So, there's a couple of other interesting points that we know very little about yet but the most interesting one is this: You choose your provinces, and place them face-down.

This implies to me that the provinces are going to have the province strengths on them, and possibly some other abilities. I expect something like the old Regions and the City Sections from LoBS

3 minutes ago, Sithborg said:

The thing I love about the Fate system, is that it reigns in the weenie swarm. Which was a big problem with AGOT. You only get one turn with that swarm of 1 cost guys. It is a stroke of genius, and I love it.

Does it? Does anyone know how much Fate we will get every turn? It says the Fate pool carries over...

1 minute ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

So, there's a couple of other interesting points that we know very little about yet but the most interesting one is this: You choose your provinces, and place them face-down.

This implies to me that the provinces are going to have the province strengths on them, and possibly some other abilities. I expect something like the old Regions and the City Sections from LoBS

In fact, on the product page with the larger descriptions, they mention "Province choice" as an important part of deckbulding!

"Province cards offer different strengths and abilities, and choosing your provinces is an important part of deckbuilding. Furthermore, when a province is broken, it does not disappear, preventing a “snowball effect” that weakens a player who starts losing provinces."

Just now, Shikaku said:

Does it? Does anyone know how much Fate we will get every turn? It says the Fate pool carries over...

It looks like each stronghold grants 7 fate per turn. But note, some characters like the Doomed Shugenja CANNOT be given extra fate to stick around longer than one turn.

Just now, Shikaku said:

Does it? Does anyone know how much Fate we will get every turn? It says the Fate pool carries over...

The two sample strongholds shown (Lion and Crane, as it should be), show starting honor, Fate per turn (+7 for both of those two), and another number -- which, based on FFG's other games, will probably be a Netrunner-esque "Influence" value on how many out-of-Clan cards you can include.

Just now, Shikaku said:

Does it? Does anyone know how much Fate we will get every turn? It says the Fate pool carries over...

Lion and Crane Strongholds produce 7 Fate a turn. It is a safe prediction that the Core Strongholds will be the same.

1 minute ago, Gaffa said:

The two sample strongholds shown (Lion and Crane, as it should be), show starting honor, Fate per turn (+7 for both of those two), and another number -- which, based on FFG's other games, will probably be a Netrunner-esque "Influence" value on how many out-of-Clan cards you can include.

I wondered what the right hand number was. That makes sense.

Ok so quick math... 4 provinces, at least 7 Fate.... the characters we have seen have between 0 and 4 fate cost, the non-character cards have between 0 and 3.

2 minutes ago, Sithborg said:

Lion and Crane Strongholds produce 7 Fate a turn. It is a safe prediction that the Core Strongholds will be the same.

I'm sure they'll generate some amount of Fate, but I don't think we can assume that 7 is default for all Clans until we can see more cards and how, for instance, Fate vs. Honor mechanics add up. Perhaps the Dragon get more Fate due to Yokuni? Maybe the Phoenix, Guardians of Fate, have a different Fate layout? We'll just have to see.

2 minutes ago, Gaffa said:

I'm sure they'll generate some amount of Fate, but I don't think we can assume that 7 is default for all Clans until we can see more cards and how, for instance, Fate vs. Honor mechanics add up. Perhaps the Dragon get more Fate due to Yokuni? Maybe the Phoenix, Guardians of Fate, have a different Fate layout? We'll just have to see.

I don't think there is going to be too much wide variance in the Strongholds in the Core set. Now, future Stronghold will definitely have a lot more variance. But I don't see the Core Strongholds setting up different economies for players to learn the game.

7 minutes ago, Builder2 said:

Fate is the mechanic that I'm the most hyped about, and while I'm not expecting to sell you on it in one post, just hear me out.

1) Flavor. In the L5R setting, the massive upheaval that takes place over the course of a single game could never happen in a span of a few years. It would take generations to wipe out an entire Great Clan from the Empire, and putting characters on a fate timer allows players to experience the passage of time in a very real way, as the heroes who forged their path in the early game have passed on, leaving their descendants to honor their legacy. When the Dynasty deck runs out and the discard pile is reshuffled, it represents the cyclical nature of time which is a big thing among the spiritual people of Rokugan.

2) Gameplay. I see the fate system as a way of balancing this somewhat, as players who wish to keep their people in play longer will need to spend more to do so, which will leave them with fewer fate tokens to spend during conflicts; in short, one must choose whether to win through sheer force of numbers, or flexibility in the use of conflict cards. This choice ought to have a great influence on how a deck functions, even between two players running the same clan/strategy.

It just makes me a bit uneasy. I'll probably get used to it once I've played some games and learned what the new flow of game play feels like. And I guess spending all your fate on characters would give you an excuse not to bid high on card draw. Though it would probably be pretty obvious to your opponent that that's what you'll do.

On an unrelated note I wonder if there'll be Clan specific provinces. You could have the Kaiu Wall, Shinsei's Last Hope, Clear Water Village... the possibilities have my mind abuzz.

Also, I wonder what the difference is between the 0 political skill on Eager Scout and the - political skill on Matsu Berserker. Maybe Matsu Berserker can't assign to political conflicts at all.

Another thing on the fate mechanism

it could help the game speed up. When you know characters are only around for a few rounds, you best hurry up and use them!

