The Tactical Squad

This week on our Warhammer 40,000 Conquest podcast: Liz plays hooky while Mark, Jon and Alex act a fool about the upcoming Tyranids deluxe expansion, The Great Devourer and new spoilers from the Planetfall cycle!   Show highlights: 1) An exclusive audio spoiler for an as-yet un-revealed Tyranid synapse unit! 2) Mr. Mark Tang - Nazdreg player extraordinaire makes a guest appearance while Liz prepares for GenCon! 3) Alex sings 80s hits by Lionel Richie and Survivor! 4) 1 hour and 30 minutes! A behemoth of a podcast!

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.

This is the first article in what we hope will be a series about the local Warhammer 40,000: Conquest meta in Toronto, Canada. This past weekend saw the first tournament of the Summer Kit season at 401 Games, a gaming store in downtown Toronto with a huge upstairs play space. We had a strong turn-out of 17 players, which was great. But it was also the hottest day of the year and the place was packed with players for a half dozen other events. The humidity was brutal and things got a bit “fragrant” by the end of the fifth round of swiss, but we persevered.

Faction Breakdown

[gdoc key=“https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RRCNc-PZ458PXNh-NrT4W2fKO0acMC6o93RF3srd7g0/edit?usp=sharing” chart=“Pie” chart_colors=“blue red yellow green orange” chart_legend=“none” chart_pie_slice_text=“label” chart_height=“300” chart_width=“300” chart_chart_area=“left:0,top:0,width:‘100%‘,height:‘100%’” chart_tooltip_text=“value”]

  [table width=“200” th=“0”] 5,Cato 3,Zarathur 2,Ragnar 2,Nazdreg 2,Eldorath 1,Ku’Gath 1,Baharroth 1,Shadowsun [/table] The Space Marine numbers were not surprising, but the absence of Kith was a bit of a shock.  She doesn’t have huge representation in the Toronto scene, but there are a usually one or two players bringing Khymera to the table. In the interest of time, there was no cut to an elimination round and the results after five rounds of swiss were used to determine the winner. At the end of the day, with a record of 4-1, Kevin Geurtin was crowned the victor. Top 4 Warlords [table width=“200” th=“0”] 1,Nazdreg 2,Zarathur 3,Nazdreg 4,Eldorath [/table] We asked Kevin to share some thoughts on his tournament performance:

How do you think the Ork faction, and particularly Nazdeg, fares in the current meta?

I think my success in this tournament hinged on avoiding both Eldorath and Kith. Out of the consensus tier one warlords I think Nazdreg fares very well against Space Marines. A lot of key units have four health and can survive a Cato with a Tempest Blade attack and the damage can be used to hit back at the Space Marine units. Chaos also has been seeing some love with a lot of play in the Toronto meta and some regional wins for both Zarathur and Ku’Gath. Chaos is a solid match up for Orkz, specifically Nazdreg, as the damage flying around often leads to Orkz being able to hit back hard. I would say in a Space Marine and Chaos heavy meta, Nazdreg is a solid choice.

Any matchups that you were nervous about going in?

Kith and Eldorath are both scary match ups. Kith has the swarm to be able to pick off exhausted units without allowing brutal to build up. Archon’s Terror and Klaivex Warleader are also really effective ways to deal with the larger Ork units. Eldorath is problematic because of the ability to exploit the Orkz already weak command game and Eldorath’s ability to manage bigger units. Gift of Isha and Empower are also good counters to an Ork player that gets to aggressive on a tightly contested planet. Aun’shi could also pose a problem as you no longer have shields to manage the damage on your Orkz. Kustom Field Generator great but the Orkz use of two shield cards is helpful in keeping units alive to hit back with brutal.

Ork is a faction with a number of strong supports, why did you choose the supports you did?

Having to pass on Ork Kannon and Ammo Depot hurts, but there just isn’t enough space to run everything. Tellyporta Pad is a auto include in any Ork deck in my opinion. The ability to move units to planet one after contest command is great. Furthermore, the tellyporta allows Nazdreg to command snipe and then move over to planet one. The flexibility is great. Kustom Field Generator is also a must as it allows you distribute damage, protect key units and effectively use brutal. I ran a reducer but I don’t think it is necessary, on they games I drew it early it was really effective, but you don’t want to see it late game. Mork’s Great Heap is fantastic but expensive. I think you have to run one, if you get it out it can change the game.

