If you’ve been looking to get into a new game or just get other people to play, here are some tips on how to Create a Warcry Gaming Group!
For the past couple of months, I have been having a blast playing Warcry with a group of people once or twice a month, and I thought what works for my group might work for yours. A great thing about Warcry is that once you know the rules, a standard match takes between 30-45 minutes, and it’s so simple that it makes for a great beer and pretzels game.
If you’re looking for something a little heavier-handed on rules and a more robust campaign system, I would recommend trying Necromunda or another skirmish game.
Great Ideas For How To Create a Warcry Gaming Group:
The first thing to do is gauge interest and see how many people would want to play Warcry, and I would start with your tabletop miniatures players. I found a group of people that played Age of Sigmar but more narratively and approached them first as they already had miniatures they could use in the game, and then asked some 40k players if they would also like to try it out.
Be sure to let them know that it is a much faster and rules lighter game than they are traditionally used to. This may appeal to them more or potentially turn others off, but it’s good to lay it out. If you already have terrain, I recommend trying out the rules.
You can get the core rules free online and use some terrain that your FLGS or you might have sitting around. Later on, if you like the game, purchase a starter set. All the starter sets that GW has released have been great in terms of warbands and terrain, but if you plan on jumping into a “campaign,” you will want Season 2 of WarCry (Heart of Ghur or Sundered Fate).
Warcry: Heart of Ghur Starter Set $230
Click here to get yours for less from these retailers: | Amazon | Dicehead Games | Bazooka Games Games | Frontline Gaming | Games Workshop’s Store Link
Everyone’s favourite game of brutal skirmish combat in the Mortal Realms ramps up the carnage with Warcry: Heart of Ghur. This is a new and revamped edition, and has a two-week pre-order window. The boxed contains two incredible new warbands – all set to battle across rope bridges and bamboo barricades between the carnivorous trees of the Gnarlwood, with the help of some tasty new rules.
I will say, though, if someone is looking for their own table and you already have the book, both the Red Harvest and original box of WarCry had fantastic warbands and terrain, so you can’t go wrong with those.
Teaching Warcry:
First, teach another person Warcry and play a few games so that you both know the rules well enough to teach others. This is very useful in that it does not put all the pressure on you to teach the games and follow all the rules. Then, have all the interested Warcry players watch the “Let’s Play” Warcry videos that GW put out before the game night, as they cover the basics well and will help people learn faster.
Then throw a game night session wherever you’re planning to play most of the games; for me, it’s at my pad, and I offered to pick up pizza if everyone threw in five bucks. This is a great way to get a group going in that the two of us who knew how to play were able to play separately with the people who arrived first and then let them branch out and teach others while we floated around answering questions and watching to make sure everyone was playing right.
This is a perfect beer and pretzels game because while there is a rulebook, the rules are simple, and after a game or two, most people were comfortable enough not even to need to ask questions anymore.
Before Starting a Warcry Campaign:
I would recommend not jumping straight into a campaign but rather first holding a few sessions of learning games that let players test our various warbands they might have access to. However, the warband builds follow the campaign rules: there is only one leader, no monsters or thralls, and 1000 points to begin.
Once you have gone through one or two random let’s play sessions, do a mini-campaign from the book as a final play-through to make sure people grasp their warbands and rules before jumping into the campaign. Because once you do, you’ll be getting asked many questions in between games about injury rolls, encampments, quests, etc.
How to Create a Warcry Gaming Group- Managing the Campaign:
The main thing you need to do is to let people manage their own warbands and trust that they and their opponent are following the rules correctly. You can’t be everywhere at once, and there might even be games that go on that you’re not able to make it.
What you can do, however, is put everyone’s information in one space, and I would recommend using something like Google Drive. Everyone needs to have an updated roster (which you can put together using GW’s builder) in the drive account for their warband (that you may want to create and share with all the members).
Download Your Own League Spreadsheet
They then need to update a spreadsheet that I put together showing how much renown, glory, and reputation they have. I have a table built in where they mark who they played so that nobody is playing the same person repeatedly. Warcry is also easy enough that someone who is brand new can still pull out a win against someone with multiple games under their belt, albeit with a slight disadvantage. However, games are fast enough that the new player is brought up to speed quickly, and their warband gets on equal footing.
The other thing you need to have is good communication with everyone in the campaign; for that, I would recommend something like Discord. It makes for a straightforward group chat type of application that everyone can pull up and respond to.
Also, there is a history so people can review dates and things like that. It allows me to get a head count for the upcoming game so that I can have all the terrain and tables set up ahead of time, so we are not wasting time setting things up. Even with how quick games are, if people are showing up at 7:00 at night, three games in a night puts them to almost 10:30 – 11:00 with a drive home, so you want to make sure dice are rolling as quickly as possible.
Painting & Finishing a Warcry Campaign:
Encouraging your players to paint their warbands is something everyone should do, and my own group offered free glory for anyone who managed to have it done by the end of the first month. Having a Discord group and zoom nights really helps with this, and it gets us together even when we are not playing (we try and play twice a month).
The terrain is also important to get painted, and you can spread it out over the group if you want (again, offer glory to aspiring painters) to help speed the process. When everything is painted, and you have two warbands punching each other over some silly treasure tokens, it really makes the game more enjoyable. For finishing a campaign, I would say when your players don’t feel like playing anymore and moving onto a new system.
This hasn’t happened to my group yet, and we don’t have a clear winning or losing warband either, so I could see this game continuing through most of the year. Also, allow your players to switch up warbands if they find one they like more because starting fresh isn’t terrible, and they quickly gain up the ground they lost.
It also helps keep them interested in the game, ultimately leading to a healthier game night.
There you have it; some tips I have learned from running this Warcry gaming group over the past couple of months. If you’re running a campaign or hoping to in the near future, hopefully, some of these tips for running a Warcry (or any game system) gaming group work for you.
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
