I'm new to the game, and I'm hoping I can get the family involved. So far I think it's going to be: wife - Targ, me - stark/baratheon, cousin - baratheon/stark. In other words, we'll prob. be switching decks back and forth. What would be the best way to expand these houses to generate interest for my family and help us all have pretty well balanced decks/competitive decks? At this point, we're not looking for tourneys or anything. Just home play around the table. What chapter packs/expansions would be best? Also, keep in mind I'm operating on a limited budget.

Thanks in advance!

A second Core Set will boost the Houses all at once quite nicely, as with an extra copy of everything you can refine the decks somewhat further into their basic strategies, as well as get some more duplicates going (which in the Core Set, I think, is only Robert Baratheon and Rhaegal).

Each of the Houses you're looking at has their Deluxe Expansion (Queen of Dragons, Lords of Winter and Kings of the Storm) gives an immediate power boost to that House, as well as providing you with different deck play styles. If you get one of those, I'd recommend getting all three otherwise one House will likely be a good deal stronger than the others.

As for Chapter Pack expansinos, the advice I received when posting a similar question (www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp) was that the Brotherhood Without Banners and Clash of Arms cycles came up a lot, as well as Ancient Enemies, specifically.

Thanks for the reply, very helpful information. I may start out with the chapter decks simply based on the monetary factor and save up for the expansions. Any one else have suggestions?

Also, thanks you Starblayde for the link to your post, also very helpful.

That depends. If you just want to expand minorly, then 2 core sets will get you guys a lot more fun. But if you want to make different themes of deck to have enormous fun, then get the following sets at least:

Lords of Winter, Kings of the Storms, Queen of Dragons, King's Landing. These sets basically introduce many new strategies to the four houses in core set. With your second core set, you guys will be crazy about this game definitely.