 cost event with the reaction: /After you win a challenge in which you control a Knight traited character that character gains a  power, but if you control a Lady as well he gains 3.  A great card to try and push you to the amount of power for the win.

Unsworn apprentice is a 3 cost 2 strength character for the Nights Watch.  He has no icons,  but during the challenges phase he gains one of your choice, so he is excellent for keeping your opponent unsure about what you have to block with.

 

Brandon's Gift is a 2 cost location, and has the reaction after you marshal a builder character you can reduce the cost of the next Nights watch card by 1.  With the right build, this will more then pay for itself over time.

 

Royal Entourage is a 2 cost 3 strength Baratheon card with Military and Power challenge icons. The forced reaction though, is that they must be knelt if you lose an Intrigue challenge.

 

In the name of your king is a 1 cost event that can only be used in a military challenge that you are defending.  You kneel your faction card to end the challenge with no winner or loser, but you can not initiate a military challenge yourself this phase, which is not a problem if you have gone first.

on to my favourite Art for this pack, and my favourite house.... The Brothel Madam for house Lannister.  She is a 3 cost, 2 strength character with an intrigue icon.  Her reaction ability is, after the challenges phase begins, you may choose a player, easy in a 2 player joust.  That player may give you 1 gold from their pool.  Until the end of the phase, if the player has NOT given you the gold they can not initiate Military challenge.  This is a great card, as it forces your opponent to hold back a gold if they want to do a military challenge.

 

Syrio Forel is a neutral character with cost 5, and strength 3 and only the military challenge icon, so he seems pretty expensive for what you get.  Until you look more into it, he has stealth himself so he can pick an enemy without stealth that can not block him.  He also has an ability during the challenges phase.  You choose a character, and give them stealth and a Military challenge icon, so he is great for making your opponent think you have nothing left to block with, or to provide a powerful character without military the right icon to cause havoc.

 

 

House Greyjoy gets the Reader.  Cost 5, strength 4, with an intrigue and a power icon he has the reaction that after you win a challenge in which a unique Greyjoy character is participating in, you may draw 1 card, or discard the top 3 cards of your opponents deck.  Remember if all your cards in your deck are gone, then you automatically lose the game.

 

Raiding Longship is a 2 cost location with the challenge action: If you are the first player, kneel the Raiding Longship to choose a defending character without attachments, and they then do not add their strength to the challenge.  Its great for pulling out enemies, so you can win the challenge.

 

Nymeria Sand is a 5 cost, 4 strength character with no icons for house Martell. Her challenges action lets you choose an opponents character and pick and remove an icon from them, whilst giving all the traited Sand Snakes that same icon.  This is a very powerful card, you can strip powerful cards of their ability to challenge if this is played later in the phase, or you can just stop some cards from challenging at all, and always receive the icon you need.

 

In Dorans name is a 0 cost event, you kneel your faction card to gain X gold, where X is the amount of plots in the discard pile.  very handy later game to give you that extra burst of coin.

Another contender for my favourite art of this pack, Rakharo is a 6 cost, strength 4 character for the Targaryen faction.  He has the military and power challenge icons, and if you control another Bloodrider character he gains intimidate.  He has the reaction, that after a character is killed to satisfy claim during a challenge you initiated he gains a power. 

 

Crown of gold is a 4 cost attachment, it gives the attached character the King trait, and also reduces their strength by 4, and the character is killed is their strength is 0.  This is super powerful, it can shut down big powerful cards by reducing them, or even killing them.  IT is so powerful it is limited to only 1 in a deck.

Shadowblack Lane is a 1 cost neutral location, that has the reaction, after you win an intrigue challenge you can kneel your faction card to search the top 10 cards of your deck for an event to add to your hand.

 

Wardens of the West is a Lannister only plot, with 5 gold, 4 initiative and 1 claim and a reserve of 6.  It provides the reaction, after you win an intrigue challenge you can pay 2 gold to have the losing player choose and discard 2 cards from their hand.  This can strip 3 cards, and can be hugely powerful as intrigue is something the Lannisters excel at, and getting gold to spend it on is another thing they do very well.

 

Trading with the Pentoshi is a 10 gold, 2 initiative 1 claim plot, with a reserve of 5.  It has the reaction that when revealed each opponent gains 3 gold.  This is a great plot if you want to lay down a lot of cards in the marshalling phase.

 

Political Disaster is a 4 gold, 3 initiative with 1 claim and a reserve of 4.  When revealed each play may choose up to 2 locations they control, and the rest are discarded from play.  ITs a great play if your opponent has a lot of locations out generating income and causing effects, as it will make the choice s harder, though of course it will also effect you as well.

 

This is a great pack, new cards, and new plots can change decks totally and keep them fresh and different, and there are some interesting ones in here to try out.

 

I am glad you get 3 of every card to add more variety to the core box, I cant wait to reinforce my decks and test them out.

 

You can pick up your own Taking the Black chapter pack to expand your choices with an RRP of £11.99 from your local game store

 

To learn more about A Game of Thrones the card game second edition take a look here
and check out our other articles with more to follow.

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