WarCry: A Case for the Defence.
Since I have got back into the hobby, I have been very fortunate to find great hobbyists and gamers here on my doorstep in Oxford. We have smashed through a variety of games over the last 2 – 3 years and are currently running our first small WarCry campaign.
This week I tag in Richard, aka My Geeky Hobby, to talk about why we have been playing WarCry.
Specifically, why we think it is worth taking a look at, what to know before you play and where to find good resources to start.
Take it away, Hot stuff!
So who the hell are you?
Beautiful, enigmatic and a total fucking nerd. 13/10 would recommend knowing RIch.
Ok - so a bit of background, I first began the hobby playing 2nd Ed 40K, and ever since have dipped in and out of the hobby in relation to GW games.
My most recent resurgence (for the past 10 or so years) has spanned a range of tabletop gaming from X-wing, Star Wars Legion through to GW boxed games.
But I’d said to myself I was never going to get back into full 40K or AoS (editor’s note - we did get him play 10th Ed). For the sheer amount of time it would take to play games, the density of overlapping rules (and rules that trump other rules)…it all just got a bit too much.
This was further compounded by having played simpler yet just as complex games such as X-Wing and Star Wars Legion. In these game systems - they last a maximum of 75 minutes, the rules are predominantly on cards in front of you ,and the probabilities determined by 3 different colours of dice.
I’d certainly begun to see there was much more to tabletop gaming than just GW games.
But….you did get back in to GW games, how did that happen?
There is always something that pulls you back to a hobby you took up as a child.
I became excited about the ‘shorter’ boxed games that GW began to produce, impulse buying a few of them (Blood Bowl, Warhammer Quest Cursed City, Space Hulk). The sculpts had come on leaps and bounds, and it scratched my GW itch without the need to spend 4 hours playing a game (life gets in the way sometimes).
Most recently I have been playing Warcry with my fellow nerds, Ross and Sam after getting the boxed set containing the Hunters of Huanchi (my first warband) and the Jade Obelisik.
Movement, murder and bamboo bridges. Various action shots of moments from our games to date. The small tokens denote characters that have activated and wounds taken, the larger (coins) objectives being disputed.
To the topic – So Why Try Warcry?
Warbands
The first thing I like about this game is the size of the Warbands.
I love the modelling/painting side of the hobby. It is always nice to play with painted models (and not take stick from your friends) – we joke that unpainted models are just toys and painted minitatures become models.
As warbands in Warcry are typically 5 – 10 minis, this is ideal as this allows you not to feel overwhelmed (by the number of models that I’d need to paint to be tabletop ready) and allows you to explore new minis and models
A selection of our warbands: Khorne (Ross), Seraphon (Rich) and goblins (Sam) - a riot of colours, statement bases and barely suppressed violence.
Ruleset
Then there is the ruleset – easy to learn, somewhat more complex to master with good internal balance.
One thing I loved about playing Star Wars Legion was the alternating turn sequence, and the variance on first player (in SW Legion it determined by a card you play from a command hand).
Look - I know this is a stretch…but how about you try making a visually arresting figure about rulebooks.
This leads to tough decisions to make if you really really want to go first, rather than relying on the dice gods. Alternate turns brings agency into the game, something that is quite a strong mechanic in many other systems and has crept into games like Necromunda and Kill Team (probably more GW offerings now).
If you aren’t sure what agency refers to, I think about it as having more models to do things with than your opponent, meaning that your opponent has to make those critical moves before you do which gives you an element of control (or agency) over them or the game.
In Warcry, there are ways to mitigate this using the wait action, but you are then only left with one action left to offset it. So if you field a warband of 3 or 4 models, you might be overwhelmed by numbers and lose out on objective scoring.
The Ways You Win are Varied
i.e. It’s not just about killing everything.
Victory conditions in Warcry play a key role in the game.
They are the way you win, and with only 4 turns to do it in, you’d be wise to focus on the win conditions rather than just killing your opponent outright (something which is actually hard to do).
A gaggle(?) of seraphon competently and ruthlessly capturing objectives at Saul’s Animosity Event hosted at Warhammer World.
I haven’t come across a victory condition yet that is about wiping your opponent off the board or killing more than they kill for example (and I hope I don’t). Crucially, it’s worth remembering that usually only 1 model can kill another (or maybe 2) so if you have 4 Trolls which might look horrible and take an age to kill, they can only kill one tiny skink (maybe 2 if both are engaged) per turn per model, and they have to catch them first.
Mission generation is varied and random
Twists and Turns: Variance is key to the excitement of Warcry, from the Twist cards adding another layer of danger or tactic to both players but sometimes it affects one warband and not the other.
Then there are the deployment cards and the 3 bands to your warband (hammer, dagger and shield) which means sometimes your stronger models are on the table sometimes the weaker, or they are out of position.
All of this adds a lot of tactical thought to the game, but it’s not confusing or time consuming to get your head around, you just have to accept that they will deploy there and then and that is not your decision, which speeds up this stage of the game.
Once you get into the turns the rules are quite easy and you don’t even need a book – the rules are free to download online – the trickiest rule we came across was visibility and cover, which is probably the most complicated of any rules in any tabletop game. I say tricky, but really it goes along the lines (excuse the pun) that if a model can see the other they are visible, and if a line from each base nearest to nearest passes over a piece of terrain they get cover (which is just an addition to their toughness). If the attacker is within 1” of the terrain you can ignore it. Now that’s the one rule that took some reading and discussion and where it is always useful to have an impartial friend on hand (thanks @Ross).
Things do die (a lot) – you will need to learn to accept it
Now I know that I said it is hard to wipe out your opponent and that is still true, but without saving throws and some low wound models things just die in Warcry, which is the way these games should be.
Action shots of Sam’s Tzeentch warband - which did lots of characterful and thematic dying. Look at those wound tokens stacking up…
You check range, roll a number of dice to attack the result needing to be a 4+ if equal strength-toughness, and then either a 3 or 5 if the attack is stronger or weaker (note it does not go down to a 2 or 6), and that’s it, dish out wounds and hope its enough to kill it.
It was frustrating let alone time consuming to have to roll to hit, roll to wound, they roll to save, and then they have some other rule that gives them another roll (feel no pain springs to mind!) – way too many dice rolls and stacked probabilities for my liking.
Conclusions
The rules are good, and this makes the game fun.
Couple that with the variations / unknowns of victory conditions, twists and deployments creates a fair, random and varied experience of play.
Practically, this means that you can play some nicely themed warbands, feel like the underdog, but actually have the best chance to win when the cards are drawn.
A family group shot of Rich’s nicely themed warband - which kicked ass at Warhammer World.
You can play the game within an hour and a half (but also easily make that bad boy take 3 hours if you are trying hard - looking at you, @Sam).
More often than not the game comes down to the last few moves in turn 4 sometimes the last dice roll of the game, which has made all the games I have played very enjoyable, leaving you with that adrenaline high regardless of winning or losing.
Helpful Resources
Warcrier.net – an amazing resource and online rules repository
Age of Miniatures – excellent write ups on all the key AoS factions since v 1.0 of the game. Suggested starter lists and descriptions of how the various rules and cost(s) work within the warbands.
Optimal Gamestate – more excellent commentary around the various factions, with a particular emphasis on Bladeborne fighters (miniatures ported from Underworlds) and newer releases. Great analysis on how warbands play and could synergise with allies.
Warboss Kurgan – One of the original narrative masters (and a lovely bloke). So much to be inspired by from Saul’s blog and exploits with the 5+ year Animosity campaign (that he and others have been running in parallel all over the world). He is now very good at making Orc pirate hats.
