The Tactical Squad

After some production delays, The Tactical Squad is pleased to finally present video coverage of the 2015 Canadian Nationals for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest that took place on September 4, 2015 at Fan Expo in Toronto. Liz and Travis provide the commentary of the first round match-up between Michel playing Eldorath Starbane and Norm playing Zarathur, High Sorcerer. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing further videos from all rounds and the top 8. Please let us know what you think. We are still learning, on both the production and the commentary side, so any suggestions on how we can do it better are welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkGRHBGb4G8

On our podcast Liz “Swamp Thing” Malette, Jon “the Crypt Keeper” Yeo, Travis “the Executioner” Provick and Alex “the Umbral Preacher” Cybulski preview the freshly spoiled Tau warlord. We also discuss our hopes and dreams for the planetfall cycle and our team discusses damage resolution effects so you can better predict what will happen on the battlefield!

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Rotation 2 - Sept 29th to Oct 13th

Two more weeks have passed and my experiences with three new warlords has been interesting, to say the least. This rotation I played Old Zogwort for the first time, revisited Commander Shadowsun, and started playing “The Swarmlord” - a deck I will continue playing into the next rotation. I played Zogwort eight times, Shadowsun five times and Swarmlord four times for a total of 17 games. Eight of those games were against “Old One Eye”, who seems to be quite popular in my local meta at the moment.

Old Zogwort

[table width=“250px”] Army (31)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x, Crushface 3x, Enraged Ork 3x, Evil Sunz Warbiker 2x, Goff Boyz 3x, Iron Guard Recruits 3x, Ratling Deadeye 2x, Rugged Killa Kans 3x, Shoota Mob 3x, Snakebite Thug 3x, Tallarn Raiders 4x, Zogwort’s Runtherders [/table] [table width=“250px”] Attachment (1)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x, Weirdboy Stikk [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Event (13)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x, Battle Cry 2x, Dakka Dakka Dakka! 2x, Launch Da Snots 2x, Squig Bombin 2x, Squiggify 3x, Suppressive Fire [/table] [table width=“250px”] Support (5)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x, Catachan Outpost 2x, Staging Ground 1x, Zogwort’s Hovel [/table]

Zogwort is a warlord I have always been generally down on. Not long ago, while listening to The Hive Tyrant’s “State of the Meta” review with Sam Mann, they revealed Old Zogwort has an adjusted win rate that ranks him fifth among the warlords that had been released through the end of the Warlord cycle. This came as a surprise to me so I decide that there was something I was missing and that I needed to look deeper into it. After playing a few games with him, I believe the statistics. While he still is not quite tier 1 - whatever that actually means - he is most much more solid than I had originally given credit for. One of the main strengths of the Ork faction is the powerful but still cost effective combat presence of their units. When paired with Astra Militarum you are able to build a very strong command presence and have every unit be combat ready. Borrowing Staging Ground, Catachan Outpost, and Suppressive Fire allows you to have a solid base of combat tricks, particularly when paired with the cards already available in faction. Zogwort’s ability to fight long protracted battles and continually produce more Snotlings tokens means that he is a formidable bully if you are able to keep him in the fight. To help protect Zogwort I included a couple copies of each of the double shield cards available. I found that Dakka Dakka Dakka! was used almost exclusively as a shield card and never as an effect. Because of the large number of units in the deck, especially lower health ones, and the importance Zogwort himself often plays in the command struggle the card doesn’t feel like it fits. I found that the deck was able to play both rush and long game strategies proficiently depending on the planet flop. I also realized that to take advantage of the full power of Launch Da Snots, you can trigger Zogwort’s Reaction to create an additional Snotling before triggering the reaction on the event. This allows clever warlords squeeze that extra bit of punch out of the attack. I think I will be revisiting Zogwort in the future. When I do I will be swapping out the copies of Dakka, Dakka, Dakka! for one copy of Squiggify and Battle Cry each. Or potentially newer double shield cards that may be released for Orks in Planetfall. I would also like to find some space for a couple copies of Promotion, though I’m not sure what I would take out. I was very pleasantly surprised by Zogwort and would definitely encourage others to try him.

Commander Shadowsun

[table width=“250px”] Army (31)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x, Bork’an Recruits 3x, Earth Caste Technician 2x, Fireblade Kais’Vre 3x, Gun Drones 2x, Pathfinder Shi Or’es 3x, Recon Drone 2x, Rogue Trader 4x, Shadowsun’s Stealth Cadre 3x, Tactical Squad Cardinis 2x, Vash’ya Trailblazer 3x, Vior’la Marksman 2x, Void Pirate [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Attachment (7)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x, Command-link Drone 2x, Heavy Marker Drone 2x, Ion Rifle 2x, Repulsor Impact Field [/table] [table width=“250px”] Event (8)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x, Deception 2x, Even the Odds 2x, For the Tau’va 2x, Squadron Redeployment [/table] [table width=“250px”] Support (5)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x, Ambush Platform 1x, Communications Relay 2x, Repair Bay [/table]

Commander Shadowsun is a warlord I’ve played a lot in the past and who has grown a reasonable amount over the first cycle of the game. In particular, both cards Tau received in The Great Devourer were very big additions to her arsenal. Unfortunately, I don’t know if either Pathfinder Shi Or’es or Repair Bay actually have given Shadowsun the boost she needs to become a more consistent threat. Looking forward I think an avenue of potential exploration is pairing her more heavily with army units from the Space Marine faction. Tactical Squad Cardinis, with an attached copy of Gun Drones can prove to be a formidable threat. And Repulsor Impact Field can be a particular pain when attached to either Blood Angels Veterans or Firedrake Terminators. This also opens up the possibility of using cards like Crushing Blow to add even more hitting power to your deck. I had already begun thinking more in this direction during this rotation and the inclusion of Cardinis started to pay dividends almost immediately. Ultimately I didn’t get as many games in with Shadowsun as I would have liked and currently I’m torn between continuing to experiment and just giving up on her all together. Currently I think I will put her aside and see if she gets any help in the new couple War Packs. Hopefully I’ll feel inspired to revisit her down the road.

