First off I'm a very new player, have had the game for just over a week, I've played 10+ games so far, rotating through the decks. Im just starting to try to get into deckbuilding, as so far Ive only played with the core decks with the neutrals dealt out randomly.

The hard task I want to achieve, is to have 4 built decks 1 fo each of the races, that are at least superior to the core deck. As this is not possible with just one core set I have bought 1 copy of each of the battle packs available in the uk.

So I have

1x core

1x skavenblight

1x path of the zealot

1x tooth and claw

And my overall aim is to be able to run 4 decks, ork, chaos, empire, dwarfs simultaneously (not the best decks ever just superior to the starter decks) while trying to keep the decks fairly balanced between each other.

Although Ideally I would want 3-4 times everything, its just not possible for me at the moment,. but seeing as their are 38 neutral non unit cards, and 266 other cards in my possession, I thought it may be possible to come up with an adequate solution to my dilemma.

My own deck building ideas have been to try to find a good way to split the 38 neutrals equally, and to get deck with at least 50% units, at around 60 cards each. With orks slightly lower and empire higher.

So as im new to all this I thought a few kind souls could help me on the way. I will post my ideas for splitting the nuetrals and the decks themselves shortly.

Sorry couldn't find edit button

Here are my thoughts on splitting the 38 neutrals any thoughts or ideas for changes would be most welcome

Dwarfs 9
3x contested Fortress
3x Forge
1x Prepare for War
1x Abandonned Mine
1x Reap What’s Sown

Empire 10
3x contested village
3x Armoury
1x Infiltrate
1x Surprise assault
1x Scout Camp
1x Inovation

Orks 9
3x Warpstone Evacuation
3x Forgotten Cemetery
1x Prepare for war
2x Lightning Cannon

Chaos 10
3x Contested Stronghold
2x Scout Camp
1x Warp Lightning Cannon
1x Chittering Horde
1x Burn it Down
1x Pilgrimmage
1x animosity

Hey, I was just about to post EXACTLY the same topic when I saw you beat me to it!!

The thing for me is that in my playgroup we play a few more games and even though a lot of the others enjoy W:I a lot, none of us is willing to invest in it and play it in competitive level (i.e. 3x everything). Instead I'm building 4 decks (soon to be 6 with the elves out) that I hand out to the others when we play. I have one box of each pack and the core and I want to build 4 balanced decks but I still can't make it work perfectly. Empire seems too weak even though they got the three Contested Villages, and Dwarfs often pack more Aggro than Orcs!

The whole idea for this is for smaller communities with no local meta game, to have the whole thing balanced like a normal board game, where no one is screwed just for picking up the 'weak' faction/deck.

Later today I'll post my deck lists so far but from what I saw my neutrals are distributed similar to what you posted (although don't use as many neutrals).

Right now I just wanted to ask what type of build for each deck is most suitable for this kind of play?

Why 60 cards? 50 cards is minimum and with a limited card pool, a lower card amount is better.

Why do I want to aim for 60 cards per deck on average?

I find it very hard to go down to 50, the cardpool is limited but not that limited.

I have 57 dwarf cards, of the17 in the expansions I have with me, none of them seem bad at all. I cant see any reason not to include all the extras. So that means to get down to 50 I have to get rid of at least 7 cards from the starting deck, and that would also mean including no nuetral cards, and although elves and dwarves teaming up is slightly silly back ground wise, there are also some good high elves cards to take into genuine consideration.

I have 55 empire cards, I want to make my empire deck a very controlling one, maybe with a bit of milling focus so I really want to include the infilltrate quest card so that puts the deck size to 56, some of the alliance neutral units also seems quite powerful in an empire deck, and may add the extra power empire lack at times which would increase the size even more

Chaos have 55 cards plus I want to include all the skaven which puts it at 69.

Orks should be the easiest to get down to 50, but they have some really powerful non unit cards, the actual surprising reason I found it difficult to put the orks down to 50 is getting the correct balance between units and other cards.

Theres only like 30 cards Ive definately ruled out so far, so in short, I would find it extremely difficult to cut a deck down to 50 cards.

