The Horus Heresy: Legions
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This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it. |
Horus Heresy: Legions is a card game for mobile released by Everguild. The card game focus in each of the 30K Space Marine Legions and their conflict through the Age of Darkness (though you have a few Imperial Army Commanders, Mechanicum and Deamons in here). The card game can be surprisingly strategic, and not as RNG focused as say, Hearthstone. The game uses a basic resource called energy, with a max of 10 per turn and has a standard competitive ladder (named after different planets and battlefields of the Heresy), practice modes, and "Events" - narrative themed challenges with a selection of 3 sealed format decks per 4 warlords, which are occasionally ones that cannot be acquired in the main game (although some are introduced after being balanced) and let players try out Warlords they wouldn't normally have access to. Some Events will have unusual rules or conditions, like playing as Titan's or Super Heavy Tanks with exaggerated health and abilities. Everguild have also put a lot of effort into trying to make the legions thematically fluffy with appropriate game mechanics, along with a decent effort at creating competitive balance.
Warlords
Warlords are your center characters of the game, with each possessing special abilities that differentiate them from each other. Each faction have their own unique commanders, along with each legion’s Primarch. Primarchs (and Constantin Valdor, for some reason) differ from other warlords by having an alternative form (such as Daemon Primarchs, getting angry, going mad, or some other fluffy thing) as a card that can only be played (or reduced in cost to be playable) under certain conditions, like having a certain number of troops die, being reduced to one health, or triggering a certain number of effects per game. They then heal a set amount of health and are buffed in some way, along with their special ability changing.
Warlords also vary in terms of starting hp (30, 35, and 40 - although some event warlords have 25) and their initiative (Very Low, Low, Medium, High, and Very High) which defines who goes first. If both Warlords have the same initiative, then it becomes a 50/50 chance. Despite the apparent advantage of higher hp, lower hp Warlords will often have more useful abilities, higher initiative, or additional advantages like starting with extra cards, extra energy, having unique cards, or other abilities like Relentless or Battle Honour (discussed later) to compensate, so having a Primarch with 10 extra HP isn't an automatic I WIN button. It should also be noted that unlike several other card games (Hearthstone springs to mind) your Warlord can always deal damage and - in the case of some Legions (like World Eaters, Night Lords, or Custodes) - will depend on them as part of their overall strategy - Angron and Sevetar are built around this, for example.
Legions
Each legion have their own "shitck" as it should be, and some special abilities. So far Everguild released the following Legions:
I Legion: Dark Angels
NOT YET RELEASED
III Legion: Emperor's Children
- Warlords - Saul Tarvitz, Fabius Bile, Lucius, Fulgrim
Fulgrim's Prancing Peacocks. Their main skill is "Perfection" which activates if you spend the rest of your Energy on that card it triggers some special effect (drawing a card, for instance). Have lots of ways to reduce cost of cards. They also have a lot (but not all) of "Battle Honour" cards, which trigger an effect when a unit with it kills another. Their playstyle relies on timing effective combos and ensuring you can trigger as many Perfection effects as possible to gain the advantage, which you'll have to do because their troops are average if you don't.
IV Legion: Iron Warriors
- Warlords - Narik Dreygur, Forix, Barban Falk, Perturabo.
Perturabo's Bitter Boi's. Lots of front line, bunkers, barricades, and Siege, an ability to "prepare" for one turn, and allowing you to use it whenever you want. Said abilities are usually proportionately strong - one card has the ability to deal 15 damage to the enemy warlord. The disadvantage is that the enemy will usually have at least two turns to eliminate a seige unit before they can do something but this can be used as a soft front line. This said, they now have the ability to remove the turn long wait, as well as mitigating siege by adding Bloodthirst. They have lots of front line troops as well as lots of ways to do damage to and destroy front lines and vehicles. Also have a theme of damaging/destroying their troops for buffs, buffing cards in your deck ahead of time, and generating new troops and recycling cards back into their deck.
V Legion: White Scars
NOT YET RELEASED
VI Legion: Space Wolves
- Warlords - Othere Wyrdmake, Giegor Felhand, Bulveye, Leman Russ.
