Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin)

[Gavic]

I have only read the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire. I am just waiting for him to write a few more before I read anymore. I dont like waiting from book to book.

I also have read all of Terry Goodkinds Sword of Truth series and The Wheel of Time. All I think are very good stories.

[radicalink]

Originally Posted by Gavic

I have only read the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire. I am just waiting for him to write a few more before I read anymore. I dont like waiting from book to book.

i find the waiting pleasurable... gives me time to browse the bookstores in eager anticipation. same with MMOS

guess what. just finished Feast For Crows. let the wait for the Dance begin.

btw... I think Dance will be much longer than the previous novels, like it is two books in one. So if you start Feast now you might not have to wait, seeing as the next installment will have a longer plotline.

[Requiem]

Well I got the board game of A Game of Thrones as well as the A Clash of Kings Expansion. We played it tonight (5 player), was actually a really well put together game, no dice rolling so if you fuck up it's your fault, not some lucky or unlucky roll from dice (ala Risk).

We didn't play the expansion though, since we wanted to learn how to play the vanilla game before adding the ports, forts, siege engines, and the other stuff from the expansion.

We randomly picked our great houses...

Mr. G was Baratheon
Mr. R was Tyrell
Ms. A was Starks
Mr. J was Greyjoys
and... I was Lannister.

At the start of the game the Lannisters are already in a sticky position (which was also mentioned in other reviews about the Lannisters starting position being pretty difficult). Directly to my north were the Greyjoys with their 2 fleets, northwest of me were the the Starks, east of me were the Baratheons, south of me were the Tyrells. I started with 1 fleet at Lannisport, 1 knight army and 1 footman army for the garrison there. Also 1 other footman army to the land directly in the east.

Basically, Mr J and I were at an undeclared truce, since him being the Greyjoys and I the Lannisters we were pretty much neck to neck with our armies and fleets. The Baratheons lead by Mr G went unmolested throughout Storms End and the surrounding areas, he even went into the Eyrie without any issue and started grabbing land there. Mr J went north to fight the Starks, which he managed to grab some land from Ms A. I shot straight east and grabbed Riverrun territories, I sent a small army south to grab the land south of Lannisport but the Tyrells lead by Mr R were already sending troops there, and routed my forces which fled back to Lannisport.

I spent much of the earlier period of the game consolidating power which increases how much I can bid on anything power related. Eventually... I sent another army south, I gave my armies a heightened attack rating, which were also lead by Tywin Lannister... as well as gave my 3 fleets support orders to reinforce my host marching down there. I won the fight pretty easily. Eventually I laid claim to the Iron Throne which gives me the power to decide the victor in any tied bidding war (non-military bids for power), but unluckily a card was drawn next round which caused us to re-bid for power..... and being that I used up 95% of my influence tokens to grab the Iron Throne the round before.. I didn't have much of anything to grab it again. Also it didn't help that a Wilding Attack came right after the bidding, which I didn't have much to help with the defense against that either (you use influence tokens to push back the Wildings, it's a group effort).

Well... eventually the Baratheons won (Mr G), the only person that attacked him in the entire game was me. The Starks and Greyjoys were busy with each other, I was in a 2-front war with Baratheon and Tyrells. I kept commenting to the others that Mr G was going to win this because he was being left alone (as what usually happens in war games when someone is left alone -- they have a lot of time to build). The Tyrells at the end were bent on wiping out the Greyjoys, the Starks were chilling up north, the Tyrells were severly over-extended which allowed the Baratheon's to eventually go back on their truce and then gobble up a lot of undefended territory easily.

There was a single turning point in the game that *could* have changed the outcome. I sent what remaining forces I had south of Riverrun with the only leader I had that was capable of giving my armies a boost... which was Kevan Lannister. I attacked the Baratheons and we tied. The Greyjoys lead by Mr J had the Valaryian Blade which lets him decide the outcome of any ties concerning warfare (it's one of the things you can bid power for). He felt "indebted" to Mr G for his previous assistance. Well.... Mr J voted against me, so I lost the battle and the Baratheons won. Reason why this was a critical fight, is that the area south of Riverrun has a bunch of supply resources in which you need to maintain a large army. If I would have won that, he would have dropped from 6/6 to 4/6 resources, which is no small dent. Anyhow, the Baratheons captured 7 major cities/strongholds which is one of the 2 ways to win the game.

