Warcry - Cursed Relic

On Saturday afternoon Amanda and I sat down to try out Warcry. 

She wanted to try using her Sylvaneth and so I helped her put together a small warband. I ended up using the same warband I'd used in my game with Vera a few days earlier.

She ended up fielding:

• Kurnoth Huntmaster with Kurnoth Great Sword
• Branchwych
• Kurnoth Hunter with Great Bow
• Kurnoth Hunter with Great Bow
• Gossamid Archer
• Gossamid Archer

The Nighthaunt force I fielded:

• Knight of Shrouds on Etherial Steed
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Chaingast
• Chaingast

We rolled for a scenario and got Cursed Relic, which saw a treasure token placed in the center of the table and could be picked up. Whoever was holding it at the end of the game won. (OR if no one was holding it, whoever had the most miniatures within 3" of it at the end of the game won). Also, the treasure token was cursed, so anyone holding it at the end of their activation took d6 damage!!

All set up and ready to go. 

Apparently treasure tokens can be picked up for free (no special action required), at any part of a move, as long as a model passes within one inch of it...? But it requires an action to drop it... I was surprised that picking something up didn't end a move! I'll have to go back and reread that! 

So, having the initiative in the first round, my Knight of Shrouds galloped up, grabbed the treasure and galloped as far away as he could - back in the direction he'd come from - and then dropped the treasure so he wouldn't have to take any damage from it! 

The Kurnoth Huntmaster moved up a bit, used the Envoy of the Everqueen ability to super-buff every Sylvaneth within 6" of the Huntmaster (because the value of the ability was 6, they added +3 to Strength AND Toughness attributes!)? and then took a wait action. 

The chaingast threw chains at him. 

Kurnoth Hunter took some shots at...? A Chainghast...? I think, dealing some damage. 

One of the Dreadblade Harrows charged in to the Huntmaster, hoping to hold him up and keep him from advancing towards the Knight of Shrouds... it was unlikely the Dreadblade Harrow would deal nearly enough damage to take down the Huntmaster, even if they fought for the next four rounds... 

The Huntmaster reacted and dealt the Dreadblade Harrow some damage. 

Gossamid archers moved up and shot arrows at the Knight of Shrouds. 

Now... initially I'd read the deployment map all wrong... I'd thought my own reinforcements came in behind me, but at the beginning of the second round, when reinforcements were to arrive, I happened to look at the deployment map and realized it was the opposite of what I'd thought and the Sylvaneth reinforcement were coming in behind me! 

WHOOPS! 

Luckily, I again had the initiative, and went first with the Knight of Shrouds, picking up the Cursed Relic (before either of the nearby Sylvaneth did the same and scarpered with it!)... then charged into the Branchwych to see if I could deal some damage to her BEFORE Amanda had a chance to use the Envoy of the Everqueen ability again (as Amanda had rolled ANOTHER Quad set during initiative!?) and give her +3 Toughness and +3 Strength 

As the Branchwych didn't need the ability, the Huntmaster used it and hit the Dreadblade Harrow HARD!!! Bringing it to within one or two of it's Health limit! Later in the round, a Gossamid archer stepped in and finished it off! 

Kurnoth Hunter shot at my arriving reinforcements...

And then I forgot to take pictures for the next two rounds... 

mostly it was static, belligerents had been paired off and just hammered on each other, neither really having much chance of single-handedly taking down their opponent... 

In the third round, the Knight of Shrouds did finish off the Branchwych... 

In the final round, the Knight of Shrouds galloped away from the Gossamid Archer he'd been fighting and tried to get as far from ALL of the Sylvaneth as possible... The Knight of Shrouds had pretty good move, so could easily get far enough that the Kurnoth would not be able to get to him. He needed to be far enough away that, if the shooting took him out, there wouldn't be any Sylvaneth close enough to dash in and pick up the treasure! 

(or perhaps the Gossamid archer had withdrawn from combat and shot at it, and opened the Knight of Shrouds to be an available target for ALL of the Sylvaneth shooters!) 

All the other surviving Nighthaunt rushed to their Knight's aid!surrounding him so that if he was taken down, there'd be enough of them nearby contesting the dropped treasure they would maintain control of the Cursed Relic. 

Afterwards, we realized Amanda has a faction reaction (Vengeful Spites!) that she COULD have made good use of that could potentially have dealt a lot more damage to my Nighthaunts! 

