At the end of April we had Warhammer Fest 2023 and on the Sunday there was a Warcry tournament.Unfortunately, I could only attend on Saturday, so I didn’t get to witness the Warcry tournament in action. However, I was keen to check out the results and take a closer look at the 55 warbands that participated in the event. In this video, I will provide a brief overview of each warband, but do note that I did transcribe the lists myself, so any errors should be attributed to me rather than the players.
Out of the 55 players, there were 21 Chaos, 16 Order, 10 Death, and 8 Destruction Warbands. The event comprised a total of 4 games, allowing for a maximum of 4 undefeated players and resulting in 108 games in total. The chart below shows the 55 players, color-coded by Grand Alliance, with the last place on the left and the first place on the right. It’s important to note that drawing any major conclusions based on the results of a single event should be avoided. However, combining this information with other events can lead to more informed conclusions.
To better understand the event, let’s go over each of the four rounds and their objectives.
Round one was Power Struggle, an objective-based mission with four objectives. You score points equal to the battle round for each objective you control at the end of a round, with later rounds being worth more points than the earlier ones. The secondary objective was An Early Grave, which rewarded bonus victory points for killing the enemy leader. For deployment, Shield started turn one.
Round two was Supremacy, with six objectives. Rather than scoring for each objective, you got two points at the end of each round for holding two objectives, three objectives, or holding more objectives than your opponent. The random secondary objective was Strong Arm the Competition, which added an extra objective in the center of the battlefield contested by total wounds. For deployment, Dagger started turn one.
Round three was Spoils of War, with four objectives. You gained one point at the end of each round for controlling an objective, but you also had the option to destroy an objective as a fighter action and gain two victory points. The secondary objective was Stolen Wares, which added three treasure tokens, each giving two victory points at the end of the game.
The last round was Tides of Battle, another objective-based mission. Each turn, the player who doesn’t have the initiative picks one of the six objectives to be the primary objective, and the rest become secondary. Controlling the primary objective gives two victory points, while controlling any of the secondary objectives gives one victory point. The secondary objective was Predator and Prey, where each player picks a fighter at the start of each turn, and they get two victory points at the end of the turn if that fighter was killed, at an objective, or had treasure.
All four rounds were objective-based, so having lots of cheap models to control the board was advantageous. However, the first game, Power Struggle, rewarded more points in later turns, allowing warbands to cut their way through opponents. Since you pick your deployment before knowing the mission, it’s essentially a crapshoot. For this event, shield and hammer started once with Dagger starting twice, giving any warband that placed their top fighters in the Dagger group an advantage.
Demenzia shared some shots of the event’s nearly 30 tables on the Warcry Discord, and they look impressive. It’s possible that many of the terrain pieces were straight from the cards, which is great. When assessing the terrain, there are two main factors to consider. Firstly, is there enough space for monsters? Despite the points increase, they are still formidable fighters. Secondly, are there areas inaccessible to mounted fighters? Some fighters have the mounted trait, and while it’s not a problem on certain boards, objectives or treasure on platforms can be out of reach. Fortunately, all the missions for this event specified that objectives should be placed on the battlefield floor, so mounted fighters shouldn’t be too disadvantaged. Most tables had some interesting platforms, though, which could be used strategically to keep fighters safe from mounted threats.
Alright, let’s get to it.
First up we have Order. There were 16 warbands in total, 3x Cities of Sigmar, 3x Thunderstrike Stormcast, 2x Sylvaneth, 2x Kharadron Overlords, 2x Hunters of Huanchi, and 1 each of Daughters of Khaine, Lumineth Realmlords, Warrior Stormcast, and Seraphon.
We start with Lee Rawcliffe and Cities of Sigmar. This looks like a super fun list, nice and simple with a mounted Preceptor, and 10 Freeguild fighters to back him up: 5 with sword and shield and 5 with rifles. This list placed 53rd, the first game was a draw which got 3 points then each game after that was a loss which is 1 point. While it might not have been winning any medals, this is my favourite kind of list as it feels really flavourful and I’ve no doubt it looked great on the table.
