combatmedic wrote:Wasnt the Horus Hersey LCG?

Then again I never knew the difference between the two.

What is an LCG?



A Living Card Game (LCG) is a game that breaks away from the traditional Collectible Card Game (CCG) model by offering a new fixed card distribution method that still offers the same dynamic customizable, expanding, and constantly evolving game play that makes CCG’s so much fun, but without the blind buy purchase model that has burned out so many players. The end result is an innovative mix that gives you the best of both worlds!



The LCG format is distributed in two phases:



The first phase is the release of a LCG Core Set. Every LCG will have an amazing, high quality and widely available entry point packed with content, including high-quality game pieces and immersive game aides to enhance the game. Core Sets are completely self-contained, with multiple decks included, providing a great game experience right out of the box.



The Core Sets are followed by monthly installments of expansion packs, each a set of forty fixed cards, providing an ongoing and regular addition to the available card pool. These expansion packs add customization, variety, and an ongoing “story” to everyone’s experience with the Core Game.



The LCG format will be outstanding for players in many ways:



The value of the game compared to the traditional CCG is exceptional. Instead of the hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent each quarter on the boosters required to keep a competitive cardpool, ten dollars a month will get a player at least one copy of every card, and thirty dollars a month will provide an entire tournament playset of cards.



The constantly expanding cardpool provides more frequent additions to your cardpool, with the potential of new decktypes and strategies to explore in every release. Instead of waiting four months for new cards to play with, you have the excitement of getting new cards for your decks every month.



Exciting organized play programs are available for all LCGs, with online support and content, and fun surprises for players, keeping the game fun and interesting. These programs will include everything from year round league play, with prize support offered for winners and participants to high level tournament play featuring regional, national, and world championship level events.



LCGs have no rare chasing to worry about, insuring that games are determined by a player’s deck building skills and play strategies, rather than by who spent the most money in pursuit of those hard to find ultra rare chase cards. The fixed format insures that every player has equal access to any card he or she would need to build a deck.

The non-random format makes it simple to play multiple LCGs without breaking the bank, dramatically increasing the chance to find opponents that play the same game you do.

chaplaingrabthar wrote:Not interested in CCG/LCG's as a player, but I am looking forward to seeing the card art. I wish there was a good on-line depository/archive of Horus Heresy / 40K CCG card art somewhere. I need more pictures for my ever-rotating desktop wallpaper

Lord of battles wrote:

chaplaingrabthar wrote:Not interested in CCG/LCG's as a player, but I am looking forward to seeing the card art. I wish there was a good on-line depository/archive of Horus Heresy / 40K CCG card art somewhere. I need more pictures for my ever-rotating desktop wallpaper

Right here: http://www.pa-sy.com/hhccg/

Your welcome.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Why are FFG so awesome?

Lagduf wrote:

I wish FFG could publish a LotR LCG on par with ICE's Middle Earth CCG

Chimera_Calvin wrote:

Lagduf wrote:

I wish FFG could publish a LotR LCG on par with ICE's Middle Earth CCG

QFT

That was the best card game I ever played and about the only CCG where you could win without chasing uber-rare cards all over the place.

Looking forward to checking this out as all FFG stuff is really good. I have a dream where FFG buys out GW and fixes all the problems with it...


P.S. If anyone is interested I have a full (unlimited - blue border) set of all 450odd ME:TW cards in mint condition, in deck protectors, in a folder, plus 2 boxes full of duplicates (all the spare rares are in mint condition in deck protectors as well) Also both books (full rules and strategy guide). I would consider a sale but only for a sensible price - PM me if you are interested.

Welcome to the first installment of designer journals for Warhammer: Invasion. I’ve been excited about this game for just shy of a year now, and there’s a lot to talk about.

This week I’ll be talking about the game overview and our general vision moving forward. Over the following two weeks I’ll talk about the game mechanics and the cards themselves. Following that we’ll have a look at each of the four individual races that come in the Core Set.

