Welcome to Optimal Game State. This week we had our very first Warcry Metawatch from Games Workshop. This was notable for a number of reasons. Just having it shows that GW are taking Warcry and specifically matched play Warcry seriously. We also got to hear from the Lead Game Dev John Bracken. I’ll have the video linked in the notes but if you haven’t done so yet I’d highly recommend a listen. He says all the right things. When he talks about the game it’s clearly he understands the competitive meta of Warcry. He uses the same terms that the Warcry community use, like Titan, when talking about Warbands. He also talks about the future of the game and the direction they hope to take. It should put to rest some of the rubbish rumours floating around, and honestly listening to John gives me a lot of faith in the direction of the game.
The major topic for discussion of course was the new FAQ which was an extensive shake up of the meta. It has some rules clarifications, some tweaks to abilities, a points review, and what we’ll be looking at in this video a large number of new fighter profiles. These are all for new models that have come out in the Age of Sigmar range recently but didn’t have Warcry rules. This is good for us and for GW, if we can play these models we will buy these models. It’s a win win.
I’m not going to go into great detail with the changes, you can check out some of the other Warcry channels for a more details overview, but I did want to mention these ones in passing.
Fight for Profit has had a tweak making it less powerful, where before it was +1 attack to melee and ranged and + 2 if next to treasure or objective, now it’s always +1 and if there is no treasure or objective then it only works for melee. So it’s toned down but still good.
Corvus Cabal got their terrain abilities reduced from 3 inches to 2 inches which matches the current terrain a little better. It’s a minor tweak but this along with some points adjustments should help out this warband.
Cypher Lords are no longer restricted to just Cypher lords for the ability and it no longer has a 12 inch range limit. Outside of the Cypher lords are the Skaven from Skritches Warband, Hadzu from the Dread Pageant, and the Brimstone Horrors from the Eyes of the Nine. There are also a few Blissbarb heroes you could ally in.
Nighthaunt got a big change, Frightful Touch is now usable by anyone in the faction, it’s a triple that turns hits into crits. The fighters that previously had it, will get an extra +1 attack dice on top of that. So a nice buff for a weak warband. Again we have a ton of points adjustments where they come out well, so there’s a lot of fun to be had putting Nighthaunt lists together now.
The last one I want to mention is the Sons of Velmorn getting the Elite runemark. This means when they get returned from the dead with the Summon Undead Minions ability they will come back with damage. It’s a minor enough thing but brings them in line with the rest of the fighters and takes down the power level of the faction a little bit.
All good changes, minor adjustments buffing weak warbands and tweaking strong ones like Slaves to Darkness and Kharadron Overlords.
As I mentioned, there’s a ton of points of adjustments. You can see the Khainite Shadowstalkers getting some discounts and the Kharadron Overlords getting some points increases. Everything I’ve seen is a good change and mostly has minor tweaks. I’m delighted to see the weak factions getting boosts which isn’t something you often see. Overall it does feel like the design team are familiar with the meta and these changes will make the game a lot more fun.
I have updated my Warcry dashboard where you can look at the numbers. In the overall list of damage per points you can see the Grave Guard drop from number 1 to 3 and the Paladin with Starsoul Mace has dropped out of the top 5 although does still remain the most efficient damage for Order. It’s linked in the description so you can play around with it yourself.
We get a ton of new profiles in this FAQ, I think its 28 in Total which would be a massive book release for any other game. It does look like they’re actively trying to close the gap of AoS fighters we can’t yet play in Warcry.
In particular, the Seraphon got a big update. Mostly that’s for the riders but we also got new Kroxigor and the Spawn of Chotec. We did recently get rules for the Flesh Eater Courts box and before that the Cities of Sigmar box, so this closes that loop for previous boxes. I’d like to thing GW noticed a difference in their sales, I certainly bought the Cities of Sigmar box to play in Warcry.
These are the new fighters. All falling well into the expected band so we don’t have anything too shocking. Again, the link for this is in the description, it can be useful for understanding what’s out there as we have a lot of profiles in the game currently. Alright, lets get stuck into the profiles.
We start with the Grimhold Exile. His damage and wounds are about right for the points cost of 165 which is strange as you’d normally see a big discount for 3 move. The Fyreslayers do have a +3 boost to a single move for a double which can be useful to get them into combat.
The ability is a straight damage one. You’re always rolling 6 dice and each dice will do 1 damage on a 4+, so basically an average of 3 damage. Against a high wounds target, so over 30 wounds which is relatively rare, then each 3+ will do half the value of the dice. So 4 dice should work and a triple 6 will do 3 damage per dice for an average of 12 damage. Not bad for a triple but only really worth it against big guys. Given the prevalence of the Fomoroid Crusher in the meta that’s not a crazy option.
