Warhammer 40,000 DiceMasters:

Battle for Ultramar Campaign Box

The struggle between the Imperium of Man and the forces of Chaos is one of the most central to the Warhammer 40,000 mythos – and it’s rolling into Dice Masters with the Battle for Ultramar Campaign Box! Long-time Dice Masters fans, and Warhammer fans alike, have been anticipating this release. This is a great opportunity for store owners to cater to their local audiences. Battle for Ultramar – As the Classic Struggle Warhammer 40,000 fans are going to get a chance to assemble a team of Space Marines or Death Guard to suit their favorite strategy. For each type of unit, the Battle for Ultramar Campaign Box offers 3 different cards to select among. Additionally, there are 10 Basic Action Cards (BACs) that don’t strictly align with the Space Marines or the Death Guard and can be used with either. First, let’s take a look at the Space Marines. Some of the Space Marines cards like the Primaris Inceptor: Meteoric Descent and Primaris Intercessor: Versatile are simple, low-cost character dice that highlight keywords that are new to Dice Masters. Range adds an extra layer of combat tricks. When your character die with Range attacks, all character dice with range fire! They’ll deal damage equal to their range number to an opposing character die, and those characters (if they have Range) will have a chance to shoot back. You’ll be able to eliminate obstacles, but at the peril of your opponent striking back. Primaris Intercessor has Frag; when an attacking character die with Frag KOs at least one blocking die, it deals 1 damage to all opposing dice that didn’t block. Frag is going to present some tough choices for your opponent – they’ll often be unable to chump block and keep their smaller dice from being KO’d. The Death Guard isn’t without its own low-cost dice to get the game started – each version of Poxwalker costs less than 3. Poxwalker: Diseased Horde has Swarm to let you roll extra dice, but each one gets stronger for other Poxwalker dice in the Field Zone. So whether you’re taking advantage of them as energy or attackers – they’ll plague your opponents! Lord of Contagion: The Plague Skull of Glothila is a perfect character to ramp into; he costs 5 and has the body to back it up. He always has at least 4 defense, so he’s likely to survive your opponent’s Range damage. He’s got a Range of 2 himself, and his other ability has a lot of synergy: While Lord of Contagion is active, when a damaged character die blocks, KO it. With his two abilities together, you’ll be able to guarantee you KO your opponent’s best blocker at possibly no cost to yourself. Players who add the Space Wolves: Sons of Russ Team Pack to their Campaign Box are going to get some awesome reinforcements for their existing heroes. If they’re looking for a challenge, besides defeating the Death Guard, they’ll be able to add the Orks Waaaagh! Team Pack and see who comes out on top. These forces make for a fun and interesting game against each other, but there are some among them that do a great job of integrating into the rest of Dice Masters. Powerful Dice Masters Abilities

Foetid Bloat-Drone could prove to be one of the most underrated cards of the entire set for competitive play. Its Putrid Explosion version has a big effect. It has Deadly, but it also forces all opposing characters to block – so if the only character die for them to block is Foetid Bloat-Drone you’ll be able to KO all of your opponent’s character dice. If you attack with other character dice, your opponent will have a few more options; depending on their effects, it could still be devastating. The Plague Probe version may prove to be just as back breaking. For a single Shield energy with its Global, you’ll be able to sacrifice one of your Sidekick character dice to draw and roll 2 new dice. Plague Probe’s other ability will allow you to field extra Sidekick dice as your opponent’s character dice are KO’d. So even though your opponent will also have access to this awesome Global Ability you’ll be able to access it much more easily. Plague Marine: Vectors of Death and Disease gives your Sidekick dice +1A and +1D, but KOs them at the end of your turn. On one hand, your Sidekick dice will be ready to put some serious hurt onto your opponent, but on the other hand it may leave you defenseless. With a little bit of planning during team construction and some solid tactics, Plague Marine could turn out to be an all-star. Primaris Aggressor has a Global Ability that we’ve never seen before – it will give ALL of your character dice +1A. It’s more expensive than some other Global Abilities but can turn into great value when you have an army of dice in the Field Zone. As always with Globals, beware your opponent leveraging it against you! Roboute Guilliman: Master of Battle behaves exactly like any Space Marine would expect him to – by empowering all of his comrades. The attack boost that he gives to your Sidekick dice and Ultramarines is great because your opponent will want to block Roboute since he’s got a solid attack, but that leaves one less blocker for your other dice. Even if you decide to hold Roboute back for defense, very few opposing characters are going to be able to get past his 7+ defense! Existing Dice Masters teams are going to be able to take advantage of the Basic Action Card Instant War. Both players will get to field up to 3 Sidekick dice – but with proper planning and team construction, your Sidekick dice will be more relevant than your opponent’s (thanks to characters like Roboute). Orks – Xenos Threat Orks are a threat the likes of which has never been seen before in Dice Masters. They’re dangerous, dirty, and plentiful. While they have some tricks up their sleeve that players have seen before, like Swarm, Overcrush, or Intimidate, they’ve got an incredible brand-new trick as well. Stompa: Big Mek’s has Range 2, but also KOs an opposing character die and returns it to its card! It costs a whopping 9 energy to purchase, and is limited to one die on your team, but it’s almost certain to cause irrevocable damage to your opponent’s tempo. It’s exactly the kind of hearty support that low-cost Orks will need to finish out a long game. With some Stormboyz using Intimidate to temporarily clear out threats, and Stompa to put a more permanent stop to them, they’re ready for all out WAAAAGH! Looking Ahead Players would be wise to master the strategies of Warhammer 40,000 Dice Masters early, because as expansions become available they’ll want to know exactly how to weave the latest Imperium support into their Ultramarines team or combo the newest Chaos hordes with their existing Death Guard. Until next time, keep rolling!