Swarmlord

[table width=“250px”] Synapse (1)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x Stalking Lictor [/table] [table width=“250px”] Army (29)[attr colspan=“2”] 4x Brood Warriors 2x Hunting Gargoyle 2x Ravenous Haruspex 3x Ripper Swarm 3x Scything Hormagaunts 2x Shrieking Harpy 3x Strangler Brood 3x Termagant Sentry 3x Toxic Venomthrope 2x Tyranid Warrior 2x Volatile Pyrovore [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Attachment (3)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x Bone Sabres 2x Promotion [/table] [table width=“250px”] Event (15)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x Clogged with Corpses 2x Consumption 2x Dark Cunning 2x Indescribable Horror 2x No Mercy 2x Spawn Termagants 3x Spore Burst [/table] [table width=“250px”] Support (3)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x Leviathan Hive Ship 2x Spore Chimney [/table]

Finally, I started playing with “The Swarmlord”. I did not get many games under my belt, so I’ll keep this brief. I began by experimenting with how the Venomthrope Polluter worked as the synapse creature for the Swarmlord but I found, at least to start, that was a very confusing and seeminged inefficient. Because of this I decided to switch to the Stalking Lictor. When paired with Brood Warriors and Toxic Venomthrope, the deck felt like it had a very threatening early command game. So far I’ve found I’ve enjoyed the deck quite a bit and I will continue to play and tweak it for at least a few more weeks.   I’m quite happy with the number of games I was able to log over the two weeks of this rotation. A lot of the players in my meta are currently quite enthusiastic about Old One Eye, particularly paired with the Savage Warrior Prime, so almost half of the games I played ended up being against it. Moving on to my next rotation I will be building Baharroth and Torquemada Coteaz, and continuing with “The Swarmlord”, so look out for some final thoughts about those decks in a few weeks. Until Next time! Thanks for reading.

[table width=“208px”] Zogwort[attr colspan=“2”] Win v Old One Eye (Planet 5) Loss v Old One Eye (Planet 5) Win v Eldorath (Planet 5) Loss v Old One Eye (Planet 6) Win v Nazdeg (Planet 5) Win v Old One Eye (Planet 4) Win v Old One Eye (Planet 5) Loss v Ku’gath (Planet 6) [/table]

[table width=“208px”] Shadowsun[attr colspan=“2”] Loss v Old One Eye (Planet 5) Loss v Aun’shi (Planet 3) Loss v Ku’gath (Planet 4) Loss v Swarmlord (Planet 6) Win v Old One Eye (Planet 5) [/table]

[table width=“208px”] Swarmlord[attr colspan=“2”] Loss v Eldorath (Planet 3) Win v Aun’shi (Planet 5) Loss v Ku’gath (Planet 3) Win v Old One Eye (Planet 4) [/table]

Jon! Liz! Alex! Three squad members enter! One squad member leaves! We talk about prizes for Conquest Worlds & the 2016 Store Championships! Then the Tactical Squad covers timing & targeting rules!

After playing in nationals at Gencon this past summer I spent a few weeks taking a break from playing conquest. During that time I caught up on a bulk of conquest podcasts and spent a lot of time thinking about results at nationals and the possible shape of the meta to come. I realized that I have spent nowhere near enough time playing as many of the warlords in this game. I resolved to work through the list and wrote down a schedule of what warlords I will play when. The War Journals blog series will serve as an open space for me to talk about this exploration, my findings, and really anything else I find to be relevant to the process of playing with the full breadth of different deck options available to this game.

Rotation 1 - Sept 17th to Sept 26th

To start things out I decided to build Aun’shi, a warlord I hadn’t managed to really touch yet, and Urien, a warlord I had played a little bit but was eager to try more. I played 13 games total, 9 with Aun’shi and 4 with Urien.

Aun’shi

[table width=“250px”] Army (32)[attr colspan=“2”] 3x,Aun’ui Prelate 3x,Bork’an Recruits 2x,Carnivore Pack 3x,Earth Caste Technician 4x,Ethereal Envoy 3x,Experimental Devilfish 2x,Fireblade Kais’Vre 3x,Gun Drones 3x,Recon Drone 3x,Vash’ya Trailblazer 3x,Vior’la Marksman [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Attachment (4)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Honor Blade 3x,Ion Rifle [/table] [table width=“250px”] Event (11)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x,Deception 2x,Ethereal Wisdom 2x,Exterminatus 2x,Even the Odds 3x,Kauyon Strike [/table] [table width=“250px”] Support (4)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Aun’shi’s Sanctum 3x,Ksi’m’yen Orbital City [/table]

Aun’shi was an exciting prospect to explore. When he first came out Alex, Jon, and a number of other local community members all jumped on board to try him out so I avoided hopping on the bandwagon and blanketing the meta with Ethereals. As a result I’ve only played a couple games with him up until this point. His deck has evolved a reasonable amount since Gift of the Ethereals was released. With the addition of Ksi’m’yen Orbital City he has much more staying power and a couple more tricks under his belt. Starting out I found him quite brain busting. Having to plan out an entire combat phase ahead of time proved to be very difficult and slowed down my play substantially. Successfully assassinating the enemy warlord was much harder than I expected, and ultimately ended up serving as a fall back plan if I was losing control of the game in the first half. I also found that the results of a game largely depended on my ability to play out an Orbital City in the early turns. If I wasn’t able to get the tools I needed I would fall flat very quickly. In several of my games the copies of Earth Caste Technician I played failed to tutor any drones or attachments and then put an Orbital City on the bottom of the deck. I don’t think I won any of those games but regardless it was dismaying. For deck includes I really liked the power of Experimental Devilfish and Carnivore Pack. I felt both proved to have excellent cost to effect ratios. The Devilfish constantly arriving from HQ with Armorbane ready to attack and adding to the command struggle was a tremendous benefit. The Kroot are also a hard hitting unit with an effective cost of zero. If they die in the middle of combat they help finance the deployment of an Aun’ui Prelate or other effects like Even the Odds and Kau’yon Strike. I also tried  running For the Tau’va in an iteration of the deck but realized that I rarely had enough attachments in play to benefit from its use. All told I learned a lot from my games played. I think that, even though skilled player can get a very large amount of power out of this deck, because of the nature of the Ethereals there will be games where you won’t be able to win no matter how well you play. Realizing now the weaknesses of Aun’shi I find him far less intimidating to play against.

