This is my first time posting on this forum. I have payed Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, and Elder Sign many times but I had not played the LCG until last weekend. I play the Lord of the Rings LCG for its solo ability After playing with theCoC core set, the game has my interest. As a newbie to the game, i just wanted to hear from some of you more experienced players what your thoughts are on the game? What would you suggest for a newbie? What expansions should I look into? Since this is one of FFGs early LCGs does the expansion packs come with 3 copies of every card? If not that might be a deterrent for me.

Hi and welcome to the game! I'd recommend doing what my partner and I did, which is have a great time playing the core set until the box falls apart. By that point, you'll know the cards really well and will be chafing for a bit of variety. You may then want to expand your core set by getting hold of Secrets of Arkham, which has some very tasty cards in it. You could play highlander style (one of each card in your deck, max) until you have a handle on the new cards and then perhaps look at one of the other deluxe expansions - many of the factions have their own box, so pick one (or two or three) that correspond with the faction(s) you like the most. Order of the Silver Twilight adds the eighth faction, and if you get it then you'll be able to get more mileage out of the asylum packs from later sets which also include this faction. For what it's worth, I had a break from this game for a while and I came back to it recently and was reminded of how high the body count gets compared to other card games - it's deadly and merciless (and fantastic). Don't get caught up in the whole deck optimisation thing just yet. Enjoy the core set and the rest will follow.

Best wishes

Pac_Man3D

Also, if you do get Secrets of Arkham, make sure it's the reprint - this will have three copies of each card, whereas the original has just two. Why have two Deep One(s) Rising when you can have three?

http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/CoC/CoCCards.html

Thank you guys for your comments. I really appreciate it!

Alas, I am but one guy, albeit with the personality of several...

welcome CoC lcg is probably one of FFs best card games, great mythos, big card pool excellent mechanics, you will get hooked, buy another core set and one or two of the expansions you are interested in and you will have months and months of play from that alone, careful though you may be tempted to buy more cards!

If you decide you want to start collecting more cards, the most common suggestions are to get either Secrets of Arkham or Terror Venice as the first expansion.

If you want to spend more for a bigger start it would probably include:

1. Terror in Venice

2. Secrets of Arkham

3. A second Core set (to get extra copies of these cards)

If you want to play in tournaments you'll need the Shifting Sands asylum pack since that has the current set of Story cards.

Other than that, it's pretty much whatever you want. If there's a specific faction you like you can get a big jump start on that faction by buying their faction box. If you're looking at joining an established group and want to be more competitive quickly this could be a good route since you'll get a higher percentage of cards for the faction you want to play.

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I plan in February to pick up two core sets and give the game a try with a buddy who already owns a core set.

Sounds good, let us know if you have any questions or anything else we can help you with.

If you and your friend are planning to pool your cards together (I don't know if you are or not) then you could potentially just get one Core and Arkham/Venice if you wanted to see more variety of cards rather than having 3xCores. Either way...

I'm pretty interested to see how you like it, Tyberius. I joined the forums today to look into all of these LCG's, the game format seems very enticing. I'll be checking out the youtube videos today!

EDIT: My question about starting to get into the game is its projected life span. One of the threads in the General LCG forum mention something about this game ending its run? Frightening prospect for a new player!

EDIT: My question about starting to get into the game is its projected life span. One of the threads in the General LCG forum mention something about this game ending its run? Frightening prospect for a new player!

Rumors about the game going to end 'real soon now' are about as old as the game itself. They come up whenever there's news about a new release for the game. I wouldn't pay them any heed. Officially, there's never been any indication that there are plans to stop releasing new deluxe sets. The only official news have always been that FFG is quite happy with CoC LCG sales.

Rumors are just rumors, and you can find them about practically any game. People just like to fret and worry without cause.

The only actual facts we know are that:

1. FFG hasn't announced anything

2. They've gone to the trouble of reprinting old stuff. New Core set, updated Secrets of Arkham, now the print on demand stuff

3. In their public addresses they've been saying that Call of Cthulhu is selling well, that the deluxe box model has been successful, etc...

4. Call of Cthulhu tend to have a lower cost to produce because it shares art assets and licensing with several other Cthulhu-themed games

Basically, I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm pretty interested to see how you like it, Tyberius. I joined the forums today to look into all of these LCG's, the game format seems very enticing. I'll be checking out the youtube videos today!

EDIT: My question about starting to get into the game is its projected life span. One of the threads in the General LCG forum mention something about this game ending its run? Frightening prospect for a new player!

Another question you got to ask yourself is how many "official" tournaments are you going to go too? The game has a lot of content and if you have a friend or two to play with the game is so worth it. I live in MN and even I only can make 2 or 3 actual tournaments a year. I wish I had a local player that I can play with on a regular basis. The game has so much content that if you even have just one friend to play with I highly recommend it.

Hi Tyberius,

Yes, again, welcome to the game! We are some of the friendliest and helpful bunch of people you'll ever meet in a card game. I have played my fair share of card games in the past and I can definitely tell you there is something alluring and irresistible about this game. It's deeply strategic, the card pool is practically an embarrassment of riches, deck making is easy and intuitive without any unreasonable constraints, each choice you make in your head when playing is MEANINGFUL, and each match can potentially yield surprising twists and results that you (or your opponent) didn't see coming. It's no secret that CoC is FFG's beloved little darling and it seems - for the time being - that they have yet to give up on it (there are TWO big box expansions coming this year, one which is being released this week and another in a couple of months, never mind the promos, Draft packs, and Dreamlands print on demand they are doing in support of the game. That's a lot of CoC love in 2015.)

BUT .............! (you knew this was coming)

I am obligated to tell you that the player base is small, much smaller than Thrones and shamefully smaller than Netrunner. If you are a competitive player, you may have problems finding other players in your area (I don't know, maybe you already have a community you can turn to). Tournaments for CoC are always a bit hit or miss........a good tournament is when at least 10 people show up. Anymore than 10 and that's a cause for celebration.

However, if you are not hardcore competitive and just want to play with your friends or loved ones, by all means, get this game. You won't regret it.

I have a friend I can play this wonderful game with, but not very consistently. It wasn't until I stumbled upon an excellent solo version over on boardgamegeek.com that really sent my passion for this game into overdrive. You can find the variant here .

It really captures the spirit of the game and is dang fun when you can't find anyone else to play.

Build the decks you want and play away.