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!