The Chime of Eons - The Howl of Blackmane

We are the wolf that stalks
The stars in the sky
And swallows the star-fire
We hide amongst the night
When light is gone

The Light is within us

We run the ruin of Fire
In the darkness
Foes burn in our passing

- Battle Litany of the Space Wolves

"Listen closely Brothers, for my life's breath is all but spent. There shall come a time far from now when our chapter itself is dying, even as I am now dying. Then my children, I shall list'n for your call from whatever realms of death hold me, and come I shall no-matter what laws of life and death forbid. At the end I will be there. For the final battle. For the Wolftime."

- Leman Russ

"You think you know glory, whelp, just because you have survived a single day of battle? To feel the thunder of munitions like the fury of the gods as the ground tears apart around you, to wet your blade with the blood of kings, to be the first man to land upon a planet crawling with alien terrors; that is to know true glory. Mark it well"

- Logan Grimnar, the Great Wolf

"The Blood Claws of the Space Wolves endanger not only themselves but the lives of their comrades in arms. If they are so eager to die, and they will not heed the words of their superiors, then let them rush headlong into the jaws of the lion. We can only hope some of them get caught in its throat."

- Lord Solar Macharius, Tactica Ultimatum

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The echoes of the core set have barely faded, yet already FFG pushes us onwards and upwards, expanding the game with the wonderfully exciting Warlord Cycle.

As our gaming so far has already shown us, this is a game that is an amazing play experience with nothing but the Core Set in place. A Living Card Game isn't a static experience though, its a continually evolving puzzle that has to be solved over and over again as we strive to find the best way to play and the best way to win!

For a fluff-lover, expansions are a great thing in that they continue to add definition and shape to the world. The more cards we add, the more of the universe we see.

The more options we have, the closer we can get to making a truly fluffy yet totally competitive deck. It might be many cycles away, but when we get to the stage that we can field a whole deck that represents Alaitoc at war, or a space marine force that has only Codex Chapter brethren and the most pure-minded of allies, then the responsibility for the meta-fluff experience shifts from the designers to the players!

For this column, we've already established the base character of the seven main factions, and new packs introduce not new factions but rather new cards and warlords. This makes the theming of the articles a little harder, as war packs aren't universally themed around a single faction or sub faction.

For the Warlord cycle, I've decided to let the Warlords lead the way. We'll explore the fluff of the sub-factions each Warlord belongs to, then we'll focus in on the Signature cards. After that, we'll pick up the majority of cards in the pack, and look on a card by card basis.

As I mentioned at the end of the core set articles, there's certain complaints we're going to take for granted from this point on. These are:

• The scale of the game,
• The lack of pluralisation of some units,
• The silliness of the interplanetary Mobile trait
• The abstract nature and often seemingly inappropriate placement of Command icons
• The haphazard allocation of the Elite and Ally traits.
• The crazy Alliance Wheel

Frankly, complaining about these same things over and over doesn't achieve anything, doesn't entertain, and is boring the readers and myself! I'll reflect those concerns in the scores as I see them, but from this point on in the column, you shouldn't hear any discussion of this again, except for the most notable of examples. Let's consider them put to bed!

That aside, let us dive in snout-first into the lore of the Space Wolves!

The Space Wolves

There are some Space Marine Chapters who are the paragons of Imperial orthodoxy, with stable geneseed patterns, adherence to the letter of the Codex Astartes and broad allegiance to the systems and authorities of the Imperium. The Ultramarines, and the Primogenitor chapters that descend from them are chapters of this sort. The Imperial Administratum likes these Chapters a lot, and this is why when they create new Space Marine chapters they tend to use their genestock.

There are other chapters who have good untainted geneseed, but whose organisational doctrines and attitudes are a little bit off kilter. Chapters like the Dark Angels and the Luna Wolves fall into this category (and those of you who are paying attention will remember just where the Luna Wolves' idiosyncrasies eventually led them).

Then there are those chapters who have geneseed which isn't quite perfect, who suffer genetic flaws deviating from the Astartes template to varying degrees, but who nonetheless follow the Codex, more or less, and are loyal to the Emperor.

This includes chapters like the Imperial Fists whose geneseed misses the code for a couple of useful Astartes adaptations but who are otherwise solid, and the Blood Angels who suffer a serious geneseed flaw but who are so devotedly and fanatically loyal to the Emperor that they are considrered heroes nonetheless.

Of the latter category, Administratum are less than enamoured because of their instability, but they still respect their geneseed and doctrine enough to create the occasional successor based on their line.

Then, there are the wild cards. The chapters whose geneseed is so flawed that it results in gross mutation, or whose organsational doctrine is so counter to the mainstream that they can never be seen as preferred Astartes genestock. Administratum doesn't like these Chapters at all, and does all it can to prevent any successor from carrying their bloodline.