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

I want to see one of Kustom Field Generator/Tellyporta Pad, Bigga is Betta, and two to three units. I don’t mind dropping two three cost units (one reduced with a Bigga is Betta) and a support.

What was your favourite moment of the day?

The Ork on Ork match in the second round against Mark Tang was a lot of fun. It was a lot of combat math and it was interesting to see two different Nazdreg builds do so well (Mark deserves credit for going 4-1 with Nazdreg as well, I think that proves that Orkz are pretty competitive).

What was your toughest matchup of the day?

My only loss came to a Zarathur deck that effectively used flamers, warpstorm and ork kannons to wear down my Ork units, while also picking battles only at key planets. He also took advantage of a stronger command presence to limit my options. I think he played a very solid Zarathur vs. Nazdreg game.

What was your biggest mistake of the day?

I held on to some bad opening hands, and it did cause me to play catch up in some games. That is something I will have to work on.

As in most Toronto tournaments, we draft from the prize kit. As the tournament winner, you had first pick. Did you go for the playmat or Zarathur?

I had to take that sweet Zarathur alt art. Can’t wait to get to use it soon!

Kevin also shared his winning decklist with us:

Nazdreg (52)

[table width=“250px”] Army (30)[attr colspan=“2”] 4x,Nazdreg’s Flash Gits 2x,Bad Doc 2x,Crushface 3x,Enraged Ork 3x,Evil Sunz Warbiker 3x,Mekaniak Repair Krew 2x,Rogue Trader 3x,Shoota Mob 3x,Snake Bite Thug 2x,Void Pirate 3x,Weirdboy Maniak [/table] [table width=“250px”] Attachment (4)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Cybork Body 3x,Promotion [/table]

[table width=“250px”] Event (11)[attr colspan=“2”] 2x,Bigga is Betta 2x,Battle Cry 2x,Dakka Dakka Dakka! 2x,Squiggify 3x,Suppressive Fire [/table] [table width=“250px”] Support (7)[attr colspan=“2”] 1x,Kraktoof Hall 1x,Bigtoof Banna 2x,Kustom Field Generator 1x,Mork’s Great Heap 2x,Tellyporta Pad [/table]

401 Games offers a Sunday FFG stream on their Twitch channel - other weeks offer Netrunner, Star Wars X-Wing or Star Wars Armada - and we were able to stream a match from each round. Unfortunately the mic was not working and we didn’t notice until the fifth round, which we’ve embedded below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqkif1r-J10

You can review any of the recorded matches on Youtube. Round 1 (Cato vs. Ku’Gath) Rounds 2 (Nazdreg vs. Nazdreg) & 3 (Nazdreg vs. Cato) Round 4 (Nazdreg vs. Ku’gath) Round 5 (Eldorath vs. Ragnar) Please let us know in the comments below if you’d like to see more tournament reports like this or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve them.

Upcoming events in the Toronto Meta:

Summer Kit - August 9th, 2015 - 401 Games, Toronto Summer Kit - August 15th, 2015 - Legends Warehouse, Woodbridge Summer Kit - August 22nd, 2015 - Face to Face Games, Toronto Canadian Nationals - September 4th, 2015 - Fan Expo Canada, Toronto Summer Kit - September 13th, 2015 - 401 Games, Toronto

One of the main draws of the Living Card Game format is the slowly growing and ever expanding card pool that is released. At regular intervals new cards are introduced that change the meta of the game and expand on existing cards. Because of this it is always important to re-evaluate previously released cards and think about how their standing has changed. We’ve now seen all the cards in the Warlord cycle released and the dust has begun to settle. Now is a great time to look back and re-consider the cards that came in each pack. Today I’m going to look at the cards we received in the very first War Pack, The Howl of Blackmane.

