cleardave said:

Everybody and their mother knows that R2-D2 is secretly in league with the Emperor. When he's not helping the Rebels that is.

cleardave said:

A friend of mine who played the demo says it's only the Force icon dots on the cards you play from hand, which seems to make more sense to me because it seems like it would be very hard otherwise for like a few Stormtroopers or something to ever have a chance in a battle versus someone like Luke or Yoda to get 'the edge'. And while thematically that's probably true, it'd make for some pretty subpar gameplay if I want to build something like Stormtroopers and know outright as soon as I see a Light Side main deploy that I won't ever really have a chance at winning an Edge battle and getting my extra icons ever.

But I guess we'll have to wait and see how it really works.

Mattr0polis said:

I skimmed through the demo video again, and it looks like it's just the icons from the cards you bid with.  This actually makes me think the opposite to be true, thematically; like, Yoda vs a Black Squadron Pilot, and only adding in the icons from cards you bid, the Black Squadron Pilot could easily win the edge in a battle versus Yoda?! That just seems a little off, thematically.  Also, in that scenario, the Pilot would cause 1 point of damage to Yoda, who would respond with no damage.  That just seems a little strange.

Unless, what we're missing, is the deeper tactics of edge battle management, like making sure you have a decent amount of fate cards mixed in to help out with battles.  Most of our knowledge is from analyzing card images and demo reports, but without the Rulebook and the Core Set card spoilers, it's really difficult to connect some of the tactical dots in this game.

Like I said earlier, time will tell how this all comes together…

cleardave said:

Yes, but it did give the feeling like waiting for the next movie to come out. The expansions were released as the movies were and it was brilliant. The main thing I DON'T like about the new LCG is that what we have seen is thematically jumbled. You have New Hope cards on the table with Return of the Jedi cards right out of the gate. This tells me that there will never be things like Jedi Training, or That Thing's Operational. At least, not in ways that make playing feel like the movies.

herozeromes said:

Just sayin'… :P

MarthWMaster said:

Ha! 

I think he was referring to the actual Jedi Training test cards and the old Objectives where in the swccg u actually had to pass Jedi Tests to finish yur training, you could buff out a super Luke or Leia or go ahead and turn a no name character into a decent Jedi provided he had enough Ability in the force. Just cuz this card has the name Jedi Training doesnt mean the same thing or come near to the fun that the Test mechanic had.

And he is right, the way the old game played it did feel at times like you were living scenes from the movie in many different ways. Just slapping the name Jedi Training on a mission card doesnt mean your gonna feel that way again.

yagyu said:

Granted. But it's way funnier to pretend he just wanted a card called "Jedi Training," so that's what we're gonna do. :p

herozeromes said:

I really don't know how you do that.  No matter what, things are going to be jumbled and not 'thematically' correct.  Nor is any card game - which is part of the fun.  Like they said today, you can send Boba Fett out to capture Admiral Ackbar… :)

herozeromes said:

I actually found the SWCCG worked better outside of a tourney environment, when you and a buddy conspired to build compatible decks so they would interact (even if it was as vague as 'I'm building a Light Side Tatooine deck')

It really was a MASSIVELY thematic game though.  Separating sites and systems was genius, and meant you didn't have the afforementioned issue with characters and starships fighting.  There were just so many things going on, so many possibilities, and all of them entrenched in the Star Wars universe.  What's not to love about training Yoda up to be a pilot, chucking him in an X-Wing and sending him off on an attack run to blow up the Death Star?  Or reanacting the Battle of Hoth with less At-Ats and having Echo Base stormed by Wampas.  Just so many cool moments.

The thing that really screwed it up was bloody Episode 1 and the corresponding garbage that came with it.  Had the game constantly moved forward (with expanded universe stuff) or just kept filling in blanks in the original trilogy, there wouldn't have been any problems.

Also, Lucas got greedy.  Shock.

Sausageman said:

Yes - I totally agree with this (and everything else you said in your post).

SWCCG wasn't so great if you only built and played against tournament/the most powerful decks. In fact this limited the game to quite a small set of deck types as well as reducing the thematc feel of the game. It also meant many interesting cards never saw much play.

The huge potential for so many varied thematic decks was one of the things that made the game great for me.

Mixing Episode 1 with  4, 5 & 6 never appealed to me - although I loved the expanded universe elements.

spalanzani said:

Touche'

But seriously, this doesn't "do" anything in the game. SWCCG's Jedi Training was a very specific set of tasks that needed to be accomplished. Heck, there was one that you had to run to, moving from location to location in order to complete it, all while the Dark Side player had the option to move it every turn. THIS card just says "Jedi Training" and does absolutely nothing different than any other objective (except for the 5 Pre-set cards that come with it).

 That's one of the things that is really bugging me about the objectives, and location enhancements as well. They don't do anything. A card called Dagobah Training Grounds should interact with Luke in some way, or Jedi units in general. All it does at present is give you an additional resource. That's it. In other words, it's a blank, flavorless card that will most likely have identical gameplay to other cards, the only difference being which card set they each occupy. This, more than anything, I feel makes the game seem like just cards with Star Wars pictures on them, rather than being a Star Wars game.

MarthWMaster said:

But remember, this is the Core set. It's a starting point to build on, an introduction to the basic game mechanics, and an entry point for potential non-card gamers. They'll start it simple and work up to super thematic but possibly a bit more complex type cards. Look at Lord of the Rings LCG, etc. for examples.

One thing you can't ever take away from FFG is that their games are always super themey. Most of my all-time great thematic/epic game moments came from FFG games. It's one point I have no doubt FFG will get right, especially once we get past the introduction set and start getting the expansion packs.

 There are alreasy effects on the objectives.  I remember one of my objectives gave me "+1 reserve" which meant I had a hand size of 8 instead of 7.  Tailoring particular effects to objectives instead of the hand cards gives some uniqueness without being over powering.  Since I can only ever have 3 objectives out at a time and cycling them (as far as we know) is a bad thing, how I choose what's in there can cause interesting effects in the game.  Extra balance too with the pods, have a pretty powerful objective be paired with 1 strength 1 force icon weenies.