So, something that bothers me about the LCG format is that it's still being treated, in some respects, like a CCG. The starter set doesn't come with enough copies of each card to max them out in your collection, which is fine for keeping the starter set price down. But if I want to complete the sets, I need to either purchase *three* copies of the starter and end up tossing away numerous extra copies of unneeded cards like multiple Warlords and cards that were already two of in the set(which explains the shortage of starter sets that I've seen people having to deal with) or......trade with other people in a game that isn't supposed to need that. And then I'm lacking half of my own cards for myself.

So what I'm getting at is this, can we sort of pressure Fantasy Flight into making a second box that contains all the cards we'd need to have a max number of cards, without then having a lot of redundant cards that get tossed for lack of need? I can't imagine it being too difficult, as 99% of the assets are already complete. No new cards needed, just new box art and a separate packing list. Heck, toss in another set of the game tokens (because those are always useful to have some extras rolling around) they'd even be able to charge nearly as much as the starter set for it without it being unreasonable. I saw it happen with Invasion, or rather, the requests for it to happen but never did.

Or has the community as a whole just sort of accepted it, and I should just give in to picking up more starter sets? Public opinion is relevant here and if I'm swimming upstream that doesn't do much good.

Id say the easiest way is just to pick up those 3 Core sets as any complain or question regarding these matters is not likely to change the current LCG concept from FFG.

Now initially (I have no LCG background but CCG) I was also against getting 3 Core sets, I think it would have been a more perfect system if you only needed 2. As you'd only need to find a friend to share a cardpool with. However, I can also understand that 3 still keeps the price lower (as you mentioned).

An alternative would be to split everything up in factions. The main reason FFG is not doing this is because it would lead to certain favoured factions simply selling better as others. Currently any player will get any Warpack because it contains cards for each faction. Which in turn is simply better for sales.

So my best suggestion for this is to find friends to share the cardpool with. Finding 2 is ideal, but finding 1, both getting a Core and a half should also be doable.

It's $120 for three starter sets. Comparatively speaking, you could be spending $400-$500 just for a tier 1 Magic deck, and that's not even a whole set's worth of cards.

Core boxes will probably be less necessary as more warlord cycles come out. I don't see interested people waiting that long to play it. But to play competitively you'll need 3.

I can see why they did it that way. It's hard to sell a game with a price tag of $120 (using WonderWaaagh's $120) and hope their is enough people buying and supporting it. This way a person can buy a affordable box play it and decide wether or not they want to expand on it. If not you simply don't buy anymore and sell it.

But I think everybody who loves the game raised an eyebrow to buying 3 boxes, so we feel your pain. I think there is enough players playing it now that they probably could make a completion set but they would know wether or not if it would be worth it in (their) long run.

You could just live with the fact that there will be some cards you can't have three of

An LCG is a type of CCG with a far better controlled cost factor. Even if you do buy 3 core sets then only one of each warpack you are far ahead of someone playing MtG, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or any other CCG. Personally I play for fun and enjoyment so while I did chose to buy a second core set I am content and can play fun, balanced hames with those around me.

A Completion set would be a very bad idea for FFG and for the fan base in the long run.

You can google 'LCG completion set' and find topic after topic on this subject.

FFG aren't going to change. The reasons are well-established, but put simply: it wouldn't make sense for the company as they'll ultimately be damaging their own profits.

The theortical completion set would need to have a projected profit of at least (and probably more) than the company currently makes by selling additional Core Sets. Considering they'd have to price it as less than the price of 2x Cores (or there'd be no reason to buy this over 2x extra Cores) that means they need to sell not just as many completion sets as they currently sell extra cores, but also enough additional ones to make up the shortfall in lost sales.

And that's before you add the extra costs of packaging production/design and shipping costs.

And Id also say that the strategy isn't half bad. For sure it would be more convinient for some to be able to buy into specific factions but eBay also allows for this under a decent price. I believe I've seen Core faction sets go for around $10, so if your bound to go single-faction you could also spend your $30 on a single faction and only buy the Warpacks. Not half bad I would say.

The other advantage is that it also allows you to really get some friends into the game. Again I feel the cheapest way to get into an LCG is by doing so with a small group.

I don't have a particular favourite faction. Most who don't have a background with Warhammer don't have one from the start so you can just pick up a random faction and play with it. With Core you'll notice some big differences between faction in terms of power. But currently with all the Warpacks added (and spoilers counted in) I don't feel specific factions are directly worse than others. AM (Straken) has been for a while but will be getting a huge ammount of love with the next Warpack.

Does it make really such a difference to buy 3x the Core Set or 1x the Completion Box for the same price? Not really.

I like the way it works right now. I did some research on the game before buying it to be almost sure i'd like it, but if I didn't, I would have lost only 50$ instead of 150$. When I tried the game and I liked it, I bought the other 2 Core Sets I was missing.

