“And in other news, we’ve learned that yesterday’s traffic accident in the SanSan High Lane has claimed the lives of three individuals, including twenty-nine year-old Leon Hargrove. An alleged hacker and self-avowed human rights activist, Mr. Hargrove was scheduled to go to trial for the recent data breach in J2 Construction, a Weyland Consortium subsidiary…”     –NBN Live at 5

Where is humanity headed?

Order and Chaos, the third deluxe expansion for Android: Netrunner, is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

The world of Android is constantly changing. Megacorporations such as Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki continually introduce new work efficiencies with their bioroids and clones. Other corporations, like the Weyland Consortium, remake the world itself, changing its face with the destruction of old buildings and the construction of new ones. Even invisibly, the world changes, as the network that binds its people together extends further outward into the solar system, to the colonies on the Moon and Mars, and channels ever more data. Amid all these changes, humanity, too, must change, but how will it change? Where does its future lie?

With 165 new cards (three copies each of fifty-five different cards), Order and Chaos pours new fuel upon the heated struggles between two wildly different visions for the future of humanity.

Bigger and Broader Horizons

First, you have the Weyland Consortium, which is constantly looking for new ways to expand humanity’s horizons and, accordingly, the company’s business opportunities. Even though the company’s founder, Jack Weyland, has stepped down from the board of directors to pursue his own endeavors, the Weyland Consortium continues to test new possibilities in energy sources, lunar colonization, and other development. Its successes could change the very course of human history, so it always safeguards its most far-sighted and futuristic ambitions with bleeding-edge ice and operations.

Meanwhile, the Weyland Consortium has always been willing to play hardball to get what it wants, and Order and Chaos adds to the Corp’s history of Aggressive Negotiations (Core Set, 97) and Hostile Takeovers (Core Set, 94) by adding such hardline new cards as Argus Security (Order and Chaos, 1) and Government Takeover (Order and Chaos, 6).

Though there’s never been any evidence to substantiate the rumors that the Weyland Consortium has used Punitive Counterstrikes (True Colors, 79) and Scorched Earth (Core Set, 99) policies to defend its propriety data from would-be Runners, rumors of such activities continue unabated. In fact, Order and Chaos offers even more grist to the rumor mill in the form of such operations as Housekeeping (Order and Chaos, 20) and Traffic Accident (Order and Chaos, 22).

Altogether, these new cards, along with the expansion’s advanceable ice, suggest that even as the Weyland Consortium is pursuing new business opportunities, it is sticking to its core strengths, and that may be cause for concern among those who don’t appreciate the Corp’s mercenary use of the planet’s resources or share its particular vision for humanity.

Exploding Society’s Hierarchical Structures

This brings us to the expansion’s three outraged new Anarchs, who seek to undermine everything that the Weyland Consortium and other corporations have built upon the backs of humanity’s downtrodden. While just a handful of megacorps control nearly all the world’s wealth, these angry Runners work against the injustices they perceive by lashing out against the Corps, flooding their servers with viruses, rooting through their headquarters for secrets to expose to the media, and using hammers to smash in the metallic skulls of their biotic workforces.

However, while much has been made of these Anarchs, their brazen personalities, and their strongly individualistic tendencies, comparatively little attention has been given to their digital fingerprints on the net. Still, it’s here, on the net, that we may truly find the Anarchs’ greatest legacy. Though Anarchs are known far more for burning down servers than for any constructive activities, their widespread use of virus programs has littered the back alleys, corner rooms, and other niche spaces of the network. And in those spaces, it appears, all these various virus programs and AI programs have been breeding.

In Order and Chaos, the Anarchs get their first five-influence card, and it’s a powerful virus that’s likely to define the faction for a long time to come. Hivemind (Order and Chaos, 42) represents a possible evolution of the network, liberating it from such hierarchical structures as those imposed on Corporate servers, and transforming it into a fully level playing field in which all data communicates with all other data. Each virus counter on Hivemind is considered to be on each other virus program in play; that means this one card can fuel your Parasites (Core Set, 12), Datasuckers (Core Set, 8), Mediums (Core Set, 10), and other viruses.

Though Hivemind can’t gain virus counters on its own, clever Anarchs will find plenty of ways to boost this universal link, including the new Virus Breeding Ground (Order and Chaos, 52). And once you get virus counters on your Hivemind, you won’t want to see them eliminated by a Corp player who chooses to use three clicks to wipe virus counters. Accordingly, you’ll want to consider hosting your Hivemind on the daemon, Progenitor (Order and Chaos, 43).

What’s Your Vision of Humanity?

In the Order and Chaos deluxe expansion for Android: Netrunner, you’ll find two wildly different visions of humanity pitted against each other in a struggle for survival. Which vision will you support? Where will you lead humanity?

Head to your local retailer today to pick up your copy of Order and Chaos, or order it online from our webstore!