[Warcry / Warhammer Underworlds] Beyond the Silver Tower

[Sobek]

Yo there! Shaping up to be a productive year.

Finished my Splintered Fang for Warcry with a Trueblood Medusa conversion (they’re like pit fighter gladiator people, so the original model is more like a retiarius lady with net and spear).

Also painted up another Venomblood converted from one of these AoS Slaaneshii archers.

That makes a Hulk Smash coloured warband led by a Trueblood, with a Serpent Caller, four Venombloods and three piles of snakes.

Also there‘s a… Pureblood (far right, double blade dude in the back). This was the test model for the colour scheme so why not include him in the warband for some list building variation?

Side note: I really like the naming convention for this gang being based on how much poison is in their blood (like toxin immunity and stuff because they like to use poisoned blades in combat) and the leader basically has daemon blood pumping through their veins, hence a Medusa.

I get confused with the something-blood names a lot though.

 

[Sobek]

It took me a while to realize what bothered me about the Venomblood girl with spear/shield. There was no green or blue-green (except for the poison effects) that ties the gangers in with all the snakes.

The easy fix was to add a crest to her headdress similar to her friends‘.
So that’s what I did tonight.

Don’t forget: You decide when one of your models is finished. It’s never too late to change something you don’t like.

 

[Sobek]

FOMO made me buy a grumpy cyclops (insert silly official AoS fantasy name here).

Quite large model on a 60mm base, Hive Scum for scale.

Needs another session of modelling hair and some sand for the base.

Slight modifications to the original model, I downsized his comically large shoulder pad and repositioned the head: As per instructions the face sits right above his manly man boobs, on the chest, like there is no neck - it just looks weird and wrong.

I like it much better now!

 

[Brendan Flynn]

Oh yeah he is a fine specimen of ....ah cyclopshood. Where is he from because I recon he would fit in nicely with my giant army. He's a little short for one of the big guys but I only have two or three mid sized giants and really should have a dozen to make them the all conquering mighty force I envisage. Seven or eight titans, ten or twelve this size, and fifeteen or more smaller guys, accompanied by beastmen and ogres should make them a real threat for any game.

 

[Sobek]

The angry baby troll is called a Fomoroid Crusher

Has recently been re-packaged for an Age of Sigmar Beasts bundle for the Chaos Warrior faction:

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/slaves-to-darkness-hargaxs-pit-beasts-2023

He used to be available separately as a Monster for Warcry, but seems to have moved to made to order now (hence FOMO):

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/fomoroid-crusher-2022

You may find them in local hobby stores or online retailers, I don't believe they sold many copies of this weird creature.

I can check for size comparison with a Warhammer Giant later if you like (the now small giants, if "small giant" is even a thing).

 

[Sobek]

1815CBF8-24C7-4D5F-B652-E654108DCD64.jpeg

• Sobek
• Mar 7, 2023

Size comparison Warhammer Giant vs AoS Cyclops

It is maybe half as tall as the Warhammer Giant.

 

[Brendan Flynn]

Thanks for the info and the comparison shot too Sobek, much appreciated. Nice paint job on the giant by the way. I got the Mantic giant which is a really nice sculpt, with a fearsome aspect and daunting height as well as waiting on five more from the Shadowfey set, which are nearly as big.

 

[Sobek]

Nice paint job on the giant by the way.

Thanks. Thinking about it, I never showed you the big guy, did I? Recently put him on an oval base to maybe use in Warcry and have some fun with Gnoblars.

Here's how Ghurk the Giant invented Football.

"Sir?...Sir! SIR! Down here! Hey...HEEEEY!"

 

[Brendan Flynn]

That is a great little diorama mate. You have even captured the look of fear on the faces of the two gnoblars. Very thematic piece, I love it. I only hope my giants turn out half as well.

 

[Sobek]

Don’t forget: You decide when one of your models is finished. It’s never too late to change something you don’t like.

Taking my own advice with this one. Changed the spear tip* on my Beast Speaker for my Warcry Untamed Beasts warband.

Also applied some glazes over skin and hair and worked on the warpaint some more. I remember she was the final model to be painted for this warband in preparation for a game and was kind of a rushed paintjob. Still not perfect by any means but I like her a lot and in games she and her battlecat are a force of nature.

*The spear is from some Dark Elf kit (warriors or even chariot, don't remember), the new blade is taken from the winged people of the witch elves that have become their own faction in Age of Something. Khinerai?
The hand holding the spear is a bit too large I guess but no one will notice as you don't see the other one clearly for comparison so I won't bother.
Model is the original Beast Speaker reposed, arms and head from a Dark Eldar Lelith Hesperax (~2011 model, not the new plastic sculpt).
Conversion inspired by the female tracker character from the movie Centurion, portrayed by Olga Kurylenko.

