So now that someone posted this, I’ll post a few obeservations from my (admittedly few) games:
Khorne: One counter for every time you kill 1 or more units in a region. Regions can only give one counter each- i.e. if you slaughter 5 units in one big battle you don’t get five counters! This encourages Khorne to wreack havoc far and wide.
In four player games, it’s up to Khorne to keep things interesting, because he can pretty much only win through dial advancement (with only four cultists, he pretty much never gets victory points). He has to attack everyone to keep them in check, but he has to know who to attack at just the right time. Early in the game, that seems to be Slannesh- he absolutely cannot let the Slannesh player get two dial advancements in the first few turns. But he has to keep Nurgle from constant domination, and Tzeencth from doing whatever it is he’s doing. Everyone initially seems to think that Khorne would be the easiest and most straightforward (just kill everyone!), but he seems to require a pretty precise sense of timing.
Nurgle: One counter for every “populous” region in which you placed two or more corruption counters during the corruption phase. Nurgle will therefore naturally gravitate towards the more high VP regions.
This one is weird. It’s pretty much impossible for Nurgle to win through dial advancements- he needs 11, which in a standard game means he needs to win the second tick at least half the turns- and considering that to do that he needs to take the most hotly contested regions to get his ticks… it just ain’t gonna happen. Which isn’t to say that he shouldn’t try, because dominating/ruining those regions gives him the VPs he needs to win. This is perhaps my only problem with the game- two powers (Nurgle and to a lesser extent Tzeentch) are really looking for VP wins most of the time. But the VP win is inferior to the dial win- by the rules, if the two players meet the win conditions on the same turn, the one who did the dial wins. This bothers me- it just sets up two players as inferior from the getgo. Not a big deal, but not ideal, either.
Tzeentch: One counter for each region containing a combination of two warpstone pieces/magic symbols in which you placed two or more corruption tokens during the corruption phase. This makes Tzeentch pretty unpredictable- they will naturally gravitate around warpstone, but the ability to also go where there are magic symbols can open up new avenues and opportunites.
This is so true. He’s absurdly flexible, but this means he’s not really targeted at any particular win condition- he’d better choose one at the beginning and stick to it. The neatest strategy I saw for Tzeentch was the other night, when the player playing him tried for a strategy of getting the acolyte upgrade first, then getting all the warpstone in one place and just ruining it. Didn’t work in the end, but that’s only because Khorne (me) eked out a dial victory right in front of him (see above note)
Slaanesh: One counter for each region containing at least one noble or hero in which you placed two or more corruption counters during the corruptions phase. Slaanesh goes where the nobles go- or he brings them to him! Tends to skulk around the edges.
And finally the pleasure god. His biggest strength (low dial ticks to get to victory- only 7!), is also his greatest weakness. I’d say he’s just as good at getting VPs as the rest of them (except Khorne, of course), but his short dial means he’d be stupid to try for anything else. The problem is, with only two nobles on the board at the beginning, and only a rare chance for more from the Old World deck, it is painfully obvious to everyone (especially his nemesis Khorne) where he’s targeting.
Of course, the beauty and replayability of the game comes from the hand of cards you’ve got, the Old World random encounter deck and the initial spread of counters on the board. The cat-and-mouse of the action phase going around the table is great, everyone taking their actions one at a time, screaming bloody murder when they misjudge and get shut out of playing a card in a crucial location- it’s just awesome. The temporary alliances and backstabbing. It all just comes together so well.
