When comparing A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition) vs Go, the Slant community recommends Go for most people. In the question“What are the best board games?” Go is ranked 7th while A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition) is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Go is:
Stronger players can give handicap to weaker opponents for even games
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent game design
Like Risk, but with more planned strategy in stead of luck by throwing dice. Tactics are planned out ahead of time (instead of turn by turn in Risk) and then they are laid out turn by turn depending on placement.
Pro Nerve-racking
The game is extremely intense. Shouldn't be played on an empty stomach!
Pro Good replayability
Every time it is different, more or less players matters a lot in the gameplay which effects how the game plays each time.
Pro Handicap system
Stronger players can give handicap to weaker opponents for even games
Pro The most complex strategy game, with the most simple elements
Pro Incredible depth&complexity but yet simple rules
Cons
Con Takes a long time to learn and play
The gameplay is very deep and interesting, but it involves a lot of mechanics and rules. You only have a certain amount of action tokens, and you can't always use the more powerful actions (you need to be a certain rank on the track), and there's a bunch of other things you need to think about constantly. There are tons of little mechanics you need to learn first before you can actually enjoy the game (and that will probably take a playthrough or 2, which is about 5 hours...especially if you're reading the rulebook).
Con Flares can be fustrating
As one of your action tokens, you can use a flare, which interrupts another action token of an opposing player. While useful, they do nothing besides slow down the game (for example, if the Lannisters keep flaring the Greyjoy's ships then they're stuck where they are and the Greyjoys can't do anything about it, essentially rendering them useless).