Warcry - Cursed Relic

On Saturday afternoon Amanda and I sat down to try out Warcry. 

She wanted to try using her Sylvaneth and so I helped her put together a small warband. I ended up using the same warband I'd used in my game with Vera a few days earlier.

She ended up fielding:

• Kurnoth Huntmaster with Kurnoth Great Sword
• Branchwych
• Kurnoth Hunter with Great Bow
• Kurnoth Hunter with Great Bow
• Gossamid Archer
• Gossamid Archer

The Nighthaunt force I fielded:

• Knight of Shrouds on Etherial Steed
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Chaingast
• Chaingast

We rolled for a scenario and got Cursed Relic, which saw a treasure token placed in the center of the table and could be picked up. Whoever was holding it at the end of the game won. (OR if no one was holding it, whoever had the most miniatures within 3" of it at the end of the game won). Also, the treasure token was cursed, so anyone holding it at the end of their activation took d6 damage!!

All set up and ready to go. 

Apparently treasure tokens can be picked up for free (no special action required), at any part of a move, as long as a model passes within one inch of it...? But it requires an action to drop it... I was surprised that picking something up didn't end a move! I'll have to go back and reread that! 

So, having the initiative in the first round, my Knight of Shrouds galloped up, grabbed the treasure and galloped as far away as he could - back in the direction he'd come from - and then dropped the treasure so he wouldn't have to take any damage from it! 

The Kurnoth Huntmaster moved up a bit, used the Envoy of the Everqueen ability to super-buff every Sylvaneth within 6" of the Huntmaster (because the value of the ability was 6, they added +3 to Strength AND Toughness attributes!)? and then took a wait action. 

The chaingast threw chains at him. 

Kurnoth Hunter took some shots at...? A Chainghast...? I think, dealing some damage. 

One of the Dreadblade Harrows charged in to the Huntmaster, hoping to hold him up and keep him from advancing towards the Knight of Shrouds... it was unlikely the Dreadblade Harrow would deal nearly enough damage to take down the Huntmaster, even if they fought for the next four rounds... 

The Huntmaster reacted and dealt the Dreadblade Harrow some damage. 

Gossamid archers moved up and shot arrows at the Knight of Shrouds. 

Now... initially I'd read the deployment map all wrong... I'd thought my own reinforcements came in behind me, but at the beginning of the second round, when reinforcements were to arrive, I happened to look at the deployment map and realized it was the opposite of what I'd thought and the Sylvaneth reinforcement were coming in behind me! 

WHOOPS! 

Luckily, I again had the initiative, and went first with the Knight of Shrouds, picking up the Cursed Relic (before either of the nearby Sylvaneth did the same and scarpered with it!)... then charged into the Branchwych to see if I could deal some damage to her BEFORE Amanda had a chance to use the Envoy of the Everqueen ability again (as Amanda had rolled ANOTHER Quad set during initiative!?) and give her +3 Toughness and +3 Strength 

As the Branchwych didn't need the ability, the Huntmaster used it and hit the Dreadblade Harrow HARD!!! Bringing it to within one or two of it's Health limit! Later in the round, a Gossamid archer stepped in and finished it off! 

Kurnoth Hunter shot at my arriving reinforcements...

And then I forgot to take pictures for the next two rounds... 

mostly it was static, belligerents had been paired off and just hammered on each other, neither really having much chance of single-handedly taking down their opponent... 

In the third round, the Knight of Shrouds did finish off the Branchwych... 

In the final round, the Knight of Shrouds galloped away from the Gossamid Archer he'd been fighting and tried to get as far from ALL of the Sylvaneth as possible... The Knight of Shrouds had pretty good move, so could easily get far enough that the Kurnoth would not be able to get to him. He needed to be far enough away that, if the shooting took him out, there wouldn't be any Sylvaneth close enough to dash in and pick up the treasure! 

(or perhaps the Gossamid archer had withdrawn from combat and shot at it, and opened the Knight of Shrouds to be an available target for ALL of the Sylvaneth shooters!) 

All the other surviving Nighthaunt rushed to their Knight's aid!surrounding him so that if he was taken down, there'd be enough of them nearby contesting the dropped treasure they would maintain control of the Cursed Relic. 

