CoH CCG....Anyone played yet? Comments?
By
Aaron123,
Posted on: 2006-01-26 16:51 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I spent the whole weekend at my FLGS (Friendly local gaming store for those who dont know that acronym) giving demoes and refining my decks. Its a blast 
Really easy to pick up mechanics.. my only complaint is that activating an attack, they didnt specifiy exactly when reacts can happen. They used casual language instead of lawyer-speak...
Great game tho
To answer the deck construction rules On the bottom of the rules sheet back side in the Extended Gameplay section it states A tourney deck contains at least 40 cards (not including your hero and starting powers), with no more than 3 copies of any card in the deck. So those are the deck construction rules.
Also I must say that Doomtown is the best CCG ever created.
Well I played all weekend long with a friend who plays the MMORPG and one who never has. They both loved it. We had alot of fun and it seems to be catching on rather quickly. I've started a fansite for it which has full spoilers for all the cards and a bunch of other stuff called Hero Vs Villain. I would suggest anyone try this game out, and if you are looking for cards there seems to be a bunch of people trading for the cards they want on my site so that could assist people in getting the cards they need to make decks based around their CoH hero.
I've been playing it as often as I can, and I've been pretty active over on the AEG COH boards. I think it's a great game; the alternation of actions and the variety of things you can do with an action reminds me a lot of Netrunner (one of the best CCGs of all time).
There have been more rules issues that you would expect from the simple rules provided, and the limited space on the rules sheet seems to have led to a few things being unclear (exactly when you're allowed to turn off toggles, for example).
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Why? Because it will spend too much time on the tie-in portion of things, (the characters, the powers, making sure a player of the MMORPG recognizes things, etc), to really bring anything unique to the table. Not that it has to be unique, mind, but there have been several CCGs featuring super heroes and the idea just never takes off.
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I'll admit that the tie-in part worries me a bit. Decipher's Star Wars CCG is perhaps the longest-running tie-in CCG I can think of (although CoH can't really match the Star Wars brand). I'm hoping that the game will survive on the strength of the gameplay.
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I think this is partly because of the limitations of the genre - both the CCG genre, (can I say that?), and the super hero genre. What am I, the player of this new CCG, doing? Am I arranging teams of heroes for a massive battle royale? Am I pitting a special squad against a horde of enemies? Will this boil down to a fight of clones, (where each player has the same heroes), or am I very limited in what I can choose to play with?
You cannot be the hero with the sort of CCG I think we shall find - you can only manipulate other heroes. The CCG's that really seem to catch on involve the player in the game, (like Magic, where the player is fighting another player, not using cards to fight other cards, if you see my meaning).
Obviously I have not seen the game.
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Well....yes, it is obvious you haven't seen the game, because you don't control a team of heroes. You control one hero, and optionally one sidekick.
This is one of the major points I see in the game's favor. Highlander is the only other CCG I can think of (hey, there's a tie-in game that's really old, and I think it's even still being produced!) in which you play a single character that you can strongly identify with. Both COH and Highlander also allow you to play a generic character, an option which I really like and which I hope is expanded on in the COH CCG as it was in Highlander (it's just not as much fun playing someone else's creation, even if it is a signature hero.)
I've collected and played a fair deal, and honestly it's not too bad as far as CCGs go.
As far as user friendliness, it is extremely user friendly. I spent 8 hours as ConQuest helping people learn the game, and after just one lesson and a few practice games with just a BattlePack and a starter, most players were very comfortable with the rules. The system is even easier to pick up for those who have played the MMO.
As to impressions, it's hard for me to place where it stands exactly. It's not nearly as initially difficult to create a competetive deck as, say, L5R can be. It can be frustrating (as someone pointed out) to collect only certain primary/secondary sets. However, if one just wants to play some, a few battlepacks/boosters is a really good time.
There are also certain rare cards that might be nearly universally handy to have (not nearly lotus/mox or GnF/AFV level), which might be a bit hard to come by. Then again, a lot of those cards are only to add that final punch to a collection, and in no way are necessary for having some fun.
The game can also feel somewhat barren at times, with certain power sets listed but not yet released. This won't hinder the game as is, but if you want Earth Control, for instance, you won't find it yet. That being said, there's a lot to look forward to.
