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Review of Imperial Wolfbanes MegaDeck
Blurb from the publisher: 'The Warzone Resurrection Imperial Wolfbanes Card Pack contains all Strategy, Tactical and Gear cards for this Imperial sub-faction!'
What you get: Your EUR 26,99 or USD 31,98 or GBP 19,99 will buy you the Imperial Wolfbanes MegaDeck for you to start battling in the Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection universe under the flag of the Imperial Wolfbanes. By now we have seen all the Starter Boxes of the Warzone universe, including the initial Imperial Starter Box.
The MegaDecks are a change in production that came up since my initial review of the Imperial Starter Box. Namely, each Starter Box contains the miniatures, the dice, as well as the squad reference cards and the resource cards. It no longer contains the Strategy, Tactics and Gear Cards, making the MegaDecks a must-have if one intends to play a particular faction. Megadecks are all-inclusive; they contain all the cards relevant to the faction, irrespective of whether the miniatures are included in the Starter Box or on other packs. In other words, one does not need to hunt for cards here and there. One single purchase and he is done.
The Imperial Wolfbanes MegaDeck contains 169 standard-sized laminated cards with rounded corners at 87,5 x 62 cm. If you have heard of that little game called Magic: the Gathering, that's the size. All the rules are to be found in The Imperial Corporation handbook, also offered free of charge; the box contains nothing else but the cards. Their number might seem low when compared to other factions, do remember however that Imperial Ministry of War (MoW) forces and Imperial Wolfbanes forces can be combined. In short, read this review along with the one of the Imperial Megadeck.
Out of these Imperial Wolfbanes cards 85 are Tactical, 12 Resources, 36 Strategy and 36 Gear. Unless something changes drastically in the marketing of Warzone: Resurrection, each MegaDeck contains each card the maximum number of times it can be used in a game. As per the rulebook, that would be an absolute maximum of 3 copies of each Strategy card, 5 copies of each Tactical card and 3 copies of each Gear card. Practically speaking, The Imperial Wolfbanes have at their disposal 17 unique Tactical (12 related to the Starter Box units and 5 related to the additional units), 12 unique Strategy (7 and 5 respectively) and 12 unique Gear cards (7 and 5 respectively). A player's deck cannot contain less than 35 cards excluding Resources, while the Resources a player wields depend on his Warlord type. As an example, the Close Combat Warlord brings in the most resources (8), while the Ranged Warlord the least (6).
In addition to the cards that relate to any unit or to Starter Box units, the five units that are not in the Starter Box and which have cards attributed to them are the following: the Headhunters, the Warhounds, the Mourning Wolves, Shiela McGregor and Oakenfist. Each of these gets a unique Strategy, Tactical and Gear card.
Imperial Wolfbanes are mostly about tactics, creating openings and altering the parameters of the battlefield, instead of adding straightforward bonuses of +1 here and there. There are Feints (rerolling CC attacks), Flares (reducing cover) and Careful Approaches (healing when covered). There are buffs, adding skills to units like with Bloodthirst, Power Swing and Praise the fallen. There are plus modifiers here and there, with Bulletstorm (+1 RoF) being one of the most characteristic, they do not define the deck however. Gear cards are also refined, with increases in range modifiers, weapon types and temporary skill acquisition. Strategy cards follow on the same path. Heal and Necrotechnology might not work against the Wolfbanes (Merciless Attack), LOS of everybody on the battlefield might be reduced to 12'' (Ambush At Dawn), while becoming a Pathfinder might as well be the easiest thing around (Hidden Pathways). If you are a lone wolf, why not also set up traps (Wold Trap) or stalk the opponent (Stalking Shadows)? The proportion of cards that can be played with the units of the Starter Box is staggering, almost reaching 60%.
The strong points: I cannot but loudly applaud Prodos' policy when it comes to rules and content. Everything, absolutely everything, is free on their website, these cards included. For the number-crunchers out there, there will be no blind purchases, no impulse buying and no disappointment about a unit not working as you wanted it to. You can sit down and take all the time in the world perusing the free documentation, both rulebook and cards, before deciding whether you want to invest on the actual game, what faction you might find the most entertaining and what individual units you would like to see in your army. For hardcore players, you can even see your enemies' capabilities and try to devise ways to counter them, again without spending a single cent.
