I've never played any card games (except those played with a standard deck of 52 cards). I don't get what you buy and when you buy the chapter packs. It seems like there are already $200+ of packs out there. I can't believe they're released monthly (?). So what do I buy first? Or what should I buy at the same time as the core deck (especially for discounted shipping). How do I keep up?

Thanks

It depends on how much you really want to get into the game. You could play casually with just the core set or with 2 cores if you want to spend the extra money; most everyone on the forums will advocate getting a second and a third core because it will allow you to build decks with 3x of any core card you need, which increases the likelihood of you drawing a specific card. If you don't want to spend the money for more core sets, see if you can get some friends into the game, split the cost with them and divide them amongst you by house.
You can add the 2 other houses by getting their box expansions, Princes of the Sun and Kings of the Sea , although Kings of the Sea is going to be reprinted soon and you should probably wait until the reprint before getting a copy. Many of the chapterpacks will only have a few cards you want in them and buying them may make your decks unbalanced if one or two houses are getting much better cards than the others. A good pack to start with (imo) would be Ancient Enemies because it contains a great plot card for each house.

This article cardgamedb and this one on boardgamegeek might help

FYI the reason three is a "magic" number (buying three Core Sets, some chapter packs have three of each card, etc.) is that when you customize your own deck, there is a restriction on the number of cards with the same title you can put in a deck: 3. So you can have up to three of each card, and the closer you get to that number, the more reliable your deck will be at drawing the cards you need/designed it to draw.

In terms of chapter packs, think about them as more optional minor expansions. At the competitive level, all the players buy every pack. But if you're just playing with friends, there's really no reason to buy every pack. If I were you, I would focus on a particular "block" though (a set of chapter packs that share a theme). I think the Brotherhood block is fun, and unlike some of the earlier chapter packs that cost $10, each brotherhood pack ($15) comes with three of each card so that you don't need to buy multiples. (As someone else mentioned, there's a mix of cards in each pack.)

The Martell expansions is also pretty good (comes with two of each card), and the Greyjoy expansion has decent cards, but I would wait until the reprint of the Greyjoy expansion due this Spring. The original Greyjoy box had only one of each card and was still quite expensive, whereas the reprint has three of each card and is cheaper because it lacks the resin house card that was included in the original box (kind of cool, but not worth the added cost).

Good luck!

I just started playing the game a few months ago and speaking from noob experience if youre not playing competatively the Core Set will keep you entertained for a good while! If youre just playing casualy with friends you could get a single core set and simply get to grips with the mechanics/houses etc and figure out how you like play.

When you and the rest of the players have a good idea of what house(es) you like to play and what tactics you think you would employ simply buy a few chapter packs ocassionally to bolster those houses/strategies. Tbh the only reason to buy all of them quickly is if youre planing to play competatively or if youre Really in love with the game.

I tend to spend about 30 to 40$ every two months and so far its suited me and one other player perfectally.

I did however just get two people into it so with 4 players you might want to split the cost and buy around 80$ worth (divided by 4 thats 20$ each) of stuff, just so theres enough to go around! (Two Core sets and Princes of the Sun will give you enough cards to make 5 fairly balanced decks and will run you around 80$)

Really it depends on how many people are playing. Hope that helps! =)

Just as a follow up to the "competitive play" scene. You don't really need to buy every chapter pack to make a competitive deck. Most decks run cards from the Core Set + another 7-10 or so chapter packs (just guessing, but that feels about right). So although it's still a larger investment (especially if you factor in the costs to run multiple copies), you don't need to break the bank. Also, depending on the type of build, you can definitely get by with a lot fewer chapter packs than this and still be playing with the strongest cards available.

If you ever decide to attend a tournament, chances are people will lend you extra copies of key cards your missing. The AGOT community is very friendly, even at the competitive scene.

Thanks so much for your replies. As a casual gamer, and noobie card player it seems as if the core is good enough. If I understand correctly the Prince is if you want to get a fifth house in the game and King of The Sea to play the other. But really the 4 major houses from the core game are really all you need.

