The Chime of Eons - The Scourge

"In the embrace of the great Nurgle, I am no longer afraid, for with His pestilential favour I have become that which I once most feared: Death."

- Kulvain Hestarius of the Death Guard

"I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands"

- Leviticus 26:25

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Skinny ladies and muscly fellas. That's 40k. Occasionally there's skinny fellas, and very occasionally muscly ladies. Broadly though, in common with many fantasy genre products, its all about the wish fulfilment of unrealistic body expectations.

Sure, there's the Tyranids and the Necrons, but they're basically beasties and robots. In terms of those who are human and humanoid, the idealised body is very much a fantasy trope echoed through 40k. Those that don't fit, like the Squats, have been excised from the mythos. Those that do, like the pretty pretty Eldar, get new versions.

Thank goodness we've got Nurgle then! The Nurgle miniature range and the Nurgle art is the refuge of the artist who are happy to present body types that don't conform to the fantasy stereotype. We have corpulently obese space marines, greater daemons that are rolling rotting flab, lesser daemons that are pot bellied and odorous. We have the skinny fellas too, but this is no fashion magazine slimness, but rather emaciated skeletal frames with holes in the skin and maggots in the eye sockets.

The Nurgle gamer is one who is happy for his army to have a different sort of beauty - that of the unconventional and disease-ridden. Phooey to your societal demands for the perfect body, say they. To hell with your "healthiness". This is a celebration of being who we are, gamer bellies, cholesterol laden diets, nicotine stained fingers and all. Hurrah to that!

But lets not pretend that this Warpack is just about Chaos. There's other great cards in here too, notably an Ork card that will turn the gaming meta upside down. My comments on the strategic ramifications of the cards I'll leave to the fora and the card database section. As always, the Chime of Eons will be looking at the fluff.

As a quick aside though, this game is getting better and better, with a strong foundation leading into a vibrant and exciting meta. If you haven't joined in the fun yet, then please dive in! This is the finest LCG available, and we have years of fun ahead of us!

Real Rotters

Fluff-wise, we'll focus the emphasis of this pack on the Warlord and his allegiances.

As we've discussed before there are Four Ruinous Powers. These are Khorne the God of War, Tzeentch the God of Change, Slaanesh the God of Pleasure and Nurgle the God of Decay. (There used to be other Gods in the fluff too, but Malal is kinda like the fifth Beatle - he left before they got famous).

Nurgle is known as the Plaguefather, the Lord of Decay, Papa Nurgle, the Fly-Lord, the Master of Pestilence, and by many other names. His domain is disease, morbidity, infirmity and death. It is said that he is the oldest of the four chaos gods, and that he was born when the first mortal sickened and died.

While other gods are more tied to abstract concepts, Nurgle is very much engaged with the physical universe. There can be no disease without mortal flesh, and no death without life. He is said to be paternalistic, with a joyous love for all mortal creatures, especially in their final moments of illness.

Those who embrace the despair and hopelessness of incurable malady find themselves in the stinking warmth of his all-enfolding arms. In particular, Nurgle loves the race of Man, with their constant fear of death and their panoply of interesting diseases and ailments.

His power waxes and wanes according to the events of the physical universe. Sometimes he will be the weakest of the Chaos Gods, and sometimes (especially when there has been disease and death on a massive scale) he is the strongest.

His daemons, for the most part, share his traits.


The Great Unclean Ones are his greater daemons, and they look like miniature versions of the Plague God himself. Corpulent of form, with an abdomen that has split open from the weight of putrescence, the Great Unclean Ones are nonetheless jovial and jolly, sharing their diseases with loving generosity, and barely understanding why mortals scream when they are covered with the gift of plague-laden vomit. They must be screams of gratitude!

Nurglings, meanwhile, are like tiny versions of the Great Unclean Ones. They are little scampering bundles of happy filth, giggling at the poxes they inflict and swimming happily in the pus that leaks from their larger cousins. Papa Nurgle loves all his children, but perhaps loves these little ones the best, smiling protectively as they pick at scabs to get to the tasty juices beneath.

Inbetween lie a multitude of other daemons - most notably the Plaguebearers or Tallymen of Nurgle. These are created from the souls of mortals who have succumbed to the foul plague known as Nurgle's Rot, and aren't as cheerful as the nurglings or great unclean ones, instead being souls damned to forever count and record the ever expanding multitude of diseases in the universe: a task that can never end.

