I thought it might be interesting to find out how different Night's Watch members are running the new Storyline Leagues, in particular how they are handling the choice of Chapter Packs.

For our league, I am letting players purchase from any of the available Chapter Packs during each buy in, but a player may not purchase more than 1 of a single CP during the League. This way, players can then pick their initial CPs to boost up the house they intend to play. I decided to play Martell -- which is not going to be easy, that is for sure -- and it looks like the two Chapter Packs I'll be choosing are Sacred Bonds and A Song of Summer. I had wanted to go with Winds of Winter so I could get Obara Sand (3 Str with stealth and Mil and Int, so good), but decided to go with Summer as I got more in-house characters, the Summer raven and a decent enough Plot card. I really wanted Mane and Arthur Dayne, but I think I'll survive. Sacred Bonds gives me 6 more characters, and To Be a Viper. It's sad that Jaqen got banned instead of nerfed, but I'll deal with it. I have this feeling that the real reason for banning Pyromancer's Cache was to avoid having all league players buy the War of the Five Kings CP. Because, frankly, I couldn't see a reason not to get it if it was legal.

As far as League nights, we always had out GoT casual night on Tuesdays, so now that is League night. Fits right in, as players can get in their Sparring Games and make their trades before the "tournament" at the end of each league week.

Now if I can just get the league kit in my hands...

Heh. According to the Tourney site, this discussion is for, what, 5 people/groups in the US, 4 more outside?

At present. They did extend the sign-up deadline, and who knows -- maybe this type of discussion will spur more people to start their own leagues. I do have to say I was amazed at how much work it was, and the amount of turn around time it took, for our store to get registered to host GoT events.

But I am going OT here.

Is there a direct link up anywhere on this site that takes you to the Tourney site? I'd still like to be able to look up where tournies are being held without digging through archived news articles or posts.

I have a feeling things might pick up slowly. There really wasn't that much time to sign up to run events, especially if you consider that it was durring the holliday season. Hopefully things will pick up.

How many people are lucky enough to have a local meta with which they can meet on a weekly basis? Even when I was playing more actively I was driving up to LA twice a month. There's no way I could/would make that trip for a weekly league tourney, no matter how cool it sounds.

Hedge tournies seem a lot more feasible. They're monthly, and it appears you can run them however you want (ie. ITE+).

JerusalemJones said:

They did? What is the new deadline, because I missed the old one?

instead of simply telling the link, i tell you path. so its easier to remember ...

go to the AGOT site (click the icon below your avatar). enter the support section. there you will find lots of infos about AGOT and its current tourney system, and also a link to the Organized Play Website.

then you have register as a TO (wait for approval), your venue has to be registered as well (wait for approval). then you may start to register tourneys (that have to be approved of course). then you may order prize support (after having your credit card registered).

this sounds like a tedious process, but in my case everything was handled very quickly be the FFG staff!

good luck!

On the point of sign up. Mine was handled the other day in a matter of hours from start to finish.

Currently our store does not have any of the older chapter packs in as of yet so we will be sticking with the Time of Ravens set. I will let people choose which ever packs they wish.

I am playing Martell as well and will picking Summer for sure but I am unsure of a Second Summer or Change of Seasons for A Game of Cyvasse.

In Spain AGoT has been published in Spanish starting with the Core Set (ACoA will not be translated by now), so I said the 2 chapters to be ASoS and TWoW.

And the chapters to be added will be the new ones. I now it´s a llittle bit "closed", but I think it´s better for this first season, and this way people get used to play the "new game" because it´s in Spanish. The next one will be more "free", about choosing chapters.

ktom said:

Ktom, are you able to see that info because you are registered on the Tourny page or is there a way for people not registered to easily see this? Seems that there should be easy access for a player/prospective player coming to FFG's website who is looking for a tournament to participate in to info about where League play is happening and how to contact the Night's Watch and/or store to get info.

LetsGoRed said:

The link on the support section takes you to the section that seems to be for tournament administration; registering them, running them, etc. You have to log in. It seems to be primarily for tournament organizers and stores.

A far more useful link for the rank-and-file players is the following:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/op

This link takes you to general info. page that lets players search both venues (stores) and tournaments. Quite honestly, it is a much better link to put up and one that is far less discouraging for people just trying to find some people to play the game with!

Venryk said:

pick 1 summer and 1 winds of winter cp. Obara, Mance, and Dayne are much better then game of cyvasse.

ktom said:

This is what I wanted. Thank you ktom.

Holy crap. How dificult is it to get this in a place where people can find it?

Lars said:

I also forgot about underhanded assassin ( http://tzumainn.com/agot/cards/card.php?card_id=3915 )

War of the 5 Kings, Ancient Enemies, and Sacred Bonds are also good choices.

Really, do we need to limit the card pool even further at this point? I'm much more in favor of leagues allowing all chapter packs.

I can understand the Spanish limiting it to the Spanish translated CPs, but other than that I agree with you Kennon. Variety is truly needed in the limited LCG pool.

I got in my first league Sparring match today, my Martell deck vs. Targaryen. I was able to get CS Maester Aemon on the flop, and hod wonderful claim soak for the first several terms. My opponent dropped Valar on the third turn, and I played Jon Snow turn five. Dropped Valar on turn 6, used Aemon to Save Jon, and (hooray) drew into Ghost! It was awesome. I managed to pull out the win turn 8, and was very excited. Traded a To Be A Dragon for Fury of the Sun (next week I want to get Aero Hotah off of him), and I want to Spar against the guy who bought the W5K chapter Pack so I can trade for a Maester of War.