Russ's Space Corgis. Very aggressive cards that rely on having lots of board control to maximise utility. Have two unique mechanics ; "Ward" makes a troop or warlord unable to be targeted by enemy tactics or abilities (random or blanket targeting still works). "Pack" triggers beneficial effects when allied units attack and unlike many other abilities, this can activate the turn the unit comes into play. Have a fair number of Berserk and Bloodthirst cards too. Appropriately, they are rather effective against the Thousand Sons, with Ward providing cover for many of the Thousand Son's tactics and unit abilities. A powerful unit with Ward is incredibly hard to deal with without drowning it in troops, so keep some blanket targeting or cleave troops handy.
VII Legion: Imperial Fists
NOT YET RELEASED
VIII Legion: Night Lords
- Warlords : Mawdrym, Sevetar, Malcharion, Konrad Curze.
Curze's Spoopy Skeletons. Their big thing is Terror. Troops won't take damage when the enemy has less attack than you do, which synergises well with their plentiful debuffs for enemy attack power. They also get the ability to stop enemy troops from attacking, which you will need because your troops can't take as much of a hit as other legions. Lots of flank, unstoppable, conditional fast, and stealth, as well as situational abilities when the enemy doesn't have any troops, further egging on the bullying theme.
IX Legion: Blood Angels
NOT YET RELEASED
X Legion: Iron Hands
- Warlords: Shadrak Meduson, Amadeus Ducaine, Gabriel Santar, Ferrus Manus.
Ferrus' Stubborn Soldiers. Focused on Relentless cards, which activate an effect - usually a stat buff - at the start of each turn. Also have tons of healing and board clears as well as some powerful vehicles which can be created by Captured Forge. Their game plan is typically to either use their healing and board clears to outlast the enemy before dropping heavy units in the late game or to build a board of relentless buffing troops whose stats snowball out of control.
XII Legion: World Eaters
- Warlords : Ehrlen, Shabran Darr, Kharn, Angron.
Angron's Angry Aggressors. Their gameplan is to hit the opposing warlord in the face every turn and kill him quickly. Have a lot of units with abilities that proc when damaged. Also have lots of board clears that damage themselves and the enemy. Their unique mechanics are Berserk (which forces the troop or Warlord to attack each turn which can be lethal against high end front line troops) Rage, which triggers an effect when the unit takes damage, and they have a lot of cards with Bloodthirst, which lets a unit act twice. As a result, the World Eaters also have a lot of cheap tactics that inflict damage, as well as tactics that buff damaged troops. Stun and strong Frontline is their kryptonite. The only one of the base set legions to remain consistently competitive throughout.
XIII Legion: Ultramarines
- Warlords - Aeonid Thiel, Marius Gage, Roboute Guilliman.
Roboute's Rule-abiding Rangers. They're a generalist deck (appropriately enough) with an emphasis on buffing, card draw and adaptability ; many of their troops, tactics, and warlords do 2 different (usually mutually exclusive) things, giving them some flexibility in how they're used. Their unqiue mechanic is Courage, which activates an additional effect if the opposing player has more units than you. Their tactics are also labelled as Theoreticals and Practicals ; several of their regular tactics and unit abilities either generate them or draw them from your deck. The gist is that an Ultramarine deck ought to have the right card for the right situation but their playstyle relies on being reactive rather than proactive, in addition to relying on an enemy having more board control in order to get the best out of your deck, which is pretty hard to justify. They also really depend on their Courage mechanic, otherwise their troops are badly costed for what they do. Roboute is also much closer to Julius Caesar than to our Spiritual Liege, using strategy from behind the lines but joining them as soon as he deems it needed, and even if they have all been slain, he is still capable of overturning the whole situation by himself.
XIV Legion: Death Guard
- Warlords - Nathaniel Garro, Durak Rask, Callas Typhon, Mortarion.
Mortarion's hazardous hardcases. They focus on poison (kills enemies in the following turn), high health front line troops, and healing themselves. Also have a lot of troops with backlash- abilities that trigger on destruction of the troop.Deathshroud is an 8/8 troop whose backlash ability spawns another Deathshroud! They also have a smattering a Chaos synergy, along with self healing troops and the odd Nurgleing.