In game, for something truly fluffy, we're looking for Nurgle cards that reflect his nature. They should spread disease and contagion, for sure, and they should also have power that waxes and wanes according to the amount of disease and death in the warzone. In the core set articles, I've already commented on how excellently Virulent Plague Squad hits this theme.

Another factor to be represented in game is resilience - paradoxically, for servants of sickness, the followers of Nurgle are inhumanly tough. Their bodies are inured to mundane pain by the agonies of illness, and they are so used to functioning with broken bodies that you need to inflict massive damage on them before you can halt their advance.

Nurgle should be tough, patient, ready to ride the ebb and flow of a tide of death and disease. His victories come from the inevitable attrition of disease, and he is sharing loving god, giving the gifts of plague to allies and enemies alike.

You've probably realised this already, but FFG has done an excellent job here... Let's take a look!


Signature Squad

Ku’gath Plaguefather (The Scourge)
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

Ku'gath is no ordinary Great Unclean One.

His fiction was introduced late in the story of Chaos, in the early 1990s. He has mentions in the Chaos Daemons codex, and he has his own miniature. He's not the most famous signature character for chaos, but he's a welcome addition to the LCG. I think his first mention was in fact in the Grey Knights codex, where a story was told of how he was banished and defeated, though as with all Greater Daemons banishment is not the same as death. Clearly he has returned!

His backstory describes how he was once a mere Nurgling, sitting on Nurgle's shoulder. As the God was mixing in his cauldron a particular vile and potent toxin (said by some to be his ultimate work) the Nurgling Ku'gath accidentally fell into the cauldron, and instinctively imbibed its contents. By the time he had completed his meal, he was a Great Unclean One.

Fans of Goscinny and Uderzo might find this origin story strangely familiar, and personally I'm sure this is intentional. I'd have been tickled pink if Ku'gath's flavour text had been "Ils sont fous ces ultramarines".

Coming back to the story, Ku'gath has since been riven with guilt at accidentally sabotaging his God's work and undoing the creation of the perfect disease. Papa Nurgle himself's first reactoin was to laugh with joy, but this hasn't alleviated Ku'gath's guilt: of all Great Unclean Ones, he is the only one with a permanently sombre expression. To redeem himself he wanders realspace, seeking to study disease in all its forms and to research and create the perfect disease anew.

Fluff-wise, this card is a perfect 5/5. We have the resilience of Nurgle, the disease aspect represented in the damage being moved about, and an ability that requires him to stay in the battle to watch how his diseases spread, as his own personal geas dictates.

His emergent playstyle is hard to comment on, as at time of writing I've not gotten to play with him yet! To me, however, it looks as if this is a Warlord card that encourages a slow and steady march of spreading pain and attrition, proving more resilient in the long term, and eventually sending every foe to the grave. Thats very Nurglish!

My small objection is that his smile seems out of place with the sombre mood he is described to have, but this is a sin shared by the miniature and by all pieces of art of him I can find, so I can't criticise greatly here. The artwork also fails to depict his nurgling-borne Palanquin, and the mobile laboratory that Ku'gath brings around with him on this, but as this is covered on another card there's no problem here.


Kugath’s Nurglings[/b][b] (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

These nurglings are - as the flavor text beautifully explains - born of Ku'gath's body and each carry a blend of the elements that created him. Ku'gath flings these at his enemies to create different infections.

While Nurgling tokens and an event that launches them as weapons might have been more representative of these creatures' role, I can't fault FFH for leaving that design space to the upcoming Ork Warlord, and the design of this card actually very well supports a feeling of Nurglish contagion. What might have been appropriate (as well as mechanically desirable) would have been an immunity of Nurglish units to the damaging contagion.


The Plaguefather’s Banner (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

As far as I am aware, Ku'gath isn't known for a banner in particular, so I choose to instead interpret this as a banner dedicated to the other Plaguefather - Nurgle himself.

The effect here is nicely appropriate, and the absence of the Relic keyword is sensible as there isn't anything especial about a Mark of Nurgle on a banner: it is the blessing and the power of the Ruinous Power behind it that has significance.


Fetid Haze (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Another excellent card, this represents the clouds of spores that Ku'gath will release across a battlefield in order to carry out his field tests.

High cost is appropriate, reflecting how Ku'gath is willing to dedicate considerable resources to the task of researching the perfect disease. The effect is excellent, as it will lead to a sickening of the opposing forces, and will generally leave the strongest alive but weakened. Regeneration of the Nurglish unit makes sense too, given that Nurglish daemons tend to find plague and fetor to be highly invigorating, and helps to feed back into a theme of Nurglish toughness.

