hi guys!!i am new to the game.i want to play casually with 2-3 friends of mine.is it a good start to buy 1 core set and 1 deluxe box?

Welcome! Are you providing the cards for everyone or are you joining an established group?

If your friends already have cards then getting a Core set plus a faction box would be a great way to have a pretty competitive deck quickly. However, don't pick the Silver Twilight box, it's different from the rest because it was adding a whole new faction to the game that didn't exist in the Core. Any of the other is fine. All the faction have their box now except Hastur which had their box pre-released last week at Gencon. It should show up in stores within 6 weeks or so.

If you are providing the cards for everyone then you want to keep all factions on roughly equal footing. In that case, then a Core + one of the non-faction deluxe boxes (Secrets of Arkham or Terror in Venice) would be a good way to go.

I should also mention that there isn't much traffic here because most of the Cthulhu discussion is on cardgamedb.com, so I would suggest that you get an account there. More active discussions, more responses, just an overall better populated place and it also features a handy deck builder.

@Dboeren: Did the Order get some cards in the later Cycles? I'm guessing, compared to the other factions, they don't have near the card pool.

@Tau:

I'd think you would need two Core sets if you plan to play with friends and arent' playing the same factions, but that's just my opinion. Actually, I'd totally left CoC LCG behind since I didn't have any local players and my (at the time) local game store players were, let's say as a 44 year old player, had players surrendering games because their mom said it was time to come home. Yeah, that actually happened.

Back on topic, I recently ran across someone at Board Game Geek that created a way to play solo against a procedural bot (i.e. Minion) and got me back into the game.

Discusses development:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1155106/solitaire-variant-cthulhu-rising

Link to excellent PDF instructions:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/118485/updated-solo-variant-cthulhu-rising-v20

So, I then discovered that at some point, they stopped making Asylum Packs and recently went on a purchasing spree to gather them up before they disappeared Into the Gate. Unfortunately, I have the first two cycles before FFG got their shinizzle together and figured out that 60 card packs were the way to go. They were reprinted, but I don't know if those will ever get reprinted again since I get the feeling that CoC LCG is little more niche than, say, Star Wars or Warhammer. Safe to say, the first two cycles are not available using Amazon or CoolStuffInc.

By all accounts ALL cycles are due for reprints via ffg print-on-demand service which i think is awesome. So just hang tight, they will come (all due as 60 card versions)

By print-on-demand, is that ordering from FFG directly or that just means that as stock runs out, they'll just spin up the production run again for websites like CoolStuffInc?

On another note, in your signature, what are you wanting from Summons of the Deep?

Hi

Print on demand means they produce it using their in-house manufacturing equipmemt. So the cards do feel/look ever-so slightly different, but technically will always be in-stock because if you order one, theyll print it.

So if a retailer wants any, they too order x-many packs and ffg print x-many for them.

Personally i dont mind the difference in card feel and am very happy about the idea of them all being easilly obtainable

As for my needs with the summons deep cycle, i dont fully know as the collection i bought hasnt arrived yet, but I think i need all six of the packs from that cyvle (60 card count packs)

Print on demmand (POD) in my book is awesome ad otherwise some packs might not be able to sell enough to justify a full printing. This way we keep it ALL in print for any newbies like me

Print on demmand (POD) in my book is awesome ad otherwise some packs might not be able to sell enough to justify a full printing. This way we keep it ALL in print for any newbies like me

Word.

I am slightly OCD when it comes to card games, especially LCGs. I like to have complete collections...even if I don't use them all. You never know when some weird theme or bizarre idea for a deck pops into your head and you need a card never thought to have a purpose for you.