Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 – Savagery and Sorcery Supplement

After Faith and Firepower Munchkin Warhammer 40.000 receives a second supplement, Savagery and Sorcery and adds the very iconic rivalry between the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons to the card board action.

I've covered the base set of Munchkin Warhammer 40.000 in Summer, a few days ago the first supplement Faith and Firepower and that creates a 280 card deck. This second supplement adds another 112 cards to the game. The US box has a RRP of 19.99 USD, the German box supplied by Pegasus Spiele costs 12.95 EUR.

The cards are spread across two decks, split into 68 Door and 44 Treasure cards.

We have the Ultramarines as a representation of the Space Marines already in Munchkin Warhammer 40,000. But Savagery and Sorcery adds two very distinguish and different chapters to the game, the Space Wolves, a nordic inspired Space Marine chapter, with a lots of things lend from Norse mythology. If you're not familiar with the Warhammer lore, imagine Space Vikings. And there are the Thousand Sons, a heretic Space Marine chapter that is devoted to the chaos god Tzeentch, and by such is strongly evolved around the theme of magic. The design of the Thousand Sons could be described in contrast to the Space Wolves as Space Egyptians. And the rivalry between these two chapters goes back to the Horus Heresy, the civil war within the Empire, when the Space Wolves were commanded by the Emperor to attack the homeworld of the Thousand Sons, Prospero.

Let's take a look into the decks. Within the treasure cards we have two generic, but very representative cards for the 40k universe are the master crafted and 'eavy (as a relation to the 'eavy metal studio painting team). As both, Space Wolves and Thousand Sons, are Space Marines, the creators went deep into the background and artefacts of both chapters. You get the Axe Morkai, Staff of Stormcaller or a Wolf Guard armour for the Space Wolves, and for the Thousand Sons similar iconic gear, like the black staff of Ahriman, discs of Tzeentch, book and helmet of Magnus.

Among the door cards is a low amount of mobs, that are neither Space Wolves or Thousand Sons, you get a Necron, a Drukhari, a Primaris Space Marine, Flesh Tearer and Inquisitor Jacobean ... and a Space Whale (Which I guess is either an easter egg from the Hitchhikers Guide or the 5th edition Space Wolves codex).

As for Space Wolves themed cards you get from the level one familiar up to the lvl 18 Logan Grimnar, between that a lot of units from the Space Wolves codex like Blood Claws, Swift Claw or Thunderwolves, and quite the ranks of named characters - in addition to Grimnar - like Ulrik, Bjorn and Njal. The Thousand Sons have a familiar of their own (level one as well) and go even up to lvl 19 with Magnus the Red (hey, he's a Demon Primarch, so absolutely okay), and the other mobs are a mix of Thousand Sons units like the Scarab Occult Terminators or Rubric Space Marines, generic Chaos Space Marines units like the spawn or mutalith, tzeentch demons like the screamers and fire demons, and a second named Character with Ahriman.

With Tzeentch, the fate weaver, the lord of change, present the curses in this deck are a bit weird, so the curse Blessing of tzeentch makes you drop one random item of gear for example.

Similar to Faith and Firepower, this supplement covers a full set of armies / races from the starter set (Eldar, Death Guard, Necron, Ork, Tyranid and Ultramarine) but adds four of each of the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons.

And of course, Savagery and Sorcery has a similar small icon in the bottom center of each card to show that they originate from this supplements deck.

Conclusion
If you go for both supplements you have a total of nearly 400 Munchkin cards, themed with Warhammer 40.000. I was already satisfied with the effort they put into the first supplement. How deep it went into the lore and this certainly makes it more enjoyable for the players, who read the Codices and Black Library novells, as they understand the eastereggs and hints on those cards compared to the "casual" player. The supplements are quite nerdy, compared to the starter kit (as those are spread across 6 armies/races and these 112 cards are more or less only split between two). I really like the idea of choosing the rivalry between Space Wolves and Thousand Sons in this supplement.

It is going to be interesting if they go deeper down the rabbit hole, or if the presents of Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar, which is about to be released in 2020 (along with already announced supplement Death and Destruction, with Flesh-Eater Court and Orruks) will carry over the attention of the design team. If you want to soften it up but continue with the sci-fi theme, you might think about adding the Star Munchkin or Munchkin Starfinder card decks to the game as well.

Price point of this supplement is the same as any other Munchkin supplement of that size. I still have a few of the promo cards and book marks, so feel free to ask me about them if you see me at a Convention.

Munchkin is a brand by Steve Jackson Games and distributed in Germany by Pegasus Spiele.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.