Vile Laboratory (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

I'd have liked to see the Vile Laboratory be an attachment to Ku'gath rather than a location, as Ku'gath's laboratory is something he takes with him as he travels from world to world, and carries onto the field of battle (or rather, it is mounted aboard his Palanquin, which is in turn borne by a plague of Nurglings that gladly carry their flesh-father into battle).

As has been mentioned, Ku'gath is a Greater Daemon with a mission, and it is one of scientific rigour and careful research, with practical field-testing of his concoctions an absolute requirement.
The effect is superbly Nurglish in the card's context: a foul stink that forces enemy armies to withdraw, unless they are safely ensconced in an airtight vehicle.

While we might expect absolute fluff-adherence to have infantry in sealed armour be fine (like Space Marines and Fire Warriors) and vehicles with open-tops be effected, thats way beyond the level of granularity we'd expect, want or need from an LCG.





Other Cards
Settle yourself in with a cup of tea, or commence skim-reading, as there's a lot of fluff in this Warpack!


Attack Squig Herd (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

As we've mentioned, Squigs are the smallest and simplest fungal organism of the orkoid species, and turn up wherever there are orks. In this way, orks carry their own ecosystem with them, and squigs form the foundation of much of orkish society and "kultur".

For example, did you know that orks are naturally hairless? Those orks you see with impressive topknots and beards actually have hairy squigs clamped onto their noggins.

Likewise, to the surprise of many humans, Orks are not without hygeine. There's a breed of squig called the Gob Squig that orks will pop in their mouth for a day or two, which will pick all the bits of meat out from beneath their teeth and give gums and mouth a good clean.

Attack Squigs, as their name suggests are squigs bred for fighting. Much like a human nobleman or ganger might keep fighting dogs, an ork Nob or Runtherd will keep one or two of these vicious, hungry beasts with him, and send them to savage his opponents in battle.

When it comes to war, sometimes the Runtherdz will get a load of the Attack Squigs together into a big nasty herd of doom, and send them at the enemy.

The art here is amazing, the game stats exactly right (as the only thing that tops their ferocity is their resilience and numbers), and a complete lack of command icons or special abilities nicely shows how this is a weapon of mass destruction and nothing more. I'd have liked to see some sort of Fearless keyword in the game, as this unit (along with many others already in the game) aren't ones to make tactical retreats or to be terrified by an Archon.

It'd also have been fun to show the collateral damage that an Attack Squig Herd can deal, for example a Forced Interrupt that deals the ork side 1 indirect damage at the start of each combat round.

Still, this card does the job, and is evocative in play: its so much more fun it is to unleash a slavering horde of snapping jaws than an infantry platoon!

Black Guardians (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

In game terms, this has to be the dullest card we've seen out of the War-packs so far. 2 resources for a 2 attack 4 HP body with no special effects, nor command icons, nor traits of interest. Fluff-lovers like me like to see interesting and evocative game mechanics.

Still, its not all bad. Let's look at this card's backstory:

As mentioned in the Eldar article, Guardians are the citizen militia of the Craftworlds, called to war when a Craftworld cannot field sufficient numbers of professional soldiers (i.e. Aspect Warriors). In these dark times, this is becoming more and more of a necessity, as the Eldar's foes are many, and it is too frequently the case that an Eldar must temporarily set aside his own path, and act as Guardian.

The craftworld of Ulthwé is unusual in that it had not fled far when the Fall of the Eldar occurred, and it was trapped in the gravitational pull of the Eye of Terror. While it was not dragged in (as Altansar was), it has since been forced to orbit the Eye, and its proximity to that realm of chaos has shaped its path.

Much of Ulthwé lies in ruins from wars against the forces of Chaos that periodically spill from the gate. Ulthwé also has a strong tendency towards witchery and the Path of the Seer - something they claim as being due to necessity and choice, but which others believe is due to the taint of chaos triggering an excess of psychic awakenings. Because the Craftworld relies so heavily on Seers and Warlocks (even to the extent that they are governed by a Seer Council) they have neglected the Warrior Path, and have far fewer Aspect Warriors than the other craftworlds.

Necessity, therefore, requires the Black Guardians of Ulthwe to be a permanent standing army. This army is intended as a rapid response force.

In fact, in previous editions of the W40K tabletop game there was an army list for the Ulthwe Strike Force, which had such unique options as portable webway portals, and which specialised in lightning assaults and quick withdrawals.

