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!

Warcry: Our warbands

Before posting any battle reports, I thought it would be a good idea to quickly list what is in our warbands.

Me: Sacrosanct Chamber

995 points of slow, hard-to-play, surprisingly fragile models with awful abilities ;¬)

The male Evocator will be added once I get... [does maths] ...a lot more glory :¬/

1. Evocator Prime (male) - Agastian
2. Castigator (male) - Bibatsu
3. Castigator (female) - Chanda
4. Greatmace Sequitor - Daitian
5. Evocator (female) - Ella

More images are here.

Me: Gloomspite Gitz

985 points this time, and I'm wishing I had a Sneaky Snuffler as that would be a great 15 point upgrade to take me to 1000, but oh well!

Arrayed for their first battle

1. Boingrot Boss - Boss Arfa
2. Squig Hopper - Ser Stabzalot
3. Squig - Nasha
4. Stabba - Skwire
5. Stikka - Pokezit
6. Netta - Prog da Netta
7. Shoota - Redkap
8. Shoota - Stikkit
9. Shoota - Dibbz

More images are here.

My wife: Jack's Pack

Playing with your own toy mans is definitely the most fun, especially in a campaign setting like Necromunda, Blood Bowl or Warcry. So to let my wife do just that, I decided to create a custom warband for her, based on her somewhat eclectic mix of painted models. It was surprisingly easy and came to 995 points.

Jack, her first model and the warband's leader

Szczepan the Fanatic, and her best model to date (it is amazing for a third model!)

1. Space Marine (Raptor-Prime with Hurricane Crossbow) - Jack
2. Fanatic (Savage Orruk with Bone Totem) - Szczepan
3. Sister of Battle with Meltagun (Grundstok Thunderer with Aetheric Fumigator but with +1 Move, +3 Wounds, and +20 points) - Jadwiga
4. Guardsman (Goblin Shoota) - Willard Strawbelly
5. Termagant (Namarti Reaver) - Terry 
6. Termagant (Namarti Reaver) - Maggie
7. Linerat (Skaven Clanrat with Shield) - Ratatouille
8. Lineork (Savage Orruk Morboy) - Bjork da Orc
9. Snotling (Gnoblar) - Fee
10. Snotling (Gnoblar) - Dollop

Their abilities are:

• The Termagants keep the Reavers' double ability, but renamed to "Living Ammunition"
• The Skaven, Jadwiga, and a future pet get the Skaven universal double, renamed to "Hasty Retreat"
• The Lineork gets his double, renamed to "Duff 'Em Up!"
• Jack keeps the Rapid Fire triple
• The Snotlings keep the Sneaky Traps triple
• Szczepan loses the toughness buff, and gains the AoE damage quad that Idoneth and some other warbands have

With 10 models and decent shooting, I think this is a powerful warband. It lacks a terrifying melee bruiser, but Szczepan and Jadwiga can play that role well and there is a lot of damage overall.

Warcry: Sacrosanct Chamber

I've been quiet, but busy. Since getting extremely proud of my bases, I've spent the last month ruining them by adding some less-well-painted models to the top of them!

Two Castigators and a Greatmace Sequitor

Two Evocators and my counts-as Evocator-Prime

The gang all assembled

Overall I'm happy with these guys and gals. I'm not a Stormcast fan, but they're fun to paint. But I messed up some of the modelling so please don't look too closely at them!

Painting: All about those bases

Just a quick update, as here are the scenic bases I've painted for my upcoming Stormcast Eternal Sacrosanct guys and gals:

I'm very happy with how these turned out and they're very easy, with drybrushing bringing out most of the detail. The only big change I made was applying texture paint over the soil areas, so that they match the base of the Stormcast I painted previously.

Scenery: Warcry scenery all built!

It's been literally 15 years since I last built and painted any scenery, and that was a set of the small jungle trees GW used to sell.

Oh. Em. Jee.

So this was a mammoth undertaking for me, but with the lockdown in place I had the chance to do it whilst on my nth conference call of the day.

I am not looking forward to painting all of this!

Warcry Goblins: Da gitz are ready!

My Grots are finally ready to take to the Eightpoints! The final batch were these three 'knights', which were as much fun to paint as the original one I did last year as my test model. This really is a lovely kit with so much character, and it's just fun to build your own customised models.

And here are all da lads assembled, after only ~4 months:

The above is obviously too much for a starting warband, but it gives me options both for starting and for expanding.

The list

Gloomspite Gitz are apparently the most powerful warband in Warcry if you build them accordingly. As I'm looking to keep it fun and narrative, I've therefore chosen a starting list which has some of the good models, but isn't crazy-good:

1. Boingrot Bounder Boss
2. Squig Hopper
3. Squig
4. Netta
5. Stikka
6. Stabba
7. Shoota
8. Shoota
9. Shoota

Nine models, 985 points, and one of everything but a Herda (who will come later). Nice!

Warcry Goblins: The other lads

Due to paint supply issues I've worked on two batches of three models, finishing both of them within a few days of one another, shown here with and without flash.

Six models in a month is close to a record for me!

Warcry Goblins: Shootas

After a break over Xmas, New Year, and my birthday (where I got the Warcry starter!), I've got back into painting and have painted up the next three members of my Gloomspite Gitz warband: da shootas!

Warcry Goblins: Squiggly beasts!

So after last time, I've decided to keep on using Mechanicus Standard Grey as my undercoat, which leads me to my next two models, who are adorable...

Their names are Basha and Nasha.