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... 

Dire Wolves

I picked up these wolves over a year and a half ago when I picked up the Fangs of the Blood Queen Dawnbringers box. I needed the Fell Bats for Night Wars and that was a way to pick them up - and some other Soulblight Gravelords stuff - at a bit of a discount!  I just didn't get to painting the Dire Wolves... (or the vampire that came in the box, for that matter!). Now that I have a copy of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Nemesis on the way, I finally found some motivation to knock them out quickly... I think what kept me from getting them done was colours - I agonized over how to to a pack of wolves with some variance in colours... This week I decided, fuck it, they're evil undead fantastical wolves from a fictional realm.... they can all be BLACK!! 

Dire Wolves! 

ALL of my other Soulblight Gravelords models are on flagstone bases, but that felt like it might look odd for these - especially since many of them had large boulders incorporated into the model and I thought they'd look funny just sitting on the flag stones. I guess I could have made them look like rubble...? As it is, I did them all on rocky bases painted the same colour as the flagstone so they could blend in a bit and it COULD be rubble in a city OR it COULD be rocky mountainous terrain!? 

Once I'd decided on just painting their coats black, these went VERY quickly! 

Most of the Vampire Heroes I have are named characters of the Vyrkos Dynasty. The fluff suggests some relationship with wolves - like maybe they're descended from Wolves or something? Belladamma Volga (one that I don't have) can have a meatshield of Dire Wolves. When I have megalomaniacal dreams of possible armies, I sometimes think of an entire Soulblight Gravelords army based around the Vyrkos Heroes and just packs and packs of wolves... It would probably be total crap as a competitive army... but it would look cool and be very thematic! 

(Well now I HAD to math it out... If I picked up Belladamma Volga and Ivya Volga - the two Vyrkos characters I don't have - I'd need another FIVE packs of Dire Wolves to make a 2000 point army... and that would be just a bit under $500CAD...) 

It felt like they were HUGE while I was painting them..probably because, in my minds eye I was comparing them to ancient metal Wolves I had... 

I think the one on the round base is from Westward Productions and the goblin wolf-rider is a metal Marauder Miniature from the 1990s that I still haven't stripped and repainted! 

I'm not suggesting this is BAD thing. I think it is apropos that they be HUGE and TERRIFYING... they are DIRE wolves, after all!! 

Comparing them to modern Vyrkos Dynasty Vampires, though... they're kind of perfect! 

With Radukar the Wolf

With Kritza the Rat Prince

With Lady Annika

Somparing them to the Vampires on their flagstone bases, I kind of feel like maybe I need to hit the bases with another dry-brushing of a slightly lighter grey...? to make them match the tone of the flagstone a bit better - but also seeing them on the game table, it will make a bit better contrast between the bases and the wolves... Will I get around to doing this any time soon...? Maybe...? 

I still have the Vargheists, a unit of Grave Guard, and the Necromancer to finish up for Nemesis, but we won't be playing for almost three weeks, so I'll easily get those done. The Vargheists came with the Soulblight Gravelord Bloodcrave Hunt Spearhead army, so getting them done will get me a bit closer to finishing those as well - I'll just have the five Blood Knights to finish up! (Then we'll see some Vamp-on-Vamp violence versus Orion's Soublights!) 

First Purchases of 2026

Technically, the stuff below aren't really the first purchases of 2026... I bought some stuff on Friday... but that was mail ordered and won't be here until later in the week and I don't really count things that aren't in my grubby little hands yet! 

It is BECAUSE of said purchases that I wandered on over to the Dragon's Den and bought the stuff below. 

Fenris Workshop had a copy of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - NEMESIS! The THIRD campaign in the trilogy - long out of print and I'd kind of given up the idea that we'd ever play it as the only copies I'd seen available were hundreds of dollars! The copy Fenris had was still in shrink-wrap and not too unreasonably priced! So I bought it! (and since I was ordering from them, I also picked up a BUNCH of flowery tufts for basing and a small handful of used miniatures). 

Luckily, the required miniatures for Nemesis include Varghiests, Dire Wolves, Grave Guard, a Wight King and a Necromancer. I already HAVE Varghiests and Dire Wolves and a Wight King... I just needed a Necromancer and the Grave Guard.... 

So I picked up the Necromancer and Grave Guard at the Dragon's Den. 

I should be able to knock these out pretty quick. I've already started on the Dire Wolves - which is what's distracted me away from the Pestigors. We won't be playing ANY Warhammer Quest until March, anyway, because Amanda is very suddenly off on a little vacation for the latter half of February! 

(I guess if I finished up the Pestigors, I COULD just play through the whole campaign with OTHER PEOPLE while she's away!) 

(I could probably play through it a FEW times!) 

