Hi FFG

I know the official announcement has not yet been released but as a consumer/customer i am looking for more details on this product we do not yet know how many cards are in the box? how they are split between CORP, RUNNER and neutral? quantities of cards are they all x3 ensuring we only need 1 copy of the game? or x 1 so would need to purchase x3 copies to get a full "playset" .

The last point above is the key issue here as you no doubt aware many retailers are offering preorders on this product and with it likely to sell out on its initial printrun i would like to correctly order the right quantity. So basically this lack of information IS affecting sales of this product.

As you no doubt can tell i will be purchasing at least 1 copy but you could be losing out on 2 additional sales. These preorders from retailers can also assist FFG and there distributors with correct stock level holding and initial printrun quantities (to a degree)

So humbly i request can we have some confirmation of what to expect in the Box and a MSRP.

many thanks.

They won't (as in "cannot") reply to you here, in the forums. Best email them if you want a response.

We've been able to deduce some things about the card distribution.

Based on the card numbers on the finalized (with frequency markings) cards we seen, this appears to be the distribution of distinct cards between factions:

njrobin said:

There is pretty much zero chance the Core set has 3x copies of every card. None of their other LCG's have used this model, and it's been posted many times why this is so. For reference, see any of the many dozens of threads about this that have been posted over and over. Seriously, it's very well established information if you'd taken any time to look.

The distribution above seems to be a bit off. Wall of Static is card #113 so it looks like there are more distinct cards than previously thought.

MSRP: $39.95 - from main product page.

And though not official confirmation by any means, the strong suspicion is that we can expect:
1 of each ID (7 cards)
1 of a few cards which are probably "Unique" (only one can be in play at a time)
2-3 of all of the rest of the cards

This assessment is based on the existence of 1-3 bars to the left of the 'on switch' symbol on most of the recently released card images.

One copy will be enough of a "playset" to play the game.

Highly competitive players and those wanting to have multiple decks that reuse cards across them preconstructed will want 2 or more core sets.

Personally, I'm anticipating the worst case scenario (i.e. the one that makes FFG the most money) which is the same as the distribution in Warhammer:Invasion. So roughly one third of the cards will be x1 distribution, one third will be x2 and one third will be x3. This gives the completists (i.e. people like me) the most incentive to buy that 3rd core set, by putting enough single copies in the box to make it seem almost worthwhile.

ChaosChild said:

Might well be true. Since I'm more interested in X-Wing anyway right now, I'll put my preorder on hold until I know more. If this is the case, my question of "1 or 2 base games?" will be moot, and forced to choose between "3 base games or none", I'll pick none for now.

haslo said:

I really don't understand this mentality.

When people first bought into Netrunner, they didn't think of it is "Must by 2 cases of Starters and 4 cases of Boosters", they bought one starter, a few boosters and they played with what they got.

The choices are:

0: don't commit at all

1: get the game, it will be playable out of the box

2/3: competitive level if you want higher frequency in your deck than in the core set

byronczimmer said:

You're right of course It's really a matter of money and time at least as much as knowing that if I buy one core set, I will buy enough to have three of each card, whether it's necessary or not.

Couple this with the fact that I will get a full buy-in on the complete X-Wing experience, and I will get every new ship at least twice (if not three or four times), and the rational thing to do becomes not buying Netrunner as well at the same time

I just know myself well enough to know that I couldn't resist buying additional sets even if I started out with just one. This is not the same for everyone, and it's really only in my particular situation that the choice gets as binary as it does.

They have people you can talk to you know…

I see it this way: 1 set to start, make sure I like the new mechanics, artwork, have opponents , etc. If it doesn't catch around here, then I have no reason to continue buying more to not play.

If things click, I'll ramp it up with a second set and that's going to get me x6/x4/x2, and the x2s I'm probably okay having only one or two of in any given deck. It will let me have 2 decks of each type ready to go with the core x3 generics not having to migrate between decks and again, I'll wait… make sure the local scene's a buzzing and enjoy it.

x3? If I get really serious and absolutely have to have a third Aesop's Pawn Shop, or whatever.

byronczimmer said:

Hey, I'm actually trying to sell some of my games

Looking at this, I like the idea of 3 sets shared among two people. If the game flops everywhere else you've got 2 people who play, both of the two people who split the 3 sets have :

a playset of 3 ofs with a spare playset.

a playset of 2 ofs.

and, either 2 or 1 of the 1ofs, or 3 of the Uniques that they're looking for to build their decks.

