“The fate of the world, be it damnation or salvation, will soon be decided.” –Warhammer

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Cataclysm, the fourth deluxe expansion for Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game!

The battles of Warhammer: Invasion grow larger and more intense than ever before as Cataclysm introduces rules and components for a new, multiplayer format. Cataclysm comes with a rulebook, thirty-eight tokens, six fulcrum cards, and 159 player cards (three copies each of fifty-three different cards) that allow up to four players to war for dominion over the Old World. The expansion also provides new ammunition for those who wish to continue exploring the fast-paced, bloody, back-and-forth battles of the two-player matches from the Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game Core Set, and it marks the beginning of an exciting new release model for the game.

Subdue Your Foes and Establish Your Rule

The multiplayer rules in Cataclysm build upon the classic kingdom building, questing, and battles of Warhammer: Invasion and explore the shifting tides of battle between the Old World’s six main races with thirty-seven copies of a new form of token – the dominance token. In games of Cataclysm, these dominance tokens represent the success of your efforts to subdue your foes and establish your rule.

Each player starts with three dominance tokens on his capital and can build his dominance by attacking and controlling the game’s new fulcrum cards.

Magewrath Throne, a fulcrum.

Fulcrums are sites steeped in magical energies that offer powerful and far-reaching abilities to those who control and can channel them. Each fulcrum also features a number of dominance icons, and at the end of the turn, you can add one dominance token to your capital board for each dominance icon you control.

To seize control of a fulcrum, you must first attack it and, later, be able to defend it. The expansion’s six fulcrum cards are shuffled into a separate fulcrum deck at the beginning of the game, and at the beginning of each round, the top fulcrum is added to the play area (unless you and your friends have reached the maximum number of fulcrums for the game, which is the number of players in the game minus one). In games of Cataclysm, you gain the ability each battlefield phase to declare an attack against a fulcrum. This is in addition to the normal attack you may declare against an opponent’s zone or legend, and if you would deal even a single point of damage to the fulcrum, instead of placing damage on it, you seize control of it, adding it to your battlefield.

Lair of the Astromancer grants one dominance at the end of the round.

Fulcrums grant you more than dominance, though, as you can choose to channel them. To channel a fulcrum, you must first place an uncorrupted unit from your battlefield onto the fulcrum. While a unit is channeling a fulcrum, it remains in the battlefield but cannot attack. Furthermore, a channeling unit can only defend when the fulcrum it is channeling is attacked, but in that case it must defend, if it can.

While you battle for control of the game’s fulcrums, you must still mind your capital. For just as fulcrums give you the potential to gain dominance, you can also lose it:

Each time a player’s zone burns, he loses one dominance.

Each time a player’s deck is depleted, he loses one dominance.

The first time a player has all three zones burning or no cards left in his deck, that player loses a point of dominance. This is in addition to the one dominance he loses normally, and it only happens the first time either condition is met (all three zones burning or no cards left in deck).

In Cataclysm, the Old World’s armies conclude their frenzied final attacks at the end of any round in which the players trigger any of three game ending conditions:

A player has all three zones of his capital burning.

A player has no cards left in his deck.

A player has eight or more total dominance after gaining dominance during the end of round stage.

At the end of the round in which one of these conditions is met, the player with the most dominance wins the match.

Armies of the Old World

As each race of the Old World builds toward the moment when it’s ready to launch one great, unstoppable wave of assaults and win the war, it must find some means of fortifying its position or deflecting attention from its preparations. The Cataclysm multiplayer format permits elements of deal-making and deal-breaking, but it isn’t so much a game of tenuous and fragile alliances as it is one of surprise attacks and overwhelming forces.

Each of the Old World’s six great races finds its own personality and strategies fully developed through the new cards and multiplayer battles of Cataclysm.

Even in the multiplayer format, Dwarfs rely upon their toughness and supports to withstand their enemies’ most brutal attacks and retaliate. Meanwhile, their grudges continue to fuel their attacks, and they gain several cards that boost their power while their zones are burning.

Even in the multiplayer format, Dwarfs rely upon their toughness and supports to withstand their enemies’ most brutal attacks and retaliate. Meanwhile, their grudges continue to fuel their attacks, and they gain several cards that boost their power while their zones are burning. Orcs launch their attacks with a maniacal frenzy, gaining strength and focus whenever they catch the scent of blood, and several of Orc cards can enter play for free or trigger actions when the Greenskins burn an opponent’s zone.

The Empire excels at unifying its armies and marshaling tactical defenses. It features a number of cards that grant bonuses while their controller has no burnt zones.

The High Elves remain an insular race, focusing on defense, healing, and control as they wear down their opponents with indirect damage. To help advance these strategies, they rely upon the talents of a few new Mages .

. As the other nations burn, the seeds of Chaos are sown. New units, Attachments , and tactics that gain power as opponents’ zones burn lend truth to the idea that Chaos grows as others falter.

, and tactics that gain power as opponents’ zones burn lend truth to the idea that Chaos grows as others falter. Dark Elves continue to bleed their opponents, destroying their supplies and spirits with hand and deck discard effects, as well as new ways to steal their opponents’ units.

Meanwhile, though the expansion’s player cards can all be used in two-player games, as well, many of them add a new element of risk and reward to your multiplayer matches. Like the Warpstone of Turmoil (Cataclysm, 51), these are powerful, inexpensive cards that can greatly change the shape of a game, but that forfeit the control of their effects to an opponent of your choice.

Key Battles to Win the War

Cataclysm will be the game’s fourth deluxe expansion, and it will also be the first in a new release model. Starting with Cataclysm, Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game will shift away from monthly Battle Packs to the release of three larger, deluxe expansions per year.

Last year, we made a similar adjustment to the release schedule for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. The change has been well received, and while monthly expansion packs are still the best fit for our other Living Card Games®, we are confident that this release model is better for both Call of Cthulhu and Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game, and we are excited about the future of all our LCG lines!

Conquer the Old World

The battles of Warhammer: Invasion The Card Game grow larger and more frenzied than ever before with the new units, supports, tactics, fulcrums, and dominance tokens of Cataclysm!

Look for Cataclysm and its epic battles for dominion over the Old World to arrive at retailers in the second quarter of 2013!