SW LCG New Cycle

The news isn't exactly new but I noticed no one is talking about it. This is my most played game right now and has been for a few months (this and Kemet really). I am absolutely in love with it and play it almost every day. My most recent decks are a couple of kick ass Hoth decks. One for the Imperial Navy thats super AT AT heavy and one for the Rebel Alliance that is totally speeder focused and it's really fun too.

In any case the new cycle is announced and it looks really interesting.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4358

It's going to focus on the force struggle in the game and it's almost all EU stuff. It sounds really interesting and some of the new force effects sound fucking great. It's amazing how much impact having/not having the force on you side can have. It totally changes your play style too. I don't know who else is obsessed with this game but I'm going nuts.

I wish I was playing this game.

Me too. I'll probably buy a used lot in the future. But I've got LCGs and other expandables shooting out my crack right now.

I like this game a lot, but my inability to keep up with Force Packs or get it played have dampened my enthusiasm a lot. It's my favorite of the LCGs, but I doubt I'll be going past the Hoth cycle.

I liked the game a bunch but it's on the trade stack, along with a bunch of unopened force packs. I came to realize I will never construct decks for it, even with its easy deck construction system. And when it comes down to it, when I want to play a two-player game, there's other stuff I'd just rather play. (Netrunner, which I also liked a lot, is getting sold as well, for pretty much the same reason.) I can't even say I'm too busy to fuck around with constructing decks anymore, I just don't have any interest in doing so.

The way Star Wars has gone, the theme was more of a distraction than a hook, but even when I was more excited about Star Wars I didn't care about the EU junk. I came to realize that, when it's all said and done, I'm a fan of "Star Wars", the original 1977 movie, and I can pretty much happily do without most of the rest.

In fact, the part of the game I like the least was the Force Struggle, as that seemed the most tacked-on-due-to-theme and not really firmly attached to the rest of the game.

Sounds good. I love this game. It's definitely good Star Wars.

I hope they do some cool stuff with the balance mechanic, it could definitely use some more heft. Global effects based on its state would be cool, or special card effects that boost on one side or another would be good.

It looks like it's the good kind of EU stuff, Dark Forces,stuff from those old Dark Horse books, and so on.

Really most excited for the multiplayer thing, that will like quadruple my opportunities to play it.

I really love this game, but between Netrunner and X-wing I haven't been able to afford buying into it beyond a core set. I think I'm going to get the first deluxe expansion with my next CSI order though so I can at least play the smugglers factions.

Boo on the new packaging tho. I really hope they don't do that with the third Netrunner cycle. The blister packs are a pain to open.

The new packaging does suck. I don't need more plastic in my purchases. In any case the game rocks. One of it's biggest shortcomings though, if you can call it that, is that it doesn't reveal all of it's greatness until many, many games in. I've played over 50 games of it and I still feel like an amateur. It's hard... the other disadvantage to that is that it doesn't open up thematically either until several games in.

The force mechanic is great, really great, not only is it thematic but it can be a really crucial part of the game and I think a lot of the subtleties of it take several plays to see. The game asks a lot of it's audience.

One of the biggest mistakes is to think that deck building is easier.... it is to a degree but in some ways it's actually harder. The thing is if I wasn't happy with a deck in CoC I could look at individual cards and add or take away some here and there. With SW I have to analyze the whole Pod and consider the effects of all of it's cards. The permutations can be through the roof.

My favorite aspect though is the pulled back theme. I like how macro it is and how it forces you to take part in the creating of the story. In Netrunner say, which I also love, the theme is so micro it's much harder to be creative in your interpretation of events. SW is so vague that you not only can be creative, you have to be. It's the same thing with the deck creation, because you have to add a whole Pod at once you're forced to find creative ways to use cards you may never have used otherwise (although you can always dump them in edge battles too).

As for the setting, in some ways I couldn't care less. They could just make up new Jedi's and ships and as long as they look cool and fit the world I would be totally fine with it. I don't know the EU outside of the Zahn books and even those I don't remember that well.

I am ecstatic, man. I really love this game. BRING ON MORE CARDS. I am stoked (using that word in the unironical sense) to get Mara Jade and other EU stuff in the game.

This will never be as great as the old Decipher game, but hot damn, it is really, really good.