This prevents clogged board states, turtling up and general slow play and long game length.

2 minutes ago, shineyorkboy said:

Also, I wonder what the difference is between the 0 political skill on Eager Scout and the - political skill on Matsu Berserker. Maybe Matsu Berserker can't assign to political conflicts at all.

That's a good point. I think if you add +1 to 0, it becomes 1, but - +1 is probably still -.

Am I reading this right? You can play attachments in the middle of battle... interesting.

You may play attachments, characters, and events from your conflict hand to increase your characters’ skill, decrease the skill of your foes, bow enemy characters, send characters home to remove them from the fight, or trigger even more unusual effects.

I like the bidding aspect for card draw - the more honor you're willing to lose, the tricksier your play style can be.

All that pretty artwork!

Also, Doji Hoturi is a girl now? Just wanted to make sure I read that right. lol No worries either way.

I also like how they streamlined bringing characters into play, no personal honor/requirements. Outside of that Ring of Air, I wonder how you gain honor now. No free honor for killing bodies in battle (no longer in the game), no personal honor to gain when buying a character... I suppose it's good they dropped the victory condition to 25...

Just now, BlindSamurai13 said:

All that pretty artwork!

Also, Doji Hoturi is a girl now? Just wanted to make sure I read that right. lol No worries either way.

Hoturi (male) has been replaced with Hotaru (female).

1 minute ago, Shikaku said:

I also like how they streamlined bringing characters into play, no personal honor/requirements. Outside of that Ring of Air, I wonder how you gain honor now. No free honor for killing bodies in battle (no longer in the game), no personal honor to gain when buying a character... I suppose it's good they dropped the victory condition to 25...

You can gain honor during the draw phase. you take honor from your opponent if you take less cards than him.

1 minute ago, Shikaku said:

I also like how they streamlined bringing characters into play, no personal honor/requirements. Outside of that Ring of Air, I wonder how you gain honor now. No free honor for killing bodies in battle (no longer in the game), no personal honor to gain when buying a character... I suppose it's good they dropped the victory condition to 25...

Bid low on card draws. The player who bids the highest pays the difference in honor to the player who bid the lowest.

Just now, Ultimatecalibur said:

Hoturi (male) has been replaced with Hotaru (female).

If they are ballsy, they will keep her original relationship with Kachiko .

3 minutes ago, Shikaku said:

I also like how they streamlined bringing characters into play, no personal honor/requirements. Outside of that Ring of Air, I wonder how you gain honor now. No free honor for killing bodies in battle (no longer in the game), no personal honor to gain when buying a character...

You gain honor when a honored character leaves play also, if I read right.

So... to gain honor... I don't draw many cards. What if my opponent does the same? What will I use during conflicts?

Well... I'll start the ranting...

I kept waiting one whole year for this. I share home with a huge L5R CCG head (the guy is collecting this since the first edition) and we discussed this game for this past whole year.
GAMA announcements made me cringe a bit with the design team they presented (the core team from 40K Conquest, and IMO that game is garbage) but I was a bit over-optimistic for the rest.

I've been counting days 'till this day. I've stopped wasting time and money on Magic, my go-to competitive CCG that I returned to after bad experiences with Android: Netrunner and AGOT2. I was also a competitive player in AGOT1 that spent around 500USD for a whole collection 'till FFG put their finger in my a$$ with their second edition (second edition that's way worse than the first one IMO).

But today... today I cried.
My last hope on FFG for making a decent and competitive LCG was washed down the drain...

The detailed article made the game looked more like a AGOT 3rd Edition in Rokugan than L5R.
Military and Political conflicts, one each per turn. Where's my Intrigue conflict as well?!

One less wincon in the game with the lack of Enlightenment.

Rings always present and, again, with a sort-off claim effect imported from AGOT.

The Fate fade effect... is just awful from a design stand point.
If they (FFG, designers) wanted to have a finite/limiting thingy they should put an upkeep cost instead of this fading rule.

The Honour betting vs card draw is just horrible.
This tells me one thing, there will be no Dishonour decks like Shadowlands (Spider) or Scorpion; or if they will surface they will be the most powerful decks in the game since they will not care about Dishonour and will keep drawing cards.
Other issue is, if this means that Honour will be a resource (ex: only can bet to the amount of Honour the player has) it will create a whirlpool effect typical of other LCG products (ence, Conquest).

Lack of Chi and Duels per base game.

The "lets avoid killing every personality on a losing military conflicts' side" will just remove the sense this game had. I'm not much of a fan of the old system because it was broken but this system ain't better and looks even worse.

The new layout is ok. Not good. Not bad. Just ok. Could be better if they would make full bleeds like LOTR LCG.

The Clan Discipline is the only neat addition in the game.

So, all and all, I was expecting this to be "The Game". Instead it's just "a game".
I loved the old L5R and never got into it because being a CCG with such a small playerpool in my country would not justify the expense. Being a LCG means bearable. But this game... just... no. Not for me. Will keep LOTR after disposed all other LCG from this company.

4 minutes ago, oDESGOSTO said:

(the core team from 40K Conquest, and IMO that game is garbage)

Wooow. Conquest is easily the best game they have in terms of mechanics, imo, even if the balance was always a little off with regards to factions.

Different strokes, I suppose.