In 2014, Fantasy Flight Games’ Living Card Game® (LCG) category is the strongest it has ever been, and the much-heralded introduction of Warhammer 40,000: Conquest is the most recent step in the category’s growth.

This growth has not come without challenges. Since we first introduced the LCG model in 2008, we have learned much about how these games function differently than collectible card games, and we have taken many steps to apply the lessons we’ve learned. We have established the standard that our monthly expansion packs offer a complete playset of each new card within them. We have grown our Organized Play programs, introducing Restricted lists when necessary to balance the evolving metagames. And with both Warhammer 40,000: Conquest and Star Wars™: The Card Game, we have discovered how the LCG model permits and encourages new takes on the classic deck-building model.

As a result, Warhammer 40,000: Conquest has benefitted from an LCG audience that is larger and more knowledgeable than ever. We’re eagerly looking forward to the first Warhammer 40,000: Conquest World Championship Tournament, and the game’s card pool will soon start expanding with the first of our monthly War Packs, The Howl of Blackmane.

Rotation and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

Our LCG department hosted an LCG State of the Union and addressed those players who arrived early to our World Championship Weekend. In the address, our LCG team acknowledged the category’s growth and its increased importance to Fantasy Flight Games as a key business category. However, in order to ensure that our LCGs continue to grow and remain healthy, we also looked toward the future. We realized that our LCGs would suffer if we were to let them continue to grow unchecked, so we decided to introduce rotation to our competitive card games.

For more about rotation and why we’re introducing it to our LCGs, see the article, “A New Stage of Growth.”

Our new rotation policy dictates that each game’s standard play environment consists of the game’s Core Set, its deluxe expansions, and its five to seven latest cycles of monthly expansion packs.

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What does this mean for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest?

It means that you still have a long time to enjoy all the cards you own and look forward to adding to your decks. At this point, we are still looking forward to the game’s first War Pack. That means that barring any unforeseen delays, we expect to retire the cards from the Warlord cycle only once the first War Pack for the game’s eighth cycle arrives sometime in Fall 2018.

Moreover, because all the cards from the game’s Core Set and its deluxe expansions will remain available in standard play, along with all the cards from its third cycle through its seventh cycle, when the Warlord cycle and the game’s second cycle do rotate out of standard play, they’ll represent a small fraction of the entire card pool. At that time, their departure won’t impact long-time veterans too much, but the thinning of the card pool will make the game significantly more attractive to newer players and will help prevent the game from breaking down, easing the potential need for any restrictions or bans of existing cards.

Rotation will eventually become necessary for the continued health of Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, but it’s not coming anytime soon. You’ll have years to enjoy the cards you currently own, as well as those coming down the line, and we believe this is the solution that best ensures you’ll have many more years to enjoy your battles for the Traxis sector!