The History of the Living Card Game

Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is truly a gaming company to be reckoned with. With prolific board game releases and unique role playing offerings, FFG is always expanding and pushing outwards to new forms of gaming. A quick look at their catalog reveals the aforementioned board games and RPG's, but also offers more unique products such as graphic novels and even a movie based on one of their original properties (the Midnight roleplaying setting). FFG long ago produced their first CCG, the A Game of Thrones card game based on George R.R. Martin's Ice and Fire book series. It was a classic CCG and spawned the incredible Call of Cthulhu CCG. Just recently however, FFG made an internal decision that the CCG model was not for them. They made a controversial move to change the format to their own original design - the "Living Card Game" (LCG). It transformed both A Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu CCG's into a production format that offered a less expensive buy-in in the form of a Core Set release that would then be supported with monthly expansion packs.

It was a rocky transition to be sure, with both pro's and con's. Long-time players were upset because the old CCG sets would be phased out of sanctioned competitive play. In the case of Call of Cthulhu, the backs of the cards changed as well, meaning even in casual play opaque card sleeves would be required to mask the origin of the cards in your deck and hand. A Game of Thrones also found a new direction heavily focusing on multiplayer games, moving away from one-on-one matches. However, the LCG format did offer some great strengths. The biggest appeal would be the switch away from boosters or "blind buys." No longer would players have to buy two or more boxes of booster packs hoping to get a set of three of every common, uncommon and rare card. The monthly expansions offered 20 new cards that were set for each one specifically. Currently, the rarity system is still a little wonky, in that, out of the 20 cards, 10 of them come in three copies (a complete "play set" as you can have up to three copies of any unique card in a deck) and the other 10 come in one copy. Because of this, there is still a rarity system, and to make play sets, players must buy three of each expansion pack. However, this is being corrected in the future - a sign of the strength and popularity of the LCG format.

The Warhammer: Invasion Core Set

All of this brings us to Gencon 2009 where FFG released their first game designed originally as an LCG - Warhammer: Invasion. FFG has been producing RPG's and board games based on Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battles universe, but Invasion would be the first card game they've produced for the setting. So what do you actually get in an LCG Core Set? Take a look at FFG's product page, but the quick summary is: four starter decks for the first four factions (Dwarf, Empire, Orc, and Chaos), a few high and dark elf cards to preview the future factions, the four faction over-sized capital cards, wound and resource tokens for a two player game, and a full-sized color rulebook. Compare this to a starter deck for any CCG out there, which usually runs at least $10.00, and you can see you get a lot of value for your $40.00 investment.

Warring Capitals

If Magic: the Gathering has you playing the role of a wizard dueling with summoned creatures, then Invasion raises the stakes as you play the role of the capital city of your race. Each capital, the central point of each player's playing field, has three sections: the Kingdom, Battlefield, and Quest. The object of the game is to destroy two of the three sections of your opponent's capital or to outlast them by emptying your opponent's deck. You do this by utilizing unit, support, tactics, and quest cards. Resource management is done eloquently (something FFG's card games are known for) in that both resources to play cards and card draw are determined by the power on units and support cards in the Kingdom and Quest fields, respectively. Units can launch offensive attacks from the Battlefield, choosing a specific section of the capital to target, and then any units in the targeted section can choose to defend and fight back. For more information on the rules, you can check out the Support Page from FFG where you can watch the tutorial and download the rules for free.

So what about those factions? As listed above, the Core Set comes with the cards to make a 50 card deck for Dwarves, Empire, Orcs, and Chaos factions, with four to five cards each for High Elves and Dark Elves. We also get some neutral cards that any faction can use. All factions are split between "Order" (Dwarves, Empire, and High Elves) and "Destruction" (Orcs, Chaos, and Dark Elves), and only factions on the same side can be put together when building a deck. For example, Dwarves and High Elves can be in the same deck, but Dwarves and Orcs cannot. The first couple of battle packs released play with this further by adding neutral cards that are "Order Only" or "Destruction Only" for deck building. Generally speaking, players will have a shot at trying each race out, but there are some common traits and strategies for each faction.