Of course, you can play your own heroic creations with the hero card generator AEG has.
Someone else mentioned multiplayer play, and it's true. The game is really fun in a team game, 2v2 or 3v3. Going bigger than that can result sometimes in the last person to take an action (it goes back and forth between the teams) being knocked out before his turn actually comes up. But 2v2, it can be a real crazy time.
The game can sometimes lend itself to rock-paper-scissors syndrome. That is, if you play a controller and some tank gets their mez resistance/toggle-knock-off resistance power out quickly, it can lead to a short game. Of course, there are also ways to counter that though.
In all honesty, the most fun my friends and I have had with the game was playing draft (2 battlepacks and 2 booster packs). The decks weren't pretty or well constructed, we didn't have ideal heroes or sidekicks, and whoever drafted a rare power for one of their heroes was lucky. But, it was a lot of fun, with games being well matched and fun.
Overall, I say that it is worth a small initial investment to try it out. If you try the draft, each person should take the hero-specific portions of their battlepacks aside before they begin drafting, and they must choose one of those two as their starting hero. I suggest deck size for the draft around 30-35 cards (we found 35 worked well for us, but that can be up to each playgroup really), with no max similar card limit.
Good luck!
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GASP!!!
They let pohsyb out of his box!!!!
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And, more disturbing, they've apparently given him a TV in that box!
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So just wondering if anyone has begun to collect and play the new AEG CCG game based on CoH.
I saw that you can but starter and booster packs from their website.
Looking for an honest impression and user friendliness of game.
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Perhaps a biased opinion, but I'm really enjoying it. I bought 1/2 a box of Battle Packs and a box of Boosters. With that, I had the flexibility to build for almost any power set. I like that it doesn't play like any other card game I've tried.
IMHO, Its easier to pick up than magic and if you are familiar with the game the effects are mapped into the card game fairly consistently (ex: Slow = Discard a card to activate power).
I'm dissappointed, however, that when I activate a power I don't get to actually explode it out IRL as the Yu-gi-oh! animated series convinced me it should. (Not that I watch that, or that there's anything wrong with that if I did).
(;^_^)b
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d(^-^)b All good here, Ca'pn pohsyb. Yu-Gi-Oh GX sucks, though... not that I watch it. 'cause it sucks.
I bought a box of Battle Packs and a box of boosters. I've played one game. I kinda like it. The mechanics do a decent job of emulating the MMO and it is fast paced enough.
Be a hero!!
Yu Gi Oh?
You are frikkin dead to me, man ...dead!
...but more in a HahHah way than a bad way
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Oh I'm collecting the cards, looks pretty cool...
Now if I could just find someone willing to play in friggan utah... 
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You'll have to teach me how to play sometime. Taylorsville, Utah.
I taught 3 friends, my girlfriend, and one of her kids to play. They all love it (as do I), and 3 of them (my girlfriend included) don't play CCGs.
A few at the store I go to are also obsessed... enough that they'll be starting tournaments in a month or two. If anyone lives in the Southern NH- Northern MA area (or willing to travel), PM me and I can get you some info.
I've really enjoyed the game so far. Unless you're gearing up for a tourney (mandatory 40+ cards per deck), the Battle packs are enough to really get into the game.
So far I've purchased one starter and 2 boosters, and that was enough to compete with 4 friends free for all with 25 card decks (fairly big game to start....) Some of those guys had promo decks from CoV and one had purchased a couple of boxes, so it was a fairly competative game.
I was surprised at the game balance. So far there are no obviously game breaking cards, so there was only a minor advantage for those who'd purchased more cards (obviously I've played a few other collectable games...) As well, we all used different AT's, yet each one was viable alone.
With 5 people playing and a limited number of cards purchased, we had no hero clones. Actually, one guy changed heroes for the second game. Two or three had the same sidekick though.
Most importantly, I had a blast. I've played Vs. and dropped it within a couple of months (liked it at first, but they came out with some stupid game breakers and combos, not to mention that some of the game mechanics just don't make sense for the world they try to portray). I also play Star Trek, Battle Tech, and I've tried out a few others.
I personally think this is one of the easiest and fastest games to learn, but the gameplay makes it replayable, which is ultimately important.
So far I've enjoyed the CoH card game, I do see some rather broken characters which I'll comment on later, but other then that it's pretty good.
