The fact that the six different races of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game each play differently results from one of the fundamental decisions made during the course of the game – namely the decision to create six different races. The forces of Order and Destruction are each subdivided into three races, and players don’t expect any two races to play the same way. Orc rush and Chaos control. Dark Elf discard and High Elf indirect damage. Dwarf slayers and Empire Judgement of Verena. These decks all enrich the game and your play experience with their diversity. Still, some cards are so good and so easy to play in nearly any faction that they find their way from deck to deck to deck. Warpstone Excavation (Core Set, 116) and Contested Village (Core Set, 111) are two such cards. The neutral units, Blood Dragon Knight (Legends, 53) and Wight Lord (March of the Damned, 48), are valuable additions to nearly any Destruction deck, while the Chaos unit, Sorcerer of Tzeentch (The Twin Tailed Comet, 53), often finds its way out of the Chaos faction. Meanwhile, the forces of Order often rely upon Arcane Power (The Accursed Dead, 57) to form infinite loops to drive powerful card combinations. Despite the presence and impact of factions, then, while players use enough of these “splash” cards – and use them often enough – some of the diversity spurred by the different races is mitigated. Today, guest writer Torsten Krämer looks at how the Eternal War cycle may encourage players to rethink the use of these standard “splash” cards and, in turn, may encourage greater deck diversity.

Torsten Krämer on the Outlying TowerBack in the days before the restricted list was introduced, practically every competitive Warhammer: Invasion deck included the so-called “Core Nine”: three copies each of Warpstone Excavation, Contested Village, and Innovation (Core Set, 119). These three cards were considered fundamental because they helped boost your economy, particularly during the crucial early turns. The restricted list broke this triad apart, forcing players to choose between Warpstone Excavation and Innovation (or the other restricted cards), and while sometimes people choose another restricted card over Warpstone Excavation, it is still an absolute staple in most decks, along with Contested Village. Frankly, I’m not a fan of this. I’ve always preferred more diversity. I like when different decks use more different cards, instead of having so many in common, but I’ve often found myself forced to use these cards if I didn't want to enter a tournament at a disadvantage. I'm quite happy to say things might change soon. The Core Nine won’t disappear, but they won't be “auto-includes” anymore, either. We will see more diversity. Muster for War (Days of Blood, 20) has already started to vie for Contested Village's spot in many decks since both have the Limited keyword, and the upcoming Battle Pack, Oaths of Vengeance, brings us Outlying Tower (Oaths of Vengeance, 23). This may remind you of another card from the previous Battle Pack, Chill Sea Watchtower (Days of Blood, 4). You can guess what’s coming over the course of the Eternal War cycle: each faction will get an equivalent support card. It’s an improved Contested Village with the drawback that you can’t have it in play with cards from outside your faction. And I’m hopeful this will encourage a new approach to deck construction.For Order, the choice to switch to pure faction decks might be particularly easy. They have solid resource acceleration from cards like Derricksburg Forge (The Burning of Derricksburg, 5) and Mining Tunnels (The Burning of Derricksburg, 2) that they can use in place of Warpstone Excavation, and they can use their new supports instead of Contested Village. But these supports are also very attractive for Destruction, helping them with early loyalty and triggering The Capital Cycle quests like Raiding Parties (The Iron Rock, 60). Of course, you might also use these new supports in addition to Warpstone Excavation and Contested Village, rather than in place of them, to increase your chances of a fast start, even if you might later end up with cards that are only good for developing. Also, you should keep in mind that tactics are never actually in play, so you can freely include neutral tactics in a deck with these supports, and tactics like Desertion (City of Winter, 99) will now be much more attractive! …Speaking of neutral tactics, don’t you find it annoying when your attackers are so strong you could burn all of your opponent’s zones at once, but you can still only attack and burn one at a time? The Eternal War cycle promised to emphasize battles more, and it does. Oaths of Vengeance addresses this pesky problem of “one attack per turn” with All Out War (Oaths of Vengeance, 40). It’s time to stop fooling around. Just finish your opponent with one decisive attack! Thanks, Torsten! While we don’t expect we’ll ever see the end of Warpstone Excavation or Contested Village, we’re excited to see what players do with the new supports and design possibilities coming with the Eternal War cycle.

“After the Battle of Griffon Pass, Alith Anar captured seven hundred Dark Elves and had them nailed high upon the white cliffs overlooking the narrow valley, where they hung until they died.”     –Warhammer Armies: High Elves

Claim your vengeance with Oaths of Vengeance, the second Battle Pack of the Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game! Oaths of Vengeance is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore.

The Eternal War cycle draws new focus to the battlefield and its changing tactics with the Ambush and Raider keywords, which allow your units to surprise your opponents with guerrilla tactics and gather resources from their actions in the battlefield. Of the ten new units in Oaths of Vengeance, six of them feature the Ambush and Raider keywords. Additionally, the pack introduces new supports and tactics that enrich the battlefield phase, adding greater strategy and dynamism to the game’s fast-paced warfare.

In the confusion of battle, the High Elves rally around their legendary Shadow King of Nagarythe, Alith Anar (Oaths of Vengeance, 21). One of only two High Elves to have invaded Naggaroth and escape unscathed, Alith Anar is an extremely elusive figure and a master of ambushes who is driven by a constant thirst for vengeance. Oaths of Vengeance brings this legend to life and allows him to lead his followers on numerous deadly skirmishes from the shadows. However, the High Elves aren’t the only ones ready to launch surprise assaults with the new cards from Oaths of Vengeance.

Heeding the Summons

While the Old World’s other races hatch ambushes and launch raids with their new cards from Oaths of Vengeance, the hordes of Chaos pursue a different approach to their conquest of the battlefield – brute strength.

What the “brute strength” approach lacks in subtlety, it can more than make up for in brutes. Oaths of Vengeance summons the Shaggoth Champion (Oaths of Vengeance, 33) to the battlefield, a unit that can potentially burn a zone in a single attack all by itself. Shaggoths are among the most ancient of monsters and infused with the power of Chaos. They bartered with the Ruinous Powers before the dawn of man and, as a result, can grow truly gigantic, increasing in power and vitality with each card your opponent has in his hand.

Of course, the “X” value that defines the Shaggoth Champion’s power and vitality also defines its cost, meaning that this behemoth of destruction may also be a prohibitively expensive addition to your ranks. Fortunately for you fans of Chaos, Oaths of Vengeance also includes the Epic Spell, Summons of Chaos (Oaths of Vengeance, 34), which allows you to play your heavy hitting Shaggoth Champion for merely two resources…and the offering to the Ruinous Powers of a chunk of your deck. Thus summoned, the Shaggoth Champion – or a Bloodthirster (Core Set, 92) or similarly powerful unit – can surprise your foes with its sudden ferocity. When you play multiple Summons of Chaos and burn through your deck to pay their costs, you may teeter on the brink of decking yourself out. Still, you shouldn’t need many turns with massive brutes like these crashing into the battlefield!

Seek Your Vengeance

With its new Ambush and Raider units and battlefield-focused tactics, Oaths of Vengeance provides the races of the Old World more reason than ever before to take to the battlefield and vie for dominance.

Head to your local retailer to pick up your copy of Oaths of Vengeance today, or find yours online on our webstore!

“From the high mountains to the deep jungles, armies march to the beat of drums and blowing horns, beneath a canopy of fluttering banners and gleaming standards.”     –Warhammer, “The World of Warhammer”

Want to learn more about Game Night Kits? Click the applicable link below:

What’s a Game Night Kit?How Do I Use a Game Night Kit?How Do I Order My Game Night Kit?

Retailers: You’ll soon be able to support your local player base for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game with our new Season One 2013 Game Night Kits, and for the first time ever, you’ll be able to bring the Old World’s battles to life with highly collectible, new alternate art cards!

Each Season One 2013 Warhammer: Invasion Game Night Kit contains a custom deck box, two sets of acrylic burn tokens, and a promotional poster. Additionally, it contains eleven alternate art cards that afford players exclusive access to new takes on two of the game’s most popular cards, Blood Dragon Knight (Legends, 53) and Contested Village (Core Set, 111).

Legends Born on the Battlefield

The Old World is a place of eternal war. Hordes of Chaos marauders and daemons sweep down from the north in wave after wave. Against them stand the Men of the Empire, the Dwarfs in their mountain Karaks, and the High Elves in their glittering armor. Their battles shape and reshape the world, both its landscape and its history. The dead litter the fields as carrion for scavenging animals. The victorious rise as legends.

Now the 2013 Season One Warhammer: Invasion Game Night Kits will give new shape to two of the game’s most popular cards. Their stunning, alternate art versions of the Blood Dragon Knight and Contested Village feature stunning new art and graphic design that puts the art front and center like never before.

Mechanically, these cards are the same as those in the game’s Core Set and the Legends deluxe expansion, and they will be tournament-legal. Slight variations in their production, however, means that players using these cards must sleeve their decks with opaque sleeves.

What’s in the Season One 2013 Warhammer: Invasion Game Night Kit?

Each Season One 2013 Warhammer: Invasion Game Night Kit comes with materials built to support eight players as they battle to conquer the Old World:

• Nine copies of Contested Village with alternate art by Julian Kok*
• Two copies of Blood Dragon Knight with alternate art by Alex Boca*
• One Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game deck box with art that characterizes the Dark Elves and the forces of Order
• Two sets of acrylic burn tokens
• One 13.5” x 19.5” promotional poster with an Orc warlord encouraging players to bust ‘eads at Game Night

*The ninth copy of the alternate art Contested Village and the second copy of Blood Dragon Knight are intended as rewards for the Game Night organizer.

Are You a Player?

You can do your part by telling your favorite local game store about our Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game Game Night Kits!

If you’re really interested, here are some other ways you can promote Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game Game Nights:

• Encourage your friends to join you and play at your favorite local game store
• Ask your favorite local game store if you can post a sign-up sheet
• Offer to run a demo day
• Volunteer your services as event organizer

The Contested Village and Blood Dragon Knight alternate art cards are exclusive to the Season One Warhammer: Invasion Game Night Kits. They will be available only for a limited period of time and won’t appear anywhere else, so be sure to talk with your local retailer about hosting Game Nights for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

Check Back on January 14, 2013!

