Design Blog 37: Warlord special rules 2

Welcome to the second in our look at Warlord special rules (if you missed the first part you can find it here, along with an explanation of how special rules work).

Let’s get to it:

 

Chaos

Though their reasons may differ, every follower of Chaos seeks power, battling for glory under the gaze of dark and fickle gods.

We represent this by having Chaos Warlord special rules exclusively revolve around the actions of that Warlord. This means their special rules benefit the rest of your cards, but only when your Warlord is actually on the battlefield and fighting.

As discussed in the Chaos faction focus, this means Chaos decks need planning to use well, with your cards divided into two roles:

• Your first wave are the cards whose job is to soften up the enemy in general, but particularly targeting weaker enemies to draw the enemy Warlord out as soon as possible.
• The second wave are the cards which will fight alongside your Warlord, so they need to synergise with the Warlord’s attack strengths, but also be tough enough to stick around (meaning they can protect the Warlord’s flanks, and keep benefiting from the Warlord’s special rule).

Switching to game development mode for a moment, this need for the Warlord to be on the battlefield and fighting to use their special rule makes Chaos Warlords one of the more difficult factions for us to balance.

We need their rule to be powerful enough to make them worth using, but not so overpowered they’re an easy win. Therefore, you should expect the numbers behind the Chaos Warlord special rules to change over time, until we settle on a good balance.

 

Orks

Powered by an unstoppable urge to kill and destroy, Orks grow larger and more powerful as they slay foes and dominate the Boyz around them. We represent this by triggering Ork Warlord’s special rule whenever one of your Ork cards destroys an enemy card.

The results of the special rule triggering depend on your Warlord, meaning it’s a good idea to build your deck around them.

• Boss Zagstruk’s special rule causes damage to a random enemy when an enemy card is destroyed, meaning this special rule can be pretty powerful but it’s difficult to ensure it hits the right targets to get the most from it. Chaotic and slightly uncontrollable? Sounds like Orks to me!
• On the other hand, Ghazghkull Thraka’s special rule boosts his melee attack when an enemy card is destroyed. His rule is potentially not as flashy as Zagstruck’s, but that’s balanced by the fact that Ghazghkull is already pretty powerful, so his rule can turn him into an absolute monster of a Warlord over the course of a battle.

With these special rules rewarding you for enemy cards being destroyed, you need to work out which cards you can wipe out, and which you’re just going to ‘shut down’ by blocking them with high Wound cards.

Picking on weak cards will get you the most uses of your special rule, so it can be worth taking the time to check where to best deploy new cards – particularly when you’re deploying cards which have traits which get them free hits.

 

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, and hopefully you’re finding these guides useful. Feel free to get in touch if any of the special rules are still confusing or you have questions – also, if you have any tactical advice that I haven’t mentioned. You can get in touch through [email protected] or via our Facebook page.