As it was the game was VERY close - the Knight of Shrouds had been reduced to his last few health. In the last round I think I'd used a Respite ability and that is the ONLY reason he was still alive at the end of the game. A bit luckier rolling on Amanda's part could have seen him destroyed by the Branchwych and Gossamid archer he'd been fighting... then the nearby Kurnoth Hunter could have stepped in and picked up the Relic and there was NO WAY I'd have been able to wrest it from that beast by the end of the game! 

Warcry does not seem like an exceptionally deadly kind of game... It's not super easy to take an enemy out unless they're weak and your fighter is exceptionally hard-hitting and/or has some wicked abilities that buff them, or you can get multiple fighters to gang up on one... it seems more like a game of positioning and maneuver. Which is kind of interesting. Maybe we've just not been playing with the right sort of things. I feel like maybe the better strategy is to have 2-3 hard hitting heroes, then a bunch of chaff - as many low-point heroes as possible to hold position or act as speed-bumps to tie up opponents Heroes...? 

It would be fun to toy around with this some more! I do have a LOT of options for forces I could field! 

Warcry - No Quarter!

I picked up the Core Rules and the four Grand Alliance books for the first edition of Warcry... and then played it ONCE...!? I liked it. I think Finnegan did too. Seemed like a clever little game that needed some more exploring... but then we never did play again!? I think that was also around the same time I picked up Warhammer Underworlds and kind of just ended up playing that... a LOT! 

Apparently, at some point, I bought the second edition books for Warcry - this time only two - Core Rules and a single compendium of ALL the warriors that can be played... and then never got around to trying it out... UNTIL NOW! 

This kind of came about because Amanda and I are planning a trip to the UK and part of that trip will likely include a visit to Warhammer World and when I mentioned all the events that go on there, Amanda suggested we play in one?! I'd not really thought of that - not being that much of a competitive tournament player... but once she'd suggested it, I though it might be fun to say I've played games at Warhammer World... Because we're travelling around a bit, it would not be practicable to bring full 40K or Age of Sigmar armies with us and lug them around (even spearhead might be a bit much!)... but if there happened to be a skirmish game event - Kill Team or Warhammer Underworlds or WARCRY - that might be more doable. So, we decided it was time to try out Warcry! 

Amanda's had a pretty busy few weeks since returning home from a little trip to the wet coast, and we just haven't found time to try it out yet. 

Vera (the human formerly known as Orion) had some extra time off work, though, so we met up Thursday evening to give it a try. 

Vera brought her Soulblight Gravelords along and cobbled to gather a warband:

• Kastellan (Blood Knight Champion)
• Blood Knight with Templar Lance
• Vargheist 
• Skeleton Champion with Halberd
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Blade
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear
• Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear
• Dire Wolf

I quickly put together a small force of Nighthaunts

• Knight of Shrouds on Etherial Steed
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Dreadblade Harrow
• Chaingast
• Chaingast

We set up some terrain and rolled for a scenario to play and came up with No Quarter! The battlefield is divided up into four quarters and whoever controls the most quarters at the end wins... To control a quarter, however, one needed to have at least one of their own models wholly within said quarter - and NO ENEMY within said quarter... it seemed an exceedingly difficult thing to do... unless you could whittle your opponents force down to three or less... and still have at least four of your own... that were spread out enough to have one in each quarter?! 

Set up and ready to go. One Battlegroup didn't show up until the second round - for both of us that included our leaders!? 

I had two chainghasts halfway up the middle. Orion had a band of Skeletons in a similar position (they are hiding behind the building opposite!). On one flank I had my two Dreadblade Harrows. On the other was the Vargheist with another Skeleton. 

Somehow one of my Dreadblade Harrow galloped clear across the table to fight a skeleton!? 

The Chainghasts got stuck in with the Vargheist in the middle of the table. The other Dreadblade Harrow joined them... 

On the second round the Blood Knights came galloping onto the table and the one with the lance charged my Dreadblade Harrow and stabbed them right in the etherial bits! 

The Kastellan galloped in and smashed through the Dreadblade Harrow as well... it took a Skeletal warrior to sneak up and finish off the Dreadblade Harrow. 

