By the time this Insider is posted, it’s likely that I’ll be at WARMACHINE Weekend 2014—or maybe I’ll already be back in town following the convention. Year after year, WARMACHINE Weekend is an ongoing phenomenal convention for WARMACHINE and HORDES players, but I’m hoping to play a few games of High Command this year as well.

Over the preceding weekend, I looked through my High Command decks and my shiny new Engines of Destruction cards (prereleased at WARMACHINE Weekend 2014!), and I tweaked some of my decks to incorporate cards from the new expansion. One thing I love about Faith & Fortune is how much you can zero in on a particular theme with your army deck.

The Retribution of Scyrah can focus on anti-magic tricks, card cycling, or tanky warriors and warjacks. The Convergence of Cyriss can focus on swarms of low-cost cards, recursion mechanics, or an inexorable advance of their warjacks. The Highborn Covenant is split almost evenly between the more control-oriented Llaelese mercenaries and their slower but sturdy Rhulic allies. And of course, any one of these factions can mix and match their deck direction. A Convergence deck with a handful of Servitor cards, some Pervasive Attendants resource cards, Corollaries, and beefy warjacks can become one giant interlocking machine that constantly recurs threats both large and small.

As you might guess from its absence in the summation above, Four Star Syndicate is the faction I really gravitated toward for WARMACHINE Weekend this year. Sure, I’ll have another deck or two on me, but I’m most looking forward to getting my hands dirty with the scoundrels of the Syndicate. Four Star has some great themes—necromancy, gambling, and pirates—but I chose to focus almost purely on the pirates. Of course, not every card in the deck is a pirate, but there are certainly a lot of them!

The pirate theme is a whole lot of fun, even when it’s played straight out of the Faith & Fortune box using the Orange, Green, and Red detachments. Press Gangers facilitate Sea Dog Riflemen to use their Concentrated Fire to take out threats while Unchained Brawlers provide some staying power. Escalating Conflict added the situationally indestructible First Mate Hawk to the pirate roster, and Engines of Destruction brought out the BIG guns with the Royal Weight Cannon battle engine card.

With the potential to be an 8-Power army card, a Royal Weight Cannon can blow away a Stormwall or Woldwrath singlehandedly. How many cards can claim that? It’s a delicate balance, however. You want to properly cultivate your reserves line, which requires careful consideration of when to purchase or rush more pirates versus when to keep them in place for a massive Gunnery bonus.

I’m definitely looking forward to getting in some piratical games of High Command outside of the playtest arena, and I hope you’re all enjoying the new factions and play styles introduced by Faith & Fortune and its expansions.

Lighting the Fuse,
-DC