Starks vs. Lannisters – First Impressions of RTS War for Westeros

Classic base-building real-time strategy games stopped being a mainstream genre a long time ago, so any new entry tends to grab attention. That's exactly the case with Game of Thrones: War for Westeros from PlaySide, announced at Summer Game Fest 2025. Journalists recently got hands-on time with an early build, and some initial impressions are already taking shape.

The game is set during the era of the mainline A Song of Ice and Fire story, rather than prequels like House of the Dragon or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Players take command of one of the Great Houses and lead their armies into battle.

The full release promises the Starks of the North, the Lannister lions, Daenerys Targaryen with her dragons, and even the frozen hordes of the White Walkers.

The build available for testing was more modest than the final ambitions suggest. It only included 1v1 online and offline skirmish modes, two factions – Stark and Lannister – and two small maps. That was enough to get a feel for the core mechanics and economy, though.

Visually, the game leans on the HBO show for inspiration. Jon Snow and Tywin Lannister look like Kit Harington and Charles Dance respectively, and the battlefields already look impressive even in this alpha state. Flaming arrows raining down on structures and the emerald glow of wildfire hurled by pyromancers into enemy ranks stand out as particularly striking.

The developers are clearly putting effort into making each house visually distinct. Zooming in reveals that Stark soldiers wear fur cloaks and heavy armor suited for the cold, while their buildings are made of sturdy timber and grey stone. Lannister troops, meanwhile, wear gold-and-crimson armor, and their structures are draped in banners bearing the lion sigil.

The differences between factions run deeper than looks. Each army fields unique units with their own abilities, and each requires a different build order. Playing as the North versus the West feels noticeably different from the first few minutes of a match.

The Starks lean on brute strength and strong cavalry capable of smashing through most Lannister formations. A pleasant surprise is the ability to recruit not just Night's Watch brothers with melee and ranged options, but also wildlings and creatures from beyond the Wall. That mix gives the faction some unexpected flexibility on the battlefield.

The North's heroes are Robb Stark and Jon Snow, accompanied by their direwolves. These special units level up by getting kills and unlock increasingly powerful abilities, though bringing them back after death costs more and takes longer. Jon Snow, for example, boosts nearby allies' damage and resistance, while a separate strike inflicts bleeding on enemies.

Lannisters always pay their debts, and PlaySide built the faction entirely around that idea. Their gold-producing buildings generate more resources per structure, and workers can be sped up by throwing extra coin their way. Gold can also be converted into influence and back, with influence going toward advanced buildings and elite units.

As a result, the early game plays out noticeably faster and easier for the lions than for the northerners. While the Starks recruit allies through traditional training, the Lannisters buy contracts for mercenary companies, each with its own strengths. Economic advantage here translates directly into military power.

Jaime and Tywin serve as the house's heroes. The younger lion works best on the front lines, while Tywin commands from horseback, stripping debuffs from his troops and boosting his own cavalry. Jaime, a master swordsman, deals heavy damage to single targets and taunts enemies toward himself, while his reputation as the Kingslayer slows and slowly damages foes around him.

The match structure will feel familiar to anyone who grew up on StarCraft, Command and Conquer, or the Age of Empires remasters. Players start with a small plot of land around their seat of power, and losing it means defeat. From there, it's about building barracks, archery ranges, and resource structures, some of which only unlock after others are built.

The map is divided into capturable regions, and controlling a tower in a region lets workers build there. On the compact 1v1 maps, some of these zones contain resource-rich points where players can build upgraded production structures like Lannister mine shafts or Stark windmills. That noticeably speeds up the economy.

Even more interesting are the camps that spawn neutral hostile mobs. Clearing them out nets gold, and the camps respawn every couple of minutes. Parking a squad of knights and archers nearby turned out to be a solid tactic, and it saved the day more than once by providing quick reinforcements to defend a new expansion.

The whole experience kept bringing to mind The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth 2. The similarities show up in how heroes behave, in the spread-out building placement, and in those neutral camps. Worth noting that there's currently no legal way to buy that older strategy game digitally.

Even in this trimmed-down form, War for Westeros looks approachable for seasoned strategy players and for anyone who just wants revenge for Ned Stark. Against easy opponents, it's fine to just build whatever units look cool, but higher difficulties demand hotkeys, countering specific unit types, and using hero abilities at the right moments. And that's with only two factions available so far.

Weak points in the build include sparse tooltips that don't explain what bonuses come from garrisoning a worker inside a building. The facing marker for building placement is also too small and easily gets lost among trees and grass.

The biggest complaint, though, is the camera, which doesn't pull back far enough to take in the scale of battles despite how large the buildings and armies get.

The remaining three launch factions, the campaign, and how large-scale battles will play out are all still unknown.

A release date hasn't been announced either. Still, the foundation for a Westeros-based base-building strategy game looks solid. For now, Game of Thrones: War for Westeros can be added to Steam wishlists.