Me and my wife and a friend went to our local gaming store and we played the core set that they had out to demo. We all loved it, so my wife and I bought the game. But I do have a few questions after scouring the forums and trying to glean as much info as I could. I should note that we will play just for fun and we don't plan to enter any tournaments and such. Now for the questions.

1) As a casual, just for fun player we won't need to buy more than one of the core set, the expansion, or the battle packs to play right? And should be buy sleeves if we plan to play quite a bit?

2) Is it always a good idea to have one player play an order race and the other play a choas race or does it not really mater?

3) Is there a way to play 3 player? My friend said no cause he is afraid of the 2 on 1 scenario where 2 of the players will gang up the other. If there is a good way do we need to wait until we have more of the battle packs and the expansion? And then what about 4 players or 2 teams of 2?

4) Is it a good idea to have a few of the other race cards of your faction in the deck to limit the weaknesses of that particular race you are playing?

and finally

5) The official core set rule book says the min/max limit of cards in your deck is 50/99. What seems to be a good number of total cards and what seems to be a good number of each of the different types of cards?

Sorry if that is alot of questions but I just want some opinions of veteran players. And please if you respond, I have only played this game a handful of times and only with the cards in the core set so I don't know all the acronyms yet so please don't use them unless you put what they stand for in paranythesis. That will help me gain alot of knowledge. Thanks for taking the time to read and help out a brand new player that is REALLY happy and excited about this game.

For casual, one of each box/pack will be fine. In fact, you can scour the spoiler thread on the main page and just decide which battle packs you'd prefer instead of grabbing each and every one. All the recent packs after the enemy cycle started have three of each card (the game's card limit) so you'll get the max in one pack. The early battlepacks and Assault on Ulthuan have a mix of cards instead of a standard three copies of each.

I'm always a fan of sleeves in my board games and card games. The cards slowly pick up hand grime and will manage to find the smallest bit of dirt on whatever table you are playing on and scratch up the card. If you'll play a lot, yes, you want some sleeves.

Any two people can play against each other in this game, even the same race. Each race, especially now, has it's own feel to it and every pairing will have a different dynamic versus each different opponent. Try all the different mixes!

I have played a multiplayer in the past that doesn't aim to eliminate players. Instead players are going for killing three zones. The first player to kill three opponents' zones wins. The rules were an idea on this forum, I just can't remember where they were.

I haven't seen a good team system yet. There might be one out there, but I haven't seen it.

Most players go for close to the 50 mark. It gives you the greatest potential to draw the cards you want and get the deck going. More discard abilities are making into the game these days, so that number may creep up soon. I prefer 50-60 in my quicker decks. My slower decks tend to have a bit more in them.

Thanks for the reply Periculum. I find that most helpful. Just for clarification no more then 3 or any one particular card can be in the deck correct? That includes all cards. And the earlier battle packs and the first big expansion don't have 3 copies but the second series of battle packs do. Interesting. I like the idea of having only one of the races Hero units in the deck, so when you get them and play them it is actually an accomplishment and really cool.

If anyone else has any advice I am all ears.

[email protected] said:

Correct on the only 3 copies of any one card in a given deck. I am one of Periculum's regular opponent's. As it is if you prefer casual playing then I wouldn't buy more than one of any particular battle pack or expansion unless someone in the group just wants some of the neutral cards for their deck. If you haven't bought anything else I highly recommend the "Assault on Ulthan" expansion which has the high elf and dark elf kingdom boards as well as two ready to play decks that are competitive right out of the box against the any single kingdom from the core set. For expansions I highly recommend the new sets with 3 of each card in them. They have a lot of really good cards for support in them that will make up for not having 3 core sets.

I also highly recommend the multiplayer rules where you need to burn 3 zones to win but drawing your last card will knock you out of the game. We do out team games the same way when we have enough folks over to play them.

Thank you as well harliquine. One last question. Do the cards in the later battle packs just add to your options to bring to the deck or are they so go that there is no point in having the older ones in your deck? And by the new sets I assume you mean the "Enemy Cycle."

New and old cards are equal - new cards just brings you some new options. But you still need a lot of cards from Core Sets and Corruption Cycle in your deck...

As far as sleeves go...which ones are recommended and which ones have worked best?