They regard them as loose cannon beholden to no law or will save their own, and a problem to be managed rather than as a resource to be utilised. It is only their heroic actions and their devoted loyalty to the Emperor himself that stops the other Chapters from calling for their destruction!

The Space Wolves, as you might have guessed, are one such Chapter!

Their geneseed bears several corruptions that make their warriors feral and beast like, including the continuous growth of fangs and hair over the centuries. They are inherently aggressive and wild, prone to rage and warlike tendencies. They have a strong anti-authority streak, answering only to themselves and the silent leadership of the Emperor himself. Worst of all, they bear in their genes the Curse of the Wulfen, which can cause battle brothers to devolve into a mutated wolf-man form, driven by rage and savagery.

Their almost complete rejection of the Codex Astartes means that they are organised very differently to other chapters, with twelve Great Companies of varying size and strengths, each led a Wolf Lord owing allegiance to the Great Wolf. They have no successor chapters, with the only chapter to emerge from their geneseed being the ill-fated Wolf-Brothers who fell quickly to mutation and madness. However, because they do not tie themselves to the Codex and will not submit to the monitoring of Administratum, the strength of their chapter is likely well over the one thousand marines limit dictated by the Codex.

Their non-Codex doctrine is also reflected in their career paths. While a more conventional space marine will start as a scout, then be promoted to a devastator company, then to an assault company, then qualify as a tactical marine, then eventually become a 1st company veteran marine (should he survive long enough and not be promited to command), a Space Wolf will follow a different progression.

Space Wolves start within a pack of Blood Claws - impetuous youths who can't wait to throw themselves into the fray, so they can slay powerful enemies and begin their personal sagas.

The pack as a whole will then (diminished in numbers) become Grey Hunters, the equivalent of Tactical Marines.

Those that survive long enough to grow old become a pack of Long Fangs who will take up heavy weapons, and provide long range fire support to the younger and more aggressive members of the Company.

Other marine designations are drawn off along the way:

Wolf Scouts are experienced marines who are drawn to behind-the-lines work because they lack the gregariousness of their fellows.
Lone Wolves are the sole survivors of a fallen pack.
Wolf Priests take the place of Chaplains and Apothecaries.
Rune Priests follow their own mystic traditions instead of the approved role of Librarians.
Iron Priests train as Techmarines, but never abandon their Fenrisian identity.
Wolf Guard (the veteran and champion equivalent) are promoted from other packs to serve as a Wolf Lord's retinue.

The Space Wolves' fierce sense of independence and identity likely stems from their Primarch, and his adopted homeworld.

Leman Russ was a giant of a man, risen to kingship on the feral deathworld of Fenris, a planet wracked by constant icestorms and tectonic shifts, and home to some of the fiercest predators in the galaxy, as well as some of the fiercest men!

It was only after the Emperor bested Leman Russ in one on one combat that the primarch agreed to serve the Imperium, though once his loyalty was given it was absolute and unwavering.

But hey, enough about the in-universe fluff of the VI Legion! There's actually tonnes more to know, from the history of the Fang (their fortress monastery), to the Trial of Morkai, the culture of Fenris, the stories of theis signature characters, their role in the War of Armageddon, the Burning of Prospero, the story of the Lion and the Wolf, and much much more. This is probably the Chapter that has received the most love and attention from GW lore-wise (yes, even more than the "default" Ultramarines) and there's endless codices, Black Library novels and more for those who want to keep hearing about the Space Wolves. Visit Lexicanum or 40k wiki by all means, and you'll find that the Space Wolves lore goes on and on and on!

Their interesting history isn't just limited to in-universe lore!

The Space Wolves have been a favoured chapter ever since the days of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader with that book showing a cross-section diagram of their fortress monastery (now retconned).

They've gone through multiple iterations, and their colour scheme has changed from dark grey to bluish grey (a RL change to the contemporary paint scheme that has been cleverly retconned to represent the Chapter's pre and post-Heresy colour schemes in the fiction).

Like all the chapters, they've become more defined and less generic as time goes on, though the turning point was the mid-1990s, with the introduction of special characters like Ulrik the Slayer, Njal Stormcaller and then flagship 40k character, Ragnar Blackmane!

Let's not get too gushy fanboy here though: its no secret that a lot of 40k fans just don't like Space Wolves. They're Vikings in Space, whose main shtick is to be better than other marines: they get better equipment, better statlines, better psychic powers, better heroics, and so on. Plus they've got an everything must be wolfy vibe that has gotten more extreme and sillier over the years. They have troops that ride cybernetic wolves to battle, dropships that are shaped like wolf-heads, troops who are literal wolfmen, and probably will sooner or later have a wolf shaped gun mounted on a wolf-driven wolf-tank that fires smaller wolf-guns that spit out wolf teeth as bullets. Seriously, GW, sometimes you can take a theme too far!

If you like Space Wolves, its likely you'll love them. if you don't like them (and fans of other Chapters are likely to be the greatest haters, as they often resent how rules depict them as being better in every way than their own chapters), you're unlikely to be won over.

