Hi guys and gals -

I actually have read through every thread I could find on noob issues. It might just not see like it, so "sorry" in advance. Feel free to chuck (virtual) stones in my direction!

My questions:

1- In my starting buy, it seems like a single core set will get the feel of the game, but mutiple core sets will be helpful for rudimentary deck building. So.... 2 or 3 core sets? I am blessed to have sold off a lot of other game stuff lately, so while money is not sitting around in wheelbarrows, I could swing either if this is a good idea.

2- Chapter packs - are the cards usable by any house, or are they house specific, or mixed? How many of each to buy?

3- Older CCG cards are avaialble, and I understand usable with the LCG format (I will likely never play in a competitive event, so legality is less important to me). Does anyone have a suggested list of "must have" CCG cards? I understand from my forum reading that AT ONE TIME:

"The big "mechanic holes" that cannot be duplicated in LCG that feel like they're missing for people who transitioned from playing the CCG are 1) card draw effects, 2) cancel effects, 3) location control."

Is this still the case? Or have the chapter packs addressed this?

4- Similar question for Deluxe Expansions - how many each?

Thanks in advance.

My advice is buy 1 copy. After you play some games you will know if you need more. Click link in my signature to see what cards and how many you will get in each pack. In my opinion you should play only LCG.

I concur with Rogue30. Only buy one core at first, and buy the set of 6 chapter packs with your extra cash. Do a little research to see which chapter pack is most appealing. One set offers Winter/Summer mechanics (White toned boxes), another offers Shadow mechanics (Bronze/black toned boxes), another offers Nights Watch/Wildling characters(Blue/white toned boxes), and the original chapter pack after the core set has some large army and 'banenrman' mechanics. Use the link offered by Rogue to see what all the sets offer. With one set of Chapter packs and the core set, you will be able to make several full sized decks, with plenty of variety. If you like what you see there, invest in some more, or even another core set.

The reason you might want to avoid to CCG cards is not so much for tournament legality, but for game balance. Also the cards have a slightly different layout and are not as pretty as the LCG's in my opinion.

Welcome to aGoT! I hope you get as much fun out of it as we do

The suggestions given are good ones. As to your specific questions, I wouldn't really bother with any of the old CCG stuff unless it comes super cheap that you can buy multiple boxes for a song. If you are providing the cards for you players you are going to want to keep things relatively balanced in the card pool if not necessarily in the decks and the random distribution and rarity factor of the CCG makes this less than assured.

I'd buy two of the Core Sets and the expansions and one of each chapter pack. That will give you ever card in the LCG to build with, a solid base for every house to work from, plus enough interesting mechanics to build several functionally different decks. after that you may decide you like some mechanics more than others and may choose to buy specific chapter packs or cycles at greater than x1. You'll also have an added benefit... even though you say you are unlikely to ever play competitively, you may find other players who keep to the LCG rules and divorcing your decks or convincing them to let you play with CCG cards may not be a simple thing. Also tourneys are fun filled with great people. Even if you are not a super competitive player you would most likely have a lot of fun participating.