In emergent play, this looks likely to be how the Black Guardians may play out - a force that is deployed to First Planet then moves back to HQ. Lack of command icons means they're not much use garrisoning worlds upstream.

This is fine, but a little weak. The mechanic being introduced for Ethereals (a forced reaction to go back to HQ after attacking) would have worked well here. For mechanical distinctness and identity, it also would have worked if this card was cheaper, and had a forced "return to hand" reaction after attacking, or after battle.

As it is, the sheer boringness of this card's mechanics tell us little about the fluff. They may as well be squigs!


Blacksun Filter (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 0/5

Oh those crazy Tau with their strange and wonderful technology! Behold! An optic filter device that lets them see at night as if it were day! What strange heresy is this?

Though one might argue that a Blacksun Filter is in fact a Night Vision device, as used by 20th and 21st century people in the real world, as found in Imperial hardware in the 41st millennium, as used by the Eldar, as developed by the Orks, as inherent to Necron build, as bio-engineered into many Tyranid organisms...

Hmm, these Tau are not that clever or inventive after all...

Ridiculousness of this being a special piece of wargear in the 40k wargame aside, we can at least rest assured that the LCG will represent the effect of this wargear in some clever and fluffy way.

Ah. Okay. So we have a piece of equipment that somehow provides resources when the enemy Warlord is about. And you can, for a moderate increase in efficiency, tag it onto an enemy army that is in the enemy Warlord's HQ.

The only thing I can imagine here is that the Tau have put recording devices in these, and are waiting till the enemy warlord hops in the shower. Then, at night time, they're transmitting these images back to the Tau homeworld for a popular pay-per-view site, and generating revenue for the war effort. Hot Kith Action! Cato XXX!

Yeah.


Bladed Lotus Rifle (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 1/5

We've talked previously about the Kabals of Commorragh (see the Dark Eldar Chime of Eons article) and one of these is the Kabal of Bladed Lotus.

Its one we don't know much about from the codex: their archon is called K'shaic, and from his name is a gangster rapper.

Happily, the net is full of fluffheads, and a little googling tells me that December 2004 gave us a White Dwarf magazine article that said:

"Determined to preserve their twisted version of ancient Eldar culture. Everything from their feasts to their warfare has become ritualized. Possible implication therefore they may be a former Eldar noble house. Color scheme: Slightly green edged black"

To which I say, hooray! Nice obscure fluff, and the right colours in the art! +1 to the score for this!

The gun depicted here is a Splinter Rifle. This is a weapon that breaks shards off its ammunition crystal and through magnetic-electric impulse fires them at enemies.

As you might imagine, a weapon that fires irregular ammunition isn't terribly accurate or long range, whether its "rifled" or not. The goal of Dark Eldar weaponry is slightly different to that of other races: they're as much interested in the pain and suffering their weapons can inflict as to how optimised they can get their effective range, armour penetration and so on.

The long ranged sniping rifle of choice is in fact the Dark Lance, which is basically a laser that fires darkness, because evil, and because METAL.

For a Splinter Rifle to give the "Ranged" trait is even more ridiculous than the Ork Rokkit Launcha doing this. This is a small arm, designed for close ranged firefights. Its even got blades on it for the follow-up melee.

Even worse, the Splinter Rifle is in fact the standard armament of a Kabalite Warrior. Frankly, this being a wargear card is as ridiculous as there being a space marine card named Godwyn Pattern Bolter.

Hmmm.

Happily, in mechanical terms, this card is even worse than the bolter, so we never have to see its fluff-aborrhent presence in front of us in actual play.


Bork'an Recruits (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Bork'an is a Tau Sept world that was settled during the First Phase Expansion, inherited by the Tau from the ill-fated Poctroon who fell to plague and disease. All in all, a strangely appropriate bit of fluff to be linked to this particular war-pack.

The colours here are close enough to being right, and the sept symbol is correct. We get points for that. The flavour quote is also accurate, and Bork'an is indeed the sept world of choice for a card of this nature.

The effect is nice too, representing guys in need of leadership, though that they activate off the enemy Warlord too doesn't have much fluff explanation.

I have only one tiny criticism, and that's trait inconsistency. A lot of Tau Fire Warrior cards rightfully have the Shas'la trait. These guys, I feel, would have been well placed to have a Shas'saal trait.

Not that such a trait is expected by default, but consistency is important, and Conquest is highly inconsistent with traits.