I'm always going for the minimal deck size, especially here with so many one-of cards. If you run60 or more cards per deck that significantly reduces your chance of seeing those cards. Even at 50 cards you get about 50% chance of seeing a one-of card during a medium length game (where you don't get to draw more than 25 cards for he whole game)

Thus my question: how to build those 4 decks so they are somewhat balanced when played against one another? And furthermore - which deck archetypes are best pursued with these limitations in mind?

As for leaving out good cards - that's what you get to do in basically every TCG/LCG. There's simply no use for you to have all the 'good' cards in your deck when you won't get to play (or even see) most of them during the game. Plus it increases the random factor... a lot!

Well I don't think the odds change much from 50 cards to 60, I do see what your saying though, but I am not talking about 100 cards each deck, just 60.

I think the benefits of an extra 10 cards outways the draw backs, especially when you can change the amount of cards you draw.

The only deck I might want to have down at 50 cards is orks, but even then, there are still benefits of having an extra few cards, which could allow you to switch strategies if needed. (i.e if your initial rush fails)

But I think both viewpoints are fair, so sticking to 50 cards is fine as well.

I understand your difficulty with keeping the card count low - i do too; i agree you get a better chance of seeing a particular card if theres less cards in the deck of course, but 50 v 60 from a one-copy pool isnt a big deal i don't think.

I'll give my humble opinions on what would be most balanced & fun for the decks (i'm assuming youre gonna get the deathmaster dance bp as well)

Empire - Damage cancellation (contested fort, gate of sigmar), meatshieldunits (peasant militia, flagellants, warrior priests, talabheim detachment, free company), Fewer more costly units (counterstrike, heroes), Ulrics Fury x3. The Jumping Jacks combo i think is too hard to pull off with one copy so i'd not try to build around that and go overall defensive route basically. Infiltrate! quest is good - i'd suggest 60+ cards then but also don't plan on seeing in early enough & often enough to make a difference besides frustrating opponent. Definitely would add chruch of sigmar & iron discipline & bright wiz also. NEUTRALS - Prepare for War!, Contested Stronghold, Errant Wolf, Innovation, Forgotten Cemetary

Dwarf - Forget the attachment stuff for now. I'd recommend a Healing / Grudge theme mix. NEUTRALS - maybe veteran sellswords, Armoury, Reap What's Sown, Burn it Down, Abandoned Mine, Surprise Assault

Orc - I agree, idea of early rush with bigger guys for later game does work better with one copy. NEUTRALS - contested village, possibly Skaven (see below)

Chaos - Depends which route you want to go. If you want to use Skaven, use all you can, then this one deck I'd definitely stay within 50-55 cards as they really are dependant on getting other skaven into play. If all chaos, then you can go bigger and would probably be more balanced with other decks. Skavens then can go into Orc deck. NEUTRALS - Warpstone Excavation, Juvenile Wyvern (+Shrine to Nurgle), Scout Camp maybe with Skaven

Thanks, Artemus! I'll certainly consider your idea (especially for Empire) ... but I'm not giving Contested Village to Orcs - they're quite fast anyway

I just hope I'll get some time to get these tested soon.

I took what you had and constructed these 4 decks. I think they are pretty even but if you do decide to use them, please give me some feedback.

Orc:
3 Warpstone Excavation
2 Choppa
3 Warp Lightning Cannon
1 Grimgor's Camp
1 Totem of Gork
1 Banna of da Red Sunz
2 We'z Bigga!
3 Wolf Rider Assault
1 Rip Dere 'Eads Off!
1 Waaagh!
1 Troll Vomit
3 Crooked Tree Goblins
3 Spider riders
3 Squig Herders
2 Followers of Mork
1 Night Goblins
3 Lobber Crew
3 Clan Rats
3 Gutter Runners
1 Clan Moulder's Elite
1 Big 'Uns
1 Greyseer Thanquol
1 Poison Wind Globadiers
2 Boar Boyz
1 Rat Ogres
1 Ironclaw's Horde
1 Ugrok Beardburna
1 Grimgor Ironhide
Quest: 0
Unit: 31
Support: 11
Tactic: 8
Total: 50
How to Play: Rush Deck

