Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60-90 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5-10 minutes

Engines of Destruction is the second expansion for Warmachine: High Command – Faith & Fortune. It adds more options for building decks with the Faith & Fortune factions, including battle engines.

Engines of Destruction Description:

If you have not played High Command before, you can read my overview of the rules and review here. If you are interested in how the different factions from Faith & Fortune work, you can read about them here. The rest of this post is going to focus on some of the new cards in the Engines of Destruction expansion.

Eminent Configurator Orion is the new warcaster for the Convergence of Cyriss faction. He brings orange or green detachments and has just 1 Power. His ability, Oblivion Configuration, lets you destroy one card at his location with a base Power equal to or less than the number of friendly units there. He is good at taking out large units at a location where he has a few friends. The Conservator is a warjack that scores you 1 VP and has 3 Power and 5 Health. At the end of any turn, it can move to a location where one of your cards was destroyed that turn. The Transfinite Emergence Projector is a battle engine with 6 Power and 7 Health. It costs 6 Command to purchase and 11 Command to rush and is available for the blue and orange detachments. For each enemy card at its location it suffers -1 Power.

The Retribution of Scyrah’s new warcaster is Lord Arcanist Ossyan. With just 2 Power his Gravity Well ability reduces enemy cards’ Power by one at all locations. He is best used on defense when you need to keep your units alive. The Banshee warjack reduces warcasters’ and warlocks’ Power at its location by 2. While not overly useful this unit’s stats make up for its mediocre ability. It has 3 Power and 5 Health, gets you a VP and may be purchased for 5 War or rushed for 7 War. The Arcantrik Force Generator is a battle engine with 2 Power and 6 Health that may be purchased for 6 Command or rushed for 13 Command. It reduces overall enemy Power at its location by 2. Again this is a highly defensive card that can keep your units alive.

The Four Star Syndicate has a new warcaster, Exulon Thexus. His 2 Power is not too impressive but he lets you move one card from one location to another. This can help you remove your opponent’s units from his location for an easier battle victory. Their new warjack, Mangler, has decent stats with 3 Power and 4 Health. It may be purchased for 4 War and rushed for 5 War. When a battle ensues at its location you pick an opponent with cards there and they flip the top of their deck. If it is a warrior the Mangler gains 2 Power until the end of the turn. The Royal Weight Cannon is a battle engine with the Pirate keyword. It has 4 Power and 5 Health and gains 1 Power for each Pirate in your reserves. Obviously having it on the board with pirates in your reserve can give it a big Power boost. Orange and green detachments are best set up to take advantage of this as they have numerous Pirate cards.

The Highborn Covenant gets Captain Damiano. This warcaster has 3 Power and makes all units cost one less resource to rush or purchase. The Rocinante is a warjack with 2 Power and 4 Health that costs 4 War to purchase and 9 War to rush. It is worth 1 VP and may move to another location after a battle at its location destroys at least one enemy card. This mobility makes this warjack pretty deadly to opposing enemies that cannot destroy it, especially if more than one moves in a group. Their battle engine is the Hammerfall Siege Crawler. It has 2 Power and 6 Health, costs 7 Command to purchase and 12 Command to rush. When you discard it from a location you may deploy a Dwarf card to that location.

Quick Review of the Engines of Destruction Expansion:

Engines of Destruction brings some good units to the Faith & Fortune factions. More options for deckbuilding are always good. And the battle engines add a new unit type to the mix.

The cards and art are inline with the other expansions for High Command and are very well done.

This is a solid expansion for the Faith & Fortune factions. Nothing is super powerful but as I said above more options can’t be that bad. If you play a lot of High Command with these factions, pick this expansion up. You’ll get more replayability from your game and be able to bolster your forces.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6