Happy Friday All! As we continue on with the series of narrative reviews I thought it would be a good idea to continue on to the Orruk Warclans.
The narrative Path To Glory rules are still young and it will be interesting to see how these rules differ from the Stromcast Eternals set of rules. In 40k the first few narrative rules sets were very tame and have continued to open up as the releases piled up.
Army Special Rules
As with the Stormcasts, the army special rules are a little more limited then what you typically find in 40k narrative rules. There are three sets of rules that are unique to the warclans. The first allows you to add units with other Orruk keywords (other then the one you sued to build your army) after each battle. The number of units is limited by the battle size and these added units cannot become warlords. In addition you can give these units their normal Venom Weapons, Warpaint, etc. for the cost of one glory point per unit. I like these rules as they can build your army in a story-focused way and you get the feeling of building a growing Waaagh. The third rule is a special ability to ransack territories which I will cover a little bit later.
Quests
As with the Stormcasts there are four new quests available. One appears identical to a Stormcast quest granting mount traits, while another also allows your to ransack a territory (as we mentioned above). Also like the Stormcasts two of the quests allow you to build up to special narrative battles after you unlock them. As before I love this mechanic as it makes these missions special and something you work towards, at the same time one of the missions is very reliant on your opponent having a significant number of monster units to fight.
Veteran Abilities and Heroic Upgrades
Once again GW is playing it safe with these rules and keeping them both somewhat similar. The heroic upgrades allow you to give certain units mounts and the veteran upgrades give you a wider selection of abilities. As with the other Stormcast book all upgrades are used once per battle. “Call that Krumpin” is one of my favorites as it gives a unit a bonus attack if they target an enemy unit that another friendly unit failed to kill. There are a number of decent upgrade options here that will expand the utility of your units. One thing to note is that certain upgrades are locked to certain faction keywords.
Territories
Interestingly the new territories introduced for the Orruks don’t have any abilities or effects….until ransacked! After you complete a Ransack! Quest. Once you complete this quest you can pick one of the added territories destroy it and get the benefit. The territories can give an absurd amount of Glory Points (one offers 5D6 glory points). At the same time it takes a lot of actions and steps to get to the ransacking, especially as it locks you to a major victory. Despite this I think it provides a fun fluffy narrative experience as you burn your way across the mortal realms.
Conclusion
It’s interesting to see GW release a series of rather tame rules. These feel slightly more thematic then the Stormcast rules but also are a little more complex. I like the veteran upgrades as they aren’t quite as suffocating as the 40k upgrades can be. Also by giving units expanded abilities rather then stat buffs it makes the game more dynamic and interesting.
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