Urien

[table width=“250px”] Army (30)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x,Baleful Mandrake 3x,Bloodied Reavers 3x,Chaos Fanatics 3x,Incubus Warrior 2x,Khorne Berzerker 3x,Klaivex Warleader 3x,Rogue Trader 3x,Sslyth Mercenary 3x,Syren Zythlex 2x,Twisted Wracks 3x,Void Pirate [/table] [table width=“250px”] Attachment (3)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Ichor Gauntlet 2x,Promotion [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Event (15)[attr colspan=“2”] 3x,Power from Pain 4x,Rakarth’s Experimentations 3x,Searing Brand 2x,Soul Seizure 3x,Visions of Agony [/table][table width=“250px”] Support (3)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x,Crucible of Malediction 1x,Urien’s Oubliette [/table]

The other deck I played for this rotation was a Urien Rakarth deck. Urien is a warlord I had played previously so I decided to try playing him with Chaos and trying a few new cards. Pairing with Chaos provided marginally more of a command presence but ultimately seemed an uneven trade to lose the combat ability of a couple Warlock Destructor. I also found that while Crucible of Malediction created an interesting degree of control it didn’t really impact the game enough to be worth the resources and deck slots. I didn’t get to play many games as Urien but I think that unfortunately he still just doesn’t have the cards required for consistent success. With a few more key cheap tortures this deck could potentially sing and I will revisit and keep tweaking the deck later on.   In the end I didn’t get quite as many games as I would have liked with these decks but I think it accomplishing my goal of expanding my horizons a bit. Next on the docket I have Shadowsun, Zogwort, and Swarmlord so look forward to my reports on these decks in the near future.

[table width=“250px”] Aun’shi[attr colspan=“2”] Loss v Coteaz (Kill 6) Win v Zogwort (Kill 5) Win v Swarmlord (Kill 7) Loss v Kith (Planet 4) Win v Straken (Planet 6) Win v Nazdreg (Kill 7) Loss v Straken (Planet 7) Win v Zarathur (Planet 3) Loss v Ragnar (Planet 4)[/table]

[table width=“250px”] Urien[attr colspan=“2”] Loss v Ku’gath (Planet 5) Win v Coteaz (Planet 5) Loss v Ku’gath (Kill 7) Loss v (Planet 3)[/table]

In the first Warhammer 40,000: Conquest War Pack re-review I mentioned one of the main draws of the Living Card Game format is the slowly growing card pool that is expanding with new releases introduced at regular interviews. I’m going to continue the re-evaluation of the cards we’ve seen so far. After having reviewed the card in the game’s first War Pack, The Howl of Blackmane, it only makes sense to continue on with the second set of cards released. Today I’m going to look at the second War Pack, The Scourge.

Chaos

We start things off with Ku’gath Plaguefather and his signature squad. The arrival of this plague infested warlord opened up a different play style that focuses on attrition and survival opposed to the fragile aggro game that Chaos had previously been playing. His ability to move damage from himself not only meant he can survive longer than almost any other warlord in the game, but also that he can pick off select units in combat. It’s noteworthy that his ability doesn’t have to target the unit he is attacking, and that the damage moved isn’t assigned, and as a result cannot be shielded. He was very exciting at first but may have suffered from what could be called “little brother syndrome”. After his introduction Ku’gath didn’t see much widespread play. The general opinion was that Zarathur, High Sorcerer was the better choice. Ku’gath is beginning to see a resurgence, showing up at National Championships around the world and appearing in some very creative new deck builds. (If you are curious, go look for the most recent version of Sam Mann’s “Dirty Baker’s Dozen” decklist.)

The tools at Ku’gath’s disposal require finesse, but can be very powerful. First we get four copies of Ku’gath’s Nurglings as his signature army unit. This army provides a double edged blade giving both interesting control but the possiiblity to severely hamper your own game. Thankfully, due to Ku’gath’s ability to move damage, this ability will often play toward your long term game of attrition. But once Ku’gath becomes bloodied they can be a tremendous liability. Playing them out early can provide a degree of control over an opponent with lots of mobile units, such as Tau or Eldar, but often times holding them until a key battle can help you break an opponent’s swarm of units coming to battle from HQ and thin out their total forces. Next in the signature squad we received Vile Laboratory. This signature support combos well with the Nurglings, allowing you to force your opponent into triggering their effect. Its greatest uses though are likely the ability to control the board, allowing you to force command units to be moved or combat units to leave the first planet. Quite possible the MVP of the signature squad, and a probably contender for best signature attachment, Ku’gath’s squad includes one copy of The Plaguefather’s Banner. This attachment instantly turns Ku’gath into a beast and allows him to survive and compete in the long term attrition game even after he is bloodied, if your opponent can even get him there in the first place. If you think that your opponent has ways of causing you to discard this card from your hand you should strongly consider playing it at your first opportunity, otherwise consider waiting until as late in the deploy phase as possible to put it out to help increase its impact on the game.

Finally we round out the signature squad with two copies of the signature event, Fetid Haze. This event further Chaos’ massive damage game and carries the same costly price tag as events like Warpstorm. While the amount of damage dealt may be less than Warpstorm, Fetid Haze has the advantage of healing your warlord. When you play this event make sure you’re cognizant of the fact it can only damage army units, this means that warlords, tokens and now synapse units will not be affected by the casrd. Any extra damage that can’t be assigned to enemy army units just disappears which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since its still healing Ku’gath. Regardless, make sure you are paying attention when you play this, a Nullify or even some unexpected damage could mean that Ku’gath ends up bloodied if you mistime your Fetid Haze play. All told, this signature squad has excellent synergy internally and also some reasonable good synergy with the Chaos faction as a whole. I think the fact that he has seemed to be outshone by Zarathur has really been his main failing so far. An enterprising playing who works on their deck and get familiar with the play style of Ku’gath could find themselves being richly rewarded by his ability to play a very different style of game than any other warlord we have seen so far. I need to thank Victor, a player in my local meta, to reopening my eyes to Ku’gath’s real strengths.

Space Marines

This pack didn’t see much exciting for Space Marines, giving the faction the Morkai Rune Priest and the Fenrisian Wolf. Both of these cards provide some interesting possibilities but unfortunately seem to be over costed for what they provide. If you do bite the bullet though and dish out the resources Fenrisian Wolf provides a very interesting counter to a wide variety of abilities such as flying and Honored Librarian, in addition to allowing you to get a jump on damage in the combat phase.