Retailers: We recently posted our Organized Play calendar of events for 2013 (pdf, 1.2 MB), and the first day to order our Season One 2013 Game Night Kits is January 14. With their bold and highly-collectible alternate art cards, as well as their other contents, the 2013 Season One Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game Game Night Kits are certain to appeal to players, so be sure to check back on January 14 and be among the first to place your orders.

Get ready to bust ‘eads with the highly collectible and highly playable alternate art cards from the Season One 2013 Game Night Kits for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game. These great new kits are coming soon!

While actual slavery is horrible, the slavery theme of the Dark Elves in Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game can be rewarding and a lot of fun, sometimes even awesome. What's not to enjoy about taking control of your opponent’s units, even his most powerful Heroes, and turning them against him? Stealing your opponent’s Bloodthirster (Core Set, 92) or Friedrich Hemmler (Redemption of a Mage, 63) can turn the tide of most battles. And the Druchii already have plenty of ways to get slaves. Before the Eternal War cycle, they could take control of units in play or pick them from the discard pile. Now, with the first Battle Pack from Eternal War, the Druchii gain Capture Slaves (Days of Blood, 2), which allows you to fetch units directly out of your opponent’s deck.

What’s Yours Is Mine

But can the Dark Elves ever have enough slaves, or find enough ways to get more slaves? Of course not! The upcoming Battle Pack, Battle for the Old World, will not only bring you a unit that enslaves others after combat, but its Hex, Captured Mind (Battle for the Old World, 57), will ensure your opponent no longer has a safe refuge from your slavers. You will even be able to get at the units in your opponent's hand and make them subject to your will. While you might have to pay a good deal to steal your opponent’s best unit, you still might get it cheaper than your opponent would have, and just as with every other enslavement effect, your power will grow while his dwindles. While cards like Seeking New Slaves (The Silent Forge, 57) often add a little extra spice to deck destruction strategies, Captured Mind might be a good fit for decks that discard your opponent’s hand. It can further reduce your opponent’s hand size – and snatch away that precious unit he tried to shield from your other discard effects.

But you know how it is. While it’s perfectly okay to take your opponent’s units simply so that he can’t have them, sometimes you have to look at your slaves and wonder what good they are. Maybe you start getting the impression that they're useless, just moping about, trying to get their hands on the table scraps you don't feed them. Well, now you can rejoice! The wonderfully flavorful and unique effect of Hag Graef Mine (Battle for the Old World, 58) ensures that you can always benefit from controlling units you don't own. The greater the loyalty they held to their former master before you broke them, the better. Even if you use an effect that lets you control the unit for only one turn, you can still force it to experience a whole lifetime’s worth of misery in that short span of slavery. Send it to fight for you and then have it toil in your mines before you Whip the Slaves (The Burning of Derricksburg, 17) or throw it into the Slave Pen (March of the Damned, 29). Its slavery can lead to some great times!

…Well, not for the unit or your opponent. But definitely for you.

Thanks, Torsten!

What will you do with your enemy as you move to conquer the Old World? Will you force your opponent’s units to work for you with Captured Mind, Hag Graef Mine, and the other Dark Elf tricks from the Eternal War cycle? Look for these cards to arrive to retailers soon; Battle for the Old World is coming!

“Wurrzag Ud Ura Zahuba is a Savage Orc Shaman of mighty mystical powers. Known as da Great Green Prophet, Wurrzag is guided along his path by the greenskin gods. He leads tribes to greatness before wandering off to pursue yet another mad plan to advance Orcish kind.”     –Warhammer: Orcs & Goblins

Across the Old World, old enemies rekindle ancient rivalries and the battlefields erupt into action! Battle for the Old World, the third Battle Pack in the Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, is now available at local retailers and online through our webstore.

Battle for the Old World continues to develop the Eternal War cycle’s focus on dynamic Battlefield phases with its ten battle-ready units, including Rangers, Knights, Warriors, and War Machines. The cycle’s new Ambush keyword receives further development, and new Fortifications and other supports provide the foundation for focused new strategies. Additionally, several new tactics add ammunition for games full of dramatic back-and-forth skirmishes, as does a new greenskin legend.

Goblin Tactics

In Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, players have gotten used to the idea that Goblins are crazy, clever, vengeful, destructive little units who are full of potential that often goes unfulfilled. Units like the Sneaky Git (Signs in the Stars, 64) and Night Goblin Fanatic (Chaos Moon, 24) can launch into legendary murderous tirades, or they can crack utterly in the heat of battle. Others like the Squig Trackers (The Inevitable City, 2) offer hit-or-miss benefits when they enter play. A strong leader may craft his deck to optimize their potential, but even so, sometimes Goblins just won’t cooperate. Such is the way, too, of the Fungusbrew Goblin (The Silent Forge, 10), a unit that offers great early power, but is almost always running helter-skelter into the wrong zone… At least, it will if there actually is a “wrong” zone and your opponent can identify which one that is.

With such a long history of Goblins that offer great potential rewards, but at relatively high risk, perhaps it comes as no surprise that as the Orc faction gains a new high-risk legend, that legend should be a Goblin, Wurrzag (Battle for the Old World, 41).

In the Eternal War cycle, each faction gains a powerful new legend with the text, “Forced: When this legend enters play, you must burn 3 zones instead of 2 in order to win for the rest of the game.” When they use any of these Eternal War legends in their deck, players are taking a gamble. Sure, you might be able to stack the odds in your favor, but in order to benefit from the tremendous potential offered by legends that play for only three resources and two loyalty, you must accept that your basic victory condition is increased by fifty percent. Instead of burning two zones, you must burn three. The question is: Is it worth it?

Well, it helps that each of the Eternal War legends offers more than just its ultra-efficient power in each zone; each provides tremendous incentive to attack early…and keep attacking. Wurrzag is no exception, here, as he only gets better with each attack, so long as you have non-EpicSpell Orc tactics in your hand. Of course, if you’re building your deck around Wurrzag, you’ll likely include several copies of Waaagh! (Core Set, 79) and Bash ‘Em! (Chaos Moon, 26), to ensure that you attack hard and often.

In fact, since Wurrzag allows you to play a non-Epic Spell Orc tactic each time you attack, you may be able to chain several Battlefield phases together in a surprising blitz, playing a Bash ‘Em! in the Battlefield phase and then triggering the new quest from Battle for the Old World, Da Great Waaagh! (Battle for the Old World, 42).

The fact that a deck with Wurrzag is likely to string together multiple Battlefield phases makes your Warpstone Experiments (Legends, 48) another tremendously effective tactic. Even though Wurrzag won’t let you play it for free, its effects last until the end of the turn, meaning that your multiple Battlefield phases will help get more mileage from a tactic that already rates among the game’s best rush options.

Now, it’s fair to say that Wurrzag’s ability to enable wave upon wave of attacks in multiple Battlefield phases counts as great potential reward. Is it worth the risk you take by increasing your victory condition? That’s for time to decide…

Just don’t tell the greenskins that; they’re ready to Waaagh!

Get Your Waaagh! On

Get your waaagh! on now! Battle for the Old World is available at your local retailer and online on our webstore.

“The fate of the world, be it damnation or salvation, will soon be decided.”     –Warhammer

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Cataclysm, the fourth deluxe expansion for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

The battles of Warhammer: Invasion grow larger and more intense than ever before as Cataclysm introduces rules and components for a new, multiplayer format. Cataclysm comes with a rulebook, thirty-eight tokens, six fulcrum cards, and 159 player cards (three copies each of fifty-three different cards) that allow up to four players to war for dominion over the Old World. The expansion also provides new ammunition for those who wish to continue exploring the fast-paced, bloody, back-and-forth battles of the two-player matches from the Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game Core Set, and it marks the beginning of an exciting new release model for the game.

Subdue Your Foes and Establish Your Rule

The multiplayer rules in Cataclysm build upon the classic kingdom building, questing, and battles of Warhammer: Invasion and explore the shifting tides of battle between the Old World’s six main races with thirty-seven copies of a new form of token – the dominance token. In games of Cataclysm, these dominance tokens represent the success of your efforts to subdue your foes and establish your rule.

Each player starts with three dominance tokens on his capital and can build his dominance by attacking and controlling the game’s new fulcrum cards.

Magewrath Throne, a fulcrum.

Fulcrums are sites steeped in magical energies that offer powerful and far-reaching abilities to those who control and can channel them. Each fulcrum also features a number of dominance icons, and at the end of the turn, you can add one dominance token to your capital board for each dominance icon you control.

To seize control of a fulcrum, you must first attack it and, later, be able to defend it. The expansion’s six fulcrum cards are shuffled into a separate fulcrum deck at the beginning of the game, and at the beginning of each round, the top fulcrum is added to the play area (unless you and your friends have reached the maximum number of fulcrums for the game, which is the number of players in the game minus one). In games of Cataclysm, you gain the ability each battlefield phase to declare an attack against a fulcrum. This is in addition to the normal attack you may declare against an opponent’s zone or legend, and if you would deal even a single point of damage to the fulcrum, instead of placing damage on it, you seize control of it, adding it to your battlefield.

Lair of the Astromancer grants one dominance at the end of the round.

Fulcrums grant you more than dominance, though, as you can choose to channel them. To channel a fulcrum, you must first place an uncorrupted unit from your battlefield onto the fulcrum. While a unit is channeling a fulcrum, it remains in the battlefield but cannot attack. Furthermore, a channeling unit can only defend when the fulcrum it is channeling is attacked, but in that case it must defend, if it can.

While you battle for control of the game’s fulcrums, you must still mind your capital. For just as fulcrums give you the potential to gain dominance, you can also lose it:

• Each time a player’s zone burns, he loses one dominance.
• Each time a player’s deck is depleted, he loses one dominance.
• The first time a player has all three zones burning or no cards left in his deck, that player loses a point of dominance. This is in addition to the one dominance he loses normally, and it only happens the first time either condition is met (all three zones burning or no cards left in deck).

