"Look for this massive Battles of Westeros expansion to arrive in the second quarter of 2012."

This news tipped the scales on me buying the core game.  Seeing a fully fleshed out expansion as opposed to prior mini-expansions was a major factor for me.  Kinda sad that my Tide of Iron is kind of in limbo…

Not sure if "mini-expansion" is really fair.  This Baratheon product looks like more of a "mega-expansion".  I really enjoyed the expansion products, and a good price too.  This game is easily my favorite boardgame right now, my only small complaint is that its essentially a 2-player game. 

I really hope we see more products, wether they are regular expansions or large box expansions.  I really hope they do house Greyjoy, perhaps with a combination war-host and longship fleet?  mmmmmmm!

I guess we just have different ideas for what an expansion should be.  I'm thinking right along the lines of a Tide of Iron expansion, or maybe Company of Heroes level of content.

if it were my choice, i'd rather have multiple and frequent smaller expansions, than fewer and larger ones.  I'm not complaining, any new products for this game are welcome! 

vyrago said:

Yeah, definitely, any new products are really welcome

Personally, I do really love both of them: small expansions creating detailed scenarios based on alliances, and big expansions introducing whole new armies from the major Houses. I'd love to see some Scenarios only expansions, in a sort of blender for all existitng expansions

I agree that some new 'official' scenarios would be nice.  Perhaps even a scenario book that uses various expansions in different combinations.  Of course, one can always make your own scenarios with the skirmish cards.  For example, yesterday I played a scenario using both Wardens of the North and Tribes of Vale.  We used the skirmish cards, but after we placed terrain there seemed an almost obvious route for a road.  So we both agreed, placed the road and went about our battle.  It was extremely close, with Mormont Shieldmaidens just narrowly holding the hills against a ferrocious attack by Lannisport Guard and Stone Crows.  :)

Yeah i'm excited too about this expansion.  It's probably gonna be the one and only expansion i'll buy for this game.

And Baratheon are cool! Great army addition!

SolennelBern said:

Given that there are Tully, Clegane, and Tribes house markers in the set, I think we can be fairly sure that some of the scenarios will require units from the previous expansions.

The new preview of Stannis and Melisandre is stunning. House Baratheon is shaping up very colourful and with a number of unique tactics to be used - something that I'd like to play quite ASAP.

golem101 said:

Nice to see a little magic creep into BoW,I hope Melisandre "ability" isn't too much I don't remember her being a Battle Mage in the books.This is a Must Have of course

OD

Old Dwarf said:

This! The Melisandre/Stannis duo look really fun to play with and opens up even more strategy and planning.  Really looking forward to this one!

But, on that subject and I already got 1 comment about that, would you still buy this Baratheon expansion even though you don't plan to get any of the Wardens and other expansions?

SolennelBern said:

As you can see in the preview, for Battle of Blackwater, Parts 2 and 3, you need Wardens of the West. Does not matter if you plan to play skirmish only, but otherwise?

SolennelBern said:

I have all the Expansions so it's moot for me but why not?You would still have 3 playable Factions.However Stark & Lannister w/o the Expansions may be a bit underpowered as opposed to Baratheon.

OD

Well the Rules are up & my concerns about Melisandre are laid to rest,she's not a flame throwing Battle Mage.She has some interesting abilities & yes it would be a good idea to take her out if your the enemy commander.She is limited as to her success chances of her Rites but if successful they can help turn a Battle,still she's not mega powerful.

Of course until we get her on the table & see how she works in an actual game it's hard to tell what her actual effects will be but from the Rules it appears FFG has done a good job in adding some magic to BoW without making it a game changer.

OD