Cardfight Vanguard

Though 40k and Tau will be the focus of my writings here, I figured it would be nice to branch out and touch on or analyze the other games I enjoy. So for all of the Renaissance Men out there that tend to play a few TCGs along with their wargames, I figured I should introduce this game.

Cardfight Vanguard is my new focus in the card game sphere, after alternating between Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! for years.

I've been staring at theory for this game for about a month now, using the online system occasionally to test an idea, and having been playing with the starter decks for about a week with friends. I've been enjoying playing this game quite a bit casually, as it is quite easy to learn and pick up to play, but my main interest in it is how different the underlying mechanics are; the higher level play seems to draw fondly from Chess, in that it is largely about resource management and transitioning through phases of the game, and thus the mechanics differ rather strongly from those of the more mainstream TCGs.

To start, it only has one "type" of card. While Yu-Gi-Oh! has monsters, spells and traps, and Magic: The Gathering has Creatures, Sorceries, Instants, Enchantments, Artifacts as well as variations and permutations of the above, Cardfight only has cards that could be classified as "creatures". Each card has the ability to act as a Vanguard, Rearguard, Guardian, or be turned into "soul" or damage.

In addition, almost everything is an available resource to be used by the players, and certain decks specialize in using one type of resource in ways that allow for huge plays, and require a "look before you leap" ideology in players. For an example, Counterblasting allows a player to activate powerful abilities if they have taken a certain amount of damage. These abilities can really turn games around, gain the player card advantage, and be absolutely devastating if played at the right time. While in other games a clear field might mean to attack, in Cardfight dealing two damage to your opponent early could spell your doom, allowing them to gain huge advantage through combos. Even the starter decks have traps like this available to them, so you must not only predict your opponent's plans but change your game so that they cannot make the most of their cards. This leads to tons of mindgames and meta play that really alters the core gameplay and screws with incentives to attack, defend and commit to the field.

Furthermore, the deckbuilding aspect of this game, along with the way mulligans function allow for a ton of consistency in each deck. Out of your 50 card deck, you pick 1 card to start on the field. You then draw a hand of 5, and can remove any unwanted cards, shuffle them back in, and draw again, similar to a game of Five Card Draw. In addition to this, from about turn 3 on players will be drawing 3 (and with decent luck it could be 4 or 5) cards per turn, resulting in your hand constantly being refreshed throughout the game. With four copies of almost any card that is important, you will be seeing your key players quite often.

Anyways, I highly recommend picking up the starter decks for this for anyone who is interested in TCGs or simply likes tinkering with cool mechanics.

Color Scheme

Did a good amount of painting today and yesterday, and I thought it might be nice to share the new paint scheme. While I used to shy away from bright colors while painting, preferring black, then a shade of dark blue, then my old purple scheme, I decided I'd switch it up and try colors that really pop this time.
I started with a tan primer, then followed it with a layer of Iyanden Darksun foundation to cover where I missed. This was in turn followed by Burnished gold, to brighten it up, and then drybrushed over with Shining Gold, which gave it a nice tan look that wasn't overbearing. Blood Red was then applied to a few areas to draw the eye and bring the model to life. Finally, since I never liked having models that were too sleek, I used Devlan Mud wash to make the model look weathered and textured on the front of the chassis.

I'm pretty sure this will be the scheme I stick with for the majority of 6th edition. It's a nice change, and it makes my shoddily constructed models look a bit more professional. It also has the added bonus of contrasting, but not outright clashing with, the darker colors of the Scythes of the Emperor, who I might pick up if the rumors of allies actually comes to fruition.

Sixth Edition and You

 So, Sixth Edition is a few months away, and we've got Tau rumored to be coming up soon as well. According to bloodofkittens, we're going to see Tau stepping into a slightly more important role in the grand machinations of the 40k universe*, with them apparently being key to fighting Chaos and Space Marines allying with them far more often. From the article:

"The Imperium is fracturing and the Space Marines are starting to separate themselves from the Lords of Terra. The heretical and xenophobia has gotten to a tipping point causing many chapters to take actions against the "best wishes" of many in the Imperium.
A discovery of galactic importance has happened.
At a time before right before the Horus Heresy the Emperor had intrusted Roboute Guilliman in the protection of one Xenos race that was completely immune the temptations of Chaos and would prove the ultimate key to the destruction of Chaos. The Horus Heresy ended such plans. Fast forward today with discovery of these lost correspondences, it is believed by the Ultramarines and others that the Tau are that lost race. So now instead of being charge with their destruction the Astartes are the Tau protectors."


