Is this game easier to understand and play, when you have it in front you?

Reason i ask is because i have had my eye on picking this one up since it was first announced, but after looking over the PDF rulebook recently, im not sure i 100% grasp how the game is to be played, i understand the goals of the game but its the way the game flows thats got me, maybe its the absence of dice that has thrown me off abit?

Any thoughts or opinions would be great as always

Many things are explained in the order and combat cards. It is hard to understand this game not having one in front of you.

Thats a relief, i agree with you that sometimes things are alot easier to comprehend when you have access to it

Just wanted to be sure before i started putting the money on the table.

My first game, my oponent and I sat down to play with neither of us even having opened the rulebook and we managed just fine.

Of course, the game lasted nearly 4 hours and we did a few things wrong but really only got hung up one or two times. Even then, a quick skim of the rulebook cleared everything up.

As was stated above, the majority of the rules are spelled out clearly on the order cards so as long as you're familiar with the workings of the Initiative Track and Combat resolution, you should be good.

Here are a few things we did wrong in our first game:

When attacking via Order Card, you do not actually move your units into the target area. You fight from adjacent areas and then after combat, if there are no enemy units left in the target area, you may move your units in. (Playing this one wrong caused a LOT of coexistence battles in our first game).

In combat, the active player (ie: the person who is currently trying to damage the other) distributes damage to his oponent's units however he sees fit. (In our game, we played that you distributed damage dealt by your oponent to your own units)

When you trigger an event on the initiative track, you are still concidered the Current Player (for the purpose of event cards) until the next game round begins even though the Change Initiative step comes before the Resolve Special Phases step. (Playing this wrong caused a flip flop with every Event Card that started out "The current player does this...")

I'm sure we got a lot of other rules wrong, but these are the ones that stand out in mind right now.

Walking through the card mechanics is a big help. The first game will be slow but once you repeat the actions for a few turns it gets easier.

Its kinda tough not having the actual cards in front of you to look at as you read the rules (and map)