A New Dawn…Of War!
This weekend I had the pleasure of chatting with a member of Apoka. No this is not some group which is invading the US and a group of kids has to save their parents from them (a Red Dawn reference in case you were missing that). It is a group of game developers, designers, and all around Warhammer 40,000 Conquest fans. They have all gotten together and started to create new FREE content for the game we all loved that was ended before it could really begin. So what exactly are they doing, how are they putting it all together, and for all things Warhammer, how do you get the cards?!
A Time for Rebirth
Sisters of Battle? Yes please!
The members of Apoka are all just players of the game who were sad to see it die and hope that with the power of the awesome community of Conquest players to keep the games heart beating! To date they have three, count ’em, three new warpacks that they have developed, designed, and tested for all of us to enjoy. The cards build on themes and mechanics that didn’t quite get enough love or were introduced at the end of the game’s run, only to not be fleshed out enough to be viable. The best part is that each pack has a brand spanking new warlord! The new warlords are from the Tau, Ork, and Tyranid factions with more to come in the future. They have very ambitious goals for creating new content including finishing the current cycle they are working on, starting a new cycle, and there is even a deluxe expansion in the works! So how do they go about building all the cards and getting the art?
It Takes a Village
If I can say one thing, it is that this community loves its game!
All of the card creation and testing is done by, you guessed it, the community of left over Warhammer 40k Conquest players! There is even a part of Apoka’s site dedicated to letting the community provide input on new card ideas. The cards are graphically designed in such a way that they match all of the cards before them. I can tell you from real life experience that they look great on the table but as the above image shows it is pretty easy to tell they are mostly flawless! The testing is taken care of first internal to the team and close community members and then is let out to be tested amongst the greater community. The players remaining in our community are awesome and intelligent people so we can expect some great criticisms and awesome mechancial design from these folks. Finally, the art on the cards is taken from the greater community of Warhammer 40,000 fan art and offical art from the games. So if you follow the fan art world closely you may see some art you know on these cards! This is great and all but all I am doing is probably making you sad that you do not have them yet, so how do you get your hands on these cards to deckbuild and play with?
Self-made Philanthropy
They look amazing and come out feeling like FFG’s print of demand or prize support cards!
At this very moment if you want to build with the cards and proxy it is very easy. ConquestDB has the Apoka fan made set to build with and the site itself offers images you can print out to use for proxy. If you want to print the cards yourself Apoka has a full guide on how best to print the cards and the high res art to use in the process. This whole fan made expansion thing (the development, the design, and the testing) is not something Apoka gets paid to do, but up to this point everything you get on their site is free. You do have to pay a printer to print the cards. Of couse Apoka sees none of that money, they just want the communtiy to thrive and enjoy the game we all came to love!
Excited yet? I sure as hell am! This team has even gone as far as allowing tournament organizers to request organized play kits with even more custom promos! You can get more info on that on their Facebook page. Let me know what you think! Do you see this fan made content causing a resurgence in the game or is it just a flash in the pan? Living Card Guy out!
-Kyle