Sleeving Guide - Use Advisedly!

By Groovin, in Fantasy Flight Supply

The sleeving guide is helpful as far as it goes, but fails to take into account that total packs of sleeves will be in some cases significantly less when purchasing to cover an entire game series, rather than its individual constituents. Take, for example, the Arkham Horror series. The guide informs us that to cover just the mini cards in the base game plus expansions requires a total of 19 packs of 50. 950 mini sleeves, but wait a minute, the entire series contains only a total of 798 mini cards (discounting the 7 replacements for AH cards which come with DH; and more on that side point below). 798 cards requires just 16 packs, not 19: a difference of $7.50. Not significant? Don't forget tax and shipping costs. That "insignificant" $7.50 can easily double if you are located outside the USA (as in my case).

I mentioned above the 7 replacement cards for AH included in DH. These are totaled into DH's parts manifest, yielding a total of 152 mini cards. According to that figure, the sleeving guide correctly states that one would need 4 packs of mini sleeves to cover DH. But since 7 of those cards are replacements for cards presumably already sleeved (we'll assume for argument that no one in their right mind and capable of reading would buy a game expansion without having the base game). So, only 145 mini cards in DH require sleeves (unless one is so fastidious as to require keeping now obsolete cards sleeved for their protection - yeah, they might be collector items, sure... [no, really, I'm not being sarcastic]). Well, that's 3 packs, not 4, and the guide should definitely annotated reflective of this fact.

I own the entire AH, TI3 and Talsiman series (to date) and, as a result of follwoing the sleeving guide too literally, just in mini sleeves alone, I ended up with an excess of over 300 sleeves - more than half a box. I must of course accept part responsibility for this, since it is somewhat obvious, but the guide really should include an strong, clear advisory about this issue (and, again, correct total given for entire game series, in addition to the individual titles).

On a happier footnote, it's not all bad: the forthcoming Frostmarch expansion for Talisman will require (if I remember aright), 3 packs of mini sleeves to protect, so at least I'm already covered (with plenty over to spare).

Corrections and Addenda:

The total of AH mini cards (across the entire series) is 796 (not 798: again this figure does not include 7 replacement cards included in DH). The bottom line of whole packs of 50 sleeves remains 16, however (as opposed to the 19 which results from simply tallying the figures given in the sleeving guide).

I forgot to mention that guide contains a factual error in the form of the figure given for the number of mini sleeve packs required for Innsmouth Horror. According to the guide, 2 packs (100 sleeves) are required, from which I surmise that whoever prepared the guide failed to take into account the 12 (Quanchil Uttaus) Dust cards (listed under Ancient One cards) which are also minis, and bring the total of IH mini cards to 108 (thus requiring 3, not 2, packs of sleeves). Mathematically, however, it doesn't matter, since the owner of IH will also at least have AH, and there will be enough spare sleeves to cover the discrepancy (especially true for those who also have DH and were unwary enough to buy 4 packs of sleeves for it).

For the record (just in case), the purpose of this topic is not to flame or embarrass FFG, but simply to inform. It is to be hoped that FFG will make (what I deem to be) necessary adjustments to the wording of the sleeving guide. The guide is going to need updating anyway, to cover the addition of new titles forthcoming (such as Talisman: Frostmarch), so it's an opportunity to do it better. I hope they do so. I further wish others will read this and avoid my error of puchasing too many sleeves for their needs.

Happy gaming!

I think the guide is useful, despite the lack of accuracy in the numbers. Thankfully, for myself...I have other games that can make use of the extra packs of sleeves. And it never hurts to have some extras kicking around in case a sleeve rips or gets damaged.

I do like the fact that they keep the guide updated when new games come out. That's an important thing for me :)

where is the sleeving guide?