Afterwards, we realized Amanda has a faction reaction (Vengeful Spites!) that she COULD have made good use of that could potentially have dealt a lot more damage to my Nighthaunts! 

As it was the game was VERY close - the Knight of Shrouds had been reduced to his last few health. In the last round I think I'd used a Respite ability and that is the ONLY reason he was still alive at the end of the game. A bit luckier rolling on Amanda's part could have seen him destroyed by the Branchwych and Gossamid archer he'd been fighting... then the nearby Kurnoth Hunter could have stepped in and picked up the Relic and there was NO WAY I'd have been able to wrest it from that beast by the end of the game! 

Warcry does not seem like an exceptionally deadly kind of game... It's not super easy to take an enemy out unless they're weak and your fighter is exceptionally hard-hitting and/or has some wicked abilities that buff them, or you can get multiple fighters to gang up on one... it seems more like a game of positioning and maneuver. Which is kind of interesting. Maybe we've just not been playing with the right sort of things. I feel like maybe the better strategy is to have 2-3 hard hitting heroes, then a bunch of chaff - as many low-point heroes as possible to hold position or act as speed-bumps to tie up opponents Heroes...? 

It would be fun to toy around with this some more! I do have a LOT of options for forces I could field! 

Warcry - No Quarter!

I picked up the Core Rules and the four Grand Alliance books for the first edition of Warcry... and then played it ONCE...!? I liked it. I think Finnegan did too. Seemed like a clever little game that needed some more exploring... but then we never did play again!? I think that was also around the same time I picked up Warhammer Underworlds and kind of just ended up playing that... a LOT! 

Apparently, at some point, I bought the second edition books for Warcry - this time only two - Core Rules and a single compendium of ALL the warriors that can be played... and then never got around to trying it out... UNTIL NOW! 

This kind of came about because Amanda and I are planning a trip to the UK and part of that trip will likely include a visit to Warhammer World and when I mentioned all the events that go on there, Amanda suggested we play in one?! I'd not really thought of that - not being that much of a competitive tournament player... but once she'd suggested it, I though it might be fun to say I've played games at Warhammer World... Because we're travelling around a bit, it would not be practicable to bring full 40K or Age of Sigmar armies with us and lug them around (even spearhead might be a bit much!)... but if there happened to be a skirmish game event - Kill Team or Warhammer Underworlds or WARCRY - that might be more doable. So, we decided it was time to try out Warcry! 

Amanda's had a pretty busy few weeks since returning home from a little trip to the wet coast, and we just haven't found time to try it out yet. 

Vera (the human formerly known as Orion) had some extra time off work, though, so we met up Thursday evening to give it a try. 

Vera brought her Soulblight Gravelords along and cobbled to gather a warband:

• Kastellan (Blood Knight Champion)
• Blood Knight with Templar Lance
• Vargheist 
• Skeleton Champion with Halberd
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Blade
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear
• Dire Wolf

I quickly put together a small force of Nighthaunts

• Knight of Shrouds on Etherial Steed
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Chaingast
• Chaingast

We set up some terrain and rolled for a scenario to play and came up with No Quarter! The battlefield is divided up into four quarters and whoever controls the most quarters at the end wins... To control a quarter, however, one needed to have at least one of their own models wholly within said quarter - and NO ENEMY within said quarter... it seemed an exceedingly difficult thing to do... unless you could whittle your opponents force down to three or less... and still have at least four of your own... that were spread out enough to have one in each quarter?! 

Set up and ready to go. One Battlegroup didn't show up until the second round - for both of us that included our leaders!? 

I had two chainghasts halfway up the middle. Orion had a band of Skeletons in a similar position (they are hiding behind the building opposite!). On one flank I had my two Dreadblade Harrows. On the other was the Vargheist with another Skeleton. 

Somehow one of my Dreadblade Harrow galloped clear across the table to fight a skeleton!? 

The Chainghasts got stuck in with the Vargheist in the middle of the table. The other Dreadblade Harrow joined them... 

On the second round the Blood Knights came galloping onto the table and the one with the lance charged my Dreadblade Harrow and stabbed them right in the etherial bits! 

