HELP! What is the difference between the CCG and the TCG!

Ok, I saw that WotC has a Star Wars TCG, but it the same as Deciphers CCG? Can you use cards from both in either game? Did WotC buy it from them? or are there 2 games now? (3 if your counting the Young Jedi one)
I am SO confused, I have never myself played any of the Star Wars ccgs or tcgs, but I want to. Which is better or which do you like better? What should I do?
I AM SO CONFUSED! HELP!!!!!!!!!

Binks

 

Oh, look, yet another pithy comment from Fortuna - a comment that offers not only a fair judgment of the two games, but a detailed argument for his position. Not mention a complete surprise. I mean, when I saw this thread already had one reply, never did I suspect that it would be Fortuna offering his wisdom for the ages.

Nice. Very nice, indeed.

To answer your question a BIT more seriously, the CCG and the TCG are completely different.

First, they are completely incompatible. Decipher lost the license to Wizards of the Coast. As a result, Decipher can no longer make expansions for any of its three games (the CCG, Young Jedi, and Jedi Knights); and WotC has just released its Trading Card Game.

I'm a TCG player myself, so I can't reasonably offer any detailed description or opinions about Decipher's CCG. I'm sure someone else will be happy to explain the pro's and con's of the CCG for ya.

But I can tell ya about the Trading Card Game:

It's essentially a turn-based strategy game, closer to Axis and Allies than the CCG. You and your opponent play both sides of the Force - Light Side and Dark Side. You draw armies from your deck, and deploy them to fight your opponent's armies in three arenas: in space, on the ground, and in the character arena.

(The arenas are like the simultaneous battles in The Phantom Menace or Return of the Jedi: space was where the Naboo fighters and X-Wings fought, Ewoks and Gungans fought on the ground, and the lightsaber duels were in the character arena.)

The fastest units attack first, and attacks are resolved through dice (every 4, 5, and 6 causes damage). There are more details, and Wizards reps have said the game will have more complexity over time, but that's about it.

Personally, I really like the game.

In terms of collecting, you can start with a 2-player box, Light Side starter, or Dark Side starter (every 2-player box is identical, every LS starter is identical, etc.). You can then add to the deck with 5-card boosters or 11-card booster; the general consensus is you get better cards (1 guaranteed rare) in the 11-card boosters.

The REALLY rare cards are simply holographic foils of the regular cards, so it's fairly easy to find good cards, and it's DEFINITELY not necessary that you have a lot of rare's to do well.

I'd suggest getting the two-player box and trying the game out. If you like it, get some boosters and there ya go. You shouldn't have to spend TOO much money to get a competitive deck.

And if you want to find other TCG'ers, there's the TCG Rebel Base, a really good unofficial site.

If anyone wants to speak on behalf of the CCG, you're welcome to it.

 

I only speak the truth. If you can't deal with that, it's your problem.

 

I'll speak on Decipher's games...

Star Wars: Customizable Card Game was the first ever CCG based on Star Wars. It was introduced in late 1995, back when CCGs were still relatively new. Expansions cover the original trilogy and Episode I, and some characters & ships are even taken from the novels -- Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn, etc. No cards were ever released for Episode II.

In SW:CCG, the object is to "deck" your opponent. Your deck represents your "life force", once you lose all of your Force, you lose the game. You "use the Force" to deploy, move, battle, use weapons, etc. How you manage your Force is a key component in the game.

The two primary methods for causing your opponent to lose Force are (1) battles, and (2) Force drains. Battles may occur at any location where both players have presence; Force drains occur where one player has presence but the other one doesn't. Force drains motivate you to deploy and battle your opponent at the locations he is at.

Each player deploys location cards on the table. The two primary types of locations are "sites" (ground) and "systems" (planets, space). Ground battles occur at sites, space battles occur at systems. You deploy characters and vehicles at sites; you deploy ships at systems and deploy characters on those ships. You can move characters and vehicles from site to site, and move ships from system to system, and can even "land" and "take off" between systems and sites.

The random element in battles is achieved through "drawing destiny". Instead of rolling dice, which is completely random, SW:CCG allows you to draw a card from your deck, using the "destiny" number printed in the upper right corner. This mechanism is still random, but more deterministic, since you build your deck, and know which destiny numbers you've already lost or drawn into your hand.

Although the primary methods of losing Force are through battles and Force drains, what Decipher did with SW:CCG is provide alternative ways to lose or "retrieve" (get back) Force. This added even more strategy to the game. The SW:CCG was also very, very story driven, especially with the introduction of "objective" cards in 1998. Objectives give you a goal you have to achieve, like blowing up the Death Star or training Luke to be a Jedi, and once you achieve your objective you get certain benefits or your opponent suffers certain consequences. But even besides objectives, you have elements in the game that let you use the Death Star to blow up planets, duel Jedi, make Kessel Runs, blow up the Hoth Shield Generator, dodge asteroids, collect bounties on captured Rebels, carbon freeze characters, feed captives to the Sarlaac or the Rancor, buid the second Death Star one piece at a time, blow up the second Death Star, podrace, win political control of the Galactic Senate, turn Darth Vader to the Light Side, or turn Luke to the Dark Side!

