a couple of questions:

- what's the difference between all the expansions vs the chapter packs? is it the storyline?

- According to the rulebook, you need to find 3 opponents to help set up for a two player first-timers game, does that mean this game is just not playable without this third party?U need more than two players even for a two player game?

The difference between all the expansions and the chapter packs has less to do with the story line of the book series, and more with theme and arrangement. Chronology is not too apparent in either. You'll find, in the same pack, characters from different sides of the world, that were not even alive at the same time, in a single chapter pack. The big difference between the chapter packs and the expansions is that the expansions focus on a single House, while the chapter packs give a fair mix of each house. The expansions generally come with some kind of bonus as well, like Princes of the Sun coming with rules on Civil War, and Kings of the Sea including a solid designed Greyjoy house card.

As for the 'first game scenario', you only need two players to play strait from the box. You can also play with 3 or 4. With only 2 players, you do not use the 'title' statues or cards and it is called a 'joust'. The later sections of the rulebook will clarify a lot about that. Enjoy!

thanks for the info, but i'm still confused, not knowing which one to get! I mean i dun have the game yet, and i'm thinking of getting it. so hoping a clearer understanding of this whole thing would help.

The core sets contains basic cards to play relative houses (90% of resources cards are here and also main characters/events):

1-initial one with 4 houses (stark/lanni/baratheon/targaryen

2-greyjoy

3-martell

4- new stark core set

Then every cycle of CP (1 cycle=6Cps) introduce tematical play/mechanic

A Clash of Arms cycle: contains transition cards from old format (I think in a few months will be rotated cause were not intended to be a LCG set (it has black border, so to start I would not start with this).

Raven Cycle contains main cards to play seasonal thematic

King's Landing cycle is the best set if you wanna play control IMHO. Lots of good cards for Lanni, Baratheon, Targaryen, Martell

Defenders of the North Cycle contains Night's Wathc-Wildlings thematic

so at the end depends on "what you want to play"... there are lots of threads in past posts that contains lots of suggestion to new player... make some search and in the case you need help don't hesitate to ask ;-)

charlesting said:

Buy the Core set, these are your starter decks for 4 houses (Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen) You pretty much cannot play the game without this set. If you want to play the other two houses (Greyjoy or Martell) then you also need to buy their deluxe expansions ( Kings of the Sea and Princes of the Sun ). The Starks currently have a deluxe expansion too but it is not required to play start although it has good cards for them.

The rest is the chapter packs, these are grouped into expansions. 6 Chapter packs make up an expansion and each chapter pack has its own cards (all are fixed, there are no random cards). I would suggest buying the chapter packs after the core set as you cannot play the game with chapter pack cards alone.

Also, if you are buying from various websites around the net you might run across A Game of Thrones CCG cards. Avoid these as they were for the old version of the game and although they are compatable with the current LCG version they aren't balanced to be played together.

I wrote this back in Feb, so it's somewhat outdated.

Hope it's of some use to you.

The question that springs to mind for me is whether or not you have other people you will be playing with who already have cards? If you do then play with their cards and decks until you get an idea of whether you want a full set and be able to play any house or whether you only want to play a single house. If you choose to go the single house route then buying the deluxe expansion for that house (if there is one available) and then relevant chapter packs is the way to go.

If you want equal access to every house then buy the Core Set x1, Kings of the Sea x2, Princes of the Sun x1, Lords of Winter x1, Clash of Arms Cycle x1, A Time for Ravens Cycle x2, King's Landing Cycle x3, Defenders of the North x2, and then get the chapter packs of the newest cycle x1.

Gualdo - do You mean that in a few months we will get reedited Clash of Arms chapters in white borders/

Rotated meaning no longer legal... I'm not sure that this would happen yet... since ACoA still has a good number of necessary cards for each house to function.

We will have around 1000 cards in the card pool at the end of Brotherhood. In the CCG era we might of had around 1400 cards in the environemnt and more so in the last CCG Std Environment (ITE, AhoTh,AhoTa,5KE, ACoA, Core Set) though the biggest was (VED,AToS,ARoK,WED,ASoT,ASoN,ITE,AHoTh,AHoTa).

I miss 5KE... we never got to play around with that set enough.

bloodycelt said:

5KE was indeed awesome.

I don't believe we've heard any statements from Nate or FFG about a rotation policy. Given the nature of the LCG I wouldn't be surprised if there was no rotation by set.

My suggestion was only "if you have to buy one Core and one cycle don't buy Clash of arms to be sure" :-)

I would start with King's Landing if you like control or Ravens if you like seasonal and Stark/Greyjoy.