In Cataclysm, the Old World’s armies conclude their frenzied final attacks at the end of any round in which the players trigger any of three game ending conditions:

• A player has all three zones of his capital burning.
• A player has no cards left in his deck.
• A player has eight or more total dominance after gaining dominance during the end of round stage.

At the end of the round in which one of these conditions is met, the player with the most dominance wins the match.

Armies of the Old World

As each race of the Old World builds toward the moment when it’s ready to launch one great, unstoppable wave of assaults and win the war, it must find some means of fortifying its position or deflecting attention from its preparations. The Cataclysm multiplayer format permits elements of deal-making and deal-breaking, but it isn’t so much a game of tenuous and fragile alliances as it is one of surprise attacks and overwhelming forces.

Each of the Old World’s six great races finds its own personality and strategies fully developed through the new cards and multiplayer battles of Cataclysm.

• Even in the multiplayer format, Dwarfs rely upon their toughness and supports to withstand their enemies’ most brutal attacks and retaliate. Meanwhile, their grudges continue to fuel their attacks, and they gain several cards that boost their power while their zones are burning.
• Orcs launch their attacks with a maniacal frenzy, gaining strength and focus whenever they catch the scent of blood, and several of Orc cards can enter play for free or trigger actions when the Greenskins burn an opponent’s zone.
• The Empire excels at unifying its armies and marshaling tactical defenses. It features a number of cards that grant bonuses while their controller has no burnt zones.
• The High Elves remain an insular race, focusing on defense, healing, and control as they wear down their opponents with indirect damage. To help advance these strategies, they rely upon the talents of a few new Mages.
• As the other nations burn, the seeds of Chaos are sown. New units, Attachments, and tactics that gain power as opponents’ zones burn lend truth to the idea that Chaos grows as others falter.
• Dark Elves continue to bleed their opponents, destroying their supplies and spirits with hand and deck discard effects, as well as new ways to steal their opponents’ units.

Meanwhile, though the expansion’s player cards can all be used in two-player games, as well, many of them add a new element of risk and reward to your multiplayer matches. Like the Warpstone of Turmoil (Cataclysm, 51), these are powerful, inexpensive cards that can greatly change the shape of a game, but that forfeit the control of their effects to an opponent of your choice.

Key Battles to Win the War

Cataclysm will be the game’s fourth deluxe expansion, and it will also be the first in a new release model. Starting with Cataclysm, Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game will shift away from monthly Battle Packs to the release of three larger, deluxe expansions per year.

Last year, we made a similar adjustment to the release schedule for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. The change has been well received, and while monthly expansion packs are still the best fit for our other Living Card Games®, we are confident that this release model is better for both Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, and we are excited about the future of all our LCG lines!

Conquer the Old World

The battles of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game grow larger and more frenzied than ever before with the new units, supports, tactics, fulcrums, and dominance tokens of Cataclysm!

Look for Cataclysm and its epic battles for dominion over the Old World to arrive at retailers in the second quarter of 2013!

The Orcs live for battle. So it didn't come as a big surprise when the Morrslieb cycle gave the Greenskins the ability to wreak more and greater havoc by gaining an additional battlefield phase with Bash ‘Em! (Chaos Moon, 26). At the tournament level, though, where cost efficiency is crucial and players have fewer turns to build up large assault forces, this tactic hasn’t seen a lot of play. Nonetheless, we are now knee deep in the Eternal War cycle, which aims to emphasize battles more. For the Orcs, this renewed focus on battle is a tremendous boon. It means their thirst for more bloody clashes gets increased and rewarded.

In a recent article, we saw that the legendary mad shaman Wurrzag (Battle for the Old World, 41) allows you to play Bash 'Em! for free. Also, we learned that with Da Great Waaagh! (Battle for the Old World, 42), the Orcs gained another way to create an additional battlefield phase.

While attacking multiple times in one turn and therefore dealing damage multiple times is a great reward in itself, it gets better when you have the new Raider keyword. Then, more attacks mean more resources raided.

Orcish Glory

Your Greenskins’ celebrations won’t end there, though. The upcoming Battle Pack, Glory of Days Past, will further increase the rewards of a strategy incorporating multiple attacks. When you’re assaulting your opponent for the second time in one turn, the unique Borgut Facebeater (Glory of Days Past, 70) allows you to put any Orc unit in your hand into play as part of your attack, meaning that your nasty surprise attack will be a downright ugly one. After all, you might get a free Arachnarok Spider (Fragments of Power, 5), aimed straight at your opponent. Or since Borgut isn’t a Hero himself, he could net you a free Grimgor Ironhide (Core Set, 63). Let’s also note that with his three power at cost four, Borgut packs enough punch by himself that he’s a worthwhile combatant even if you don’t get to trigger his ability.

However, when you do get to send Borgut in for a second helping, you might want him accompanied by a Boar Rider (Glory of Days Past, 71), a unit for which the first attack is like foreplay. Boar Riders charge at your opponent much harder the second time around, and since their increased power lasts until the end of turn, your Boar Riders are great units if you can manage to create even more battlefield phases. And the whole time, they’ll steal new resources for you on their raids.

Muster Your Defenses

If you’re one of those players unlucky enough to see Borgut, the Boar Riders, and other rampaging Orcs ready to mount repeated strikes, things are likely to look grim. Your best option would be to destroy all the attackers during their first charge, but if you can’t, you might want to make sure you have some Imperial magic on your side. Because while the Bright Wizards are usually associated with offense, their flames can also serve to keep your enemies at bay.

Fulminating Cage (Glory of Days Past, 66) is the perfect counter to Orc decks that plan to launch multiple attacks, and it can save your hide from every other army, too. The safety it offers you comes at a steep price, though, even when you make use of its Ambush keyword. Also, if you plan to bring your Fulminating Cage into play with its Ambush ability, you’ll need to make sure it develops the right zone.

Why bother, then, with the guesswork and the resources? Especially against multiple attacks, but even against single attacks, the protection provided by this Epic Spell is greater than that offered by cards like Master Rune of Valaya (Core Set, 25). This is because Fulminating Cage doesn't just prevent damage, but also keeps many combat-related abilities, like the Scout and Raider keywords from triggering. And while it may be tricky to discern which zone is the best to protect, if your Imperial troops forge an alliance with the Dwarfs, you can call upon some of Burlock’s Ingenuity (City of Winter, 81) to make sure that no matter where you developed your Fulminating Cage, it was the right zone.

The Glory Days Are Still Ahead

With cards like Borgut Facebeater, Boar Rider, and Fulminating Cage coming soon, you’ll find new ways to win glory in the battles of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

Looking for a place to compete?

With April just around the corner, Fantasy Flight Games is excited for the impending FFG Regional Championship tournament season for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

These heated competitions are part of FFG’s Organized Play season for 2013, and they are a great way to meet new opponents and friends, hone your skills, and compete for unique prizes. This year, there are more venues hosting Regional Championship events than ever before, with over six hundred tournaments being held worldwide.

Regional Championship competitions are your chance to face off against the local community, win prizes, and earn entry to the FFG World Championship Weekend. Check our full list of Regional Championship Tournament venues to find a participating location near you, then test your mettle against your area’s best players!

Order and Destruction Continue Their Conflict

It’s war without end in Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game. The nations of the Old World nurse ancient grudges, and the forces of Order clash against the forces of Destruction in the fast and furious battles of Warhammer: Invasion.

Clash with fellow denizens of this war-torn world in the Regional Championship tournaments! Prizes await those who prove themselves in valiant battle. The Regional Champion will receive a trophy, free entry to World Championship Weekend, and a Regionals 2013 stoneware mug. Though there can only be one Champion in this blood-soaked contest, rewards are granted to those who give their all in the conflict. Players can win full-color Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game playmats or a set of six double-sided exclusive Capital cards.

The Road to World Championship Weekend

These competitions bring the best of the best into our 2013 FFG World Championship Weekend in Roseville, Minnesota, the premiere venue for matching your skills with the greatest players in the world. The winner of each Regional Championship is awarded free access to World Championship Weekend and a first round bye in the competition.

The path to becoming the World Champion of your favorite game begins with the Regional Championship tournaments that will take place all over the world. Our list of official Fantasy Flight Games Regional Championship tournaments is now live, so find a venue to show off your skills, learn some strategies, and make some new friends. Take up arms and destroy the competition in your neighborhood during the Regional Championships for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

“We sons of Grungi may have drunk deep from the bitter waters of misfortune, but we yet survive. Whilst a single Dwarf draws breath, we will fight the evils that assail us, and we will never, ever give up.”     –Hengist Stonebelly, Dwarf Longbeard

Reshape the Old World, and recapture the glory of a bygone era! Glory of Days Past, the fourth Battle Pack in the Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

Deep in the Worlds Edge Mountains, the Dwarfs prepare for battle. Their underground strongholds once ran the length of the Old World, but the cataclysmic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that devastated their empire also erased their greatest glories and left them beset on all sides by armies of Orcs, Goblins, Skaven, and Daemons. Still, the Dwarfs are a proud and hearty race, and they are master fighters within tunnels in which they live.

Glory of Days Past introduces a new legend to lead the armies of these doughty and venerable soldiers. It also features a new support to boost the Dwarfs’ early Kingdom-building, a new quest that reinforces their position as the Old World’s pre-eminent miners and engineers, and a new Engineer unit that comes ready to launch Ambushes on unsuspecting foes.

Fans of the game’s other races will find that Glory of Days Past offers them plenty of reasons to cheer, as well. Elite Greenskin Warriors and Cavalry surge forward in an endless tide of violence. Men of the Empire ready to meet them with both Spells and steel, though the forces of Chaos seek to corrupt every army’s mightiest heroes. High Elf Mages seek to protect themselves and their armies by harnessing the Eight Winds, even as their dark kin, the Dark Elves, draw strength from their hatred and malice.

