Warcry Battle Report 4: Sacrosanct Chamber vs. Jack's Pack

After losing not once but twice, my proud Sacrosanct Chamber warband had somehow made it to their first convergence. Let's see how they did.

The scenario

Let's look at the scenario and cards...

A very open battlefield

This is rather open, which means we'll both be able to make full use of shooting (with Jack, eek!). Note that the mission rules mean the objective has to be on the little platforms in the top left or bottom right.

Gleam for the Gleam God! Shine for the shine throne!

Rather than a twist like last time that is functionally pointless, this one is actually pointless.

Even before playing this I'd heard bad things about The Ritual. It is heavily RNG-dependent, as if you roll completely average over 4 battle rounds you will get a score of 14, which means all it takes is -2 from your opponent to lose you the game. Oof!

That said, I'd lucked out. The deployment is absolutely perfect for this mission. It meant I deployed around the objective, whilst my wife had to deploy pretty much as far away as possible and come towards my slow-moving beatsticks. I was quietly confident.

The objective is on the platform underneath Chanda, my female Castigator

The game

Round 1 began with me winning priority and paying for a Quad. I opened fire with Chanda who was stood on the objective, firing at Fee the Snotling in the hope of removing a body and a potential source of Wait actions. I wasn't rolling well, and only managed 6 damage.

Jack opened fire on my other Castigator who was in cover, using Rampage for three goes, but luckily didn't take him out (I think it was 8 damage in the end). In response that Castigator shot at and killed Terry the Termagant, and then put two wounds onto Bjork da Orc (using Rampage).

Over the next few activations my wife's models moved forward, whilst my three melee warriors made a line in front of the objective.

Maggie the Termagant proved herself, firing at my Castigator in cover and getting a crit and a miss. She has a Destiny Level, so re-rolled the miss and got another crit!

Dead-eye Maggie

The last action of the round was Ratatouille spotting a gap in my line that, upon checking, was EXACTLY the width of his base. So he scampered on through and got within 3" of the objective.

As a fan of sneaking, I applaud Ratatouille

That meant there was a -1 applied to the ritual die roll, and so the 5 became a 4.

I rolled a 5 for the ritual on round 1

Round 2 is when the lines fully connected, and I failed to do much damage. My Sequitor Rampaged  into Bjork da Orc and Szczepan, but failed to kill Szczepan even with three swings.

Not quite a wiff, but definitely not a success

Jack, on the other hand, absolutely nailed his shooting. Using the Triple to double his shots he rolled exactly the 20 in one attack action that he needed to kill my Castigator who was stood on the objective, before she'd had a chance to shoot.

Szczepan swung once and danced away, and my leader wiped out Ratatouille, leaving the board looking like this at the end of the round:

She's lost 2, I've lost 1

Rolling a 2 with no enemies near the objective, I now had 6 of the 13 points needed to win.

Only a 2 this time

Round 3 was a bloodbath. After my warriors had been a bit pillow-fisted in the previous two rounds, they now remembered that they're meant to be elite warriors. Yes I lost my other Castigator, but I took out four models with my three non-leader models (the female Evocator counting for two due to a Rampage).

Not much left by the end of round 3

The highlight, though, was Dollop the Snotling deciding his best play was to pin two of my models in place by running in between them.

Dollop the Brave

I forgot to take a photo of the roll this round, so here's an artist's impression of what it would have looked like:

I rolled a 3, so I'm at 9/13

The final round involved some more killing. My Evocator killed Dollop and then moved to pin Willard in place, who was then finished off by my Sequitor.

Jack failed to do anything so Fee, not wanting to be shown up by his brother Dollop, took a chance and ran in to try and hinder the ritual.

Fee the Also-Brave

With only two wounds left, my leader easily put an end to that!

How the board looked at the end of round 4

So with everyone dead on her team other than Jack, it was time to roll to see if I completed the ritual. I needed a 4+ and rolled a...

I scored 11 out of the 13 needed to win

My wife very graciously offered to count it as a win, because:

1. It was completely random and didn't reflect how the game played
2. Pity
3. She found out we'd have to play the same mission again next time, and again and again and again until I eventually won

I think it was #3 that clinched it.