Decipher's SW:CCG is much more strategic and varied than WOTC's SW:TCG. SW:TCG has only one way to win: battle. SW:CCG has a multitude of ways to win, and as you can see above a plethora of possible strategies you can include in your deck. Maybe SW:TCG will add new game mechanics and add more strategy, but IMO never to the extent SW:CCG has, and for one simple reason: WOTC does not want a game as complicated as SW:CCG. SW:CCG has always been one of the top-ranked CCGs on the market, usually #2 right behind Magic, but one consistent complaint it has always received is it is too complicated, too hard to learn. I love SW:CCG, though. It is a wonderful game, a rich game, and I'm sad to see it come to an end.

.....

Next came Young Jedi. This one came out in 1999, to coincide with The Phantom Menace, and ONLY features cards from Episode I. This game is the simplest of the four. It focuses strictly on battling, with one small exception -- the last expansion introduced a "podracing" game mechanic, giving you an alternate method for winning the game. The idea is you battle at three different sites -- Tatooine, Coruscan

 

<<I only speak the truth. If you can't deal with that, it's your problem.>>

No, "The CCG is good, the TCG is crap," is merely an opinion.

I honestly don't have a problem with you holding an opinion contrary to mine. But I do have a problem with you proclaiming it as "truth", providing NOTHING to back up your claim, and doing NOTHING to recognize that there are those here who disagree with you and whose opinions are worth more respect than you're showing.

 

I have backed that statement up plenty.

 

BTW... Great post, Artie.

 

Thanks.

 

Thanks guys, I think I will give the new TCG a try. but I do wish I had gotten into the old CCG before. It sounded fun!
Well, thanks again!
Binks

 

You should try and get into the CCG instead. The game is not dead by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Having played both games (albeit the ccg only about 2 weeks), I must say that these games appeal to two very different groups. The CCG was a more a more complex, mission oriented game. It has more rules, and is somewhat hard to understand (especially attrition sheesh!). My friend and I played for only 2 weeks, as I said, and we found it to be fun and complex, but was somewhat lacking in battling. When we started the TCG, we realized at once that this game was not as complex, but that it would take strategy to win. Try thinking of the TCG as a strategy war game like Advance Wars for GameBoy Advance. You need to manage your rescources and decide who to attack and when. The randomness is actually fun. It gives you that feeling that you get when you open a booster. "Will I get a good card?", "Will I get a good dice roll?". Same thing. I think that the randomness makes the game balanced. A great deck won't always win against a mediocre one. It allows the game to be fun for people who are tired of always losing in games like Magic.

I think you should buy a few cards to see what you think. I personally love it.

 

My problem is I hate opening booster packs. For every one good rare I pull, I always seem to get 3 junk rares.

So that analogy doesn't help me much.

 

heeh I know how you feel Arte. The suprising thing is that with this game my luck has been GREAT. Junk Rares have been few and far between and the good ones flow like commons. It was exaclty the opposite w/ me with the CCG. I hardly ever pulled mains out of packs. I bought like 3 boxes of SE and never pulled a Choke Vader

 

Oh, it's not just SW:CCG, it's any CCG for me! You name it, if I play it I've gotten more junk rares than good rares. Even the new TCG, I've bought 5 booster packs and only one rare main character so far: foil Jar Jar.

Good think I like Jar Jar!

 

Bib is so obviously trolling. If I were to drop in the JCC and start saying, "the church of Bob is the only true religion and if you don't believe you'll be condemned to hell," and "I'm only speaking the truth," I'd be banned. ESPECIALLY if I did it repeatedly.

 

>>>Likewise to the CCGers as it relates to the TCG threads.

This is not a TCG thread. It is a CCG/TCG thread. Bib isn't coming into a TCG-only thread and disrupting it. Someone asked for opinions of the various SW card games compared to each other. Bib provided his, and while his comments may not have been very informative, it's not like he came on some thread where someone was asking for a deck review and said the TCG sucked.

 

To say what has already been said, CCG and TCG are completely different, and are only related to each other because they both support the same franchice(sp?)

Honestly, I think it depends on what type of rulebooks you like reading. Confusing ones, or really confusing ones. It also depends on whether you want to play a game that is classic trilogy +Episode 1, or just episode 2.

Just my 0.02 cents, sorry if I have offended anybody.

 

>> Honestly, I think it depends on what type of rulebooks you like reading. Confusing ones, or really confusing ones. <<

lol! Great comment!

 

I have played both games, and i find them very different. but i enjoy playing both of them even though i don't do it as much most everyone else. I may get into one game everythree months or so. Butr you also have to look what the TCG is going up against. First its only the first set, 180 cards. versus the 1000 plus ccg game. Give it time if you still don't like it don't play it. I like collecting the cards so, if i don't play it really doesn't bother me.

 

Bib leave the people alone, opinions are not facts even if they're your own.