Cactus Game Design Message Boards
Redemption® Collectible Trading Card Game HQ => Deck Building & Design => Topic started by: Maus on September 01, 2009, 02:29:39 PM
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Hi All,
We're just starting to get into Redemption at our house. My boys are 10 and 8 and are big gamers like me. We play a lot of boardgames (Candamir, Starcraft, Agricola) but when the wife suggested finding an bible oriented alternative to Yugioh, I stumbled upon Redemption and it seems like it's going over pretty well. We have the E, F, G, and H starter decks and a few boosters, so nothing fancy yet.
Is there a list of what each brigade color refers to? Something like lime green = demons or red = Book of Acts, etc?
Is there any significance to the border color of the cards? Specific colors = specific books of the bible?
I'm sure as we really start to play we will have more questions and this community seems really friendly from my couple of days of lurking.
Finally, I'd like to try to make a deck with the Angel Wars cards to get the boys interested in the DVDs. I looked in the deck building area and did not see anything like that in there, so help there would be great.
Thanks,
Maus
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Hello and welcome,
This is a great game. The brigades are only now (within the last couple of sets) starting to shape up into brigade definitions. They are not related to books of the Bible more like classes and races. One exception: Blue seems to have Genesis heroes. Some generalities: Orange is definitely demons. Red is warrior class heroes. Purple is royalty. Silver is angels. Etc.
Angel Wars is a tough set to build a competitive deck with. It has been made easier with the new card "High Places" but most of the cards only help the Silver (Angel) brigade. Even then, there are not many...the lost souls are the most useful. I'm sorry to tell you that.
The card borders only matter with Ultra Rares and those are bright Gold along with all the promos. The rest of the card borders seem pretty random.
don't be afraid to ask questions....there are many knowledgeable people on the boards willing to help.
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The border colors have no significance. Ultra-rare and promo cards have a gold striped pattern, but otherwise they're determined by what someone decided looked best. Some cards even have different border colors within the same set, for some reason.
Brigade colors started out having very vague themes, like (good) green denoting "spiritual growth" and (evil) black signifying "death and destruction." In the last few sets, more specific themes have emerged. For instance, many good Genesis cards have been consolidated to Blue, while Babylonians are Crimson. You can see in your G & H decks that Israelites from the Exodus are in (good) Gold and Green, for instance, and Sadducees are in Black. If you'd like a fuller list, one can be provided.
Angel Wars was not a popular set among most Redemption players. The cards are lackluster for the most part, and the good brigades got very few new cards (except Silver, the brigade of angels, getting a junkload). Some have built Panic Demon/Obsidian Minion-centered decks, however, and the Covenants and Lost Souls aren't too rare to see used in average decks.
It's cool to have another board gamer around, by the way. A lot of the population here seems to prefer video games, but members like The Schaef and myself are more in your camp.
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Hey, it's great to hear that you're getting in to the game! It is a very fun game, and it is a great way to learn about the Bible. As to your questions:
There wasn't really a set theme for the brigade colors until the past few years. In the last few sets that have been released, the brigades are generally along these lines:
Good brigades:
Red--OT Warriors. There really isn't a specific NT theme for red yet.
Blue--Genesis heroes (Abraham, Jacob, children of Jacob, etc.)
Gold--Judges (OT) and Luke/John heroes
White--Musicians (OT) and NT Females
Green--Prophets
Silver--Angels
Purple--Royalty
Teal (you might not have seen Teal at all, since there are none in any of the starters)--Priests
Evil Brigades:
Crimson (looks like pink)--Babylonians
Pale Green (the "lime" green you were thinking of)--Assyrians, and now Magicians (since the newest set)
Gray--Syrians (OT), Pharisees and Romans (NT)
Black--Philistines (OT), Sadducees and Greeks (mostly NT)
Gold (sometimes called Yellow, to differentiate between the good Gold brigade)--Egyptians (OT) and Herod's (since the newest set)
Brown--Evil Israelites/Royalty, Persians
Orange--Demons
As I said, not all of the cards of each brigade line up with one of the brigade identifiers, but that is the direction being taken with the newer cards, and will likely be that way in the future.