In the LCG, a sense of balance has prevailed, and the wolfiness is toned down. Few would argue that Ragnar is "OP" compared to Cato, so it looks as if those who like their Space Wolves as one Chapter as glorious and cool but not more so than the others will be very happy here!




Signature Squad

(Technical note: Apologies for the pop up links not working at present. Copied and pasted the links from the deckbuilder as normal, but they look to be non-functional for this whole war pack. Presume this is a work in progress issue, but for now, please note that the cards are previewed on the site via the normal approach.)
Ragnar Blackmane (The Howl of Blackmane)
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

A long established Space Marine signature character, Ragnar was introduced to us in the 2nd edition Space Wolves codex in 1995, and had a massive helping of extra lore assigned to him when William King started his Space Wolf novel series in 1999. While these novels aren't (in my opinion) in the top ten of all Black Library books, they're definitely in the top ten percent: well written heroic adventures with engaging characters! He has his own miniature from that era, which is frankly looking a bit dated compared to newer Space Wolf releases, but continues to be a signature character fully statted out in the wargame army books.

In the fiction, Ragnar Blackmane was born Ragnar Thunderfist, and earned his current name during his initiation trials when he slew a Blackmane wolf: an exceptionally large and ferocious predator that many experienced marines would struggle to handle, especially given that initiates enter their trial unarmoured and naked in the icy wastes of Fenris, and unarmed save for a single knife. His heroic deeds continued, and he became the first marine to be elevated directly from the Blood Claws (new recruits, the equivalent in most Chapters to Scouts) directly to the Wolf Guard (the elite veteran bodyguard of the Wolf Lords) after single handedly defeating an Ork Warlord and his entire retinue in close combat. He is also the youngest marine ever to attain the rank of Wolf Lord, after avenging the death of his predecessor hunting down the chaos champion Ghorox Bloodfist.

The rules and stats here perfectly reflect Ragnar's role in fiction. He's at his best when engaging in the biggest battles, and he's an expert at hunting down the enemy warlord. He's well suited to an aggressive playstyle that focuses on Warlord kills over planetary control, but he's also still a space marine, so he's versatile and combat competent.

The smallest of criticisms here is that I'd expect him to have a Warrior trait rather than a Soldier one, as he's no Codex-hugging Ultramarine. Rather he's impetuous, prone to rage and a far better duellist than tactician. Also, his colour scheme has been shifted slightly from previous artworks, with a red gem on the Belt of Russ, grey wolf heads on his backpack rather than a gold one, and so on. These factors in themselves aren't enough to affect the score: the 4/5 is a reflection of a card that achieves its fluff purposes exceptionally well in its rules, but falls short of the sheer level of inspiration I demand of 5/5 fluff score.


Blackmane Sentinel (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Wolf Guard are the elite bodyguards of a Wolf Lord, often in terminator armour but always at the side of their master, acting as his retinue in combat and as the best of his troops. Sometimes they are assigned as squad leaders as well: all in all, they're the heroes of the Great Company.

Given that we know the names and identities of the Wolf Guard of Ragnar Blackmane, and given that Space Wolves are so fiercely individualistic, it seems a shame to have a card that represents generic heroic space marines. Also, the name of the card is potentially mildly confusing, as a Sentinel in 40k terms normally to a type of Astra Militarum light scout walker, and isnt a word normally linked to Space Marines. Having said that, I like its usage here, as it implies a watchful guardian, ready to spring into action. Much as Chosen isn't normally a term you'd associate with Ultramarines, but one which fits the feel of their Warlord card well, Sentinel is a reasonable term to use here.

The ability is very nice, and evokes a nice narrative. Ragnar finds his quarry, and howls for his comrades, and they sprint (through spaaaace) to join him.

Frostfang (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Space Wolves are often depicted in their fiction as being like Space Marines, but just plain better. Their fighting skill is greater, their senses are more acute, and so on.

Their frostblades are an example of this. Whereas all space marines (and many Imperial troops aside) use chainswords (which are combat chainsaws, essentially) the Space Wolf version has teeth that incorporate the diamond-hard fangs of the Fenrisian Kraken.

Blackmane meanwhile, is like a Space Wolf, but just plain better. His sword is the Frostfang, with teeth fashioned from "a rare metal whose secrets died with their creator".

The game effect supports the meta-fluff theme of warlord hunting, though is hard to justify beyond that, especially the HP boost. To be clear, in the fiction it isn't Ragnar's sword that makes him a stone killer, its his skills and aggression.


Blackmane’s Hunt (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

The concept of this card is in keeping with the Space Wolves, with Space Marines in general and in particular with Ragnar Blackmane. The only possible note of discord is if emergent play sees it being used to run Ragnar away from trouble, or to play silly tricks in the command phase. So long as its used for its intended purpose, its a very fluffy card.


