“I will restore the sanctity of this world, no matter the cost.”

–Broderick Worr

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the Planetfall cycle and its first War Pack: Decree of Ruin!

In the Planetfall cycle for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, the fires of war rage across the shrine world Sacaellum, the first planet in the Traxis sector to be conquered by the Imperium of Man. Now, the forces of Chaos invade the planet, butchering all who stand in their way. On this planet, massive armies will clash, blood will be spilled, and the repercussions of this combat will echo throughout the Traxis sector. Gather your armies and prepare to make planetfall!

A New Era of War

The Planetfall cycle ushers in a new era of war by increasing the importance of the type symbols displayed on each planet. Claiming three planets that share a common type symbol has always been a victory condition for Conquest, but these type symbols represent different resources and appeal to different factions. Some have come to the Traxis sector searching for vital materials, others wish to establish new strongpoints from which to repel enemy forces, and still others hunt for ancient relics of unparalleled power.

With the new cards offered by the Planetfall cycle, your units can gain powerful new abilities and grow stronger when you fight on planets that support your faction’s overall goals. For example, the Astra Militarum is predominantly interested in finding new strongholds to use in the war against xenos and Chaos, so they naturally gravitate towards the green strongpoint type symbol. Dark Eldar, on the other hand, prefer to take slaves from the planets they attack, so they more motivated to conquer planets with the red material type symbol.

Alongside these new mechanics, the Planetfall cycle continues to expand the play styles available to each faction by introducing new warlords. Each faction, including the Tyranids faction introduced in The Great Devourer, receives a warlord that offers a new style of play. Among the warlords in this cycle, you’ll find a warrior of Khorne, a Black Templars chaplain, an Eldar autarch, and more. In addition to a new warlord, each faction receives new units, supports, attachments, and events to expand their claim over the Traxis sector.

Never Surrender

The Planetfall cycle and the battle for Sacaellum begin with the Decree of Ruin War Pack. As an example of the new focus on planet type symbols, we turn our attention to the unflagging zeal of Humanity’s massed armies: the Astra Militarum!

The new Astra Militarum warlord introduced in Decree of Ruin is Broderick Worr (Decree of Ruin, 1), a fearsome Commissar with no tolerance for fear or doubt in the soldiers he leads. While Broderick Worr leads your armies, any army units that retreat from his planet – yours or your opponent’s – are destroyed instead! Preventing your opponent from retreating with his forces will make him think twice about even attacking a planet held by Broderick Worr.

Broderick Worr offers another benefit to your forces. The Astra Militarum is committed to finding new strongpoints from which to repel those who attack the Imperium, and Broderick Worr can inspire your troops to greater feats of valour when you pursue that goal. While Broderick Worr is hale, each of your other Astra Militarum units at green strongpoint planets gains an additional ATK and cannot be retreated or routed. Aside from granting you immunity to tricks like Archon's Terror (Core Set, 117), this ability ensures that your armies will fight harder than ever to claim new strongpoints and safeguard the Imperium of Man.

Broderick Worr’s signature squad begins with four copies of the Anxious Infantry Platoon (Decree of Ruin, 2). For only two resources, this unit boasts a command icon, three ATK, and three HP. This efficiency comes at a price, however. After a combat round at the planet ends, you must pay one resource or retreat the Anxious Infantry Platoon. Of course, for those fighting under Broderick Worr, unordered retreat often means a quick battlefield execution. Fortunately, you can also use the appropriate motivation to keep your Anxious Infantry Platoons in the fight. While these armies battle at strongpoint planets, Broderick Worr’s ability keeps them from retreating under any circumstance, meaning these dangerous armies will fight until the end.

You can swell your forces with additional, expendable forces with the help of the Forward Barracks (Decree of Ruin, 3). This support bears a potent Reaction: “After a combat round ends, if you control an Astra Militarum unit at the planet where the battle is taking place, put 1 Guardsman token into play at that planet.” With this support at your side, you ensure a constant influx of new Guardsman tokens as long as you continue the fight. What’s more, these tokens can benefit from Broderick Worr’s inspiration as long as they fight for a strongpoint planet, continuing the Astra Militarum conquest of new strongholds across the Traxis sector.

Not every planet you’ll fight for is a strongpoint planet, however. Under these circumstances, your troops may require a little additional motivation with a Summary Execution (Decree of Ruin, 4). By playing this free event during a battle, you can sacrifice a unit at a planet with your warlord to give that planet a green strongpoint icon until the end of the battle, which naturally improves your armies’ fighting prowess significantly. In addition, Summary Execution invites you to draw a card to replenish your hand, offering you more shields or combat tricks for the coming fight.

Whether you sacrifice your own troops with a Summary Execution or they fall to the enemy in glorious battle, losing armies is inevitable. Fortunately, you can gain a benefit from even the most grievous losses with the Commissarial Bolt Pistol (Decree of Ruin, 5). This attachment can only be given to a Commissar unit like Broderick Worr, and while it grants that unit an additional ATK, the true power of the Commissarial Bolt Pistol lies with its ability. This ability allows you to deal one damage to a target army unit at the same planet as the Commissarial Bolt Pistol whenever one of your army units there leaves play! Even if your opponent is destroying units, when this direct damage is combined with the zeal of armies fighting for new strongpoints, you can wear through enemy defenses in short order.

Making Planetfall

An Astra Militarum Commissar is not the only warlord included in Decree of Ruin. You’ll also find a new Shas’o warlord for the Tau, and we’ll explore this warlord and his signature squad in a future preview.

The Planetfall cycle will change the future of the Traxis sector forever with a new emphasis on your motivation for dominating the sector. Prepare your armies for battle, and look for Decree of Ruin and the beginning of the Planetfall cycle in the third quarter of 2015!