Astra Militarum

For AM we saw a variety of what could be seen as utilitarian but not overly exciting cards. First they get the Iron Guard Recruits. This army unit caused a lot of debate over whether it should replace the Sanctioned Psyker in decks when the Squad first reviewed it. The answer to the debate though is that it shouldn’t because they go in together! The Iron Guard Recruits are such a solid command unit that they add to the over all ability for Astra Militarum and its allying factions to compete in the command game, teamed up with the Psyker it helps build a formidable command presence. This is definitely a staple card for any deck that can take it. The other card the came out in the pack worth noting is the Inquisitorial Fortress. Though this card is more often then not a telegraphed presence on the table top it provides AM with a strong control piece that can be used in a large number of circumstances. Its definitely a strong consideration for inclusion in any deck that includes the Enginseer Augur and is noteworthy for being one of the few effects in the game to date that can pre-empt the effect of the Gleeful Plague Beast by routing it in the command phase. Originally I was not a huge fan of this card but now I’m really considering the ways I can put this to use in my decks. Militarum also received the attachment Dozer Blade. While cheap is good and it has a decent effect for its cost, there aren’t enough prominent Vehicle units in the game so far to really warrant its inclusion.

Orks

Next, our fungal green friends got what seemed to be a very solid trio of cards. Attack Squig Herd provides an excellent staple unit for the cost, giving great value in Nazdreg and providing, as Alex put it so eloquently, a “Glorious damage sponge”. This unit hasn’t seen as much play in the game as I think it deserves and is maybe a card that some ork players are just missing out on.

Dakka Dakka Dakka!, while very, very exciting at first is probably more situational than it originally seemed. While the ability is very powerful against swarms and many command units, and even helps boost some of your own command units and all or your brutal units, exhausting your warlord in the deploy phase has shown to be a tremendous cost. Ultimately because this card has two shield icons it proves to be a solid inclusion, but it is unfortunately the downside means that it isn’t effective as an event too often. Finally Orks received what might be their most important card to date, the Kustom Field Generator. This card provides what seems to be an almost necessary ability for Nazdreg decks and really just the faction in general. Due to the way indirect damage works this card can result in a number of defensive tricks. You can use it to assign damage to multiple units, allowing for multiple shield cards to be played against what was originally one big attack. You can make excess damage disappear if the indirect damage created is beyond the amount of health you have remaining at that planet among your ork units. Finally in the most basic sense you can just use it to push your Brutal units to the optimal point before attacking. You need to be aware though when play against Zarathur that it will cause extra damage to be added again, and that against Armorbane units it won’t allow you to use shields.

Dark Eldar

In this pack the torturous denizens of Cammoragh received the accursed Klaivex Warleader and the game called Conquest changed forever (or until rotation or a restricted list is introduced). This card is tremendously powerful, providing one of the few pure removal effects from the game. And Klaivex is an effective combat unit to boot. This card is an auto-include in most Dark Eldar decks and its something you should should be aware of whenever your Dark Eldar opponent has four resources in combat. Dark Eldar also received Soul Seizure in this pack. A very expensive event, Soul Seizure is really only playable in Urien Rakarth decks. When utilized by Urien this card provides a potentially game changing ability depending on what your opponents deck make-up looks like. It’s important to note that the unit put into play with this ability stays under you control until it dies and is then returned to its owner’s discard, meaning it could be a tremendous boost to your board position. Fortunately for everyone else Bladed Lotus Rifle also came in this pack, evening out the power curve of what Dark Eldar received by being almost irrelevant to the game. Currently it has a few interesting targets, but unfortunately due to Kabalites being small and there not being much variety in the trait it really isn’t worth looking at yet.

Eldar

The Eldar received three cards in this pack, but only one card is worth mentioning, Death From Above. This card plays a role in building towards a strong economic mobile unit game in Baharroth but without his signature units or his general deck style is maybe not worth including in many decks at the moment. The other cards Black Guardians and Dome of Crystal Seers don’t really provide anything of not to Eldar or their allies.

Tau

Our scions of the Greater Good also received three cards in this pack. The first card, Bork’an Recruits, provides a strong combat unit to the Tau and its allies. As a two cost warlord groupie it proves to be an excellent unit for its cost, and can be very dangerous played in any of the warlords that have access to the card. Next, Kau’yon Strike comes as a lynch pin for the Ethereal game plan for Aun’shi. Its two shield icons, low cost, and its very powerful ability means it an almost definite 3-of in any of his decks, though because of its trait specific nature it will likely not see play often in many other decks. This is a definite card to be wary of any time you are playing against the blue menace. The pack ends with a fizzle with the almost irrelevant Blacksun Filter. At this point this card does not provide much utility and is hard to rationalize for the deck slot. Accompanying this with some other Tau cards we’ve seen may provide for an alternate economic engine, I’m not sure it really stands up in the long run.   All told The Scourge provides some really excellent staple cards to the long term health of this game. It is a definite contender for top pack in the cycle, though it does maybe suffer from some strange and complicated rules interactions from the cards it provides. I would strongly consider this as a good buy for any player interested in playing Orks, Dark Eldar, or Chaos.

Pack Rating

[table width=“250” th=“0”] Space Marine,2/5 Astra Militarum,2/6 Ork,4/5 Chaos,* Dark Eldar,2/5 Eldar,1.5/7 Tau,2/7 [/table] ratings based on power cards out of the faction and ally cards received in the pack * = signature squad

In the latest episode of The Tactical Squad podcast, Liz and Alex are joined by Mark and Travis for a four person cast. We discuss Alex’s second place finish at Canadian Nationals, the recently announced fifth War Pack in the Planetfall cycle, Wrath of the Crusaders, and dive into a detailed analysis of the new Tyranid cards released in The Great Devourer. We also announced a new contest. We are starting The Tactical Squad deck club. Every month we will be selecting a different warlord and challenging listeners to come up with the own decks for that warlord. We encourage you to try those decks out in your local scene and then submit your best decks in the comments on this post - with your thoughts on how they play - for a chance to win a Warhammer 40,000: Conquest promotion card from previous Organized Play events. For our inaugural month, we are going big and asking listeners to contribute decks for either of the two new Tyranid warlords from The Great Devourer. After Worlds in early November we will be going through the list of submitted decks and selecting one submitter for each warlord to receive a copy of the promotional Fireblade Kais’Vre, which was given out for competitors at national events this year. We will also discuss some of our favourites on the podcast.