Ragnar’s Warcamp (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

While we can imagine Ragnar having a "warcamp" as his base of operations, and we can imagine that he can inspire his leaders to a furious assault on the enemy command force, its somewhat abstract to tie this location to this effect.

I love that the art here shows Ragnar's personal banner, though I would comment that the winged skull motif looks very much like a Tau face, though its hard to be sure from preview art. The tank depicted is a Razorback. This is a relatively new variant (only 4000 years old, which in the Imperium is dead new) on the Space Marine Rhino Transport albeit one based on the rediscovery of a long lost Standard Template Construct from the Dark Age of Technology. It loses some of the transport capacity of the Rhino, in exchange for extra firepower.

Its amusing that "replace part of the passenger compartment with power and ammo for a gun" constitutes a technological quantum leap for the scientifically static Imperium! Its also somewhat telling that four thousand years of use in, many Space Marine Chapters still consider the Razorback to be an unproven, untested and possibly heretical technology...

All that in mind, consider how unfluffy it is when you equip a codex-adherent Ultramarine with a Tau Ion Rifle! Thats not just an oddity, that's the sort of action that leads to Chapters becoming the target of Inquisition investigation and likely crusades of purgation!


Other Cards

Archon's Palace (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

I have to say, I'm not entirely sure that the art of this card depicts a palace. While its undoubtedly a picture of Comorragh, the main structure looks more like a vast and twisted semi-organic support pillar than a building to me, though I'm sure that in the flesh (as it were) this card will look better.

The overall card effect is very much a Dark Eldar one in FFG's chosen mechanical themes of the faction, though I have trouble abstractly thinking why it fits an Archon's Palace in particular.

Aun'ui Prelate (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

In the Tau naming system, "Aun" means of the Ethereal caste, and the word that follows the apostrophe after that is the rank: 'saal, 'la, 'ui, 'vre, 'el and 'o representing the known suffixes in order of increasing rank.

The 'ui rank of the ethereal caste is translated as "Prelate" by the Imperium, so "Aun'ui Prelate" is a bit like saying "Mister Married-Male" or, to be more generous, "Sir Knight". Its basically just a doubling of titles.

Any Aun'ui is going to be a notable individual, but even so the statline and the ambush keyword don't make much sense, though the attack boost to other Tau is very sensible, as is the "tactical withdrawal" of these chaps, who understand that the essence of the "Greater Good" of the Tau is protecting and preserving the Ethereal Caste!

Ethereals being notable, they'll often dispense with the rank altogether, and abbreviate straight from Aun' to their personal name, such as with Aun'shi, Aun'va and Aun'taniel.
Aun'va, for example, is fully named Aun'o'T'au'Acaya'Va'Denta, but there's only one Aun'va, so that's all the name he needs.

The main fluff disconnect (aside from scale, yada yada) is that these guys are perfectly potent even when Ambushed in on their own with no other Tau about. While its a great game mechanic, and broadly T'au like, it seems almost comedic to imagine a respected Tau Ethereal leaping out from behind a bush to give a (Monty Python style) fish-slap to the face of Farseer Eldorath, and then to run away before the massed Eldar gunline can punish him.


Calamity (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

The art and flavour text here are excellent, but while the game effect can be calamitous on a player's plans, its all highly abstract and its not entirely clear how the art or flavour text tie to the game effects.

What exactly is happening here? The Warlord expends resources to engineer a calamity that effects all five planets and both HQs (and given that the Dark Eldar HQ looks to be Commorragh itself, thats a potent effect). Then, in response to that calamity, both commanders in a panic evacuate all their least valuable troops, but then nothing happens to those that are left behind.

As an abstract card with a very interesting game effect, I've been endlessly analysing this to see if it has a place in any of my decks (short answer: not yet, we'll see what future combos emerge), but in terms of fluff assessment and in the eye of the imagination, I have no clue what is being represented here.

"Captain Sicarius! Incoming! Its a... a... disaster!"
"Dear Emperor of Mankind, Brother Maxos, my thanks for the warning! Immediately evacuate Tactical Squad Cardinis, all three of our Scouts and the Void Pirates we have working with us!"
"Immediately sir?"
"Ah no, wait, not immediately. Wait till they have completed their logistics work and we've fought a battle or three, and then evacuate them!"
"And what about you, sir? And what about the Honoured Librarian? And the treasured Land Raider and venerable Dreadnought?"
"No, no! Evacuate those of least strategic value first! That's an order! And don't forget, that's Tactical Squad Rob Cardinis AND Tactical Squad Bob Cardinis!"
"Yes, sir, right away! Uh, I mean, not right away, but later on!"
"Ah, what a Calamity!"


Death Guard Infantry (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Damn, if I'd known there was a Death Guard Infantry squad coming up, I'd have saved the Death Guard fluff I presented with Virulent Plague Squad!

This card is that one's slightly less fluffy brother: the blander version without a cool ability. Its entirely "adequate" in fluff terms, with good art, flavour text and the right proportion of abilities.

