I am a long time CCG player who was recently introduced to Fantasy Flight's LCG systems. I have purchased and played; A Game of Thrones, Warhammer Invasion and Call of Cthulhu, and I wanted to share my first impressions.

1. I am definitely intrigued with concept of knowing what you get with your purchase with LCG vs CCG. The current system, however, isn't quite as customer friendly as the marketing states. Decks rules allow three of any card, yet expansions have sets with 3 copies mixed with cards with 1 copy. This means I have to buy 3 boxes to get 3 of a particular card and am left with 6 extra for all the other cards. The core sets are even less customer friendly. I have heard that they are starting new expansions with 3 of every card, I hope this is true otherwise LCG isn't that much different than CCG.
2. Game mechanics are awesome for all three games. So far (and I have not played any of the three sets extensively) I am most impressed with the strategy behind AGoT. But the story mode of Cthulhu and card structure in WI have me pretty hooked as well.
3. I am a huge fan of Fantasy Flight quality, have been  playing their board games forever and could not be more pleased, Descent anyone? And for the most part I feel that the quality of their LCGs are running pretty close in the race.
4. It is based on my favorite fantasy series so I had high expectations yet my biggest disappointment is with AGoT quality:

• My biggest surprise is the scanty amount of flavor text! How difficult can it be to put flavor text on cards based on a great series of novels?
• I also feel the art is not as consistant as it is in Cthulhu and WI. Some AGoT's art is fantastic but other cards seem almost amateur/comical in style which doesn't begin to match the stories.
• I found several grammatical errors in the rule book as well. I expect games of this price and quality to have decent editing in accompanying documentation.

Anyway those are a few of my first impressions of the three LCGs  :)

Peace,
David

David,

Yes, all LCGs are going to 3 copies per car per pack. This is currently the case with CoC, Warhammer will start next month, and GoT in July. When the line started, FFG did not know what to expect for sales, and packaged the cards in such a way to ensure they could make some money. However, as they have stated themselves, the LCG model has proven more successful than they anticpated, and made the switch.  I disagree with you that having to buy 3 copies of a pack made the game more like a ccg in order to get a full payset of a "cycle" of packs, I would spend $180 less than 2 boxes of any ccg, and I would be guaranteed full playsets something that does not happen in any ccg. Yes, it is more expensive than if all cards were available in one pack, but was still cheaper than ccgs.

I agree that there should be more GoT cards with flavor text. Someone should talk to one of those guys who finds the flavor text to get off their doofus and work harder. At the same time, some cards have so much game text that there is little room for flavor text. I am sure it is a tightrope.

I also play all three, and GoT is my favorite of the three lines, and has been since the ccg days. As for rules quality, these are not the first FFG games to have errors coming off the block. Most game companies will have mistakes in their rule books, and I can forgive them because noone is perfect.

Glad to see you are having fun playing the games, and hope that the change in the upcoming months makes you happier with the model.

JJ,

Have played quite a bit more now and am loving all three even more (aGoT still my favorite mechanics)!  I agree that even the old format (3 of some 1 of another) was still cheaper/better than traditional CCG, but you still end up purchasing boxes for a few cards and ending up with tons of extra never-to-be-used cards. Was very glad to hear all three LCGs are now, or soon going toward, full sets in boxes! This seems to me to fulfil the intended philosophy behind LCG and has completely won me over to the LCG world.

Some of the aGoT cards definitely have game text that leaves little to no room for flavor, but it depresses me on the many many cards that have plenty of dead space at the bottom crying out for some of R.R. Martin's incredible dialog and/or descriptive prose :) Come on Fantasy Flight, it is a game based on a set of novels!

Now I'm off to steer all my Magic friends toward the light!

Peace,

David

Just wanted to let you in on a little joke --  I'm one of the flavor text hunters (it is pretty cool seeing my name in the credits of the Core Set). So I'm all for more flavor text! (and, no, I don't get paid for it; I just like to do it, and I obsess over the game).

David, I'm glad you've raised this concern. I too was wondering if FFG had only movd the goal posts a little rather than the revolutionary concept I initially thought it was. I for one refuse to buy three of the same box, for me it's far too reminiscent of CCG's though I recognise that the LCG version is a little better. For me the real solution that would settle my concerns fast would be if Fantasy Flight released a 'catch-up' set or two that brought all prebious card releases up to the 3 card maximum.

Having said that, if it is possible to build competitive decks using the core box and one each of the battle packs then as far as I'm concerned that is the game's highest praise.

Overall, the actual game mechanic is pretty well designed. Even though your opponent would probably have all the cards you'd expect, the game emphasizes strategy more than other games where having better cards can mean more.

Nobody's forcing you to buy 3 copies. The games are fully playable with 1 copy of rares.

ravenwolf64 said:

tssfulk said:

Just like CCGs are fully playable with only 1 starter per player. Nobody's forcing you to buy boosters by the box...

Apparently, AGoT offers the best system. Unfortunately, it is the only one I'm missing. I've played CoC while it was still a CCG, and its gameplay ended up to be a "shoot your opponent's monsters as fast as they play them" (I don't think things changed a lot with its conversion into a LCG), and I'm now bound to WH:I whose gameplay evolved into a "shoot your opponent's units as fast as they play them". And unfortunately this gameplay isn't the one I was looking for...

Hopefully LotR is a coop game, its gameplay can't be close to the one of those 2 games (or at least, in it, "shooting down enemies" with Legoals is pretty flavorish). Sounds like I'll buy some Core Set (at least 2) of it !