So What is this Game?
Warhammer: Invasion is a Living Card Game, or “LCG” in gamer parlance. For those of you who are not yet familiar with the idea behind an LCG, I heartily recommend you read the LCG: Player’s Guide before continuing.

The first release for the game is the Core Set, which has enough cards for two players to start playing right away, plus all of the tokens and capitol boards you need for the four primary races: Dwarfs, Empire, Orcs and Chaos. We’ve taken pains to make sure these introductory decks are fun and replayable on their own.

Every month sees the addition of a new “Battle Pack,” which adds 40 new cards to the total card pool. There will also be periodic “special releases” that add new twists to game play.

A New Warhammer Fantasy Experience
This paragraph header is one of the guiding mantras behind the design of this game. Players already have many different gateways into the Old World: a fantastic tabletop game, a roleplaying game, many different board games, and even a massively multiplayer online game! There has been a Warhammer card game in the past as well, and we wanted to make sure this game offers an experience that sets it apart from all others.

It is for this reason that Warhammer: Invasion takes influences from many different sources and synthesizes them into a fresh look at the world. For example, the overall structure governing which races you’ll be able to play and who their enemies are is taken from the online game. However, the units, tactics and heroes are taken largely from the miniatures and roleplaying games. And we even got to add a few pieces of delicious flavor ourselves!

The Big Picture
Overall, the experience I wanted to create was that of “warfare management.” Although the goal of the game is quite clear and exactly what you’d expect (burn down your opponent’s capital), I wanted players to have more to worry about than simply massing troops to kill each other. You need to defeat your opponent, but have to worry about managing your own kingdom while you’re at it. If you don’t have enough resources to build an army, you can’t win. And if you can’t have your units complete quests, you won’t be able to draw enough cards to give you the options you need.

Of course you want to do all of these things, but therein lies the dilemma: which careful balance do you want to strike in order to defeat your opponent?

This new perspective of the Warhammer universe was a great opportunity for us to introduce it to people who were not already fans. If you are not familiar with the fantastic world that Games Workshop has created, this game will give you a good overview. Each of the races in the box plays very differently from one another (we’ll get into specifics in a later article), and you can learn a lot about the flavour just from playing a few games.

Questions Answered
Since the game’s launch I have been perusing many different forums, and have found a few recurring questions that deserve a public answer.

What does “Order versus Destruction” mean?
The history of Warhammer stretches back over 3 decades. Races have risen to glory and seen themselves fall into ruin over this lengthy saga. Many races have formed loose alliances, and strange bedfellows have been seen as the tides of battle sweep the lands. Most commonly, the forces of Dwarfs, Elves, and Men banded together to defeat the opposing forces of Orcs, Dark Elves, and Chaos. Each of these sides has, at one point or another, been seen working together. These alliances have been formed and broken a number of times in Games Workshop history, and it is an easy, intuitive leap to include this in the game. Additionally, these are the same divisions that Mythic Games adopted for their MMO game. As this provides an easy entry point for veterans and new comer alike, we were happy to feature this in Warhammer: Invasion.

Is this game two-player?
The rules support two player action, and as of yet there are no official multiplayer variants. This was a tough decision and one that was not made lightly (I’ll go into further detail in a future article). The short answer is that we had a metric ton of cool to fit into the Core Set including a special LCG-specific draft format developed uniquely for this game. I’m sure we’ll see player-suggested variants within weeks of launch.

Are there four races or six?
The Core Set comes with a full set of cards for four races, but you’ll notice that there are some High Elf and Dark Elf cards in the box. Because of the flexible nature of deck building, these are all playable, and serve as a great preview for the two Elf races we’ll be adding to the game shortly after launch. This was done largely to optimize the play experience out of the Core Set without having to add so many cards that it got priced out of a reasonable entry point. We made the call to make four races deeply playable and varied, and add the Elf races later. I think you’ll be grateful for this once you see how well this set plays right out of the box.