Two weeks ago the 2015 Canadian National Championship for Warhammer 40:000: Conquest took place in Toronto at Fan Expo Canada. We had 21 players sign-up for a full day of Conquest. Two players had byes from regionals events so they went straight through to round 2. There were plenty of temptations on the convention floor, but our entrants were there to conquer the Traxis Sector. While Fan Expo ended up being a terrific venue for the tournament, the $50 entry fee to the con on Friday had a definite impact on the numbers for the event. I personally know a number of talented players that didn’t play simply because of the cost. We’ve had twenty people show up for local Toronto events, so with travelling players I believe we could have had at least double the turnout had arrangements been better. But you’re here to read about tournament results. Let’s get to it …

Faction Breakdown

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  [table width=“250” th=“0”] 7,[whc mode=“short”]Packmaster Kith[/whc] 3,[whc mode=“short”]Captain Cato Sicarius[/whc] 3,[whc mode=“short”]Eldorath Starbane[/whc] 2,[whc mode=“short”]Aun’shi[/whc] 2,[whc mode=“short”]Ku’Gath Plaguefather[/whc] 2,[whc mode=“short”]Nazdreg[/whc] 1,[whc mode=“short”]Torquemada Coteaz[/whc] 1,[whc mode=“short”]Zarathur\, High Sorcerer[/whc] [/table] Generally we don’t see a lot of Kith in Toronto, but she made up fully a third of the field at Nationals. Cato and Eldorath are also no strangers to high level Conquest competition. But the story of the day was all about Kith. The interesting part was that very few players - most were from Toronto or Montreal - had a lot of experience with the Kith mirror match, so how well players could make the necessary adjustments there factored heavily into their results. Top 8 [table width=“350” th=“0”] 1,Stephen Kerr,Cato 2,John Gobeil,Eldorath 3,Travis Provick,Kith 4,Michel Corvino,Eldorath 5,Julien Vasquez,Kith 6,Colin Marshal,Kith 7,Alex Cybulski,Kith 8,Carl Dupuis,Cato [/table]

Congratulations to Julien Vasquez, Canada’s National Warhammer 40,000: Conquest Champion for 2015! We asked Julien to share some thoughts on his victory:

[whc mode=“short”]Packmaster Kith[/whc] made up one third of the field at Canadian Nationals. Why do you choose her?

I’ve been playing Kith since Store Championship season, and I’ve yet to find a better deck then her. She fits my style of tempo control. The choking elements also greatly help and she has access to the two best cards in the game right now: Archon’s Terror and Klaivex Warleader. The fact that her Khymera allow you to rush and win planets, she’s just a no-brainer.

Any matchups (warlords or players) that you were nervous about going in?

Nervous? No. I knew my good and bad matchups through and through. I had a lack of playtesting of the mirror match since there’s only one other player in the Montreal meta that plays Kith, and he’s not part of my core group.

With your deck, what were you looking for in your opening hand?

As many low cost high command units as possible. I guess Archon’s Palace and Khymera Den are good too.

What was your favourite moment of the day?

Winning? Meeting Eric Lang was rad.

Eric Lang presents Julien Vasquez the Warhammer 40:000: Conquest Canadian Champion tropy

What was your toughest matchup of the day?

Toughest to me means I had a shot of winning and lost. That would be round 5 versus Michel Corvino playing Eldorath Starbane. Long drawn out game where he just drew better.

What was your biggest mistake of the day?

Semifinals against Stephen when he dropped in a Tactical Squad Cardinis into play for a strike. I couldn’t see any play around getting AOE’d, but then realized a minute later I could have moved away my two Khymera with the Khymera Den. That bothered me.

How were you feeling heading into the elimination round?

If I could beat Michel in Top 8 after losing to him in round 5, I felt I had a good shot. To be fair, I felt in Top 16 at GenCon that after going 6-1 that I could win the whole thing, but I just drew so poorly in that match. I didn’t feel that way with 3-2 at this event.

It was a long day, between 5 rounds of swiss and 3 rounds in the top 8. How did you stay focused?

That wasn’t the long part. That was the six hour drive to Toronto the night before and the six hour drive back to Montreal after the tournament. And then getting up after three hours of sleep before working the next morning. I thrive on this type of event. I’m used to playing non-stop four days at GenCon or two days of Magic Grand Prix. The size of this event was equivalent to most of my store championship and regional attendances. I wish FFG OP would incentivize tournaments with 1000-2000 players. But staying focused wasn’t a huge issue for me.

How did it feel to win the 2015 Canadian Nationals for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest?

Not winning anything beyond the Store Championship level was frustrating. Not winning at either the World Eater in 2014 or North American Champs in 2015 was really frustrating. I got to Top 4 Canadian Nationals for A Game of Thrones in 2014. Being able to surpass that with Conquest was heartening. Finally winning a title was something I’ve been striving to do since I started playing card games in 1994. So, I feel happy, rewarded and validated.

Any shoutouts?

I really want to thank the Montreal metagame for enjoying this game as much as I do and supporting us at BD Cosmos with your attendance. I want to thank John Gobeil and his family for hosting us for the night. Thanks to Liz Malette for keeping her end of the bargain. Thanks to Alex Cybulski for a super enjoyable finals match. Thanks to James for always being able to spruce up a conversation. I want to thank my meta mates in the Kool Kids Club for all their moral support: Stephen McNamara, Philippe Paquin, Alex Godlovitch, Peter Wilson, Alexandre Chiappini, Salim Hammoum, Sean Emberley for waking me up. You are all big guys and definitely wear pants that go with it. I especially want to thank Carl Dupuis for driving us down to the event. Couldn’t have done it without you. Next time, we’ll definitely take a ride on the train. Finally, thanks to The Tactical Squad for the interview!

We also have Julien’s decklist to share:

Packmaster Kith (50)

[table width=“250px”] Army (26)[attr colspan=“2”] 4x,Kith’s Khymeramasters 3x,Incubus Warrior 2x,Inquisitor Caius Wroth 3x,Klaivex Warleader 3x,Rogue Trader 3x,Sslyth Mercenary 2x,Syren Zythlex 3x,Void Pirate 3x,Warlock Destructor [/table][table width=“250px”] Attachment (7)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Agonizer of Bren 3x,Promotion 3x,Suffering [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Event (14)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x,Pact of the Haemonculi 3x,Archon’s Terror 3x,Foretell 3x,Raid 3x,Searing Brand [/table][table width=“250px”] Support (3)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Khymera Den 2x,Archon’s Palace [/table]

Thank you Julien for sharing your deck and your thoughts on the 2015 Canadian National Championship. It was a pleasure playing against you. We actually have footage from the event. We’re getting up to speed on production, so we hope to start bringing you video with commentary in the next week or so See you at World’s in November!