The border color is not significant to card play at all. There are even some cards that have different border colors for the same card (this happened a lot in the Patriarchs expansion).
Keep the questions coming! FYI, if you have questions about how a card is played, etc. then the Ruling Questions forum is the best for that. People on here are usually very friendly and helpful, so don't hesitate to ask about anything related to the game.
As far as the Angel Wars cards go, a lot of them aren't very widely used in decks. Each set has its great cards (a few AW cards seen in many decks are the Romans 3:23 "Revealer Lost Soul", Michael, Chamber of Angels, and some of the covenants) but also some not-so-great ones. I would probably suggest using a mix of cards from all of the sets, as a lot of the sets have great cards to go with an Angel deck. You can certainly try to build decks with mostly Angel Wars cards however. A nice thing about this game is deck styles are very flexible.
I hope you and your boys have a great experience playing Redemption, and being members of this community.
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some general theme-ish sort of associations, kinda:
silver - angels
teal - priests
orange - demons
These in fact are universally true. Characters that are in these brigades can only be categorized in these ways. Others that were kind of worked in later as we went along:
white - OT musicians, NT Garden Tomb females, technically, Daniel and his buddies are in here too
red - OT David's Warriors
gold - OT Judges, NT Luke/John Heroes
green - prophets
blue - Genesis
purple - royalty, mostly OT
black - OT Philistines, NT Sadducees, also NT Greeks
gray - OT Syrians, NT Pharisees
crimson - OT Babylonians
gold - OT Egyptians, NT Herods
pale green - OT Assyrians, also magicians
brown - OT evil Israelites
These are pretty general, though, and they have only been really developed in the last four or five years. Most cards older than that have some correlation with those themes but they're not super-strong.
:edit: yeah, what he said.
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Hey! great to have you on the boards ;D Glad to see some more ppl playing :D
The boards are a great place to learn more about the game and keep up to date on whats going on 8)
I got into the game about 6 or 7 months ago and LOVE it ;D I hope you and your boys do to.
If you are looking to buy cards that you can't find any where else, check out the Market Place section.
Be Blessed,
Bap7
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Thank you both for your helpful responses!
That's a bummer about the Angel Wars sets, it would have been cool to have a "cartoon" deck for one of the boys to play with. I might still try to make one if we ever get enough cards to do so. I don't think we're going to be a competitive family by going to competitions and such, but you never know. Once we get enough cards through boosters, we'll try our hand at creating new decks.
The wife, who normally doesn't play games with us boys has agreed to play Redemption, so that's a plus. We probably will not dismantle the starter decks just so we have something balanced and immediately available if she wants to play.
If there were enough time in the day and energy in my body, the boys would love to play boardgames every night. My oldest, Harry, likes Tikal, Go and Agricola. My youngest, Liam, likes Nexus Ops, Battlelore, and Agricola. He doesn't do too bad, generally scoring in the 20s in Agricola.
Harry really started getting into Yugioh with the cartoons, but something a little more grounded would be better. Since I use games to sometimes discuss Christian world views, Redemption will make my job that much easier. Plus maybe I can pull out cards to help with their daily devotion (we're homeschoolers so we can get away with it :)).
Maus
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Another way to divide it up, and there's going to be some debate on this as well, since most brigades have at least a little of everything, is by their strengths and weaknesses.
Silver has great characters, not a lot of fantastic winning Enhancements. Some deck discard has been added. Take away fight-by-numbers, or the power trio of Michael, Strong Angel, Captain of the Host, and it's tougher to win with these guys than it might first appear. NT Warrior-Class angels are a fun theme, though, because you have two Heroes with access to the toughest Lost Souls, and there are ways to make them practically bulletproof (from discard, remove, capture, etc).
