Anyone play this? It's the new LCG from FFG, but is it A OK?

I ask because this is not a competitive game; you play against the deck/game and you can also play solo!

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;461082Anyone play this? It's the new LCG from FFG, but is it A OK?

I ask because this is not a competitive game; you play against the deck/game and you can also play solo!

LCG? Not familiar with the term, but no...now you have me intrigued. Playing against the deck and playing solo?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;461082Anyone play this? It's the new LCG from FFG, but is it A OK?

I ask because this is not a competitive game; you play against the deck/game and you can also play solo!

It's okay, but doesn't seem to scale well (on a challenge difficulty level) with more than 3 players.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;461132LCG? Not familiar with the term, but no...now you have me intrigued. Playing against the deck and playing solo?

LCG stands for Living Card Game, it's FFG's fixed distribution answer to CCGs/TCGs.

Quote from: SirKerry;461133It's okay, but doesn't seem to scale well (on a challenge difficulty level) with more than 3 players.

that is really not an issue for me.

After getting a refund on the abysmal Brink (360 game, utter shit), I picked up the core set.

It's typical FFG product planning: great ideas, sublime production values, but not complete.

I thought the idea of the LCG format was to avoid the pitfalls of the relentless and expensive grind of the traditional, and now very dated, ccg format. I used to play games with people that would spend hundreds of pounds - per expansion - on box after box, so a change was welcome.

here the game gives you not enough copies of some cards. There are 4 30 card decks, each with 3 heroes (the key starter cards). Those decks alone contain cards but not all in enough multiples. Deckbuilding allows each of the themes (the colours, if you will) to mix with the usual conditions. You can have 3 of any card and a minimum of 50 cards. But each deck has some cards that exist in 2 or even 1 instance thereof. Why?

The only rememdy, then, is to buy another entire core set (and many have) or even 2 more. This surely defats the entire LCG format. There's also a huge increase in diminishing returns as well, though the box only offers enough counters and bits for 2 players (you can play with 4).

This makes it a difficult game to 'review' and again it makes me just scratch my head at FFG's perplexing marketing strategies. Perhaps this approach is making them mega bucks, I don't know. But it's a bit of a sly approach.

Quote from: SirKerry;461133It's okay, but doesn't seem to scale well (on a challenge difficulty level) with more than 3 players.

Having played a couple of times with the core set and just the individual decks it's a strange beast. Solo can be very hard because the game clearly synergises with more than one player. There is obviously a sweet spot where the game is probably almost too easy. I don't know how easy it becomes when peopel start playing cooperatively with tuned decks as uniqueness becomes a factor. So if you turn up at the local games venue and have a game with someone else's tuned deck and then find out they use the same heroes or cards as you the game will fail and you'll both have to play solo.

Now obviously solo play shouldn't be easy. But solo with the basic single faction decks isn't enough of a play experience. The decks alone aren't deep enough or interesting enough to play, especially as there are few enough cards and most of what you get are ally cards. It gets a bit dull.

Just to clarify the LCG concept a bit.  It's not to really counter the money people need to spend to get cards.  The idea is that you don't need to scour and randomly by boosters hoping to get the 1 card you really want.  Instead every type of booster is the same.  So if you want card X you know which pack you need to buy to get it.   That's the benefit of the LCG no more blind buying.  The other side is that it theoretically keeps the game more balanced since everyone can get the cards they want.

However it doesn't necessarily mean that LCG's are going to be cheaper then CCG's.  For cheap and approachable the Deck Building card games are what your after.  Which incidentally there is a LoTR version of as well and it's a co-op card game also.

Quote from: kryyst;461890Just to clarify the LCG concept a bit.  It's not to really counter the money people need to spend to get cards.  The idea is that you don't need to scour and randomly by boosters hoping to get the 1 card you really want.  Instead every type of booster is the same.  So if you want card X you know which pack you need to buy to get it.   That's the benefit of the LCG no more blind buying.  The other side is that it theoretically keeps the game more balanced since everyone can get the cards they want.

But the downside is that in order to get the multiples you will need yu have to spend the money to buy another core set (in this case). That is exceptionally poor value for money, especially if you buy a third (which you will need if you want three of the single cards). This is, imo, arbitrary, clumsy, and somewhat crass. It's saying to the players taht want to play the game seriously (ie fully explore all deckbuilding options for even a single faction, never mind completists) you will be gouged mercilessly by FFG.

That really puts me off them.

