Faith and You!

So I have been giving the opportunity by Team Apoka to spoil a lot of the stuff from the new Sister of Battle deluxe expansion, Defenders of the Faith. Seems they have a lot of faith in me… Okay that was my first and last faith joke. The Sisters of Battle are a not quite a new faction to Warhammer 40k Conquest, as there have been previous cards released in the Astra Militarium factor for them. So what this expansion focuses on is adding new Sisters of Battle cards to Astra Militarium. The previous deluxe expansions have each added new factions as well as new rules. Not be left out, Defender of the Faith does the same by adding the Faith mechanic.

A new mechanic is a great way to define a new sub-faction but how does it work? Well Faith is a new currency represented by tokens much like resources or damage. It comes from a bank outside the game and is placed on cards by other cards or effects. The player who controls the card Faith is placed on, controls the Faith! When you see this on a card it is referring to Faith:

This will be important later in the article. Faith is not only a currency used to pay for effects but it can also be used to protect a card from damage, Faith protects and all. If a unit takes damage it can remove all of its Faith to reduce the damage by the amount of Faith removed instead of shielding. As we can see, Faith is a powerful thing, yet it is still fragile and doesn’t last forever. In the HQ phase, all Faith is removed from all cards. Generation, use, and loss of faith are all things to learn with the new expansion.

So now we know what Faith does and how it goes away, but the real question is how do I get me some! Well first you need to devote your mind, body, and soul to the Emperor and then… Just kidding, well kinda. This next card will show you how to generate some faith.

Holy Chapel is a power-house (power-chapel?) card for generating Faith. By sacrificing it you can distribute 4 Faith amongst your Astra Militarium and Space Marines units! This could be a great way to save a unit which is about to be attacked or to make your opponent think twice before they do anything crazy! This will be a staple card for any deck using this new mechanic, especially when you see what else Faith can do later! But don’t worry, it is not the only one. The next card you will see is all about coming into play with a bang.

Devoted Hospitaller is a pretty awesome unit all around. First off, for 2 resources it gives you 3 Faith. Already we are seeing value from this unit. Next, when she comes into play she can exhaust an army unit, taking it out of commission if played at the right time in the deploy phase. She may end up dying but you will have Faith on the board and hopefully more readied units than your opponent. I can see this working well with any deck and the lack of limitation on what faction you could put Faith on seems like an interesting and possibly pointed suggestion about where and how this card can be used. This card is in final testing but it seems pretty solid for generating faith and giving Astra Militarium some more neat tricks!

This deluxe expansion is going to be rad! Not only do we get a ton of new Astra Militarium units but we get a new mechanic! That isn’t all though! We will also have three more articles talking about what else this expansion has to offer, including how else we can use Faith, trait based focuses, and maybe even some warlords (if we are lucky). Stay tuned for more from Apoka and the new Defenders of the Faith expansion releasing June 25th! Living Card Guy out!

-Kyle