Next we have Alexia Expósito with Sylvaneth. The 2 Shadestalkers have access to the double Shrieking Terror, which is a net like effect. Everything else in the list can attack at range, so in theory this list can lock two the two scariest enemies down and attack outside of their threat range. The Kurnoth Hunters are beefy while the Spiterider Lancer is super fast to get where you need. I think this list could have done really well if the missions were different.
Here we have Michel Masana playing Thunderstrike Stormcast. This type of list is a classic and has done well in other events. The 5 Annihilators can do a lot of damage and are incredibly hard to kill, their only weakness is they’re slow. That’s where Calthia and the Old Guard come in. Calthia has a triple to give fighters equal to half the value of the dice a bonus move. The Old Guard no doubt is from the Tempest Eye faction with the Swift as the Wind Triple which will add half the ability value to the movement of nearby friendly fighters.
Thijs Nieuwwater has something similar, instead of the Annihilators it’s 5 Vindicators. So you lose a bit of damage but you gain reach and movement. So hopefully you get where you’re going fast and can use the reach to force your opponent to waste actions to get close.
Sam Olof has a little more variety here. The Lord Imperatant has similar access to abilities as Calthia, but is a little chunker with a ranged ability. The Praetor has an ability to heal the Lord Imperatant which is nice. The Knight Arcanum doesn’t have the movement ability of the Imperatant but does have a nice ranged attack as a double.
Next we have a Daughters of Khaine list by Jon Dunleavy, although we do still see the Lord Imperatant. The Bloodwrack Medusa is one of those awesome problem solvers, lots of damage and very fast a 7. She also has a net Triple and reach of 2 so she can move up and try to kill something and if it doesn’t die lock it down which is very very nice.
Leonardo Cognigni has another Cities of Sigmar list, I’m not sure what city so I’ve assumed Tempest Eye which is the most popular. Like the earlier one, this feels super flavourful. A battle mage leading the warband, two knights, and some greatswords and gunners. I’m a big fan of the battle mage, he’s cheap, has access to Swift as the Wind and has a fun Quad that can target any visible fighter no matter the range and do a chunk of damage. Probably not something you’ll often use but could win a game once in a blue moon.
Scott Taylor with Lumineth Realmlords. The Luminth army box made for a fantastic warband. The Wardens in particular are a bargain 65 points. All of this warband has reach which is notable, letting them attack but still have a good chance of surviving despite the relatively low health.
Mathias Brusselaers with Stormcast but this time Warrior chamber. Six fighters in total, minimum 20 wounds and 5 toughness. That’s going to take some time to get through. At a quick glance, I can’t see any abilities of particular note, but with solid statlines like that you can get a lot of work done with just the basics.
Next up Hannah Joyce with Sylvaneth. The Kurnoth Hunters are some of my favourites, lots of damage and seemingly impossible to kill. The two Spite Revenants have Shrieking Terror that net ability. The Gossamid Archer and the Arch Revenant are fast fliers while the Tree Revenant is a solid cheap extra body.
As we go up through the brackets we’re starting to see more bodies on the table. Here Troels Knak-Nielsen has 9 Kharadron Overlords and 2 Gorgai. The Arkanauts are a really solid base, the captain is one of the cheaper leaders at 90 while the privateers are a bargain at 50. The addition of the Gorgai gives some real punch. Fast with 7 movement and some fantastic damage, they can focus on the killing while the Arkanauts work on objectives and throw the occasional pistol shot to help.
This is Ferran Homet’s Hunters of Huanchi, a relatively new warband. This looks very close to a single box, but one of the Skinks was changed to a Huanchi’s Claw which was a great call. I’d say this tournament was interesting for this warband, with 13 models they can cover objectives quite well but do struggle to kill anything.
Dan Hiscutt has taken a similar approach to Troels. Here we have the Warden King and 9 Iron Breakers, so basically an army block of 5 toughness dwarfs. Then the Akhelian King, one of the top damage dealers for Order, who can fly around the table killing whatever he wanted. Perfect for this event.