Still, this is a good enough fluff representation with a well thought out Sept choice, so a high score remains deserved.

Dakka Dakka Dakka! (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

"Dakka dakka dakka" is a phrase with a long and glorious history. Ok, a short and interesting one, anyway.

Back in Rogue Trader, in the first edition of the game, there were occasionally diagrams that showed how the game worked. Within these diagrams it was often handy to know which squad was shooting. This was indicated by the comic-book style sound effect "dakka dakka dakka".

Over time, this became a much beloved noise for 40k wargamers: a sound effect they'd say out loud when opening fire. GW noticed this, and used it more and more. They also introduced "dakka" as a real word in-setting, as the orkish word for attack / shoot / noisy. There's also a "War of Dakka" in the timeline when the Orks took on the Tau.

"Needs more dakka" is a meme in itself now. There's a 40k fansite called dakkadakka.com.

I kind of don't care how one event card causes scattered damage across the whole board, or why the Warlord is exhausted.

No, really. I don't care. The card could do almost anything, and I'd be happy, because Conquest now has a card called "dakka dakka dakka!"

That makes it part of the long and ongoing memetic history of Warhammer 40,000, and The Chime of Eons quote (go back to the first article if you missed it) has never been more appropriate. Five out of five!


Death From Above (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

While not on the scale of "Dakka Dakka", the trope "Death From Above" is pretty popular in 40k. A Dawn of War XBox Achievement links this to Space Marines, the Apocalypse supplement has it as a Tau flyer upgrade. Its also a phrase scattered through 40k fiction in various places. I'm uncertain if this card's creation was a conscious nod to the ubiquity of this phrase in 40k, or just an unconscious repetition of a common trope.

In an Eldar context, it does make sense, as anything they have access to that is Mobile is a skimmer, and skimmers can descend from the skies. None of the Mobile units they can access have Flying, of course (though at least one ought to). Indeed, one might have expected that a neutral card that targeted Flying units might have been fluffier. I am glad that this is an Eldar card for game-mechanical reasons, though Eldar is no more a death-from-above faction fluffwise than say, the Space Marines or Tau. Indeed, as those factions tend to deploy from orbit while Eldar arrive through planetary webway gates, it is almost less appropriate for them.

The teaser in the shadow cast on the ground is a give away though. I've stated elsewhere as long as a month back, but let me stick my head above the parapet again: I think this card is all about Swooping Hawks and the Phoenix Lord Baharroth.

Dome of Crystal Seers (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

This card is excellently fluffy on many levels, though does have some flaws.

On a most basic level, it encourages the Eldar playstyle overall: not for them blindly submitting to the tides of fate! They tread carefully through the paths of destiny, finding the one route that leads to their survival and victory.

The Dome of Crystal Seers is the location at the heart of a Craftworld's wraithbone core. When a Farseer has grown too old and trodden his path for too long, his physical body starts to slow. Eventually he will retreat to the Dome, where his body will petrify into crystal, and he will take root, his spirit escaping into the Infinity Circuit.

The card effect then, is entirely appropriate: the collective wisdom of long deceased Farseers helps guide the path through fate.

Its odd that this card is not Unique - while each Craftworld does have its own Dome, its odd to think that a commander might have access to the most treasured sanctuaries of three different Craftworlds. Its also a card that is almost too trivially cheap for its significance: a Craftworld that has its Dome of Crystal Seers destroyed by a squig bombing is one that is pretty much over-run by orks, and in that scenario its hard to imagine that they'll be bothering with the Traxis Sector. As with so many supports, the scale of the resource doesn't suit the scale of the examined conflict. This should be a location in the same sort of game that also includes the Citadel of Titan, the Tau Homeworld, and so on. It should be in a game that deals with the movement of Tyranid Hivefleets and dozens of Guard Regiments, with a whole Chapter of Space Marines on one card, and Waaagh Ghazghkul on another.

Damn, I've started ranting about scale again, haven't I?


Dozer Blade (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

From the mega-scale down to the micro-scale again, we have a card game that matches the resource costs of a standard issue boltgun with a space marine fortress monastery.

I promised I'd stop talking about scale being a problem, but it looks like I'm back in bad habits.

To change the subject, lets talk about something equally silly:

A Dozer Blade attached to an Assault Valkyrie, or to Killa Kans. They're the combos that we're talking about and will see in play, and neither makes any sense at all, nor does the game effect.

