The Chime of Eons - The Great Devourer (Leftovers)

“Any man can oath-swear his fealty to the Emperor, but whether he lives or dies by that oath is what makes him true. I have faced down death before and never once hesitated in my allegiance to the Golden Throne and the High Lords of Terra. I see the same in the tyranids, as perverted as their cause may be.

"I cannot help but admire them, for if I can weather my faith against theirs and stand unbowed, then I have proven my loyalty to the Emperor. I ask that I die strong.”

- Major Ias'r Dashour,
892nd Tallarn Desert Raiders

"Gather the dead for war, let them join our ranks, lest we are forced to join theirs."

- Farseer Kelmon, on the Defence of Iyanden

"Never have I faced a tide of foes that can alter both strategy and flesh to hasten our downfall. Swift as these beasts adapt, we must be swifter, for if we fail, the Tau Empire will drown in its own blood."

- Shas’el Vorcah of Kel’shan, regarding Hive Fleet Gorgon

This article proceeds in bite-sized chunks, but I've just been informed by the FFG people that the image-limits formerly in place have been expanded considerably (and some time ago) which means these bites can be a lot bigger than before.

That's great timing, as we now have a big hunk of tyranid to chew on: the Army Units!


SPACE MARINE CARDS

Veteran Barbrus

There was no question in my mind which card we had to open this installment of the Chime of Eons with. Much as I love the Eldar as my wargaming faction of choice, and gloriously wonderful though it is to see the Sisters of Battle making it into the card game, it is the Deathwatch who most represent the ongoing and most excellent contribution of Fantasy Flight Games to the Warhammer 40,000 lore.

We visited the story of this militant order a little when we visited The Threat Beyond article, and the Inquisition. As we mentioned in that article when we described the real world history of the lore, the Chambers Militant of the Ordo Hereticus and the Ordo Malleus (Sisters of Battle and Grey Knights respectively) and were almost wholly detailed in-house by Games Workshop. In contrast, the Deathwatch (who are the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos) were sorely neglected by GW themselves. While we saw a Witch Hunters and Daemon Hunters codex for Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition, the transition of editions meant that the Alien Hunters codex was never written or published. As the editions wore on, the Grey Knights were shown a lot of love with multiple codices, and the Sisters of Battle had some support, though languished in relative obscurity.

But what of the Deathwatch? We were told that they were an organisation that recruited from other space marine chapters, and that they set aside their own chapters to serve the Ordo Xenos. We had a smattering of rules provided for them, in the odd Chapter Approved article, but they never received full treatment in codex proper.

Enter Fantasy Flight Games, who gained a license from Games Workshop to create a best-selling and critically acclaimed roleplaying game: Dark Heresy. This game, in its 1st edition at least, was very heavily derived from the old Warhammer Fantasy Role Play game system, which in turn was a Games Workshop rpg of great popularity with its first edition in 1986. Like many rpgs of that era, WFRP was unpolished, loveable, brilliant, clunky and inspired in equal measures. Dark Heresy, published in a roleplaying industry 22 years more mature, could only be described as old school roleplaying.

But yes, we're getting off topic. Despite being old school roleplaying, it was based on one of the best games of the old school. It did well enough to spawn successor rpgs from FFG: Rogue Trader, Only War (a game of Imperial Guardsmen), Black Crusade and of course Deathwatch.The later games showed that FFG had honed their craft, and while the same core system was still there, it was all working better and in a more modern and interesting way.

However, it is Deathwatch we're mentioning here, as Deathwatch was the game where FFG picked up the scant detail that GW had provided, and expanded the lore massively. Now the Deathwatch is the BEST covered of all the Chambers Militant when it comes to depth of lore and fiction, and that is wholly down to FFG.

So this is the reason I'm flagging up this card as the most important one in this article. It is a symbol of FFG's inheritance of the crown of prime imagineers and world-builders in the 40k universe: not just mere licensees, but rightful contributors to the ongoing lore of Warhammer 40,000.

So have I blown enough smoke up FFG's collective ass yet? Let's move onto the card itself.

2 command and solid fighting stats are perfectly appropriate here - the Deathwatch is formed of heroes of the Adeptus Astartes - exceptional individuals from an already exceptional fighting force. Ambush is sensible, as the Deathwatch are a rapid intervention force.

