Coins of Westeros - A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics Design Diary 2
Although there are many reasons that motivate the characters of A Song of Ice and Fire to fight each other, many are driven by a most basic need: to have the largest gold pile possible! Greed is very much alive in Westeros. Mercenaries are constantly bought and paid for, armies must be maintained, and loyalties change with heavy purses changing hands.
Olivier Zamfirescu here, co-designer of A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics. As money is a central component to A Song of Ice and Fire novels, we felt that it needed to be a central part of Song: Tactics as well. We wanted to include a component of resource management in the core mechanics, and George R.R. Martin gave us the perfect tools to do so: the Westeros currency system. Although it's not perfectly unified among all great Houses, it always boils down to gold, silver, and copper coins mixed together.
So how are your Gold Dragons, Silver Stags, and Copper Stars going to be used in Song: Tactics? First, they will play their part before the battle where they serve as currency to assemble your warband. Each model in the game costs a fixed amount of coin, some even mixing two types of coins.
Each scenario gives you the number of coins you can spend on your warband: that is for models and equipment (if you want to include any). You will just have to deduct the amount of the cost of the model you want to field from the total given by the scenario. When you run out of coins, your warband is ready!
Different characters cost different types and amount of coins. Heroes are characters that cost Gold Dragons to place in your warband. Champions cost Silver Stags. And finally, troops will cost you Copper Stars.
When the game starts, gather the same number of coins used to assemble your warband. This is your war chest for the entire game. You will be able to spend these coins throughout the game on various effects, described in detail in the rulebook. The most common ones are:
-Spending 1 Copper Star to activate a model or to power up their attack
-Spending Silver Stags to activate champions' abilities
-Spending Gold Dragons to allow your heroes to score extra victory points.
During the game, at the beginning of each round, the number of Copper Stars you started with will be refreshed. So as the game progresses and you take casualties, remaining warriors will have more Copper to spend each round. Survivors will turn into berserkers!
But Silver Stags and Gold Dragons are never replenished. So, these will have to be spent wisely during battle. Whether you go for an early advantage or try to keep some juicy abilities for a later stage will be totally up to you.
These choices are one of the cornerstones of the tactical decisions you will have to make playing Song: Tactics. Mastering how you spend your resources will definitely make great warbands leaders.
That’s all we have for you this time. Be sure to stop by again soon for more information about A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics. See you on the battlefield, bannermen!
A Song of Ice and Fire: Tactics is coming to Gamefound on February 8th, 3 pm EST! Follow the project HERE to get an exclusive dice tray with your pledge.