White - the NT females specialize in ignore. There are Enhancements to ignore pretty much every brigade individually, a few more powerful ignores, and two Covenants that work great with ignores. Musicians basically are about finding the best musical Enhancements and spamming them, so the cards they can use are very limited but their powers cover a wide range. the Daniel cards are pretty much all anti-Babylonian/crimson.
Red has big characters with big weapons and lots of banding, and a good handful of negates. For all those numbers, though, they surprisingly have very little fight-by-numbers capacity. Site access has been a problem for them in the past but new cards have at least given them a little power to fight back.
Gold - Judges have a lot of destruction, esp. in territory. NT Heroes have a lot of ways to go and get Lost Souls out of your deck, and lots of convert cards as well. I like to combine them with Lazarus, Soldier of God and Seeker of the Lost for a "Salvation Army" offense.
Green - prophets have okay character powers, but lots of great battle-winning Enhancements.
Teal - no females and only a couple New Testament Heroes, and no fight-by-numbers. But a lot of great abilities, mostly unstoppable battle-winners. Some people have also used some of the more obscure card combos to do a lot of speed drawing and such.
Blue - Genesis cards have a lot of banding, a lot of recursion, and great abilities on both characters and Enhancements. This is one of the strongest brigades around.
Purple - this was traditionally a small color but grew as we moved a lot of the kings from other brigades into purple. Purple's a little hard to describe because, like blue, it's kind of a catch-all brigade.
Black - Philistines have a lot of destruction cards, like gold, and a lot of negates, like red. Sadducees are mostly about finding ways to deny the Lost Soul, usually by sacrificing themselves.
Gray - Syrians are a capture-heavy theme. Pharisees are similar to Sadducees in that they look for sneaky ninja ways to stop an opponent, like messing with the cards in their hand.
Crimson - Babylonians do a lot of things well, mainly capture and Site lockout. Crimson also has several cards that blend well with orange (Seven Sons of Sceva, The Serpent, Leviathan).
Gold - Egyptians have a TON of deck discard, and some decent capture as well. Herods focus more on forced withdrawal. Both themes kind of blend over into each other.
Pale Green - Assyrians are the evil blue. They do everything well and they are super-powerful. Magicians are only just emerging but they do a lot of deck manipulation, card placement and orange-blending.
Brown - brown is the evil purple. For starters, brown and purple stomp on each other a lot. For another thing, brown is that catch-all brigade that kind of defies description. However, brown is one of the best Site lockout brigades around, arguably better even than crimson.
Orange - orange and silver hate each other the way brown and purple hate each other. Orange is weak in battle winners but strong in placed cards, and cards that are sent to/taken from bottom of deck. Orange and Pale with placed cards blend VERY well, especially now that High Places is available.
Again, these are general themes, and subject I'm sure to a lot of debate. Perhaps some people can submit general offensive ideas that have worked well for them in these colors.
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Your family has good taste - Nexus Ops and Agricola are two of my favorites as well. I would do board games nearly 24/7 if I had willing opponents/friends. Not sure if you've been there, but BoardGameGeek.com is a great resource for those sorts of things. Here's my profile. (http://boardgamegeek.com/user/TimMierz)
If all you want are decks playable against each other, you can definitely go for Angel Wars stuff, if that will be most fun for you guys. It probably will be underwhelming in a tournament setting, but you said you're probably not going to attend those anyways.
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Maus, if you check out our Board and Card Games section, you'll probably find I've started a good percentage of the threads there. I have turned into an avid boardgamer since finding the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society about three years ago. If you're ever in town for Origins, let me know so I can look for you.
Starcraft is one of the most fun games I have ever played. Agricola not so much, but it's not fair to Agricola to say that, because I've only played it once, and honestly the worker placement mechanic just doesn't shine for me. I was unimpressed with Caylus and Age of Empires III, Stone Age I like somewhat better, and the nice thing about Agricola is the different decks to add variety. But the whole worker placement thing... eh... I can't describe it.
my BGG profile (http://boardgamegeek.com/user/The%20Schaef)
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I'm on BGG as 'Maus'.