That’s it for now. Join me next week when I talk in more detail about the game mechanics themselves.

Warhammer Invasion LCG is a card game, by Eric M. Lang, in which 2 players develop their kingdoms and lay waste to their foes. Each side is comprised of either the forces of Order -Dwarfs, High Elves, Empire- or the forces of Destruction -Orcs, Chaos, Dark Elves- as they seek to extend their empire to include the entire Old World.

Welcome back! This week we’re going to look at some of the game mechanics in more detail, and give you a better idea of how the game play flows.

If this is the first article you’re reading about Warhammer: Invasion, I suggest you refer to last week’s article The Invasion is Coming part 1, and the explanation of what a Living Card Game is to get caught up.

We’ve mentioned the warfare management on the description page, and given you a taste of each section of your empire. Now we look at the troops and buildings you will be bringing in, and how the various factions combine together.

Loyalty Icons
There are three different races per side (Dwarfs, Empire, and High Elves make up Order and Chaos, Orcs, and Dark Elves make up Destruction), and you may mix and match allied races in any deck you build.

Each race-specific (as in not neutral) card has a number of loyalty icons. These cost an extra resource per loyalty icon. However, you can “discount” each loyalty icon penalty by having a card from that race already in play (this includes your capital). For example, the Orc unit Ironclaw’s Horde has two orc icons. Its base resource cost is 5, so you’re paying up to 7 for it unless you have two or more Orc cards in play. If you’re playing the orc capital, that discounts one of them, but you’ll need an additional orc card in play (either a unit or support) to offset that other loyalty icon.



Most cards have one or two loyalty icons, and can be included in almost any deck. Troll Slayers add a fair amount of punch to the forces of the Dwarfs, but can be added to Empire or High Elf forces easily, as they have only one loyalty icon. You may use a single faction to get the most out of that faction’s strengths, or you can add allied cards to increase your versatility. There are some cards, the most noble of heroes and most foul creatures, that are very difficult to ally with. The Bloodthirster has five loyalty icons, and while it is an awe-inspiring sight, it is best left to a force solely dedicated to the Ruinous Powers.

Blend the Forces
As each side, Order or Destruction, has three different races to choose from, how do you decide what you want to build your deck with? Each race has specific talents and abilities that they are best at, which are highlighted, once again, on the description page. For example, the Dwarfs are the masters of armour and feature some of the toughest fighters to ever walk a battlefield, or kingdom for that matter. They have great support, and can weather almost any storm. They do however, lack mobility. Mobility is something the Empire is known for. To increase the possible options, some Empire cards have been added to the Dwarf deck. This will give them a boost in mobility, but remember, each Empire card added has its own loyalty icons that must be paid for if they aren’t present in any of the Dwarf zones.

To assist in this noble idea of alliance, there are support cards that can be added to your deck. These Alliance cards feature two loyalty icons, one for each faction represented in the alliance. As these cards are neutral, they don’t require a loyalty icon to be played, and only cost two resources. These can provide your deck with a potent speed boost, as you wont have to wait for the resources to buy those extra loyalty icons.

Defense and Development
There are a few other wrinkles in the game you need to be aware of. As mentioned earlier, your capital is divided into three zones. Each zone can take eight points of damage before it is burned down. You lose the game the instant two of your three zones burn.

In addition, each turn you may play any one card from your hand face down into a zone of your choice. This face down card is called a development, and it increases the amount of damage that zone can take before burning down by one. There are also many card effects that increase in power if you have a certain number of developments in that zone, adding another wrinkle to your resource management. As seen above, Troll Slayers gain two extra power if you have two developments in the zone they occupy. Another card that keys off of developments is the neutral Forgotten Cemetery, which also gains power based on developments.

The Play is the Thing
To recap: during each of your turns you gather resources based on how well your kingdom is built, then draw cards depending on the number of power icons in your quest zone, then play cards and finally, attack your opponent based on the strength of your battlefield.



