Hello everyone! Ian here from the Walking Dead: AOW RC.
Following Paul’s insight into The Hilltop survivors, and Richard's dive into the Saviours (which I am so excited to get on the table) we are going to look at the next brand new release, which is Magna’s crew.
We first encounter Magna in Issue 127 of the comics, as Jesus leads a horde of walkers away from the kingdom, and unfortunately into the path of Magna and her fellow survivors.
As a thoughtful leader, Magna’s special rules allow her to boost the rest of her survivor group in a number of ways. Her ‘Anticipate’ leader ability will see her giving extra actions out to friendly models (which can make all the difference in PvP games where collecting search tokens in a timely manner is essential) and her ‘Family First’ special rule boosts the defence of all Magna's Group minis in her kill zone.
From a personal perspective, I think that Yumiko is the best new sculpt in this box. Her iconic bow has been captured brilliantly by the sculptor and will look fantastic when painted and on the table surrounded by walkers. Her bow also has its own equipment card as well, meaning that this survivor group has a major ranged threat to enemy survivor groups. In game, she synergises very well with Magna (as one would expect) and the pair will make a lethal walker-killing combination!
Luke is an exciting addition to the AOW game. His ‘Move Out’ rule will add extra mobility to your survivor groups by allowing you to make an out-of-sequence move action with another fellow survivor. Such rules are rare in this game and it will be a big advantage being able to get two survivors on the move at once!
Kelly is the main protector of this group and with his special rule you can pretty much guarantee that he will be in melee in each turn of the game.
Sculpted post-hand loss, Connie is another solid member of Magna’s crew. Her ‘Snap Fire’ special rule will boost her value as a marksman so you can certainly have fun list building her with a variety of ranged weapons. This box introduces a ‘sling shot’ equipment card which thematically fits her character, but recall that later in the story she opted for a handgun (firing a sling shot with just the one hand would be quite the challenge…even for our Connie!)
Sadly, not all of Magna’s group were able to escape from the horde of walkers with their lives. Avid comic readers will already know the fate of poor Bernie, but it wouldn’t be right for us to do a release of Magna’s crew without including all six of her group. A fairly straightforward support character, Bernie will be of use to players putting together a crew that they want to out number their opponent as his low points cost makes him a good choice for getting an extra activation on the table.
All of these characters are duel faction; Magna’s group has its own faction icon but they can also been taken as part of groups as well. In terms of event cards this is a significant detail, and so you may want to consider adding the ‘We Are The Walking Dead!’ event cards into your games when using this new group.
I hope that you enjoy this new release – and please let us know what you think of Magna’s crew over on the Fanatics facebook group! Hopefully we will see these guys as choices to be taken at the next Walking Dead: All Out War organised event!
Keep fighting the dead, and see you soon! Ian