"Flight Pilot Doofius, can you tell us why you flew your Valkyrie into that barricade? Did you not realise that the purpose of this piece of metal was to act as a handy layer of ablative armour?"

A Tank trait would have fixed this nicely. A Tank trait that they went to the effort of adding to the core set.


Fenrisian Wolf (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 0/5

Big ass wolf from the planet Fenris is the main thing to know here. They can be anything from the size of a Horse to that of a Space Marine tank. They're part of what makes the Space Wolves' homeworlds so incredibly dangerous.

Some Space Wolves bring them along as battle pets, and some of them even ride them into battle. In case you hadn't noticed, the sons of Russ are a little obsessed with wolves.

You know how in the Howl of Blackmane article last time I was half-jokingly talking about wolf-shaped guns that fire wolves. Well, thats what we've got here. Wolfy cruise missiles that are longer ranged than long range weapons, being fired by anyone who is a Space Marine or a buddy of a Space Marine.

An Assault Valkyrie that fires wolves.
An Ultramarines Dreadnought armed with assault cannon, power fist... and a wolf.
A Raven Guard Speeder, with a wolf in it.
An undignified Aun'ui Prelate riding a wolf.
A very Experimental Devilfish, with new Fenrisian Wolf drone attachments.

Dammit, Space Wolves! Its not enough that your lupine obsession has made your own chapter ridiculous, you've gone and made the whole galaxy absurd!

]

Inquisitorial Fortress (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 0/5

The Inquisition aren't part of the Astra Militarum, as I explained last article.

The effect here is weird: you can see the game design thinking, certainly. Astra Militarum are the faction of supports. They mirror Dark Eldar mechanically in a lot of ways (direct card advantage plays, sacrifice plays, token generation). Lets give them a support that mirrors Archon's Terror.

From a game design point of view, I love this card.

From a fluff point of view its dead weird to think of an Inquisitor basing himself in an ice world fortress with a great big planetary defence gun on it, and even weirder to think you can scare someone off a distant battlefield by self-destructing that fortress.

Inquisitorial Investigation would have been fluffier, with some sort of quote along the lines of "Flight is proof of guilt."


Iron Guard Platoon (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5
(I'm aware that the card is titled Platoon in the pop-up link. This is a cardgamedb error: the card is called Iron Guard Recruits)

Mordian is a planet where the same half of the planet faces its sun at all times, leaving that side in scorching unsurvivable heat, and the other (inhabited) side in perpetual shadow. It is also a tyrannical autocracy, with the Tetrarchy holding tight control of limited resources and rationing them out to the vast population, and the frequency of dissent that hunger and lack of freedom brings must often be controlled by the armed forces of the Tetrarchy - the Mordian Iron Guard.

As a planet permanently under military law, their tithe of soldiers to the Astra Militarum is simply lifted directly from the Iron Guard, with regiments sent to serve off-world. They carry with them certain noble virtues: courage, discipline, devotion to authority. They also, of course, bear the darkness of the Tetrarchy with them: disdain for values of freedom, intolerance of individuality, and blindness for the flaws of their superiors.

All in all, both their strengths and weaknesses make them highly valued by Astra Militarum warmasters.

In that, we've got good fluff representation: the 2 command icons suggest high discipline and a nature that suits garrisoning work and good organisation. The Conscript trait is appropriate, and Mordian is welcome as well. Notable though is the lack of a Soldier trait: a choice presumably made for game balance reasons, but wholly odd when the Mordians are professional soldiers who have never known any other life. This seems to be justified indirectly and partially by making them "Recruits" in their title, but it still seems an oddity.


Kauyon Strike (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

Kauyon! We talked about Mont'ka and Kauyon in the core Tau article, and how important these concepts are to understanding the Tau way of war. Its great to see a strong inclusion-worthy card with the word Kauyon in it.

What this card lacks, however, is any representation of what Kauyon is. Kauyon translates as "the patient hunter", with the key principle that an opposing force is drawn into a zone where Tau firepower can tear them apart, with the bait being a unit that accepts its roll as lure for the Greater Good. In its most common usage, Kau'yon is coldly sacrificial, recognizing that the lures will probably die but that the sacrifice will result in fewer Tau deaths overall.

The game effect here is designed to synergise with Aun'shi and his squad, and with Ethereal-traited units in general. This immediately is an oddity: of all the units the Tau would use a Kauyon lure, an Ethereal would by far be the least likely. The supposedly utopian Tau society is actually strictly hierarchical in terms of value and worth, with the Ethereals at the top, the other four castes next, and auxiliary non-Tau at the bottom. No prizes for guessing who normally gets to be the lure!

