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Thread: Rise of the Combiners Booster Packs

  1. #21
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    (I did this news post last week, and lost the entire post before it went up, so it has taken this long to get over the frustration of having to start over from scratch - it's almost like I'm not meant to like this game)


    The second series of booster packs (Rise of the Combiners) has now been out for a month, and the creators are still detailing specific elements of the new cards, with special focus on their new green cards (the colour code added to the second series, that relate to special functions or actions, like combiner enigmas), with the four colour codes being key to cards like the "Espionage" card... a particularly fascinating card from the second series that gives you the power to see cards in your opponent's "secret" hand of cards.
    If you have it in your hand, when you have the opportunity to play an Action card, you can play the Espionage card, and name a colour type, to which you can select a card from your opponent's hand to put on their scrap pile (it sounds like you can only see the cards that are of the colour you have chosen, and risk coming up empty... but you'd have to trust your opponent to be honest if they deny having any of the colour you have chosen). It also means that cards with no colour icon on them, are immune to this card, as you would only be able to call out green, blue, orange and white.

    As noted at the facebook link, this card is particularly useful if you see that your opponent is close to combining their team (they have to convert all of their team to bot mode first), you can force them to scrap their Enigma card, and they then have to wait until they get another one in their hand... which could be too late if they were allowing a couple of their bots to be KOed before combining.

    It also means that cards with two colours (like orange and blue, for people who might pad out their battle deck with them to improve their chances in battle, both offensively and defensively), are more likely to be scrapped, if you select either of those colours when playing Espionage.



    The more I try to work out the specifics of this the game, the more confused I get... or unsure if I'm doing it right. Like, if one of your team is KOed, can it still be transformed, or is it stuck in the mode he died in... meaning, you can't then combine your team if any of them are KOed in alt-mode. And is there an actual meaning for the white and green cards... as it isn't specific/unique enough, other than a one-off purpose for the white cards (drawing two more cards in battle, but that only happens once), and basically just to have a fourth colour is the reason for the green cards. Plus, the pdf rules suggest that your battle deck can be any amount of cards above 40, as long as you don't have more than 3 of any card.... but the official videos were saying you had to have a deck of just 40 cards.
    Plus, the limit of 25 stars still annoys the crap out of me, especially when it doesn't relate to any element of the character (it's power or rarity), so you end up with 4-5 star combiner bots, and 12-13 star individual bots. The first series bots were mostly 6-10 stars, so that you could have 4 or 3 in your team... but the second series is full of 10-13 star bots, forcing you to end up with a team of two, which reviewers have said is not enough for a decent battle (particularly when reviewing the starter pack, as they would find that having just two bots was rather unchallanging and boring).
    Is there anywhere that actually archives and clearly lists the specifics and unique rules for this game, like an FAQ? (something similar to this one, done up by a fan)

    To be honest, the official rules videos that Hasbro/Wizards have posted on their site (with Optimus, Megatron and Windblade as narrators), are completely useless. I watched them and was just as lost as I was before I watched them.
    In the end, this 42 minute video of the game being played out (from here) with commentary and explanations, was way better, and made sense of a lot of things, and I recommend others who are yet to get into this game, have a watch of that video as well.
    (I tried to play the game with someone last weekend, but trying to explain it to them, from the point of view of someone who hasn't yet mastered it, meant we didn't get far before they lost interest and we just quit playing it.)

  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
    The more I try to work out the specifics of this the game, the more confused I get... or unsure if I'm doing it right. Like, if one of your team is KOed, can it still be transformed, or is it stuck in the mode he died in... meaning, you can't then combine your team if any of them are KOed in alt-mode.
    Yes, you can transform KO'd characters. I think this is in the Rise of the Combiners FAQ and is definitely implied by the ability of the Ironhide Steadfast Brawler character card.

