I know it's still early - and that the tournament had unique rules - but I'd love to hear the reviews/feedback from folks that were able to get sets at GenCon. Hope it is as good as the previews have made it out to be.

Keep in mind that I'm a new player (only had the Core Set for 1st edition) and I only got 2 melee games in, but the 2nd edition is freakin' fantastic! This Core Set is miles ahead of the 1st edition Core. The starter decks feel much more balanced, the plots seem a better fit for both joust/melee, and it's overall an engaging experience. In our melee games, the experienced player won both times, but us newer players didn't get completely blown out, which was good. Everyone who played the game seemed to absolutely love it.

I'm a new player and I've played about a dozen jousts on OCTGN. I've loved it so far. Even playing against other noobs we rarely had any rules questions. The factions have felt well balanced, although I'd say the single faction decks have tended to be stronger, at least in part because of the fealty discount.

I hate milk of the poppy and hand's judgement and wish they weren't in the game. Unconditional cancellation/control is what kept me away from competitive magic and partially what kept me away from GoT 1.0 because I heard that was the dominant strategy. I find it makes the game way more stale and unenjoyable.

But other than those two cards, everything has been great! A few games were pretty much decided by turn 2, but most of the time they have stayed competitive until the end, around turn 4 or 5.

In my opinion, you need cards like Milk of the Poppy and The Hand's Judgement as standard answer cards. They also aren't unconditional.

Milk of the Poppy can't attach to a ton of the Night's Watch characters, for example(because they can only have Weapon attachments attached). You can also discard Milk of the Poppy with the Confiscation plot and there are other cards that can discard it as well.

The Hand's Judgement requires you to spend the same amount of gold as the event just played in order to cancel it, which could be the difference in marshaling better cards or playing your own events.

Once we see more cards added to the card pool, in order to add them to your decks, they will need to replace something. These cards might be replaced in some decks depending on what's added.

As the card pool expands, there will probably be more attachment-discard effects and "No attachments" characters, both of which take some of the teeth out of Milk of the Poppy.

Similarly, as the card pool expands, there will probably be more high-cost events and/or event cost reducers, making Hand's Judgment a harder choice for a lot of players. (The thing to remember about cancels is that while they are annoying for the person whose effect is negated, they don't do anything to actively move the person playing them toward victory.)

How is House Baratheon?

I got my 6-point Doran's Game canceled on Saturday at the tournament. Boooo!

With its sell out of all product taken to Gen Con, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition is officially the most successful product launch in the history of FFG.

With its sell out of all product taken to Gen Con, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition is officially the most successful product launch in the history of FFG.

They sold out of all product taken to Gencon for Conquest, Star Wars and AGoT 1st Ed. The LCGs generally go big at Gencon.

Not saying it isn't the most successful product launch in FFG history, but "sold out of all product taken to Gencon" doesn't seem like a good measure of this because it's not uncommon.

With its sell out of all product taken to Gen Con, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition is officially the most successful product launch in the history of FFG.

They sold out of all product taken to Gencon for Conquest, Star Wars and AGoT 1st Ed. The LCGs generally go big at Gencon.

Not saying it isn't the most successful product launch in FFG history, but "sold out of all product taken to Gencon" doesn't seem like a good measure of this because it's not uncommon.

As stated by the FFG CEO at the In Flight talk at GenCon - "With its sell out of all product taken to Gen Con, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition is officially the most successful product launch in the history of FFG"

Each year they have increased the amount of product taken to Gen Con for new releases and yes, aGoT out sold, in it's launch at Gen Con, even any of the Star Wars products. This does not mean it will out sell them at retail and I doubt they will myself but it shows that aGoT, and LCGs, are a massive part of FFG

Each year they have increased the amount of product taken to Gen Con for new releases and yes, aGoT out sold, in it's launch at Gen Con, even any of the Star Wars products.

That's the additional information that was missing from the original statement.

In my opinion, you need cards like Milk of the Poppy and The Hand's Judgement as standard answer cards. They also aren't unconditional.

By unconditional I mean you don't need to do anything to play them. By contrast, Tears of Lys and Put to the Sword require certain conditions that allow you to play them. I'd be fine with Milk if it required you to win intrigue, or control a Maester, or something like that. And sure you can discard it, but that's way more difficult than playing it in the first place.

I got my 6-point Doran's Game canceled on Saturday at the tournament. Boooo!

Thought the highest it could get to was 5 since you can't have 6 plots in your used pile. At least until they print Betrayal at the Wall for 2.0.

I got my 6-point Doran's Game canceled on Saturday at the tournament. Boooo!

Thought the highest it could get to was 5 since you can't have 6 plots in your used pile. At least until they print Betrayal at the Wall for 2.0.

It would have been for 6 points with the Red Viper's power grab, for the win. I misspoke.

How is House Baratheon?

I would say Baratheon is extremely strong out of the core, although it is quite different from 1st edition. Bara is the kneel house in the 2nd ed core, and kneel is a very strong strategy, especially early in the card pool.

I'm a new player and I've played about a dozen jousts on OCTGN. I've loved it so far. Even playing against other noobs we rarely had any rules questions. The factions have felt well balanced, although I'd say the single faction decks have tended to be stronger, at least in part because of the fealty discount.

Forgive my confusion, but what fealty discount? I've read the LtP booklet and Rules Reference, and couldn't see any mention of a discount. What am I missing, please?

Mark

There is an agenda named "Fealty" that allows you to kneel your faction card to reduce the cost of your next loyal card by 1. The down side is you may include no more than 15 neutral cards in your deck.