Oh I agree LCG doesn't mean it's cheap, you can spend as much money on it as you can with CCG.  The difference is that in LCG you know what you are getting.  So you aren't blindly buying things.

Sadly I regret my purchase. The core set has nowhere near enough player cards. Buying at least 1 other is absolutely mandatory imo if you intend to play this 'properly'. If you don't then the game is clearly intended for a coule of people, each with one of the single faction decks, to play against the quests.

To engage in proper deckbuilding you are desperately short of cards. Building a 50 card deck is impossible unless you mix factions (which is possible). Even then you will be woefully short of cards as the distribution is terrible: there are not enough multiples of so many cards. This becomes an issue playing solo as the game can be brutal solitairre. The encounter deck has some harrowing effects.

Also deckbuilding doesn't preclude the possibiltiy that if you coop with another player at the local game store/tournament then it's very very likely you will have at least one shared hero. That means one player will start with 2 heroes and not 3 (they are unique) which will really hurt as the early game is the hardest to deal with (less resources and the encounter deck always starts with some form of present threat).

That's fine, and the core gameplay is solid (though the scoring is weird and victory points meaningless - as is FFG's mention of tournament play which cannot possibly work), but the game is marketed poorly. For that reason I wish i'd brought Warhammer Invasion instead. Disappointed. I can't afford a second core set and I feel, especially in a coop/solo game the dire distribution really hurts the game.

Consequently my copy is up for sale. Interested people in the UK at least can PM me.

Ghost, would you say that 2 cores are enough for 3 people play adequadely ? Im thikning about buying it, but would like to know this, as my group has 3 people.

Also, what do you say of the 3 expansions? Are they worth it?

Quote from: silva;466346Ghost, would you say that 2 cores are enough for 3 people play adequadely ? Im thikning about buying it, but would like to know this, as my group has 3 people.

Also, what do you say of the 3 expansions? Are they worth it?

Technically 3 players can play wiht the core set, each using one of the sphere's (the game's 'faction' mechanism: spheres of influence - tactics, spirit, lore and leadership). The only difference is that you don't get more than 2 threat point trackers in the box, but they are not necessary.
The problem the game has is the distribution of cards. In terms of 'tournament legal' decks, the minimum is 50. But i think with 2 core sets you'd struggle to build a 50 card single sphere deck, simply because there are not enough cards available for the factions alone. Then you have to take into account that the game only gives you certain numbers of each card. Some cards come in x3 (which is the most), many are x2 and some again are x1 (ostensibly the 'power rares'). I don't know why they chose this because that fact kills the game stone dead for me.

It's playable with 2 sets, in fact it's playable with 1 set. But the variety of cards isn't enough yet. There just aren't enough cards for more than 2 players to build a 50 card deck because to do so means you would have to merge two spheres (which is entirely legal - you can merge as many as you like though you might struggle paying for the cards to play them).

I haven't played the expansions. In fact I'm not even sure the first has been released yet (it should be just about). From what I saw you don't get enough new cards - most of the expansion is taken up with scenario cards for the new quest. That's the problem with the game.

Gameplay itself is fine, but seems optimised around 2 players. Playing solo is a waste of time, the quests quickly become impossible.

Started playing this a bit lately and I like it a lot.

I'll agree with other complaints that just one core set doesn't feel like enough. In a tournament legal deck you can't have more than 3 of each card in your 50 card deck. The core set only comes with 2 of several cards. So to get 3, you need to have 2 core sets.

Also, it's difficult for two people to make decks using just one core set.

I assume this was deliberately done so that people buy multiple versions of the core and each expansion, but it sure rubs me the wrong way.

Still, the gameplay is fun.

Quote from: GoOrange;473519Started playing this a bit lately and I like it a lot.

I'll agree with other complaints that just one core set doesn't feel like enough. In a tournament legal deck you can't have more than 3 of each card in your 50 card deck. The core set only comes with 2 of several cards. So to get 3, you need to have 2 core sets.

Also, it's difficult for two people to make decks using just one core set.

I assume this was deliberately done so that people buy multiple versions of the core and each expansion, but it sure rubs me the wrong way.

Still, the gameplay is fun.

The biggest issue for me with the core set is the dreadful distribution. FFG really really screwed their players over with this, and for absolutely no reason. Along with the fact it's relaly not a solo game (which is why i brought it) sealed it's fate for me. It's very sad because the mechanics are pretty solid and it's an interested idea. It was clearly not playtested for solo play.