Space Marines

Starting with Ragnar Blackmane (The Howl of Blackmane, 1) and his signature squad. In our original review of Ragnar the Tactical Squad believed he would be a strong assassination threat and would be able to bully opposing warlords. This has been pretty on point. Ragnar’s high health coupled with his Reaction ability allows him to throw his weight around, pressing the advantage against players who make poor commit choices and can even add a lot of attrition against opponents on top of their game. Later units released in Astra Militarum have filled out the cost curve for a Ragnar deck, making fielding a balanced force much more affordable.

His signature army unit, Blackmane Sentinel (The Howl of Blackmane, 2), further benefit his ability to command the board state. This unit allows for a dynamic response to many situations, ideally setting up to contest command, but being able to also assist in combat or help bully enemy warlords if the opportunity presents itself. For 2 cost the sentinels are a steal for the upside they provide. Blackmane’s Hunt (The Howl of Blackmane, 5) adds even more maneuverability to the squad. The only negative thing I can say about this card is that your are limited to two copies. Moving onto Ragnar’s signature attachment, we get Frostfang (The Howl of Blackmane, 3). This is an excellent attachment playing into his assassination potential. Unfortunately, you can only have one relic in play at a time and many times you may want to save this for the shields and play Iron Halo (Core Set, 28) instead. Finally the signature squad has one copy of Ragnar’s Warcamp (The Howl of Blackmane, 4), the signature support. This card is too expensive for the limited benefit it provides. All told, Ragnar’s signature squad rates very highly among the warlords released in the game to date.

Astra Militarum

When The Howl of Blackmane first came out it seemed like Astra Militarum would benefit a lot from the cards they received, unfortunately it seems we overestimated the value of what they were given. After some reflection, Interrogator Acolyte (The Howl of Blackmane, 6) seems too expensive for the benefit provided. While it does benefit from the abilities of both Colonel Straken (Core Set, 2) and Torquemada Coteaz (The Threat Beyond, 89) there are just too many other cards that offer greater benefit for 3 resources. Muster the Guard (The Howl of Blackmane, 7) appeared to be an auto include for all Astra Militarum decks when it first came out. Now it is a rare sight. Most Militarum decks include too many out of faction units to benefit from this ability as much as we originally predicted. Beyond that it has become more apparent that exhausting your warlord during deployment is a very steep cost, sacrificing his command presence and putting your warlord at risk of being bloodied. Finally, AM received a direct damage card in Noble Deed (The Howl of Blackmane, 8) that also combos with the many “leaves play” abilities found throughout the faction’s army units. This card has its uses, but many Astra Militarum players get too eager to sacrifice units to trigger the “leaves play” abilities in their deck instead of allowing them to trigger through the natural attrition of battle.

Ork

Next in the pack are the Ork cards, which the Squad also seemed to have overestimated in our original review of the pack. The first card, Deathskull Lootas (The Howl of Blackmane, 9), seemed to have a very powerful ability that would benefit both Astra Militarum and Orks but after playtesting has seen minimal use. Though the ability seemed very good on paper the ATK of 2 is too low to consistently cause damage and as a result doesn’t fire very often. Combine this with the unit’s cost of 4 and we are left with an army that doesn’t deliver. The second card Orks received in the War Pack is Smash n’ Bash (The Howl of Blackmane, 10). This card suffers from one major restriction; it only works at a battle without an enemy warlord present, a condition that is difficult into. Even if you do find yourself in a battle where the opposing warlord isn’t present you will likely outclass your opponent so much that this effect is overkill, or be so outclassed that the damage it causes to all your units won’t make the extra attacks worthwhile.

Chaos

During my original look at The Howl of Blackmane I really

underestimated the utility of the Heretek Inventor (The Howl of Blackmane, 12). This card has become a staple in most Chaos decks. I’ve come to see that 1 cost for 1 command icon is always good and this card is no exception. Heretek Inventor provides a solid command unit with good combat stats with a drawback that can be very frequently played around. It can have the added benefit of mentally taxing your opponent. The other card received by Chaos, Death Guard Infantry (The Howl of Blackmane, 11), hasn’t ended up seeing any help and is still outclassed by Khorne Berserker (Core Set, 84) and Xavaes Split-Tongue (Core Set, 92).