I think this is the best way to go about it if you have a friend who's foaming at the mouth as much as you are for this release and <sarcasm> don't want to buy into FFG's evil policies of selling 3 core sets to every player</sarcasm>.

You only 'need' 3 sets if you want to play competitively.

You 'want' 3 sets because you have some internal desire to have a totally 'complete' set.

God forbid they tell people that you can have up to 4 of each in some format. Everyone will go rabid.

Yes, I understand that, I was throwing an idea up that could work for people who don't want to buy all 3 core sets, but may want to play competitively. I have every intention of buying one set and seeing how it's received before buying the other 2, unless I find a good preorder for a deal on 2 or 3.

Given that this is asymmetrical, there's never going to be a point where both players want the same card for gameplay purposes I was suggesting this for people who were willing to buy 1 and a half boxes essentially.

And yes, I do "want" a full playset of everything, I'm used to Magic and other CCGs where a Box will get you 36 Rares out of the roughly 200 you need to complete a playset of a set. If I can find 3 Core sets for less than a box price I will probably get 3, not due to a need to have 3, but rather a want to have access to everything.

Then there are the extra cards which I will gladly give to anyone who wants to try the game out, build a community and you have a better chance of finding a competitive scene. I want a weekly tournament constructed scene where a player can get into a 5 or 10$ tourney with two decks where those decks are not CCG cost prohibitive.

I realize that if I buy every expansion where he doesn't, I will have more than he does, but 15$ for both players to be on equal footing as opposed to one player buying a few packs for 15$ and another player paying 300 for all the rares and such to optimize his deck, I'll make that concession.

Just my take on the issue, the LCG format is easily the best constructed format for a CCG style game, but that's not all there is to it, there is also a casual game in there, I just don't always want to play it as such.

HI All

First a BIG thank you to FFG for releasing the rulebook this has answered the vast majority of my questions, and now with the large quantity of cards revealed and the confirmation on quantities on the cards themselves i can see for a FULL playset x 3 copies is required (due to the uniques).

For most competitive players x 2 copies will be enough unless you absolutely have to use x 3 copies of a specific unique, as such i have preordered x 2 copies :-)

Secondly thank you to all those above who commented and assisted.

Thanks again all and happy running.

@Edwin20er: given the game is asymmetric, in tournaments you'll probably need to have a deck for each side, otherwise you'd need an equal number (within one at least) of runners and corps (and that would really be 2 tournaments with half the players each). In the CCG, each tournament round was 2 games with players switching sides in between (the winner of a game scored 10 points and the loser what they scored as agenda points - no idea how ties were resolved).

njrobin said:

Since the core-set rulebook lists how many cards are available for each faction, both the unique cards and the total count, I've done some number crunching to try and deduce the distribution.

Note: The rulebook does not list the identity cards as a separate part in the box. I assume that this is not an oversight, and the identity card is counted as one of the cards for the faction (similar to the house cards in AGoT).

Each corp has 13 different cards, and 28 total. There are a few ways this could break down, but I think the most likely distribution is either 3/5/5 (singles/dupes/trips) or 4/3/6. For the neutral corp cards there are 8 cards, with 22 total, which leaves only two possibilities - 0/2/6 or 1/0/7.

Each runner gets 16 cards, with 33 total copies. Again, this can be done several ways, but the most likely would be 5/5/6 or 4/7/5. For neutral runner cards there are 5 cards and 15 copies, meaning that all 5 must be triplicates (0/0/5).

The point of all this is that in the likely scenarios there are 24-32 cards in the box with only 1 copy. If 7 of those are the identity cards, that leaves 17-25 cards for which you will need to buy 3 core sets to make a full set.

Those calculations are on par with with previous LCGs with lumpy distribution and with my own best guesses.

Note: Corp Neutrals are either all 3s with 2 2s (one of which is Melange Mining), or they are all 3s, a single 2 (Melange Mining) and a lone singleton.

byronczimmer said:

I did not include known cards in my calculations, since there aren't enough revealed to nail anything down (for the most part). This is a notable exception, though.

To get the result of 8 cards and 22 copies as listed in the rulebook, there are only 2 possible distributions - 1/0/7 or 0/2/6 (a 1/1/6 distribution would only yield 21 copies). Since the preview of Melange Mining proves that there is at least 1 neutral corp card with 2 copies, the distribution in that catagory can only be 0/2/6.

This reduces the upper limit on singleton cards to 24 (not counting identity cards).

I just looked at the pdf with the cardlist(in the support section), and some of the single must be REALLY compelling if you want more than 2 boxes.

Unless you want to mix stuff up into multiple playable decks, then 3 boxes might be an option.

fritsk said: