As I said in my post on this forum I'm fairly new to the LCG, still only playing with the 4 decks that come in the core box set.

I'm wondering if someone wouldn't mind breaking down the environment of this game. How the different affilications play, what their strengths and weaknesses are (I imagine that Jedi and Sith are better at edge battles, for example, so how do the others make up that?), who is aggressive and who has more control. What the best/key objective and expansions are? Generally speaking what kind of balance do you want between units, enchancments, events and fate cards?

I'm also curious as how the Light Side is balanced against the Dark Side's game clock. Are Light side Cards generally more powerful and/or costed lower to allow for more consistant attacks? Is it better for the Dark side to be aggressive/build aggressive decks to speed up that clock or is it better for them to turtle?

I will try to keep this brief:

*LS*

Jedi - The Jedi focus their efforts on single units, attempting to balance control of the Force with striking objectives. They have plenty of control cards and they have many very powerful but vulnerable units

Rebels - They are the most combo-driven affiliation for either side. They rely on combinations of semi-powerful cards to create pretty potent effects. They have a number of blatantly powerful units (just as every affiliation does) and those units are generally the catalyst for the combos. It is also VERY easy to aggro with rebs.

Smugglers - Smugglers rely heavily on their tricks to be most effective. They do not have many overtly powerful cards, but in many ways tie together well with the other affiliations (like Preparation for Evacuation OSet to protect vehicles or the Wookiee Life Debt OSet to add more protect to characters).

*DS*

Sith - The Sith have some of the most powerful individual cards in the game. They also have some of the best balanced OSets that combine nicely to deliver consistent combat effects. They are an elevated control affiliation that does a superb job of controlling the Force and finding a way to whittle away at LS objectives.

Navy - Navy is power. With the exception of the Executor (Sith) they have the biggest units in the game. They strike hard, and with some War Machine cards like Orbital Resupply Station or Kuat Reinforcements they can drop an entire hand of powerful units quite consistently. They have a harder time with Force control, but compensate for it with raw power (i.e. Devastator).

Scum - Possibly the overall weakest of the 6 affiliations in terms of objective blast icons, they are the slimy, tricky affiliation you would expect by their namesake. They attempt to control the game through the capture mechanic, and are generally splashed into other decks to add a few "flavor" tricks, or to abuse some of their more powerful cards, like Spice Visions.

Balancing the Win Conditions

Balancing the win conditions is actually something easily explained but more difficult to truly plan for or play to.

The light side has an easier time on paper - destroy 3 objectives. It is generally only 15-18 damage that needs to be done to achieve the win condition. Balancing the objective destruction is the Death Star dial. If the LS attempts to destroy objectives and neglect the dial, they have a real race, as it ticks up two every DS turn the dark side controls the Force. This means between 6-7 turns if the DS can hold it and destroy 1 LS objective. If the LS decides to focus on controlling the Force Struggle, they will slow down the dial but must find a way to deal enough damage to clear objectives as the damage from the LS Control of the Force will not do it by itself.

The dark side win condition boils down to one thing - getting the dial to 12. They do this through controlling the Force and defending against the onslaught of LS units/effects, by destroying objectives (which incrementally ticks up the dial), or a combination of the two. The DS player cannot afford to neglect defense, so it must find a way to make the dial move as quickly as possible to 12.

As to how what is better to play in a general sense, I don't have any words of wisdom. I will say, however, that the core of any deck should be built around the main strategy you have to get to your win condition. If you want to play DS control, that is a fine strategy. Do not, however, attempt to blend your control deck too much with a power deck. More times than not, this will lead to inconsistency in gameplay and may force you to play your opponent's game as opposed to yours.

It is my opinion that this game is fairly balanced gameplay-wise. The affiliations are not the same, and I believe that is by design. Find your play style and then find the cards that fit it. Then build around it something that will, in a streamlined fashion, get you to the endgame for your particular side of the Force.

Hope this was somewhat helpful, and May the Force be with You always!

Thanks a lot. Thats all very helpful.

I find getting a grasp on the environment and the deck types the biggest barrier to entry with new LCG's and CCG's

I do have a couple more questions if you (or someone else) doesn't mind.

Is it better to mix affilications or play "mono". It seems like the affilication cards are an easy to splash a second choice in a deck and make sure you see the kind of resources you need, but is it something you should be doing?

How do the Rebels and Navy and other lower force builds deal with the force token and edge battles?

Also, what are the objective sets that are "must includes" in certain builds?

Thanks again

Mixed affiliations has for pretty much the life of the game been the go to option. Mono builds are less common but do exist.

Rebels and navy tend to concentrate on blowing stuff up rather than worrying about the force.

Must includes are Vader, Emperor, Counsel in sith control decks

Smugglers and smugglers/jedi always have Han and protectors like the Guardians of Peace or Wookies/chewie in them

The Smugglers Run decks use Across the Anoat and Raise the Stakes objectives

Navy often has Executor but the Walker decks might not in favor of more walkers/resources

Rebels pretty much always have Defense of Yavin 4 for the discount to vehicle units.

I recommend episode 9 of my podcast. It is a new player focused show.

Mixed affiliations has for pretty much the life of the game been the go to option. Mono builds are less common but do exist.

Rebels and navy tend to concentrate on blowing stuff up rather than worrying about the force.

Must includes are Vader, Emperor, Counsel in sith control decks

Smugglers and smugglers/jedi always have Han and protectors like the Guardians of Peace or Wookies/chewie in them

The Smugglers Run decks use Across the Anoat and Raise the Stakes objectives

Navy often has Executor but the Walker decks might not in favor of more walkers/resources

Rebels pretty much always have Defense of Yavin 4 for the discount to vehicle units.

I recommend episode 9 of my podcast. It is a new player focused show.

I have listened to the first ocuple episodes, I'll skip a head to #9. Thanks.

Toq sums it up pretty well.

Episode 9 was helpful, thanks toqtamish

If I can bug you guys once more. Since faction mixing is pretty much how things are done what are the popular/potent combos, and what objective sets would be the must haves for the affliciations?

Episode 9 was helpful, thanks toqtamish

If I can bug you guys once more. Since faction mixing is pretty much how things are done what are the popular/potent combos, and what objective sets would be the must haves for the affliciations?

You should check out the decklist area on Card Game DB. That will give you a good idea of what people are building with.

Also check out the Gen Con thread in the forums for an idea of what was played at the first major tournament for this game. Here's a link .