New Glory from Old Riches

“Thorek is the keeper of Karak Azul’s Anvil of Doom. Almost alone among contemporary Runelords, Thorek has an understanding of their deeper mysteries. Whilst he has a complete respect for the power of the anvil, he does not fear it.”     –Warhammer: Dwarfs

If the Dwarfs hope to restore their empire to glory, they must first rally around a leader worthy of their support. Could that leader be the new legend from Glory of Days Past, Thorek Ironbrow (Glory of Days Past, 61)?

In his preview of Oaths of Vengeance, guest writer Torsten Krämer examined the new “greed” theme that the Eternal War cycle offers Dwarf players. With cards like the Veteran Thunderers (Days of Blood, 5) and Karak Hirn Warrior (Oaths of Vengeance, 25), the Dwarfs gain the means to Raid the battlefield for resources and then take new inspiration from their plundered riches. These riches then fuel the Dwarf greed theme in many different ways over the course of the Eternal War cycle. As an example, the Karak Hirn Warrior can attack or defend from any zone whenever his controller keeps at least three resources in his pool.

Now that Glory of Days Past is available at retailers, the Dwarfs gain yet another way to forge their futures from hordes of gold. Whenever he attacks, Thorek Ironbrow can put one Dwarf support card into play with a cost of X or less, where X is the number of resources in his controller’s pool.

The Dwarfs, with their tremendous runecrafting and engineering, have developed a wide range of powerful supports that can do everything from enhancing their power and increasing their Toughness to granting units protection from their opponents’ abilities and increasing the cost of enemy units. Being able to bring these supports into play with Thorek Ironbrow’s ability means, then, that you can gain the benefits of their power and abilities and save the resources in your pool to play valuable tactics on your opponent’s turn, such as the Master Rune of Valaya (Core Set, 25), Empty the Hold (The Deathmaster’s Dance, 62), or Demolition (Core Set, 23).

Of course, if Thorek Ironbrow leads the Dwarfs into the thick of battle, you may want to support him with the neutral support, Descendant of Gods (Fragments of Power, 36). Not only does it offer the legend the ability to defend any of your zones, it also allows him to absorb more damage so that he can heal more damage with Strength of Emperors (Glory of Days Past, 80) and draw more cards.

Seek New Glory

Seek your glory today. Thorek Ironbrow and Strength of Emperors are just two of the many battle-focused new cards in Glory of Days Past as the Eternal War cycle marches the game back to the battlefield as warhorns blare on every side!

Head to your local retailer today to get your copy of Glory of Days Past, or order it online from our webstore.

EDITED Feb 28 at 16:30 CST: The tournament rules have been updated. To be tournament legal, decks that use alternate art cards must be sleeved using opaque or art sleeves.

“The world is littered with the detritus of a hundred thousand battles. The bones of the dead lie scattered in shallow graves. Every vale, ford and copse has seen the blood of warriors spilt.”     –Warhammer, “The Years of Conflict”

A new Regional Championship Tournament Season closes in upon a world of eternal war, and the developers of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game have anticipated the season’s first skirmishes by updating the game’s FAQ (pdf, 8.2 MB) and tournament rules (pdf, 4.5 MB).

Download the FAQ (left) or tournament rules (right)

A printer-friendly version of the FAQ is also available on the game’s support page.

The battles for the Old World look to be as ferocious as ever in 2013, inspired by the game’s new Eternal War cycle and some of the rulings, restrictions, and errata the developers have implemented in the new FAQ.

Below, the game’s developers speak in more depth about the contents of the new FAQ and tournament rules, and they provide some insights into their rationale.

Inside the Updated Warhammer: Invasion FAQ

Greetings, Warhammer: Invasion players!

With FAQ update 2.0, we are tweaking the competitive environment and breaking up combos that lead to negative play experiences. As such, we have expanded the restricted list and issued errata for several cards. In addition to these changes, you’ll also notice that the FAQ has been reordered to be easier to read and more intuitive to use. New rules released in the latest cycle have also been incorporated, along with new rules questions.

The main goal of these updates is to promote greater variety within the metagame. The restricted list is intended to generate deeper gameplay by making players decide between several of the game’s most powerful cards. However, because competitive players rarely selected a restricted card other than Warpstone Excavation (Core Set, 116), we decided the previous restricted list was not adequately impacting the metagame. Accordingly, we have added more cards to the restricted list, forcing each race to make difficult choices as to which of the game’s most powerful cards they want to include in their decks.

• Dwarf Ranger (Core Set, 10): Dwarf Ranger was restricted to break up the game-winning combo with Reclaiming the Fallen (The Silent Forge, 42). Its restriction should also lead to increased unit variation among Dwarf decks.
• Urguck (Core Set, 62) and Fist of Mork (City of Winter, 82): These cards were added to the list to break up an infinite combo; neither is degenerate on its own.
• Judgement of Loec (Legends, 26): This card gave the High Elves easy unit removal.
• Sacrifice to Khaine (The Chaos Moon, 37) and Temple of Spite (Vessel of the Winds, 75): Dark Elf control strategies have long been competitive at the top tiers because of the wide variety of control cards available to them. The restriction of these cards limits their choices and forces players to be more creative.
• Sorcerer of Tzeentch (The Twin Tailed Comet, 53): The low loyalty cost of this unit made it an easy splash in any destruction deck. Its restriction makes its inclusion in a deck a harder decision instead of an auto include. Its presence also easily leads to degenerate game states where one player has locked down the board.
• Mounted Marauders (Rising Dawn, 12) and Beastman Incursion (The Accursed Dead, 60): Both of these cards provide Chaos with a high degree of flexibility, allowing them to easily control both unit and support cards.
• Muster for War (Days of Blood, 20): Muster for War was restricted as it provided too much of a competitive advantage for the player that was fortunate enough to draw a copy or two early in the game.

More choices mean more deck types, and more deck types mean a healthier game. The expanded restricted list should also enhance the diversity of already popular decks, depending on which card from the restricted list each chooses to use.

Of course, without a change to Warpstone Excavation, the restricted card that has long been the most popular by far, adding more cards to the restricted list still would not have the intended effect.

As such, both Warpstone Excavation and Muster for War are not only on the restricted list, but they have also received errata to say, “Limit 1 per deck.” Both cards created a disproportionate amount of acceleration for the players lucky enough to draw them in their first few turns and were excellent fuel for combo decks that were not fun to play against. Combo decks have their place in most card games, but when they warp the metagame, a response becomes necessary. You will find several other errata that break up potential infinite combos. While we don’t want to discourage players from using powerful cards, their effects need to be mitigated for the health of the game.

    –Warhammer: Invasion Developers Brad Andres & Lukas Litzsinger

Thanks, guys!

The time has come to plan your battles and war for the Old World. Download the updated Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game FAQ today, and get a jump on the 2013 Regional Championship Tournament Season!

“Knights are magnificent figures, clad in gleaming plate armour crafted by Dwarven smiths, armed with weaponry of the finest quality and mounted on powerful destriers.”     –Warhammer: The Empire, “Knightly Orders”

The Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game has renewed the game’s focus on the fast-paced and lethal conflicts that take place during the battlefield phase.

In the past months, we’ve seen a wide array of cards that give players new reasons to attack. We’ve seen units with the Raider keyword, units with the experience mechanic, and units that can trigger powerful abilities when they attack. Now, as the hordes of Chaos marauders gather to sweep down from the north in a bloody tide of violence, guest writer Torsten Krämer looks at three cards coming in The Ruinous Hordes that are not focused on attacking, but are instead focused on defense.

Torsten Krämer on the Panther Champion

The Empire’s defensive abilities have always been among its strengths. Their abilities to divert attacks and take out opposing units with Counterstrike can make them a tough nut to crack. And the Empire’s defenses have only become more important throughout the Eternal War cycle as their foes have gained the Raider keyword, powerful Battlefield abilities, and more reasons than ever before to attack, attack, attack.

Fortunately, as their enemies gain attackers, the Empire is able to match them with the acquisition of stalwart defenders. Coming in The Ruinous Hordes, the Panther Champion (The Ruinous Hordes, 86) can challenge an attacking unit to single combat. If it does, both units are removed from the main battle and deal damage to the other equal to their power.

The Panther Champion’s ability offers you a range of tactical options when you’re attacked. Against multiple attackers, the Panther Champion can split your opponent’s power so that you can defeat the opposing force without losing a unit that the attackers normally would have been able to destroy by combining their power. You can more easily frustrate your opponent by dividing and conquering his forces if you have more than one Panther Champion, and the situation only gets better for you if you can make your Panther Champion tougher or more powerful, make him capable of defending any zone with Protect the Empire (Arcane Fire, 106), or bring him into play as a surprise defender with Waiting in Ambush (Signs in the Stars, 69).

Since both the Panther Champion and the target attacking unit are removed from combat, you will be able to cancel a number of effects that only work while attacking. For example, the Panther Champion is just the man to take care of a unit wielding Basha's Bloodaxe (Warpstone Chronicles, 91). If all else fails, your Panther Champion can sacrifice himself to keep a single, overwhelmingly powerful unit from continuing its attack and dealing damage to your capital or legend.

Test of Will

Of course, the Eternal War cycle has given us another great way to handle attackers – the Ambush keyword. Units with this keyword can ambush from facedown developments into defenders, often triggering special abilities, and the Dark Elves possess one of the best of these units, the Bride of Khaine (Days of Blood, 3). While she can outright destroy an attacking unit with her ability, the Druchii promise to make your attacks even risker with the new tactic, Test of Will (The Ruinous Hordes, 97).

Ambushed from facedown, Test of Will can get rid of one attacker or cancel your opponent’s attack for free, but at two cost it's also cheap enough that we will surely see it played from hand. Though it’s much like the ever popular Sacrifice to Khaine (Chaos Moon, 37), Test of Will is restricted in when it can be played. But it’s also restricts your opponent in his choice of units to sacrifice, making the card both a curse and a blessing to the Druchii cause, and clever Dark Elf players will be able to ensure it's more of the latter.

