“Keep moving forward! Crush them all!”

–Armor-Captain Grigory Maksim

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Slash and Burn, the third War Pack in the Death World cycle for Warhammer 40,000: Conquest!

The Warp has broken into realspace above a jungle-covered Death World. Now, the Dark Angels legion meets the forces of Chaos in the breach, led by Epistolary Vezuel. The Space Marines are not alone in their desperate attack, of course. They are supported by a massive force of the Vostroyan Firstborn, who now face the greatest test of the quality of their tactics and the strength of their armored forces—the Warp-infused jungles of Nectavus VI!

Slash and Burn invites you to continue the battle for Nectavus VI in all your games of Warhammer 40,000: Conquest. A new keyword—Deep Strike—has given your units, attachments, and events the ability to secretly enter the battlefield, only revealing their presence seconds before battle is joined. You’ll also find a wealth of new support for Elite units, including cheaper units that offer powerful benefits to their faction’s Elites. Finally, Slash and Burn introduces a new warlord for the Astra Militarum faction, inviting you to lead a squadron of tanks in a blaze of carnage and glory through the densely-packed jungles.

For Vostroya and the Emperor

Regiments for the Astra Militarum are drawn from nearly every planet in the Imperium. The names of planets like Catachan, Tallarn, and Vostroya have justly passed into legend, and you can call upon an Vostroyan armored regiment to help you win the battle for Nectavus VI with Armor-Captain Grigory Maksim (Slash and Burn, 43).

Grigory Maksim is a master of Tank warfare and is widely known for the power of his defensive tactics. Though any commander can fling men at the enemy until they are destroyed, Grigory Maksim commands armor—and armored forces are far more expensive and valuable than the lives of men. To that end, Grigory Maksim’s ability immediately increases your defensive potential. He reads, “While a unit you control is being dealt damage, support cards in your hand may be used as shield cards with 1 shield icon. If the shielded card is a Tank, that support card has 2 shield icons instead.”

Even outside of effectively shielding your Tank units, Grigory Maksim’s ability has a truly exceptional effect. One of the major drawbacks of filling your deck with support cards in the past was that it could severely reduce the number of shields at your disposal. Now, with Grigory Maksim leading your armies, you’re able to use support cards much more freely while still ensuring your armies have the shields they need to remain operational.

Given that Grigory Maksim’s ability is most useful when used to shield Tank units, it naturally follows that his signature unit would bear that trait. You’ll find four copies of Maksim's Squadron (Slash and Burn, 44) in his signature squad, and your opponent may find these Tank units much more difficult to destroy than they first appear, thanks to Maksim’s unique tactics. Whenever you use a shield card to prevent Maksim’s Squadron from taking damage, that card immediately gains one shield icon, meaning that, with help from Grigory Maksim, a simple support card can shield up to three damage! Even if your opponent expends his biggest attacks taking down one of Maksim’s Squadrons, that only frees your other units to make their own attacks without worrying about the consequences.

The downside of using your support cards for shields is that you’re not playing them and gaining their other beneficial effects. If you want to recover your key support cards or get extra use out of cards like Troop Transport (Boundless Hate, 38) or Inquisitorial Fortress (The Scourge, 32), you can use Clearing the Path (Slash and Burn, 45). This support promises extra utility for all your other support cards—after you win a battle at a planet with your warlord, you can trigger Clearing the Path to put an Astra Militarum support card from your discard pile into play!

Defense is essential to keeping your Tanks in the heart of the action, but you also need to maintain your weight of fire if you plan to make it through the jungles of Nectavus intact. Keep Firing! (Slash and Burn, 46) allows you to immediately ready one of your Tank units as an action, giving you the chance to attack twice with it in the same combat round. Two blows from the area effect of a Mordian Hellhound (Core Set, 39) should be more than enough to clear the low-lying brush from the path to victory.

Finally, you may choose to equip one of your Vehicles with a Searchlight (Slash and Burn, 47). This attachment gives the attached unit an extra command icon, and it also gives the unit an unparalleled level of mobility. As an Action, you can exhaust your warlord to immediately move the Searchlight-equipped unit to any other planet. The mere threat of this activation can make it significantly more difficult for your opponent to plot out where he can win his battles.

Bushwhacking

The forces of Chaos have overwhelmed the surface of Nectavus, but the Imperium will not let this planet go without a fight. With the Slash and Burn War Pack, you can command the armor divisions of the Astra Militarum, and lead them to victory against impossible odds!

Look for Slash and Burn at your local retailer in the third quarter of 2016.