    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
    And is there an actual meaning for the white and green cards... as it isn't specific/unique enough, other than a one-off purpose for the white cards (drawing two more cards in battle, but that only happens once), and basically just to have a fourth colour is the reason for the green cards.
    White cards are truly double edged. While they give you an extra boost at getting additional orange or blue cards in battle, they ARE otherwise useless cards that often burn through useful action and upgrade cards in your deck. You actually want to minimise the number of whites you have in your deck to have success in battle however some of the most useful and/or powerful cards are white. It gives players another balancing act to perform when forming a battle deck.

    Green cards serve a similar purpose to the whites except you are entitled to the card reclamation mechanic which primarily allows you get those enigmas back into your hand but also allows players to control their hand to a greater degree.


    Overall I have to agree that the official rules are very light on detail and often confusing if not outright conflicting. This is extremely frustrating for someone new to the game and just screams "half baked product". That said it's not a terrible thing though because the lack of prescription encourages the formation of 'house rules' and the gaming community is free to fill in the gaps and establish their own fair rules of play through experience.

  3. #23
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    It just goes to show how difficult it is for me to get into this game - I just received in the mail today, a second Combiners booster box (purchased for the Omega Supreme card, but was hoping to complete some more combiners)... it had 30 character cards, but only 8 were new (the first box had 25 of the 46 character cards, so I was expecting more than just 8 from the 21 I was missing). I ended up getting only one full combiner and it was the same combiner as the first box (Superion), along with most of the same combiner bots I got in the first box, including doubles of the combiner bots I got doubles of in the first box (what are the odds of ending up with eleven "common" Stunticon cards but still missing out on Offroad to complete just one set). I didn't even manage to get the "common" Dreadwind to complete the only 2-bot combiner (I now have three Darkwings).

    And that's not all, of the 18 non-combiner characters in series 2, I only ended up with 2 new ones... with the other 7 being duplicates (I got 9 of the 18 in the first box, so I expected at least 4 or 5 new ones in this box). To top it all off, I didn't get a Super Rare character either (the odds are one in every 79 packs, so I was probably really lucky to get one in the first box... but with this box having so many repeat cards, including six of the same uncommons and the same rare card, so a Super Rare would have made it a bit more worth it).

    Even the Battle Cards aren't spared from this bad luck. The first box I got, had all but 2 of the 81 cards... this second box was missing 7. At least between the two boxes, I ended up completing the set of series 2 battle cards... but it's the character cards that have more value to them, to me, and to others if I were to do any trading.
    The first box was sent to me for free from Wizards to review, so I can't be too upset if one box sucked, but it would have been better if the free box was the one that sucked, so that the one that I bought felt like it was worth the expense.



    Quote Originally Posted by Lint View Post
    Yes, you can transform KO'd characters. I think this is in the Rise of the Combiners FAQ and is definitely implied by the ability of the Ironhide Steadfast Brawler character card.

    Where might I find the RotC FAQ?
    The official site only has a pdf to the series 1 rules.
    (and that's the problem with relying on fans to work out the rules and post up their own FAQs, because they might then say things like your team member stays in the mode they were KOed in)



    White cards are truly double edged. While they give you an extra boost at getting additional orange or blue cards in battle, they ARE otherwise useless cards that often burn through useful action and upgrade cards in your deck. You actually want to minimise the number of whites you have in your deck to have success in battle however some of the most useful and/or powerful cards are white. It gives players another balancing act to perform when forming a battle deck.

    Green cards serve a similar purpose to the whites except you are entitled to the card reclamation mechanic which primarily allows you get those enigmas back into your hand but also allows players to control their hand to a greater degree.

    Overall I have to agree that the official rules are very light on detail and often confusing if not outright conflicting. This is extremely frustrating for someone new to the game and just screams "half baked product". That said it's not a terrible thing though because the lack of prescription encourages the formation of 'house rules' and the gaming community is free to fill in the gaps and establish their own fair rules of play through experience.