Deathskull Lootas (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Another Ork Klan makes its Conquest LCG debut! So far we've seen dakka-obsessed Bad Moons, keep it simple Goffs and now we see the kleptomaniac Deathskulls!

In the lore, Deathskulls are better known to other orks as "dem thievin' gitz", thanks to their propensity to claim anything that isn't nailed down and to keep a pair of pliers handy for taking out the nails on the stuff that is. They're in the battle as much for the loot as the war itself, and pride of place in their warbands are the looted enemy vehicles that they fix up, orkify (i.e. render more unreliable) and ride into battle. They're not keen on orks who badly break the stuff they want to loot, so there's always some animosity between them and Tankbusta orks. Their archetypal weapon is the "deffgun" which is basically a big gun made from what a mek can cobble together from lots of looted bits. Deathskull "lootas" are always on the look out for stuff with wheels they can orkify, gun bits they can add to their deffguns, and "other bitz" they can sell to the meks to pay for the work that needs doing.

Shown in the art of the card is another Deathskull eccentricity: they believe the colour blue is "ded lucky" and often wear blue warpaint, and paint their equipment and looted stuff blue. Orks being orks, this does actually seem to make them luckier than most.

This card is a great fluff representation, in many ways, if we allow for the abstraction of their being able to get at enemy supports that might not be located anywhere near the battlefield. Their scavenging ways will help Orky logistics indirectly, so command icons make sense. A more fluffy ability might have been to give the Ork player draw or resources if they're alive at the end of a battle, but the current effect fits the overall mechancal theme that has been fluffily assigned to the orks, so there's no real cause for complaint here.

I like this card a lot! Welcome to the Conquest, my Deathskull friends!


Empower (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

While there isn't a specific known Eldar psychic power called "Empower", this is very much in keeping with the battle magics used by Eldar Warlocks.

The Eldar Path of the Seer is the means by which they safely utilise their innate psychic potential. While all Eldar have psychic potential, its dangerous for them to freely tap into this, as it could unbalance their minds or feed their souls directly to Slaanesh. To prevent this, Eldar Seers engage in rune-casting, channelling their power through carefully prepared runestones that let them handle psychic energy indirectly. You won't see Eldar summoning warp vortices or distorting time fields like a Space Marine Librarian might: instead the art of Seeing is far subtler, relying on the observation of and the manipulation of the forces of fate.

One who becomes trapped on the Path of the Seer becomes a Farseer. While this state is pitiable in what it represents, it is also connected to an incredible mastery of foresight and fate manipulation. A Farseer can be a formidable combatant through his powers alone, finding the path through fate that evades his enemies blows, and makes his own land true.

Most ordinary Seers aren't so suited to battle and exist only in a support role as they can't trust themselves to safely utlise their fateweaving in the heat of battle. However, those that have previously walked the Path of the Warrior as Aspect Warriors have the mental framework to don the mask of the Warlock, and while wearing this mask can access battle-magics that even Farseers cannot, through a combination of martial discipline and the aggressive impulses of Khaine.

Warlocks in the wargame are noted to have access to a mix of effects, from the aggressive (such as the Destructor power) to the subtle (such as Conceal, Embolden and Enhance).

Empower fits nicely into this category of powers - an effect that makes the Eldar fight a little more effectively, without being as dramatically destructive as some. The flexibility of Warlock powers is also nicely represented in the pair of Shield icons.

It'd have been excellent to see some tie between Psyker units and using powers, and nicer still to have this be a Warlock power specifically. However, the game hasn't been able to include that level of granularity, which is understandable given the nature of LCGs.


Heretek Inventor (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

Deep in GW's Nottingham headquarters, I'm sure some creative mind is giggling with his cleverness at the mashing together the words heretic and tech, and at his genius at spelling it with a "k", because teenage boys do like their "k" substitutions.

Let's be clear though: while this is an interesting game effect, its also one that has no particular tie to the expected game fiction of a card like this. Why is this lone scholar almost the equal of a squad of Death Guard Infantry? Why is he following the deployment directions of the enemy Warlord?

"Hah, they called me mad! Mad when I set aside my technical learning to become a kung fu master! Mad when I refused to go where Zarathur told me to, and instead asked Packmaster Kith which planet she'd like me at! Mad am I? I'll show them! BWAHAHAHA!"


Homing Beacon (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

A Homing Beacon is a battlesuit upgrade that allows the rest of a warrior's cadre to pinpoint his location, and coordinate their arrival.

I want to like this card, showing as it does the function of a Homing Beacon from HQ, rather than its appearance in battle, and thus justifying why it is a Support and not an Attachment. Drawing a card or gaining a resource is sensible too, as the entire purpose of this piece of equipment is to allow the Tau to coordinate their battle-suit deployments, and it is thus central to the principles of Kau'yon and Mont'ka. Of course, gaining cards or resources isn't the same as deploying them, and there's nothing in particular in the effect that suggests coordination or localising a signal.