Though the basic rules of the game are very simple, the choices you make with each card play are quite involved. How do you want to develop? Where do you have to defend? Are you able to adjust your strategy and tactics to take advantage of an opponent’s weakness or to shore up your own in the face of devastation?

On top of this are the card abilities themselves. Each race has its own distinct play style and flavor, which include exclusive card abilities and sometimes even keywords. I’ll be writing an article for each individual race in the coming weeks, so you can judge for yourself.

That’s it for now. Join me next time when we talk design philosophy.

The Empire Strikes Forward
By Eric M. Lang

Welcome to the first of four articles about the races found in the Warhammer: Invasion Core set. Each of the races is designed to have a unique overall feel, as well as having multiple paths to victory.

The winter had been long, and food stores were running light. Farmers had just started planting crops, and hope was starting to spring up. The scouting forces had barely come over the ridge when the alarm sounded. Hope was in short supply after the black riders appeared. Behind them marched an army of Chaos, full of warriors and beasts all dedicated to foul gods. They arrayed themselves before us, and we knew we were doomed.

Then the forces of the Elector Count of Middenheim showed up, and gave our men a reason to have faith. Now we can take the fight to them. Now we will be able to be the rock they break against. Now they will know what it means to fight the forces of the Empire.

We shall be victorious in the name of Sigmar!

As expert strategists, the Empire is all about outwitting their opponents. There are multiple ways in which this can be accomplished.




Maneuverability
Normally, when you play a unit or support card, you have to choose which zone it goes into, and there it remains for the duration of the game. Unlike any other race, the Empire has many ways to circumvent this limitation and move their cards in between zones. Some cards will do this overtly, by having the ability printed right on them, others (like tactics which can be played almost any time) will be a surprise.

If you are the type of player that enjoys making clever game-breaking moves, or enjoy keeping your opponents on edge because they never know where your cards will end up, this aspect of the Empire will appeal to you greatly.



Offensive Defense
Every race has many ways to burn down your opponent’s Capital and increase their own martial prowess, but only the forces of Order (Empire and Dwarfs) have good tools to defend themselves. Both do it in very different ways.

The Empire uses something I like to call “offensive defense,” where they destroy your opponent in different ways while they are being attacked. The Reiksguard Knights, for example, have the awesome keyword Counterstrike, which hits attacking units before combat starts … and that’s in addition to the damage they normally deal. Since units are always eligible to defend, you don’t have to give up any other actions in order to put them to use.

As the Empire, you can also defend yourself by using their arsenal of damage redirection effects. If you complete the quest Defend the Border, for example, you can bounce the first damage to your Capital each turn right back at your opponent! And unless your opponent just stops attacking you (which is almost never a wise move), they are going to feel the pain turn after turn.



Divine Protection
Another tool in the Empire’s arsenal is the ability to protect their own cards from harm in a number of ways. Some of them, like the awesomely powerful Church of Sigmar, sit in your kingdom and make it more difficult for your opponents to do anything to your units. This includes playing tactic cards, using card abilities … anything.

Not all protective effects are quite so obvious. Others include redirecting your opponents’ attacks, copying card effects, or even temporarily denying units the ability to participate in the battlefield. The arsenal is impressive.



The Empire is an extremely diverse race, with a flavor I like to call “brutal subtlety.” Your opponent sometimes won’t even know what hit them, but the smoking ruin of their Capital is unmistakable evidence of the Empires power.

Join me next time to feel the burn of Chaos!

Warhammer Invasion LCG is a card game, by Eric M. Lang, in which 2 players develop their kingdoms and lay waste to their foes. Each side is comprised of either the forces of Order -Dwarfs, High Elves, Empire- or the forces of Destruction -Orcs, Chaos, Dark Elves- as they seek to extend their empire to include the entire Old World.

H.B.M.C. wrote:It's great to see someone taking the Warhammer & 40K lisence and doing something interesting with it. Makes you wish the parent company had some more inspiration and life.

