Well, as I said in another thread I got the core set last week after spending a month reading the instructions, watching the FFG videos and reading posts here and at BGG. I've been working with the set since Friday night and it's not going well. Some background:

I have never played any card games except those that use Bicycle, or other standard card decks. I used to play Avalon Hill games in the early 80s. I played many games of KingMaker. Also played Squad Leader, Dune and some others I've forgotten. A few months I discovered Arkham Horror and love the themeing and the game in general. Certainly the rules are a little convoluted, and not laid out the best, but I think I got most of it right. I've also recently acquired BSG and Settlers.

I decided on AGoT due to its acclaim here, its feel for the book and to try a LCG. But I'm having lots of trouble. First the videos made it seem like it was pretty much kneel some cards, then the defender does the same, total up the points and see who won. I guess I didn't catch on from my pre-reading that every card did something else and just figureing out what was going requres a set of FAQs and clarifications that are longer than the rulebook. There's also a flow chart the likes I haven't seen since a college logic class. My head is spinning. I can't seem to figure out how to get a handle of this game--this has never happened before, and as I've said I was a Squad Leader planner. I wish there was a video like the 11 parter for Arkham Horror that someone did

Doesn't this say it all? There's a part where it says you settle a problem by saying that you did a recursive move 17 million times. When I have this particular problem I'm going to a googleplex.

Conveniently enough, our newest episode of our AGoT podcast is directed primarily and newbies and many of the timing sorts of issues that you mentioned! Check out my post here which has links to the direct episode page, the podcast feed, and an itunes link if you'd rather subscribe that way.

For the moment, I'll just direct you there as most of the advice I might give is mentioned in the episode. If you have some further thoughts and questions after, I'd love to help.

The game is very intimidating for a new player, and I struggled a lot in the beginning as well. I don't know where you're located, but the best thing would be to find some more experienced players in your area (try the Metagame sub-forum here) and play with them.

You obviously found the FAQ, which is a very good reference. I find reading it a couple of times helps some of the more intricate stuff to sink in. Also, whenever you have a question with regards to a card, try and find the answer in either the core rules or the FAQ.

Aside from that, write down anything you don't understand or have a question about and ask in the rules sub-forum here on the boards. There's a plethora of helpful people here on the boards who are happy to answer any questions you might have.

I haven't listened to it yet, but the Game of Thrones LCG podcast "2 Champs and a Chump" just put out a newbie episode, which might also be helpful. You'll find it amongst the most recent threads here.

The intimidation factor tends to come in that people think that everything in all these documents are of equal importance and equal prominence. They are not.

- Rest assured that the rule book in the Core Set covers at least 85% of the situations that come up.

- Almost everything else you need in a game is on the individual cards. If a card isn't in play, don't worry about it, especially while you are learning.

- The first time through, you can ignore everything in the FAQ up to p. 14 as "largely situational." Wait for the situation to come up before you start worrying about all the individual clarification entries. Or, said another way, wait until something is unclear before you try to clarify it. It will mean more to you - and you'll remember it better - if you have a real situation instead of trying to figure things out from hypothetical examples.

- Looking at p. 14-17 of the FAQ would be the most important thing when you're learning the game. It is the "advanced timing structure, in detail." If you can learn the game's "initiate, interrupt, resolve, clean-up (ie, passives), then Respond" timing flow, what you end up with is the skeleton of the game, on which to hang the "meat" that is the individual card effects.

The thing that makes AGoT such an amazing game is its nearly infinite adaptability and flexibility, as well as the depth of strategy and tactical decision-making that goes into managing all of it. The game has a very open-ended architecture in that the individual cards and their interactions, rather than the basic rules, can be a bigger driver of how an individual game is played. But there is a basic structure which limits that open-ended architecture. The problem with learning it isn't the complexity (it is actually very straightforward), but all the distractions from card-to-card interactions that seem to be clamoring for attention in the meantime. Learn that basic structure (from the Core rules and pp 14-17 of the FAQ) and almost all of the card-to-card interactions fall into place.

Thanks to everyone. I'm wondering how much of it has to do with I never played Magic or other card games. I'm off to listen to the podcast, and I'll be reporting back as I progress.

First off, don't get too caught up in all the details with FAQs, etc., just look at the Core Set rule book. It is true that there were some erratas that change what the cards do, but these were mostly just slight tweaks to balance some of the more powerful combinations that arise when you use Core Set cards with additional chapter packs. In other words, don't worry about that stuff until you begin considering playing competitively or with a local play group.

In case it helps, here's how I look at customizable card games like this one. The basic idea behind any of these card games is that you are marshalling an army to take over the throne, win a battle, or destroy your opponent. (In this game, you race your opponent to "control the throne," so it's less about destroying an opponent than about getting to the win condition first.) Just like in real life, armies don't materialize out of thin air...you will need resources. In addition, there are unpredictable events/developments that affect the outcome...sometimes this is luck and others perhaps a cultivated event. So conceptually, the whole game basically involves you creating an army and then fighting your way through your opponent(s)' similarly raised army to get to the finish. You employ special tactics and other surprises to help you. Whoever gets to 15 power (the win condition) first wins.