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 Tactical Squad, much like our Space Marine brethren, are not fond of losing, but sometimes we’re definitely pulling some Lamenter’s luck with the technical mishaps we deal with as a podcast. We were hoping to bring you an hour-long interview with conquest designer Brad Andres that was recorded over a month ago, but the machine spirit was weak and the interview was mangled like some horrible Tzeentchian fiend, twisted beyond all recognition into a hideous chimera of Brad, Liz, Jon and Alex’s voices. Emperor willing, we will prevail by releasing the contents of the interview as a full length-article on our website. Apologies to Brad, as he shared some great stories about his experiences in designing and developer the game as well as his history with Warhammer 40,000 universe.  Let’s get right into it.

Who are you? Who do you work for? What do you do?

I’m Brad Andres. I enjoy long walks on the beach and cliches. I’m a game designer for Fantasy Flight Games and I love making games.

What was the first game you designed?

Conquest is actually my first game where I have fully worked on the design throughout the process. But, I worked on Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer Invasion.

I guess Conquest is kind of your baby then?

A little bit, yeah.

Are there any game designers that you admire? Or game that you love the design of, that inspires you?

As far as games go, there are just so many out there. Too many to name right now. I get a lot of inspiration; I play boardgames all the time. I have hundreds of different games in my collection.  I just played a new one this afternoon at lunch. As far as game designers go, Eric Lang is a very good friend of mine and I would call him my sensei of game design. Kevin Wilson is also a good friend of mine. He’s awesome and been really helpful, teaching me a lot of things. Richard Garfield has always been an inspiration to me as well, from when I was but a tyke. There are a lot of inspirational people out there who have helped me along my way.

Why did you want to work on Conquest?

Eric (Lang) was coming to work on a 40k LCG and I’d been a 40k fan from back in the day and I’d worked a lot with Eric playing Star Wars (The Card Game) when he was working on that and I had great time and learned a lot. And I wanted to work with Eric. Having it be Conquest was just gravy on the awesome salad. So I informed our manager at the time that I was really interested in working on it and I rushed to work ahead on my Invasion project, got a little bit ahead, found some time and everything kind of fell into place.

Did you have much experience with Warhammer 40,000 before making Conquest?

I’d played the game back in an earlier edition. I’d read a lot of the novels and was very familiar with the flavour and fluff.

You’re a bit of a lore nerd then.

To some extent. I’m sure there are listeners out there that are much more up to date than I am, but I’m always researching and part of my job is to keep researching and stay up to date on everything. I’m on Games Workshop’s website every day. I’m reading through codexes. I’ve got a big stack of them at my desk. I’ll go through the online encyclopedias. Basically as much fluff as I can get my hands on.

What’s the oldest codex you have on your desk?

Probably third edition Necrons.

Is there a novel that sticks out in your mind?

I’m a big Salamanders fan, so any of the ones that have come out recently. I’ve just finished reading the Vulkan Lives novel in the Horus Heresy series, which was ok. But I think anything that Dan Abnett writes I am a fan of.

It was you, Eric and Nate French that were all involved in the design of the core set. What does the design team look like now and what did it look like during the Warlord cycle?

It’s pretty much me, to be honest. Certainly Nate, and to a lesser extent Eric, still have stuff to say and we all work on it and look over it. But a lot of the design vision, at this point, is me based on stuff that we have talked about previously. Eric gave out a lot of ideas when we finished the core set on what he envisioned the first cycle being and proposed some other ideas for things that would make strong cycles. Nate looks over my shoulder every now and then to make sure I’m not screwing up, but a lot of it comes from me. A lot of people get this big impression that the LCG department is this big team working on everything. We have a new guy, named Danny, who is helping out a little bit on our current projects, which I wish I could say something about, but I can’t. Nate’s always there to help. “Nate, if I had a card like this, how would it affect the game?” “Really poorly” The big thing is, everyone in the department is involved with every game to some extent. We have what we call card councils, where we all sit down and we all review each other’s cards. We usually like to do that both before and after playtesting. It’s mostly me designing, but everyone is involved.

What kind of involvement does Games Workshop have in the whole production process?

Most of it is approvals. We send them a vision document outlining what a cycle is going to be about, or what a box is going to be about, including story elements we want to use. We’ll send that to them ahead of time to get approval. They have approval on all the art that we do because technically they own all of it. It’s really a back and forth communication. They need to approve everything before we can move on with the process. They are really good about communicating with us and letting us know what is going on. Keeping us in the loop.

Does that get down to specific card approvals? Or is it more general than that?

A lot is the general idea approval, but when we get down to art pieces they will come back and say “The proportions on that tank aren’t correct” and we have to get it fixed. We do because they are the people that know these things the best and we want it to be as perfect as we can get it.

What’s your relationship with the art department like?

It’s awesome. I worked with John Taillon and he does an amazing job getting the best work from the artists. We really work well together.

Why do the artists hate Astra Militarum so much? And why are they dead on every card?

That’s me, mostly. I don’t hate the Astra Militarum. It’s a been a long standing joke in a lot of GW pieces of artwork that guardsmen are the ones being crushed. There are hundreds and thousands and millions of them. If someone is being crushed, it might as well be a human. When you see a Space Marine being crushed, it’s supposed to signify this guy is really bad-ass because he is cutting a Space Marine in half.

What kind of process does a single card go through?

There are really two approaches, top down and bottom up. Top down is when I, say, want to make a Tau pathfinder, so I call the card “Tau Pathfinder” and then I try to think of abilities that fit that unit. Other times I will come up with an ability that is “When you deploy a Scout to this planet, gain a resource” and then I’ll decide I want that ability to be in Tau and that ability fits with a pathfinder. Really you can go both ways, it just depends on where we are with the set, what I want to include. Usually when I start designing something, one of the first things I will do is ask “What are our major themes? What can’t we miss if we are doing X?” For example, in the Warlord Cycle, I knew we were doing Old Zogwort and I would be a horrible person if we didn’t have a Squiggify card. So that was one of the things that, early in design, got slotted in. We were going to have a Squiggify card. I didn’t know what it was going to do yet, but that was the title and one of the first things that went up. That’s a good example of top down. Bottom up, it’s harder to think of an example because now I just recognize all the cards as what they are now. But I think Inquisitor Caius Wroth is probably a good example of bottom up design. We had that ability. We knew we wanted it in the game. Really we added the flavour on much later.