Aytan Hilmi is from Off Meta Musings, if you don’t follow his channel yet you should. I’ve no doubt he’ll have a look at this event but being actually in the event should have a little more insight than I will. Here we have him rocking his Hunters of Huanchi which he has been slowly perfecting since they came out. As we saw in the list review, Huanchi’s Claw is the star of that warband and despite there only being one in the box here we have 5. The leader is the chameleon skink alpha and there’s one extra skink both with moonstone clubs to give them access to the Triple Hurled Bolas ability which can reduce a target’s actions.
Add to that Kixi-Taka and Otapatl from the Starblood Underworlds warband and the Mizzen Master for some punch. The Mizzenmaster is fast with fly and can do a ton of damage. It also opens up Fight for Profit which can be a really nice damage boost for the little guys.
Ian Adkins has another take on the Overlords. Nine fighters in total. 2 Admirals, 2 Grundstoks Thunderers with Aethercannons, 4 Arkanauts, and an Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit. Only the Thunderers have runemarks of note, in this case they can get a free disengage for a triple. So this is mostly about numbers and stats. I figure it plays a pretty good shooting game, something the Kharadron Overlords are kings of.
Andrew Firth has a Seraphon list, although it’s more of an Starblood list as 6 of the 8 fighters are from the Underworlds list. Add to that the Saurus Oldblood and Saurus Knight Alpha for some chunky damage and you’ve got a winning combination. The two Saurus are both heroes so they do get the Double Cold-blooded Commander which will give them an extra attack or move after they take a target down.
This list won all of its games with the final standings decided by strength of schedule. So this list could have gone all the way.
Next up Chaos Warbands with 21 in total.
The most popular warband in the entire event was the Chaos Legionnaires with 5 warbands in attendance. There were also 2x Iron Golem, 2x Maggotkin of Nurgle Daemons, 2x Darkoath Savagers, and then one each of Hedonites of Slaanesh Sybarites, Claws of Karanak, Beasts of Chaos, Disciples of Tzeentch: Arcanites, Skaven, Tarantulous Brood, Scions of Flame, Rotmire Creed, Blades of Khorne: Bloodbound, and Slaves to Darkness.
First up Lee Dowbekin with Iron Golems. This was a single box just played as is. I have this exact same list and do enjoy playing it, especially since the updates in 2.0. During the Warcry reveals at Warhamer Fest someone did ask if there was a plan to balance the bespoke warbands, the small warbands made specifically for Warcry like the Iron Golems, with the larger warbands like the Slaves to Darkness for example. Personally, I disagree with the idea that there is an issue but I think this here is a good example of why people think there might be. Lee obviously was turning up to have some fun and grabbed a single box team. Later we’ll see a more competitive Iron Golems list which needs multiple Iron Golem boxes and has 3 heroes rather than just the one. That list will do better against those larger warbands where you don’t have the option to build out of a single box.
Alright, next up Sybarites by Chris McConville. The two Blissbarb archers have an awesome triple that will get them more dice and if they’re near the Homonculus they get extra strength as well. The Lord of Pain has some crazy damage and a double that gives an extra move or attack after a kill, so that’s probably the backbone of this warband. The slickblade is super fast at move 10 while the Twinsoul and Painbringer are both solid mid range fighters.
Simon King has the first of the Chaos Legionnaire list. This is straight out of the box built with a variety of weapons. It’s no real surprise this warband was so popular, it’s a fantastic box and weirdly was one of the few warbands released as a single box rather than first appearing in a bigger box.
Next up we have Ramon Ferreté with Claws of Karnak, again I believe this is straight from one box. This warband of course has that very fun chain ability Pack Hunters that the Blood Whelps and the Hound can use. The Meat Hook gives access to the Triple Horrifying Trophies which can be used to prevent fighters within 6” from using abilities. I’d love to know how useful that was.
Jessica Denny brought Nurgle Daemons, as horrifying as they are adorable. Ten fighters in total which will be great in this event. Sloppity is there to give those slow Plaguebearers a movement buff. You can’t see it from the picture, but that Plague Drone is a giant fly with a double Venomous Sting ability that prevents the target from moving or disengaging. It can do some decent damage, but more importantly has 30 wounds so it’s hard to get through. Same with the Beast of Nurgle, and this warband as a whole had a bucket load of wounds and everything can take a double to heal up.