For our Tuesday evenings, however, we'll probably return to play in March with Cursed City Nemesis... and THEN when we're done that Amanda, Finnegan and I will play through Warhammer QuestL Darkwater.

(but, yeah, I might just play it with others - or solo it myself - while she's away!) 

This puts me at 22 painted, 11 purchased for the year so far. Another 8 foot and 1 mounted are arriving with the Fenris Order. I'm hoping by the time it arrives I'll have finished either the Pestigors or the Dire Wolves (or maybe BOTH!?) which would be another 18-20 miniatures (depending on whether I can find some of the old beastmen I have squirrelled away to use as stand-in pestigors or not - to make it a full unit of 10!?) 

In another couple weeks, the Battleforce: Disciples of Tzeentch – Warpflame Cavalcade will be arriving, which will be adding almost another FORTY miniatures!! It's actually thirty-six little Daemons, an Exalted Flamer (which is big enough I'd classify as "Mounted/Small Beastie") and a Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot and a Lord of Change - Greater Daemon of Tzeentch (both of which would be classified as "Vehicles/Bigger Beasties"). This will bring the total purchased/acquired to 55.

Can I get another 33 x 28mm foot miniatures painted in the next two weeks - to keep me "in the black" in that category at least...? Maybe... Maybe not... Regardless, these graveyard should be pretty quick and easy to knock out, so if I could finish these AND the Pestigors AND the Dire Wolves, I'd be CLOSE - and within the next week or so, I'd be able to finish up a few others bringing the painted back higher than the purchased!! 

I am trying really hard to keep from adding too much to the collections this year - and definitely want to keep it lower than the amount I paint. I'd would be nice to paint twice as many as I purchase, but I'm not going to do anything silly like make a proclamation that I will be doing so! 

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

 In Ulfenkarn, dead is, sometimes, only a temporary state of affairs... 

Despite having decapitated all three Vampire lords, burning their bodies and scattering the ashes to the winds... a rumour caught in our heroes' ears that ALL THREE had been somehow resurrected... AGAIN... and were prowling in the crypts below the city... 

("Plot Armour", Muthafukkaz! You just CAN NOT KILL a named character!!) 

The crypts below Ulfenkarn. 

Kritza the Rat Prince, lurking as far from the heroes as possible... 

(I love that this is where he started, snivelling coward that he is... it was disappointing that his action table always has him moving towards the nearest Hero, instead of trying to flee from them - as he DID in the Decaptiation Journey - and let the constantly respawning minions try to deal with the Heroes!)

Carmilla Du Sang and her Fell Bats and Kosargi Nightguard bodyguard

Lady Annika, the Thirsting Blade, was also lurking in the crypts... I just forgot to take a picture of her... 

The Fell Bats swooped in and snatched Brutogg away carrying him back to their mistress... 

Octren Glimscry ran off after them but encountered a horde of Corpse Rats... He quickly snorted some gravesand and stared at them all menacingly and made the lot of them explode, one by one... 

With the rats out of the way, Qulathis sprinted past the gore-spattered room in which they'd dwelt to aid their beefy friend Brutogg... Her arrows missed the deftly dodging Vampire Lord and couldn't even connect with the Fell Bats! Not wanting to stick around and be a target for the Vampire Lord and her minions, she sprinted back to Octren, abandoning Brutogg! 

Lady Annika swept forward with her Vyrkos Blood-Born minions... the room where Brutogg had been dragged to was so crowded, these deadly foes couldn't even get in to attack the Ogor! 

Brutogg shoulder-barged past the Fell Bats and took a swing at Carmilla Du Sang... and it connected... HARD!! 

Glaurio ven Alten III caught up to his bulky friend and fired his pistols, finishing off the deadly Vampire Lord!! 

Glaurio and Brutogg then pounded and shot Lady Annika who seemed to be frozen with shock at the sight of Du Sang's death! 

Qualathis returned at this point and started shooting arrows into the room 

Octren snorted some MORE Gravesand and then destroyed every Fell Bat in the room... 

Seriously, I think it's beginning to become a problem. They might have to have an intervention soon... 

Brutogg them pulped Kritza the Rat Prince... and... that... that was it... 

The heroes just had to survive the remaining attacks of the Vampire Lords minions until they realized their masters were gone and fled themselves (the end of the Round) 

Brutogg was once again carried away by the Fell Bats, who them failed to even scratch the towering bulk of muscle and menace! 

And there was much rejoicing... 

Seriously, I think it took three rounds...? It probably took longer to set up than it did to play through!

 The scenario LOOKED really tough... again... With Carmilla Du Sang on the table (Carmilla has an ability that shuts down all empowerments - which are one of the things that made the Heroes extremely powerful and, in some cases, kept them alive against these really powerful foes! So, obviously, she was the first priority...)... and some serious damage dealing foes... 