The limitations to the ability text are clearly there to show the Ordo Xenos loyalties of Deathwatch: they're trained to be effective in fighting aliens, but they are outside of their jurisdiction when dealing with heretics, daemons, chaos worshipers or fellow Imperials. However, I feel in terms of design elegance its a clunky chunk of text, which while laudable for being led by the fiction, could have been executed in a more play-emergent and economical fashion.

Another very small objection - as this card represents a single individual, and as that individual is an Ultramarine (as is apparent from the chapter symbol on the right shoulder pad and belt buckle), that chapter trait should have been present on the card.

A more pertinent objection is to do with the overall faction of the card. As this is tagged as a Space Marine card, and a loyal one, it means that the only Inquisition warlord in the game (who is admittedly of a different Ordo) is unable to use this card. In fact, this is part of a broader problem that I've whinged on about before in the Threat Beyond article - the Inquisition is greater than both Astartes and Astra Militarum, and should have been its own faction on its own.

Vengeance!

"My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We'll see about that." - Stewart Francis.

This is a nicely crafted card where the emergent narrative of playing the card is represented perfectly by the card ability, and where the overall mechanical function of the card helps enhance the overall feel of the faction it represents. Space Marines do combat tricks and surprises, fighting beyond their already formidable fighting abiltiies beyond the expectations of their enemies.

I object a little to this being traited as a "Tactic", however, as that sounds a little cold and calculating, even for the Ultramarine depicted in the card art!

The beastie shown here, incidentally, is a Trygon (as in the same as the card Burrowing Trygon). Given that some of the space marine units hit hard enough to take out a Trygon in two hits but not one, this could make the card art shown turn into an in game narrative!


CHAOS CARDS

Roghrax Bloodhand

From Space Marines straight to Chaos Space Marines? Is there no logic in your order, Asklepios?

The answer is no - I'm just jumping to whichever card I wanted to yap about next.

Roghrax Bloodhand is an unusual one, as he's the first non-Warlord unique character to based on an established character from the fiction. However, there is no Roghrax Bloodhand in the established fiction. Confused yet?

Who there is mentioned in both Codex Tyranids and Codex Chaos Space Marines is Roghax Bloodhand, a World Eaters Chaos Lord who made it his sworn quest to collect one skull of every warrior species in the galaxy to dedicate to the Skull Throne of Khorne. This lifetime's work was probably unattainable, thanks to the sheer scale of the undertaking, but it went from "impossible" to "so impossible that even Khorne thought it was a bit much" when the tyranids came to the galaxy. With their multitude of rapidly evolving biomorphs, the Tyranids represented not a single species but a whole host of them. Roghax, being a dumb-ass Khorne-worshipper thought "awesome!" and directed his warband straight into the path of Hive Fleet Kraken.

This card is an excellent depiction of the insane Chaos Lord, both in the artwork ("one more skull for the Blood God! Woooo!") and in the card text. The traits are exactly right, the stats are suitably menacing, and the Bloodthirst ability nicely reflects his ongoing motivations: Khorne cares not from where the blood flows, so long as it does!

Ecstatic Seizures

Kudos is due to FFG for resisting the temptation of commissioning an art piece of a nubile young female in the throes of orgasm. A lesser game company would have gone that way, and a lesser Chime of Eons writer would be spending a whole paragraph thinking about it.

Ahem.

Anyway, the flavour text says it all, and the traits fill the gaps. This is a psychic power that brings the Mighty Orgasm of Slaanesh onto a hapless mortal, and when you play this in game it is absolutely required that you make the appropriate grunt/moan noise. Bonus points if you manage to conjure a disturbing mental image when doing so, for example by playing it on Ku'gath. Pus everywhere.

Its not entirely clear, however, why a power with this given concept causes a bunch of units to drop its attachments. You can just about imagine Cato fumbling his Tempest Blade in surprise at the revivification of organs long thought chemically castrated by the Astartes creation process. Its harder to see why an Enraged Orks cybernetic parts fall off, or why a Void Pirate's dubious battlefield Promotion gets hastily rescinded.

