Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar Death & Destruction

This summer I've covered the Warhammer Age of Sigmar variant of Munchkin, and now we have the first supplement that was released in both English and German - Death & Destruction, introducing the Flesheater Court and Ironjaws to the game. The English version of the game is released by Steve Jackson Games with the localised version available through Pegasus Spiele.

As with the other supplements, this one covers 112 cards as well and is priced at a RRP of 19.99 USD, the German box supplied by Pegasus Spiele is a bit cheaper at 12.95 EUR.

The cards are spread across two decks, split into 66 Door and 46 Treasure cards.

In case you're not familiar with the new Age of Sigmar background, let me give you a brief introduction. The name Death & Destruction comes from two of the four Grand Alliances, that all the armies in the new Warhammer are assigned to. In this case, the Flesheater Court belongs to the Grand Alliance Death, and the Orruk Warclans come from the Grand Alliance Destruction. Both of these names are new AoS names, along with a more brute redesign, for already established armies from the Old World. The Flesheater Court is a mixture of one of the Vampire clans and the former Bretonians. They are Undead, living under the delusion, that they are noble knights defending their peasants. As for the greenskins, Orcs are no longer simply Orcs in Age of Sigmar, they are Orruks and Ironjaws, now more strongly disconnected from the Goblins (now Gloomspite Gitz, part of the main game as Moonclan Grots), and having the stronger Orcs (former Blackorcs) as a permanent part of the army, the Ironjaws. It is a bit of an odd match-up, as I don't remember the undead and the greens being special enemies or having a certain rivalry, as some of the other supplements covered.

Let us take a look into the cards. The two new races are most obviously the Flesheater and Ironjaws. As for the overall card deck, it is surprisingly heavy on the Orruk theme, among the monsters you'll find a lot of units from the Orruk Warclans, as well as among the items. We even have the orruk mounts. But it is not all just green and dead, as they mixed in some Tzeentch themed chaos along with Drukhari / Dark Elves. The undead part is surprisingly light, in direct comparison. But that has a lore reason. The undead were broad mixture of myths and legends from all different sources and regions in the Old World of Warhammer, covering Transylvanian vampires along with egyptian undead side by side. During the editions these were split, into Khemri, the mummification-themed undead with a clear connection to Egypt and middle east, and the Vampire Counts, split into different styles of vampires, mostly east-european, but covering a broad band of influences from Bram Stoker, to Nosferatu. Not all of these design elements made it through the End Times into Age of Sigmar, and the Flesheater Courts are primarely Ghouls (in different sizes), so maybe not as broad as other "bloodlines" among the undead. With that in mind, the deck could have picked up more of the bretonian influences, as for example the Grymwatch did.

I like that some of the curses and modifiers once again pick up the meta level, this something the Warhammer Fantasy / Sigmar variant of Munchkin was a bit more tame compared to the 40k variant. You have for example "Not part of this edition", which counts -10 towards the monster, or painted incorrectly (with only a -5 mali), or the "fuel up card", with a guy standing at the counter and buying a lot of miniatures to level up.

To show the affiliation of these cards to a specific deck, in this case Death & Destruction, it has a small icon (a small ghoul and orruk head) in the bottom center of each card.

Conclusion
In case you're a fan of the Orks, it catches their fluff quite well. Still, compared to the 40k Munchkin, Age of Sigmar is a bit more serious and not jumping that deep into the meta. As I grew up with the Old World, the Age of Sigmar world still lacks a bit of the depth that the former setting set up. So with that a lot of named characters, that were well established in the Warhammer World are missing from the Age of Sigmar, and as such are missing from this deck. Especially with the not too serious approach that Munchkin goes for, the old(er) Orcs and Goblins would have made a great fit. In direct comparison Age of Sigmar simply hasn't established this long history, that Warhammer 40.000 can look back and rely on for such a licensing opportunity. So from a gaming point of view, it is an interesting and entertaining expansion, the brand is just not as present as others.

There are two further supplements released / in planning (depending if you're looking for the english or localised ones) with Chaos & Order, introduced the steampunky dwarfs of the Kharadron Overlords, and the Bloodbound of Khorne, and Guts & Gory, covering Ogres from the Gutbuster Mawtribe and Nagash's Undead with Ossiarch Bonereapers. These are of same size, with 112 additional - mostly new - cards for the game, and a price of 19,95 USD.  In addition there are further accessories, a dice set and a Kill-o-meter, both cover 4 new cards as well.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.