The triggering condition is odd too, as it stands triggering mostly off Ethereals hopping in and out of a planet, which suggests that they are the ones delivering the beacon.

I'd rather have a card of this name be an attachment to an Army Unit that lets you deploy cards to that planet as a Combat Action when that Army Unit is exhausted. That would have reflected this equipment's role a lot better - you send in the spearhead, rush him into position, and then the full force of the Mont'ka comes crashing down!

Interrogator Acolyte (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

This card forces us to reveal a little of the lore of the Imperial Inquisition a little early, a subject that I will cover in much greater detail when we later preview Torquemada Coteaz.

For now, we'll keep it simple: the Inquisition is the shadowy but immensely powerful organisation that is responsible for protecting the Imperium from the most insidious of threats. While the Astra Militarum, Navy and Space Marines fight the big battles, the Inquisition is designed to investigate as much as it is to fight. An Imperial Inquisitor is amongst the most powerful of men in the galaxy, with the right to over-ride any authority, to execute any man (or indeed any world) that he deems is heretic, and to expect and demand the cooperation and acquiescence of any Imperial citizen or servant.

In reality, the Inquisition's absolute power is the theory, and the practice is that an Inquisitor can only operate when the galaxy lets him! Recalcitrant Chapter Masters, influential bureaucrats, overly independent Rogue Traders and others can and will challenge his authority even if they are technically forbidden to. While an Inquisitor can theoretically take command of any Imperial army or fleet, he is always being watched by other Inquisitors and can be named a heretic or renegade by them if he seems to take things too far. Inquisitorial factions exist, but ultimately every Inquisitor is a faction unto himself.

Acolytes are those who are not full Inqusitors, but who are apprentices in training. Generally, the first rank of Acolyte is Explicator, and the next Interrogator. The majority of servants in an Inquisitor's retinue are not Acolytes - to be named one is a statement that they at least have the potential to be a future inquisitor.

There's no formal system of training or examination, so some acolytes might remain apprentices and servants till they die, while some might spend only a short time before being named equals by their former masters. While Interrogators have no Inquisitorial mandate, the sheer legal power that their masters have makes them feared and respected. If an Interrogator demands something of you, you either acquiesce, or you make sure that his master never finds out your disobedience.

There is a hell of a lot more to tell about the Inquisition, from its in-universe complexities to the plethora of IP-associated products that GW have licensed in relation to the Inquisition. We'll come back to them in a few War Pack's time, I promise!

For now, let's bounce back to the card.

The first thing that must be stated is that its very odd to see this categorised as an Astra Militarum card. The Inquisition is most definitely not part of the Astra Militarum.

In fact, the Astra Militarum is one of several organisations subservient to the directions of Administratum, largely via the Departmento Munitorum. The monolithic Administratum, in turn, is the bureaucracy of the overarching Adeptus Terra. This organisation runs almost everything in the Imperium.
Outside of the Adeptus Terra is the Cult Mechannicus and the Ecclesiarchy, both of whom have their own hierarchies. The Adeptus Astartes / Space Marines, incidentally are also theoretically under the direction of Administratum, though Chapter Masters are given a lot of leeway in self determination.
The Adeptus Terra, in turn answers to the High Lords of Terra. They, in turn, answer only to the Emperor.
ONE organisation doesn't answer to the High Lords of Terra, and that's the Inquisition. Like the twelve High Lords, each Inquisitor is answerable only to the Emperor, and to the machinations of his peers.

This makes the cards placement as an Astra Militarum card somewhat odd. The rescue here is in the art of the card, suggesting an Acolyte who is posing as an Imperial Guardsman, who has now revealed his true identity and loyalties. You'd think that a honking great medallion was not terribly covert, but hey, thats definitely the implication of the art.

"You thought I kept my trenchcoat buttoned up for six months because I was cold! But no! I am an almost-Inquisitor! Nobody expects the almost-Inquisition! Our three main weapons are..."

High stats for an individual work fine here, as this is an Inquisitor-in-training we're looking at here. The card draw mechanic on leaving play is a little odd, but could be read as an Inquisitor paying especial attention when this happens, either because he is devoting resources to investigating his acolyte's death (turns out it was Colonel Straken, in the drawing room, with the candlestick glorious intervention) or responding to reports when the card leaves play non-mortally. Still, its kind of a weird mechanic, even if it makes more sense when played against the upcoming Coteaz's ability than when Interrogators die in Straken's service.

Even so, this is a card I can't give a high fluff score to, as it bugs me generally to have Inquisition forces in the Astra Militarum faction. We've seen a precedent already, with the Navy based Assault Valkyrie factioned as Astra Militarum, but that at least is a card that is placed at the disposal of an Astra Militarum commander. Frankly, no non-Inquisition warlord has any place giving orders to or disposing of Inquisition-owned resources of any sort.