Next up we have Darkoath Savagers by David Drysdale. Two fighters were dropped to make room for the Exalted Deathbringer with Impaling Spear which is a solid addition. If he gets a kill he can use a Triple Lord of Skulls to give a +1 attack bonus to nearby friendlies for the rest of the turn. Although I think you’re more likely to just use his Blood for the Blood God double.
Ed Wallace also went with Darkoath Savagers. No ally this time, but with a build that heavily favours shields. I’m not sure if that was a strategy or just a rule of cool pick. Personally, I love the look of sword and board myself so I definitely can relate.
Bentley Hunter with Beasts of Chaos. Ten fighters in total, using those Gors to get lots of bodies on the table. The Great Bray Shaman has that fantastic harpoon ability, which can get you lots of value if you’re able to drag the target into a killer like that Dragon Ogor. I’m surprised there’s no Doombull in the list, but I gotta admit I don’t really like the model which might be the reason.
Henry Tobitt brought Arcanites. A wonderful looking set of models. That blue is always so striking. Seven fighters in total. Most of the team speed 5 it should be able to get into position fast enough and with 15 wounds the lowest, it should be survivable. The Skyfire, Thaumaturge, and Curseling all have pretty good range attacks which should make this list pretty flexible and reactive.
Our first and only Skaven warband is from Adam Biddulph, rather than relying heavily on Rat Ogor’s this list just has the one along with 3 leaders the Clawlord, Master Moulder, and Nightleader to get some work done. The packmaster backs up the Rat Ogor while the 4 Clanrats fill out the numbers. It does look like the Rat Ogor is the lynch pin here. If you get him into position then the Packmaster and the Master Moulder can both use doubles to get extra attacks out which is pretty nice.
Andy Woods brings Chaos Legionnaires. This looks like another single box with a slightly different build. I haven’t been talking about it, but note that the Decuriarch and Mutander, two of the better fighters, are in the Dagger for this warband. That meant they started on the board 50% of the time. That would have been game 2 and 4 though, which was a loss and a win respectively so while it might be an advantage it’s not everything.
Michael Virks brought Tarantulos Brood. These came late in the first addition and with their cheap spiders were absolutely top tier. In this edition they took a bit of a kick, so it’s nice to see them here. I’m not entirely sure whether you can build these fighters out of one box, you have the bodies I’m just not sure you have the options. In his recent Warcry list video, SaltySea pointed out you can make a 4th Spider Swarm with the random spider bits from the other models. The Broodkin and Spider Swarms are super cheap, so this warband is able to run 12 fighters in total. As a bonus, if those Swarms go down, you can get them back with a triple.
Kit Prakkamakul with Chaos Legionnaries. Here we have two allies, the Trueblood who has a fantastic net ability and the Slaughterpriest who has a harpoon ability. This lets the warband focus on the Hornhelms which are one of the better options for the list, dropping Hornshields to make room. This does mean only 7 fighters, but everything is super dangerous.
Scions of the Flame by Matt Dower. This is a straight out of the box build, so a draw, two wins, and 1 loss is a super impressive result. I’m delighted to see this warband do well as I finished painting my own recently enough.
Simon Holland has another Chaos Legionnaires list. This one is kind of interesting as it is a single box but Simon has gone with an Axe only build rather than mixing things. I’m of the opinion that the Hornhelm with Axe is the better choice, even with slightly more cost. For the Hornshield, the Mace is slightly better but you have to drop to the Axe to make points to upgrade the Hornhelms. Since the Hornshields are mostly bodies to score objectives, having the Hornhelms a little more aggressive makes sense.
And then we have Jason Hodkinson with the top Chaos Legionnaire list. Here room was made for an Ogroid Myrmidon by dropping 2 Hornhelms. I do love the Ogroid Myrmidon but I’m a little surprised Hornhelms were dropped rather than Hornshields. That said, it clearly worked here and to drop enough Hornshields you’d probably be down a body overall.
