Warcry; Battle reports and first thoughts.

So I'm back!

I'm also back at work so blogging might be more consistent (Hopefully the boss is not reading this!).

So Warcry, first up some battle reports.



On my return from Scotland I threw up the bat signal to see if anyone fancied some warm up games for the upcoming campaign.

My usual sparring partners Shaggy and Lee did!

I had decided to give the Stormcasts a go.

The cards revealed that I had to wipe out either the hammer, dagger or shield of the undead warband.

A very frustrating game which saw both of us get very little out of the game.

My thoughts at the end.

Game two was against Lee's Goblins.

Certainly a more interactive game due to the victory conditions but I still felt 'meh' after the game.

The lone gobbo jibbing the Stormcast with his stick did make me smile.

"Look short arse, just fuck off and leave me alone!"

And then The undead and Goblins threw down.

This would see the Goblins pull off an all or nothing assassination run.

 So at the end of the three games over a cup of tea the three of us discussed the games and Shaggy and Lee were more then pleased with the games but I was not feeling it on any level.

Thankfully the terrain and mini's were great so I was happy with the box set for the contents or I would have felt really disappointed with the purchase but the game left me feeling cold and dare I say it, really bored!

Due to the other two enjoying it so much rather then just put the rule set on the shelf and use the terrain for Mordheim I decided to have a bit more of a think about the game.

This last Saturday we started our Warcry campaign.

As well as the usual two we also had Mike 2.0 in attendance.

I had re-thought my warband list and gone with a 'Stormcast and his pack of hounds theme'.

This meant I had more figures on the board and could make a lot more use of more abilities on both the Stormcast specific and universal abilities table.

The victory conditions meant that we were forced to fight for the objective markers.

This saw Shaggy's undead overwhelm my thin gold line to dominate the objectives.

Over on the other board Mike 2.0's Iron Golems were taking on Lee's Goblins.

A real cut and thrust affair with the Goblins taking the victory.

Game two saw me taking on Lee's Goblins

While the Iron Golems took on the undead.

The battle between Lee and I was definately a 'battle of the beasties'.

I tried to concentrate my forces and focus down on individual models with some success.

But once again the 'thin gold line' crumbled under the weight of numbers.

Mike 2.0 was suffering with the same problem against the undead.

This saw Lee walk away the winner.

 So the third game of the night was against Mike 2.0 and his Iron Golems.

This would be a 'convergence' game for the Golems.

On the other board I think Lee was fighting his convergence game against Shaggy.

My game turned into a real ruckus.

Of all the games I had played so far this had involved the most thinking and therefore the most enjoyment.

Unfortunately we're not sure who won the game due to the wording of the rule book.

This means Mike 2.0 will be visiting the forums this week to seek confirmation of the ruling.

So my thoughts on Warcry after playing at least 7 games. . . . . . .

I don't like it!

Sorry, but it has not grabbed me at all. . . . . . I'm really disappointed.

It's not the beatings, or my force selection, or certain frustrating scenarios / rule wording.

In all the games I love playing I have experienced at least one or more of the things above but I saw the potential of the game immediately!!

WHF, the first games were a bewildering complexity of rules that were not crystal clear BUT I saw the potential of the game and that made me persevere.

Mordheim, the first games were an absolute beat down due to my force selection and the power creep of peoples warbands from expansions of the game BUT I immediately saw the potential of the game and I WANTED to persevere.

Here's my problem with Warcry, there is simply not enough going on.

For example most warbands are about 8 miniatures big. This means in most scenarios you only have two figures on the board for the first turn. Well that's a really short first turn but what am I supposed to do with that!

Each warband has an ability table as well as a universal abilities table. Well that's great but these rely on rolling at least doubles and you only have 6 dice and a 'wild dice'. So this means I will probably only roll two 'abilities' a battle round. Well OK but the abilities are generally rune specific and if my warband does not contain a miniature with that rune (or more likely it it not on the board yet) those die are wasted.

If anything I find this more frustrating then the miniature count. Shadespire has a low mini count but their all on the board (at least at the start). You have a deck of at least 20 cards to use, there is an element of cut and thrust I really enjoy.

Unfortunately if Warcry does have any of this it's not enough for my tastes.

We will (probably) play out the campaign and who knows the game may grow on me over the weeks but one thing is for sure I am most certainly NOT going to buy expansion packs to fix these problems and plug these holes.

I may be in the minority but this is my first impressions "Your very pretty but a bit dull for my tastes".