We've not seen the cards we need to test this in an emergent play yet, but it seems clear that one significant usage will be to help change the battle the Tau warlord is at, or to create a second battle after the forced reaction forces him back to HQ. Also, we can expect this to be a versatile card, pulling in Ethereals when needed, or fleeing them from threat.

Its all very Tau, to move the Ethereals around to where they need to be, or to move them away from where they ought not be. However, its not specifically to do with Kauyon.

Klaivex Warleader (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

While Klaivex sounds like a special polish to get your axes gleaming brighter than bright, its actually a rank in the Incubi. We've mentioned who the incubi are in a previous article: that this card shares a lot of features with the Incubus Warrior card indicates admirable consistency.

GW, with typical linear thought process, noted that the standard weapon of the Incubi was a klaive. Thus they dubbed the squad leader a Klaivex. A klaivex, presumably because he has something to do with klaives, and because putting an x on the end makes it darker and cooler, and makes it sound like a pseudo-latin word. Urgh.

The game effect here is nicely appropriate: the notable thing about klaives is that they are big ass power blades, and that in skilled hands they can bring the killing blow onto any foe. Targeting wounded units feeds a nice Dark Eldar feel to the card, as it is very much in the spirit of that race to toy with a foe with painful injuries, then to demonstrate their martial superiority by ending things with a single strike.

The fact that they can activate this ability then strike normally is also a great representation of the art of the card: this Klaivex is armed with demi-klaive blades, which can be snapped together to form a large double handed weapon, or snapped apart to act as two power swords. That versatility is nicely represented in the choice you can make: deploy this unit in deploy phase and get command benefit and a 3 damage hit, or in the combat phase for a 3 damage hit and a kill effect.

Ignoring how much I like this card mechanically, the Chime of Eons read on it is also a positive one: the rules suit the fluff on multiple levels.


Kustom Field Generator (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Forcefields of different sorts were introduced back in Rogue Trader, but the game that really first focused on the shields of different races was Adeptus Titannicus, which was Games Workshop's wargame set on a far vaster scale (the "Epic Scale") than the standard tabletop game. As the game's name suggested, it introduced the Titans: huge war machines that stride across a battlefield, their armaments far beyond that of even the heaviest tanks.

Part of that game's conceit was that Titans were especially durable, and this was largely represented by defensive fields. Imperial titans got Void Shields, that were multilayered and would collapse one by one, but could be powered up again with time. Orkish Gargants got Power Fields, which couldn't regenerate in battle (as their generators tended to overload with the shields, in typical orky fashion) but were more durable once their shields were gone. Eldar Titans got holo-fields, which didn't deflect attacks at all, but scattered the image of the titan, with more scattering the faster the Titan ran. This game helped define and characterize the races in many ways, and subsequent additional units to the game expanded these ideas further, which in turn fed back into the primary Warhammer 40,000 wargame.

The Orks, for example, always got stuck with the unreliable but amusing defensive fields. The Kustom Force Field was first introduced in the Epic Scale games. This weapon would have a chance of deflecting incoming attacks, and if that happened a scatter dice (i.e. a dice with arrows on it) would randomly determine the direction the shot bounced away, striking the first unit in the way. It was found on a Mekboy vehicle, representing the mad and experimental tech he was coming up with.

This card is that concept's inheritor. Its effect makes sense on one level, as the nature of the Kustom Force Field and the dense nature of orkish hordes usually meant that if it worked, one of your own units got struck anyway.

In another sense though, the effect isn't as fluffy as we might expect. The field's activation seems to consistent, its depicted as a support rather than an attachment, the reallocation of damage is way too precise and there's no chance of it dealing damage to the enemy with a reflected attack. Of course, to do all that, we'd probably need a bunch of miniatures, a D6 roll or three, a scatter dice and a battlefield...

The limitations of good LCG design render this card to its current form, and I wouldn't actually have it any other way. However, from the point of view of fluff-assessment, we can't give maximum score.


Morkai Rune Priest (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 1/5

Morkai is an important word on the Space Wolves' home of Fenris, and to that chapter.