Conceptually, this game is similar to Poker/Bridge/Hearts/etc. in that you will develop a strategy to win using cards that you draw, and that you have a finite number of cards to combine to develop this strategy. Otherwise, it's very different. First, you will be playing with different cards than your opponent. This is a big difference, because your cards will do different things, and playing with your deck will feel slightly different than playing with another person's deck. The variations among decks adds many more layers, but it also adds complexity. Second, unlike Hearts or Bridge, you can (and often should) use more than one card at a time. So if you have 5 cards in hand, you can use all or none of those...but once you do, you won't get to refill your hand until the next round. Third, because you can play/use more than one card at the same time, the combinations of multiple cards can work together to be more powerful. (For example, if you have a knight, that knight may fight better if it has a horse to ride, a particularly long lance to fight with, or a squire to assist. In this game, these three things may all be represented by their own cards that, when combined, strengthen your advantage/potential.)

In terms of actual game play, there are five card types in this game that will help you with your strategy. First, you will have the primary champions that fight for and take the throne. These are your "characters," and can be composed of individuals like Eddard Stark or groups like "Armies of the North," etc. However, before you can recruit these to your aid, you will need to have the food/lodging/general resources to support them. These are represented in this game by gold. Essentially, you pay to marshall these characters to your cause. Mostly only locations provide gold income, but House Lannister has some characters that also provide income, given their heritage as the gold-rich house. (Locations may also perform other functions, such as providing buffs to your own characters, but their most basic function is to work as a resource.) Third, you may include card effects that represent certain "events." These "events" are used to help your own characters perform better or inhabit the growth/performance of your opponent(s)' army. You may also choose to outfit your army/characters in a special way, or apply negative conditions to your opponent's characters, through the use of "attachments." Such attachments may include a "Bodyguard," which is not a character on its own but acts as an "attachment" to a Lord or Lady to defend that character. They may also include applying a condition to your character, like with "Devious Intentions," which makes your character stronger.

Finally, the fifth *card type* is kept entirely separate from the other four, and has it's own 7-card deck. These are "plots." Plots set the stage for a particular round and are effects that you can control (unlike cards in your draw deck, which you first have to draw and second have to have the resources to play). Plots have several components to them. One major component is that they provide income. With plot gold, you can marshall a character directly without the help of resources from locations. For this reason, you can in theory play with few or no resource locations, relying solely on plot gold. It is technically feasible to build a whole deck comprised solely of characters (and your 7 plot cards), but most people find that you want at least some resources (locations) and some ways to boost your chances of winning (in the form of events or attachments) to increase the number of characters you are able to marshall each round and give yourself better odds at winning.

I know the above doesn't cover everything, but hopefully it helps fill in some of the conceptual holes. If you're still struggling, I suggest you try playing with a couple of friends. You guys probably won't get everything right the first time, but as you play a game or two (the first game will take the longest), you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Once you've got the rules down, the rest is basically just learning strategy (like with any game).

When you do start getting into deck building... one thing I notice non-magic players do is they sometimes forget about things such as resource curve, etc. (Mainn is an excelent example)... and while advanced players can get away with that. I generally recommend this:

At first use the base decks from the Core set and replace a card with a similar type from the expansions. Or get another core set, and simply put the two together (except for the cases where you get more than 3x... but I think in core thats only resources.). This keeps the flow of the deck mostly intact as you experiment.

Then if a house you like has one of the special expansions, check that out.

Also:

Don't play against just one person, you end up learning to react to their style and not how to actually play. (Use OCTGN... which is on these boards errr... somewhere).

When you feel confortable building largely your own decks try this formula (I find its a useful base):

30 charcaters: Avg gold cost 2.1 to 2.4.

15 resource cards -> cards that either reduce cost, give you gold, or give you influence (dont bother with influence unless you need it).

15 "other" cards. events, attachments, special locations.

I would also recommend not starting with Targ, Greyjoy, or Martell. I would start with Stark then Lannister and then Baratheon. They represent the basic play types and each have an emphasis on one of the challenge types.

For the record I started with the Winter Starter which had Targ and Greyjoy. And then advanced to Martell... it took me two years before I started making strong decks... and I think if I started with Bara or Stark or Lanni I would have grasped the game and done better much earlier.

Thank you, thank you everyone. I'm going to be jumping back in. But you guys almost had a chance to pickup up a hardly used core set on Ebay.

Really nice introductory write-up, Twn2dn

Saturnine said:

Although I applaud FFG for not putting a lot of 'sticky' threads up - it would be nice to have a Newbie thread. That way people don't have to search and search or start a new thread. This one was particularly good for someone who hasn't played another CCG/TCG/LCG.

Watching the video helps learn the basics, just stick with that at first. Its only when you start adding alot of cards that you might get a bit more of a challenge in understanding how some work together.

Welcome to the game ;-) Don't mind to have never played magic or a card game before.... I was in the same situation 2 years ago ;-)

As suggested play a lot and when you have doubts ask to the forum rule section and we will be ready to help you. I found very useful play via online OCTGN2 to learn from "all metas" something new... playing online you can also ask directly ruling question and learn from people more experienced (I learned a lot from a lot of players, this is the only secret to increase our skills ;-)).

You find in my signature useful links about OCTGN2 plugins and a "comunity site" just created some weeks ago related to AGOT.

ENJOY THE GAME!!!