    Ah, I had guessed as much with the white cards... but the green cards appear to have an extra feature that I'm yet to find detailed officially in writing - apparently you can swap green cards that end up in your battle pile, with ones in your hand, so that it doesn't take as long to get your Enigma card into your hand.
    I'd definitely be creating certain "house rules" (like having the players agree on the star count before the game, so that we can have more than two of the series 2 non-combiner characters on the battlefield, or have some smaller support characters to a Combiner, or even have a full-on army attacking each other.
    But the concern I have at this time, is worrying about getting the official rules right, so that if I play with someone else, I don't do something that I shouldn't be doing, as it might look like cheating (or I miss out on a feature that I don't know about).


    Just going back to my previous post that talks about the series 2 Espionage card, I found that there already was a similar card in series 1, called Disruption, which allows you to see ALL of your opponent's held cards, and choose one upgrade to be scrapped - which could be more useful than Espionage, which has you stating a colour, and only seeing those ones, IF your opponent has any. Disruption is also an less rare than Espionage.



    Some more questions....


    - why do some of the battle cards in series 2 have a star on them (like 9, 78 and 80), and remind you that you can only have 25 stars. Are they upgrade cards that add to your star count, and prevent you from using them if you already have 25 stars with your characters?
    - card 79 (unleash potential) it says to choose a battle card from outside of the game (that has a star on it), does that mean a card that wasn't in your battle card deck at the beginning of the game? If you can have no limit to your battle card deck (in the pdf rules), why wouldn't it already be there. (obviously you wouldn't have too many cards in your deck, otherwise it might take too long for the special function cards like enigmas, to make their way to your hand)
    - Rapid Conversion (a card in both series) it says you can convert a character in your team - is that in addition to the one conversion you are already allowed to do each turn, so that you are able to convert two (which would be useful to get a combiner team ready to combine).

    - card 73 (Tackle) seems like it could be really useless, as it allows you to choose an untapped enemy card, but only if it has equal or less stars than the one you have chosen to attack with... but the number of stars on a character does not relate to how powerful (or rare) it is. Most of the time it seems random, particularly with the first series character cards having a lot less on average than the series 2 non-combiner cards. Has anyone here used the Tackle card, or see a use for it in their battle card deck?


    Since I didn't end up getting too many of the series 1 battle cards (I only have 40 of the 81), there are some elements that I am noticing in the second series cards that might not actually be new to the second series. But one thing I did think was new, is another bold-font action - Plan (in addition to Tough, Bold and Pierce). Plan looks to allow you to "plan ahead" with your battle deck, with some cards letting you place cards on the top of the deck that you want to play next, or have in your hand.
    That could be interesting, or useful.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
    - why do some of the battle cards in series 2 have a star on them (like 9, 78 and 80), and remind you that you can only have 25 stars. Are they upgrade cards that add to your star count, and prevent you from using them if you already have 25 stars with your characters?
    Discussed here mate, about half way down the page

    Essentially these cards make up part of your team. Vandalize where you can scrap all enemy Weapons, Upgrades or Utilities is particularly useful.

    The only downside is if you include one that leaves you with only 24 stars left to spread over your Character Cards, however if you had a team where their total was 23 or 24 Stars its perfect to add in.


    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
    It just goes to show how difficult it is for me to get into this game - I just received in the mail today, a second Combiners booster box (purchased for the Omega Supreme card, but was hoping to complete some more combiners)... it had 30 character cards, but only 8 were new (the first box had 25 of the 46 character cards, so I was expecting more than just 8 from the 21 I was missing). I ended up getting only one full combiner and it was the same combiner as the first box (Superion), along with most of the same combiner bots I got in the first box, including doubles of the combiner bots I got doubles of in the first box (what are the odds of ending up with eleven "common" Stunticon cards but still missing out on Offroad to complete just one set). I didn't even manage to get the "common" Dreadwind to complete the only 2-bot combiner (I now have three Darkwings).