When it comes to narratives arising from cardplay, this card creates some very odd stories indeed!



ELDAR CARDS

Autarch Celachia

As we discussed way back in the Eldar article, the Eldar avoid damnation by adherence to the Eldar Path. One common Path is that of the Warrior, and when upon this path an Eldar will pursue just one Aspect of their bloody-handed war-god, for the sake of ritualising and controlling the psychotic battle-impulses that can overwhelm the Eldar psyche.

Those that become trapped on the Path of the Warrior become Exarchs, and can never escape their role. They can never more set aside their battle role, nor set aside bloodthirst by removing their ritual masks.

More disciplined and self-controlled individuals may leave the path before they suffer this fate, or they may tread from one Aspect to another, varying their experiences and manifesting their war-spirit in different ways.

A warrior who has walked a multitude of paths across a course of centuries may come to comprehend the greater symphony that is the Eldar warhost, and understand how to use its manifold aspects as one unified whole. These individuals may then set aside the Aspects, and adopt the Path of Command, which leads them into becoming Autarchs.

While battlefield skill is not lacking in Autarchs, their true skill is in understanding strategy and the perfect synchronisation of the Eldar at war.

In the wargame, the Autarch wasn't present in the early Eldar codices: the Farseer was always the leader of the Eldar warhost, using psychic prescience to guide their armies. In actual play of the wargame, this has pretty much remained the case, as the Autarch's game profile is wholly unimpressive and their much vaunted strategic genius pretty much comes down to being able to reroll Reserve rolls. On the other hand, their statblock lets them get tooled up with equipment from multiple aspects, so they let Eldar players try out the coolness of Swooping Hawk wings combined with a Banshee Mask and a power sword. Their overpriced points cost, however, makes them something of a lame duck.

Here in the LCG, if we're following the fluff rather than the wargame role, we'd expect an Autarch to be a Warlord Unit rather than an Army Unit, as their sole role in life is to lead Eldar forces!

However, I've previously commented that its justifiable for a Biel Tan Farseer to be an army unit as Biel Tan is the craftworld that is most obsessed with the warrior path and most likely to relegate its most powerful psykers to a supporting rather than a command role. Likewise, the trait pick here of Ulthwe is one that allows us to have an Autarch as a mere army unit. Ulthwe is a craftworld whose proximity to the Eye of Terror has given it a much higher proportion of psykers than others, and whose leadership culture is utterly dominated by the Farseers and their supporting Seer Councils. The Path of the Warrior is rare enough on Ulthwe that they are forced to maintain a standing army of Black Guardians to fill the role of their absent Aspect Warriors. It is therefore somewhat appropriate that an Ulthwe Autarch would not be in his rightful place of command, but rather a mere small unit commander working under the orders and direction of the psykers. Even so, I would have loved to see Celachia have at least three command icons!

The game effect here is a very nice representation of a warrior who has walked many Aspect paths, and who can call forth the skills and support she needs.

She? Yeah, I'm going to go with female gender here. Its hard to tell as there's thankfully no boob-plate here, but the only known Eldar characters we have whose names end in "a" are female, and this autarch looks to be holding a power sword, which is the ritual weapon of the Howling Banshees, which is an almost wholly female shrine (though she's also sporting Scorpion Mandiblasters).

Subdual

Yep, as the flavour text says that power surely is "remarkable", though perhaps not in the way the writers intended. Gosh, its an expensive effect that very temporarily denies someone a card they wanted.

Actually, I'm being unkind here: while "subdual" isn't a known power from the established fiction, this card is wonderfully Eldar in style. Its extremely subtle, and could represent a bunch of different narratives: temporary negation of the power of an enemy Relic, interfering with the strands of fate by delaying an opponent's draw of deck contents by a card.

I have to say as well, that the art of this card (psyker aside) and the effect of this card make me think of Starcraft, and some trick that a Protoss player might play. Whummm - blue light - that ork kannon is neutralised, for now.


DARK ELDAR CARDS

Dark Possession

Quite possibly the worst card yet made in terms of playing the game competitively, this card is also somewhat disappointing in fluff terms.

