With the much anticipated release of Warhammer 40,000 Conquest from Fantasy Flight Games, more previews for each faction have been released. With this preview, we will be taking a look at the Astra Militarum and its warlord, Colonel Straken!

As with all Fantasy Flight Games LCG previews, we are given a small taste of what is to be expected from a given faction or game. Giving you a fan of cards that are just viewable but still retaining the allure of mystery to some of the cards with partially viewable text.

From the fan, we can see a Ratling Deadeye, a Sanctioned Psyker, a Mordian Hellhound, a Hostile Environment War Gear, and a Catachan Outpost. We cannot see the text of the Catachan Outpost but we can garner some insight as to what the Astra Militarum will be about. Ranged combat, tanks and unit buffing with attachments and abilities.

The meat of the preview has the warlord for the Astra Militarum that comes with the core set and his signature squad that will accompany him into every deck that he is the warlord of.

Here, Colonel Straken is shown in all of his glory with the ability to pump his fellow units with the warrior and soldier traits with +1 attack. This will work in conjunction with his signature squad that has a focus on unit traits and what the Astra Militarum does best, flooding the enemy with guardsman after guardsman which all share the soldier trait, taking full advantage of Colonel Straken’s card ability.

As you can see, both of these cards produce Guardsman Tokens. These guardsman tokens will work as an attrition war for your opponent. When Straken’s Command Squad fall as well as whenever you win a command struggle, another guardsman will join the battle. This can quickly turn into a play area full of Guardsman that your opponent cannot surmount, which will be a key strategy with Colonel Straken at the helm of this deck.

Also in the signature squad are Glorious Intervention and Straken’s Cunning.

Glorious Intervention allows you to sacrifice a soldier or warrior unit to nullify Damage that was just assigned to another unit and deal X damage where X is the sacrificed unit’s printed attack value. While the attachment Straken’s Cunning gives the attached unit +1 attack and allows the player to draw three cards when the unit leaves play. These cards show the sacrifice that the Astra Militarum give to defend the Imperium from their enemies and will be a hassle for your opponent to deal with.

If the Astra Militarum are known for anything, it is for flooding the board. By the looks of the cards in both Colonel Straken’s signature Squad and the spoiled cards in the fan, they will be doing just that.

Charles Smith

Charles is a blogger who runs the site Quest 2 Live as well as a co-host of Adeptus Podcastus, a podcast dedicated to Warhammer 40,000 Conquest.

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