Furthermore, Games Workshop has released a brand new ally matrix for their upcoming doubles tournament** (visible below), that vastly differs from their previous one that is used in Apocalypse games*** (also visible below). The changes between the two seem to support rather than refute the above rumors, with Space Marines and Tau going from incredibly unwilling to ally to Brothers in Arms.

New

Old

What does this all mean for the 40k universe as a whole? Let's examine the changes in the Ally Matrix as well as the above rumors and see what we can garner, shall we?
The first thing that jumps out at me is what appears to be a huge change in design philosophy. 40k has never had a clear cut good guy faction, with the Imperium xenophobic, dogmatic and territorial, the Eldar caring little for other races or outright killing damaging them as they selfishly scramble to survive, Orks fightan' for fun, Necrons being soulless horrors serving beings of immense, unspeakable power, Tyranids threatening to consume the whole galaxy, Chaos existing solely to mess with sentient life, Dark Eldar giving in to their basest instincts and Tau slowly encroaching on everyone else's territory with an only slightly brighter "join or die" philosophy. No one was a good guy here.
Now it seems that we have changed the scenario quite a bit. When the Space Marines were simply agents of the Imperium, they weren't exactly the good guys, merely the staunchest defenders of that faction. With the apparent change in interests, they seem to be moving away from the Imperium into their own faction, one that is more focused on defeating one of the greatest evil forces in the galaxy, a force that preys on both human and xenos alike. They are very clearly the good guys.
Looking at the ally matrices again, we see that Space Marines are tighter allies with the Tau than they are with the Sisters of Battle or the Grey Knights... the groups are clearly not getting along as well as we would hope. Couple this with the rumors above that the Imperium is splitting and that the xenophobia is reaching higher levels than normal, and you can easily come to the conclusion that the Space Marines are fighting their former allies.
So we have the Space Marines as good guys... who are protecting their population by fighting a force of chaos... and are quite possibly persecuted for their actions and painted as the bad guy by Imperial Forces...
Does this sound familiar at all? To anyone?

Well alright then. Looks like we've got "Dark Knight"-esque Space Marines running around as the good guys. That's kind of awesome.

The idea that Space Marines are going to go around being the Batmen of the 40k universe seems to be furthered by the changes to Chaos and Daemons; they now ally on a "Grudging Allies" basis with the Imperial forces, which might be a subtle indicator that the Imperium is falling to the influence of Chaos. This can be an interesting development if it is chosen to be pursued; the Imperium's need to defend themselves from the threat of Orcs, Tyranids and Necrons make them desperate enough to turn to Chaos for help. This could be a really interesting change for the Imperium and would throw the current game state into an even more complete state of disarray as Imperials defect or simply become more attune to Chaos as a whole, which is implied pretty heavily above.

Another change I see as noteworthy is that the Eldar are now equally friendly with the Tau. While this is not a huge step up, it might mean the Eldar are getting rewritten into the team of "good guys" that solve mysteries and fight crime fight Chaos. That said, they still aren't on the friendliest terms with Marines, being only "Grudging Allies" as opposed to best chums.

All in all, these are pretty interesting changes. They open up a lot cool ground for Chaos to duke it out with the Tau, Marines, and Eldar in some pretty spectacular fights. It is a step to polarizing the forces of good and evil in the 40k universe and gives some interesting progression to the universe, which makes it feel a lot more alive then before, and really excites me for what might be coming next.

* http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2012/05/05/network-news-the-6th-edition-leak-and/
** http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2290501a_40K_Doubles_Pack_June_2012.pdf
*** http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1180099_Apocalypse_Allies_Chart.pdf

P.S.: If the correspondence that revealed the Tau as the key to defeating Chaos is simply Tzeentch tricking the Marines into weakening their defense of the Imperium so that Chaos can become even more rampant, I called it.