Butogg got a VERY lucky hit in against Carmilla Du Sang on the FIRST ROUND and then Glaurio got in a couple of lucky shots and finished her off... and.. that was about it. It went downhill rapidly for the Vampires after that. With Glaurio's YOU-CAN'T-DODGE-THESE-BULLETS realm stone-empowered pistols, they were quickly dealt with - part of what makes them such powerful enemies is their ability to dodge attacks. About 50% of the time - give-or-take, depending on which vampire - when you do damage, they just ignore it... Glaurio had a weapon enhancement that disallowed ignoring his weapons' damage! 

So... that's it for this campaign! Ulfenkarn is liberated! Huzzah!!

(Actually there was a page to turn to and passage to read among all the crises tables which said Radukar shows up and laughs at the heroes and reanimates the vampires and barges that they did exactly as he wished - put those vampires in their place for them, now they much bow down to his again, thanks a lot, suckaz! this is to set up the second expansion/third campaign Nemesis... which, I have read ends the same... you spend all this time fighting to build up characters to finally face the Boss Baddies.. only to read some narrative fluff that says "Jokes on you, they escape!" which is kind of lame...)

("Plot Armour", Muthafukkaz! You just CAN NOT KILL a named character!!) 

So... I guess I need to finish up the rest of the Warhammer Quest: Darkwater miniatures!! 

Initially we'd planned to start our family campaign next Tuesday, and then on the Family Day Long Weekend maybe play through the campaign - or at least one act - with some other friends... But then Amanda decided to go on a trip with a friend to Vancouver Island for two weeks, starting next week... so... we decided to forego playing this coming Tuesday (giving me a bit more time to paint miniatures, I guess...) and we'll start the family campaign in March when she's back! 

I may still play through the campaign on the long weekend - or, some other weekend in February (I have traditionally held game weekends/Minicons/campaigns in February to celebrate my birthday...?)

If you've been reading along through all FOURTY-FOUR episodes of this campaign, thank-you! Hope you enjoyed the ride and the end wasn't too much of a disappointment. Despite GW's attempt to yank the rug out with the HA-HA! THEY GET AWAY! BS we have all thoroughly enjoyed playing if over the last year! 

I'd hoped we'd be able to do the same with Warhammer Quest: Darkwater, but given the new format of the campaign system, that seems unlikely. We'll likely have played through it (possibly multiple times!) before the end of the First Quarter!? Perhaps we'll return to Warhammer QuestL Blackstone Fortress after that..? Or we could play through Silver Tower... or maybe I'll just focus on Soulbound and try to run more regular role-playing games!!

Also... if you haven't read ALL of the game reports and want to (or just want to look back at some old ones or see where we started: the Warhammer Quest Gallery Page has been updated with links to EVERY Game Report for ALL the (fantasy) Warhammer Quest campaigns:

Warhammer Quest Gallery Page

(I should really do something similar for the Blackstone Fortress stuff at some point!!) 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars 14 - Desperate Frenzy Decapitation Journey

 And thus it was time to face Kritza the Rat Prince... 

A bit about this scenario... As with all the Decaptiation Journeys in the Night Wars campaign, the journey begins with a Haven Defence scenario - where the Vampire Lord lashes out at the Heroes and sends their minions to Haven to hunt them down. In this one the Heroes are attacked by a Vargskyr(!), a group of Deadwalker Zombies, some Corpse Rats, and THE ABHORRENT SWARM!!! (suddenly wished I'd gone with the LARGER option). The special rules for the swarm is it FILLS the room it is in, counting as having a hostile figure in every space in the room - so heroes cannot move INTO the room with it. If the Swarm moved into the room, all other models have a move of one (and can presumably move through spaces to get out!). The swarm counts as having 15 wounds and if it is destroyed returns to the table as reinforcements on it's next activation. At the beginning of each turn, just before the determine if the scenario is over step, the swarm deals two damage to any hero in the same room as it, and one damage to any hero in an adjacent room. If on its activation it starts on the table and there aren't any heroes in the room it is currently in... it moves to an adjacent room, moving towards the closest hero...

The swarm has to be destroyed four times to win the Haven Scenario.... all while being hunted by a Vargskyr, that just keeps coming back (66% of the time) any time it is destroyed, and being harassed by zombies and corpse rats... 

IF the Heroes survive that... they track Kritza back to his compound and have to kill him... Kritza always tries to run away from any heroes. and he is FAST... and has a LARGE estate... AND every time he takes ANY amount of damage, he bursts into a pile of rats, and reappears at a random spawn point somewhere in his estate... AND the Heroes only have SIX rounds in which to kill him, or he escapes!!