XV Legion: Thousand Sons
- Warlords - Phosis T’Kar, Ahriman, Amon, Magnus.
Magnus' Magical Musketmen. All their Warlords and a few of their units generate Psychic Power per turn ; an additional resource a bit like energy that you can use to play tactics or unit abilities. The upside of this is that if you manage your energy and psychic energy well, you can unleash all of the mind bullet dakka - do it badly or lose your crucial generating troops and you'll be forced to play like a more conventional legion (and lose). Their other mechanics include precognition, which stops friendly units being attacked (tactics and abilities are still bueno) and Reflection, which allows tactics to be cast as many times in the same turn as you have energy / psychic power to cast it. Because they got released in Yin-Yang with the Space Wolves, Precognition is a useful counter for the Space Wolves' aggressive troops. Were horrifically broken on release, to the point that most TS deck strategy was to survive until they got 10 energy, and then just unload all the psychic power they'd stockpiled (or more sadistically spam a 4 energy/damage card that returned to hand if there are no troops on their side).
XVI Legion: Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus
- Warlords : Garviel Loken, Abbadon, Tarik Torgaddon, Horus.
The Warmasters own and the first deck you get with Loken as its center Warlord. A jack of all trades faction with a focus on drop pods, direct damage, and card draw, with a smattering of Chaos synergy on the side. All of their warlords' abilities do direct damage, draw a card, or both. They certainly aren't bad but power-creep has very much come into play, and their lack of a unqiue play dynamic can leave them sidelined.
XVII Legion: Word Bearers
Warlords : Argel Tal, Erebus, Lorgar, Zardu Layak.
Lorgar's Fundamentalist Fellows. Have lots of synergy with Deamons (along with specific buffs with the UNNAMEABLE BEASTS), Sacrifice cards, and wholesale buffs to troops. Their unique mechanic is Deamonhost, which confers random buffs on a unit. They also have a lot of cards that benefit from sacrificing (not the keyword) other troops to either deal damage, buff your own troops, or summoning deamons. They have a lot of synergy with the Chaos neutral deck, including one of their warlords taking an alternate form if half your deck consists of Chaos cards. Another unique feature is that some of their troops have dual troop types, meaning they can get buffs that apply to both. They also get the ability to mitigate maintenance costs for Deaemons.
XVIII Legion: Salamanders
- Warlords : Artellus Numeon, Cassian Dracos, Nemetor, Vulkan.
Vulkan's Pyromaniac Pillar-Men, focused on fire (several of their troops have abilities that damage enemies), "Survivor" (which allows it to survive and heal a set amount of health when it has its health reduced to 0 by damage), and Sacrifice (when they are reduced to 0 health while attacking an enemy, an effect is triggered, hopefully activating "Survivor" and bringing the unit back where they can potentially activate their Sacrifice ability again). They are a slow faction and lack fast or flank units and only have 2 direct damage tactics, both of which only do 2 damage per target. You'll want to put as many troops with Survivor on the board as possible, along with balancing keeping your troops alive with the advantages that Sacrifice will give you (which ties in nicely with the fluff of Salamanders being enduring and self-sacrificing at the same time).
XIX Legion: Raven Guard
- Warlords : Vicente Sixx, Agapito Nev, Nykona Sharrowkyn, Corax.
Corax's furtive flighties. Focused on Stealth (making the unit untargetable), Sneak Attack (causing damage on attack without taking it back), Flank (allowing a troop to attack another troop immediately when summoned) and their own special skill "Sentence" (additonal damage caused to a unit that is marked as sentenced). Have lots of tactics that deal damage (usually smaller amounts) to seperate targets or multiple times seperately, so as to maximise Sentencing damage. Can be insanely difficult to beat if you don't have stealth revealing and blanket or random targeting.