Next up we have that Iron Golems list I mentioned at the start, this list by Lars Nordal Jensen has the Dominar and 6 Iron Legionary, so that’s probably two boxes. Along with that we have the Trueblood and the Slaughterpriest two fantastic allies we’ve seen a few times already. With 9 fighters in total and 3 fantastic heroes this looks like a lot of fun to play. The Iron Legionaries are solid but not fantastic damage dealers, what they are is 5 toughness 12 wounds so pretty hard to shift.
Again, showing the potential of the bespoke team Jose M. Carnero brought Rotmire Creed. This has two Witherlords so it needs two boxes to build. 9 models in total. The Witherlord is an awesome hero with a Triple called Lethal Injection where you roll dice equal to the value of the triple and for each die that is greater than the toughness of the target you do 5 damage. So it’s a great way to just instantly kill low toughness fighters. There is a net ability with the Hooked Net although it does require a 3+ to land.
In 10th place we have Niall Denny with Bloodbound. This is 3 Blood Warriors and 3 Blood Reavers to provide bodies. Then the Slaughterpriest and Centaurian Marshal provide the real punch in the list. That’s still 8 bodies. We know the Slaughterpriest has his Harpoon and the Cenaturian Marshal does have a net ability although a lot of the time he’s just going to be dishing out damage.
Then we have Baptiste Deboutte’s Slaves to Darkness warband. This list is obviously favoured by Chaos with 2 Chaos Chosen, a Chaos Lord, and an Aspiring Champion. Along with that you have 3 Chaos Warriors with Shields. Nothing fancy here, the doubles will go on universals while the triples will be for the Champion of Darkness ability to give the heroes a bonus move and bonus attack. With the lowest toughness at 5 and the lowest wounds at 15, these Warriors of Chaos are going to hold the line.
Last in the Chaos warbands we have the undefeated Alan Bevan bringing a classic list. A Chimera, 5 Plaguebearers, and Sloppity Bilepiper to move them along. Monsters obviously were a menace at the start of this new edition, and they received a pretty nasty kick with the FAQ significantly upping their points. Even then, the Chimera has still been very successful with Saltysea mentioning Chimera lists have 16 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses across some of the bigger tournaments. When it comes to monsters, it’s still the most efficient damage per point and as it can fly it avoids many of the terrain issues a large based fighter would otherwise have.
Next up we have a few Destruction lists, 8 in total. 3x Gloomspite Gitz, 2x Ironjawz, and one each of Savage Orruks, Ogor Mawtribes, and Kruleboyz
Our first list is by Saul Painter and has 7 fighters in total. Two wizards and a bunch of boys. The warchanter has a double to add 1 attack dice to nearby fighters, while the weirdnob has Foot of Gork, a triple that can do a chunk of damage up to 12 inches. More importantly, both can use the Waaagh triple which will boost movement as this is a pretty slow list otherwise. For this tournament, I suspect the Brute triple You Messin’ might have been key as it stopped characters with 14 wounds or less from contesting objectives.
Next we have Leila Craven playing Gloomspite Gitz. That’s 6 hoppers, 2 nets, 3 stabbas, and a brewgit. Perfection itself. The brewgit is from the Gobbaplooza list and can add 3 dice to a friendly as a double, which is kinda bonkers.
Matthew Garside also took advantage of the Gobbapolooza with a Scaremonger in his Bonesplitterz list. Rather than scaring the enemy, the Scaremonger is for scaring your own fighters, giving them +3 to movement for a round as a Triple. While most of this list is just about krumpin, there are some interesting moving parts. The Bone Totem Bearer has a Double to increase nearby friendlies toughness, the Prophet has a Triple that reduces nearby enemy attacks by 1 dice, and the Warddok has a triple that heals all nearby friendlies. So this could potentially be a hard team to break, assuming everything lines up.
John Gatehouse went for Gitz with a similar but different approach. We still have lots of squig riders but this time the leader is a Loonboss. Less stikkas and more shootas. Also the inclusion of a Fanatic which I always love to see. The Madcap Destruction can be pretty random, but 50% of the time it works every time.