Wow... 

So here's where everyone started... 

Qulathis stormed into the square where Brutogg and a Vargskyr were staring each other down. The Aelf put a half dozen arrows into the hulking beast (the Vargskyr, not Brutogg!) and down it went! 

Glaurio advanced on a square where a horde of Deadwalker Zombies had gathered and started shooting them. 

Octren snorted some gravesand and started staring down the Abhorrent Swarm. rats started bursting everywhere - like a kettle of popcorn - but splattering gore and viscera everywhere!

(Octren Glimscry has an ability called "Hollow Stare" - it's a ranged attack, he stares at things and deals them damage! He also has an ability where he can deal himself damage and then his hollow stare deals EXTRA damage, for the rest of the turn... we've always joked that he either snorts gravesand - the realmstone of Shyish - or pours it into his eyes to do this... something BOTH... doing this and then doing three Hollow Stares dealt the horde enough damage that it destroyed it! Or perhaps did enough damage that the remaining rats fled... only to return again with friends the next turn!) 

And return the Abhorrent Swarm did... in the same room that Glaurio was in... with zombies... and rats... 

(Amanda was, not unjustly, concerned that this might be end of Glaurio!!)

Brutogg came running, stomping on groups of Corpse Rats along the way... 

From the doorway he started stomping and smashing rats by the fistful, there was no end to them.. 

Octren snorted another dose of gravesand and stared down the Abhorrent Swarm again... bursting hundreds like giant horrific pustules! 

Qulathis joined Brutogg and started shooting the remaining Corpse Rats and Zombies! 

The Vargskyr returned... or... another one did...? ALONG WITH the Abhorrent Swarm!! 

Glaurio covered in gore and blood escaped the room he'd been in... it was unclear how much was his and how much was just from being showered by exploding rats! 

AGAIN, Octren approached the Abhorrent Swarm

Qulathis stepped back out of the room and shot many arrows into the Vargskyr. Meanwhile Glaurio found himself surrounded again! 

Brutogg, after finished off the Vargskyr came running to help out poor Glaurio! 

When the Abhorrent Swarm appeared again, for the last time, it was Qulathis' turn to destroy it... She fired so many arrows into it, catching a dozen rats on every shaft it disrupted the nigh endless tide of of vermin and sent the rest scattering to the winds! 

The remaining zombies and rats shambled away, defeated... and our heroes followed them back to their master's abode! 

On to part two... we took a little break while I put away the haven tiles and set up Kritza's Mansion... 

It was a LARGE place... lots of space for the Vampire Lord to run around and disappear into! 

The Heroes arrive on his doorstep! 

Brutogg is the first to go... He charges forth, past the Vargskyr and to some Deadwalker Zombies, blocking his way. He doesn't even hit them, though, he just Shoulder Barges past them all! 

Then uses a Destiny Die to take one more step and take a swing at Kritza the Rat Prince. The blow connects, solidly - Kritza having failed to dodge - and deals FIVE damage (Kritza had only nine health!). The Vampire lord dissolves into a pile of rats that scurry off in all directions and... 

... reappears elsewhere in his mansion... 

Which just happens to be close enough for Glaurio ven Alten III to dash forth and blast Kritza with one of his pistols... AGAIN the Vampire Lord fails to dodge! He is dealt three more damage and bursts into a swarms of rats that scurry off into cracks, under furniture and behind curtains... only to reappear... 

RIGHT BEHIND GLAURIO!!?

Glaurio still had one more action, so he turned around and shot Kritza in the face... BLAM! The Vampire Lord, once again, dissolved into a pile of rats and scurried off, never to be seen again... well... until the final boss battle... 

Are... 

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?!

This is the SECOND TIME the heroes, faced with what looked on paper like a rather challenging scenario, KILLED THE VAMPIRE LORD ON THE FIRST TURN!?

WTF!?!

It took me longer to set up this mansion than it took them to play through the scenario and kill Kritza... 

They didn't even have to get to an Extraction Zone in this one.. at the start of a turn if Kritza was killed and it wasn't past Round Six, game over, players won... That did mean we had to finish out the round... 

So the Vargskyr did attack Brutogg... Brutogg just shrugged off its menacing blows... 

Some Zombies joined in... but they were even more useless... 

An extra Zombie appeared right in the Landing Zone and attacked Octren... who ignored it... 

The corpse rats were too far away to get to any of the Heroes - even with a charge!

And... that was that... 

All three Vampire Lords have been stripped of their power base... Now to face them all ONCE AGAIN in a FINAL BOSS BATTLE!!

That will be next week, though... 

Wow... I guess I better get painting the Warhammer Quest: Darkwater stuff!!!