THIS!!! OMG this card is pure sex! Cato will be even stronger!

Both Space Marines and Tau love this. With planets having such different abilities, you can get a ton of answers from this, ranging from movement or routing to extra income or even AoE.

One has to be careful though, as the number of Ambush units is increasing. Also, Staging Grounds.

Eldar must be extra mindful because they want to run Nullify.

I'm just sad that it is non-loyal. Overall great card

So... anyone used to play MTG?

Ancestral Recall? Black Lotus? Yep, thats this card.

Anyone like Archon's Terror?

Yep, thats this card, at half the price.

Tellporta Pad a good card?

Yep, thats this card, though not dedicated to first planet.

Mini-Warpstorm?

Yep, can do that too.

Damn, this has to be the best card of the pack.

Chill... It's very good, but actual gametesting will reveal the real pros and cons of this card. Still a 5/5.

Indeed. As said, ambush and Staging Grounds are good answers. Big amounts of Mobile can also be a threat (ex: Baharroth).

Then against Tyranids, you have double the chances of meeting opposition.

It depends entirely on warlord commiting, so it's not as versatile as it can seem. You cannot really choose the planet you are going to activate from T2 onwards, because you will need your warlord to commit to a certain planet to snipe, redeploy units in the HQ or support a fight.

It also exhausts your warlord, making it a risky play in dangerous fights. I think warlord exhausting cards are commonly overrated.

It's very powerful on early turns, though, when the enemy unit count is lesser or the warlord is sniping. And sometimes it can win a game in mid/late game.

Sure, its fair to say that exhausting a warlord is always a significant cost, though less so by far for this card than for cards that exhaust before the command struggle.

The main consequence here is risking being smacked in combat.

For Shadowsun and Cato, I think thats a fairly big thing. The former because she tends to deploy to significant wants to get out of there as soon as possible. The latter because he tends to get stuck against multiple opponents and losing his attack once can be a significant battle swing.

For Eldorath, I think its less of an issue as one enemy is going to be exhausted anyway, though I admit ambushes will be problematic. For Baharroth, the combination of this ability with Mobile is a nice way to dodge problems, though it will take a little care and attention, for sure.

Ragnar sits somewhere between the extremes, being flexible as to where he deploys but with no special defences against combat pain.

Aun'shi also hovers somewhere in the middle, being quite prone to being beaten up, but having a bonus benefit of letting his Armourbane hang around for a second round if he does this instead of attack, and in being able to Kau'yon Strike combo in clever ways.

Having said that, there's nothing in this card saying you have to use this event immediately on starting battle. You can fight a bit first, thin out the opposition, and just before you're about to win play the event to delay victory for a round and get the battle ability twice. This is problematic still for Shadowsun, of course, and Shadowsun would likely be the Warlord I'd be least likely to run this card at x3 for (instead going for x1).

Naturally, I don't think this card is an "OMG, so OP, play this to win!"  There is no such card!

What it is, however, is a powerful and flexible effect that will be more rewarding the more skilled the deck pilot is, and for me still very much both the best card in the deck and the biggest meta-changer the game has seen since... well, Ammo Depot.

Fantastic card for the Warlords who don't have an incredible Combat presence by itself. Or simply want to be tapped to hang around (like Aun'Shi).

5/5.

So, what are the impressions after these few weeks of gameplay with this card? Is it as good as we all first thought or could we say that the utility is a bit more down-to-earth?

It's powerful in early game, when the warlord is safely warlord sniping. It's good in mid game, giving you additional tactics for the combat. But it is poor in late game because there is no planet variety and exhausting your warlord may lose you the final battle.

Less excited than I once was, but I tend to run at least one copy for any Warlord who can access it. My favourite thing still is the rout effect, though I've also used it to Atrox blast an HQ then win the battle for a second hit, making a mini-warpstorm in two halves. I definitely still rate it a strong card, and worthy of inclusion in almost all decks that can play it, though probably not as a x3 in any of them because of the massive number of options now available and the limited number of card slots to cram them into.

Still 5/5, if we define 5/5 as a card that belongs at least 1x in any deck that can include it.

Well seeing how you mean it, Asklepios, i'd just say that 5/5 cards will start to be harder auto-includes while the card pool is extending and every chapter that contains an excellent card makes all the other excellent cards wear away bit by bit..

This card makes Cato even more rediculous.

So can you send your warlord to an unoccupied planet and play this card to trigger the battle ability twice?

So can you send your warlord to an unoccupied planet and play this card to trigger the battle ability twice?

Yes.