Lying in Wait

Finally, The Ruinous Hordes gives us a tactic that makes sure that everyone who uses Ambush cards can look forward to the next pack, not just the Druchii. Lying in Wait (The Ruinous Hordes, 100) allows you to turn your units back into developments after they've ambushed, so that they can do it again.

Even if you don't rely on Ambush, this tactic can come in handy. It can help you net the gain of a development from a unit that is about to be destroyed, and much like Dance to Loec (Fragments of Power, 17), Lying in Wait can counter the sudden trigger of an opponent's effect that relies on you not having developments or enhance the effect of a card you control whose strength depends on the number of developments you control.

Thanks, Torsten!

Along with the game’s latest FAQ, the Eternal War cycle is revitalizing the bloody battles that lie at the heart of Warhammer: Invasion, and as attackers gain more and more abilities to trigger, it pays to have a good defense.

Look for the Panther Champion, Test of Will, and Lying in Wait to reshape the battlefields of the Old World soon. The Ruinous Hordes arrives at retailers next week!

“The numberless hordes that live under the shadow of Chaos are stirred from their continual raiding and infighting, their differences put aside as their gods call them to war […] It is at these times that the world is in its greatest danger, for the united tribes are a force unparalleled in strength and ferocity by any civilized nation.”     –Warhammer: Storm of Chaos

Prepare for the fight of your lives! The gods of Chaos have called their minions to war, and the united tribes are now poised to strike. The Ruinous Hordes, the fifth Battle Pack in the Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, is now available at local retailers and online through our website!

Will the other races be prepared for the next surge of Chaos? Whether or not they will prove sufficient, each of the races gains new units and tactics to control the flow of combat within the sixty new cards (three copies each of twenty individual cards) of The Ruinous Hordes. The new tactics, Knights, War Machines, and Nobles arriving in the Battle Pack allow the forces of Order to mount a renewed defense against the forces of Destruction. Still, the forces of Destruction crash forward in waves of their own. The Orcs can afford their sacrifices, but the Dark Elves prefer to make their foes sacrifice their own.

Meanwhile, The Ruinous Hordes stirs the forces of Chaos into a frenzy. From the waste lands of the north, they prepare to sweep across the Old World, bathing it in blood, with their new units, new legend, and new mission.

Chaos and Corruption

Over the course of the Eternal War cycle, each of the game’s six races gains a number of new types of cards that are bound to see play at all levels, from casual play to top-tier competitions. In The Ruinous Hordes, the disciples of Chaos blast into the evolving battlefield with four of these new card types:

The new Chaos legend, Sigvald the Magnificent (The Ruinous Hordes, 81), shares the same Forced ability as the cycle’s other legends: “When this legend enters play, you must burn 3 zones instead of 2 in order to win for the rest of the game.” As with each of the cycle’s other legends, though, Sigvald’s low cost and powerful secondary ability go a long way toward offsetting the penalty to the victory condition. When Sigvald attacks, his controller can discard the top card of his deck to increase the damage Sigvald deals in combat by +X where X equals the discarded card’s cost. A blind, random boost suits the nature of the forces of Chaos, but you can also “cheat” the blind boost by peeking with the Lord of Change (March of the Damned, 21), stacking your deck with expensive Spells or Epic Spells with P’tarix (Vessel of the Winds, 73), or by using other deck manipulation effects.

The forces of Chaos receive the cheap support and power the cycle promised them with Northern Wastes (The Ruinous Hordes, 83). With the recent erratum applied to Warpstone Excavation (Core Set, 116), limiting it to one per deck, the game’s races have more incentive than ever to look to their own units and supports for early acceleration, and supports like Northern Wastes may prove to be the key to victory on the game’s newest and bloodiest battlefields.

While the other races focus on setting traps with the cycle’s new Ambush keyword, the forces of Chaos focus, instead, on tearing down all that the others have created. The battlefield tactics that others build up, the forces of Chaos tear down. The Empire wants to create an Ambush? The Norse Charger (The Ruinous Hordes, 84) can examine its developments and rip its Ambush card out of the zone before the Empire ever gets the chance. Brute strength and devious cunning – it’s the Chaos way!

Finally, the minions of Chaos may be a fractious and quarrelsome lot, but when united by their gods, they are a nearly unstoppable force, advancing their dark gods agendas on multiple fronts at once. While some disciples spread pestilence, blister the battlefield with magic, and swing their blades to give blood to the blood god, others are more insidious, working within the realms of their enemies to sow corruption. They are every bit as likely to bring ruin to the other races as their more violent allies, and if left unchecked on their mission, their efforts may lead to the Dominion of Chaos (The Ruinous Hordes, 82).

New Battles Today!

The new cards from the Eternal War cycle have made the battlefield a truly frenzied and tumultuous place. Ferocious warriors on all sides vie for survival and control of the Old World. Now, with the release of The Ruinous Hordes, the forces of Chaos launch a powerful surge, and the other races scramble to prepare their defenses.

Head to your local retailer today, or visit our webstore, to pick up your copy of The Ruinous Hordes!

This year, one of the world’s largest tournaments for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game will carry more prestige than ever… Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce that Assault on Wroclaw, one of the most popular gatherings for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, will host the game’s 2013 European Championship tournament! This April 27th – 28th, players will carry their siege engines to the Castle Cultural Centre in Wroclaw, where they will battle for the fate of the Old World. The skirmishes are sure to be fast and ferocious, driven to the battlefield by the wealth of new deck types inspired by the Eternal War cycle and the most recent tournament rules and FAQ. In the end, only one Champion will emerge victorious from the chaos of war, and in addition to all the event’s accolades and custom prizes, this Champion will win the coolest prize in gaming – the chance to work with the game’s designers to create a Champion Card and forever stamp his legend upon the game! Tournament organizer, Przemyslaw Zub offers more information about the event.

Assault on Wroclaw – Warhammer: Invasion European ChampionshipsDark days are coming… You hear the Calling. It invites you to set forth upon yet another expedition. It invites you to draw your sword, chant your next spell, and devise new tactics to outwit your enemy. The Calling leads you to an ancient city. A city of rulers and mockery. A citadel of arbiters and martyrdom. A fortress of bards and conquerors… Countless legends tell of riches torn from dragons (and somehow from the Dwarfs). These legends have attracted adventurers for years, but only a few of them survived the maze of traps, defeated the powerful guards at the city’s center, reached out, and seized their rewards!One song tells of a woman, a brave warrior, who lead a band of renegade dwarves who managed to plant their banner on the top of the city’s tallest tower. Another relates the story of a young man who, not so long ago, crept into the city like the morning mist with his devilish intrigues and Dark Elves and became its ruler… The songs, the bards, and an empty place in the Hall of Heroes awaits the city’s next legend, the one who will heed the Calling and seize his glory in this famous struggle for the Old World! Dark days are coming… The Twin Tailed Comet fell somewhere in the areas of Kislev It is a sign of coming war. Launch your assault now! Who knows what awaits us next? Who can predict the fate of the world? Do not hesitate. Assault on Wroclaw calls!

I am pleased and honored to invite you to the next installment of Assault on Wroclaw, the tournament that has become a legend on the Warhammer: Invasion stage. As usual, this event will be the Polish Regional Championship. More importantly, Assault on Wroclaw will also be the 2013 European Championship, and I hope that it will beat all previous editions for turnout, level, and satisfaction. We are expecting seventy to ninety players, so come on! Be a part of this great event! Our tournament venue is the beautiful, old castle in Lesnica, Wroclaw. We have a whole dungeon to our disposition, to play Warhammer: Invasion, talk, and enjoy post-tournament camaraderie. You can find more details below, and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at: zubprzemyslaw@gmail.com.

Assault on WroclawDate:                April 27th – 28th, 2013 Location:            Castle Cultural Centre         pl. John’s 1         54-076 Wroclaw         http://www.zamek.wroclaw.plAwards:   

•         Assault on Wroclaw Trophy 2013 (for the winner)
•         Regional Champion Trophy 2013
•         World Championship Weekend ticket
•         Unique Assault on Wroclaw fan-made Capital Boards for each player
•         Roughly twenty board and card games
•         Two Regionals 2013 stoneware mugs
•         Eight Full-color Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game playmats   
•         Sixteen sets of six double-sided Regionals-exclusive Capital Cards
•         One “prize Ruins” playmat or deck box from the FFG archives for the last-place player
•         Books from Warhammer world

        …and…

•         The 2013 European Champion earns the right to work with the game’s developers to design a card for future play!

For any other questions, concerns, or information related to Assault on Wroclaw and the 2013 Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game European Championships, please email Przemyslaw Zub at zubprzemyslaw@gmail.com.

Five bold Battle Packs have propelled us deep into the blistering skirmishes of the Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game. New legends have risen to lead the Old World’s races. New units have devised clever ambushes and conducted profitable raids. And the battlefields flow with blood.

The screams of the dying are drummed out by the war cries of the victorious, and the Eternal War cycle, in conjunction with the game’s latest FAQ, have driven Warhammer: Invasion players back to the deadly to-and-fro of the game’s lethal combats. You want to survive? Then you must win. You want to win? Then you must crush your foes on the field of battle.

Throughout the Eternal War cycle, each of the game’s six races have received a new legend, a cheap one-cost support, and a new Mission quest – all but one, that is, the Empire. Still, their time is coming. Their patron god, Sigmar, would never abandon them, and their faith keeps them true. It unites them. It gives them strength. In Faith and Steel, the Empire rallies around its legend, Balthasar Gelt (Faith and Steel, 101) and re-enters the fray, newly focused and re-energized!

Today, guest writer Torsten Krämer explores some of the exciting possibilities awaiting players with the release of Faith and Steel.

Torsten Krämer on Anything but the Empire

The upcoming Battle Pack, Faith and Steel, will give the Empire a major boost. They get their new legend, quest, cheap support statue, and an Ambush unit. In fact, there will be so much nice stuff for the Empire, one of the other factions will get jealous and steal its Experience mechanic! And what do Warhammer: Invasion guest writers do when the Empire is demanding so much serious attention? We ignore it. Of course.

