High Command: Gargantuan Might – Skorne and Legion of Everblight Review
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| Courtesy of Privateer Press Digital. Used with Permission. |
The fourth expansion for Hordes: High Command has been released, bringing with it the massive engines and leviathan beasts of war.
In Part 1 of our review of Gargantuan Might, we discussed the new 3 CMD/3 WAR Resource cards. Since they also apply to Skorne and Legion, I will recap for anyone who missed it.
Gargantuan Might introduces a lot of new things for High Command. It is the first time that the 120mm models from Warmachine and Hordes, specifically Gargantuans and Battle Engines, have been extrapolated into the High Command format. It also is the first expansion to release new Resources, specifically VP-less, 3 CMD/3 WAR cards that effectively become 5 CMD/5 WAR when used for purchasing, deploying, or rushing Gargantuans or Battle Engines. The only thing that separates them across factions, aside from card title and art, is that they have different detachment distribution.
If you are planning on running Gargantuans or Battle Engines in your deck, these cards are really solid investments. While their lack of VP is potentially troubling where balanced or purchase-heavy builds are concerned, it is worth noting that every Gargantuan and Battle Engine is worth at least 1 VP and often as many as 3, which will nicely cover the VP lost for taking these new Resource cards.
Every faction receives this card, with the Skorne variation called “Beast Mastery”, and the Legion of Everblight one entitled “Coalescing Dragonblight”.
With the Resource cards out of the way, let us jump into the other new cards specifically for Skorne and Legion of Everblight:
Skorne –
Lord Assassin Morghoul seems like a strong warlock to run in two-player formats. He hits plenty hard at Power 4, and his special ability, Assassination Run, allows him to effectively be in two locations at once, adding both his Power 4 and his Battlegroup Commander bonus to each attack. His rush cost of 5 War can be expensive, though, so he will more likely be an early-game solo defense attempt or a late-game blitz.
Skorne’s new Gargantuan card, the Mammoth, is fairly tanky at 8 Health. While its 3 Power is not exactly inspiring, application of Paingiver Beasthandler Teams can adjust a Mammoth’s stats to 5/7, sacrificing one Health for 2 Power. Additional, the Siege Battery special rule gives the Mammoth +2 Power when attacking at locations with warjacks or constructs present which will only become more ubiquitous with the release of Battle Engine cards. Its VP value is not as high as other Gargantuans at 2, but that is still nothing to sneeze at. I like its purchase cost of 7 quite a bit, but its rush cost of 13 makes that prospect quite prohibitive since there currently aren’t any cards in Skorne that make rushing cards cheaper, save Beast Mastery, which effectively makes it a still-expensive 11 to-rush. Its purchasing power is fair at 1 CMD/2 WAR, but if you have a Mammoth in-hand, chances are you’ll want to be deploying it and not using it as a purchasing asset.
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| Courtesy of Privateer Press Digital. Used with Permission. |
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| Courtesy of Privateer Press Digital. Used with Permission. |
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| Courtesy of Privateer Press Digital. Used with Permission. |
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| Courtesy of Privateer Press Digital. Used with Permission. |
Gargantuan Might strikes me as a really nice expansion overall, and is a great buy for anyone playing High Command on the Hordes side. The Battle Engines and 3/3 Resource cards have really opened up the design space quite a bit for every faction, letting Gargantuan Might have a pretty strong impact regardless of your faction.
