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Legend Of The Five Rings was also still being boxed at Origins time. They only had enough product to sell one set per person per day. The boosters were not yet ready and did not make it to Origins.
This product is pretty disappointing. The rules are laughable. Someone copied the rules from the original DiskWars, added some MoT stuff and then hand corrected it. The spells are just renamed basic edition DiskWars spells, and they aren't even renamed in some instances. Clarifications of basic DiskWars rules and abilities aren't present. Most of the disks are just copies of DiskWars disks with different art.
There are LARGE GAPING HOLES in this product. For example the rules talk about alignment and army creation, but Legend Of The Five Rings disks have no alignment, only clan. Army construction details that 75% of your army must be of the same clan to use the armies overall special ability, but then goes on to detail factions and army construction not clan. Several disks and items discuss modifications to a disks Chi. Nowhere in the rules is the word Chi mentioned.
The design came from the CCG product not the Clan War product so disks that you would imagine are unique aren't, its very confusing. Most character disks are not unique and most come several to the same flat. Imagine if you will Archamge Theowyll not being unique, and several copies of this disk on the same flat.
Items, while a novel idea, simply amount to bonus SA's attachable to any disk, and another marker that clutters the game. This edition only contains weapons items. The next edition will contain only armor and so forth in accordance to the CCG.
The flats are not numbered, there is no way to know how many flats or which ones they are. The flats are color coded though: Black occurs in every starter box, green is common, blue is uncommon.
There are 2 interesting features to this product. One is dueling, the other is the Faction SA's. Dueling allows even a Toughness 3 disk to wound a T 10 disk, irregardless of its other stats. The Faction SA's are listed on the appropriate staging area disk. It basically amounts to a SA that can be used to effect your entire army, if 75% of it is of the same clan. For example: the Phoenix clan can activate the Staging Area instead of a Spellcaster to cast a spell.
In my opinion the 2 new features of this game in no way make up for its lack of solidity. You need to be an experienced DiskWars player to filter through the rules to even play this game. This is the poorest product AEG has ever developed. Apparently AEG is already dedicated to bringing this product up to speed. It is possible, but will they do it before their next release?
I'm buying this product as roleplaying support. I will be using DiskWars rules, and modifying the game's unique status.