I'm a big Westros Fan having both AGoT with expansions & AGOT 2nd ed,plus all the BoTW releases but never was much interested in the card game & the endless issue of new card series.GoT/TCG however has fixed decks & streamlined rules so this might cause me to pull the trigger.

It would be great for a quick Westros fix without having to set up a board & trying to find enough people to play (in the case of AGoT).

OD

It definitely looks interesting. I have the LCG but found the Core Set decks to be unbalanced. As long as this new one's fixed decks are well balanced, this could work out pretty well, with plot cards still allowing a bit of variety.

For someone who has missed the start of the lcg or didn't want to play an lcg it looks promising.

The big drawback from my point of view is that you can't upgrade to the lcg. So is it only a product for beginners and fans of the series?

Feqz said:

Yes.

Feqz said:

I don't think that being unable to upgrade to the LCG is a bad thing.

Personally, I've really wanted to get into Game of Thrones LCG, but the money sink for all the previous expansions and looking for them is just way too much commitment for me. I ended up buying all the core and house expansions, but with the rules being way too complex, I just gave up.

But with this one, the cards are a bit more stylized and the gameplay is (more or less) simpler in addition to the screens from the show itself…it may be worth the purchase.

It is certainly possible FFG may expand GoT: HBO version, but I see it as more "season" packs due to the availability of the characters they introduce in the show. I see a potentially new fan base, but I suppose we will have to wait on that.

I'm definitely gonna pick this up. I've been interested in aGot lcg a long time but the vast amount of cards/deckbuilding is kinda imtimidating. I also hate the card design and art of the lcg… I'm not a big fan of moviestills but hey, you can't get everything.

So a lite version of aGot with sleek design and i can probably get to play it with my woman? Sign me up!

i wouldn't mind a small expansion(s) in the future with multiplayer and one or three houses.

Well I'm big into the LCG, but the Westeros fan and collectionist in me will xause me to buy this. Looks fun, and would probably be good to play with more casual gamers, and maybe as a "primer" for the LCG.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, this is what I've always wanted FFG to do with LCGs. Two pre-constructed, balanced, consistent decks that you can play out of the box. Ideal to teach the game to someone or just to see what all the fuzz with LCGs is. It's the perfect opportunity to hook people into the "real" game, or at least to give them an idea.

On the other hand, and I'm surprised that no one has really brought this point up, I think it's really overpriced. It costs 30 bucks in the FFG web store - that's quite steep for two decks that you can't even customize, cannibalize for use in the LCG or use in tournaments! Granted, you could get them a bit cheaper in Amazon, but 25 bucks is still unrealistic for what this offers, unless I'm missing something.

I can't help but compare this release to pre-constructed decks in M:tG. You can pick up a duel pack with two 60-card decks for $15 in Amazon, which is essentially the same concept (let alone the fact that the cards you get in it are tournament-legal and some of them are actually pretty good).

Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited for the concept and I hope the rest of the LCGs follow suit, but the execution has left me very disappointed. At 15 bucks, I would definitely be buying a few for Christmas presents, but the current price is out of line.

I played 8ish games of this tonight, all but one of them as Lannister. As someone who plays the LCG a lot, I was looking forward to picking this up as a way to teach other people the 2-player game in a far more balanced way than the core set provides. On this point, I believe it delivers, but I will need to play as Stark more to make sure they aren't underpowered. Lannister won 7 of the 8 games, but to be fair, I won every game I played (I know I should let the new players win, but I cant help it).

While the rules remain unchanged, many keywords have been removed (only limited, stealth, and renown remain) and most text effects are less than 2 full lines. Card draw is definitely easier to come across than the core set, as are resource locations. Each house has three unique characters with a duplicate, and around 5 attachments; there are no cancel effects, but there are claim raising and lowering effects which may cancel each other out. As far as rules go, the only thing I was disappointed in was the keeping of the dead pile and duplicate characters; I feel this adds an unecessary bit of clunkyness to a game designed for new players.

I sleeved the cards immediately after opening the box. Feeling them in my hands, I was worried that not doing so could lead to them getting beat up relatively quickly. With how gorgeous the cards look, and how often I hope to break this out, I don't regret buying sleeves one bit. My cardboard tokens weren't cut off-center, but on the topic of cardboard, both the box and tokens seem to be made of a different kind than FFG usually goes for in their games.

Both as a stand-alone game, and as better introductory experience to the LCG, I think this game succeeds. It was mentioned before that $30 might be a bit pricey for what you get, and I can agree with that a bit, but I paid not much over $20 and I think it was a steal. If you like Game of Thrones, but aren't into buying $500 of cards for the LCG, buy this game. If you are thinking of getting into the LCG but think/have been told that the core set is a poor introduction, buy this game. If you are into the LCG and want a good learning set to teach others with, buy this game. If you fall into some other category, buy this game.

tl;dr - Buy this game.

While it would have been nice if it was 100% compatible with the LCG, I'm okay with it being a modified game. I do hope that we see an expansion allowing a four player game.

A more annoying thing is that the game's name is not different enough from the other FFG AGoT games - which will undoubtedly lead to confusion for some customers and retailers (something that is not new for FFG with licensed products).

I picked this up on sale at a local retailer & am looking forward to playing. Is it likely that there will be fixed deck house expansions? Just wondering. I'm already going to try it, so I don't care if they expand or not, really. It would be nice to know, though. I would sleeve if it looked like the game would be growing.

I don't think they want to cannibalize the LCG too much, so I wouldn't be suprised if this was never expanded. I guess you could consider the LCG an expansion, though.

To be fair, the LCG doesn't need hundreds and hundreds if you're just looking for a somewhat decent deck. Core set, an expansion and a few chapter packs will give you a good taste for the game and a tidy little deck.

Just ask for deckbuilding help on the LCG forums!

It'll be cheaper than being competetive in magic, that's for sure, and the deck will last you longer (no rotation… yet)

As I said in another post, If you are going to buy the card game, You are gonna wanna spend a little extra for more cards. Buy the 2 starters Five Kings and Iron Throne. It gives you 1 deck a piece for each of the 4 starting houses given to you in the core game (Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon). Adds a ton of new cards, although little new character cards, but at the price of 30 dollars for both of them, You can't go wrong imo.

Of course, if you plan on playing the game competitively, you'll want to start with the Core Set and avoid CCG-era products, as these are not legal for the tournament-sanctioned environment.

joedog said:

So after buying the HBO license they should have called it Super Medieval Battles instead?

I think there's a pretty obvious reason why GoT and AGoT are called the way they are…