Let's talk about the Orcs instead! They’re green, they like pigs, and in Warhammer: Invasion, they have always been about attacking. If the Orcs don't try to hit you fast and hard, they try to smash everything you own…and then hit you fast and hard. This aspect of their personality has been reinforced throughout the Eternal War cycle, demonstrated by their newfound methods of generating multiple battlefield phases.

In Faith and Steel, the Orcs get another unit that fits in nicely with their offensive endeavors, but they also–finally–get a card for defense. And I think it’s one of the very best cards yet for the Orcs, who have desperately wanted more good supports. The Orc Warning Post (Faith and Steel, 112) can keep any zone quite safe. Actually, because it’s not unique, using multiple copies of it can keep all of your zones quite safe, or keep one of them ridiculously safe.

Sure, all your opponent needs to do to blank its text box is sacrifice a development, but you know what Orcs are good at besides attacking? Getting rid of developments! With a Snotling Invasion (Fragments of Power, 18) underway, Grimgor Ironhide (Core Set, 63) cleaning up, or even just an old-fashioned Smash-Go-Boom! (Core Set, 74), you might be able to force your opponent into some dire troubles as he tries to blank the Warning Post's text box. This can give you the time you need to set up a devastating series of battlefield phases, or finally see your unit on Smash ‘Em All! (Core Set, 72) complete the quest.

What Next?

The final card in Faith and Steel, the one with the highest set number, has a name that aptly fits its place as the final card in the Eternal War cycle: End Times (Faith and Steel, 120).

This neutral Epic Spell has more to offer than a fitting name, though. It can be a powerful finisher and the basis for a risky, yet potentially devastating strategy. Think about it: How many big and powerful units with come-into-play effects can you fit into a deck trying to profit from End Times? It can be a risky gamble, turning out better for your opponent than for you, and it can be a nasty early surprise for an opponent trying to destroy your deck.

Will you try to use End Times? More importantly, how will you prepare for it showing up in your opponents' decks? An unpredictable, tricky powerhouse, End Times is just one of many cards in Faith and Steel that ensure the battlefields of Warhammer: Invasion continue to ring with the sounds of Eternal War!

Thanks, Torsten!

Much as the card, End Times, can be a powerful finisher, it shows how the battles of Warhammer: Invasion can rage eternal. New forces arrive to replace those who have fallen, ancient enmities between the races are rekindled, and the Old World trembles as their armies collide!

Look for End Times, Orc Warning Post, and the other cards from Faith and Steel to add more fuel to the fires of Warhammer: Invasion when this Battle Pack arrives at retailers next week. In the meantime, visit our website and forums for more news and discussion related to Warhammer: Invasion, including the announcement of the 2013 Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game European Championships!

“There can be no failure in this battle for the fate of the world.”     –Emperor Karl Franz, addressing his troops at the battle of Mount Eyrie

The 2013 Regional Championship tournament season for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game is now underway, and the year’s first shots have already been fired in the ongoing battle for the Old World!

FFG’s Regional Championship tournaments are exciting events that draw top players and enthusiasts from far and wide to compete for exclusive prizes, including playmats, custom Capital cards, and a Championship trophy. Additionally, the winner of each Regional Championship earns free entry to the FFG World Championship Weekend, November 7th – 10th.

While these Regional Championships hold an obvious allure for experienced veterans of Warhammer: Invasion, they’re also great opportunities for newer players to join a larger community of gamers, to find new players, make new friends, and learn some new tricks and tactics.

Of course, it’s always nice to know what you might expect, so what should new players know about the metagame for this year’s Warhammer: Invasion Regional Championships? For a closer look at the year’s tournament scene, we interviewed the 2012 World Champion, Jeremy Zwirn.

Jeremy Zwirn in action during the 2012 World Championship Weekend

World Champion Jeremy Zwirn on the Warhammer: Invasion Metagame   FFG: What sort of strategies do you expect to see during the 2013 Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game Regional Championships, and which do you think will be most difficult to defeat?   JZ: “The much-lauded FAQ 2.0 has done an outstanding job of balancing the playing field. I believe every faction has a chance of winning, and the current metagame is the most balanced it has ever been. While I expect to see every faction well represented, I think two factions in particular will be more difficult to defeat: Orcs and Empire.   “Orc control is very difficult to play against because they have answers for everything: if you rely too heavily on units, they can destroy them all with Troll Vomit (Core Set, 80), and if you rely too heavily on supports and developments, they can destroy them with Grimgor Ironhide (Core Set, 63). The Unending Horde (Rising Dawn, 6) provides resiliency to Orc units and reduces the collateral damage from Troll Vomit. Mork's Teef Ritual (The Iron Rock, 51) and Rip Dere 'Eads Off (Core Set, 75) can get massive units like Bloodthirster (Core Set, 92) and Grimgor Ironhide into play cheaply and at action-speed. If the game slows down, the ultra-efficient Spider Riders (The Skavenblight Threat, 8) and pesky Snotling Invasion (Fragments of Power, 18) can slowly grind opponents to death. Orc control doesn't have a major weakness, but if your deck does, the Orcs can exploit it.

“The Empire has arguably gained the most from the latest FAQ, simply by losing the least. Cards like Imperial Zoo (The Imperial Throne, 109) and Sons of Coin (The Iron Rock, 52) rapidly build the Empire's economy while Rodrick's Raiders (March of the Damned, 7) and Osterknacht Elite (The Eclipse of Hope, 87) generate tempo by disrupting your opponents’ efforts to build economies of their own. Call for Reserves (Legends, 21) lets the Empire play those units at the most opportune time and also allows them to reuse the powerful abilities that trigger when they enter play. Friedrich Hemmler (Redemption of a Mage, 63) can dominate games with his mighty stats of five power and five hit points, and his Forced ability can decimate rush decks. Red Arrow Coach (The Accursed Dead, 50) can taxi Hemmler to wherever his services are needed for a small fee of one resource. Finally, Church of Sigmar (Core Set, 39) and Iron Discipline (Tooth and Claw, 45) help protect the Empire’s units by making it difficult and costly for opponents to target them. The Empire is well-rounded and consistent which makes them challenging to defeat.”

FFG: How do you feel the metagame has changed since Worlds?   JZ: “The Eternal War cycle has altered the metagame with the introduction of many powerful cards. The new keyword Raider is especially powerful. Cards like Goblin Raiders (Oaths of Vengeance, 31) and Ostland Greatswords (Glory of Days Past, 65) have become staples because they generate free resources every time they survive an attack. The cycle of faction-specific support cards like Outlying Tower (Oaths of Vengeance, 23) and Mob O' Hutz (Battle for the Old World, 43) are fast becoming ubiquitous in tournament decks. Their ratio of one power for one resource is exceptional, and they also provide a loyalty symbol, unlike the once heavily-played Contested Village (Core Set, 111). The Battle Packs from Eternal War have also introduced a cycle of aggressively costed legends that have become foundations for decks. Crone Hellebron (Days of Blood, 1) has made deck-discarding a viable strategy and Wurrzag (Battle for the Old World, 41) fits nicely into Orc control decks by letting you play tactics like Troll Vomit and Pillage (Core Set, 78) for free every time he attacks. Wolf Gobbos (The Ruinous Hordes, 94) gives Orcs another weapon for unit removal and pairs well with The Unending Horde. The Eternal War cycle, along with the new FAQ, has really changed the metagame and I'm looking forward to participating in the 2013 Regional Championships!”

Thanks, Jeremy!

Do Orcs and the Empire have the early edge heading into the 2013 Regional Championship tournament season? Despite the recent FAQ and the restrictions and errata it introduced to level the playing field, will players still find ways to run rampant with High Elf indirect damage? Can Chaos continue to make big shows at top events, eating away at its opponents’ lives and souls?

The Regional Championship tournament season runs through June, so you still have time to make your deck and join the fun! You can find a Regional Championship near you by consulting our lists of United States and international venues.

More information about the reigning Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game World Champion Jeremy Zwirn and the contents of his 2012 World Championship deck are available at his place of honor in FFG’s Hall of Heroes.

“The fearsome Battle Wizards of the Colleges of Magic destroy the Emperor’s enemies with powerful spells, and heavily armoured horsemen of the Knightly Orders crush their foes beneath their thunderous charges.”     –Warhammer: The Empire

The Empire’s greatest mage has arrived to join his nation’s Knightly Orders on the field of battle. Faith and Steel, the sixth and final Battle Pack in the Eternal War cycle for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, is now available at local retailers and online through our webstore!

Faith and Steel lends new strength to the Empire’s cause, and to each of the game’s six races. The Empire gains the powerful new legend, Balthasar Gelt (Faith and Steel, 101); an efficient support card that’s great for the early game; a versatile Mission quest; and a new Ambush unit. Meanwhile, the Empire’s allies and enemies also gain valuable units, supports, and tactics, all of which they will soon employ in the final, climactic battles of the Eternal War cycle!

Steeds and Steel and Spells

The Old World of Warhammer: Invasion is torn by constant strife. Soldiers clash and die on blood-soaked battlefields. Though the members of other races find inspiration in ancient enmities, fueled by the rage that burns in their bellies, men of the Empire gain their strength from faith and steel. They find a shining example of courage and valor in their patron deity, Sigmar, and they draw hope from such sights as lines of fully armored knights charging through their foes.

Now, as the Empire’s Knightly Orders thunder across the Old World’s battlefields, the Empire’s armies gain further support from the arrival of the nation’s most powerful wizard, Balthasar Gelt. Much as the threat of his spells makes the Empire’s swords, spears, and lances all the more effective, the cards from Faith and Steel complete and enhance the battlefield-focused strategies enabled by the Eternal War cycle.

The sample deck list below illustrates how Faith and Steel and the other Battle Packs from the Eternal War cycle offer new hope to the Empire’s Knights.