MVP: Lion's Gate, ooh. I was able to discard power from his characters with renown. I expect this to be even better against Baratheon players, and may want to switch to the location search plot over the character search.

Will subsequent "seasons" of League play start with each player using a Core Set and two chapter packs, or do the build on what they had from the prior season? That is, will season two have players starting with the Core Set and two chapter packs or with Core Set and six chapter packs (the two they started season one with, plus another two added during the six weeks of the first season, plus another two for commencing season two)?

Kennon said:

also think that is too much of limitation. deck building becomes almost obsolete here.

so in agreement with all my players i´d rather go with all chapter packs (but only 1x each).

Part of the joy and frustration of league play is in starting with a restricted card pool, and then watching it grow and watching the decks (and tactics) change.

It also creates an even lower price point for new players. Instead of one Core Set and nine Chapter Packs, retail $130, they have a much easier to swallow $60.

Remember one of the fears about the LCG was that all the decks would look alike... but with this limitation in League play the decks should reflect variation pretty easily.

Honestly I'd try it as is for the first couple of months, if that proves to be unsatisfying, double the number of Chapter packs.

Some of us in NYC have taken advantage of the extended signup for League play and are working now to get our League's first season started soon. As noted in another thread, we lost our "home" when Neutral Ground Game Store closed at the end of December. FFG gets a big "Thank You" for being very understanding about our situation in Manhattan and permitting us to run a League without a game shop host as the play group is currently meeting at a cafe in midtown. Hopefully another shop will spring up in Manhattan to fill the void and we'll do what we can to work with The Compleat Strategist game store (which doesn't currently cater to CCGs/LCGs) to use space in their shop when they permit (unfortunately that won't be very frequent as the don't have many days when their gaming space is open for use). If anyone in the NYC area is interested in learning more about our League, please head over to the NY Meta's website or contact us at our email address (website URL and email address are in my signature block).

great to hear jason. I'm glad FFG worked with you guys even without a store.

Given the limitations of the card pool, if you are playing in this format - isn't it sort of mandatory that you choose Ancient Enemies as one of your buy in packs; just to secure the Fury of Plot for your House right from the outset? Maybe not so much for Lanni or Martell, but I cna't see not making this selection with the other four Houses.

Makes me suspect Kennon is relaly on the right track above.

Are the Fury plots really that crucial? If you use the Summer chapter pack, you get the Song of Summer 5/5/1 plot, which triggers off Summer cards, instead of the largely-obsolete-in-LCG Military Battle/Intrigue Gambit/Power Struggle type cards...

Yeah - but forget about teh stast - the anti_house tech is so strong, esepcially for Baratheon and (now) Targ that they are very hard to pass up.

Stark doesn't really need the kill, but is sweet anyway, and greyjoy sure can use the targeted removal the Plots provide.

I dunno - seems pretty automatic at the moment.

Forget the plots: Targ (Dragon Thief), Bara (King's Champion) and Greyjoy (Saltwife) might want that pack anyway.

And anyone who does get the pack for the plot is probably not going to be sorry to have Bringer's of Law or Questioned Claim in this particular mix.

Plus, if you are playing in a group that is allowing folks to choose their own packs, assuming you follow some of the reasoning above (vis a vie characters and events), you know you will ALWAYS have good trade bait in the League with the plots.

I think I might be in the minority here, especially among those who were playing the game pre-LCG, but I'm glad FFG structured League play to start with just two chapter packs. When the focus on LCG plus early rotation announcement came out, I was ok with it because I understood FFG's presumed view that the game needed a new start and an easy entry point for players attracted by the LCG format who might be interested in OP. But if OP started with true new players facing people who have 3x Core Set and all chapter packs perhaps in multiple copies, well, that seemed like it could be daunting and made me wonder if scrapping Standard actually solved anything. This 1x Core Set plus 1x of two different chapter packs is really an easy entry for new players. I hope each Season of League play, at least for a while, starts "fresh", that is, you start with 1x Core Set plus 1x of two different chapter packs so that new players only need to make a small jump to join in as they discover the game. If the League play does work that way (and from reading the 2008-2009 tournament rules, I'm pretty sure that is how League Seasons will work), I'll push our group to have as a "house" rule, isomething that restricts your ability to pick the same chapter packs you had for the prior Season(s), assuming we keep letting people choose Packs for themselves. Sure, that might mean that a freshly joining player has more options in choosing Packs for the current League Season because he or she didn't participate in the prior Season(s), but I don't see that as so bad as it's a way to help them not be too disadvantaged due to lack of playing experience (a modest handicapping system if you will).

Also I like the challenge/tension of deciding which chapter packs to use rather than having them all at my disposal. It's another, different wrinkle for deck building. It may be my background of being an avid "Euro" board game player long before I discovered AGOT, but the in-game play is the most enjoyable part of the game, so if deck building has lost a little of the spotlight, that's ok with me. (And I do like deck building, but as a compliment to the game play.)

And the Hedge tournaments seem to be "LCG" format rather than "League" format, so there's opportunities for OP using the full LCG cardpool just around the corner.