If the boys get more into it, I'll see if there are any local tourneys to go to and check it out. Right now it's just good to have something else to play that is Christian based with the family.
Re: Starcraft.
This game is a blast to play, much quicker than Twilight Imperium III and easier to understand also. The plastic makes the game for the boys. Liam almost wiped my out in the first 2 turns of one 1-on-1 game a month ago.
Re: Agricola
I like the worker placement games but Caylus didn't trip my trigger and Age of Empires III was okay. I find that Agricola is great for teaching planning and thinking ahead.
Maus
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The Schaef,
Thanks for the long post, that was really helpful in describing the different colors. Give me something to look forward to when we open up those elusive booster packs.
Maus
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This game is a blast to play, much quicker than Twilight Imperium III and easier to understand also. The plastic makes the game for the boys. Liam almost wiped my out in the first 2 turns of one 1-on-1 game a month ago.
Do you have the expansion yet? I liked the original well enough but the expansion really makes the game complete. I never play without it now.
I like the worker placement games but Caylus didn't trip my trigger and Age of Empires III was okay. I find that Agricola is great for teaching planning and thinking ahead.
It is for this reason that I have not written off Agricola without logging some more plays of the game. Plus, it doesn't take like 500 hours like AoE3 seems to take.
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Do you have the expansion yet? I liked the original well enough but the expansion really makes the game complete. I never play without it now.
I don't have the expansion, but when money becomes available, I'm tempted to get it. Well, that and a bunch of other expansions for Tide of Iron, Combat Commander, Battlelore, ...
Let's not forget Redemption boosters!
Maus
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You have good taste in Board Games from those I have played which yo have named. Unfortunately, since Timmierz moved from my area, board games are few and far between.
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Unfortunately, since Timmierz moved from your area, Redemption games are few and far between.
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For Timmierz at least. We really miss your wide variety of Board and other games.
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I wouldn't start with angel wars. I found that kings and apostles (apostles even more) are the best sets to give you lots of good cards to strengthen lots of different brigades.
A few suggestions:
Have each of you use different brigades. You can all share a big selection and then you each take what cards you need for each brigade.
Ask anything that you don't quite get, or when you just need suggestions for deck ideas. We're always willing to help, ask TOO MUCH. :)
Have fun!
Priests is a great set, but it mainly boosts teal and orange.... however it has a few very nice cards for all the other brigades... not a bad set, especially with cards like lampstand of the sanctuary, all the protection fortresses for the various brigades, and some nice artifacts that can work with any brigade you're using.
I wouldn't buy any more angel wars. Period. The only brigade it boosted for good, silver, wasn't a very good boost and I rarely use angel wars cards in my angel decks.
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I wouldn't buy any more angel wars. Period. The only brigade it boosted for good, silver, wasn't a very good boost and I rarely use angel wars cards in my angel decks.
For tournament play, yes, you're probably right, but that's not what he's looking for. He wants a couple decks that are balanced and fun against each other, not caring about the world at large. And for that, he can get whatever sets he wants, Angel Wars included. If that will make his sons happiest, it makes sense to get AW.
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Ah... true. However, I think that if he buys other packs he can make many brigades, instead of having 3 angel decks.
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We opened up our boosters from our gift packs and have split up the various colors between the 3 of us. I used the descriptions from earlier in the thread to let the kids know what kind of things are associated with each color. Now on to playing with the starters and starting to build our own decks!
Maus
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play a few games with the starter decks first.
that way all 3 of ya can get the idea on the game and read the rulebook if you haven't before custom building your own deck
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play a few games with the starter decks first.
that way all 3 of ya can get the idea on the game and read the rulebook if you haven't before custom building your own deck
+1 And its definatly a good idea to read and re-read the rulebook! ;D
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I will probably be posting a rules question thread really soon, the questions are starting to build!