Speaking of Caius, did you find that a particularly difficult ability to balance? A lot of people have mixed feelings about it.

We had a lot of fun with Caius. We went through several different versions of him before he got to where he is. I’m actually really happen with him and I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing him slip into decks given where the meta is right now.

What’s the process for signature squads? Do you have a way you go about things?

I would say that as we move further and further into the game’s life, the signature squad card type make-up is going to loosen up. I’ve got some crazy, off-the-wall ideas that I can’t wait to start trying, but they’ve got to wait a while. But they’ve got to bake in the oven a bit longer. We’ve got to let the game grow, let it become a teenager before we get crazy and experimental. But as far as design for signature squads goes, we start off with an idea of what we want the deck to do. What does this warlord define, as far as a deck. We really try to design around that element and flesh it out, turn it into something in that pack that will make you excited to play it, that triggers you to start thinking of different deck ideas, just by looking at those nine cards. The warlord is usually the first and they form the backbone of the signature pack and how that deck is going to play. Just a couple weeks ago, we revealed Bar’zul and he’s got a crazy play pattern. He is super fun to play. I wanna get bloodied, but I don’t want to get bloodied. That tension around his bloodied state is the genesis of where his whole signature squad came from. You see that reflected in his signature unit. His signature attachment functions both on his bloodied and unbloodied sides. All of his cards play into his style. Wait until you read his story, too.

Are we going to be getting story in the next cycle? One of the big disappointments of the Warlord Cycle for me was that we didn’t get any story inserts.

Yes, we are getting stories in the Planetfall Cycle. They are written both by me and Tim Flanders. I hope everyone enjoys them. It was difficult for me. I’m not much of a writer, so I did my best. I’m pretty proud of what we are putting forth and I think everyone is going to enjoy having some story to go along with the cool new setting we have to explore.

There were two brand new warlords, lore wise, in the core set. And the announced Warlords in the Planetfall Cycle are also original. Are original characters for warlords going to be more of the norm going forward?

It’s likely to be a mix of both. All the warlords in Planetfall will be new, in terms of IP. One of the big things is that in the core set I wanted to show people that we could do both. We could do old favourites and we could do new characters. In the Warlord Cycle, I really wanted to get more of those iconic characters out there and let people play with some of their classic favourites. In Planetfall I want to show that we can do new stuff, and that is why we waited until now to start doing the story and have it be all of our own and really set a place for us in the Traxis Sector. Going forward, I would expect to see much more of a mix old and new and having them interact. Seeing the things you love and the things you’ve come to love all work together.

How excited would you be if one of your warlords got turned into a miniature?

I would be off the wall. But I have to correct Liz a little bit, there was actually a third warlord IP introduced in the core set. If you turn to the first page of the reference manual, you’ll see that we open with a quote from Broderick Worr.

Now fans are going to have to scour the manuals to see if there are any other easter eggs.

There might be some more. I can neither confirm nor deny.

During the development of the game, was there a signature squad that proved more difficult to get right, either mechanics-wise or fluff-wise?

I think the most difficult one to get right was actually Commander Shadowsun. We went through a lot of different versions of exactly what her pack was going to do. We had started with some pretty off-the-wall mechanics for Tau in general. We slowly cut those down, reshaped them and stitched them back together in weird ways. We finally got her to where I think she feels right for what we wanted to do. She was so weird. She wasn’t the last one we finalized, but she is the most crazy, off-the-wall squad.

She is definitely something that has taken the community a lot of work to figure out.

I think she is really good. She just needs way more finesse. I think that fits both flavour and her cards. Tau are very elusive and strategic and you need to take that approach when you play a Tau deck.

At this point the game has three victory conditions. It’s rare that we see someone decking out an opponent. Is that something that is still a mechanic that is developing, or is there a mill deck that is undiscovered so far?

I would say that it is still a mechanic that is developing. It is not always the most fun or interesting mechanic, but it is definitely an mechanic that some players enjoy. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see some mill cards in the future. Though I can’t really confirm or deny. Some players enjoy it and I’m sure that we’ll design cards for every player to enjoy.

Are there any cards that you would tweak, or didn’t work out how you expected? Are there any cards that were significantly changed during testing?

I’m really happy with all the cards and how they are coming out, especially through the Warlord Cycle. I know that there are some cards that rise above and some that are a little more controversial. Overall I think everything fits together well. I’m really happy with where the meta is right now. You see a lot of contention of over which who exactly is the best. You’ve seen a lot of different decks winning tournaments. In terms that cards that saw a lot of changes, I think the Rockcrete Bunker holds the record for most changes in the core set. It was very difficult to get right.

Are there any cards that surprised you when you saw how they were being used by the community?

I think the biggest surprise was when the game came out and no one though the Dark Eldar were any good. Because when we were playtesting, Dark Eldar were very good. We just didn’t get it. But I think they have redeemed themselves since then. They are a lot of fun to play.

So, Promethium Mine has been largely ignored by the community … I think even the regular cost reducers have been received skeptically. Do you think those cards are better than the community is giving them credit for?

The way that the economy works in Conquest was influence by our work on Warhammer Invasion. There was a card in the core set that, economy-wise, was very problematic and tore a rift in the community for a long time. We really wanted to avoid that. It was called Warpstone Excavation and it basically free resources all the time and it had a disadvantage that turned out to be an advantage for many decks or something that they didn’t care about at all. It accelerated the game too fast and made a lot of early Invasion unbalanced. So with a lot of the economy cards in Conquest, we wanted to learn from that experience. We were a lot more restrained with how we put the economy into the game.

Late in the process we put uniqueness on all the cost reducers. We toned Promethium Mine. We want them to be something that a player can add to their deck to supplement their economy. If they feel like they want to run a deck with a lot of elites - not that you’d want to right now, but you will. You are are going to be looking for that extra little bit of economy. It’s going to be a little bit slower than you might hope, but I strongly feel it was the right decision. It also gives us room in the future to print a card in the future that might be Promethium Mine, only better. It gives us that flexibility. Promethium Mine is in the core set. It is going to be around forever. But if we want to print Promethium Mine 2.0 in a cycle and eventually it is going to rotate out, but it really establishes what the meta is going to be like for a period of time. We can adjust that. Some might think that the game got too fast, but eventually it will rotate out and the meta will shift again.

Is the game pacing out the way you planned?