The Knight of Shrouds galloped onto the field of battle and put down a rather mangy-looking Dire Wolf! 

aaaaand then a couple more rounds happened and I didn't take any pictures... I was too busy looking things up and trying to figure out how to play the game. There isn't nearly as much stuff to keep track of compared to Age of Sigmar or Warhammer Underworlds - it is a pretty slick and simple system... but still fairly new and different enough it required checking on things and re-reading rules... I think after a few games I should be running a bit more smoothly! 

In the end it was a draw... we both had models in all four quarters. As I'd suspected, it turned out to be a very difficult scenario to WIN at! 

Doing a little MATH-HAMMER and considering the short length of the game, how slow a lot of units move, the number of models and how many attacks they make and how effective those attacks are and the health scores of various models... it seems like it would be a very difficult game to do... well... much of ANYTHING in the four short rounds that are played?! I guess we'll have to play it some more and try out some different forces and scenarios. 

I probably should have ignored he Vargheist... maybe tried to tie it down with one or both of the Chainghasts and galloped about with the others trying to take out all the little skeletons... 

Jaunt to Blighty?

Amanda and I are planning a little trip to England later this year... She's been there many times before (she has lots of family there - aunts, uncles, cousins, etc). I've never been anywhere overseas, so this is all new and exciting (and maybe a bit terrifying!) for me! We'll mostly be in London, but making a trip to Nottighham for a day or two. 

Amanda actually has a work conference on the continent, so we're also crossing to France and travelling to Boulogne-sur-Mer (where my great uncle is buried), and Vimy Ridge, and Paris for a few days before the conference!

So, dwellers and travellers of the Green and Pleasant Land... and France... my question you all is:

WHAT ARE THE MUST DO/SEE THINGS?!

(in London and Nottingham and Paris)...? 

Age of Sigmar - Brimstone Horrors

The first of the Disciples of Tzeentch stuff to roll off the workbench... 

Brimstone Horrors

Because they are entities of pure warpfire, I felt it looked odd them just standing on the plain grey cobbles... so I tried to paint a little yellow light reflecting off of the cobbles... I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out, but it looks marginally better than they looked on the plain grey and it doesn't bother me enough to want to paint over it and start again... so... 

Brimstone Horrors are the lesserer of the trio of Horrors and, canonically, the outcome of destroying a Blue Horror. It starts with Pink Horrors. If a Pink Horrors is destroyed it collapses and explodes into two Blue Horrors. When a Blue Horror is destroyed it bursts into two Brimstone Horrors.

On the tabletop... In the current edition, if a Pink Horror is slain you can CHOOSE to replace it with two Blue Horrors (if you have any available!) OR pick an enemy unit in combat with the Pink Horrors and roll a die, on a 5+ it inflicts a mortal wound. Each time a Blue Horror is slain, a die is rolled and on a 3+ a Brimstone Horror model is added to the unit. 

Weird that there is only a 66% chance of bringing out a Brimstone Horror...? 

The diminutive Disciples of Tzeentch force, so far... 

There will be more... SO MUCH more... 

I have the Blue Horrors assembled, and they'll likely be next. I've been working on assembling ALL the Tzeentch Daemons from the Warpflame Cavalcade... Strangely, I haven't even started on ANY of the Tzaangors from the Tzaangor Warflock...? 

I had also been working on the two Treelords on the workbench a little bit... an bits of other things (Grave Guard... Pestigors... ). But they've mostly shoved all that to the side to just get some of these Daemons painted and hopefully that will motivate me to get OTHER stuff done! 

Age of Sigmar - Disciples of Tzeentch: Warpflame Cavalcade

An absolutely HUGE parcel was dropped off today

YOINKS! 

Kind of dwarfed the box contained within! 

Disciples of Tzeentch: Warpflame Cavalcade

This box includes:

• 1x Kairos Fateweaver
• 3x Screamers of Tzeentch 
• 3x Flamers of Tzeentch
• 1x Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch
• 1x Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot
• 10x Pink Horrors
• 10x Blue Horrors
• 10x Brimstone Horrors

The Kairos Fateweather model could also be built as a generic Lord of Change (Greater Daemon of Tzeentch) - instead of the named character. Also the Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch and Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot could alternatively be built as a Changecaster and a Burning Chariot of Tzeentch. 

