Bolstering Your Forces:
A Command Card Primer
by Tom Williams
So, you've just stopped by your FLGS and picked up a shiny new Mutant Chronicles starter set, and now you're wondering what all of this stuff is for. In front of you are some imposing 54mm figures, command/wound tokens, some really weird looking dice, victory zones, and perhaps the most foreign items of all: command cards.
The use of command cards in an army brings a unique dynamic to the table. Many of them are one-shots, discarded from your hand after only a single use, and still more can be "bought back" after playing them in exchange for some order tokens. But which cards are worth the buyback? And why should you bother to use command cards at all, especially when they're taking up valuable slots in your army? Well, I'm going to highlight some very potent cards that are all usable with the units currently available in stores, and hopefully you will walk away well equipped to make these hard decisions.
Bestial Speed
;)
This is perhaps one of the most obvious cards for a close-combat force, and almost every Dark Legion army is going to be close-combat. Charging an Ezoghoul a full 7 hexes can be a pretty frightening thing for an opponent to experience, assuming they don't have a tricky counter waiting for you. More on that later.
The fact that it's a bronze makes Bestial Speed a shoe-in for most armies. While the buyback may not be worth it in smaller 3/3/3 skirmishes, when you get up to 7/7/7 or higher, you will find that the maneuverability it grants you can be crucial to your success, especially when playing with victory zones. Capitol already has a handful of tricks when it comes to movement, so the Dark Legion will take anything they can get. Rushing a Necromutant Defiler over to a Sniper Roost VZ in one turn can grant an immediate advantage.
;)
Black Technology
Don't be fooled — trump cards in Mutant Chronicles, when played at the right time, can be game winners. The "4 hex" distance limitation may seem difficult to manage, but when considering that your demonic army will try to spend most of their time up close and personal, this requirement is not much of a stretch.
Many command cards are so powerful, you will often want to use the effects of one card as the basis for an entire turn. But when Black Technology comes out on the table, it will undoubtedly ruin your day. I learned this the hard way! However, the challenges with Black Technology will be: 1) deciding when to use it, since it has no buyback, and 2) actually having a unit in close-range with 2 Algeroth command icons. The Ezoghoul is out of the running on this one, but with Armor 1 and a heavy melee attack, Alakhai the Cunning quickly becomes a solid candidate for playing this card. Keep in mind that the Tekron Warmaster may even give you the opportunity to get Black Technology back in your hand.
;)
Lethal Coordination
If combined attacks weren't extremely powerful already, Lethal Coordination ups the ante. This essentially gives one of your units two attacks in one round (at least), and if that unit happens to be a Ranger Elite adjacent to one or more Ranger Commanders, the sheer amount of firepower will add up very quickly. With a cheap buyback of only one bronze, I can see this also becoming a staple in organized play. However, make sure to avoid overuse, or you will find yourself staring at a shallow command token pool and a field of unactivated units!
;)
Bait and Switch
Talk about one of the best Ezoghoul counters out there. Your opponent burns a Bestial Speed, braves your guard attacks, and finally gets close enough to your closest unit to really start tearing him apart, but wait... he has to pick another target. And since Ezzy is sporting the "melee" keyword, even if he could roll the accuracy on a unit 2 hexes away, he's still "up the creek without a Great Grey Scout."
You may be tempted to wait and save this for your most prized units, especially since it has no buyback. Well, don't. In this game, your available turns are largely determined by the number of units you have in play, and diminishing your forces early on can be crippling in the long run. Preserving that lone Martian Banshee Sergeant for one more turn can make a surprising difference in the outcome of a game. Also, don't forget that the Ranger Commander, much like the Dark Legion's Tekron Warmaster, will be bouncing a used command card back into your hand with every kill. Bait and Switch is a perfect target for this ability.
Psychic Possession
;)
Oh Golgotha, you crazy girl. First, you charge in and wreck two of my units with one attack action, and then you make my Free Marine Soldier go insane.
As you might have inferred, Golgotha is currently the exclusive user of this card, as she's the only unit with a Dark Symmetry command icon on the shelves (excluding the GenCon pre-release of Karak the Keeper, of course). This makes it a slightly risky inclusion, because you end up putting two eggs in one basket. In other words, if Golgotha is wiped out before you have a chance to use Psychic Possession, you're essentially holding a dead card. However, the possibility of putting damage on (or even destroying) three different units in a single turn is very real, and can give you a serious advantage. From the opponent's perspective, there are few things more frustrating than temporarily losing control of one of their own units.
Also, as a side note, this is where it pays to know your enemy. Don't make the Free Marine Soldier attack the Martian Banshee Trooper (who ignores damage from green dice), unless you really like wasting your own time.
;)
Point Blank
Currently usable only by Capitol's Ranger units, Point Blank (which requires the Marksmanship command icon) can be truly devastating to the melee-heavy Dark Legion, especially when the Ranger unit in question is adjacent to multiple Ranger Commanders. Getting more chances to roll a 7 or 8 on damage with one attack is nothing short of brutality, and practically guarantees an instant kill. This card alone will likely make most Dark Legion players think very carefully before charging in on Capitol Rangers. There is no buyback or special trick to get this one back into your hand, so make that shot count.
Although the text on command cards is generally very straightforward, these puppies add a lot of depth and strategy to the game. Making the right command card choices is vital for a good army build. The cards I've listed are only some of my personal favorites, so feel free to explore the whole set and find synergies and strategies that suit your play style — you may find something that works much better for you. Nevertheless, I hope this has given you a solid stepping stone into the brutal, war-torn universe of Mutant Chronicles.
Experiment, and have fun. Victory favors the bold!