 

[Sobek]

Look who finally played some Warcry again the other day!

Had my good friend Lea visit me and she is all about Vampires, Bats and stuff. So apart from spending the sundown in the forest watching the bats go hunting, we played two games of Warcry. My Splintered Fang warband (Medusa, Snake Shaman Lady with Snakes, Venombloods 2x Spear/Shield, Duelling Blades, Whip and a Pureblood) vs. a Soulblight Gravelords warband I made for her (Vampire Lord, 3x Graveguard Minions, Crimson Court).

Painted these warbands earlier this year and I am glad we finally got to try them out.

This game is so much fun! Whenever I try to tell people why I love playing this it seems they think the game is too casual to be challenging or whatever. I don't know, you do you. I enjoy it a lot.

Below is the setup for the first game. Not sure how much I need to explain to you guys about the general principles and rules of the game in order for you to get and idea of what was going on.

There's cards for terrain setup I never use and three decks of cards to randomly draw a scenario from. Before you draw scenario, warband setup and a twist (like changing weather or wild beasts) you split your warband up into three groups: Hammer, Shield and Dagger. The setup card will show you where and when each group will enter the board. Some may enter as reinforcements later in the game. This can lead to games that are basically decided from the start (like stealing and keeping a treasure chest to win, when one warband has a high movement creature to run around with it and the other one moves at snail pace).
But if both players agree you can simply draw again. Or agree on a scenario beforehand if you don't like all the randomness.

Anyway.

First mission was to kill at least half your opponent's fighters; by end of round 4 any model within 4" from a board edge would be killed automatically, Twist card was Chaos Furies that were a big harassment yet probably one of my favourite twist cards.

I managed to take down one of the vampires and the grave guard in round four to win. To be fair I had some lucky dice rolls, as the vampires have an average of 15+ wounds and are not easy to take down with my glass cannon snake cult that relies on poisoned weapons, tricks to immobilize enemies and basically rolling crits.

Second game was all about taking out the enemies' "dagger" group. We played through, even though I knew this was gonna be super hard due to my dagger being the Snake Charmer shaman lady with one heap of snakes with a total of 21 wounds against her dagger group that were two vampire ladies and a grave guard coming in at around 50 wounds. In addition, the Vampire Lord AND Prince Duvalle of the Crimson Court were able to revive minions (such as Grave Guard...) with an ability Lea was able to trigger basically every single round.

Snakes went down almost immediately so I tried to hide my Snake Charmer in a corner having the other guys defending her while slowly chewing away at the targets. In the end she got stabbed to death by a Grave Guard skeleton the Vampire Lord summoned back from the desert right before her eyes.

Really looking forward to getting more games in more often, now that I have four fully painted gangs and a large box full of modular terrain.
This is so much fun.

 

[Ben_S]

I should probably try Warcry because it might be simple enough for my gf to try too, but it doesn't really appeal - just doesn't seem to have much depth. Am I being unfair?

 

[SuboptimusPrime]

I should probably try Warcry because it might be simple enough for my gf to try too, but it doesn't really appeal - just doesn't seem to have much depth. Am I being unfair?

It's a game where one session is supposed to last ~45 minutes when both players are experienced in rules and battlefield setup, so it is by design less complex than Necromunda and less cluttered than, say, 40k. In the time it takes our club to play one game of Necro, the Warcry table can finish two to three games, each if which plays quite different.

The random setup and battlefield modifiers go a long way to keep things diverse and the dice mechanic for abilities prevents always playing the same trick and adds a small layer of resource management. Add to that a very streamlined campaign system which (I dare speak heresy) blows Necromunda's out of the water, and you have a well-rounded experience that is indeed quite easy to get into.

In my personal opinion, saying Warcry lacks depth is like saying a sandwich and chips are less filling than a four course meal. Not wrong, but not what it's meant to do.

 

[Sobek]

@SuboptimusPrime Thank you, I have a similar feeling about the game. For what it is, I think it is one of the best GW games.

I should probably try Warcry because it might be simple enough for my gf to try too, but it doesn't really appeal - just doesn't seem to have much depth. Am I being unfair?

Well, that strongly depends on how much 'depth' you expect to get out of a tabletop Skirmisher game I guess and even more what kind of games you enjoy playing.

For example, while I like the 'depth' that the old Inquisitor RPG rulebook provides when it comes to character creation or model interaction, the game mechanics are crap. I really want to get the old group together for another campaign but we are already looking into stuff like One Page Rules or even Necromunda for better combat / weapon rules or behaviour tables for adversaries.