Dark Eldar

Next up is Dark Eldar. They were the likely winners of the pack. Archon’s Palace (The Howl of Blackmane, 15) and Visions of Agony (The Howl of Blackmane, 14) have proven to be everything we hoped and expected when to be we first saw them. The pack also included Uber Grotesque (The Howl of Blackmane, 13) for DE, a card that ended up being much less exciting than I originally thought. Dark Eldar have shown that big units aren’t necessary for their game plan and while we did receive a torture focused warlord with Urien Rakarth (Descendants of Isha,116), the Grotesque feels too expensive for the value offered and just doesn’t fit in his deck.

Eldar

Eldar only ended up receiving one card in the Howl of Blackmane that they really benefited from. Empower (The Howl of Blackmane, 17) has to some degree become a staple for the faction. Due primarily to its double shield icons. Its ability is definitely powerful and is of use often enough to warrant including a couple copies in your deck. Butthe number of out of faction units commonly found in Eldar decks and Empower’s cost of 3 means that it is not an auto include and players rarely sleeve 3 copies in most decks when it is played. The other cards in the pack, Starcannon (The Howl of Blackmane, 18) and Vaulting Harlequin (The Howl of Blackmane, 16) haven’t seen much play, which is in line with our initial expectations.

Tau

The last faction to receive cards in the the War Pack is Tau. Aun’ui Prelate (The Howl of Blackmane, 20) has definitely made a bigger splash than I expected. The army unit does a large amount of work in Aun’shi (Gift of the Ethereals, 45) decks; not only magnifying the hitting power of the units you control at a planet but also acting as a 4 ATK Armorbane unit. Homing Beacon (The Howl of Blackmane, 21), which I expected to be a key card in the Ethereal archetype, hasn’t seen much play. With slots for support cards being limited in most decks Homing Beacon just isn’t up to snuff compared more powerful supports are available for Tau. And lastly, Piranha Hunter (The Howl of Blackmane, 19) has turned out to be a complete dud.

Neutral

The Howl of Blackmane includes one neutral event, Calamity (The Howl of Blackmane, 22). When this card was released we talked on the podcast about its potential use as a combo card with different cheap units, particularly in Astra Militarum and Dark Eldar. Unfortunately, the cost and awkwardness of those combos is a nut that no one seems to have cracked yet. . The card’s remaining use as a board wipe has also gone mostly unrealized, though with the meta of the game trending toward lower costs units now might be the time to try splashing a copy or two in some decks. It’s coming up on nine months since we saw The Howl of Blackmane first released. Since then the whole of the Warlord cycle has passed and we’ve begun seeing cards for the first deluxe expansion, The Great Devourer and the second cycle of the game, Planetfall. With the knowledge we have now this pack if far less exciting than it was on release. It no longer stands up as a staple really only benefiting players interested in Dark Eldar and Space Marines.

Pack Rating

SM * AM 0/5 Ork 0/5 Chaos 1.5/7 Dark Eldar 2/6 Eldar 1.5/7 Tau 1/6 ratings based on power cards out of the faction and ally cards received in the pack * = signature squad

There is a lot to talk about this episode.  First we take a look at the upcoming Planetfall Cycle.  Then we discuss some of the recent Regionals tournaments.  We finish things off by taking a look at some of the most common archetypes in Warhammer 40,000: Conquest deckbuilding.

It is two warlords for the price of one in our review of Descendents of Isha, the sixth and final War Pack from the Warlord Cycle.  Baharroth is the new Eldar warlord and our hosts try to decide whether his Mobile keyword is enough to make up for what feels like a lackluster signature squad. On the other hand, Urien Rakarth flips expectations on their heads with only two units in his signature squad.  The team is skeptical about whether he will dethrone Packmaster Kith as the reigning champion in Dark Eldar players’ hearts.  This episode is MAMMOTH in length!

Liz, Jon and Alex review The Threat Beyond, the fifth War Pack in the Warlord Cycle.  And all hail warboss Tang!

Another regular episode with spoilers for Descendants of Isha!

We review the Zogwort’s Curse War Pack, interview Mr. Mark Tang and bring you all some Eldar spoilers from The Threat Beyond War Pack!

Our first regular episode! You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!