I've been looking for a new card game that doesn't require me to buy new cards every few months. I understand that there are many expansions for GoT, and I'm wondering where the best place to start would be. I've heard nothing but good things about this game, and I love the books as wells the tv show. I'm sure the starter set would be a logical starting point, but I wanted to know if any of the experienced players had a better idea. I just don't want to spend the cash when I don't have to.

One other thing. I was reading about the princes of the sun expansion ans I was wondering if that was a better buy than the core set. Is it a full reprint of the original core set, or is it just an expansion? I was kind of confused about the description. Any help on this would be appreciated.

worldeater said:

Core set is 220 cards of 4 houses (not Martell or Greyjoy) and it has the board and coins and stuff. The PotS expansion is just 180 cards of house Martell, 3 copies of 60 cards. So if you want to play I would get a core set. I would also take a look on cardgamedb.com to see if you like the Martells and any cards in PotS and would want to add PotS to your collection.

The game is very playable casually (which most or many playgroups are) with the Core Set and then for fun buy an Expansion set (House Martell themed or Greyjoy), for some of your other players. OR if you are looking for just stuff for yourself, get the Core Set and then one of that set's four primary houses expansion delux sets and then take a look at some of the card databases to by one or two chapter packs as they strike your fancy.

Over all you will spend less per month to 'keep up' with the game. And it is likely that you are even able to start getting SORT of competetive. But, given this game has no rotation, I'm not sure on the possibility of you being ever truely uber competetive. but then again I don't really play competetively and am not sure of what sorts of purchases are needed for those deck types.

Veterans want to throw in some feedback here?

I would always start with one core set and then the deluxe expansion for the house that you want to play. That will allow you to build fun and competitive decks. Next, I would pick up the Refugees of War Chapter Pack. It contains a zero cost bi-con character for each house that is always popular in competitive builds, as they are awesome to draw during set-up. After that, I really think it depends on the house(s) you try to play.

I started in May …

Here are my thoughts.

Buy:

• 1 x Core Set
• 1 x (Each) big box house sets
• 1 x All CPs from current cycle & Brotherhood Cycle

That won't get you competitive, but it'll give you a great start. Ideally you can go mooch some decks at open game nights with your local players. I know in my local area the guys are super generous and are definitely willing to stake you decks so you can learn about the game and get a feel for it. Once you're done playing with decks from other guys that they've built you can dive right in.

The good news for new players right now is that there is almost always someone on Boardgamegeek or on eBay selling most (if not all) of what I've posted above in a collection.

I want to say I've put maybe $500 into my collection at this point and have just about everything. I'm missing some of the OOP CPs, but hopefully those will get reprints in the near future like the Ravens cycle got earlier this year.

Buy a Core Set. You have to start here, it's the entry point and there's no getting around it.

Once you're comfortable with the Core Set, buy another one. You can't do any real deckbuilding with just one Core Set, and there're a lot of plots and resource cards you're going to want to have more of.

After that, start expanding. The easiest way is through the Deluxe Expansions; with the Core Set cards and a Deluxe Expansion, you can put together some pretty good decks to get you started. Martell and Greyjoy's boxes might make the most sense to get first, to have the cards to build decks of every house, and those sets have a few great cards for the other houses as well. From there, figure out which houses you like, and pick up their box.

Chapter packs are where things start getting hairy. If you're just building for certain houses, you can target your purchases, get the packs you want to use. Pretty much every pack from the last two cycles have been very, very strong, so I doubt you could go wrong with any of them. Refugees of War is one chapter pack I'd absolutely recommend right off the bat. The low cost Refugees for every house in that pack are absolutely fantastic, mainstays of just about every deck you'll build.

Yeah if you get into a specific house and want to cut down on your total costs you can check out the deal that Team Covenant was running. I don't know if they're still doing it ,but basically you could buy up everything for a single house from them. Neat idea, but again … you're REALLY limited to that one or two houses you buy up.

I personally wouldn't recommend something like that. It just seems far too limiting. You're going to want cards in your deck that aren't house-only, and you may even want to include some out-of-house cards. Plus, you're pretty much locked into having to buy other houses like that if you ever want to branch out, or else you'll end up having to rebuy so many cards to get the packs and expansions you want/need.

Certainly the card pool has swelled quite a bit. Thankfully, as a new player, chapter packs can generally wait. Focus on the Core set, then investing in some (or all) of the expansions, and only then really start worrying about chapter packs.

Except for Refugees of War. You should really buy that pack no matter what. Those refugees are flippin' amazing weenies.