Next we have Vico Rossetti with an Ogor Mawtribes list. I like this one a lot. 3 absolute units, Ogors who are impossible to kill and hit like a ton of bricks. Backing them up there are 5 Gnoblars, so even with a chunky 765 points on Ogors there still are 8 bodies in total. No doubt they went butchering their way through enemy lists, but with so many objective missions and Gnoblars that fall over at a stern glance, winning games would have been tricky.
Here we have an interesting one. This Kruleboyz list by Kirill Lapshin has a dumb mistake, and when I say dumb I mean GW were dumb. Despite being a Boss, the Hobgrot Boss does not have that Hero runemark, that’s actually the Champion runemark. It’s not a big deal, you drop the Hogrot Boss and a Hobgot and replace with a Gutrippa Boss with Sticka instead. You’re down a body but you’re still keeping things cheap so you can afford your Monster the Dankhold Troggoth. The Warchanter is nice giving a cheap movement boost with Waagh, but I’d be tempted to get even more Slitta as I really like the ranged damage profile they have.
Back to Gloomspite Gitz, we have Liam McBurnie with his Squigs for Scotland. With only 6 fighters in total, this is concentrated bitey. The only accommodation is for a Netta and Pokin spear. With 4 move 8+ squig riders any problems on the battlefield were bound to be eaten quickly.
And last for the Destruction lists, we have Adam Williams with Ironjawz. The Megaboss is one of the big hitters in the game and the other Orruk Brutes aren’t far behind. This list is a little slow though, so it’s going to be relying on those Waagh triples to get the movement boost it needs to get into position. It’s got decent numbers at 8 though, and once they connect those Orruks will do some damage.
Alright over to the Death Faction. This is a small one with only a few warbands. The only ones that didn’t make an appearance were the Ossiarch Bonereapers. The big warband unsurprisingly was the Soulblight Gravelords with 5 warbands, then there were 2 each of the Flesh-Eater Court and Askurgan Trueblades, with just 1 Nighthaunt in attendance.
That hero was Fay Palmer. Nighthaunts are an interesting faction, cursed with fly and high speed built in. So that means even their cheapest fighters, the chainrasps are 85 points and often their damage is tuned down. I am surprised we don’t see any Dreadblade Harrows which are one of the more popular options as an ally for other warbands, but they are quite expensive compared to the options here. The Harridan does have a net ability and is the cheapest option you can get for that. The Knight of Shrouds is your big damage dealer and also has the option to bring any dead fighters back with a triple. Despite being stabbed repeatedly while assembling them, I quite like the Spirit Hosts. I’m not sure if their triple that turns their hits into crits is necessarily statistically great, but it sure feels good.
Next up we have Matthew Carter with Flesh Eater Courts. This is an Abhorrent Archregeant, Crypt Infernal, Crypt Horror, and 6 ghouls. So the Ghouls provide the numbers, and fast at move 5 while the other 3 focus on the killing. The infernal in particular is fast and can fly and once it finds it’s target it is well capable of ripping most targets apart. The Archregeant and the Infernal both have access to the Bringer of Death ability which will give nearby fighters a movement boost which is great. The Crypt Horror does not have the hero runemark, that’s the Champion one. This gives it access to the Chosen of the King double which will give it an extra 2 dice on attacks for the remainder of the turn, but only if within 6 inches of the Archregeant.
Arnau Troyano has gone for similar, in this case it’s one less Ghoul and the Horror upgraded to a Haunter. I quite like Arnau’s decision to keep the Archregeant and Haunter in the Dagger battlegroup to keep them close making it easier for the Haunter to use the ability.
A very recent addition, we have the Askurgan Trueblades run by Eloi Garrido. This does appear to be a straight single box. So a 2 wins 2 losses result is pretty good. Not much to say on this list, I have a review of all the fighters in the video looking at the box.
Stevie Harrison ran a similar list, but grouped across the 3 battle groups a little differently. In both cases the Exemplar is in the Shield which in the earlier edition would have the main battle group.
