First off, once you decide that you like the game go ahead and buy the second Core Set. You'll really want it for competitive play; it even makes casual play better as it tends to make it less based on who drew their one or two key cards first.

Second, go ahead and buy sleeves for each side so that you don't have to worry about cards getting beat up, bent, etc. You'll want to put your Objective and Affiliation cards in different sleeves from the main deck cards; additionally, the LS and DS cards should be in different sleeves. For the DS deck cards, I recommend buying 300 Black Dragonsleeves. For the DS objectives, affiliations and Committed to the Force cards I would recommend buying 100 of the FFG Force Lightning sleeves. For the LS deck cards I recommend buying 300 of either the White Dragonsleeves or Silver Dragonsleeves. For the LS objectives, affiliations and Committed to the Force cards I would recommend buying 100 of the FFG Lightsaber sleeves. I recommend 300 sleeves for the deck cards as for each side you will want to sleeve 18 objectives twice (18*2*5=180); then having extra sleeves just in case is always nice. Additionally, I recommend 100 objective sleeves as those sleeves will not likely be reprinted much and you'll want a lifetime supply of them. As well, I would recommend getting some 1000 or 1500 count boxes to store the cards in.

Third, I strong recommend having glass beads to use instead of the cardboard tokens. My preference is to have roughly 20-30 opaque white glass beads to use in place of focus tokens. I prefer to use roughly 10 light blue glass beads in place of shielding tokens. I really like to use 20-30 red glass beads in place of damage tokens. I find that the glass beads are far easier to keep track of, add and move on/off cards.

Total cost: $133-175

Base/Core Set x2 = $60-80

Dragonshields x6 = $50-60

FFG Shields x4 = $16-20

Glass beads x3 = $5-10

In interest of full disclosure, I am not an employee of Star City Games, Troll and Toad, Fantasy Flight Games or any other company which makes product to which I linked. Neither do I gain any sort of commission from any of the links I used. Links are solely for clear reference purpose and I am not recommending or discouraging people from buying from one site or another over the FLGS, FFG's store, or anywhere else.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had come to similar conclusions …

While I understand why you suggest it I don't agree with needing to buy so many sleeves. I know that the reason is so that it makes it easier to change up decks but I find for storage it is easier to keep all of the objective sets together in a binder and to sleeve just your decks that you are using.

For the binder use standard 9 card pages and keep the sets together in a row starting on the back of page 1 and moves across to the front of page 2. This allows you to have all 6 cards of an entire objective set all together.

I find the cardboard tokens fine so if they don't bother you again save yourself some money and just use those. For storing those I have some plastic storage cases I got at Dollarama. I have two, one for Netrunner and one for A Game of Thrones plus Star Wars.

I will post some pictures in a bit to show the storage options I just wrote about.

An idea I came up with yesterday for storing your objective sets: Buy the penny sleeves. 100 count for a $1. Put 6 cards from each objective into one sleeve. Makes deckbuilding WAY quicker and it's cheap.

All good suggestions. I actually bought 2 packs of each of the FFG Star Wars sleeves because I like the art and plan on having one deck devoted to each affiliation. I use clear Dragon Shields for the objectives, 3 force cards, and affiliation. I like the little card board tokens and purchased a small storable art supply box to hold them in separate compartments.

Sorry about the quality was using my iPod touch. That is my storage box, first page of LS and a page of LS cards.

If my opponent started using glass beads and tiddly winks I'd slap them off the table and ask them to leave

cooleo1c said:

I knew you'd take any opportunity to get into a slap fight

Toqtamish said:

Where did you get that plastic box?

superradjoe said:

Dollar store, $1.50.

Out of curiosity, is there anyone that *doesn't* use sleeves? I find them a bit annoying to handle and shuffle and I figure if I wear out my cards that badly, I'll just buy another set. :-)

Funny…I used to be incredibly protective of all my stuff…books, games, cards, etc., but I've found with age that it really doesn't matter that much to me anymore.

Is there a particular reason other than protection that people seem to be fans of sleeves?

Cheers!

ytsejamr said:

Personally, I find shuffling goes much smoother with sleeves on the cards. A 60 card deck gets to be on the higher end of what I can comfortably shuffle in my hands, but in Star Wars, my Command Deck is always going to be 50 cards, so that's a lot easier to work with.

Your opinions on being protective of your stuff seem to be in opposition to my own; as I've gotten older and have more financial obligations and responsibilities, I find I look after my material goods quite well, because I'd rather not spend my money on a replacement if I don't have to.

With board games and in this case, card games, I don't want to entertain the idea of having to track down another set of cards in a few years, in general, because availability becomes an issue. I'm sure FFG will carry this license for a long time, so it's not as big a deal for Star Wars, but in the board game world, you often have to get it while it's there to be gotten, because it can take a long time for a reprint, if ever, and buying it second hand (especially brand new) could get costly.

So to your final question, other than protection and component longevity, I use sleeves to make shuffling smoother, and also, I find that on a hard table, the cards are easier to pick up, so you're not picking at the side or corners, which leads to wear, and goes back to the protection piece.

ytsejamr said:

Card ownership. If you play in a tournament it may even be required. Also, if you keep the game longer than the it is published it is nice to know your cards will last longer.

Definitely a sleeve user. I like keeping the cards in a nicer condition for longer. I play another card game and have used sleeves for the better part of 15 years. FWIW, some of those early cards I still have (and use) …

Definitely a sleeve user. I like keeping the cards in a nicer condition for longer. I play another card game and have used sleeves for the better part of 15 years. FWIW, some of those early cards I still have (and use) …

To the OP, I also like the sweet art on the back. There are even some instances when playing someone and I thought, I am glad this person HAS to use opaque sleeves.

When I got my first LCG, LotR, I wasn't going to sleeve, but as soon as I got my first adventure pack, I could see a clear difference between my core set cards and the new cards. I didn't like thought of being able to tell cards from different sets apart from one another, so I decided to sleeve. That was my main motivation. Afterwards, I found I liked shuffling a lot better -- you just slide two haves of a deck together. It pains my soul to see people bend my cards at 90 degrees to shuffle them toghether, but that technique doesn't work with sleeved cards, so it protects my cards by forcing people to shuffle how I want them to. (I play a lot with extended family members who don't understand the financial investment.)

On topic, I think having different sleeves for objectives and command deck cards is really helpful. I've sleeved everything in FFG's clear sleeves except the objectives which have either Star Wars (A New Hope) or The Empire Strikes Back sleeves depending on whether it's LS or DS.

Budgernaut said:

This post really nails the main reason for sleeves (besides protecting your investment) Without sleeves cards tend to develop wear patterns that can be discernible to the owner, meaning you can look at your cards and know what card is coming up next. This is also why most official tournaments require them, and could still reject you if despite sleeves the cards can still be told apart.

cryptickosh,

agnos said:

Poop slaps?

Yes. Poop slaps.

Outstanding. BTW, my cards finally came in the mail today. I am super excited to play!

and Poop Slaps

I thought that mailing poop slaps was against postal code or something.

agnos said:

Only if you consider then flammable or hazardous

Me I mix. Do it with Lotr, Warhammer Invasion (though my brother got those cards and continues the collection with the same system of storage) and now with Star Wars -> cards go in sleeve maps. And the ready made decks are sleeved. Depending on the theme for SW i'm going to try to use different Star Wars backs. And for the objectives something seperate. Probably transparent sleeves.

Yeah, I think sleeves are a good idea. However, I'm not going to buy 57 different types of sleeves so that I can have different colors for objectives, factions, etc. I buy clear sleeves for everything and that works well for me…