The Kastellan galloped in and smashed through the Dreadblade Harrow as well... it took a Skeletal warrior to sneak up and finish off the Dreadblade Harrow. 

The Knight of Shrouds galloped onto the field of battle and put down a rather mangy-looking Dire Wolf! 

aaaaand then a couple more rounds happened and I didn't take any pictures... I was too busy looking things up and trying to figure out how to play the game. There isn't nearly as much stuff to keep track of compared to Age of Sigmar or Warhammer Underworlds - it is a pretty slick and simple system... but still fairly new and different enough it required checking on things and re-reading rules... I think after a few games I should be running a bit more smoothly! 

In the end it was a draw... we both had models in all four quarters. As I'd suspected, it turned out to be a very difficult scenario to WIN at! 

Doing a little MATH-HAMMER and considering the short length of the game, how slow a lot of units move, the number of models and how many attacks they make and how effective those attacks are and the health scores of various models... it seems like it would be a very difficult game to do... well... much of ANYTHING in the four short rounds that are played?! I guess we'll have to play it some more and try out some different forces and scenarios. 

I probably should have ignored he Vargheist... maybe tried to tie it down with one or both of the Chainghasts and galloped about with the others trying to take out all the little skeletons... 

Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed and Guardian of Souls

I rebased and quickly repainted the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed and Guardian of Souls over the long weekend. Most of the weekend I spent working on some old Putrid Blightkings that I've put on 32mm bases to use as Rotswords, but then switched gears and decided to quickly knock these out! 

Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed and Guardian of Souls

Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed

Guardian of Souls

ALL THE NIGHT HAUNTS

Now, with the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, I can legally field the Dreadblade Harrows (as all the Nighthaunt Heroes I'd had previously could only lead INFANTRY Units... and the Dreadblade Harrows are CAVALRY!). Fielding them all together could look like:

Knight of Shrouds General's Regiment 

• Hero - Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (1)  160 -  0-1 Cursed Soul, Any Nighthaunt
• Unit - Scriptor Mortis (1) 120 - Any Infantry - This Hero can join an eligible regiment as a Cursed Soul.
• Unit - Bladegheist Revenants (10) 210 - Infantry
• Unit - Craventhrone Guard (5) 110 - Infantry
• Unit - Dreadblade Harrows (2) 50 - Cavalry

Total: 650

Spirit Torment's Regiment 

• Hero - Spirit Torment (1) 120 - 0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry
• Unit - Chainghasts (2) 90 - Infantry
• Unit - Myrmourn Banshees (4) 100 - Infantry

Total: 310

Guardian of Souls’ Regiment 

• Hero - Guardian of Souls (1) 130 -  0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry
• Unit - Chainrasps (10) 110 - Infantry
• Unit - Dreadscythe Harridans (10) 210 - Infantry

Total: 450

Army total: 1410

If I added in the units that are soon passing into Legends... 

Cairn Wraith’s Regiment

• Hero - Cairn Wraith (1) 130 - 0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry
• Unit - Glaivewraith Stalkers (4)  100 - Infantry

Total: +230 = 1640

If I picked up Lady Olinder and added her to this mess... 

+ Lady Olinder 320 points = 1960

This is not really a PRIORITY force right now, though... I just like having all the stuff done for them! 

(though, technically, I still have two Warhammer Underworlds Warbands yet to paint, one of which can still be fielded as a regular unit... Maybe I should get to those at some point!) 

I will probably finish up those "Rotswords" sometime this week. It's reading week and Amanda's off on a little vacation, so I have some time to devote to painting projects! 

this brings me to 33x 28mm Foot and 1x 28mm Mounted painted so far this year - versus 19x 28mm Foot and 1x 28mm Mounted acquired! Still in the black... until Saturday, at least... 

Age of Sigmar: Spearhead - Sylvaneth and Nighthaunt in Dolorum

For the first game of the year, Amanda and I played a game of Age of Sigmar in the Spearhead format. I am less keen on Spearhead these days, but I had recently finished painting the Nighthaunt Cursed Shacklehorde, so Amanda gathered her Sylvaneth Bitterbark Copse and gave battle. We played in Shyish using the Sand & Bone gaming pack and fought in Dolorum. 