XX Legion: Alpha Legion
- Warlords : Alpharius, Alpharius, Alpharius, Alpharius (Armillus Dynat, Ingo Pech, Exodus, Alpharius, Omegon, Alpha Legionaire)
Alpharius' Alpharius. They have special tactics like Orders, that target enemy units and forcing them to use certain abilities and traps, which insert cards into the opponents deck and cause negative effects when drawn. Play very different from other factions and currently the only faction that can mill the opponent's deck and use fatigue damage as a win condition. Many of their units have stun abilities or abilties that harm the opposing player when they play cards. In short, they are fucking annoying to play against, which is kind of the point. All their Warlords also start each game as an 'anonymous' Legionary (who isn't actually a bad warlord in any case) which can then be revealed at any point by the Alpha Legion player, along with healing the difference in health at the same time, thus simulating the "I am Alpharius" thing. They also have a tactic that allows them to become a different Alpha legion warlord. This tactic can be copied by opponents using certain cards like Jubak Starsight. This means that a warhound titan can transform into Alpharius.
Adeptus Custodes
- Warlords : Arascid Nassau, Vettranio Shapura, Amon Tauromachian, Constantin Valdor.
Daddy's real favorites. Soft focus on front line units, with lots of flank, and disproportionately high stats for their points cost. Many of their troops also get "First Strike", where they don't take any retaliatory damage if they kill an opposing troop while attacking. A few of their warlords have it too, giving them a lot more utility than other warlords who have to be kept safe. The downside is that many of their units have the Sentinel ability, meaning that you cannot draw a card the beginning of your turn whilst the card with sentinel is in play. A lot of their tactics and unit abilities revolve around card draw and troop generation, so you need to keep your hand full or you'll lose. It's also worth noting that they have a unique Custodes troop type, which can affect how cards in the neutral decks work (or don't) with them. They also have a lot of ways to boost their warlord's damage and survivability.
Orphans of War
Warlords: Atesh Tarsa, Endryd Haar, Ulrach Brantham, Nerat Kirine
The cast-off and shamed legionaries of everyone else, they form a Blackshield fighting force that gets access to the unique abilities of almost every legion. Their tactics are highly effective at messing around with the enemy, including mass copying and (uniquely) STEALING cards from the opponents deck, and their wide use of Stealth and Survivor means that they are suprisingly difficult to put down (again, thematically appropriate). However, they aren't so much a jack of all trades as a middling 9 and their lack of a consistent play dynamic can cause problems against a focussed legion deck. They also rely on quite a bit on RNG in several of their units and tactics, making them more a gamble than most other legions. Several of their cards also generate troops and tactics from other decks, but again, this is randomly determined. Card stealing is also dependent on your opponents deck, although it's worth it to deprive the enemy of their trump card or wombo strategy maker.
Neutral Decks
Imperial Army, Mechanicum, and Chaos are included here. Whilst Legion Warlords can take cards from any of the Neutral decks, the Neutral Warlords can only take cards from other Neutral decks, which is a pretty big handicap. To compensate, Neutral Warlords typically have more immediately powerful abilities and attritbutes than Legion Warlords. Their 40 hp warlords also don't have an awakened form, for some reason. And yes, you can have Chaos cards in Loyalist Warlord decks, move along..
Imperial Army
Warlords: Colonel Ornatov, Lucretia Elunnirai, Lotara Sarrin, Thaddeus Fayle
Lots of Frontline, cheap infantry, expensive vehicles, and structures - usually with buffing effects for troops or ways of generating more troops. No unique mechanics or focus but almost every deck will benefit from them, especially their Front Line stuff.
Mechanicum
Warlords: Kelbor Hal, Caleb Decima, Tacitus Proctor
Varied troops and vehicles with a variety of buffs, debuffs, and other effects, as well as healing for vehicles and structures. A few of their units and commanders generate mechadendrites - cheap buffs with a variety of effects.
Chaos
Warlords: Ingethel, Canis Vertex, Captured Mandragorax
A variety of aggressive unit types, debuffs and damaging effects, usually with an indiscriminate or random targetting / damage. Their main shtick is Chaos Marks and Deamons. Chaos Marks are random but cheap buffs (one per Chaos god). If you manage to get all 4 on a non-deamon troop (you won't get the same twice, so you'll only need 4), they turn into one of the greater Deamon cards, which can be pretty powerful if you can get them off early. Deamons are (generally) pretty powerful units for their cost but they all have maintenance, which subtracts a given value from your total energy pool, which can be a handicap mid/late game. A few commanders and units can reduce maintenance or circumvent it completely. Also have access to Titan warlords rather than the Mechanicum, for some reason..