Muster the Guard (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

BOING - fooooof!

That's the sound of this War Pack bouncing back into fluffiness!

This is a card that is excellent because its emergent play effects are so well thought out.

The first bright point here is it makes the Astra Militarum land like the Hammer of the Emperor. No messing around here: a swathe of cards can land in one single turn. I complained before that we needed a card to have the Astra Militarum arrive en masse, and thats exactly what this card does.

The second, equally strong point is that this card encourages an Astra Militarum style of timing in emergent play. There's barely any point exhausting your warlord to discount 1 card by 1, thats a mug's game. Instead we have a card that either makes for a huge deployment on turn 1 (which suggests the Army caught in media res as the game begins) or one that is saved up for later game when you want to get maximum value, and play a load of cards at once. This is awesome, as it offers an active incentive for you to play your AM in a fluffy way, having just scouts and vanguard forces dripping in till *SMACK*, here come the Army!


Noble Deed (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Sacrifice-for-benefit is emerging as a strong gameplay theme for the Astra Militarum faction in the LCG, and this is an excellent and fluffy thing for a faction that is all about attrition warfare. This card is excellently callous, sending your troops to certain death in order to achieve your objective.

My only complaint here isn't one that marks the card down, but rather born of the stylistic preference I have for the Astra Militarum in its fiction. I'd rather see an Imperial Guard that is callously tossed into the meatgrinder than one that is heroic, as while both sorts of stories occur in the associated fiction, the former is to me more evocative and one that makes you feel more like a right bastard of an Imperial commander.

I can see why the game designers have consciously chosen heroic sacrifice as a theme for the Militarum cards though, as callous sacrifice is a strong Dark Eldar theme, and with fluff as well as assigned rules its beneficial to a game to maintain strong faction identity. Still, I think there's room for more cards that show the potential for cold disregard for men's lives that can typify an Imperial Guard commander. On that note, really looking forward to playing Torquemada Coteaz!

A nice compromise might have been a card title that is open to interpretation in whether it represents heroism or calculated expenditure of subordinates. Something like "Into the Breach!" or "Escalade."


Piranha Hunter (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

For no particular reason, GW chose to give the Tau a fish-based theme for its vehicles. I suspect part of this was because the other portions of the animal kingdom had been taken up by other factions prior to the introduction of Tau to the wargame, and some bright spark thought "hey... fish are cool!"

The Piranha Skimmer was first used by the Tau just over a century ago, initially as a civilian transport skimmer for diplomats, but has since been adapted to multiple military functions. It's a 2-person craft, and has been used as a fast attack strike craft, a recon vehicle and more. The Piranha Hunter designation suggests to us that this skimmer is being used in a certain role: hunting!

I've not tested this card enough yet to see whether it feels like a hunter in emergent play. 2 attack and Mobile seems to make it handy for this purpose especially if moving to the new Tau Warlord for Armourbane, but the sheer cost of losing a persistent "draw engine" would seem to suggest that its better off running away most of the time. Piranha Recon would have made more sense to me.

A low rating here is based on long established complaints (see top of page).


Smash 'n Bash (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

The effect of this card is very orky: a total disregard for personal safety and enemy bullets, in order to get stuck into combat. You can imagine that the orks are charging into the teeth of enemy fire, and are thus able to get that many more hits in, though at cost of getting shot up a bit.

The name of the card is somewhat generic though, and the card art suggests a different effect to what is described. While each Ork does get to attack twice, this card art looks more like a single Ork hitting two people at once, or letting go having bashed two oomie's heads together.

Starcannon (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

Humans and other primitive races use plasma weapons, but they have a tendency to overheat. Eldar often take this as an example of mankind's crass stupidity: what sort of race makes a weapon that can injure its own user?

The Eldar Starcannon suffers no such frailties. The output is the same as that of a human plasma weapon: superheated plasma, the stuff of stars, but the eldar version uses electromagnetic pulses to guide the energy to its target, and sophisticated containment to have the weapon be cool to the touch.

Actually, outside of the current fluff, the "starcannon" is a new invention, starting from the 3rd edition Eldar Codex. Prior to that Eldar Dreadnoughts (which is what Wraithlords used to be called) just carried a plain old Heavy Plasma Gun, same as the Imperials. As RL time went on, GW wisely decided to give each faction a more distinct sense of identity in their wargear. If you look at Rogue Trader, every faction had access to plasma pistols, plasma guns, heavy plasma guns and the super-heavy plasma cannon. Indeed, every faction had access to lasguns, bolters, shuriken catapults and power armour, though even then it was noted that Eldar tended to wear mesh armour and that the bolter was a weapon closely associated with the marines.

The terminology shifted over time, and so did the rules. The Imperials lost the heavy plasma gun, and had it renamed the plasma cannon (though the old name is still used sometimes). They lost the dual fire-mode of single burst or sustained fire, and gained a simpler single stat profile. Meanwhile the old plasma cannon became the plasma annihilator, then an inbetween cannon was added called the plasma destructor.