    And that's not all, of the 18 non-combiner characters in series 2, I only ended up with 2 new ones... with the other 7 being duplicates (I got 9 of the 18 in the first box, so I expected at least 4 or 5 new ones in this box). To top it all off, I didn't get a Super Rare character either (the odds are one in every 79 packs, so I was probably really lucky to get one in the first box... but with this box having so many repeat cards, including six of the same uncommons and the same rare card, so a Super Rare would have made it a bit more worth it).
    Hence why its called a Trading Card Game

    When we get a few more members building up doubles, we really should get the trading going on Ozformers so we can fill in the gaps in each others teams, especially when it comes to the combiners

    So far the only doubles I have are Dead End and Mirage

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post

    Where might I find the RotC FAQ?
    I actually found it on their Transformers TCG facebook page, but now looks to be deleted content. I'll see if it has been cached or mirrored somewhere.

    Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post

    Some more questions....

    - why do some of the battle cards in series 2 have a star on them (like 9, 78 and 80), and remind you that you can only have 25 stars. Are they upgrade cards that add to your star count, and prevent you from using them if you already have 25 stars with your characters?
    - card 79 (unleash potential) it says to choose a battle card from outside of the game (that has a star on it), does that mean a card that wasn't in your battle card deck at the beginning of the game? If you can have no limit to your battle card deck (in the pdf rules), why wouldn't it already be there. (obviously you wouldn't have too many cards in your deck, otherwise it might take too long for the special function cards like enigmas, to make their way to your hand)
    - Rapid Conversion (a card in both series) it says you can convert a character in your team - is that in addition to the one conversion you are already allowed to do each turn, so that you are able to convert two (which would be useful to get a combiner team ready to combine).
    - card 73 (Tackle) seems like it could be really useless, as it allows you to choose an untapped enemy card, but only if it has equal or less stars than the one you have chosen to attack with... but the number of stars on a character does not relate to how powerful (or rare) it is. Most of the time it seems random, particularly with the first series character cards having a lot less on average than the series 2 non-combiner cards. Has anyone here used the Tackle card, or see a use for it in their battle card deck?
    • Star Cards are battle cards that are considered part of the 25 star limit of your deck (your deck being defined as Character Cards + Battle Cards). If you have a 25 star character team, that means you cannot have any of the starred battle cards in your battle deck. Star cards often have powerful abilities or have to be otherwise limited.
    • Unleash Potential allows you to drag star cards you own from outside your deck. Given the lack of reminder of star limits and the name of the card I interpret this as a 'rule breaking' card that permits you to have a deck that is over the 25 star limit.
    • Rapid Conversion - does not mention any limitations so you can transform any of your characters in addition to the 'free' transform of that turn. Basically you can transform 1 character from one mode and back within a turn to milk an ability if you so choose. This card is pretty much mandatory for Combiner decks considering they all need to be in bot mode for the combination.
    • Tackle - if there is an enemy character card who is a threat or has an annoying ability you can effectively knock it out of play for an entire round. Might be a good use of no-ability characters like Red Alert, Sergeant Kup or the high star value Novastar. I can see a good tackle making or breaking a game but have to admit it is extremely situational in value.

  6. #26
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    Spotted the Rotc boosters being sold at Kmart today. Same price as Wave 1 @ $7

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lint View Post
    Spotted the Rotc boosters being sold at Kmart today. Same price as Wave 1 @ $7
    Which Kmart?

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    That's great, I didn't think mainstream retailers cared any more. Especially as both Big W and Kmart have been burning off the starter sets are discounted prices.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Krayt View Post
    Which Kmart?
    Both Southland and Keysborough

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maruten View Post
    That's great, I didn't think mainstream retailers cared any more. Especially as both Big W and Kmart have been burning off the starter sets are discounted prices.
    I missed the Kmart 15bucks starter, and big w online has the first boosters at $5 and the rise of combiner boosters at $6.

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