It doesn't really make much sense to be able to duplicate events through torturing people: how exactly does torturing an opponent allow your Incubus Warrior to emulate the Suppressive Fire techniques of the enemy Guardsmen?

This card is worthless in so many ways, both as a game element and as a representation of anything in the setting's fiction. The only people Urien is torturing here is us, the paying customers.

Solarite Avetys

The Dark Eldar Scourge was initially presented as a unit in the wargame that was the mechanical reflection of the Eldar Swooping Hawks: a flying unit with a ranged weapon that skirmishes around the edges of the enemy formation. However, while the Hawks content themselves with lasblasters, the Scourges got the more heavy metal heavy weapons: dark lances, splinter cannon, shardcarbines and the like.

Their fiction has gotten even more goddamn metal as time has gone on, and now a Scourge is a rich and daring Dark Eldar decadent who has paid a haemonculus to hollow his bones out and affix wings to his back, so he can flap around Commorragh pretending to be some kind of sadism-centred bird of prey. The scourge gangs are indeed the scourge of the city - rich playboys who are wholly devoted to playing out their role.

The fancy squad-leader name for Scourges is the Solarite. So, for those of you who hadn't realised, Solarite here is a title, not a name.

The ability here presumably represents that scourges have a combination of mobility and long range weapons, so if you want to close with them without the ability to fly, you're going to get shot up a bit. However, its a bit odd that this is phrased as a reaction rather than interrupt, as it means they only shoot you up a bit after you shoot them up a bit first.

Also, its odd to see Swooping Hawks represented with Mobility and this unit with Flying, when actually there means of movement are very similar, and if anything it is Swooping Hawks who are more suited to an anti-aircraft role, thanks to training in using fly-by Haywire Grenade attacks on flying vehicles. The Scourge is an anti-ground troop specialist, particularly good at hit and run tactics.

More broadly, the ability to dish out damage in response to attacks seems too defensive for the Dark Eldar style of the faction in general, and the obvious combo of Solarite's reaction setting up a Klaivex Warleader ambush is a little too much combined arms co-ordination for a race that is fundamentally selfish and individualistic in battle.

Honestly, a more Scourge-like way of doing things would have been to just have a non-Unique 1/2/2 unit that has Flying and Ranged, and which costs 3 resources.

This is a card that I'll be playing for its strength, but not especially liking the fluffiness of.


ORK CARDS

Boss Zugnog

"Wot's faster than a warbuggy, more killy than a warbike, and flies through da air like a bird? I got no bleedin' idea, but I'm gonna find out." - Kog da Flymek, pioneer of the Deffkopta

What we have here in the art is a Deffkopta - a one-ork attack craft that is closer to a flying warbike than a true aircraft. The red paintjob betrays it as being affiliated to the Evil Sunz clan, who have always maintained that Red Wunz Go Fasta and who are the clan most likely to have large numbers of Speed Freeks, those orks who value the thrill of going fast as much as other orks value a good punch-up. Deffkopta pilots being orks, they're as much inclined to use their vehicles to close into melee range as they are to lay down heavy dakka from afar, and a favourite "tactic" is to use the sharpened rotor-blades to hack at the enemy in perilous nose-first swoops into the enemy battle line.

In the wargame, Deffkoptas are treated the same way as jetbikes, but whereas an Eldar player will be using his jetbikes to harry the edges, seize objectives and play a game of cat and mouse, an ork player is more inclined to just slam his deffkoptas into the heart of the melee as fast as he damn well can.

Its a bit odd, in LCG execution terms, that the very first unit that can transport other units is one that doesn't have the Transport trait OR the Vehicle trait, and whose fiction and artwork calls it out as a one-person vehicle. However it is admittedly a great mental image to have the kopta dropping in an understandably Enraged Ork with a healthy bounce into the heart of a battle, and then to come crashing into the melee itself a short while later. Its a nicely orkish take on ability-based mobility-type movement. Of course, as with the Wild Riders, there's a slight fiction disconnect in that the game has chosen to call the warzones Planets: this is an open top vehicle with helicopter blades as its main means of flight... its helicopters in spaaaaace!

Still, despite the absurdity of the detail, the humour of the game rule is something that is excellently orky, and fits the thematics of the faction as a whole.

