Just started playing the game with the core set only (for now). At this point, every game we play is incredibly off-balance, either 15-0 or 15-2. One side gets a bunch of characters/locations and it's an unwinnable uphill battle from there.

Is there a reason for this within the gameplay, the nature of the core set, or just a few sucky players? It feels like we're ignoring a rule that is allowing one player to get more than fits in their area.

If it can be solved with the purchase of an expansion or two, which ones should be purchased?

Thanks.

Keep in mind that the decks in the Core Set are built to be played in games that have more than 2 players. The decks will tend to be off-balanced for 1-on-1 play because you make different choices when you can throw all your attack, defense, and control against one opponent, instead of having to keep track of all 3.

So many of the factors are likely to be experience and "built for multiplayer" issues. Customization of the decks will improve it, as will simply playing more.

As for which expansions, whichever House you like playing the most, get that expansion. Between the Core Set and the expansion for the two Houses you want to be playing, things will even up some in 1-on-1 play.

The most important factor you're "missing" is the use of powerful (and reliable) effects like the plots "Valar Morghullis", "First Snow of Winter" and "Wildfire Assault", or control effects like "Favorable Ground". These cards, known as resets (or, in the case of Wildfire/First Snow, "soft" resets) let a player in a bad position recover. There are several other versions of cards that help turn tables drastically (Rule by Decree, The Red Viper who kills all characters when dying, the stark event "Lethal Counterattack", The Red Queen's Faithful, Melissandre (Core)) and can rapidly turn a game around.

Another factor typical of players newer to the game is the tendency to use high-gold (and therefore low claim) plots, which have less of an impact on board position, and an avoidance of intrigue challenges, which are seen as not as valuable. This latter point is fair enough - it's because of resets (like the aforementioned) that intrigue challenges are actually quite dangerous - because the ability to refill the board *after* a reset is very often a determining factor in who gets the win.

You'll find that as the value of "Resets" is recognized, the relative value of intrigue challenges, too, increases, and the game becomes a lot less of a race to put 1000 characters on the board.

Thanks for the insight. Very interesting.

Are there houses that are more balanced for 2 player play or chapter packs that you'd recommend that remedies this?

All six houses are, for the most part, reasonably balanced once the card pool gets expanded, everyone has a pet hate house (most, i think, would say martell or targ) or build (maesters are considered over powered by a lot of people in various forums it seems, and greyjoy choke can, for me, go die a quiet death in the corner).

For example my regular opponent hates playing my stark murder deck and i hate playing his targ burn deck with equal passion.

As others have mentioned, get each houses deluxe set as it will provide a lot of good cards for the respective houses AND will let you run duplicates for characters which, with 2 exceptions, you cant do with 1 core set. Duplicates made the world of difference when my group started deckbuilding because you can increase the chances of getting important characters out AND give them some form of generic protection.

More core sets are something to add at the individuals discretion as more plot cards is never a bad thing (cards like valar and the power of blood can really help make or break decks, and 1 core set gives you 1 of each, not ideal if everyone wants them), and there are some cards that are considered staple, or near enough, for various deck builds or themes (golden tooth mines for lannister and the lannister weapon smith and money lender are excellent weenies when you can 3 of them each, forever burning, flame kissed and lady dannerys chambers in targ are very popular and the adorable direwolf pup is always useful in stark).

Of course buying lots of core sets will give you lots of 'dead' cards that you will probably not use to often so i suggest looking for internet sites that sell singles or house specific core set packs. up to your play group on how much they want them and how deep their pockets are.

Chapter packs are more hit and miss and honestly the best advice i can give is to find a website that gives a preview of all the cards in a pack and look at what you think is useful/fun/interesting and buy from there. The kings landing cycle and the time for ravens cycle introduce new mechanics that are quite powerful but you may wish to stay away from them for a bit if your still in the early phases of playing with your group, if 1 player out of 4 can play with seasons and all the effects they will probably have a marked advantage over the other 3 for example.

Very helpful. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate it.

Looking forward to digging into the game more, as money allows.

Thanks again.

if ur just sticking with the core for now i recommend, which me and my brother do, is get rid of one plot card in every house's (execept stark) and pretend that everyone has the valar plot (so everyone has the reset) and just have it on the side and just when plots are flipped say using valar. Works just fine if playing with ur friends.

Underworld mentioned looking for sites that sell singles and such and since he didn't plug any particular websites I figured I would. A store in our area actually does sell singles of certain cards and offers other ways of getting select cards that you want so I would suggest checking them out. Another website I would also suggest is Cardgamedb. They have a great community of people (many of which are on these forums as well) but offer a lot of material in terms of blogs, podcasts, discussions and comments. Links below.

http://teamcovenant.com/store/a-game-of-thrones-lcg.html

http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/index.html

If you are in Europe, you can get singles at eaglecard.org/ .

Also dont be afraid to proxy some cards. Depending how how good a printer you have its possible to print 8 cards onto a A4 sheet and put them in some sleeves with some unused cards and you can duplicate the more common cards (I do this for most of the core set plots as even having 2 core sets i usually still need a Valar or something for another deck) or try out some cards and then obviously go buy them when your sure you want them.

A single card is 63x88 mm, that is 2½x3½ in. So you can put 3x3 cards on either an A4 sheet or a US Letter sheet.

The key is you need valar to keep the game devolving into doing lots of cheap characters into the board and keep things interesting. Since the view set only had 1 copy, don't be afraid to proxy it in casual play.