Card Attributes
Whilst various legions specialise in a few unique abilties, this doesn't necessarily mean only they will have them. Blue abilities cost energy to activate. Grey Abilities are persistant. Red abilties are Seige - an Iron Warriors exclusive - and works a bit like a regular Blue ability, except that it takes a turn to charge and then can be activated at the controllers discretion. They're usually a lot stronger than most unit abilities and your opponent will try to murder them first. Purple Abilties are Psychic abilites and can only be activated with Psychic Energy. They're Thousand Sons exclusive. Some abilities will also cancel out the effects of others ; you can apply Stealth to a Front Line unit, but then Front Line won't work until the unit is unstealthed. Troops are also designated a type such as Astartes, Infantry, Vehicle, Custodes, Deamon, Structure etc, that affects how they interact with certain other cards and abilities (such as Chaos Marks only being usable on non-Deamon cards).
- Backlash : Triggers an effect when a unit dies.
- Battle Honour : Does something when one unit defeats another, although it has to actually survive too.
- Beserk : Unit has to act every turn. World Eaters have a lot of these. Doesn't necessarily mean the unit has to attack ( Warlords could use their ability, for example) but most cards with it are just beatsticks.
- Blood Thirst: Unit can act twice per turn. World Eaters, Space Wolves, and Iron Warriors love these. Usually on cards that don't have lots of health as a check. As with Beserk, it doesn't have to be used for attacking twice.
- Can't Attack : Self explanatory, usually on Structure type troops but occasionally an appliable debuff. Night Lords like this a lot.
- Cleave : Deals a set amount of damage to the units on either side of the unit attacked. Good at circumventing Front Line.
- Courage: When your opponent has more troops than you (including their warlord) this activates additional effects. Ultramarine's unique attribute.
- Deamonhost : Confers a ramdom attribute buff from a list onto the troop. They can stack and if you get all of them, any additional Deamonhost counters will just add +2/+2. However, you'll have a hard job keeping the troop alive long enough to do so. Also adds the Deamon troop type to the unit.
- Drop Pod : Gives the troop a 2 hp shield until their next turn after being played, giving cheap or fragile cards a chance to do something.
- Fast : Troops can attack the moment they come into play. Usually on glass cannon cards.
- First Strike : Custodes only. You won't take damage attacking if you kill the opposing troop (and technically the Warlord but that's a very rare scenario to avoid drawing).
- Flank : Like fast, but can only attack other troops out the gate.
- Front Line: Troops with this have to be attacked first before attacking the warlord or non-frontline troops. You will need them in your deck.
- Jam : Gets rid of any buffs, malus', or special abilities on a card. Using it on your own units can result in some fun things, like buildings attacking or getting rid of Maintenance on Daemons..
- Mark of Chaos: Gives the (non daemon) troop one of four random Mark of Chaos buffs. Get all 4 on one troop and they'll turn into a greater deamon card.
- Maintenance: Deamon exclusive - subtracts a given amount of energy from your total pool whilst the deamon card is in play. Can be really bad news if your opponent is able to stun that unit, rendering it useless, and hobbling your energy supply. Can also be applied to other troops in very rare circumstances.
- Meltdown : A card attribute applied to Titan Weapon cards for Warlords. Killing the individual weapon will deal a substantial amount of damage to adjacent units - usually the other Titan components. Only applies to one warlord in the main game but the special event warlords have random titans more often.
- Pack : Space Woof unique ability. Activates an effect whenever another friendly unit attacks. With board control, this is incredibly powerful.
- Perfection : Emperor's Children signiture ability. Causes additional effects if the card being played uses all the remaining energy from your pool.
- Poisonous : when applied to a troop, makes it's attacks kills the affected troop at the end of the controllers next turn. Usually used to prompt the affected player to throw that troop away, as it's going to die anyway. Death Guard have most of these but a few other decks have cards that can remove the effect.
- Psyker : Thousand Son's exclusive. Generates x amount of psyhcic energy per turn, which is used by the TS's to pay for tactics and unit abilites. You will want a lot of it.