Legend (3): Balthasar Gelt x3

Units (15): Glorious Preceptor x3 Knights Panther x3 Osterknacht Elite x3Panther Champion (The Ruinous Hordes, 86) x3 Rodrik’s Raiders x3

Supports (20):Chapterhouse Stables (Battle for the Old World, 49) x3 Church of Sigmar x3 Clockwork Horse x3Pyromancy (The Ruinous Hordes, 87) x3 Runefang of Solland x3The Emperor’s Statue (Faith and Steel, 103) x3

Tactics (6): Ancient Map x3 Call for Reserves x3Devoted to Taal (Battle for the Old World, 48) x2

Quests (6): Protect the Empire x3Recon in Force (Faith and Steel, 102) x3

This Empire deck is built around the Knight trait and makes use of no fewer than twenty cards from the Eternal War cycle, including the key ingredients of its alchemy, Chapterhouse Stables and Balthasar Gelt. These cards both provide early power and can greatly reduce the cost of the first Knight unit played each turn, meaning that when you ride through your opponent’s units with the Osterknacht Elite (The Eclipse of Hope, 87), you’ll still have plenty of resources to send more Knights to your battlefield and to pay for abilities like that of the Knights Panther (Redemption of a Mage, 64).

Of course, Balthasar Gelt’s ability reduces the cost of the first card you play each turn, no matter the type, so while his ability can combine with that of the Chapterhouse Stables to reduce the cost of your first Knight, it can also reduce the cost of your Chapterhouse Stables, itself, or of tactics such as Call for Reserves (Legends, 21), which can return your Osterknacht Elite to your hand to conduct another charge.

Meanwhile, Devoted to Taal ensures that you won’t lose any highly valuable cards to Balthasar Gelt’s experience, Recon in Force provides card draw and allows you to recycle valuable units and tactics from your discard pile, and the Panther Champion makes an imposing defender when he quests to Protect the Empire (Arcane Fire, 5). In fact, one or two Panther Champions can greatly mitigate enemy attacks when they’re equipped with the Runefang of Solland (Warpstone Chronicles, 85), Pyromancy, and one or more copies of the Clockwork Horse (Realm of the Phoenix King, 23).

To War!

The Eternal War cycle has brought Warhammer: Invasion back to the battlefield with a mighty roar. Now, whether you ride with the Empire’s Knightly Orders or summon daemons to the battlefield, you’ll find bold inspiration for new decks and strategies among the sixty new cards of Faith and Steel (three copies each of twenty individual cards).

Pick up your copy of Faith and Steel today! Head to your local retailer, or order your copy online from our webstore.

“The Great Cataclysm shook the firmament with such force its echoes still pervade, and always will. All semblance of tranquility was blasted away in an instant.”     –Warhammer, “War Unending”

The world of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game is a world of blood and war. The Great Cataclysm reshaped the Old World in a howling tempest of raw magic. It altered lands and beasts; they were twisted from their former beauty into terrible and maddening shapes. The game’s six races must constantly prove themselves in battle. Monsters, Orcs, and minions of Chaos prowl the wilds, and barbaric hordes thunder down from the north. Even among the forces of Order, ancient enmities can erupt into open hostility. No place is safe, and just when you think you may have formed an unbeatable battle plan, along come the multiplayer battles of Cataclysm…

When you participate in the fast-paced, back-and-forth battles of two-player Warhammer: Invasion, you may not always know when the next attack is coming, but you always know who’s going to launch it. In the multiplayer battles of Cataclysm, however, your opponents’ attacks can be much harder to predict. There are more of them, and they can come from any side. That makes defending yourself a much more difficult prospect in Cataclysm than in the two-player game, so it might be to your benefit to encourage your opponents to direct their attacks at each other, instead.

Today, guest writer Torsten Krämer looks at the fleeting alliances and opportunistic backstabbing made possible by the multiplayer format in Cataclysm.

Fleeting Alliances and Opportunistic Attacks

Among the things that excite me most about Cataclysm are the interactions you only get in a multiplayer game. The discussions. Convincing the Dark Elf player he should attack the Dwarfs instead of my cute, harmless little Goblins. Trying to get everyone to gang up on the High Elves because, really, who wants all that indirect damage? The deals. Forming an alliance – and then stabbing your ally in the back when the time is right. Surely some games will be so fast and vicious, there will be little time for such deal-making, but the manipulation of other players will have its place, and it’ll add a whole new dimension to the game.

While all this come naturally with the format, Cataclysm also brings us cards which support these interactions. One such card is Chosen of the Gods (Cataclysm, 39). I both love and hate this card. I hate it out of fear; it’s effect is so profound, and I don’t want to be the one who sees his undamaged, perfectly defended zone go up in flames. But I love it because it often leads to negotiations, to promises – and ultimately to treachery. Sure, if you’re the Chaos player who wants to play this tactic, you might want to wait until one of your zones is burning; otherwise, you can suffer the effect yourself. But, ideally, you’ll find a way to play it early, likely encouraging an opponent to play your ally and target another foe, like some pesky Empire player, who benefits from all his unburned zones. Then you’ll just have to trust your new ally will pick that other person and not turn the effect back on you.

Sometimes, it's in your best interest if one opponent can’t win a battle against another. Maybe you don’t want the strongest opponent to pull further ahead; maybe you’re just not yet ready for the game to end. Many effects already in the game can allow you to interfere, but Cataclysm will provide Order players an additional, immediate way to come to another player's aid. The Ostland Bowmen (Cataclysm, 18) can defend any unburned zone, not just their controller’s. Too weak to stop an assault force by themselves, they can nevertheless tip the scales in favor of the defender – and you! Of course, it should come as no surprise that you can find a similarly opportunistic attacker on the side of Destruction, always ready to join your opponents’ assaults.

Let the Bidding Begin

Another card sure to create heated interactions is Fickle Sellswords (Cataclysm, 49). With two power and two hit points for just one cost, these mercenaries offer a deal too good to pass up. Unfortunately, they also offer it to everyone, all the time, always threatening to abandon you, because they will gladly join anyone’s assault. Of course, for the right price, Fickle Sellswords are always willing to rejoin you. Smart players will prepare for bidding wars with greedy Dwarfs and the newly rich leaders of Raider squads, or they’ll wait until their opponents have squandered their riches on other cards before hiring these Sellswords. Sometimes, though, it’s worth just taking the risk. Sometimes, there’s a lot to be gained by attacking a poor target…so long as you can convince the other players that they shouldn’t lure away your Fickle Sellswords until you can declare them as an attacker.

Thanks, Torsten!

Cataclysm is coming, and the world of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game is bound to be changed forever! Boundaries will fall, cities will burn, nations will turn against each, and no one is safe.

When the battles come, will you try to create a wall of defenses too high to overcome? Or will you try to play your foes against each other? Can you survive unending warfare without forging alliances? Can you trust the allies you make? In the multiplayer battles of Cataclysm, you must balance diplomacy, treachery, and brute strength to win dominion over the Old World.

Look for your chance to test your skill in the multiplayer battles of Cataclysm. This deluxe expansion for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game arrives soon!

“For thousands of years after the collapse of the polar gates, with the immediate threat of Chaos thwarted, the Lizardmen existed in relative seclusion while the world changed around them.”     –Warhammer: Lizardmen

The Old World shudders with the throes of eternal war. Ancient animosities and powerful ambitions drive the world’s races to conflict, and even those who have long kept to the sides cannot long remain isolated…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Hidden Kingdoms, the fifth deluxe expansion for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

The Lizardmen of Lustria travel far from their jungle homes to impose the laws of their masters across the Old World. Within the forests of Athel Loren, the Wood Elves hunger for vengeance and muster for war. In the depths of their subterranean kingdom, Skaven hordes plot, scheme, and multiply. Meanwhile, the Old World’s Vampire Counts and Undead thirst for blood and begin to turn their attentions to the lands beyond the borders of forsaken Sylvania.

In Hidden Kingdoms, these four neutral races launch their assaults!

Each becomes a playable faction, complete with its own capital, legend, faction-specific supports, a host of new units, and powerful support for its racial themes and mechanics. The 172 cards (including four capital cards and the maximum legal number of fifty-five different player cards) of Hidden Kingdoms hand players the keys to fun and effective strategies built around Skaven swarms, Wood Elf developments, and the Necromancy and Savage keywords.

Capitals to Call Home

The battles of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game are battles for dominion over the Old World. You build from the strength of your capital. You win by burning your opponent’s capital.

Accordingly, each of the game’s factions must have its own capital. The Men of the Empire rule from their palaces and outposts. The Dwarfs hold their Karaks. The Dark Elves of Naggaroth forge their war plans in the frozen spires of Naggaroth. Even without a kingdom to call their own, the greenskin tribes dominate vast tracts of land where they establish crude lairs and massive campsites from which they can fuel their next Waaagh! In Hidden Kingdoms, the Lizardmen, Wood Elves, Undead, and Skaven all gain capitals that they can call home.

Lead developer Brad Andres explains how these capitals help to turn the game’s neutral races into full-fledged factions with rich personalities:

“The most exciting piece of the Hidden Kingdoms expansion is the new capital cards. Players will finally be able to field some of their favorite races from their home turf, and they’ll reap benefits for doing so. These capitals don’t have loyalty icons; instead, each capital has a special ability designed to play to the advantage of its home race. These abilities provide synergies with each neutral race’s cards, in the existing card pool and in Hidden Kingdoms, and the capitals’ abilities also reinforce their races’ mechanical identities.”

Instead of a loyalty symbol, each neutral race’s capital bears a racial icon that corresponds to the faction-specific capital rules outlined in the Hidden Kingdoms rules insert. The Lizardmen and Wood Elves capitals are aligned with the forces of Order, while the Skaven and Undead capitals are aligned with the forces of Destruction. Each neutral race’s capital allows the play of faction-specific units and legends. Additionally, each racial icon is tied to a unique game effect.