Aftermath

For me:

• I gained 7 Glory
• My Sequitor gained a Destiny Level
• The female Castigator rolled a 66 for her injury, so gained a Destiny Level!
• I then gave her a Jar of Chamonic Glowflies, so she could count abilities as one level higher for a game
• Most importantly, my leader chose the only not-shit Greater Artefact from this quest:

He can literally throw the book at you

My wife was less lucky when it came to injuries:

• She gained 4 Glory
• Jadwiga got a temporary fractured arm
• Willard Strawbelly got another gut wound, but this time it was permanent :¬(
• Maggie lost her Destiny Level
• Ratatouille also got a temporary fractured arm
• Fee was rewarded for his bravery by dying, but was immediately rehired
• Dollop is now permanently blind in one eye, alongside his permanently fractured arm x-D

Thoughts

My Stormcast finally won a game (sort of)!

We agreed that we'd both had a fun game, but that was in spite of the mission. Asymmetric missions that create uphill battles are one thing, but a mission where both players can sit around and pick their noses for four rounds and the result is entirely dependent on 4D6 is something else.

Looking ahead my final convergence is playing this same mission but as the attacker. I am really looking forward to that :¬/

Warcry House Rules

Warcry is a fun game which is easy to learn, but like most games it needs some tweaks. Below are my house rules, which are designed to make the game more sensible rather than to change the balance.

I'll update these as and when they need it.

Campaign

• RossMM is the GM/Arbitrator/Commissioner for these campaigns, and he reserves the right to make changes, such as helping weaker warbands compete with more powerful ones
• When it comes to earning Glory after a battle, the underdog gets +1 Glory point per 100 points of difference in their warband limits
• Monsters are not allowed
• Mercenaries are not allowed
• If you fail a (non-final) convergence twice (or more!), then you can choose to count as completing it rather than play it again. If you do you don't get Glory for that battle, but you do get the other rewards
• Warbands have a "stash" that contains whatever currency they use: aether-gold, teef, souls, blood, skulls, bottles, whatever
• Any points that are not used in founding their starting gang are added to their stash
• Warbands can spend 1 Glory to add 100 points to their stash
• Models are no longer hired using Glory, but are instead hired using points from their stash
• Models don't really die, they just get so injured that they lose their stuff abd you have to pay to rehire them 
• The Fractured Arm injury affects all attacks, not just melee ones

In game

• Flying isn't measured horizontally; you measure diagonally along the shortest path they would take
• When falling, roll a dice for fall damage for each full 3" that is fallen
• Consumables which are used as an action are used as a bonus free action (otherwise they are mostly useless)

Warband rules

• The Gloomspite Gitz Quad is too powerful, so instead of adding the dice value to all hits, it instead just adds that value to the total damage for that attack action

Warcry Battle Report 3: Sacrosanct Chamber vs. Jack's Pack

Having played two games (here and here) my wife's warband were now onto their first convergence. They're following the Kharadron Overlords quest, and so the mission was as below:

I brought my Sacrosanct Chamber SCE, who were hoping to redeem themselves after their first game.

The scenario

I won the priority roll for deployment and so got to choose who started where as well as the location of two of the three objectives in the mission. Basically the set-up was as follows:

• There were two objectives which I placed in the top-right quarter, one to the east of the tower (on the floor, but we placed it on the roof so it was easier to measure from) and the other not far from the piece of rubble, and one that she placed towards the west
• To win she had to claim at least two of the objectives at the end of round 4
• I picked deployment so that two of her groups would start on the western edge
• My Hammer (just one Evocator) would appear on the western edge, and her closest reinforcements would appear on the southern edge
• The Twist card did nothing: it gave our leaders a bonus when fighting each other in melee, but that was never going to happen

Apt, but of no consequence

The game

I'm afraid I don't have a deployment shot, but here is how things were looking at the start of the second battle round:

Blood is spilled

My leader had made a beeline towards Jadwiga as her shooting is very scary, whilst my Castigator helped out. At the start of round 2 my Dagger reinforcements came in on the northern edge (the right in the picture above) to try to secure the middle objective, and hers came in from the western edge.

Jack and his reinforcements

By the end of round 2 I'd taken out Jadwiga and ran my leader out of sight of Jack, as he was already wounded. My reinforcements had moved forwards, with the Sequitor standing in the one possible position that meant he held both objectives. My reinforcement Castigator had run onto the platform to shoot at Jack, and using his Triple to boost his shooting did... zero damage! I was stupid and should have shot at Ratatouille as I'd have killed him, and getting into a firefight with Jack is a lost cause as he has more wounds and is a better shot. Which was proven when he returned fire and knocked 16(!) wounds off of my Castigator, leaving him with four :¬( Jack also used his consumable artefact to give them D3 extra wild dice next round.

Run away!

The start of round 3 saw our final set of reinforcements come on. I ummed and ahhed about where to place my Evocator. I had initially decided to deploy her in base contact with Ratatouille and Fee (in hindsight the correct decision), but instead got greedy and placed her so that she could take a run at Jack to try and hurt him and lock him down.

