Sunday 19 June 2016

The Final Gambit



Talyesin Fharenal
New Eldar warlord, bringing to the game 'yet another Stracken problem'  Buffs for all your units is good, Having to be present in the fight is less good.  Unless you have a way of not dieing that buff is going to go away quickly  And Eldar just don't have that many ways of staying alive, outside the dire avenger exarch.  Stracken is interesting at least because of his signature squad though.  Lets see how this guy?/girl? fares.  Very severly limited by the lack of good psykers in the gamer at present (there are 5 non sig psykers)


Talyesin’s Spiders
Dedent stats,and moving is a good thing.  Sadly the movement is after you have attacked, opening them up to a counter atatck on your opponents combat turn.  Also, if said pskyer is with Talyesin it can enable the +1 attack if not already active.

Talyesin’s Warlocks
Not quite as good stats, but readying is a good thing indeed.  And lets face it, during combat all those units are probably sitting in your hand doing nothing anyway.  Obviously though if they get buffed by Talyesin, they are much better.

Wisdom of the Serpent
Nope.  top 3 is a very small amount of cards.  I guess if you are playing Talysin, you have packed your deck with warriors and psykers, but you are probably picking warrior since there just isn't that many psykers in the game.

Path of the Leader
Well if you were to rate cards by versatility, then this card is a solid 10/10....but we don't.  That said, it's a free event, and moving and the +1atk (especially considering it's until end of phase) are both worth it.

Autarch Powersword
Is there any army unit you would consider putting this on?  probably not.  maybe the uniques.  Turning them into 4/5 atatck and 5hp when with talyesin is a very very good thing.  Probably making your warlord 3/7 is a much better use though.

Reliquary Techmarine
Maybe worth including in mavros for the BT synergy.  But frankly not as good as the Chaos one at the same price point, and hes not that great either.  Some might say hes better than  void pirate, and maybe it is.  but Void Pirates cost 1, thats 99% of the reason you take them.   Without the card bonus, this is trash.

Crypt of Saint Camila
Hell of an expensive support and vulnerable to all the support hate,   But Space Marines don't tend run many 4 cost cards, and anything 5 cost and up isn't eligible.  So turn 1 for this is a net loss in all likelihood.  Being a deploy action makes this a lot weaker.  But if you consider if as a cost reducer, the savings can be huge is you get repeat use out of it.

Leman Russ Conqueror
Big scary tank.  If it gets to keep attacking, it just gets bigger and bigger.  I cant think of a reason not to include this in Gorzod.  Also the spoiled Guard warlords from next cycle has a an event that can ready this unit for more pain.  Ragnar can have a Leman Russ is his deck now.  yay him.

Bolster the Defense
Imperial Guard are all about supports. Ambushing one is great.  Watch out though, it only counts army units.  Your army of tokens do not count.  Most supports are 2 cost, so meeting the requirement probably isn't that hard.  Also a way to get more that one troop transport out a turn.  And everyone knows how bonkers broken that card is.

Imperial Rally Point
Really good for that 1 game in 3 when you have 2  planets, and your 3rd winning is further along, and your opponent can't win before then.  So you can just mass stuff there.  Otherwise no, leave it at home.

Corpulent Ork
Designed to make goes fasta work everytime.  The problem with that is there are 3 goes fasta cards in the game, and one of them is signature, one of them is a decent elite.  but thankfully the Rickety Warbuggy is really good.  5hp makes him Nazdreg friendly, and he may consider for the warbuggy.  Gorzod may like a couple for his sig squad.

Painboy Tent
Good effect.  Getting the damage on your units is the issue (just like the core set Bad Dok)


Frenzied Bloodthirster
Holy crap  it's big and scary and expensive.  And there is very little anyone can do to it to stop it wrecking house.  Imperial Guard have Markis and Suppressive Fire I suppose.  Zarathur has a good chance of killing something pre combat to enable that juicy 8+ armorbane attack as first attack.,

Warp Rift
Nifty for delaying a planet victory for your opponent, or bringing your victory condition closer.  Attachments on the planet stay with the planet, as do infestation I beleive.  Unsure about deep strike.

Flayed Skull Slaver
Resources are good I hear,  3 cost is not, but's a kabalite, so yay for Morn.  But see below.

Raiding Portal
See that unit above?  imagine have a couple of these out and you could move the slaver down the line just making ALL the money.  Thats a dream scenario.  and requires having a decent amount of red out.  But maybe worth it in Morn, Netting command wins, but more importantly denying command wins for opponent.


Hallucinogen Grenade
Pretty good way of dealing with Honored Librarians.  2 shields is nice, as is 2 cost for the effect that can save for later.

Kroot Hunter
So pseudo Morn discount in one package for Tau.  Worth it?  no.

War of Ideas
Has the very niche use of getting command win on a contested planet where both warlords went.  Ands thats it.  Niche cards are rarely worth including.

Genestealer Harvester
I've beeen on the receiving end of these things, they can net Subject Omega a crap ton of resources.  be wary. Worth including in any deck heavy on infest, and definitely put them in subject omega.

Nesting Chamber
If your infest strategy didn't quite work out, this a pretty good backup plan to enable infest for ambush goodness in Subject Omega, especially when you only need one other genestealer present with Omega to trigeer,


Ymgarl Factor
Stats for money.  Worth it every time.  Even has two shields. so good.