This was our first attempt at playing it, it was pretty fun imo. Btw, I'm typing this at 4am... should make at least some sense... lol. Tired...

[radicalink]

LOL... sounds fun... i grew up on Risk, Shogun, and Axis and Allies.

just curious... how did you decide what House you were, Req? preference?

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by radicalink

LOL... sounds fun... i grew up on Risk, Shogun, and Axis and Allies.

just curious... how did you decide what House you were, Req? preference?

It's a random pick. Lannisters do start in a pretty bad position, being that they are right in the middle of the map and basically surrounded.

[Ragamuffin]

Originally Posted by Requiem

Well I got the board game of A Game of Thrones as well as the A Clash of Kings Expansion. We played it tonight (5 player), was actually a really well put together game, no dice rolling so if you fuck up it's your fault, not some lucky or unlucky roll from dice (ala Risk).

This sounds like a lot of fun. I love board games like these but rarely get the chance to play them. My wife, sadly, gets bored with table-top games if they last more than 30 minutes, and none of my close friends really care for the complexity or fantasy feel of games like these.

[Tuf]

I checked GRRM's site and he has an update on the HBO series:

The latest news on HBO front is that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have turned in the second draft of the pilot script for A GAME OF THRONES, and their rewrite is presently being read and evaluated by the powers-that-be at HBO. In other words, it's the normal process, which is long and often slow. So far, the reports are good, and HBO seems to like what they're seeing... but no, there's no greenlight yet, A GAME OF THRONES remains a script in development, not a series in production.

The one hard bit of news is that HBO has reached agreement with the BBC for them to come in as a partner on the series... IF it goes ahead. That's very cool news, and I'm excited and pleased to have the BBC involved... but even so, we're still in the crossed fingers stage here, not the shooting-off-fireworks stage.

I get emails about the HBO adaptation of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE almost daily, by the way, so let me say a few words about that.

Look, guys and girls, I appreciate all the enthusiasm and interest, but please stop sending me your resumes, your head shots, your audition tapes. We're not hiring anyone as yet. We won't be hiring anyone for some time, most likely. And should that day arrive when the show gets the greenlight and we start looking for a cast and crew, it won't be me doing the hiring and casting. I'll visit the set from time to time, I'm sure (how often may depend on whether we're shooting in Ireland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Rumania, or wherever), but the final decisions on these matters will be made by HBO, the BBC, the showrunners, and the director. I can't help you. Especially if you're not actually professionally involved in film and television, but are still "desperate to be involved in the show in any capacity, even just standing around in the background." I get a lot of those emails too. Those people who stand around in the background are called "extras," for what it's worth, and I'm not in charge of hiring them either. Again, we thank you for the love, but that's not how television works.

I also get a constant stream of emails asking me for news about the HBO project. Guys, that's why I have a News page on my website, and that's why I post here. When there's some news to share, I share it. Honest. No news is no news. Sometimes long periods pass when nothing is happening, or things are happening behind the scenes that even I am not aware of. Whenever there is a significant development -- like the BBC coming aboard -- I will post it here. I'm not going to try to disseminate it in individual emails to whoever happens to write that day to ask what's new with HBO.

Thanks for your patience. Thanks for your understanding. Keep your fingers crossed.

[radicalink]

Like GRR Martin says: keep your fingers crossed that the production will get the greenlight...

but I say:

cross em twiceover that its done well

[Blorc]

Lol at all the mail/resume/filmed auditions for the cast

..hopefully all goes well and it passes..I'd love to see this a mine series

[Teufelhund]

are these pretty good books? my roomate gave me a copy of the first one to read and then i realized it was this series and that i had seen a thread here about it.