How to start the affiliation
You start with the Affiliation pack giving you staples Proxima and Corvus, including his leadership card and great tech pieces Black Dwarf and Ebony Maw. After that you’ll have to grab the big Man himself because chances are you’re into Black Order because of Thanos. And even though they are unaffiliated looking at the Gamora and Nebula box is fitting both thematically and in play style. Owning a Baron Zemo (3 threat) is also never a bad idea.
What leaderships are available and what is the typical archetype of the affiliation
Be aware that Death’s Agenda changes on the backside and will probably come up more than the extra VP in my (limited) experience playing against it. On the front side it rewards you for playing the attrition game which is what you already want to do with the affiliation but it’s not exactly a build around leadership. We’ll cover Thanos’ strengths and weaknesses under characters.
This gives you an option to run Black Order without always having to pay the 8 threat cost for Thanos. The leadership is fine. Should it cost you a slot in your 5? Probably not. Should it only work on affiliated characters? Absolutely not. In a fully affiliated squad it can generate some amount of additional power though and will honestly often have a bigger impact on the game than Death’s Agenda from a pure leadership aspect.
Both leaderships are based around killing your opponents models which should give you a good indication as to what the usual game plan with Black Order will be. It’s pretty much the purest type 4 (pure attrition) faction in the game. Even going down to a type 3 will be difficult in affiliation.
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Team Tactics (6)
Black Onslaught
B. It’s a strong effect on two good models that can rarely see the table together in affiliation because you simply run out of threat to spend.
Blood to Spare
A. It’s a really strong effect at base level but coupled with the extremely strong attacks your affiliated models can hand out you’ll rarely not take it in your 5.
First of the Black Order
B. You’ll probably need to bring it to have the flexibility to play games without Thanks.
Mothership
A. Teleportation is fantastic and sparing any of your killing machines a move action is giant upside.
Price of Failure
B. It’s important to note that this works with any character in your squad. Sure killing your own model feels pretty bad at first glance but giving up an injured Nebula for example for 3 extra power on every other character you have on the field is a decent enough trade.
Servants of the Titan
C. You kind of lack the model count to make this card have any kind of big impact and the relatively high chance or damaging yourself doesn’t make it more appealing.
Characters (8)
Black Dwarf (4)
B. Black Dwarf is a big ball of health with damage reduction, good attacks, a size 4 character and terrain throw and taunt. He should be played and splashed more overall in my opinion but math often gets in the way here in Black Order.
Black Swan (4)
C+. At base profile Black Swan is a decent damage dealer that lacks the power to pay for all the cool stuff on her card. Luckily there’s a solution for this.
Black Swan with Power Gem (5)
B. Power Swan is a much more interesting character making everything on her kit much more accessible.
Corvus Glaive (4)
C+. As a 4 threat Corvus kind of lacks in everything. What really turns him on is this version:
Corvus Glaive with Reality Gem (5)
A. Reality Corvus is the real deal and one of the best damage dealing 5 threats in the game. The combination of the Gem and his innate damage reduction also make him much tougher than his 3/3/3 defenses appear to be.
Cosmic Ghost Rider (6)
B-. CGR got tuned down a lot with the emergency errata after LVO24 but he’s now an OK model. In BO he mostly faces the issue of every model being a high threat one which makes finding room for him quite difficult.
Ebony Maw (5)
B. 5 threat base Maw is a good character. He, once again, struggles to fit into squads but he can absolutely hold his own.
Ebony Maw with Space Gem (6)
C in BO, A as a splash. Space Maw is the best version of the character and a very good 6 threat. The problem in BO is that you have a certain other guy that wants the Gem.
Proxima Midnight (3)
A. Proxima is a very good affiliated 3, even pretty splash worthy in her own right, and her Husband and Wife mechanic with Corvus makes keeping priority so much more easy that it is kind of hard taking one without the other.
Supergiant (3)
D+. I really want to like her because her model is very cool and having another affiliated 3 would go such a long way. She also has a Well Laid Plans clone card with Maw in Psychic Shochwave that I would love to play someday but sadly she’s one of very few characters left in the game that I would say need a complete rewrite.
Thanos, The Mad Titan (6)
C-. Without Gems Thanos is by far the worst 6 threat in the game. But you’ll never play him like this anyway.
Thanos, The Mad Titan with Mind and Space Gem (8)
A+. Of course there’s room for other Gem configurations but in BO Mind and Space is usually the way to go. In combination with Cosmic Portal you use it to kidnap enemy models back into your lines where Corvus, Proxima and whoever else did fit into the threat budget will murderize them. On a little tangent I think Thanos as a model is still too strong while playing him in BO doesn’t give much benefit at all sadly. I’d prefer his free use of the Gems being locked behind BO for example to make him less appealing as a splash and more in affiliation. Apocalypse is a good example of locking a lot of the power of a big powerful being behind him being the leader and not Thanos taking orders from Red Skull being the “best” thing you can do with him.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
Black Dwarf (4)
Black Swan (Power) (5)
Corvus Glaive (Reality) (5)
Cosmic Ghost Rider (6)
Ebony Maw (5)
Proxima Midnight (3)
Thanos, The Mad Titan (Space, Mind) (8)
Baron Zemo (3)
Weapon X (3)
Nebula (2)
Team Tactics (10)
Black Onslaught
Blood to Spare
First of the Black Order
Mothership
Price of Failure
Execute
I Am A Baron, After All
Shhh…
Power of the Cosmos
Brace for Impact (R)
Secure Crisis
Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (E, 19)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses (H, 16)
Extract Crisis
Research Station Attacked! (E, 15) (R)
The Montesi Formula Found (E, 18)
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)
That’s it for today, next up: Brotherhood of Mutants
Cheers from Germany 🍻