I’m really happy with the game’s pace. It usually goes 4 or 5 turns, at least. You have some intense battles. A lot of close games. All my experience has been watching really great games of Conquest.

Looking at the Warlord Cycle, did you have a set of themes and mechanics in mind? Or did they evolve over time?

Going into it, we really wanted to focus on the core of the Conquest experience. That was something that Eric talked about early on when we were finishing the core set. When we were doing the first couple of expansions, we should focus on the elements that really make Conquest unique, awesome and wonderful. So the Warlord Cycle was, from day one, about the warlords. Making the coolest part of Conquest - the warlords, in my opinion - shine even brighter. We focused on designing warlords that bring something new to the table. Cards that exhaust your warlord, using warlords to pay costs. Cards that depend on the positioning of your warlords.

Was the fact that a lot of the warlords in the Warlord Cycle pose such a strong assassination threat intentional or was that something that just happened through the process of the warlords being created?

It was intentional. We avoided that mechanic in the core set. We knew players would still try and it would still happen, but there wasn’t a warlord that was designed to try to do it. But I think it’s an important part of the game and something players need to realize. The base game set a precedent that the game was about winning planets and using “intrigue” to move your warlord around. The Warlord Cycle threw in a new element and now the game was changed. That was really important.

Was the assassination focus of some warlords hard to balance for?

It went back and forth. Most of the warlords in that cycle went through an iteration or two. I don’t think the balance was too hard to find. I guess the hardest warlord to find a balance for was Aun’shi. Tau are newer to the setting. They don’t have quite as much background. Mechanically they are just very different in the tabletop game. In the lore they are very different. We wanted to maintain that difference in their cards because when you have a tabletop player that jumps over to the LCG, you want to make sure that difference comes across and they can recognize it.

Speaking of difference, Urien Rakarth‘s signature squad breaks the mold of four units and two events. How did that come about?

The first thing we designed about Urien was that he would have four events and two units. We wanted to push events a little harder with Dark Eldar, but in a different way. Not just giving them some more good events like they had in the core set. We wanted to trait some of their events and the Torture mechanic came out of that.

Do you have a favourite card from the cycle?

Probably the Rotten Plaguebearers. It is a take on one of my old, favourite Magic cards: Prodigal Sorceror. The pinging for damage and the combo with Zarathur … it just feels great.

We have Tyranids coming soon. What was the process for developing the deluxe set? They are one of the nine factions and weren’t released in the core set. Did you involve their design alongside the core set, or did they come after?

The Great Devourer was designed completely after the core set. That was intentional. We wanted Tyranids to feel different; a faction with a unique feel. Tyranids are the most different, most weird, just funky - right after Tau. We wanted develop them in a different environment, so we waited for after the Warlord Cycle was done before we started working on Tyranids, just so we could make sure they were different.

How difficult was the fact that they can’t borrow cards from other factions?.

They have been my biggest challenge working on Conquest so far. They took a lot of work to get right. We were working on Tyranids at Gen Con last year. The core set was coming out and I was already hot and heavy on Tyranids.

Were there cards from the first cycle where you thought “I want this, but for Tyranids”?

Yeah. There was a lot of that. Tyranids are their own thing and you’ll notice versions of other faction’s cards, but in their own Tyranid’y way. Because, of course, they can’t borrow those cards at any time. So they get their own versions, they own twists and takes on those cards.

When in the design process did the Synapse unit and the double dial show up?

Early on in the process, Nate and I sat down and talked about what we felt was right for Tyranids. Nate doesn’t know much about the fluff, so one thing we’ll do in our brainstorming sessions, is Nate will ask me to talk about Tyranids for a few minutes. I’ll tell him about swarms of enemies darkening the skies and he’ll latch on to that and we’ll start brainstorming ideas that will convey that feeling of the swarm to players. If you are playing Tyranids or you are facing it across the table, you should feel like you are commanding or fighting a swarm of enemies. One of our earliest thoughts was “What do you start the game with on the board? And how does that impact play psychology”. Just the fact that you look across the board and your opponent starts with twice as much stuff as you do is a big step in feeling like I am almost being overwhelmed. That’s the big hook with them.

Did that have any effect on the cost curve of Tyranids?

A little bit. You’ll notice that Tyranid warlords start with one less card and resource because, ‘lo and behold, they start with it in play. They have a very different cost curve. A lot of littler stuff, just trying to get stuff on the board. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in the position that the command phase is not going to go well for you in the first turn. But you get a few more resources, maybe another unit or two on the board and you’ll find yourself more in control. Your opponent has failed to stem the tide of Tyranids bearing down upon them.

There was some discussion about a multiplayer format in the community. Is this something that has been considered?

It has been talked about, but I don’t know if we’ll be seeing it any time soon. That is a choice that is a bit outside of my pay grade.

What about draft?

I would love to do a Conquest draft. I hope we see, but I can’t speak to whether it might happen.

Are there any interesting observations that you’ve heard from players?

The best part for me has been having people come up to me and telling me how much they missed the 40k universe. They had played the tabletop game years ago and this was an opportunity for them to relive that part of their life and get back into in a way that was new and interesting.

What aspect or mechanic of the game are you most proud of?

There are so many that I like. I love the warlords and the sense of agency. I can pick my hero and customize my deck to make that hero shine. You get to live your fantasy of being that character. The planets. I spent two months just trying to get the planets right. Getting to name them and get art for them and having them be in my own sector that I was able to name and design. Even down to the token cards that we proxied up one night after abandoning a couple other mechanics. They just worked so well for simulating big battles and lots of little mooks dying. They are so many aspects of this game that I love that I could just talk and talk and talk.

At this point the squad spent a bit of time describing the spoiler for Venomthrope Polluter that was shared on this site.  You can read more about that here.

Is there anything else you can tell us about Synapse units?

There is not too much I can tell you, but one of the guiding principles of the Synapse units is that they need to capture the essence of a warlord in some aspect. They needed either to either emulate a warlord’s command presence, their battle triggering ability or their ability to take other units, which is what the Venomthrope Polluter is really about. They should feel somewhere in between a really good army unit and a warlord.

With the two warlord and the five synapses, there will be a lot of different decks just matching the different synapses to each warlord.

Ten decks right out of the box. With how much they influence your play, those decks will all play differently.

The Tactical Squad would once again like to thank Brad Andres for taking the time to sit down and talk to us.  We deeply regret that the audio was lost and wish it hadn’t taken so long to pull the transcript from the corrupted files.