As far as broken characters:
Glitterdance with chilling embrace is nasty, worse if you can drop Wet Ice on her and make it so CE can't be turned off until you drop her.
Lady Dark is nasty plain and simple, with the right combo of cards out (not many) she can heal endless amounts of health each turn while making herself really hard to hit
Finally Chain Reaction is a damage god, assuming non-inspiration use, and one prep turn when you get atacked, you can get him up to 29 damage in a round, and that's assuming you're starting fresh without a status on the other player, you can get him really nasty of you add in Red Lighning and Combined attacks, getting Blaze on Red Lighning with card to drop from AM, and Chain's signature power, you can rack up some stupid damage numbers.
Two words. Awe. Some.
I'm playing it alongside VS and Dark Millennium.
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Two words. Awe. Some.
I'm playing it alongside VS and Dark Millennium.
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Well, I wonder if there was bias in that. 
Seriously though, I want to try it, but first want to know what the Travel Powers do. I've been looking everywhere, to find no information?
Does it affect tactic?
50s: Silent Spy - MA/Regen Scrapper | Tinkerhell - SS/Inv Brute | Extrasensory - Psi/Men Blaster | Ana Cruz - DP/PD Corruptor | Sara Thunderbird - Elec/Elec Scrapper | Pinstrike - Spines/SR Scrapper | Cold Feet - Cold/Cold Blaster
@Silent Spy, Champion Server
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Seriously though, I want to try it, but first want to know what the Travel Powers do. I've been looking everywhere, to find no information?
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There are certain good edge cards that effect certain travel powers:
Knock out of the Sky, Fast Attack, Active Dodge, Out of the Sun, and Defensive Teleport are the ones I can remember.
"We all lose in the end, that is the intention" --Emanuel Lasker
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Seriously though, I want to try it, but first want to know what the Travel Powers do. I've been looking everywhere, to find no information?
Does it affect tactic?
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As Pohsyb said, they don't give an inherent ability or effect. They let you use certain edge cards (for example "Defensive Teleport" can only be used by a hero with the Teleport travel power) which are really quite strong. Tactically, they make heroes using each travel power play fairly differently - you have to expect for a superjumper to jump out of the way of your bigger attacks, and most fliers are going to swoop in for a heavily damaging "Out of the Sun" at some point during the game.
-Dave
The CoH CCG Designer
Defensive Teleport is great, it pretty much tells someone they're not hitting you.
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-Dave
The CoH CCG Designer
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AH! I knew you were here somewhere! Btw, that mini-draft tourney you set up for us at Conquest was great fun. *Great* fun. Thanks again!
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Defensive Teleport is great, it pretty much tells someone they're not hitting you.
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No...Active Dodge in the late-game for +11 defense tells someone they're not hitting you.
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Defensive Teleport is great, it pretty much tells someone they're not hitting you.
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No...Active Dodge in the late-game for +11 defense tells someone they're not hitting you.
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And Mynx tells you no defensive increases
For most damage, I had a 36 damage attack with Pyrexiah. It of course took an out of the sun, an Enraged, a building rage the previous turn, and an enraged Insp... but it was fun to do
Love the game glad I'm able to contribute to such a great game. I've bought 2 battlepack boxes and 1 box of boosters and I just can't help but make different decks so far my fav has been an Ice Armor/SS tanker.
Thanks Guys for allowing AEG to make an Awesome game.
Now if statesman just didn't suck --- Just kidding.
Lets just say with the card game that regen is similar to its pre issue 4 days.
Lady Grey is my patron character. I might use hero 1 eventuallly.
Lady Grey's Regen is similar to pre-I4, but that's due to her ability, which can be keyed off of the other regen abilities (like Fast healing and Integration) for insane healing everytime she attacks, and with the lack of a rules mend to say you can't put Reduce endurance cost on an auto power, you're healing for free every turn you attack.
The other Guy, Serpant Drummer, isn't very good at regening, and without his MA stunning abilities, he seems a bit lacking compaired to Grey, who will make you hit for less, or or just plain miss.
o.o he's out of his box... but his picture is gone!
o.o wait.. out of box... O.O the box is free! I claim!
Edit: wait... it's back... o.o sneaky pic
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Veni, Vidi, Dormivi!
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