Dark Age: Conflagration
Two new books were released for Dark Age at this year’s Gencon, and I made sure to leave with both of them.
Conflagration is the newest expansion for the game, adding new models for every faction and new fluff to expand the background of the hostile world of Samaria. Almost every faction gets at least one new “generic” addition; generic meaning all subfactions within a faction can use it.To those still learning about Dark Age, most of the factions are divided into separate sub-factions. So lets say psychotic, cybernetically-enhanced, degenerate savages are your thing and you decide to play Skarrd. You could choose to play Bood Cult, Toxic Cult, Cult of Metamorphosis, or Followers of the Heretic. Each subfaction has access to a unique array of troops the other subfactions aren’t allowed, but they all have shared access to a pool of “generic” troops. Anyway, the point I’m trying to get to is that all these new generic additons mean that every faction gets something to play with in this book.
In addition to the generic entries you’ll find all the rules for the Kukulkani which were previously published in an issue of Ravage magazine. These guys have changed a bit, both to better balance them, and to reflect some of the changes for the latest set of Dark Age rules. There are also two brand new subfactions: Fire Caste for the Dragyri, and the Slavers of Chains Barrow for the Outcasts. The Fire Caste Dragyri have been busy in their little corner of Samaria, beating the snot out of any other Dragyri unfortunate enough to live nearby. Rath’zhi, the leader of the Fire Caste made a deal with the only three true Alteghrans left on Samaria. Last we heard, things were going pretty badly for the Alteghrans. The advanced alien civilization had ended up as the Dragyri’s slave caste centuries ago after the toxic fallout from a warp gate explosion degenerated them into the decrepit creatures they are now. They’ve changed so much that their ancient foes, the Kukulkani, don’t even recognize them as the same species anymore. For reasons unknown, these creatures sought out Rath’zhi and told him of a surviving warp gate through which he could secure Alteghran weapons for his people. That’s right – Dragyri with highly advanced and sophisticated weaponry have now been unleashed on Samaria.
While the previous two Dragyri Castes (Air and Ice) tended towards either strong Defense or strong Armor values respectively, the Fire Caste tend to have fair values in both areas. They also couldn’t care less which genders they send into battle with males and females fighting side by side. Additionally you can expect them to be making a lot more ranged attacks than the other Dragyri subfactions as a good deal of their troops are armed with both ranged and melee weapons.
The Fire Caste also has some interesting allies that we’re seeing in the game for the first time. They’ve enslaved another race of creatures: the troglodytic semi-intelligent Slythe. Their newfound reliance on technology has weakened the Fire Caste’s spiritual connection to their element, so the focus casting they do isn’t as powerful as the other Dragyri subfactions. There area a couple of things these guys do have in common with their cousins. They’re bound by the same Honor Before Combat rule requiring them to take three of slaves per Dragyri trueborn. They also can field powerful elemental beings of pure spiritual energy. And since we’re talking about the Fire Caste here that means Fire Elementals. Only the Greater Fire Elemental can be purchased with army points. The Lesser ones may only be summoned to the battlefield whenever certain weapons are used to eliminate enemy models.
The Slavers of Chains Barrow are the first subfaction for the Outcasts. These guys are pretty self explanatory: lots of slavers and their slaves. If you choose to play with these new models, you’ll have to leave all your Brutes, including Mongo, at home. The big guys haven’t forgotten that their ancestors were bred to be used as laborers, and they won’t have anything to do with slavers. Hoj, Warlord of Samaria is likewise opposed and may not be included in a Slavers force. I have to admit I kind of think I know where these guys are coming from. Given just how much of the grimdark world of wargaming I’ve been exposed to over the years, its weird to find something outside my comfort zone. Even though I know this is just a game, the thought of running a whole faction of slavers does put me off a bit. I don’t even have a problem with aliens (like the Dragyri) enslaving other aliens (the Alteghrans). But when its humans selling other humans… I can’t help it. It gets under my skin a little. Which is too bad because the Slavers of Chains Barrow look like they’ll be a lot of fun to play.
