My husband and I had played the original Game of Thrones LCG extensively and although I welcome a new edition, he was a bit upset and felt that this wastes all the money we spent into buying cards for the first edition. Compared to the first edition, the mechanics seem slightly simpler although this game is by no means easy to pick up. Even having played the first edition, it took us two "demo" games to really get in the groove. The instructions give a step-by-step demo game with decks to use for this (it's a 2 person duel, not a melee). This was helpful although the decks given are quite small and it's easy to run out of cards.