I really enjoy Warcry because it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

The rules are simple and intuitive. My last game must have been sometime in late 2021 and after one round in (round, not full game) the both of us were familiar with most rules and mechanics again, except for stuff like summoning undead minions we had never done before. Also there was an edition change in the meantime that has barely changed any of the core mechanics as far as I can see. The rules/mechanics section in the current core book is like what, 20 pages maybe? They just don't make things needlessly complicated.
Movement is pretty straight forward, so is cover or line of sight. When fighting, you don't have to make three rolls each comparing various stats and modifiers and special rules to determine the damage of a single blow - and don't get me started on firing automatic weapons in Inquisitor and such.

In the meantime I have had four or five games of Kill Team, and while I enjoy the game (mainly for giving me a good reason to paint a small collection of Dark Eldar...) it is much more... I don't know. I tend to forget most of the rules and game mechanics in between games. And we haven't even played a single "normal" game but chosen rather simple scenarios and omitted a lot of stuff.

Alternating activations are another thing - how did we ever think "I move all my stuff and then you do while I get something from the coffee shop down the street, you want something?" was any good? Rolling for initiative each round already includes tactical elements such as "do I need to get the first activation or rather have strong(er) special abilities to pull off with some of my models" and that can make for a very dynamic gameplay, adapting to new threats and situations on the fly and the need to improvise. You could also chain-activate certain models, or even wait to see what they are up to or lure them into traps and stuff.

The random setup mechanics lead to no two games ever feeling the same, along with varying terrain setup, changes in your warband, group division. And if you draw a scenario you think one player will auto-loose or you won't enjoy, just draw another one. Or simply agree upon a certain mission and setup instead of random determination.


I have the impression that many people from our hobby community read "simple rules" as this as "a game meant for kids and partners -not really- into the hobby, not challenging, boring, bad". I will probably never understand this.

But again that depends on what you expect from such a game. I don't want to spend whole weekends playing one single game. I want to invite people over and get my painted models out and have a game set up in maybe 15 minutes that I know we will finish over the course of an afternoon and have fun. Having to learn half a dozen books by heart while still encountering strange corner cases every five minutes and spending most of the time discussing how to play the game instead of actually playing it does not sound fun for me.

Unfortunately my friend has permanently returned to Germany, but I'd love to come over for some introductory games of Warcry if we can make it happen.
The core rules and most factions are available to download for free from Warhammer Community website so I'd say just give it a go and see for yourself.

 

[Sobek]

For a slight change of topic, I will be visiting good friends over the weekend that introduced me to Warhammer Underworlds last year.

I asked them to paint their Mollog warband as I really love these beyond ridiculous models but you can hardly get your hands on them these days and I am quite happy playing my Goblin Wolf Rider warband. But I got the opportunity to paint them.

Might brighten up Mollog's nose or ears for better focus on the face, the studio model has some of the large mushrooms depicted as fly agarics to solve the focus issue, I did not want that. On the studio promo pictures I also saw the stalagmite squig thingy is supposed to have a fleshy tongue I will pick out as well.

Other than that quite pleased for a couple hours of painting. Only took like forever to take them from the kitchen shelf to actually paint them.

 

[Sobek]

Worked on the pretty face some more before I returned the Troll Gang last weekend.

We even played some Warhammer Underworlds.

Gotta say I enjoy the game since GW learned that not everyone is into collectable card games and deckbuilding and you can basically play with the deck your warband comes with. So I took my Goblins for a joyride.

First game was three players, to get used to the rules and mechanics again (when you don't play regularly you tend to forget EVERYTHING).

Troll gang vs. witch elves pit fighter gang vs. goblins on wolves gang.

You'd think the witch elves are between a rock and a hard place, but Gryselle (leader) managed to stay alive until the final round and scored enough objectives to come out first place even though the warband was taken out completely.

With some lucky dice rolls I could have scored a 5VP objective ("Kill them all") but my archer missed the stalagmite squig thingy.

We played another game of Greenskins vs. Greenskins.

Those 'Ardboyz are quite scary but somehow I managed to take them all out with my pack. Here's how things looked at the start of the final round. I think I'd have won by taking out the remaining orc alone (you get one VP for every enemy you take out, even more if they are 5+ HP models such as their leader). Managed to score some objectives too, so I won 11:4 VPs. Did not expect that!

Overall I quite like this game. Was tempted to get the new box set that should be up for pre-order any weekend now (with Slaaneshii daemons and deep sea elves), but I don't play nearly enough with this one warband to get tired of those goody boys.

For those of you that don't play this game (which is basically everyone I guess), there are unique mechanics for each fighter or warband to "inspire" them for a better profile during the game. In this fun little gang, bow grot and stab grot inspire when their leader gets attacked (to show the constant rivalry; them riding wolves just adds to the flavour of this mechanic!). The boss inspires when he has two or more upgrades, because they are raiders. I love the game for these things.