Ork Landa

So, we had a non-transport vehicle with neither trait fulfilling the functions of a transport. What do we need to balance this out? Obviously, a transport vehicle with neither trait that doesn't fulfil the functions of a transport.

In the fiction, orks aren't the best when it comes to spaceship building. Usually they build around space hulks (which are the accumulation of ruined spaceship that are pulled together by the eddies of warpspace before being spat back into realspace as a conglomerated mess) or around asteroids (the famed Roks, which aren't terribly spaceworthy, and maintain integrity only through constant attention from the meks, and then sometimes not even then). Space battle doesn't appeal greatly to orks, as you can't put the boot in against an enemy spaceship, nor bite your enemy's nose, nor hear the satisfying sounds of explosions or breaking bones. As far as orks are concerned, spaceships are just a way of getting from one good scrap to another, and as they don't really mind who they fight, they don't bother much with navigation either.

Once an ork spaceship reaches planetary orbit, there's various ways to reach the surface, but ork landas are a common favourite. These orbit to surface transport ships tend to built for bulk and capacity rather than speed or agility, but they're extremely tough and normally laden with guns so the orks can get to shooting even before landfall is made.
So lets look at the card... it... hmm. Okay, its not a unit, its not a transport, its not a vehicle. There's already some precedent from spaceships being labelled "upgrades", but as this is a vehicle that enters the warzone proper, its an odd choice to make this a support.

Also, it doesn't appear to so much transport troops as use them as highly inaccurate bombs.

If we put on the Sunglasses of Abstraction (available at all good Conquest retailers) we can imagine that the Landa is actually delivering a payload of orks that add to the overall battle presence of the orks on the planet. The Sunglasses of Abstraction also tell us that this battle isn't actually one being fought between Tactical Squad Cardinis and an Enraged Ork, but rather than the cards are representative of a greater conflict as a whole, and thus we don't need to concern ourselves with little details like the attack, hit points and special rules of whatever ork unit is dropped, we just abstract its damage to the greater scale. Never mind that this is a game that puts a Tyranid Hive Ship on the same game granularity scale as a Godwyn-Pattern Bolter, this is an effect which does something to represent something in a warzone which is represented by something. Its Unique because, um... yeah. Because. And it only works with odd numbered ork cards (disregarding whether they are units or not) because... because...

Damn, at this stage FFG may as well just not bother naming the cards, and just call them things like "Ork Unique Non-Loyal Support that Does Indirect Damage" with the flavour text "Look you imagine what's going on, we're only doing game mechanics here."


TAU CARDS

Pathfinder Shi Or'es

While there is a Shi Or'es in the pre-existing fiction, that character is an Ethereal Caste tau from the Dawn of War campaign, whereas all Pathfinders are Fire Caste.

A Pathfinder is a forward scout mobile infantry soldier, operating out of adapted long-ranged Devilfish and moving ahead of Tau battlelines to report on enemy dispositions and movements. Their signature piece of equipment is the markerlight - not truly a gun at all, but rather a means to "paint" a target to allow for Tau fire support to strike with more accuracy.

Pathfinders are also at the cutting edge of Tau technology, trying out the experimental gear in live fire zones but outside of the chaos of a full scale engagement. Personnel Rail Rifles, for example, were first field tested by the Pathfinders.

To represent a generic fire warrior, the LCG could have gone with any number of approaches: the mobility and 2-command icons of the Vash'ya Trailblazer card, for example, would have been well suited to a unit of T'au Pathfinders. A deck or hand spying effect would work too.

However, as this is a new and unique character, FFG have a more open design space. Nothing about the special ability here is particularly pathfinder-like, but the combination of the art and the ability make me think that this character might be a James Bond type - a lone spy tooled up with the latest tricks and toys, with a tendency to break whatever gear he is given (or to be stripped of his recent promotion by going off-book in his tactics).

Fio'vre Kew: "Its the latest Ion Rifle prototype Shi'Ores. Try not to break it this time."
Shi'Ores: "And what's this one do, Kew?"
Fio'vre Kew: "THAT'S my lunch."

See Shi'ores soon in his latest adventures: A View to a Greater Good, Devlifish Are Forever and From Sa'cea with Love.