Marketing all the cards of a faction together as MegaDecks was a clever move. It allowed the present holistic approach and eliminated the need to buy multiple packages of unneeded miniatures just to have each card in adequate copies. It's all here; buy it and be done with it for ever.
When it comes to aesthetics and usability, the cards are of a standard, uniform size and not the awkward and practically unsleevable 94 x 68 of the initial Imperial Starter Box. The paper is thick and of high quality. Laminated as they might be, I still prefer them sleeved in order for them to last forever. Having round instead of sharp edges helps a lot. The art is taken from previous editions and the text is easily readable. It has nothing to do with the insanely small text that can be found on the unit cards which accompany the miniatures and are not included in this product.
The Imperial Wolbanes' MegaDeck follows on its brother’s footsteps; the style of play is not immediately clear. When other factions need to buy many different unit types in order to use particular cards, Imperial Wolfbanes can mix in their deck almost 60% of their MegaDeck. Good luck trying to figure out what they are up to. By definition of course this implies that the powers included therein are less exotic and more standard, thus facilitating their opponent’s lives. On the other hand, the game almost takes for granted that an Imperial player will eventually mix the MoW with the Wolfbanes, in order to have a more nuanced approach to units and tactics. As stated, Imperial Wolfbanes cards are fewer than in other MegaDecks by more than 20%. This does not however mean that those fielding the faction have less choice. What it does mean that cards are more careful than usual in order not to produce sweeping effects that lead to a broken game when combined with MoW units. Many cards improve what Wolfbanes already do well, like Pathfinding, stalking, setting up traps, or Grenade launchers being used even more efficiently. The disadvantages of the Wolfbanes do not get necessarily addressed. To mitigate them, it'd be wise to avoid full Wolfbanes configurations and try to mix them with Ministry of War models. The feeling of playing the Imperial Corporation is a lot more diverse than in other factions, depending on the actual miniatures you decide to field.
It might not sound like much, but I very much enjoy that I have all the cards from the beginning to create my decks of choice and see how they perform as if I had all the miniatures of the faction. This option did not exist before, and running simulations on the drawing board is not the same as playing an unsanctioned game with the 'wrong' miniatures (ooh, the shame!), trying to figure out what works better.
The weak points: Some of the cards have a slight, almost imperceptible dent on their side. I am not suggesting that they are marked, they are not. There is no chance one will be able to identify a card by trying to pay close attention to this. It is irrelevant, I am however wondering why it's there.
I am in favour of the MegaDeck approach, seeing how it adds value to the game. I only wish that Prodos had done this from the very beginning, and not backstep on its initial policy of bundling cards with units. This might seem like a non-issue now, having touched only the first players to embrace Warzone Resurrection.
If you plan to mix MoW units to your Imperial Wolfbanes (and you are more than likely to want to do so), you will also need to invest in the Imperial MegaDeck in addition to the Imperial miniatures that you will need to purchase. This is the only faction that faces the issue, seeing how it is the only one broken into two sub-factions.
The rules of Warzone Resurrection are changing. In June 2016, some two weeks before the publication of this review, Prodos announced that the v.2 rules of Warzone Resurrection were getting into a public beta playtest. No models will get altered or eliminated, however all rulebooks will become obsolete, with the MegaDecks in their current iteration probably following along. I do not know when this will come into effect, be however aware that the product I am currently reviewing might not be competition-worthy in a year's time. This does not of course prohibit you from playing at your own home or club with friends; it’s highly unlikely that a MegaDeck will self-destruct once its new iteration, if any, comes out.
Conclusion: Continuing on the premise set by its Imperial MegaDeck brother, the Imperial Wolfbanes MegaDeck is a treat for the lovers of Celtic armies. More diverse than any other deck when combined with its brother, it provides quite an unusual support. Just be prudent if you are entering Warzone Resurrection now. This deck will probably not exist as is within a year or so.
To find out more about the Imperial Wolfbanes MegaDeck for Mutant Chronicles Warzone Resurrection, visit the Prodos Games website at prodosgames.com/.
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