And I wonder if this card is more expensive than all the others like it?

H.B.M.C. wrote:It's great to see someone taking the Warhammer & 40K lisence and doing something interesting with it. Makes you wish the parent company had some more inspiration and life.

And I wonder if this card is more expensive than all the others like it?

Welcome to the second of four articles about the races found in the Warhammer: Invasion Core set. Each of the races is designed to have a unique overall feel, as well as having multiple paths to victory.Last time we discussed the might of the Empire. Now we dive into Chaos!

Wind biting through his furs, Dwerin pulled them tighter about himself. His journey to the frozen climes at the top of the world has not been easy. His right arm is devoid of skin, and muscle tissue shines wetly in the starlight. The Blood God, Khorne, has blessed him with a mark of his favor. His hand, though barren of flesh, is stronger than it has ever been. He climbs once more, redoubling his efforts to reach to top. Only true champions of Chaos can make it to eye of the world, where the gods look upon you. Only by journeying to the gate, can you become immortal!

Volatile, mutable, and sometimes downright hateful, that’s Chaos in a nutshell. Followers of Chaos are devoted to one of four Ruinous Powers: Tzeentch (the Changer of Ways), Khorne (the Blood God), Nurgle (The Lord of Plague), and Slaanesh (the Prince of Pleasure). Almost all cards with the Chaos border are directly affiliated with one of these horrific gods.

Chaos is powerful, but not in a brutal way like the Orcs. As a Chaos player, your power is rooted in alteration. There are many ways to alter cards in this game, some scorchingly overt and others insidiously subtle.



Absolute Power, Absolute Corruption
One aspect of Warhammer: Invasion that we haven’t talked about yet is corruption. This represents the taint of chaos manifesting itself in a character, usually temporarily. A unit that becomes corrupted cannot attack or defend, and you only get to restore one corrupt character per turn, so if all of your forces fall for the taint, you’ll be in trouble!

Chaos excels at corrupting units. It’s what they do. Are those badass counterstriking Reiksguard Knights holding you at bay? They won’t do much if they can’t defend that turn! Are you having trouble keeping up against an Orc Horde deck? Corrupt their heavy hitter and buy yourself some time.

As if this wasn’t enough, Chaos also has cards that capitalize on the presence of corrupt units in play. Melekh the Changer is a game-breaker in the right situation, and in the right deck.



Feel the Burn
Corruption isn’t the only thing Chaos does. Another area they excel at is using the powers of Tzeentch to “burn” units into the ground. Cards like Flames of Tzeentch are so obviously useful they don’t bear explanation, but be warned that Chaos has more than just this in its bag of tricks. They have pestilent mages of Nurgle flinging disease, spawnling beasts that explode when they leave play…

Playing against the horrible forces of Chaos will teach you to treat your units as expendable and you will either need to protect them (which is easier for Order than Destruction) or simply accept their limited life spans as a cost of war. If you’re the type of player that enjoys the rush that comes with knowing you could take out your opponent’s best guys any time you want, this aspect of Chaos was designed specifically for you.



Mutations
Chaos Mutations are a staple of the Warhammer mythos, and they find a home in this game right here. Unsurprisingly, Chaos is really good at modifying its troops in the most obscene, horrific ways. If you enjoy “frankensteining” together your perfect unit out of the ideal mix of awesome powers, mutations will appeal to you greatly.



So there you have it, a taste of Warhammer from the dark side. Chaos is indeed a force to be reckoned with, so how are the other races going to deal with them? You’ll have to find out next week!

Join me next time, when we look at the savageness of Orcs.

Warhammer Invasion LCG is a card game, by Eric M. Lang, in which 2 players develop their kingdoms and lay waste to their foes. Each side is comprised of either the forces of Order -Dwarfs, High Elves, Empire- or the forces of Destruction -Orcs, Chaos, Dark Elves- as they seek to extend their empire to include the entire Old World.