Warcry is the new kid on the block. After playing a couple of games, our resident “beginner” hobbyist has a couple of thoughts on GW’s Warcry game.
I’m going to give you my thoughts on the longevity of Warcry. First, let’s dive into what is in the box, split the game into a couple of pros and cons, and then think about the future the game might have.
“What’s in the box!”
Starter Set Contents
This box is heavy which is always a good thing because that means the plastic goodness is real. Inside your getting 8 Iron Golems, 9 Untamed Beasts, 6 Furies and 6 Raptoryx, and a slew of ruined building pieces. This is a great value box if you are looking for a game that has everything needed in the box to play with someone. The terrain pretty much fills up a board and the two teams contain enough variety of miniatures that you don’t really need to buy anything else to play this game. It reminds me of the old Necromunda starter box from 1995, which my brother and I sunk countless hours into. Warcry even adds a foldable board as well which just adds to the value.
The box also contains a ton of cards, dice, rule book (more on that below), and basically everything you need to put this down onto the table and get going. In the rule book, you have the three ways to play, the actual rules, fluff, and tons of artwork and short stories. Oh, on top of that there are campaign systems designed to be individually played (you keep track of it yourself) but can work against any opponent. There are also charts for permeant death, ways your heroes can improve, and of course pages and pages of rules.
For all the rules though they are neatly wrapped up into a little reference pamphlet that you can use during games which I have found very useful.
For under 150 bucks I think this is a great deal as a standalone miniature board game, but if you are comparing to board games on a whole it does seem a little expensive for what it is. Especially since I love the terrain and the miniatures, but there is defiantly not enough terrain to cover a whole Age of Sigmar board (maybe a third if you really spread it out) and while the models are cool they are made for slaves to darkness armies so if you don’t use them your out of luck.
*Note on scenery this kit works great with the Azyrite Ruins Sets. Get this 30-dollar set to build all your low to the ground ruins and then use the terrain from the starter set to make the bigger taller buildings! *
Now let’s talk about the pros and cons of the few games I have played. I only did quick matches but, in the future, we are going to start messing around with the campaign system.
Pros:
Games are fast especially when you and your opponent both know the rules. Set up and going through a game takes anywhere from 30–45 minutes with an hour-long game being a long one.
Lots of armies to choose from right out of the gate. Adding on a couple of other ranges of miniatures for a low entry point of 15-dollar card packs was a great move by GW. There are all sorts of options for warbands now so that almost any collector can dive right into this game.
The random variables on terrain, cards, and twist, etc. are awesome and make it so that any one army is not going to be OP. It also leads to a large variety of games that keeps things fresh.
Rules are simple and easy to learn and follow. This is great for teaching new players and might bring more people to the table and get dice rolling.
The new models and scenery are great with the Warcry specific warbands being some of the best models I have seen GW produce.
Overall, I had been having a ton of fun with my games of Warcry I have played though there are a couple of things I wish they had done better.
Cons:
Sometimes with the way the scenario is set up, it makes it impossible for a player to win. For example, I had one scenario where my opponent needed to deal 60 wounds in two rounds to win the match against toughness 4 models.
The toughness chart is not great, there really isn’t any need to have a toughness higher than 5 right now. (It is almost too simple)
The climbing and falling off buildings are neglectable in that it isn’t adding too much to the game which is a shame for such great terrain. There is no dice roll to climb terrain which I think there should be, and falling damage is at most a D3 of damage. There is no risk and not much reward for using the height of the buildings.
I wish there was a tray, or something included to organize my dice. Right now I find myself picking up my skill dice a lot accidentally.
The “Warcry” specific warbands could have had much better slaves to darkness warscrolls and could make people interested in starting Slaves to Darkness in AoS.
To me, the game by itself is great fun and a fast-paced way to play a miniatures game. It isn’t the Mordheim that I wish it was but maybe one day they will release an expansion or something that adds that element to it.
For those looking to use it to get people into AoS though I don’t think it is a great way to do it. The I go-you go turn order is way different as well as the reliance on single models instead of units over the AoS rules. Also, for 150 bucks you can get a lot more 3-D printed terrain that you need for a 6-foot by 4-foot table.
But for those like me who want to get their dice fix in, but can’t play a 3-hour game of AoS this is a pretty solid buy. Overall, I say pick it up if you want a beer and pretzels type game that is set in the Age of Sigmar universe that is a great change of pace from the 3-hour 2000-point games. If you’re just looking to expand on terrain or buying the models for Age of Sigmar though I think you can do more with the money instead of investing in this game.
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