Maus
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It's rough trying to learn the game from the rulebook. It's best to have someone who knows it walk you through it.
Or as the rulebook would say:
It's rough trying to learn the game from the rulebook. It's best to have someone who knows it walk you through it.
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A couple of suggestions.
1) Redemption Factory Boxed set. It is a large sum of money at once, but you get alot of cards that you can build a bunch of good decks with. Especially if you get the delux one. Check out this link........... http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=109 (http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=109)
2) If you buy a large amount of boosters at once, you could do a family booster draft party. Each person sits around the table and has 7 lost soul cards with no special ability on them. You each open a pack and select one card then pass your pack to the person beside you for them to pick a card. You each build a deck using the cards you chose then you play a multi player game with your decks. It is usually not the most powerful deck you could build using your entire collection, but it is fun and you can learn ways to play cards that you never thought you would use. It is also fun for the younger players to have just as good a chance to win as the older ones who usually catch onto the game faster.
I hope you guys have a blast and get into a good playgroup soon.
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if ur looking for lots of card Texp Packs r the way to go for reasons :
Cactus is pleased to announce Thesaurus ex Preteritus (Treasures from the Past) as the new expansion set for the Redemption® trading card game. The set consists of 60 new foiled game cards.
Each card pack (actually a thin box) will contain two (2) of the new Thesaurus cards and thirteen (13) cards from the Warriors, Prophets, Limited Edition, Apostles and Patriarchs sets. The approximate card mix will be:
2 Thesaurus foiled cards
4 to 5 Apostles (all rare/ultra rare)
4 to 5 Patriarchs (rare/ultra rare or uncommon)
1 Warriors (common, uncommon or rare/ultra rare)
3 Prophets and/or Limited Edition cards
Retail price for a card pack is $5.00.
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Hey Maus, you questions may have been answered by now, which is awesome this community works together to do so, but I just wanted to share this with everyone. A lot of of may have already been said; however, it does dig into the Word explain why the Redemption developers used the following colors. Praise God!
Blue is descriptive of Heavenly character.
Exodus 28:31 ‘And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue.’
Green is descriptive of spiritual life.
Psalm 52:8 ‘But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.’
Purple is descriptive of royalty.
Judges 8:26 ‘And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels’ necks.’
Red is descriptive of military might.
Nahum 2:3 ‘The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.’
Silver is descriptive of God’s word.
Psalms 12:6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.
Teal is descriptive of priests.
Exodus 28:17-21: And you shall put settings of stones in it, four rows of stones: The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald; this shall be the first row; 18the second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond; 19the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; 20and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings.
Teal is a greenish shade of blue, similar to turquoise. The priestly breastplate, worn by the high priest, contained 12 precious stones, one of which was turquoise. The turquoise stone was in the second of four rows.
White is descriptive of glory and majesty.
Revelation 20:11 ‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.’
Gold is the material of the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:18 ‘And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.’
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Black is descriptive of calamity and Hell.
Jude 13 ‘Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.’
Brown is descriptive of being scorched and rebellious (from the Hebrew word Chuwm; to be warm, i.e., by implication here to be sunburnt).
Revelation 16:8-9 ‘And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.’
Crimson is descriptive of persecution and sin.
Revelation 12:3 ‘And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.’
Isaiah 1:18 ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’
Gold is commonly used in making graven images in the worship of idols.
Ezekiel 16:17 ‘Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,’
Gray describes people that are neither hot, nor cold.
Revelation 3:15-16 ‘I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Orange is descriptive of the fire of hell.
Mark 9:47-48 ‘And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’
Revelation 20:10 ‘And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.’
Pale Green is descriptive of death.
Revelation 6:8 ‘And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.’
The KJV uses the word ‘pale’. The actual word used by John here was the Greek word Chloros or greenish from the Greek word chloe or green
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Dude I have to say that's cool! 8) How long did it take you to do that?
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I just found it on the forum. Copy and paste.