Races of Order

Dwarves generally tend towards damage prevention and healing of their capital. Of the two core Order factions, they focus more on structure versus characters. They tend to have the most toughness (which is a trait that reduces damage from every attack they receive - making for very powerful defenders) and have a support card that actively heals your capital each turn. The Empire faction focuses more on a "tricky" style of play. Their strength is their mobility and unique card effects. They have a lot of abilities that target enemy units and utilize "revenge" tactics more than any other faction. They have units and tactics that help move both friendly and enemy cards around other capital sections, sometimes drastically changing a unit's effect on the game. For example, in one game I was playing as Empire and my opponent was Chaos, He had a huge demon on the field with five power (big when you only need eight to kill a capital side) and I used a low cost card to move the demon out of the battlefield and into his quest zone. Sure the quest zone was strongly defended, but my opponent was going to be drawing an additional five cards a turn - more than he bargained for and increased his chances to run out of cards and lose. It was exciting to see the versatility of a card that states "move one target unit from its zone to another zone controlled by the same player." The fact that it can affect either player is another example of the game's high quality design and elegance. The High Elves, which only have a few cards in the Core Set, show their potential for healing. They also have the only effects in the game that deal with corrupted units. Corruption is a powerful effect that essentially puts a unit out of the action for awhile, but of course that brings us to the forces of destruction.

Races of Destruction

If I had to set up matches for the Core Set factions, Orcs would be the opposite of the Dwarves. Where Dwarves focus on protecting and healing their own capitals, Orcs focus on destroying their opponent's (and sometimes their own - they are Orcs after all) capitals. You'll see a lot of cards with powers and effects containing the word "destroy" or "forced" (as in the player has no choice in making the action happen). They also sacrifice a lot of their own things to do increased damage and destruction. Orcs have the Warhammer version of Wrath of God although unceremoniously referred to simply as "Troll Vomit." It even costs the same at four resources (although requiring at least two Orc resource matches). Generally speaking, Orc units don't last long, but they leave their mark before going to the discard pile. Chaos currently focuses on the corruption mechanic mentioned above with a secondary focus in direct damage. In a nutshell, a unit that is corrupted through some card effect gets turned sideways, like it's tapped in Magic. This unit cannot attack or defend until uncorrupted and may trigger other abilities (Chaos cards often only affect corrupted units, for example). At the beginning of each player's turn, he may uncorrupt one unit. Because of the emphasis on corruption, Chaos is very focused on controlling the battlefield. The Dark Elves only received five cards in the Core set, however, from what we have, Dark Elves act in opposition of the High elves. Their focus is direct damage with some effects that deal with stealing resources. The source material suggests we may see more bandit type of resource control effects - something very interesting to watch for in the future.

Future Invasions

You may be wondering at this point what to expect after picking up the Core Set. FFG has already released two Battle Packs (the monthly expansions mentioned above) which should be available wherever FFG products are sold. This current cycle of Battle Packs is named the "Corruption Cycle" and lasts for six monthly releases. Check back here often as I will be writing reactions and strategy articles to future Battle Packs!

You can find more information about the Corruption Cycle by visiting FFG's website, specifically here. The two packs that have been released so far are The Skavenblight Threat and Path of the Zealot, with the third, Tooth and Claw, scheduled for release this month.

In addition to the Battle Packs, FFG has announced the deluxe expansion Assault on Ulthuan, which properly expands High and Dark Elves to fully-fledged factions with their own over-sized capital cards and full decks. Both factions are receiving cards currently through the Corruption Cycle, but this release will solidify their status as playable factions. FFG has a lot of room to explore with this game, including new factions, clearly new card releases, and then variations of a theme. I could easily see new capital cards for each faction that gives a unique power to the faction as opposed to just providing resources, just as one example. Overall the Core Set is a solid foundation for a game that has a lot of potential for depth and strategy. Created specifically for the LCG format, Warhammer: Invasion is the first true test of the production style. That being said, Invasion's future and the future of the Living Card Game has a foundation even a dwarf could be proud of.

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