So, starting this game seems simple enough, just grab the Core set from the shelves and there are 4 nicely packed starters for 4 of the 6 Great Houses of Westeros, and those decks are more or less useable.
The next step is usually then to buy one of the 4 (coming to 5) deluxe expansions that focus on one particular House that you fancy - Lord of Winter for House Stark, Princes of the Sun for House Martell, King of the Storm for House Baratheon and King of the Sea for House GreyJoy. Now, due to the earlier concept (or should I say, misconcept) of LCG, the King of the Sea doesn't come with 3 of each cards and FFG is planning a reprint. It is therefore prudent to consider one of the other 3, and even the Princes of the Sun only has 2 of each card, forcing you to buy 2 sets (or one and a half if you can find someone to share one of the sets) to maximize card economy in decks, since the deck-building rules for AGOT allows you to put 3 of the same card in a deck.
I have read that the best way to go about investing in the game is immediately buying a second Core set, and it makes a lot of sense, since many of the basic cards in the Core set are strong and you'll require a good number of them to make them efficient (Benjen Stark comes to mind, and so did the deadly Valar Morghulis)
But the crux of the problem comes when you need to consider the Chapter packs. Why so? You see, for most players, I believe, buying a Core set or three is inevitable at some point, so no need to ponder to buy or not, the question only lies in the time to get it, and how to accumulate the resource to get it. The Deluxe Expansions are almost necessary for the House that you want to play, so again, if you like a particular House there is no reason not to get one. The Chapter packs however, is a totally different story.
Early in the release of AGOT, the chapter packs have rarity - meaning, prior to the Brotherhood without Banner expansion series, the 4 expansions, numbering a total of 24 chapter packs, do not come with 3 of every card. In essence, it may mean that you need to buy 3 of the same chapter pack in order to possess 3 of every card, and very often, that decision is made only to enable one to own 3 of a few of those cards in the chapter packs. So which packs are worth it, and which is not? There are resources online for you to check what cards are in what, so one can research properly before committing.
Here are just my thoughts for those packs that I've bought.
I'll of course start with the very first - The War of the Five Kings of the first expansion to AGOT - Clash of Arms.
This is a black border set, and therefore the cards are not the same as those you get in the Core set. But the difference is in the looks only, everything else remains the same, so there's no need to panic when you open up the pack.
There is one banned card in this pack, and it comes with 3 copies. Just so you know that the Pyromancer's Cache in this pack is really too good to be true, and therefore you can immediately commit them as bookmarks for your Song of Ice and Fire books. Effectively you're only going to get 37 cards inside this pack.
Here's the breakdown of the cards that you're going to get in this pack -
14 Characters - 3 Baratheon, 2 GreyJoy, 2 Lannister, 3 Martell, 2 Stark and 2 Targaryen.
2 Locations - 1 GreyJoy, 1 Targaryen.
3 Attachments - 1 Lannister, 1 Martell, 1 Stark.
1 Event
The characters are pretty cool, the highlight being the "Host" of the different Houses. Each Great House gets one of these. All these "Host" are 8 cost unique Army characters with 8 STR that is 4 gold cheaper if you control a King or a Queen character. All of them have a Military and a Power icon and comes with 1 special ability, some of the abilities are just good to have, but some are simply deadly. Take Robb's Host for example, a 8 STR character who does not kneel to attack is a force to be reckoned with, and Robert's Host disallow opponents to initiate Power challenges against you while it is standing. IMHO, the GreyJoy's King Balon's Host is most deadly, as it make all opponent's characters lose all non-immunity keywords while it is standing - imagine, no Stealth, no Deadly, no Renown, no Vengeful, no ANYTHING, and it's OPPONENT ONLY.
There are also some cheap characters that are good to have, the Scouts have special abilities that only trigger during the first challenge in each round, and they're both 3 gold for 3 STR (3 for 3) with 2 challenge icons and are not unique - the Stark and Baratheon each gets one of these.
For the characters the Hosts are really good stuff to get if you're playing a King or Queen star character deck - 4 for 8 with some kick-ass ability is no joke.
The Locations in this pack specializes in killing characters. The GreyJoy Longship kills participating character as a Limited Response if you win a challenge, the Targaryen Flame Pitch Tower gives a -4 STR and may kill the character without attachment if you win a challenge by 4 or more.
This killing spree spills over to the attachment side - the Stark Icy Catapult kills off a character without attachment if the attached character leaves play - kind of an exchange program. The Dornish Chariot of the Martell does it in a more subtle way, when it removes all Stealth, Deadly and Renown when the attached character is participating in a challenge - a deadly character (and Martell has a host of these) on a chariot therefore has an excellent chance of killing off an enemy defender. (or get your challenge claims, which serves just as well.)
The event "Kill for Your King" speaks for itself - it kills off a character without a Military icon after you reveal a Military Battle Plot.
So as you can see, this pack is a deadly pack where it comes to killing off characters. Every character in this pack has a Military icon, and all but 3 has a Power icon too. (And it has a Martell Maester who gives all Maesters a Military icon...)
There is one House Umber character,1 House Dayne character, and 2 House Florent character for use - all of them are reasonable addition to your war efforts.
All in all the pack is worth buying 3 sets of if you want the Hosts Armies, since you only get 1 each of the "Host" cards in the pack, and they're probably the best reason to buy this pack. The GreyJoys can consider getting 3 too, since the Longship "FoamDrinker" also only comes singularly in this pack, and it is a good Location to have, effectively giving you a 100% Deadly if you can win a challenge, giving a lot of bite for GreyJoy decks. Kill for Your King also only have 1 copy, but you may not need a lot of these in any one given deck.
Everything else comes with 3 copies (except the Maester of War), and they're ok addition.
I guess I'll recommend getting 3 copies of this chapter if you intend to run a King or Queen deck, especially for House Martell, GreyJoy, Stark and Baratheon - their Host cards are head and shoulders above the others, and 3 of them is definitely a good addition to your deck. Barring that, there're no any particular card that I think is important enough to warrant not missing this.
(o.o)
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