.. Iv been looking into lcgs for a while now, and the two that have really caught my eye is this one and Warhammer Invasion. Im torn. Which one is the better choice for someone who has never in his life played a warhammer game or read lovecraft?

NoItAll said:

Well, if you're asking on the CoC forum, you'll probably get only one particular answer. I honestly haven't played Warhammer: Invasion. But, I love Cthulhu because it's very rich in deckbuilding, the art is great, and the gameplay is complex and full of decision-points. I have heard that Warhammer is very "samey" in that the factions all do exactly the same thing but just in different ways.

Warhammer is the only LCG I've never seen anyone play. So on one hand that means I have no personal experience with it to comment, but on the other it sure doesn't seem that popular. It also usually ranks near or at the bottom when I've seen "vote your favorite LCG" polls such as on Boardgamegeek.

I'm going to vote for Call of Cthulhu because you have so much more freedom in your deckbuilding, being able to mix any factions together as you like and because the games are full of tough interesting decisions. I prefer it over all the other LCGs, and I've played them all except for Warhammer. Netrunner is also very good but the deck building part isn't as interesting to me. To be fair, it has a lot less cards though so give it some time…

Well, I haven't played the Warhammer LCG myself, but I know the rules and have friends who've been playing it. So, judging from what I know, it's the most straightforward of the LCGs. It had some serious balancing issues (that might be solved by now) and as a consequence a single deck dominated the meta. Imho, if you aren't a fan of the Warhammer setting, there's little reason to choose it over CoC. What usually counts against CoC - the difficulty to find other players - is just as true of Warhammer. And I like the mechanics of CoC a lot better. It has a lot more depth than Warhammer.

My friends and I played Invasion for a couple years but it dropped off as everyone got bored of it. It is an ok game but I think you have to be into the subject matter and we weren't. I also found Invasion awkward to deckbuild and while CoC has the same issue, I've not found it as bad as Invasion in that respect.

Cthulhu is by far the better of the two (but then I am biased).

CoC has some rich interplay, but so does warhammer. Its multi player component is an interesting add-in and is definitely worth checking out, and, AFAIK, no such multi player exists (supported by an entire expansion from FFG) for CoC… So if multi player is a thing, go W:I. W:I has six factions and you CAN swap between and within factions… its core set has some repeats and has more replay value than CoC's core set. They're both designed by the same guy… warhammer wasn't tainted by game design of James Hata (questionable if this is 'tainted' but he's made some weird and questionable combinations of things IMO… not saying that the W:I guy hasn't either).

BUT I love the depth of CoC… and background. There are more decisions in CoC and the games don't seem quite as predictable due to the story card element… so over all…. tough call?