Happy New Years Listeners! Traditionally, at the beginning of a new year people make a promise to do an act of self improvement or do something nice. Here at the Tactical Squad we are always trying to better ourselves as Conquest players, so each of us have decided to make a Conquest specific resolutions for the New Year. Alex: Be a less salty player, which involves losing games with dignity and being able to better appreciate an opponent’s deck and play. Jon: Start recording stats for all his Conquest games, as well as writing down his thoughts after each game. Liz: To make top 4 in Conquest at Nationals or Worlds. Mark: Diversify his warlord selection and the styles of decks that he builds. Travis: Produce more Conquest commentary videos on the Tactical Squad YouTube channel. So those are our resolutions. We’d like to hear what Conquest related New Years resolutions that you, our loyal listeners, have made for 2016. To encourage your self improvement a bit, everyone who submits their resolution will be entered into a draw for an alt art Straken or a full set of alt art Khorne Berserkers. You can submit your entry by either emailing us at thetacsquad@gmail.com or leaving a comment on this post before January 31, 2016. Hope your 2016 is getting off to a great start and we look forward to hearing from you!

FFG left us a nice holiday gift under the tree - some spoilers for the upcoming Boundless Hate War Pack!  So, as a belated holiday gift for all of you, we are happy to have the opportunity to pass these spoilers on to you. So don’t delay, rip off the wrapping paper and jump right in.

Front Line ‘Ard Boyz

This card is a decent four costs unit that provides a nice ability to the Ork side of the faction wheel. Comparing this against the Tau’s Fire Warrior Elite, for an extra resource this unit gains one extra ATK and an extra command icon, which is a decent gain. The ability allows Ork units with Brutal to avoid receiving a fatal blow for a bit longer, providing them an opportunity to get those stronger swings in. Throw in a Kustom Field Generator and this unit becomes a real pain for your opponent. Attachments such as Rune-Encrusted Armor and Hostile Environment Gear are also great options for this unit. For Orks, Chaos and AM the 4 cost unit slot is already pretty crowded, but being able to keep certain units alive through an extra opponent attack or for another round should not be overlooked.

Ramshackle Trukk

The Ramshackle Trukk is the newest Ork Elite unit. As an Elite unit it hits really hard with 7 ATK, however the low health of 3 is offset by the Goes Fasta! specialization. Most likely, regardless of whether you or your opponent has initiative, this unit is going to get its attack in before dying. Getting more than one battle out of this unit might be hard to do, since there is a good chance it will have taken some damage and will have dropped back to 3 health before it gets a chance to go back up to 7 health or even get back into a battle. Due to that, this card should be reserved more for decisive battles or closing out the game. One might consider using this instead of a Goff Nob or more interestingly if one can build a specialized vehicle deck that uses Dozer Blade. The 2 command icons are nice, but seems like a waste on this card.

Rok Bombardment

The Rok Bombardment uses the new mechanic where card effects are based on planet symbols, however in this case, the effect is only a bonus, the main effect is still valid on any planet no matter the symbols. Orks have many ways to make use of the Brutal mechanic and this card plays right into that as the effect boosts those Brutal units’ attack the next time they attack. The effect will be more valuable in units with higher health or if there are ways to keep certain units alive longer, like using the new Front Line ‘Ard Boys. The 2 shields are also always nice, however right now Orks are spoiled with 2 shield events, all of which are pretty good. Dakka, Dakka, Dakka! is most likely to be the card swapped out for this with both cards deal one damage to units. Rok Bombardment usage is more situational but doesn’t have the negative of exhausting your warlord. Overall, a very interesting card that might require some experimentation.

Overall, these are some great cards. They all provide some new and interesting mechanics to the Ork faction side of the wheel and I personally look forward to getting them into my decks. I, and the rest of the Tactical Squad, would like to thank Fantasy Flight Games for giving us the opportunity to share these spoilers with you.

This week on our Warhammer 40,000: Conquest podcast: We welcome Liz back, she fills us in on her Gencon experience. We quickly go over the FFG preview for the 4th warpack, What Lurks Below then jump straight into the core factions from the Great Devourer deluxe expansion. Finally, we end it off with a brand new contest. Update: The conclusion about subdual is that target card must be in play. Rules Reference Guide page 8 under “In Play and Out of Play”

The Tyranids will soon become a playable faction in Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, baring their unrelenting hunger down on planets within the Traxis sector. As we get closer to the release of The Great Devourer deluxe expansion Fantasy Flight Games has been previewing more cards from the set. We already know that this release will contain two Tyranid warlords and five synapse units. Of those five synapse units, we have seen full spoilers for two (Savage Warrior Prime and Gravid Tervigon) as well as an obscured card (Stalking Lictor) from the fan for the preview article for Ol’ One Eye. The Tactical Squad is happy to be able to spoil the fourth Synapse unit from this expansion.

Venomthrope Polluter

Compared to the two spoiled Synapse creatures, the Polluter doesn’t allow you to be as aggressive in fighting battles or to quickly overwhelm your opponents with swarms of Termagant tokens.

It does, however, allow you a certain amount of mobility in terms of getting certain units to where you need them for future battles, or moving a unit back to an earlier planet if you have to commit your warlord to a later planet. This is especially advantageous with units who have the Hive Mind specialization. Moving a unit with Hive Mind turn the tables in an important command struggle or give your units abilities which can change the tide of a battle. The Venomthrope Polluter will require a bit more finesse and planning ahead to get the best use of its ability, but I think a player who decides to put in the effort to think a few turns ahead may reap the reward and surprise their opponents. The Tactical Squad thanks Fantasy Flight Games for letting us share this Tyranid spoiler with the Warhammer 40,000: Conquest LCG community.