As death sweeps across the land, the armies of Terrinoth search not only for allies to aid them, but ancient magic to gain the upper hand over their foes. While the Daqan dig through ancient ruins, the forces of Waiqar know where true power lies; in flesh, blood, bone, and death. Of all Waiqar’s servants, few exemplify this like Ankaur Maro, a fearsome necromancer whose ambition and lust for power knows no bounds. Those who oppose the undead legion are subject to the dark magic of the necromancer, and may even end up serving Waiqar themselves.

Today, we’re previewing the Ankaur Maro Hero Expansion for Runewars Miniatures Game. The expansion features one infantry and one cavalry figure for Ankaur Maro as well as new terrain and upgrade, objective, and deployment cards to expand your Runewars Miniatures Game collection.

Master of Death

As a necromancer, the runes on the field greatly influence Ankaur Maro’s abilities. The dark wizard's power ebbs and flows with the ancient magic of Terrinoth.

Ankaur Maro's hefty ranged attack fluctuates in power, with his controller rolling a number of white dice equal to the amount of unstable energy runes on the field.

While unstable energy affects Ankaur Maro’s pure attack, stable energy fuels his necrotic power. Using his special modifier, Ankaur Maro can add full trays to Waiqar infantry units within range 1-5 equal to the number of stable energy runes on the field. While this is a powerful ability that can quickly grow the ranks of the undead, dark magic has a price, and Ankaur Maro takes wounds equal to the number of trays added.

Though this is a harsh drawback, Ankaur Maro has ways to heal himself. Spending two surges during a ranged attack allows him to use his dark magic to recover one wound. Combined with a defensive value of two and a wound threshold of five, Ankaur Maro is a difficult hero to keep down.

As a master of death, Ankaur Maro can also use his dark magic to convert his deceased foes to the cause of Waiqar. If your army includes Ankaur Maro, it can include one non-unique unit from any other faction. But this conversion comes at a price, as the unit receives two blight tokens after a setup, remnants of Ankaur Maro’s dark magic.

Necrotic Tactics

While Ankaur Maro has a variety of movement options and modifiers on his command tool, including a shift, he truly shines with the modifications available to his red attacks.

Both Maro's melee and ranged attacks can be modified by two hit symbols, a surge, or a mortal strike, allowing players to adjust Ankaur Maro’s attacks to what is most helpful in the current situation. Low defense targets can be devastated with additional hits, the high defense of stronger targets can be pierced with the mortal strike, and the surge can be used to help Ankaur Maro recover or fuel an upgrade. Whatever you choose, Ankaur Maro is sure to prove himself as a worthy servant of Waiqar.

Behold the Power

The Ankaur Maro Hero Expansion features six upgrades, which will not only allow players to use Ankaur Maro as a powerful infantry upgrade, but also strengthen his cavalry figure.

While Maro’s rival Lord Hawthorne wields the Dawnblade, Ankaur Maro can be outfitted with the Duskblade, which the dread necromancer can use to lower his target's defense during a melee attack at the cost of two surges. This heightens the threat of Ankaur Maro from any range, and ensures that the foes of Waiqar will flee in fear of the wielder of the Duskblade.

It’s not just weapons that give Ankaur Maro the edge, with Regenerative Magic, domination becomes even easier. Regenerative Magic can only upgrade Ankaur Maro and can be used to reduce the number of surges needed to activate abilities by one. This means that Ankaur Maro’s unit ability can be triggered with just one surge, doubling his healing potential, as two surges can now heal two wounds instead of one.

For true chaos, Ankaur Maro can be upgraded with Violent Forces to change the very nature of his magic. With the upgrade, Ankaur Maro rolls white dice equal to the stable energy runes on the battlefield, instead of unstable runes. His special ability to add trays to units is also flipped, with the targeted unit receiving full trays equal to the number of unstable runes on the battlefield. Violent Forces also gives Ankaur Maro the “Brutal 1” keyword, increasing his threat by one, allowing his already hefty attack rolls to deal even more damage.

The March of Death

With Ankaur Maro as the vanguard of Waiqar’s forces, there is little that can stand in their way. Every fallen ally and foe is just fodder for Ankaur Maro’s dark necrotic powers, as the dead rise and overrun those who would challenge Waiqar for control of Terrinoth.