Primarily, Morkai is a deity: the two headed god that guards the gates to the Underworld. The very fact that the people of Fenris recognise this deity tells you a lot about how unconventional that world is. On most Imperial worlds, it is permissible only to worship the God-Emperor, or to ask for the intercession of Ecclesiarchy-canonised Saints. Recognizing or asking the favour of other deities is heresy, and the Ecclesiarchy either subtly subsumes local religions and reshapes them into Emperor worship, or it purges the heretics with fire! Fenris, of course, has gained a special dispensation as it was the homeworld of Leman Russ, and remains the homeworld of the Space Wolves. Like their Primarch Progenitor, they don't recognize the authority of the cult of the God-Emperor, and they see the Emperor as the greatest of men, not as a living god,

Morkai has other meanings too, deriving from the above. There is a wolf lord called Erik Morkai, the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar carries an axe named Morkai, the initiation of new recruits is called the Test of Morkai (with the final trial being the gate of Morkai).

The Wolf Priests - those who act as both religious leaders and apothecaries to the chapter - are also closely tied to Morkai, with their Last Rites to the fallen called the Rites of Morkai, and their main tool for recovering geneseed from the Fallen named as the Fang of Morkai.

So far, so good, right?

Well, I believe that the card design team have made an error with this card. They've used the term "Rune Priest", which is what the Space Wolves call their Librarians, as they use runic magic instead of Codex-approved psi powers.

Correctly, this unit has the Psyker trait. However, the word Morkai being appended to a Rune Priest makes very little sense. To a Wolf Priest, sure, but not to a Rune Priest. Wolf Priests and Rune Priests are wholly different things, and I think the card designer has gotten confused.

And also, what is this ability meant to represent anyway? When a space wolf turns tail and flees nothing happens, but when other allies or enemies retreat, the Rune Priest is able to zap them? Is this Rune Priest meant to be disdainful of cowards unless they have beards? Is he meant to be turning into a wolf to bite at their heels, but doesn't like the taste of Space Wolf heel? The art is just a generic psychic explosion...

So this card is a big fail for me: its a word plucked out of context and stuck on the wrong unit type, with an ability plonked on the card that is designed to mechanically synergise with Space Wolves but is wholly game-design led rather than fiction led.


Soul Seizure (The Scourge) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

Last but not least, we have a Urien Rakarth friendly card of potential tactical significance - though we'll leave the discussion of game implications to the fora.

In fluff terms, the effect of this card seems odd: the reanimation of enemy dead, dependent on how many tortures you have been able to inflict on your opponent.

Firstly, reanimation of the dead via "soul seizure" sounds very much like a psychic Power to me, not a tactic or torture.

Secondly, as a race that has exactly no active psykers, the ability to reanimate the dead seems wholly impossible. One might argue that the Haemonculi have found technological means to wrack a soul back to life, but this seems to be stretching the fiction. I guess what we can assume we are looking at here is a dark mirror to Gift of Isha: the Dark Eldar version of Eldar necromancy. However, that Eldar necromancy requires two things the Dark Eldar lack access to: an infinity circuit, and psykers.

I have stated before that I have no objection to new ideas entering the 40k canon via the game (such as Murder Cogitator), but they have to be consistent with what has gone before, or at least not contradictory. Thats a high ask for a 40k card game, given how bad 40ks own track record is with consistency, but my own thought is that this is once again a game-design led card, rather than a fiction-led one.

Don't get me wrong here - I also demand a well designed game! However, it is best if we can have that AND cards that are sufficiently fluffy.


Conclusion

In terms of the game meta changing, this warpack has excited me even more than the Howl of Blackmane. As a fan of the LCG, I'm buzzing with excitement, thinking of all the new deck options and the opportunities for factions that haven't looked strong before to become worthwhile, as well as tuning up and improving the factions that have proved winners to date. The card gamer in me applauds FFG for maintaining the integrity and balance of the game, while simultaneously bringing in fresh game concepts and an exciting changing meta.

The fluff-lover in me is more ambivalent. Some representations in this warpack are truly superb, and some are very poor indeed. The game is still loveable, but often despite the way it depicts the fiction rather than because of it. I'd hate to see Conquest grow increasingly abstract and increasingly unfaithful to the core material, as its the universe that gives the excellent game mechanics life and interest. Without that setting, we may as well be playing a well-crafted Eurogame with meeples and wood/grain/sheep cards. Not that there's anything wrong with those games, but there's something to be said for evocative game fiction!

With Ku'gath's pack behind us, we can now breathe fresh air again. We'll be turning our attention to the "good guys", and in particular to the ones who stand behind the good guys, telling them that their sacrifice is for the Greater Good.

That's the Gift of the Ethereals!