Also would all agree that the LCG is the best representation of the books? I'm assuming there's a bias toward the cards since this is LCG forum, but what do you think?

The Old Man said:

Well the board game is just a board game and Battles for Westeros doesnt have nearly as many expansions and themes to chose from so I think the LCG is the best representative in volume of houses/factions you can play (ie. Nights Watch, Direwolves, Clansmen, Sand Snakes, House Tully, House Dayne) but on top of that I think the artwork is absolutely amazing (the reason I got into the game was for the pictures, no joke) and the flavour texts are usually very good =)

On a different note, is your screen name a refrence to Admiral Adama? =D

DerBarchen said:

Wish it were, but actually it's a tribute to The Old Man in Jean Shepard's stories of growing up on Indiana. Though the most famous one or course is, "A Christmas Story" I first discovered his stories in Playboy in the late 60's.

Maybe I should have just said, "Yes."

Well, the more I prepare to jump into this game the more I get confused. The LCG format, as I understand it, is to give players an opportunity to build decks without there being unobtainable, or over-priced, rare cards to unbalance the game. So what are expansion games? Just more cards in a box instead of a pack, or collections of packs in one box, or new sets of playing rules?

My head spins.

The house expansions are just larger pools of cards centering around 1 house, but usually with cards useful to multiple houses. A normal chapter pack has 20 different cards and a house expansion will have ~55 different cards. The Lords of the WInter (stark) and Kings of the Storm (Baratheon) also come with very nice deck lists for decks you can build using just the core set and the expansion box cards.

Thanks a lot for this information, I had the same problem, but reading this topic everything cleared up.

Well, the first step is obvious anyway: Go and buy the core set!

I was bemused by this Chapter/Expansion packs thing, too, but this thread (and Darksbane's links) clears it up nicely.

It can be quite confusing if you have never played any collectable card game of any type before. If you are coming from that perspective I think a single core set is your best bet to start with.

The reason for chapter packs and many of the expansions is not only to add new houses, but because unlike many games out there where you have a set number of cards or pieces every game, in most living/collectable card games you have the option of customizing your deck after you learn how to play. As you get experience you will find that some cards really help you every time you draw them, other cards you seem to never use or always wish you had something better. So to strengthen your deck you add up to 3 copies of the cards you find most useful to your strategy,you remove the cards you don't find compliment your strategy completely. The logic behind that being that you want to draw your most powerful cards as often as possible and the rules say the most copies of the same card you can include is 3. Likewise, removing the cards you don't find useful will make sure you draw something better instead.

No matter how many chapter packs or expansions you buy total, your deck's are going to remain around the same size once your deck hits the tournament legal minimum of 60 cards or more. It's just that you are always looking to replace weaker cards with stronger cards and part of the fun is trying to discover which cards make the strongest combinations.

So unlike many other types of games out there, the strategy in customizing your deck between game sessions can become as big a part of your success in the game as playing the game itself. As you add more chapter packs and expansions, you can make multiple strong decks which will give you a vast variety of drastically different play experiences or strategies, and your opponents can do the same. With experience you will learn to evaluate how new cards might complement old ones to improve an exisiting deck idea or allow the creation of a completely new deck strategy. But for starters you just want to get the core set, learn the rules, and play. It is hard for a complete beginner to create a deck of your own or evaluate which expansion and chapter pack you might like, if you don't have the experience to know what makes a card strong or weak.

A 2nd core set after you are sure your group enjoys the game, and once you are ready to start customizing decks is generally the best option. The 2nd core set allows you to start building decks, but since you have already played with all the cards you will have an idea of which ones you want to have multiples of and which ones you want to remove completely. Then you can start swapping neutral cards between the different houses to experiment as well. This allows you to learn deck building with familiar cards, rather than trying to build your first deck with cards your group has never seen before the way you have to with chapter packs and expansions. You also avoid adding any new rules to complicate the process and you ensure that all the houses stay balanced.

Karazax, thank you for your excellent thoughts, and for all those who posted.