So, snooping around the premises that our CoC playing brethren inhabit, and word on the 'street' has it that their re-printed chapter packs are to be 3x in the future (a la the new Illyrio's Gift cycle).

Can't vouch for the informant's honour or trustworthiness, but thought I ought to throw it out there for discussion:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/577247/reprint-collation-revealed-at-arkham-nights-

It would be nice, but until I hear something definite from FFG I wouldn't hold it to be true for either game.

I could see them doing this but are any of the GoT packs to the point where they need to be reprinted yet? It is still pretty easy to find just about every chapter pack (unlike CoC where the first few packs are sold out at pretty much every web store) so something like this might not matter as much for GoT.

When they announced the change of format to a 3x system for all cards they said the old chapter packs wouldn't be reprinted that way. Imagine the outcry of someone who spent 35 bucks to get trips of To Be A Kraken when he could have waited until now to only have to spend 15.

Mathias Fricot said:

I really can't imagine any reasonable level of outcry. There's a few other reasons why the situation you describe above would never happen; however, even if it did, no one is going to quit a game because it was made more accessible for people to play and enjoy it. I have 3x of everything and would applaud FFG for reprinting older expansions (if they do decide to reprint them) in the new 3x format.

I think it would have to be out of print in order for that to be a reasonable possibility on the business end. No retailer or distributor would be happy with product they are holding suddenly becoming obsolete... not to mention if FFG has any product in their warehouse. The best likelihood of something like that happening would be if a new printing of older material was going to be done, say in Russian or Chinese (two random countries that I don't think have translated cards). I think even then it would need to be the players and international partners demanding old catalog reprints to catch up rather than just the new material. I have no idea what would be the pass/fail line on something like that money-wise.

I said nothing about quitting. But look at it from the Greyjoy players perspective: they spend 90 bucks getting three Kings of the Sea, and then its reprinted for 29.99 (or similar, but without the resin house card)? I would be slightly irritated. Its like two years ago when they cut down the price on iPods by 100$. People who bought it the day before were raging. Does it affect me? very little. I bought two more Calling the Banners and two more Sacred Bonds for the Compelled by the X and To Be a Y events. Yes, I think its better for the game overall. It makes it easier to get our hands on all the cards. I won't have to worry about buying three packs so I can run three Feigned Retreat or DotN Mel. No, I don't think they will do it.

Isn't that the price paid to be an early adopter?

It's not unheard of to see businesses ameliorate their products and/or services after some time has passed (in this case more than a year since Kings of the Sea deluxe expansion was first printed) in order to increase sales of their entire line (in this case A Game of Thrones LCG).

Since Kings of the Sea can be seen as a requisite product for GJ rather than an additive expansion, it only makes sense IMO to improve card distribution (to the now en vogue triplicate-style packaging) for late entry or potential customers. It will be as you say, good for the game.

The article, however, only mentions distribution changes for the older monthly Asylum Packs (AGoT's Chapter Pack equivalent) with the now defunct card distribution scheme for monthly releases, thus deluxe expansions like KotS may not be given a distribution overhaul. Time will tell.

The function of Kings of the Sea wasn't to act as a deluxe expansion in the same way Kings of the North or Kings of the Storm was. Yes, it is a deluxe expansion, but it was made to introduce Greyjoy on a similar footing as the Core Set decklists. Martell falls somewhere in the middle, with 2x every card. We can guess all we want, but like you said, only time will tell.

if my post above wasn't clear, let me elaborate and say
that Kings of the Sea is a core set product in game concept (since it serves as the introductory foundation for GJ metawise),
but the marketing execution makes it a "requisite" fringe product which serves to drive the sales of the Core Set.
This is as you say, what makes Kings of the Sea different from Lords of Winter or Kings of the Storm.

Theoretically, Martell's PotS expansion's duplicate distribution may have alerted Core Set 1x owner, to grab another CS to increase solidarity for the 4 CS Houses. I don't know how it is in reality, but Kings of the Sea should have served the same function as PotS, if not for its unfortunate 1x distribution...all conjectures at this point without any solid sales/marketing data.

If GJ showing in Gencon is any indication, it was slightly underrepresented in Joust (understandable due to the meta's perceived strength of Joust GJ... although GJ did win the Gencon Joust last year) and only had a moderate presence in melee (a game type that GJ along with Stark and Baratheon excel at...this is especially apparent since the melee champion for Gencon this year was from the House of the Kraken). I suspect that some of that has got to be the 1x distribution of Kings of the Sea.

IMO the Kings of the Sea & Princes of the Sun are products that can potentially not only drive the sales of CS but also the monthly Chapter Packs...casual gamers in general hate wasted material (or maybe this is simply human nature) and if they did not have a solid base for House GJ and/or Martell, Chapter Packs' inclusion of them would be seen as somewhat wasteful when they can't efficiently take advantage of those cards.

As the person who originally relayed this news I have to agree with JJ below:

JerusalemJones said:

It should be taken with a grain of salt until FFG make their usual official announcements that they do on the site.

But it is also important to consider the venue of the news when swallowing that salt.

It was a statement made at a public venue with numerous people in attendance, not a private conversation. The Game designer (James Hata) and the game producer (Mike David) remarked on this bit of info without being specifically asked. I only asked what the reprint status of those expansion packs were and they then offerred up the info of their own volition.

So while you did have to attend the event to hear the info, it was still a publicly made statement. Such seminars are similar to press conferences where FFG disseminate info to the public.

FFG have some pretty intimidating guidlines to follow regarding their employees passing out such info. They risk their jobs by passing out info that is not previously been OK'ed. If the game producer and designer both gave up that info willingly, then its a safe bet that this is indeed true. Of course like many things FFG does, it is subject to change, but considering how difficult it is for new players to buy into the game and the amount of increased profit for FFG to give a full playset while increasing the expansion packs price by 50%, you can see how when it comes time for a pack to be reprinted that it makes logical sense from many perspectives to do just this.

Take from that what you will.

Well, it is now official at least the first CoC cycle is be reprinted witht he new x3 collation. And the next cycle might as well.

If FFG does the same with the GoT, I can pretty much guarantee I will buy every CP again in this format. Because I am finding that I need more and more copies of cards that I just don't have anymore.

JerusalemJones said:

I'm right there with you. I'd easily buy another of each chapter pack if all the cards were 3x each.

This is going to sound strange, but did FFG change the number of cards in some of the packs recently? I could swear that Vale Refugee came 1 per pack and I checked my cards and found that I only have 1, but both dabbler and the card list at http://info.wsisiz.edu both indicate that they come 3 per pack. I am almost 100% sure I didnt somehow lose 2 of them... has anyone ever gotten the wrong number of cards in a pack at any point?

Skowza said:

It can happen. I once got 2x Herald of the King and 2x House Umber Berserkers.