I think I'll stick with the Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch and Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot.. But I'm really torn about whether to build Kairos Fateweather or a Generic Lord of Change... The named character greater daemons (Kairos Fateweather, Skarbrand, Rotigus, Shalaxi Hellbane) are alway better than the generic ones. I've seen them referred to as "Auto-Include" in discussions of army building... Now.. I don't care at all about matched play, or competitive gaming. I like narrative play and making up stories about my OWN heroes (or, anti-heroes) carving out their own destinies by their sword (or... spells?).. but the people I do play against (other than Amanda) DO build competitive armies and there's always a nagging feeling in the back of my brain that I am hampering myself and dooming myself to always lose by not making the "competitive" choice... 

Also... the Kairos Fateweather version of the model looks pretty cool - with TWO heads! 

But also... I don't CARE about Kairos Fateweather, that giant battle chicken's story has already been told... 

I can think on it a bit, I have LOTS of other stuff to build and paint. 

I think I'll start with the Fateskimmer, Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot.. partly because it's a cool model and partly because I picked up White Dwarf #518 recently, and there are chariot racing rules for Age of Sigmar in there!!

I'll probably simultaneously put together all the Horrors... just because they look fun and they'll be super easy to paint and that will bring me close to being back in the black quicker (at least for the 28mm Foot)! 

This puts me at...

2026 PAINTED

• 28mm Foot: 43
• 28mm Mounted/Beasties: 2

2026 PURCHASED/ACQUIRED

• 28mm Foot: 65
• 28mm Mounted/Beasties: 9
• 28mm Vehicles/Monsters: 2
• 28mm Larger Terrain bits: 2

I doubt there will be any other purchases in the near future... so it shouldn't be too hard to catch up and start chipping away at the Pile of Opportunity!

(I guess there are the Endless Spells for the Disciples of Tzeentch... but I won't worry about those until I actually have enough of these painted to actually PLAY a game!) 

February Games

 I played a game in February... 

Tuesday, 3 February 2026

Started off the month with the GRAND FINALE to our Warhammer Quest: Cursed City campaign! This was the 44th game of Cursed city and the 15th game of the Night Wars campaign. I think it lasted 3-4 rounds...

The scenario looked HARD, but Brutogg got in a lucky hit against Carmilla Du Sang early on, and Glaurio finished her off and it went all downhill for the vampires very quickly after that... 

You can read all about it here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars 15 - The FINAL BATTLE...?

Aaaaaand then... that was about it...

Everyone was kind of busy with work and school.

Amanda was away half the month. Orion and Nick went on a ski trip... 

Maybe in March... 

I did track down a copy of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Nemesis - the third and final campaign of the trilogy. I'd initially given up on trying to track one down... but then one showed up at Fenris Workshop among the Used Miniatures and Games (though it was brand new and still in the shrink wrap!) for a not unreasonable price... so I picked that up and the two units I still needed to play the campaign and have been working on trying to paint them up so we can carry on with Warhammer Quest: Cursed City in March!

I guess we'll get to Warhammer Quest: Darkwater AFTER that! 

One More Trip (Tzaangor Warflock)

 I made one more trip to the Dragon's Den this week (my third!) and went back and picked up the Tzaangor Warflock. I had originally told myself (and... Amanda...) that I was going to hold off on getting these UNTIL I painted ALL of the Warpfire Cavalcade Battleforce... but that's been delayed... and I'm going to get these anyway at SOME point... so I just wandered back Friday afternoon and picked it up!? 

Tzaangor Warflock

I think Tzaangors look fun. I hate actually painting them... but they look fun and I got it in my head that it would be fun to have an entire force of just Tzaangor and Deamons of Tzeentch. No humans.. I also like the idea of piles of Tzaangor on Discs of Tzeentch whizzing about the field of battle.

I already have three of them:

Tzaangor on Discs of Tzeentch

Of the three above that came in the Arcane Cataclysm box, I built one as a Tzaangor Enlightened, and the other two as Tzaangor Skyfires... (as, at the time, I wasn't concerned with building a full unit of one or the other to use in Age of Sigmar!). The Enlightened I actually used as a Tzaangor Shaman... 

Now that I have some more, I think I'll build two as Enlightened and four as Skyfires, so I have one unit of three Enlightened, and two units of three Skyfires... Also, now I will have an ACTUAL Tzaangor Shaman! 

(Maybe I should actually have a look at the Battletome before I actually start assembling!)