Blackshields

“Once I had a Father, once I had brothers, once I had a Legion, now all I have is hate” -Unidentified Blackshield Legionary

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Faction Overview

The Blackshields (BS) are one of the playable Factions in The Horus Heresy: Legions. Forced to fight with what they could get their hands on, the BS are the masters of pillaging for resources. Turning the enemy cards against them, they focus on surprising moves that your opponent can't reliable prepare for, and a play style that's derived from how you build your deck. Using Warbands (their unique type of card), Rage, Traps or something from every Faction, unpredictability is your game. The Blackshields were the 16^th Faction to be reworked, moving their original pool of cards to Legacy.

Strengths:

• Creating cards, while giving you different solutions, solves your low amount of Draw power.
• The most amount of Traits and Effects of any Faction.
• Great at disrupting the enemy trough your varied types of troops, forcing them with a harder type of response (unlike something like the Word Bearers or Thousand Sons, which you can advantage by denying them their necessary resource).
• Support for any type of deck archetype (Control/Midrange/Aggro/Duelist).
• Strong value-per-cost cards.

Weakness:

• No true identity means not a true specialization. While Rage is the most common attribute, they not get that much support for it (unlike the World Eaters), or sentence (better when using Raven Guard), survivor (better when using Salamanders), traps (better when using Alpha Legion), etc.
• You will not always have the best solution for any giving moment, and be forced to play what you can, leading to inconsistent gameplay (can be mitigated but still a factor).
• Copying cards from certain Factions can be worthless or outright a crutch (getting a card with Offering that you can't generate; a card that targets specific types of troops like Custodes, Titans and Knight Houses' weapons, etc).

Warlords

Standard

• 
  Endryd Haar
• 
  Kitur Neferis
• 
  Erud Vahn
• 
  Nerat Kirine
• 
  Vynnsakar
• 
  Crysos Morturg

Legacy

• 
  Ulrach Branthan
• 
  Endryd Haar
• 
  Nerat Kirine
• 
  Atesh Tarsa

Troops and Tactics

• 
  Troops
• 
  Tactics

Traits and Available Effects

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Gameplay

The BS Troops main gameplay revolves around some type of utility and copying cards.

The BS Tactics main gameplay revolves around controlling the board (through Troop support) and creating cards.

Most of the BS Warlords focus on dueling and Troop support.

The BS have Archetypes like: Aggro, Control, Midrange, Duelist, Tempo, Mill.

For a more complete look on the Faction gameplay, check — How to Play: Blackshields

Collection and Cosmetics

The BS cards can be obtained from the Tempest Crate and the Titandeath Crate, or bought in the Daily Shop.

The BS Card Backs and Badge Cosmetics can be obtained randomly from the Cosmetics Crate, or bought in the Daily Shop.

Premium Cards appear randomly in any Crate, and can be bought from the Collection tab.

Additional Information

Balance History
Date	Changes	Notes
05 dec 2024	Chieftain Nial: Attack lowered from 3 to 2
21 nov 2024	Nerat Kirine added	Battle Pass reward
15 nov 2024	Faction Reworked	Name changed from Orphans of War to Blackshields

Lore

The betrayed, the outcasts, the shattered. The term "Blackshield" refers not to a single military body or even a class of warriors as such, but to a phenomenon that came into being in the early to middle years of the Horus Heresy and which very much had its roots in the most ancient of martial codes. According to those codes, a warrior might, for any one of a myriad reasons, choose or be forced to cast off or conceal his allegiance. Likewise, the true allegiance of many Blackshields bands was often far from clear. Even when their deeds spoke clearly of their cause, they rarely fought alongside the conventional forces of either side in Mankind's great civil war or when they did, they refused to integrate themselves into established chains of command. Some were Astartes driven beyond their limits, consumed by the grief and insanity of the Heresy. Some were so broken in mind and spirit they no longer recognized or acknowledged any lord, becoming determined to forge their own path in the Galaxy. Others were mere raiders determined to claiming their own domains from both sides. Some thought they were still continuing the work of the Great Crusade while others established petty empires, enslaving those they came across. Perhaps the most mythic type of Blackshields were those who actively turned on their own Primarch and Legion. This led to most, though not all, painting themselves in a distinctive black, denying their original heraldry. Blackshields were encountered on both sides of the war and in many cases were fighting entirely for themselves. Some bore the Aquila while others bore the Eye of Horus, but none answered to any master except themselves. The Imperium considered many of these bands to be little more than pirates. They organized themself into Warbands (organized in the loose sense of the word), with some of the most famous being the Fangs of the Emperor, led by Endryd Haar; the Dark Brotherhood, a notorious Blackshield force that carved out its own corsair empire; the Ashen Claws, formerly the Raven Guard 18th company; the Gerasene Host, Astartes with hybridized gene-sene and appeared unaware of their true lineage, and so on. What qualified a leader to rule a Blackshield warband can only be guessed at, but it has been observed that the fates of many such bands were intrinsically linked to their master's own goals, being that vengeance, madness, personal gain or any other. Renegades, marauders, damned, is all that remains when the galaxy is thrown into Chaos, and what's left, is for the Blackshields to take.

Trivia

The Blackshields are the only Faction to have a name change (from Orphans of War) in the game. This is for the fact that the units they previously had (and are still in Legacy), were mostly from the Shattered Legions, which themself are (technically) aligned with the Loyalist side of the Imperium. Thus, the re-naming of Blackshields, and the new units added, fit more correctly in the Unaligned Factions (while they were some Warbands fighting for the Imperium, almost all were fighting for themself and whatever objective they have, so "Blackshield" make more sense).

Notes

If looking for more info on how to play (in general) or aspects of the game, check our Guides:

• New Player Guide -The basics of the game are here.
• Advance Guide -More complex mechanics and variations of gameplay.
• Buyers Guide -For the Daily Shop, and an overall idea of what to spend your Gems.
• Deck Building Guide -The basics of how to build Decks (for all Factions).
• Community Decks -Decks made by the Player's base.

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