We have 5 lists left, and they’re all Soulblight Gravelords in the top 16 with at least 3 wins each. I said earlier not to draw too many conclusions from a single event, but if anything this is the talking point. In the first list by Carl Fraenkl-Rietti we have a total of 9 miniatures. Interestingly enough, 5 are from the Sons of Velmorn Underworlds warband. The remaining 4 are two cheap skeletons, a Vampire Lord, and a Vargheist. Lots of targets for resurrection and the Vampire Lord and Vargheist are both fast fliers who can do a lot of damage.
Next we have Espen Hodne who has a wonderful list mashing together two Underworlds lists. This is the Crimson Court and the Sepulchral Guard minus their leader. As the skeletons lack the minion runemark, they cannot be resurrected, which I think makes them a little weak, but obviously they got the job done. I do quite like the combination of Vampire and cheap undead, as the Terrifying runemark allows the Vampires to use Call the Crimson Feast which adds 1 attack dice to nearby fighters which the horde of undead can take advantage of.
Daniele Viktor Leggio had a bit more of a traditional list. Wight King and Necromancer for the leaders and lots of Skeleton Warriors and Graveguard. A total of 14 fighters in total which is absolutely crazy. They are going to be slow, but they’ll be everywhere and that’s perfect for objective based missions like in this event.
In 5th place Dimitrios Ntagias has just Prince Duvalle and Ennias from the Crimson Court, along with a Vargskyr from Cursed City, a Necromancer, and a bundle of skeletons. In total 12 fighters. I think Prince Duvalle is a great alternative to the Vampire Lord, you lose fly but it’s 20 points cheaper. That leaves the flying around with Ennias while Duvalle focuses on killing things.
In first place and undefeated we have Michael Appleton who went for an interesting mix. The leader is the Vargoyle, a chunky flyer. Then the Archregeant from the Flesh Eater Courts is an ally. The Arch Regeant brings the Triple Bringer of Death which increases movement of nearby fighters. He does also have a Quad similar to the Vampire ability but I often think the Quads are just better as a rampage. In the last 3 lists we’ve seen the Graveguad with Wightblades make an appearance. These math out as the most efficient damage per point in the game, so it’s not a surprise to see them up there.
Alright, what conclusions can we take out of all these lists?
- First, these lists all look like fun and there’s a ton of variety, so I think that’s a great thing for the game. The main goal should always be to have a good time.
- Now, after these 4 games we’ve got something of an order for these lists. So you could argue the top lists are better than the bottom lists, obviously this simplifies a lot of things, but if you’re playing a top list and your buddy is playing a bottom list then maybe consider adjusting to try to get a fairer game.
- One thing you might have noticed as we went along, is that the lower lists typically were just a single box with no changes. If you’re looking to make a really competitive list you probably should be looking at 3 heroes and cherry picking your fighters rather than just accepting what’s there.
- I was delighted to see some of the Underworlds fighters there. I think that’s a great sign. We’re due to see Crimson Court versus Xandire’s Truthseekers as a warcry starter release and both of those warbands featured heavily in this event, so that sounds like it’ll be a great entry to the game.
- We just had one Chimera in this event, but it won all its games so it’s still as dangerous as ever. We also saw a lot of Soulblight Gravelord warbands do well. That might be down to the missions as they are able to field lots of those Skeletons.
I’m also going to be a little cheeky and suggest that these lists aren’t pushing the envelope. I think you can cram a good amount of extra cheese into these if you want to. I say that fully knowing that even if I had the best list possible, I’m sure I’d crash and burn at an event like this, as there’s more to this game than just lists.
I will say, I think we’re in a pretty nice place with Warcry at the moment. We’re starting to see a few things work better than others but we’re not down to a handful of fixed lists dominating everything. So there’s still room for innovation.
I do think tournament organisers should look long and hard at the missions they use, as it does have a big impact on which lists. I’ve talked about this in a previous video, but I’d love to see the full missions revealed for players ahead of time so we can tailor our lists and groups to them. That will avoid situations where one battle group randomly is better than the others or where like today we have 4 objective missions.
I hope you enjoyed that, I had a lot of fun going through all the lists myself. I don’t think it’s necessarily reflective of the overall meta game, but it’s a pretty good slice.
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