My wife's reinforcements came in on the southern edge, to threaten what had previously been the more secure of my two objectives. Apart from Willard, who hid in cover at the top of the statue head as he had only four wounds due to his cracked rib.

Everyone's arrived for the party

Key events this round:

• My Evocator managed to get to Jack in combat and do some damage, but not enough to stop him shooting and killing my Castigator sitting on top of the objective
• My remaining Castigator couldn't shoot at Maggie as my dumb leader was stood in front of her, so she instead fired at Bjork da Orc, doing damage but failing to kill him
• My leader ran to get onto the objective in the ruins
• Szczepan ran forward and hit under the bell tower

Such a brave grot

Round 4 is when things got very tactical. I was thinking that I might be able to win this, as I had some very resilient models that my wife couldn't kill, and a lot of her models were a long way away. But it would mean keeping her southern reinforcements away as well as those coming in from the left. And she still had more bodies than me...

This was by far the most tactical round we'd played out of the three games. There was almost no combat, with it being a mix of wait actions (so many wait actions!) and running around. I'd managed to kill her models on the southern flank with my remaining Castigator, securing that objective. But it meant I only had two models on the objective in the ruin, and no way to steal the one on the western side with both Terry and Ratatouille there.

My wife played very well, waiting out my activations with her larger number of models, and then rushing the objective when I had nothing else to activate. With the final activation of the game, Fee the Snotling ran forward and won the game for her, 2:1!

Fee and injured Willard run forward to secure the objective and win the game!

How the battlefield looked at the end of the game

Aftermath

My Castigator, the one model I lost this game? He died, so I had to spend Glory to hire a new one back. I then rolled for an artefact and got the one that heals injuries, which is useless for these guys (but my Grots would like it!) as no-one is injured. And after three games I'm still yet to gain a Destiny Level. Oh well!

For my wife Willard's cracked rib healed, Jadwiga died but was resurrected, and Dollop the Snotling now has a permanently fractured arm that means he is at -1 Strength (not that big a deal, TBH). Her random artefact was a Vial of Heartwood Sap, which is a consumable that means Jadwiga can heal a visible friendly model D6 wounds.

And most importantly: for winning her convergence my wife chose to give Jack an Aether-Gold Share. Once per game he can trigger this to give all friendlies within 6" +1 Attack. Ouch!

Thoughts

My wife is really good at this game!

This was a really close, fun game. I made some mistakes - trying to go for Jack when I'd have been better off trying to thin the herd - and my wife capitalised on that well. And of all the games to lose, the best ones are someone else's convergence.

The next time we play I think it's time for my Sacrosanct to try to win their convergence. Oh dear...

Warcry Battle Report 2: Gloomspite Gitz vs. Jack's Pack

After yesterday's game, I was excited to try out my Goblins!

The scenario

We again rolled on the Tome of Champions mission table, and rolled up something that on the face of it looked very similar to last time. However, rather than trying to take each other's objectives, this time there was a fun mechanic where the objectives change their score each battle round.

This looks like lots of fun

We again skipped using the Twist cards, and randomly drew this battlefield:

I insisted we play one with the belltower, because it's cool

I had split my warband up as follows:

Dagger, Shield, and Hammer

My Shield with Boss Arfa ready to go, staring down Jack and Jadwiga

My Dagger, on the other side of my deployment

The terrifying opposition :¬o

The game

The first round was a mixed bag for me. Jack just deleted Ser Stabzalot the Squig Hopper, who is one of my two key models. But then in better news I got a Quad (I can't remember if it was native or by using a wild dice) and I used it on Boss Arfa. Even with our house rule reducing the power of the GG Quad it's still a better Rampage, and he promptly removed Ratatouille and Jadwiga in one activation! This gave me control of one of the primary (3-point) objectives this round.

That's how you take an objective

On the other side of the board there was nothing I could do about the other primary, other than take a cool photo of a Shoota lining up a shot

Round 1: 4:4

The primary and secondary objectives swapped over, so now there was a scramble for the new 3-pointers. I left the Netta cowering where he was and so Boss Arfa and the Hammer squad rushed forwards, but failed to take the contested objective.

Boss Arfa and Nasha managed to pin Jack against the wall

On the other side my Goblins didn't do much, other than keep the other primary objective safe.

Round 2: 8:8

This was an important round. Boss Arfa engaged Jack in an honourable duel, and managed to fell him in not-so-single combat. There was then a lot of jostling for position and some hits (including Szczepan using his AoE Quad to hurt my guys for 5 damage each!), but in the end I still wasn't able to steal this objective.