Compared to the other LCGs, the Core Set of Conquest is the most well designed of them all. There are only 2 cards per factions you end up having 2 playsets and you get 2 playsets of each neutral cards also. Those extra cards are really useful when you want to build multiple decks. Like having 6x Rogue Trader, 6x Void Pirate, 6x Eldar Survivalist, etc...

FFG did a really good job so far and we can hope we need to buy only 1 of the upcoming Deluxe Expensions.

3 Core Sets was expensive in my eyes, but ultimately well worth it.

Ideally, however, I'd liked to have seen the game designed with a view to maximising value to the buyer without increasing costs.

For example, as a good rule of thumb, I think its a bad decision to have Neutral cards existing at all, as a lot of these cards are "must have" for most competitive deck, so if you want to build more than one competitve deck, you run out of those cards far before any other. I have six Void Pirates. If I had thirty, I'd be able to build five decks. Same is true of Promotions, and to a lesser extent, Rogue Traders.

Thats not to say I want to see a tonne of Void Pirates in every box: rather, I'd prefer the game wasn't designed so that these neutral cards were ubiquitous. I'd happily see Neutral cards not built into the game at all.

As another example, I currently have three of each core set Warlord and Signature Squad, and two sets of each are basically dead cards to me. Yes, I suppose I might want to build more than one deck of each Warlord, but thats not possible for other reasons, and I'd need three more core sets to do that competitively.

I'd much rather have seen a sales model that still allows completionists to get every card, but which reduces wastage and keeps costs down that way. A game with nine factions, and three factions in each of three different core sets would have been fantastic. Any competitive player would still pick up all three sets, but there'd be no wasted cost on multiples of things you can't use more than one of. To strike a balance between accessibility and encouraging future sales, the split could be done in such a way that if you wanted the alliance options of a given faction, there'd be one alliance in each of the other boxes.

For this game, however, I think its unrealistic to expect FFG to take on the extra costs of redoing the Core Set and would be way too disruptive to restructure the fundamental mechanics of the game, and things have to stay as they are. However, I'd hope that someone in the company is realising that the current model has alienated a lot of potential customers who baulk at the required cost for competitive play, and at the sheer size of the one-off outlay.

Going forward, what I'd like to ask them to do is this:

In the upcoming Deluxe Expansions, include six more each of Rogue Trader, Void Pirate and Promotion.

Cheers!

So true..

I would like to add that, at some point in the past, FFG went on record to say that they would never do this.

It really is simple once you think about it. As long as this game endures, FFG will continue to produce Core Sets. This is the way the model works. Why would they then spend time and money on printing a product that essentially will compete with the Core Sets? As Commissar stated above, people would buy either one or the other, whichever made more sense financially. This would render the other product irrelevant and wasteful.

As I have said before, the issue to me is FFG calling them Core Sets, when they are nothing more than a collection of starter decks. If they had a less misleading name, I think people would better understand and accept what they are getting into and not expect that the product needs completion.

Ultimately 3 Core Sets, generally speaking, aren't necessary as the card pool grows. In many cases 2 of a single card is sufficient. If you're in competitive play, you'll often find folks willing to lend you a card to fill out a deck if you're in a pinch too that should avoid it.

The core set is just that ... this topic comes and goes with the ebb and flow of releases which is why FFG won't need to move.

Pick up your third set from that dude who bought everything up front and then just faded away into the background...the Internet is full of those dudes...

I got my second core set second hand from someone who wasn't feeling it. Cheaper than buying it new at the time (think the prices had inflated), so I was happy.

I do hope that the Devourer expansion is a completed set though.

I do hope that the Devourer expansion is a completed set though.

It will be.

There is only 1 recent lcg that had a deluxe that you needed more than one of. Even with Star Wars the newest deluxe you only needed one copy of.

FFG should do the extra cards as print on demand. They would get some money and everyone would be happy.

FFG should do the extra cards as print on demand. They would get some money and everyone would be happy.

PoD costs considerably more per card. It's probably still cheaper to print and buy a 2nd and 3rd Core set (especially because of the logistics of litho printing and large print runs).

FFG should do the extra cards as print on demand. They would get some money and everyone would be happy.

PoD costs considerably more per card. It's probably still cheaper to print and buy a 2nd and 3rd Core set (especially because of the logistics of litho printing and large print runs).

And of course Print on Demand cards have that slightly different texture, which could become a significant factor if a large portion of your card pool is PoD.

PoD has obviously been a boon for LotR, which is a more niche LCG and their PoD products are limited to encounter decks. It wouldn't be on a large scale for something like Conquest.

That is what deck sleeves are for though.

I think I'll probably buy 2 Core sets at first, then perhaps get the third Core set later. Even though it is a cheaper hobby than a CCG, I think it is still a bit expensive to spend over $100 for 3 Core sets right away, not to mention the Wolf Packs.

I didn't know FF said they had no plans to ever make a set like that, I just recall conversations from when Invasion launched along that line. People made some pretty good points as to why they wouldn't bother, and everyone seems to agree that just picking up the extra sets and ditching the extras is acceptable. I guess that's just going to be how it is.