Starting a Game

[xenomorpheous]

So, first off, hello! I just registered to this site after reading some of your awesome threads and posts. I used to play A/P CCG with my uncles back in the day, I'm 28 now though. So it has been a while. I was able to order and receive the three base starting decks just this last weekend and I am trying like hell to remember how to start playing the game. I already downloaded the link on this forum that contains the rules and all that. I just don't seem to remember how to set up the game for the races and then get going.
(Also the starters only came with the cards, no inserts, tokens, or dice)

I read through the rule deal that came in the download and it is the best one out there, albeit the only one out there it seems. With the Aliens deck are there any cards that start play? Like the queen and the hive and all that? Or do I need to draw the cards and then play them as I receive them? I guess I just don't know how to do the basic set up which is what is stopping me from just playing the game. Any help that might just go over the first turn of the game for each race would be super helpful.

Thank you!

[doctordolemite]

Welcome to the website. Always glad to have more people on the forum. As far as what cards to start with, avp had different scenarios that contained different cards that each started with. Contact was the official premiere scenario and countdown was the official resurrection scenario. For contact,aliens start with a queen, 3 warriors, at the breeding chamber, with 1 additional hived location. There were other official scenarios harpersprism/precedence made as well. There were also tournament scenarios. I'm on my tablet ATM but look around the site. The community uploaded all of the official scenarios somewhere on the site. When I get to my computer I can drop a link if you can't find it.
On a side note, if you need more cards; people on the forum do sell/trade. There's a link for that too.
Browse around, have fun, and once again, welcome.

[xenomorpheous]

Thank you, that is awesome. I just am used to a basic setup for card games or board games like in MTG. But yeah, that makes sense. I shall have to check that out. I just finished making the plugin for this game on LackeyCCG so I just need to include those options and scenarios then. Thank you.

[Axlotl]

Welcome to the site.

In practice, the scenarios are generally balanced similarly in regards to the core of what you start with.

Almost always like this:

4 Marines, 4 Garrison Packs, Barracks, some additional locations and items
4 Rogues, 4 Prohibited Weapons, varied starting locations, additional items
1 Predator (solo), Claws, Mask, bonus items if any, Predator Item location (which particular one varies), additional locations.
OR
2-3 Predators (pack) totaling some maximum honor total (~18), some amount of claws and masks and/or additional items, some sort of Predator Item location + more locations
Alien Queen, 3 Alien Warriors, often additional Alien characters, Breeding Chamber (Waste Tank for clones), more locations; usually Hived.

Everyone can run 1 Condition card of their choice.
Sometimes there are starting hands (Planetfall does this).
Starting combat pool totals vary, but generally favor Predator.
Hand size is generally 3 for aliens, 4 for humans, and 5 for predators, with some variance and conditional modifiers based on game state.
Occasionally you get other special modifiers at the start, like starting with damage counters.

Occasionally some scenarios ditch this general template to do something quite different, like the Fallout scenario.

[lena01]

At the start of a Magic game, each player shuffles their deck so that the cards are in a random order. Each player may then shuffle or cut his or her opponents’ decks. The players’ decks then become their libraries.

After the decks have been shuffled, the players determine which one of them will choose who takes the first turn. In the first game of a match, the players may use any mutually agreeable method (flipping a coin, rolling dice, etc.) to do so. In a match of several games, the loser of the previous game chooses who takes the first turn. The player chosen to take the first turn is the starting player. The game’s default turn order begins with the starting player and proceeds clockwise.

Each player begins the game with a starting life total of 20. Some variant games have different starting life totals.

Each player draws a number of cards equal to his or her hand size, which is normally seven. A player who is dissatisfied with his or her initial hand may take a mulligan. First, the starting player declares whether or not he or she will take a mulligan. Each player whose hand contains fewer cards than their starting hand size may look at the top card of his or her library. If a player does, that player may put that card on the bottom of his or her library.