As Brad states, these neutral race capitals do more than allow you to play each faction’s faction-specific units, supports, and legends. They bolster each race’s signature personality and mechanics, giving you plenty of reasons to consider playing these races on their own, rather than as support for another of the game’s factions!

They Will Be Legendary

In addition to their new capitals, the new neutral factions from Hidden Kingdoms all welcome the arrival of new legends to lead their troops to battle. These legends can only be played if you field the race’s capital, but each is certain to make a big impact upon the game.

Like Count Vlad von Carstein (Hidden Kingdoms, 28), these powerful legends all add new dimensions to their factions’ potential strategies. While many of the units and supports in Hidden Kingdoms directly build upon the factions’ traditional mechanics, lending strength and versatility to keywords like Savage and Necromancy, these new legends all take their factions’ strengths and add a new wrinkle. Count Vlad von Carstein ensures that your discard pile isn’t just a temporary resting place for your Necromancy units; he converts it into your stronghold. If everything is dead, the Undead win!

Tributes and Treaties

The main thrust of the Hidden Kingdoms deluxe expansion may come from its four new playable factions, but there’s plenty more to excite fans of the game’s other races. You’ll find new units, tactics, and Tributes for the Empire, Dwarfs, High Elves, Chaos, Orcs, and Dark Elves. These cards further distinguish the races’ personalities, such as the Empire’s mobility and the Dark Elves’ bloodlust. Meanwhile, Tributes targeting each of these six races allow you to forge temporary treaties, ignoring the loyalty cost of the next card you play out of faction.

No One Is Truly Neutral

In a world of eternal war, no race can remain forever neutral, and Hidden Kingdoms finally gives you the chance to launch four of your favorite Warhammer races into the ferocious, fast-paced battles of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game as fully developed factions.

Get ready for battle. Hidden Kingdoms is scheduled to release late in the third quarter of 2013!

“The Great Cataclysm shook the firmament with such force its echoes still pervade, and always will. All semblance of tranquility was blasted away in an instant.”     –Warhammer, “War Unending”

Just as the Great Cataclysm forever reshaped the face of the Old World, Cataclysm will forever reshape the struggles of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game. This deluxe expansion adds a new multiplayer format to the game, and its 159 player cards (three copies each of fifty-three different cards) fuel the fires of both the game’s multiplayer and head-to-head formats.

In earlier previews, lead developer Lukas Litzsinger and guest writer Torsten Krämer explored the multiplayer battles of Cataclysm. Today, we’ll look at the impact Cataclysm is likely to make upon the game’s head-to-head play.

Each Cataclysm player card is playable in both multiplayer and head-to-head, and each faction gains a new Hero, a number of other units, supports, and tactics. For the most part, these cards reinforce the factions’ core identities and bolster their signature strengths. While many of them shine brightest in the Cataclysm multiplayer format, all of these new cards also add new abilities. This means you’ll find more options as you build your deck.

To more closely examine how these options may allow you to build a deck more specifically attuned to your preferred style of play, we’ll explore seven of the expansion’s new cards–one for each faction and one neutral card.

The Last Oath

The Last Oath (Cataclysm, 8) continues a strong Dwarf tradition of valiant deaths and retaliatory strikes. It also adds something new to the faction: direct damage capable of destroying units in an opponent’s Kingdoms or Quest zones at action speed. Previously the Dwarfs had few options to damage an opponent’s units in those zones. One of the most popular options was the Dwarf Ranger (Core Set, 10), but his two hit points made him vulnerable to many Destruction strategies. Furthermore, he was limited to the Quest zone if you wanted to trigger his ability. Finally, he could only deal one point of damage per action, meaning that many units were effectively immune to his effect, either because they had Toughness or too many hit points for his damage to prove effective. Another card the Dwarfs could use to damage opposing units was the Hero, Duregan Thorgrimson (The Fourth Waystone, 81), and his ability only worked at the beginning of the Dwarf player’s turn. However, because Dwarf players can choose from any number of beneficial effects that force the sacrifice of their units, they will soon be able trigger The Last Oath at any point to to change the state of a game.

The addition of The Last Oath to the card pool means that the Dwarfs will be better positioned than ever to suppress their enemies’ acquisition of cards and resources, and, of course, the card only gets better in the multiplayer format.

Warlord Go Smash

In Cataclysm, the Orcs are depicted as a bloodthirsty race, driven by an insatiable thirst for battle. Many of their most powerful cards play for free if they burn a zone, and once they burn a zone, they can also trigger a number of devastating abilities.

Still, the Orc hordes prove most successful when they’re driven by the leadership and vision of a cunning warlord. Brute strength is great, but it’s even better when it’s paired with clever tactics. One of the cleverest new tactics that Orc players will want to use is Warlord Go Smash (Cataclysm, 15). Few factions can hit the Battlefield running as quickly as the Orcs, and if they can get to an early lead, Warlord Go Smash can help them maintain it, along with such cards as Pillage (Core Set, 78), Troll Vomit (Core Set, 80), and The Unending Horde (Rising Dawn, 6).

Fervent Disciple

The new cards in Cataclysm provide several factions with abilities directly tied to the burning or damaging of zones, and while the Orcs grow in ferocity with each attack, the Empire stands strongest so long as all its citizens stand together.

Accordingly, while Fervent Disciple (Cataclysm, 20) and other such cards may offer immediate, high-impact rewards, they best reward Empire players who can design decks that balance the principles of both attacking and defending. In such decks, the Fervent Disciple is a potent mid-cost unit that can apply early pressure as a first-turn drop or that can serve as a strong finisher.

Of course, to get the most out of your Fervent Disciple, you need to keep her zone from burning, and this requires some strategy. That’s why the unit’s artwork and flavor text are particularly appropriate. They indicate that this Priest unit is a militant devotee of Myrmidia, the Goddess of War, and Myrmidia represents the art and science of warfare, not just raw fury.

Reprimand

Cataclysm introduces a number of High Elf cards that lend new dimension to the faction’s use of healing and indirect damage. It also strengthens the faction with a new Champion Card, Reprimand (Cataclysm, 31).

Designed by Timothy Lyons after his 2011 World Championship, Reprimand provides the High Elves with a flexible response to its opponents.

Timothy provided us with more information about this powerful tactic:

“I wanted to accomplish a few goals with Reprimand. First, I wanted to give Order a way around Necromancy and Destruction’s ability to return cards from the discard pile to play. Second, I wanted to give the High Elves a cost-effective way to deal with early threats like Spider Riders (The Skavenblight Threat, 8) or Clan Moulder’s Elite (Tooth and Claw, 57), but I didn’t want it be another Judgement of Loec (Legends, 26). I feel that Reprimand fills this role perfectly. With its variable cost, it will always be just as costly as the unit that you’re whisking away to the bottom of your opponent’s deck. Additionally, it can really shine against units with an alternative cost such as a Daemon Prince (The Imperial Throne, 114).”

Serpent’s Strength

Sometimes, you just want to watch things burn. At those times, you should consider playing Chaos.

Cataclysm provides Chaos with a number of cards that gain strength whenever a zone burns, and the faction doesn’t particularly care if it’s an opponent’s zone that burns or its own. So long as it doesn’t cost them the game, the forces of Chaos love to watch their zones burn. The more things burn, the stronger they become.

Serpent’s Strength (Cataclysm, 38) is just one of the new cards that helps drive Chaos toward ultimate destruction. While it’s easy to see how frightening this card could become in a multiplayer game where three or four players might all have zones burning at the same time, the card is no less effective in head-to-head play, especially given the recent prominence of the new legends from the Eternal War cycle. When any of those legends enters play, it triggers its Forced ability, “When this legend enters play, you must burn 3 zones instead of 2 in order to win for the rest of the game.” This means that if your opponent is running one of these new legends, Serpent’s Strength could potentially reward you with three additional combat damage for zero resources. And if you’re also running a legend from the Eternal War cycle? Then, a single copy of Serpent’s Strength could functionally serve as four free power for your Battlefield!

Corsair Tower

Hand destruction and deck destruction have long been two of the Dark Elves’ hallmark strategies. Yet, even though these strategies have long coexisted, they haven’t always worked well together. While it may seem natural for a deck focused on starving your opponent of cards to be able to attack his hand and his deck simultaneously, very few cards have rewarded both forms of destruction. Accordingly, Dark Elf players have long found it difficult–though not impossible–to balance the two effects in decks that were also slim and efficient enough to start quickly and withstand an opponent’s attacks.

Cataclysm may change that.

Corsair Tower (Cataclysm, 45) is just one of several cards that push these strategies, and the synergies it promotes mean that the better your deck is at hand destruction, the better it becomes at deck destruction.

Arcane Orrery

One of the cards from Cataclysm that’s likely to make a heavy, immediate impact upon the tournament metagame is the support, Arcane Orrery (Cataclysm, 52). Limited to neither the forces of Order nor Destruction, this powerful magical Item is truly neutral, meaning any player can include it in his deck.

What makes this card so special? Certainly, it’s not the ratio of power to cost that it yields. At two cost, its one power is entirely standard, but its ability is anything but standard. The ability of the Arcane Orrery is game-changing.

Throughout recent tournament seasons, a wide number of top players have taken advantage of a number of “infinite” loops that led to instant victories. Meanwhile, other players were able to find tremendous success with heavily aggressive strategies, like those driven by Call the Brayherd (Fiery Dawn, 114) that could overwhelm their opponents with early swarms. However, nearly all infinite loop and swarm strategies rely upon the ability to play multiple copies of their cards within the same turn. By preventing them from doing so, the Arcane Orrery carves new space within the game for those strategies that need a few more turns to build toward success.

Because it’s vulnerable to all the standard support destruction, and because it doesn’t make any impact if it never enters play, the Arcane Orrery doesn’t quite spell the death of either loops or swarms, but it’s one truly powerful card that’s bound to make its impact felt across the Old World!

War Is Coming

If you haven’t already pre-ordered your copy of Cataclysm, head to your local retailer today. Cataclysm will soon shake the very foundations of the Old World!

This deluxe expansion for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game will arrive at retailers next week.