Repair Bay

This card is pleasingly fluffy in obvious and non-obvious ways.

First off, it clearly helps you bring into play battlefield equipment that has been wrecked in battle: reassembling smashed drones, or hacked-down battlesuits.

Second, it has a subtle ongoing cost, in that in working the game of counteracting attrition the Tau are dedicating resources that could be used for other logistic purposes (read: not drawing the card that you would have drawn if you hadn't top decked the repaired item).

Third, it has repairs taking time (a full game round) before you can get the things into play again, short of an ambush platform or as yet unseen deploy-phase drawing.

Fourth, and best of all, it shows the eminently pragmatic attitude Tau have towards technology. Not for them sacred reverence for long forgotten technologies, or warring using beautiful relics that are as much art as weapon. No, they work with the sort of gear that can be brought back to working order with an arc welder, some spare parts and a bit of Earth Caste sweat and elbow grease.

Jobs a good'un!


ASTRA MILITARUM CARDS

Seraphim Superior Allegra

Well, here is a dilemma!

The Adepta Sororitas and the Ecclesiarchy represent one of my favourite sections of the 40k fiction, with a Chime-of-Eons-worthy history of their lore that could fill a whole article. And there lies the rub: I hold out hope that a future Warlord will be a Sororitas one, and want to keep the best stuff for that article!

For now, let's cover the basics:

The Ecclesiarchy is the Church of the Imperium, dedicated to the worship of the Emperor. An edict forbidding the church from commanding "men under arms" led to some legal loophole exploitation, and the Sisters of Battle were founded. The Adepta Sororitas in their current form can be traced back to Vandire's Apostasy in the 36th millennium. The Adepta Sororitas are also closely linked to the Ordo Hereticus, better known as the Witch Hunters of the Imperial Inquisition.
In the wargame, the Sisters are notable for having the power armour and fighting skill of space marines, but the strength and toughness of normal humans, but also can pull off various Acts of Faith that makes them doubly effective.

Damn, that's such a brief version of events it hurts!

As noted, the Adepta Sororitas are NOT part of the Astra Militarum faction, but rather of the Ecclesiarchy. This is traited, but it'd have been much more satisfying for them to be treated as a faction proper, or at the very least attached to an Inquisition faction.

Allegra here is depicted in the black armour, which is common to three of the six major Orders Militant. I can't see any further iconography, so from the red cloak and white trim, I'm guessing The Order of Our Martyred Lady. It'd have been great to see Sororitas orders represented as traits, to mirror the regimental traits of the Guard and the chapter traits of the Space Marines.

Seraphim are sisters of battle who are trained in the use of jump-packs. Unlike space-marine jump back troops, who primarily use this mode of movement to close into melee (vide Daring Assault Squad) the Seraphim use dual-wielded pistols, and make hit and run attacks, fighting far more flexibly. Their squad commanders are called Sisters Superior.

Allegra herself looks to be a brand new character, though anyone who knows otherwise, please let us know!

For the life of me, I can't think why her ability text does what it does. Clearly the mechanical intent is to synergise with a faction that is great with Support cards, but it doesn't fit the fiction of Sororitas or Seraphim.

Holy Fusillade
More Sororitas are shown here, and the Ecclesiarchy trait suggests that a Holy Fusillade is an ecclesiarchy-specific thing. Holy Fusillade is the name of one of the Acts of Faith that the Sororitas can access in the wargame, giving a boost to shooting as you might expect.

Its very odd that this is a support card, as we're blurring the lines here between what is conceptually represented by events and supports. Clearly, again, its the greater meta-theme of Astra Militarum support-synergies that is being boosted here.

In game terms, the activation of the ability seems to be to allow people to shoot their guns again, which seems reasonable enough to represent the Act of Faith, even though it seems odd how repeatable the effect is.

