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

Escalating Conflict is the first expansion for Warmachine: High Command – Faith & Fortune. It adds new warriors and war casters for the new factions from the Faith & Fortune Core Set.

Escalating Conflict Description:

In case you have not tried 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 them here. I am going to highlight a few of the new cards in the Escalating Conflict expansion throughout the rest of this post.

The Convergence of Cyriss faction gain Father Lucant, Divinity Architect as a warcaster. He rushes for 5 War and has 5 Power. Friendly cards at his location may not be destroyed. Their new warjack the Assimilator is cheap to rush at 5 War and purchase with 4 War. It has 2 Power and 5 Health and returns to your hand when it and an enemy warjack or construct are destroyed on the same turn. It is available in yellow and orange detachments. Eradicators Complement is a warrior with 2 Power and 5 Health. It may be purchased for 4 Command and can add 1 to its Power or Health at the start of a battle. It is expensive to rush at 8 Command and available for the green, red and blue detachments.

Vyros, Incissor of the Dawnguard is the Retribution of Scyrah’s new warcaster. He has 4 Power and costs 5 War to rush. He lets you draw cards equal to the number of enemies destroyed at his location. If timed correctly he can help set you up for a big turn. Imperatus is a new character warjack. That means you may only have one deployed at a time. He has 3 Power and 6 Health and is worth 1 VP. His special ability lets you refresh a copy of him in your reserves to keep him from being destroyed. This gives him some staying power. Eiryss, Angel of Retribution is a powerful warrior that may be purchased or rushed for 4 Command. Her starting 2 Power and 3 Health are decent and she is worth 1 VP. Her ability gives her +2 Power if enemy warjacks are present at her location.

The Four Star Syndicate has a new warcaster, Magnus the Warlord. His 3 Power is not that impressive but he lets you return all but one enemy card at his location to their owners’ hands. This is another ability that when timed right can really hurt your enemies (especially in games with 3 or 4 players). The Mule is a new warjack that has 2 Power and 4 Health. That might makes its 5 War to purchase and 9 War to rush seem expensive, but it is worth 1 VP and may attack at all locations on your turn. In a game with a few contested locations this can really tilt things your way. First Mate Hawk is a character warrior card. She is worth 1 VP and costs 4 Command to purchase and 5 Command to rush. Her 3 Power is decent and her 1 Health is deceiving. If she is at a location with a friendly pirate card she cannot be destroyed.

Ashlynn, Heart of the Resistance is the new warcaster for the Highborn Covenant. She has 4 Power and lets you rush warriors to her location from your discard pile for free. They are discard at the end of your turn, but you can pay her cost of 5 Command with warriors and then instantly have those cards join her in battle. The Wroughthammer Rockham warjack scores you 1 VP, costs 5 War to purchase and 10 to rush. It has 2 Power and 6 Health and gets +2 Power the turn it is deployed or rushed. The Ogrun Assault Corps warrior card has 3 Power and 4 Health. It costs 4 Command to purchase and 6 Command to rush. It gains +1 for each friendly warrior at its location. And though they don’t match Ashlynn’s detachment colors, they pair well with her special ability.

Quick Review of the Escalating Conflict Expansion:

Escalating Conflict is a solid addition to Warmachine: High Command – Faith & Fortune. Having options for these factions is nice and adds replay value to the core set.

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

I like that a few of the factions are already to start building around themes, specifically pirates and undead. Having keywords help guide your detachment options is nice and makes detachment selection less overwhelming. This will be even more noticeable as more expansions are released.

If you have the Faith & Fortune core set this expansion is a must buy.

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