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

Warmachine: High Command – Faith & Fortune is a new core set for the High Command series. It adds four new factions, new Winds of War cards and new locations also.

Faith & Fortune Description:

If you have not played High Command before, read my overview of the basic rules and review here. This post will focus on the new elements added in Faith & Fortune.

The biggest new addition in this set is the four new factions, Retribution of Scyrah, Convergence of Cyriss, Highborn Covenant and Four Star Syndicate. Each comes with five warcasters and six colored detachments with twelve cards in each detachment (just like the other core sets).

The Retribution of Scyrah has many cards that let you draw and discard cards. This allows you to tailor your hands for maximum effect. Convergence of Cyriss is less straight-forward to play than the others. But most of their strength is from the combinations of their units’ abilities and VP values. Highborn Covenant has units that can reduce their opponent’s units’ Power to 0. Their units are pricey but are worth at least 2 War or 2 Command. The Four Star Syndicate has a lot of cards that force you to draw a card and get a bonus or penalty based on the card-type drawn. They also have the ability to deploy some of their cards from the discard pile.

The new Winds of War cards are different from those in the base set. Of note is the Final Reckoning card. It ends the game and gives each player 2 VPs for each friendly card at a location.

Some are similar to the original locations but the new locations do not favor any particular faction. Also some location cards work with other cards you have purchased, captured or have in your reserves.

Quick Review of Warmachine: High Command – Faith & Fortune:

Faith & Fortune is another nice addition to High Command. The new core set is well-balanced and improves on a few things from the original core set.

The components for this game are very good. The art looks nice and the cards are of good quality. The rules are well written and easy to read and follow.

All the new cards clearly mark the color they belong to with the first letter of that color. This helps colorblind people know which detachment cards belong to. Another improvement is the distribution of VPs on units. The original factions were balanced in the expansions. But this set is fairly balanced right out of the box.

The new factions are all fun to play but I really like the Four Star Syndicate. They can be risky as some units act differently based on a card flip. I like the gamble though and unique feel they bring to the game.

The new Winds of War cards are a welcome addition especially the Final Reckoning card. It changes the end game and encourages players to get units on locations.

The new locations are a nice change too. Having them relate to the amount of other cards you’ve captured or the cards in your reserves ties them into the rest of your game and strategy more.

If you are just getting into High Command, Faith & Fortune is a great place to start. It probably needs a couple expansions before it can go toe-to-toe against the more developed Warmachine or Hordes factions. But as a stand-alone core set it is more balanced then the original set. If you already own other High Command sets this one might make sense for the new locations and Winds of War cards or if you are a fan of one of the new factions.

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