The Eldar lost plasma guns and plasma pistols, and had the heavy plasma gun redubbed the starcannon, though in the transition they lost the "Gets Hot" rule and gained a superior statline to their gun. Over time, game balance won out over the "Eldar do it better" ethos and the starcannon was "nerfed", but by that stage all us Eldar fans had fell in love with the new aesthetic and kept using them anyway.

Regarding the card, the key point here is that even in the wargame, the function, rules and even the name of this core piece of equipment have changed, as has the fluff. Its not a huge problem then that what in the wargame was once a vehicle option for just the dreadnought, then became a broader vehicle option for certain tanks and vehicles, now becomes an option for any eldar vehicle. Its odd that infantry squads can't tote a starcannon, however. This is doubly odd when we consider the artwork, which shows the gun on anti-grav platform, as used by Biel Tan guardians... who can't receive this attachment in the LCG.

Armourbane is an appropriate keyword to give, though it seems odd that a starcannon on a falcon is weaker than one on a wailing wraithfighter. Whats nice here is the plural of cannon is cannon (though GW is notoriously inconsistent at remembering this) so we can mentally refit this in our imagination to explain unchanged attack values.


Uber Grotesque (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

A little while back, in the Dark Eldar article, I mentioned how the word Haemonculus seemed to be derived from Homonculus, and that the only link here was likely deliberate evocation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which uses that term to describe the monster.

In the 40k setting, the Haemonculus is the mad doctor rather than the monster, and the monster is the Grotesque.

Grotesques are created from unwilling slave prisoners, with the haemonculi engaging themselves in the dual task of enhancing the victim's physical form, and driving him to frothing psychotic insanity with extremes of pain and suffering. In battle these steroid-enhanced monsters are sent crashing into the front line, as ultimately expendable but extremely effective shock troops.

Creating a Grotesque is considered to be an art form by haemonculi, and the ever-humble Urien Rakarth is a master of the arts of pain, with his creations dubbed Uber-Grotesques. These are even more formidable than most of their kind, retaining a higher degree of intelligence and sentience, and who have artfully been conditioned to seek out and be strengthened pain rather than simply be maddened by it.

The fluff representation here is spot on. On a side note, the mechanics suggest that we'll see more Torture traited event cards, and their origins lend credence to my prediction that Urien Rakarth will be the Dark Eldar warlord of this cycle!

This is as yet unconfirmed at time of writing, so if I turn out to be right, then let me say "called it!"

If I turn out to be wrong, let me say "dammit."

Vaulting Harlequin (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

Geirgilath (literally belts of speed, but dubbed flip belts but other races) are Harlequin-unique pieces of equipment, which use short range suspensor fields to enhance a Harlequin's agility, and which allow them to pivot mid-jump around their hips.

This is used primarily as an offensive enhancement, letting the close-combat oriented Harlequins leap into the midst of their enemies.

I'm a little disappointed to see Harlequins represented by cards that represent their universal wargear - first Shrouded Harlequin with the dathedi holo-suit, and now the geirgilath. The fluff has these capabilities on all harlequins, so it seems an odd way to represent them.
This has been a choice throughout many LCG cards, of course, with a Daring Assault Squad and an Eager Recruit and so on.

This is particularly a shame when there are so many types of Harlequins detailed in the fiction: athair, esdainn, rilletann, margorach and so on, with plain English translations who don't want elvish in their fantasy. On a different scale there's a notable troupe as well (the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow) as well as ample opportunity to add to the fiction in fluff-consistent and evocative ways. What we didn't really need to see was one harlequin shrouded and one vaulting.

Then there's that ability - even if we're talking about a warrior using a flip-belt, we're not talking about wargear that lets you jump into the skies, just ten to fifteen feet up. The rules suggest something very different to the function of the equipment.

On the upside, its nice to see Harlequins getting attention at all. I can't wait to see if we get a Harlequin warlord at some stage, along with all the more flavourful units, like the Shadowseer, Death Jester and Solitaire.

Visions of Agony (The Howl of Blackmane) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

A great card, with a thematic effect, good art and a lovely quote. I love that the flavour text is also tactical advice: play this late in the game when resources don't matter so much, and it may be a game winner. A patient torturer is an effective one!


Conclusion

An excellent start to the game's expansions, with a truly fluffy warlord addition as well as more cards that bring us deeper into the setting's lore.

I approve! I howl my approval!

AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But wait, what's that foul smell my hyper-acute wolfish sense pick up? Hmm, that's not Battle-Brother Gunnar's post-ale vomit, nor the stink of the centuries old blackmane pelt I wear round my shoulders. By Grimnar's arse, thats smells worse than a Dark Angel's hasty excuses for abandoning a campaign midway through a key battle.

Could it be...?

Yes! Its the smell of the next article in the series!

BLEUUUUGH!