Xwing and Imperial Assault player looking to start my first ever card game. In addition to a core set, what's necessary to get going with decent footing, assuming that a completionist approach isn't possible. I understand there's a rotation of current legal sets? What's current? Particular interest in the Necron faction. Is that a terrible idea? Also interested in Star Wars LCG, but can only afford one, and not much of it. Convince me to choose Conquest.

Thanks, guys!

The game is still young. Even if you were a completionist, you would only need 3 core sets (to get 3 copies of each card), 2 pack cycles, and 2 deluxe expansions (tyranids and necrons). Rotation won't matter until several more sets come out, so no worries about that for years. Also, Necrons just came out, but they want access to cards of all factions, so they are tough to start with, as you want a larger card pool with them.

Both Star Wars and Conquest are hurting for players right now, so neither is great for the tournament scene. If you want casual play with friends, go with whichever game style you want -- they are quite different, so read some reviews. Also, you can read the rules online on the FFG website. Finally, you can look at cards on cardgamedb.com.

If you want my personal take, Star Wars is built using "objective sets" -- sets of cards that all go in your deck together. There are fewer choices for deck construction, but those choices have a lot of impact -- if you want one card, you have to take the entire set. As for gameplay, It is designed for fast play and cycling through cards very quickly. There is a lot of focus on getting initiative (aka "the edge"), which gives huge bonuses in battle to whomever gets it. Otherwise, battles are a lot abut deciding who goes into combat and who gets held in reserve for later. It is also asymmetric -- with one player as the light side and the other as the dark side. The clock favors the dark side, and the pressure is on the light side to complete its goal by then, while the dark side can advance the clock even faster if it does well.

Conquest is built by choosing a faction's warlord and one of two possible allied factions (around a wheel). Your deck must have 8 signature cards that go with that specific warlord. The remaining 42 cards can come from loyal (faction-exclusive) cards from your warlord's faction and common cards from your warlord's and your ally's factions. As for gameplay, there is a tradeoff between using units to capture resources and using units for battles. The main victory condition is to capture 3 planets that share the same type, and only the first planet can be captured each round, but you can capture resources or fight battles on later planets too (and have to, if you want cards and resources to pay for them). Alternately, you can kill off the opposing warlord (which does happen) or force your opponent to run out of cards (which almost never happens). So, the main decisions are which units to deploy to which planets, but all units at a planet fight when there is a battle at that planet.

Basically, Star Wars is a faster paced game of tactical thinking and simpler deck construction rules, whereas Conquest is more about long-term strategy and more traditional deckbuilding rules (with the addition of the warlord's signature cards).