Amanda found it a little confusing to switch back to Spearhead, because so many things are just slightly different than regular Age of Sigmar, which she was just starting to get her head around... 

I've liked trying to type up narrative reports for these games, rather than simply a play by play of what was going on in the game... but it's so hard to make up any sort of narrative that makes sense of the wild back and forth movements to snatch objective areas from opponents from turn to turn in games of Spearhead. So... 

Amanda was the attacker and chose to go second, which was probably a mistake. The Nighthaunts are CRAZY fast and on my first turn I was across the table and fighting all her forces in her territory vying for control of the objectives in her territory... and scoring a lot of points in the process. 

The Twist for there first round was players scored a bonus victory point for each friendly unit in combat at the end of their turn. 

Harald, the Spirit Torment, General of the Cursed Shacklehorde failed his charge roll and was kind of left behind...  (calling this Spirit Torment Harald because that's the name of Amanda's Spirit Torment character in our What We Do in the Realm of Shadows role-playing campaign) 

The Chainghasts charged the Tree-Revenants on one of the objectives I was holding a victory point card for... they REALLY needed the Spirit Torment to have joined them to a) hopefully destroy a few Tree-Revenants and b) provide a few more control points...  

The Dreadblade Harrows charged the Treelord, hoping to distract the Treelord from the Chaingasts and/or score the "be within 3" of the enemy long edge" scoring card which I also held. 

The rest charged the Kurnothi Hunters and Branchwych... 

So my whole army (less the Spirit Torment General) Was deep in enemy territory on round one engaging them on their objective markers... 

I ended up scoring 7 points at the end of my turn... three for units engaged two or three for objectives...? and one or two for cards. 

By the end of her turn which followed Amanda had killed both the Dreadblade Harrows and the Chainghasts... 

and I'd killed the Branchwych... 

And the Kurnothi had used Strike and Fade to teleport out of combat... so she gained NO points for units in combat (the twist bonus), two for holding objectives and one for cards... 

which put me in a four point lead at the end of the first round... 

At the beginning of the second turn, Amanda won the Priority Roll and decided to take a double turn (going first in Round Two after going second in the first). The penalty for this was not being able to draw new cards.. but she was still holding two from the previous turn, so.. 

All her army on the move... 

and then suddenly converging on Harald! 

Seriously, I though naming my General Harald - after her character in the role-playing game, saying this was back before the campaign when Harald lead an entire army, would mean my General would be safe and Amanda would leave him be! Not so!!

LUCKILY, I was holding the card with the command ability "translucent flesh" which makes any attacks that target a selected unit not cound any rolls of 1-2-3 to hit or wound!? This TOTALLY saved Harald!!

And then he retreated out of there as quick as he could on my next turn! Running for the protection of a reserve unit of Dreadscythe Harridans that had just entered the field of battle, seizing one of the Sylvaneth's objectives! 

The Sylvaneth split up and went off to seize other objective and destroy other units of mine... 

The Treelord went after the remains of the Dreadscythe Harridan unit that had started on the table at the beginning of the game. 

Both the Dreadscythe Harridans and Bladegheist Revenants - which are normally fielded in units of 10, in regular Age of Sigmar - are broken up into two units of five and one of each of those units remains in reserve at the beginning of the game and starting on Round Two I can bring ONE of them on as reserves in my movement phase... 

Kurnoth Hunters and Tree-Revenants went after the Bladegheist Revenants... but both failed charge rolls. 

The Treelord did not and the last of those Dreadscythe Harridans were destroyed! 

The following turn the Tree-Revenants charged the Bladegheist Revenants and did them in over two turns of fighting.

The Kurnoth Hunters moved on an obejective I was holding with two reinforcement Dreadscythe Harridans.. They didn't charge. They didn't need to... they each had a toe on the Objective and had a higher control score, so they flipped the control on that objective at the end of their turn... 

Having secured the objective in the corner, the Treelord returned to the middle of the battlefield to secure the objective there... Some newly arrived Bladegheist Revenant reserves charged the massive creature thinking they might take it down... 

ha... 

