I was thinking of getting 2 base sets, and the command and hero blisters. I'm hoping that the spearmen and knights blisters won't be bundled with cards and/or upgrades that I might want. Do they do this for X Wing? (e.g., the X Wing fighter blister comes with cards and upgrades that is not included in the base set that also comes with an X Wing)

It is highly probable that the Knight blisters and Spearmen blisters will come with different cards than in the core set. They certainly do in X-Wing and Armada, and I expect they do in Imperial Assault (don't know for sure as I have never played it). I would suggest that you might want to get one core and some troop blisters instead of two cores. However, these are still models in the same faction so I wouldn't class this as being abusive. We do not know for certain though.

I would second this. I bought two cores of Armada, and regretted it, better to get one or more of each of the expansions if they come with unique stuff.

The base game is good, even better than 2 x-wing cores + a couple of expansions. As a game, i like this game design as well as x-wing's. However, the criticism isn't aimed at the core, but at the x-wing commercial model. It looks like Runewars may follow the same pattern, which is what I, as well as others, criticize.

Frank Brooks told that the distribution model would be different from X-Wing, and you would be able to collect only one faction and have everything you need.

Here is the link of the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7PGaa5N_lw , he is talking about that around 22:30.

Super reassuring.

It seems like they could simply print extra copies of the neutral upgrade cards and include them in 'equivalent' faction packs to eliminate the problem. Even the packs are a couple of dollars more expensive as a result I think it would be a huge net win for the health of the game.