- Precognition : Thousand Son's unique ability. Units with this (usually a buff, but a tiny number of units have this PERMANENTLY) cannot be attacked by other units. Kill them with abilities or tactics instead. Good against Space Wolves. Worth of note, one of the Custodes warlords, Arascid Nassau, has an ability that can give him this if he kills an enemy with it.
- Rage : Triggers an effect when directly damaged. World Eaters have most of these.
- Rally : Does something when the card is played out of the hand. Nice and easy.
- Relentless : Iron Hand's favorite. Triggers an effect at the beggining of every turn AFTER the card is played. Kill them quickly before they snowball out of control.
- Reflection : Thousand Son's unique ability. Usually a base part of their tactics but some of their troops can confer this on other cards. It lets you cast a Psychic Power tactic as many times in that turn as you have Psyhcic Energy to cast it. A few neutral cards have this, with regular energy being the cost instead.
- Sacrifice : Salamanders and Word Bearers exclusive - activates an effect when the troop dies whilst ATTACKING another unit. Synergies nicely with Survivor.
- Secret Order : Alpha Legion exclusive. Applied to an opponents troops, and triggers negative effects under certain conditions, like playing another troop, or attacking a warlord. The kicker is that you don't know which trap Secret Order was played until you activate it's condition. Have now been heavily nerfed by only taking effect once when triggered but are all now equally reduced in costs.
- Sentenced: Raven Guard exclusive - applies a malus to enemy units to a given value. Attacking that unit then causes additional damage to the value of how many Sentenced markers are on the target. Usually only a debuff for one turn but a few cards can apply it permanently to enemy troops.
- Sentinel : Custodes exclusive. The only flatout negative effect in the game so far. If a troop with this is in play, you won't draw any cards at the beggining of each turn. You'll want to find ways to get around it.
- Sneak Attack: Attacking doesn't damage you back.
- Shield: Creates a 1 hp shield on a troop that persists till it's destroyed. Useful on those glass cannon troops.
- Stealth: The unit is untargetable until it attacks or the duration specified expires. Doesn't prevent random or blanket targetting though.
- Stun: Self explanatory, lasts till your next turn and also stops units from using abilities. They'll still deal damage if attacked though.
- Survivor: Keeps the troop (and irritating warlord - looking at you, Vulkan) alive after being destroyed, to a set value of health. This doesn't trigger effects that are conditional on killing an enemy unit, like Battle Honour.
- Terror : Night Lord's unique (with exceptions to Daemon-Host and other Word Bearer troops) attribute. Attacking units don't take damage if their attack power is higher than their opponents. Thematically appropriate for the Night Lords.
- Trap : Alpha Legion exclusive - these are shuffled into the opponents deck and cause a negative effect when drawn - one forces you to draw more cards, so you can mill your own deck or get caught drawing more Trap Cards. As with Secret Orders, they aren't identified when initially played ; you'll know a trap was played but not which one. They also all draw another card for the opponent, which is hillarious when it daisy chains even more trap cards.
- Unstoppable: Allows troops to circumvent Front Line troops. Usually represented by assault marines, which is a nice thematic touch.
- Ward : Space Wolf exclusive. Makes the unit untargetable by enemy abilities and tactics - as with Stealth, random or blanket targetting will still work. Good against Thousand Sons.
Getting Started and Getting Cards
The game provide a few ways for getting cards. First, the currencies are gold and gems. Gems only come from crates (card packs), while gold can be purchased in the store. You can also get tickets for Events, which are focused on pre constructed decks used against each other.
Most of the games rewards are the "crates" that can give you gold, gems and obviously, cards. The few ways you can earn them:
- Doing the Daily Mission which can be done in both Practice and Ranked modes by winning games.
- Challenge, also daily, usually dictating some specific kind of unit, deck or type of action that you have do it many times (like hitting an enemy Warlord with your own). If you do it enough times, you can get a better crate. Some of these are simple, like attack the enemy warlord, while others are extremely specific, like winning a match without putting troops into play.
- Free Crate that shows up each 6 hours (though its obviously not as good as the other crates, it can give some good rewards).
- Events Wins. For every three wins you can get a better crate with better rewards while doing Events. Events use pre-made decks so it's a great way to get new cards without having to start from the bottom.