Dreadscythe Harridans weren't going to take that objective back just standing there and charged... and one got destroyed, further consolodating the Sylvaneth hold on the objective (kind of forgot the Kurnoth had FIVE WOUNDS and 4+ saves... ) 

The Dreadscythe Harridans joined in... but they couldn't even carve their initials on that giant tree, let along fell it! 

that last Bladegheist Revenant went down fighting... and took exactly ZERO Tree-Revenants with them... it kept dealing ONE damage... which the Tree-revenants would immediately heal at the end of the turn after the Combat Phase because they were within 3" of Terrain!?

I did manage to squeak out a victory - in terms of victory points (20-16) - largely because I'd take that lead in the first round and then we both scored about the same every turn for the rest of the game - Amanda slowly scoring more each round, me slowly scoring less... but she just couldn't score enough to catch up! There was very little left of my force at the end of the game... while most of Amanda's army was still on the field of battle... If more rounds were played I'd have certainly lost! 

I'd really like to try these out in regular Age of Sigmar - as a Path to Glory force... I'm not sure they'd be all that effective, but I think they'd be fun and interesting!!

I'm quite behind on game reports... I have several drafts for games played in December (and one from October?!) that I'd like to finish up!? There is the Finale for the Ravaged Coast campaign, two episodes of the What We Do in the Realm of Shadows role-playing game, two Warhammer Quest: Cursed City Journeys - hunting down Kritza the Rat Prince, the aforementioned Bolt Action game played in October, and a test game of Warhammer Quest: Darkwater?!

I hope I get a chance to get a few of them done this week. I'd REALLY like to, at least, get the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City reports done BEFORE the next Cursed City game on Tuesday! We shall see... 

Scriptor Mortis and Craventhrone Guard

As there wasn't anything I NEEDED for a game coming up within the next week... I thought I'd knock out these few things that I thought were the last of the Nighthaunt that I owned that still needed painting (I was wrong on this account, I forgot that I still have four Myrmourn Banshees - and the The Headsmen’s Curse Warhammer Underworlds warband... not that they're all that useful in Age of Sigmar... but they're Nighthaunts and I still have them!) 

Scriptor Mortis and Craventhrone Guard

Scriptor Mortis - this gives me a second Hero that can lead a regiment. (The other Nighthaunt hero I have is the Spirit Torment). Unfortunately, neither of them are wizards... 

 Craventhrone Guard

ALL THE NIGHTHAUNTS (so far...)

Heroes

• Scriptor Mortis (1)  120 - 0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry - This Hero can join an eligible regiment as a Cursed Soul.
• Spirit Torment (1) 120 - 0-1 Black Coach, Any Infantry - This Hero can join an eligible regiment as a Cursed Soul.

Total: 240

Units

• Bladegheist Revenants (10) 210 - Infantry
• Chainghasts (2) 90 - Infantry - This unit cannot be reinforced.
• Chainrasps (10) 110 - Infantry
• Craventhrone Guard (5)  110 -  Infantry
• Dreadblade Harrows (2) 150 - Cavalry
• Dreadscythe Harridans (10) 210 - Infantry
• Glaivewraith Stalkers (4) 100 - Infantry - This unit will move to Warhammer Legends on 1 June 2026.
• Myrmourn Banshees (4) 100 -  Infantry

Total: 1080

ARMY TOTAL: 1320

As mentioned I DO still have a second unit of Myrmourn Banshees to finish up! But I also just realized that the Glaivewraith Stalkers are being phased out and moved to "Legends"... 

I also have two old metal Wraiths that I'd been considering nominally part of this army (as Tomb Wraiths!), but have also noticed they they are being discontinued and phased out and not included in the Battletome... 

Still, I have PLENTY for a starter Path to Glory army... not that I'm PLANNING to use them in Path to Glory any time SOON...

I technically can't field the Dreadblade Harrows (unless I field it as an auxiliary unit... but that's just generally a bad idea...), because the two Heroes I have can only include Infantry units in their regiments. to properly field them I'd need something that can lead Cavalry or ANY Nighthaunt... I'd love to get a Knight of Shrouds on Etherial Steed... but they're only available in a box with two other Heroes that I just do NOT need for $100!? Maybe I'll find a used one for a not-totally-unreasonable price...