Hey guys,

Been eyeing this game for a while and had a couple questions -

I played Armada, so I'm loosely familiar with the financial scheme of FFG, which I believe is loosely - make good game, force players to buy expansions just for upgrade cards. Love the quality of their games, get frustrated with necessary purchases.

So, I had a couple questions -

If I want to have an elf or Uthuk (demon) army, do I need to own the core set?

Am I going to have to buy expansions NOT from my army to get access to upgrade cards I might really want/need?

Welcome! You can buy the Essentials box to get the templates, tokens, dice, etc. so you do not need the Core Set. You will never have to buy other armies' expansions to get the cards you need, because every faction will have access to all the neutral upgrades.

Actually the elf set also comes with a good mix of neutral cards that are pretty awesome from the existing expansions so you don't even need to wait on all the faction expansions to get access to some essential neutral cards! its cool and yeah like @Contrapulator said the essentials pack will cover all your necessary components that you would get from a core!

It is pretty cool you can buy an essentials pack and the army of your choice and go. Pretty good move on FFG part.

The essentials pack comes with the necessary game components found in the core set. Morale deck, tokens, movement templates, dice etc. If you want to play Uthuk or Latari, highly recommended to pick one of those up unless you want Daqan or Waiqar skirmish armies for some reason.

13 minutes ago, rowdyoctopus said:

unless you want Daqan or Waiqar skirmish armies for some reason.

Like teaching the game and building a community!

Does the Essentials Pack come with the rule books? I was under the impression the core was the only place you could get the rules.

8 minutes ago, Hawkman2000 said:

Does the Essentials Pack come with the rule books? I was under the impression the core was the only place you could get the rules.

I believe it does. If not, free to download PDF is available!

You can download and print rules from website. No rules in essentials

Welcome @Boardy ! Yeah RW is great for so many reasons and one of the best is FFG did not go the "buy all the expansions from different factions to stay competitive" route like they did with X-wing.

2 hours ago, Ywingscum said:

You can download and print rules from website. No rules in essentials

Really no rules?

10 minutes ago, TallGiraffe said:

Really no rules?

I think the elves army expansion has it?

2 minutes ago, Glucose98 said:

I think the elves army expansion has it?

Nope.

But, it's not like the rules for RWM fill a textbook. Reading the L2P pdf and printing the RRG is pretty easy.

So if you don't buy the core set you don't get a printed rules reference? That seems like a poor business decision in my opinion. Feels very incomplete.

23 minutes ago, Glucose98 said:

So if you don't buy the core set you don't get a printed rules reference? That seems like a poor business decision in my opinion. Feels very incomplete.

That's my thought, as well. I was hoping for a copy of the rules in the army boxes making them more complete right away. I know printing rules from online is free, but that's still asking someone to print something, use paper, and not be able to play immediately after opening the box.

Maybe they'll put out a full-fledged rulebook later with all the books added (learn to play, rules, and lore), with updated stuff on the four major armies. And including the FAQ stuff.

1 hour ago, Hawkman2000 said:

That's my thought, as well. I was hoping for a copy of the rules in the army boxes making them more complete right away. I know printing rules from online is free, but that's still asking someone to print something, use paper, and not be able to play immediately after opening the box.

Maybe they'll put out a full-fledged rulebook later with all the books added (learn to play, rules, and lore), with updated stuff on the four major armies. And including the FAQ stuff.

First world problems.

Build a bridge people.

1 minute ago, Asmo said:

First world problems.

Build a bridge people.

You're on a forum about a miniatures game.

Of course it's first world problems.

8 minutes ago, Asmo said:

First world problems.

Build a bridge people.

Terrinoth world problems and the bridge is in the next box set.

Like @Glucose98 said, we're pushing around plastic figures, first world problems is pretty much where we're at. Thanks for the many responses. I had heard the Elf boxes had neutral cards but it sounds like they are old ones from other sets so you don't have to buy the core set if you don't want to. Excellent news.

Thanks again everyone!

2 hours ago, Asmo said:

First world problems.

Build a bridge people.

2 hours ago, Hawkman2000 said:

Terrinoth world problems and the bridge is in the next box set.

Actually I think the bridge is the one over Morshan river that the Daqan have to defend from the advancing Uthuk warbands.

Oh wait, that's BattleLore: Command. Good game. Lots of Terrinoth lore in there. Only $6.99 on Steam. Everybody should check it out.

A bridge would make for great terrain. My elves could run under it to get away from larger units!

29 minutes ago, Ywingscum said:

A bridge would make for great terrain. My elves could run under it to get away from larger units!

Until we get trolls, they would get ambush on bridge terrain.

I guess I'm not understanding the complaint.

It's not enough that the rules are freely available, or that you're given a cheap, easy way to acquire necessary game components (thus circumventing the usual FFG core box issue), the fact that you're expected to print them out is somehow an issue?

I guess people will complain no matter what you do.

I get the appeal of physical goods and having everything you need to play in one box. However, the printed rules reference is already obsolete, and the up-to-date rules are online for free, so it's hard to be very upset about it.

31 minutes ago, Contrapulator said:

I get the appeal of physical goods and having everything you need to play in one box. However, the printed rules reference is already obsolete, and the up-to-date rules are online for free, so it's hard to be very upset about it.

This.

I'm sitting here with three copies of the RRG, wishing I had just one copy of the updated PDF online, and I'm gonna wind up printing that one ANYWAY so...