I am a boardgamer. Well, actually I'm kind of devoted to one boardgame, but this is a post to try and get my head around the concept of the AGOT game and to assist my daughter...

So, my daughter has recently succumbed to the evil that is Moneypit: The Gathering and although she says she is happy to play with what she has amassed so far, I can see the glint of want in her eye!

I'd been having a look at AGOT as the concept of a LCG interested me and as I saw it, you just got the same cards as everyone else and made a deck out of a set number of cards.

However, looking at posts in this forum, it would seem that I have this wrong. I have seen posts suggesting that you "need" 2 or 3 sets of this and that to make a good deck which would appear to go against what I believed it to be and would possibly mean that it might cost just as much to play this as it does that other game...

Can somebody please explain why you would need to get multiple sets and tell me, compared to MtG say, how much this game would end up costing?

Thanks for any input!

The theory of the LCG is that you can play it however you want and the options for both playing and buying work toward this theory.

i'll give you the buying options first. I can't compare them to magic as i do not know the prices of magic cards at the moment, but the LCG is cheaper then the CCG older version of AGoT (unless you ask one person who doesn't play the game anymore...). The main componet of the LCG is the Core Set. This includes , the rules, a board and figures to help visualize a rules mechinic and 4 fixed and playable out of the box decks for $40 (one deck for 4 different houses [factions or colors whatever term appeals to you]). The decks can be played as is or taken apart and used for deck building (you can get one-three legal decks out of the decks in the core set). However the decks in the core set would not be legal for a tournament outset of a Core Set tournament (they do not meet the size requirments). The other buying option is Chapter Packs at abou $10 each. Chapter Packs contain 40 cards, 10 cards having 1 copy in the pack and 10 having 3 copies in the pack. These packs do not create a playable deck on their own as they include cards for all 6 houses (as well as nuetrals). Chapter Packs can be used to change the Core Set decks, bulk up the core set decks, or add to the overall card pool to build your own deck form scratch.

The way it can be played also varies (i've started to touch on this above). As I said you can just play the core set with 2-4 people at a time. You could also crakc open a second core set and play with up to 8 people at once. Then there is casual constructed, which is you get in touch with people who laos have the cards and you play anyway you want (any sets of cards, there are pre LCG sets) with nay rules you want. Then there are tournaments, which right now come in three variaties. The one most applicible to new players would be LCG only which means that you can only play with a deck that includes cards from the core set or chapter pack (there are 6 prior to the core set along with those released after the core set). The most temporal format (probable not lasting beyond this year) is the 'Standard Format' which is a hold over for older players that includes all the LCG era cards, and two of the older sets (Iron Throne and 5 kings as well as there 2 expansions). The final format is called LEgacy and can include any card ever printed (mostly) but the their can be only one copy of any individually named card in the deck. With one core set and a few chapter packs you cna play in any one of these variaties as you want (with mixed results). The talk of multiple core sets and chapter packs comes in because the rules of deck building (except in legacy) allow you to have up to three copies of an individually named card in your deck (its why half of the chapter packs come in 3 copies). You do not need to have three copies of a card in your deck, but some players see advantages (or disadvantages) to having 3x of a card in your deck and most who view themselves as competative players (but not all) like to have the ability to have 3x of a card in a deck.

Thanks for the quick and informative reply Lars!

I think I now have the answer to my questions. The grey matter is slowly absorbing new facts all of the time and at my age it takes a while to sink in!

I will perhaps look into picking up a copy of this for her to play with her gaming circle. I doubt she would want to play in tournaments, but you never know where these things might lead. It is good to know that you would have everything you need for a game right out of the box and that there wouldn't be the card-lust associated with other games with rares and ultrarares and the like.

Thanks again!

In a nutshell:

An LCG plays and customizes like a CCG, but there is no random packaging.

Casual players will be fine with the pre-made decks in the Core Set, but have the option to supplement them with cards from the nearly-monthly "Chapter Pack" expansions to "keep it interesting." (A more-or-less "board game" approach.)

Competitive players will want to build their own decks from scratch, for which they may want/need to buy multiple copies of certain products in order to have multiple copies of certain cards. However, they know exactly what to buy. You don't have to buy pack after pack, trade or hunt down a retailer that sells singles to get extra copies of a particular card.(A more-or-less "CCG" approach.)

The comments about buying multiple copies and packs are coming from the competitive players who are trying to make sure they have a "play set" (or 3 copies) of each individual card. It would cost $120 to be sure to have a play set of the 208 cards in the Core Set (3 sets at $40 each) and $30 to be sure you have a play set of each individual Chapter Pack (3 packs at $10 each). So after the initial Core Set, most competitive players are spending no more than $30 a month on cards. Of course, not all Chapter Packs have "one copy" cards a player wants 3 of, so those months, they don't buy 3.

But that's your cost comparison to competitive M:tG; $30 a month.

Thanks also ktom...

I think I like the idea of knowing what you are going to get. I've linked her into the various site about the game and she seems quite interested, especially as it won't cost her quite so much!

In one of the other forums, I caught a thread about deck building from the core sets which was very useful too!

yeah the deck building and rules threads are great resources to keep an eye on. It really can be eye opening when someone posts a combo or a rules question on how cards interact.

My advice would be to play with they core set decks until comfortable with the way the game works (both in terms of rules and flow) before you start looking into deckbuilding.