I had my first couple of games of CoC LCG yesterday. I played a Shub/Yog deck (just basically put two of the starter decks together with a few random neutrals) and my opponent played Cthulhu/Syndicate (again starter decks with a handful of neutrals). The main issue we came across with the game was that in many ways my deck was able to overpower his. Out of the three games we played, I won two of them easily (he was only able to get 4 succeses down in total in one game). The main thing seemed to be once one deck was able to pull forward, it was very difficult for the other player to pull them back in. I would end up with about 7-8 cards whilst he only had 3-4. I was then able to overwhelm stories on my turn, hold a couple of characters back and prevent him from scoring any successes (or very few) on his turn. This lead to some frustrating games especially on his part.

Is this typical play? Is it difficult to keep yourself in the game once you start to lose. I've played a bit of FFG's latest LCG (Warhammer Invasion) and have found that you never really feel out of touch of your opponent, there is always something that can be done (something that I would want to see in a game). I'm aware that CoC has only one copy of every card in the decks whereas W:I has a much more "constructed" feel to it's decks. My opponent described CoC's decks as a very "scattergun" approach- in otherwords FFG have just thrown a few good looking cards into the mix with only some thought as to how it all holds together. Some cards are good together, some aren't.

Which leads me to ask: Are there certain factions that just don't work together? Had I inadvertantly stumbled across a good pairing whilst he had done the opposite? A shame if this is the case as I like the thought of Mythos and investigators working together on the same team as it lends a feel of individuals accidently awakening "those that must not be known". The university is the acceptable public face, but behind the scenes they've learned things they shouldn't have and have become corrupted -anyway I digress.

Finally can anyone provide an overview of what each faction brings to the table. I know what they are about thematically. But how does that translate into gameplay. Reason I ask this is my opponent, as a sometime Magic player freely admits that some cards just don't match his style of play. Maybe once again this is why he didn't fare so well, so just a brief paragraph as to what each faction does would be great.

So, any thoughts, advice, pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Your suspicions are intelligent. Perhaps core alone is scattershot. Yog Shub over Cthulhu Syndicate sounds likely, over either mono less so. Come from behind wins are classic to this game, especially as the rush player winds out in first gear just before the finish line as a wounded ancient one begins to rumble. Your general question about faction specifics is wide ranging and you already know. My flawed quick list would look like this: Agency - toughness, combat, wounding, location and support destruction, some willpower. MU - investigate, card draw, skill ,more. SY - evasion, trickeration, skill, skill reduction, exhausting, blanking, mugging. CT terror, combat, destroy, sacrifice, toughness. HA - insanity, terror, evasion, cancelation, disrupts, discard. Yog - recursion, sacrificing, combat, the good spells. SH - terror, combat, multiplying like rabbits, support destruction.

Hello and welcome to the game!

In terms of faction strengths and weaknesses, I highly recommend the article 'Better than Skittles: Cannon's Guide to the Faction Rainbow' which although it was written for the old CCG, still has many useful pointers for beginners in today's environment. In fact, there are several good articles on the site, so I enclose the link below.

http://hem.bredband.net/xedric/CoC/Articles/factionguide1.html

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the swift and informative answers. Certainly gave me the insight into the different factions that I was after. Picked up a couple of the asylum packs in order to fill out my collection and broaden my choices, now I just need to find which faction(s) suits my playstyle the best!