Saturday 4 June 2016

Wrath of the Crusaders

Running out  of steam writing these.  I've just not played enough lately to be enthused at writing.  Sad times.

Chaplain Mavros
The planet restriction is a bit of a bummer.  However Mavros doesn't even have to be at the same planet as whoever he wants to buff.  So thats pretty good.  is a pretty darn good way to trigger unstoppable to get all those cool triggers.


Reclusiam Templars
Not the best three cost unit out there.  But being able to ready them once a turn is nice assuming you can get it to trigger when you want it to.  Pretty good at Blue planets then,


The Emperor’s Champion
Really really good.  being elite and unique makes him immune to many control effects.  it's most obvious effect is making your opponent swing with something not so dangerous so you can get a turn a kill it first.  An  more important effect is you can stop your opponent choosing to retreat his warlord for a round.

Faith and Hatred
Not game breaking by any means, but a repeatable 1 shield effetivley  is ok.  Good when you see it,  Prob won't miss it if you don't.

Vow of Honor
Note the unit has to take the damage, so preventing/shielding all the damage will prevent the use of this  But +3 attck IS a lot of damage. Be afraid of this card if against Mavros


Ancient Crozius Arcanum
Can attach to anybody,  I don't think you will give this to anyone but Mavros.  Basically to turns Mavro's ability to Heal 1 and gain +1 atk.


Sacaellum’s Finest
So getting these for free is pretty good.  If you've already won the battle at a green planet though, odds are you won't need them.  So ignoring that, IF Worr puts this at a green it's a 4 cost 2/4/4 which is good.  Probably actually better for Straken

Cathedral of Saint Camila
Does Worr really need more "Win more at green planets" effects.  It;s a good ability and being able to abuse  it every turn would be annoying as hell. but if you not seeing many green planets it's a dead card, and Worr already can have a hard time if that happens.  I've leave it at home.

Salvaged Battlewagon
Big scary elite unit ahoy.  The ability could come up big, Note it also triggers if you kill tokens.  I do think it's too expensive for what you get though.

Huge Chain-Choppa
So that drawback is huge.  There aren't many readying effects in the game, but there is a reasonable chance that you could happily murder something with +4atk.  Also can put it on your opponents big scary thing.  if  said unit ever gets stuck in the warlord train for multiple turns it might never ever ready.

Berzerker Warriors
Ok so this card basically has a really crappy version of ambush, you still have to pay for it.  If you killed said unit with an attack, this guy pops up and says hi.  then it's the opponents turn to attack.  And he may die.  If you do with an action though, the timing is better.  And Chaos are pretty good at destroying things.

Killing Field
Ranged is good, but it isn't a massive deal.  Sure there is the occasional tau gun line, and Dark Eldar have some good ranged options.  But what you would really consider this for is Imperial Guard Preemptive barrages.  This card more than any other would really shutdown Coteaz's combo turn.

Staff of Change
See now heres where the god thing actually works, it;'s a Tzeentch card,and shock of horrors it's good with Zarathur.  Really good with Zarathurin fact.  Should really consider it. If Zarathur is present at said command struggle (hint he should be), thats 3 damage.

Shadowed Thorns Venom
Ok for it's cost,  Good for getting all your units out of HQ so they are ready for the command and Combat phases.  Obviously only if your playing Salaine Morn.

Rapid Assault
Ambuish a kabalite and ready some of them aswell.  Probably only really worth using ona  red planet obviously. Would have to be truly desperate to want to ambush something in exhausted.

Saim-Hann Kinsman
Yes, ok.  I wouldn't play it, but I can see why it's good.  Has no beneficial traits  a situational 1/2/2 for 1 is good.  but Eldar have some pretty good 1 cost options anyway.

Eldritch Storm
Fun against that Worr dream planet line.  I don't think it's it going wo win that match up though.  Sadly doesn't kill the anxious platoon.  Which is a bummer.  I don't feel it really needed the planet type restriction.

Shuriken Catapult
Make warriors scary.  Enough said.  Ambush is what makes this card a solid tier 1 card  in a deck with plenty of targets.,

Sae’lum Pioneer
These card type bonus units are really ovecosted  Although if you do get the bonus to tigger, you get two of those resources back I guess.  Still...

Colony Shield Generator
Support destruction is a thing this is true.  Are your supports so essential to your gameplan you want to give up deckspace to yet more supports to protect them?  probably not.

Devourer Venomthrope
Far too many conditions to be good in my mind,  Note though that the reaction doesn't specify you have to win command at THIS planet.  So it can react to infested command wins anywhere.

Genestealer Brood
So you get a genestealer, and can potentially get more.  I think this is probably a given for subject Omega who is likely to have the required density of genestealers and could ambush the new card.  everyone else not so much.

Sudden Adaptation
Some units may not be good in a given situation.  Why not bounce it back and put a better one in.  Or even better, take out a mostly dead unit and replace it with something else.


I really like the Space Marines in this game and so am favorable to new warlords from them, this one especially since he offers a much different gameplan to Cato and Ragnar.  Otherwise I think this pack a bit of a miss all told.  I think Eldar did the best out of this pack even if it a little situational.