Munchkin Warhammer 40.000 Cults and Cogs

Another supplement for Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 was released. We've covered the Sisters of Battle / T'Au supplement Faith and Firepower as well as the Space Wolves / Thousand Sons supplement Savagery and Sorcery already, but now it is time to introduce the Adeptus Mechanicus along with the Genestealer Cult in Cults and Cogs.

The base set of Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 covers 168 cards, with 112 cards added by each supplement, and that is once again covered with Cults and Cogs, the fourth addition to the Warhammer 40,000 themed cards. The US box has a RRP of 19.99 USD, the German box supplied by Pegasus Spiele costs 14.95 EUR.

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

Cults and Cogs adds two very specific factions to the game. Both are part of the Warhammer 40,000 since the very beginning in Rogue Trader. Yet only the Genestealer Cult was available as an army in the early 90s as a themed sub-list of the Codex Tyranids in the second edition. Adeptus Mechanicus were even just a few miniatures, being more like collectors pieces as a playable faction. That changed rather late in the mid 2010s, with the 7th edition of Warhammer 40k, introducing full supplements for the Adeptus Mechanicus in 2015 and Genestealer Cult in 2016.

To give you an understanding what both factions are. In Warhammer 40k, there were beside the various alien races like the Eldar / Aeldari or Orks, a very HR Giger Alien inspired race, the Tyranids. An aggressive insectoid alien swarm that shares a common hivemind. Similar themed factions were covered for example with the Zerg in Starcraft. These aliens would infiltrate Imperial worlds and plant their seed into humans (or other humanoid lifeforms), creating hybrids of various stages ("pureness") and create a xenos-worshipping secret society, that would wait until their network is powerful enough to overthrow their rulers. As these infestations often happen on outskirts of the galaxy, planets not that tightly under the controll of the Imperium, it often happens that these lower developed planets, like mining colonies. For that reason the Genestealer Cultist design is strongly influenced by mine workers and pitmen.

As for the Adeptus Mechanicus; In the Imperium of Mankind the secrets to production of some of the most sacred technologies, like weapons, armour and even gods of war like the titans are kept by the ruling class of Mars, the Adeputs Mechanicus. They accept the Emperor as the ruler of mankind, but worship their own Machine God, the Omnissiah. These creaturers, mostly robed and far from still being humans, as they replace their week flesh for many technical implants, are the scientists, engineers and technicians of the Imperium. Developing new technologies, taking care of existing machines, as well as keeping and retrieving the knowledge about those machines.

Unlike the decks like Savagery and Sorcery, where we have the blood feud of Space Wolves vs Thousand Sons, the Mechanicum and Genestealers are both cults of a hivemind, the one more like the Borg, the other like the aliens from Alien.

But now let us take a look in into the new cards. Great eastereggs again among these, for example some inside jokes about painting, low-contrast paints taking a hit on the Contrast paint range by Games Workshop, as well as miniatures painted with water color. As well as having an unsuiting table for gaming as another curse, lovering your level by 1. On the other hand you have nice level ups with Converting a miniature as well as winning a painting challenge, which clearly depicts the Golden Demon.

Beyond those generic upgrades, we have very fitting cards for both factions, for example the like giving the Adeptus Mechanicus access to a Knight, having funny "tech" like the Skull of Nikola Tesla or an upgraded razor, but for the Genestealers as well, with their crouchling minion or demolition charges for mining. Obviously we have two new races for your games, with fitting boni (like infestion for the Genestealers) or things, where you have to actually know the deeper lore, like the boni for fighting against Chaos for the Adeptus Mechanicus. Both factions are included five times as cards, along with one each of the 

As for the mobs, you have a level 1 demon of each chaos god, and above that various units from both the Genestealer Cult and Adeptus Mechanicus. You come across an Aberrant, Servitors, Hybrid Metamorphs, Electro Priests, and above level 10 "named" characters like the Primus, Symbiont Partriarchs  and even Belisarius Cawl. Among the mobs are even some Necrons, giving you Flayed Ones, Lychgard, Cryptek and even Imothek the Stormlord as a monster to fight.

Unlike the other supplements this one covers a not a full set of armies / races but these four Sisters of Battle, Thousand Sons, Space Wolves and T'au, as well as five cards each of Genestealer Cult and Adeptus Mechanicus.

But as well as the other kits, Cults and Cogs has a small icon in the bottom center of each card to show that they originate from this supplements deck, featuring the heads of both factions.

Conclusion

We've crossed the 500 Warhammer-40k  themed card rubicon with this supplement and I'm once again amazed on the effort they put into both, picking up the names and factions you know from the the Grim Dark, but combine with the humour of Munchkin. For a third party company, they really did a deep dive into the lore and not just put some random names from the Codex on generic cards.

Due to Covid the release schedule was a bit stretched, and currently both the German and English variant of this supplement are on re-print, so it might take a while until you get your hands on your copy. The English version is currently set for October 2022. In May of this year, another 4th supplement for Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 was released, Rank and Vile, adding not two but three new playable factions to the card decks, with the Imperial Guard, the Dark Eldar / Drukhari and Chaos (Demons). A German translation of that supplement was not yet announced.

Impressive how far this went already, without feeling forced. And I still think, that Munchkin (Warhammer) makes a great game to ease up during your tournament or in addition to your game night and 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. The German supplements went up a bit from 12.95 to 14.95, but still reasonable and cheaper than the English ones.

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

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.