I love you Arfa!

On the other side Stikkit the Shoota "strategically withdrew", as he didn't fancy getting shot at any more given he only had two wounds left. Prog da Netta then ran over (I reckoned that objective was safe) and threw a net over Bjork da Orc, pinning him in place.

I imagine it's like catching a wasp under a glass: You don't want to be there when it gets out

Round 3: 12:12

In the final round Boss Arfa and Nasha finally managed to secure the objective they'd been fighting over, with Nasha blocking Maggie's path to be able to get to it...

Szczepan was glad there was no 5th round

...whilst on the other side another well-placed net kept the objective safe from a marauding orc.

R4: 19:13 to me!

Aftermath

It turns out Boss Arfa hadn't actually hurt Ratatouille, he'd just run off and gone on an adventure, gaining a destiny level in the process! My wife didn't get any artefacts, and had some bad luck with injuries: Willard Strawbelly the Guardsman got a temporary cracked rib, halving his wounds, and Terry got a temporary broken leg, reducing his movement.

Meanwhile, I got some Blight Serpent Venom, giving Ser Stabzalot +1 Strength, and Skwire the Stabba is now permanently blind in one eye (-1 Attacks)... which makes sense as his model has an eyepatch!

Thoughts

I. Love. Goblins. The two fast models (although Ser Stabzalot did nothing this game) and some helpful chaff make these guys lots of fun. Plus SQUIGS! Boss Arfa is also amazing. I took seven of her models out in this game, and Arfa accounted for five of those :¬o

My wife got even better at the game, as she was using wait actions like a boss :¬(

Warcry Battle Report 1: Sacrosanct Chamber vs. Jack's Pack

So with the terrain assembled, the models painted, and the lists I shared previously, it was time for my wife and I to play our first game of Warcry!

The scenario

To keep things simple I opted to play one of the scenarios from the Tome of Champions, with no Twist card. This means the objectives are symmetric, so there's less chance one of us will be completely screwed by the set-up, and no weird rule to remember for our first game.

We rolled a 6 and so were set to play the following:

Nothing too weird for our first game

The game

With only my Sequitor with Greatmace in my Hammer, it meant I was starting the game with not much on the board. I rolled two Doubles (bleh), won initiative, and then forgot that I could opt to go second. That meant I spent a double to Rush forward onto an objective, and promptly got shot at for my trouble.

2:1 to her at the end of round 1

All of our reinforcements came on at the start of round 2. My plan was to hold each of my objectives with a Castigator, and have my melee units go for my wife's objectives.

Both our reinforcements came on at the start of round 2

By the end of the round my Evocator in the top-left had Leroyed towards my wife's leader, but failed to kill him. He's a Space Marine using Stormcast rules, so is a veritable tank, but he also hits like one: his shooting finished off my Sequitor before he got to do any damage :¬( In the bottom it was better, as although the damage from the Sister with the Meltagun took me by surprise I was able to kill the Termagant.

End of round 2, and it's now 4:3

Round 3 saw the Sister do further damage to my leader, but he was able to kill her and move off towards my wife's right objective. On the left her horde started to move towards my objective, whilst my Evocator failed to kill her leader.

End of round 3, and it's 6:5

Unable to kill Jack, my Evocator failed to take this objective

Round 4 was the last round, and saw us exchange objectives: I took her one on the right, and she took mine on the left.

My Shield stealing her objective

Her dudes stealing mine, but at least the rat was dead!

And so with that the score was 10:9 to her! I lost because, with only one model on the board in turn 1, I was unable to secure both of my home objectives on that turn. Otherwise we'd have played another round, and that would have been interesting.

Aftermath

After the battle she lost (read: dead) one of her Snotlings, Fee, and the Skaven, Ratatouille, and so immediately "hired them back" by spending two glory. She got a cool consumable item that would give her +D3 Wild Dice in one game, whilst I got... +1 Toughness. On a Stormcast. Utter junk!

Thoughts

I really enjoyed myself, and she says she did too, so we played another game the very next day :¬)

This game felt challenging to me. Mainly due to my wife as she's a very fast learner at board games; by the end of the game she was already second-guessing my moves and planning around them, and had worked out the importance of the activation economy.

Stormcast also feel difficult to learn. I've never been a fan of slow elite forces and these guys are pretty extreme in that regard, so in any mission that involves objectives these guys are fighting uphill.

Which meant I was really looking forward to trying out my Goblins the next day!