However, what is very odd here is that the Upgrade doesn't actually allow you to lay down a withering layer of boltgun fire, but instead gives a slight boost to Ranged units. Ratling Deadeye, Cadian Mortar Squad and Howling Basilisk don't seem like units to be driven to acts of faith, and likewise nothing about a Preemptive Barrage, Honorifica Imperialis or a Rokkit Launcha would make you any better at ranged combat. In all honesty, a card named "Long Range Engagement" or "No Cover" would have been duller but more accurate.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the Great Devourer expansion is an anticipated and welcome addition to the game, and one that is going to significantly shake up the metagame, especially because of the Synapse Units and the nature of the Tyranid Warlords. In game terms, its a very exciting expansion, introducing a lot of creative mechanics.

In fluff-terms, its more disappointing. On the upside, there's many sub-factions and cards who are making a welcome first appearance in the LCG. On the other, the level of concordance between card fiction and card effect remains as broadly poor as ever.

Some of these problems stem from design decisions made at the game's beginning. Many of these are understandable: the faction wheel is an elegant game mechanic, and cramming general Forces of the Imperium into the Astra Militarum faction helps put a lot of less popular factions under a single umbrella. Some of these problems are impossible to fix at this stage, like the mismatch between the concept of a battle across Planets and the sort of units deemed to have Mobility. A few problems just seem like lack of attention: the inconsistent application of traits in some places but not in others is a big turn-off for me, with Transports that don't transport and non-Transports that do, psychic characters who lack the Psyker tag, traits which are applied on some cards (Craftworlds, Chapters, Home planets) but then left off on others (Orders, Ork Clans). Some traits are so ubiquitous they're useless (see Creature), some are so rare they're useless (see Hero), some are meaningless enough within the fiction that a card naming them would make no fluff sense (Leviathan, Kraken, etc.). There's also a constant mismatch between fiction and abilities, with names matching artwork, but ability design often seeming to have nothing to so with names or artwork.

The game is fun and excellent enough that I still want to play it, and I recognise that in game design terms this is one of the best duelling card games out there. Its just a shame that it'd be almost no effort to reskin this game to almost any fiction, and the game wouldn't feel any worse for it.

I'd ask FFG, if they're reading, to pay more attention to the little details. Make card rules represent the concept of the cards. Decide once and for all what the trait list is, and apply them consistently. Make the traits match the fiction of the units. Make the traits relevant in game. Right now its crunch-quality 8/10 and fluff quality 4/10.

On that negative note, we'll bring this series of Chime of Eons to a close. Back soon for the Planetfall Cycle, which if previews are accurate, will be a most excellent and exciting cycle, both in game design space explored and in the fiction represented.

But before that...!

THE BIG QUIZ

Let's finish with a quiz of serious difficulty. Some easier questions have been thrown in there, but generally I'm pulling no punches: if anyone can answer more than half these questions without extensive googlng, then I bow down to their love of 40k! Hell, some of these questions will be hard even WITH extensive googling...

1) What do Prince Yriel, a Falcon Grav Tank and an Eldar Windrider have in common with a Warp Talon, a Forgefiend and a Carnifex?

2) If there are twenty, what do two and eleven have in common?

3) Its most ancient volumes are parchments of human skin with script in languages long forgotten. It sits upon a multitiude of iron shelves, ten thousand volumes to a row, and yet it is named "Book". What is it, and who are those that serve it?

4) "The line between ecstatic determination and insane ruthlessness is vague and wavering." Whose quote is this, and who was he speaking of?

5) Who did the Cadian 9th war against on Fortress Carcasson?

6) Brother Captain Fragman of the Star Leopards 3rd Company beheld a heretical sight, and his wrathful order to charge cost him hundreds of his men. What was this heretical sight?

7) He holds that which redeems in one hand, and a pennant representing sanctity in the other. He is a man under arms where men under arms are forbidden. Who is he?

8) Many marines believe that "camouflage are the colors of cowardice" yet this was never something born of the Codex Astartes. One Chapter believes that the lore of camouflage described in the Codex Imperialis is holy writ, and to deviate from its patterns is heresy. Which chapter?

9) Which race relies on TUNA in certain warzones, and what is it anyway?

10) Spiders and fists. What do they have in common?

11) Their adopted home planet is the 4th in a system of 7, shrouded in dark dense clouds, with insects as big as men and reptilian predators as large as scout titans. Their geneseed is even more degenerated than those they are successor to. Who are they?

12) Disciples of sunset's shadow, they know that death does not end duty. Who are they?