To begin with, you will net a lot more options by going with this new faction than with generic outcasts. A lot of these options have some pretty decent ranged weapons at their disposal. They also have some interesting psychological weapons. Foremost among these are models which can grant the “Victimize” ability to other outcasts in the force. This lets those outcasts run around and put Panic Counters on enemy models which will inflict a nasty penalty on their fighting ability. In fact the Slavers seem to have a lot of models designed to support and augment their fellow troops.There are lots of synergies and buffs to stack to let you turn models like the humble 25 point Chain Gangers into real terrors. Meanwhile the models doing the buffing often have the Human Shield ability which lets them sacrifice the rank and file to help keep them alive.
If that’s not your style you could try running a low model count force with all the interesting characters included in this faction. Strangely, one of those characters is a Dragyri: the only Shadow Caste Dragyri in the game. Hood the Executioner as they call him, showed up in The Warden’s office one day to offer up his skills in the murder trade. His motives are unknown, but he’s yet to ask for any form of payment. Maybe he just has nowhere else to go. There aren’t that many of his people left after their raid on the CORE complex backfired and they were almost wiped out.
Finally we have the Kukulkani. While I already discussed the faction’s background in an unboxing article, I never really went over their playstyle. The Kukulkani get stronger by killing off enemy models. There are two ways in which this goes down. First there are models with the Bio-Enhanced ability. Whenever a Bio-Enhanced model kills an enemy it can choose to increase its MV (movement) by 1, its HP (hit points) by 1, its AR (Armor) by 2 or one of its weapons PW (power) by 2. If a model is fortunate to also have the Entropic ability on its weapon it gets to have even more fun, since this ability gives a weapon a RF (Rate of Fire) equal to its current HP. Unfortunately you don’t just get to keep stacking this since each stat can only be enhanced once.
The other models to benefit from enemy deaths are those with the Technomancy ability. Models with the Technomancy ability can cast Kukulkani rituals. Rituals are awesome, able to do direct damage, teleport models around the battlefield, heal wounds, or grant some cool buffs. Each ritual has a casting cost in Bio Energy. Can you guess where Bio Energy comes from? That’s right: dead enemy models.While a few Technomancers can regenerate some of their own energy, only one model in the army can do this per turn meaning most will need to harvest it from the slain via the Life Drain ability. To make that process easier, many of the Kukulkani rank and file come with the Hobble ability. A model with Hobble that removes an enemy model’s last HP may give them a Hobble counter rather than having them removed as a casualty. A Hobble counter reduces the model to a single AP and makes them Prone, greatly reducing their fighting effectiveness. This ensures that the models that want their Bio Energy can be sure to get it. Oh and if this all sounds a little different than the Kukulkani you read about in Ravage Magazine, make sure you go download the 2013 rules (found here). Rituals have gotten a lot harder to cast.
Since there are only so many bodies out there for you to harvest, it seems like the Kukulkani are going to want to be played one of two ways – at least in smaller games. You can take Bio-Enhanced models and watch them get stronger and stronger as the game progresses. Or you can take a War Priest and some Devoted Priests and go crazy with rituals. In larger games of a thousand points or so, you can probably mix it up since there will be more warm bodies to take.
~To sum it all up, Dark Age continues to look more and more interesting. I like how both the Kukulkani and the Slavers both seem to have a playstyle that is both distinct from any other faction and more reliant on rules than statlines. Additionally, while the Fire Caste play a lot like the other Dragyri, they also have an interesting new summoning mechanic to play with. Meanwhile the storyline continues to evolve, with each new book allowing fans of the setting to get a glimpse of how the world’s inhabitants are doing. If only they could finally get rid of those last little typos in the fluff. I’ll try to do an article about the new 2012 Core Rules soon. But in the meantime you can check them out here.