Chaos (with DE)
1 Wolves of the North
1 Cloud of Flies
1 Horrific Mutation
1 Sadistic Mutation
1 Warpstone Meteor
1 Cauldron of Blood
3 Contested Stronghold
2 Seduced by Darkness
1 Hate
1 Innovation
1 Bolt of Change
3 We Need Your Blood
3 Call the Blood
3 Brutal Offering
2 Blood for the Blood God
1 Slaanesh's Domination
1 Burn it Down
1 Nurgle's Pestilence
1 Flames of Tzeentch
1 Fledgling Chaos Spawn
3 Servants of Khorne
3 Festering Nurglings
3 Savage Gors
1 Vile Sorceress
3 Savage Marauders
1 Melekh the Changer
2 Chosen of Tzeentch
3 Morathi's Pegasus
3 Bloodsworn
1 Valkia the Bloody
1 Cold One Riders
3 Dark Riders
2 Chaos Knights
1 Bule, Lord of Pus
1 Bloodthirster
Quest: 1
Unit: 32
Support: 8
Tactic: 20
Total: 61
How to Play: Sniping/Big End Push (with Bloodthirster). Develop kingdom then a little in battlefield.

Dwarf
2 A Glorious Death
1 Infiltrate!
1 Organ Gun
2 Grudge Thrower
1 Rune of Fortitude
3 Keystone Forge
3 Armoury
3 Contested Fortress
1 Master Rune of Dismay
1 Stand Your Ground
2 Striking the Grudge
1 Stubborn Refusal
1 Demolition!
1 Master Rune of Valaya
3 Blessing of Valaya
1 Grudge Thrower Assault
1 Animosity
1 Wake the Mountain
3 Veteran Sellswords
3 Defender of the Hold
3 Hammerer of Karak Azul
3 Dwarf Miner
1 Dwarf Cannon Crew
1 Errant Wolf
1 Zhufbar Engineers
3 Troll Slayers
1 Dwarf Masons
2 Dwarf Ranger
1 Durgnar the Bold
3 Gurni's Elite
1 Zealot Hunter
2 Mountain Brigade
1 Marius the Righteous
1 Ironbreakers of Ankhor
1 King Kazador
Quest: 3
Unit: 31
Support: 14
Tactic: 12
Total: 60
How to Play: Shell up in the beginning, snipe when you can, big push after you set up your quest/kingdom. Oh, and develop battlefield and kingdom.

Empire
2 Defend the Border
2 Prepare for War!
1 Knight Training
3 Contested Village
1 City Gates
1 Shrine to Taal
2 Church of Sigmar
1 Temple of Shallya
1 Gate of Sigmar
1 Abandoned Mine
3 Demoralise
3 Iron Discipline
1 Will of the Electors
1 Franz's Decree
2 Forced March
1 Sigmar's Intervention
1 Twin-Tailed Comet
1 Surprise Assault
1 Judgement of Verena
1 Pilgrimage
1 Peasant Militia
3 Huntsmen
3 Warrior Priests
3 Pistoliers
1 Bright Wizard Apprentice
1 Sigmar's Blessed
3 Reiksguard Knights
1 Nuln Tinkerers
2 Free Company
1 Thyrus Gorman
2 The Greatswords
3 Nordland Halberdiers
1 Gustav the Bear
3 Reiksguard Swordsmen
1 Johannes Broheim
Quest: 4
Unit: 29
Support: 11
Tactic: 15
Total: 59
How to Play: Slowest out of the four decks. These guys can push to an insane power, if you can survive that long.

I have gone for 3 decks so far, as 1 core limits things a little to much. Im uk also and not willing to pay to get 3 x of everything. But I am considering getting a 2 nd core set as eMPIRE and Chaos would really get up to speed with things then and a 4th deck would be possible. I use

Orc / skaven rush 51 cards very fast.

Chaos / Dark elf corruption and snipe.

Empire / Dorf Heal and control.

Will post decks if your intreseted?