Kharadron Overelords get the Codewright at a very affordable 95 points. Wounds are great for the points but damage is quite poor. Really you’re taking this guy for abilities. As a Kharadron Hero you do get Fight for Profit and although the ability has been toned down it’s still quite good. You could still get all that for 5 points cheaper with the Company Captain, so we need to lok at this uique double I Think You’ll Find… Once triggered enemy fighters cannot used abilities or reactions until a friendly fighter activates or until the end of the battle round. As a double this is relatively easy to trigger. If you use it at the start of the Codewright’s activation then as far as I understand it you should be save from enemy reactions, that’s a pretty minor benefit though. Really what you’re doing with the Codewright is playing a small warband and using the Codewright as your last fighter. That means that every fighter your opponent has left and all those ability dice for the turn are going to be wasted. If you’ve got 6 fighters and they have 15, then over half their warband isn’t going to be able to use abilities. This will push your opponent into activating their best fighters first and using their abilties early, at which point you don’t need to use the ability. It’s a weird one, but I think this could be a pretty key element in elite warbands.
Seraphon got a ton of models, so we’re going to try get through them quick enough. We have two kinds of Raptadon either the Charges which we have here or the Hunters which we’ll see in a second. Each have the normal fighter and a hero Alpha. All the Raptadons have this fantastic movement of 10, a very weak 2 toughness, and relatively poor wounds for the points. All the Seraphon do have a reaction that they can trigger before a melee attack against them is rolled, then up to 2 crits get downgraded to hits. It certainly helps survivability but it’s always rough losing an action. Damage similarly isn’t great for the points cost but you kind of expect that with these super fast units. The minion runemark gives these fighters access to the Double Nimble Retreat which lets them take a free disengage. So they can charge in, do a little damage, then disengage. Alternatively, they could spend that double on Raptadon Tactics which is pulling extra duty. Ignore the first part which is for the Hunters we’ll see in a second and instead focus on getting +2 attack dice for the rest of the turn. At 5 attacks the normal charge is doing 3.3 average damage. It’s not a massive increase, at least in terms of raw damage, but it’s better than the universal onslaught.
Moving over to the Hunters, we’ve traded the clubs for a spear and a blowgun I guess. You do lose one strength, but as that’s dropping from 3 to 2 strength it’s not something you’ll notice most of the time. You can reach which is big but as the profile has a ranged weapon you can’t get those +2 attacks. The ranged weapon is also quite modest but is always handy to have. In this case the ability gives you a bonus move action equal to the value of ability dice. So if your target is close enough, you can use the double to move getting within that 2 inch range and get a double attack. I like them, the models are awesome, the ability is fun, even if the whole package isn’t too exciting.
Then we have the Aggradons. This is a series of Saurus riding bigger dinosaurs and they are quite scary. This Scat-Veteran is obviously cream of the crop at a chunky 295 points. Although wounds and damage are closer to 250, after a certain point it doesn’t really matter anymore. Fighters with 30 wounds require a lot of effort to kill and 9 average damage is going to do a lot of work. That all this comes with 8 move is super nice. As a Seraphon hero and Warrior we also get some nice abilities. Cold Blooded Commander is a double that gives an extra move or attack after a kill, an ability that has a lot of value on a profile like this.
The Warrior runemark gives the triple Tearing Bite which adds the value of the triple to hits and crits on the next attack. So what could be a massive damage boost for single attack. Alternatively you could go for Predatory Leap instead which gives a bonus move action of r 3 inches which can be a fly which is massive for a mounted unit that might no otherwise be able to do so. You then get to do some bonus damage similar to the typical cavalry charge ability we often see. This is quite fun and it’s notable that the Warrior and Mounted runemarks open this up to a lot of existing fighters like the Saurus Knights.
The normal Aggradon Lancers are no surprise a step down but have similar runemarks and abilities. So the leader is 50 points cheaper than the Scar-Veteran losing 3 damage. The normal Lancers are another 60 below that losing another 1.6 damage to 5. It’s still a move 8, 20 wound killer that with the right triple can do considerable damage. A conservative triple 3 for example will bring average damage up to a chunky 9.5 even if it’s just for one attack.
The spear version drops a little damage in exchange for a reach of 2. It does this by dropping the damage on a hit by 2 but increasing the damage on a crit by 1. Everything we’ve said before applies but with slightly more threat range. I’d argue that the extra damage is going to have more impact but as the world of Warcry get’s scarier and scarier forcing your opponent to spend an action is going to be valuable.
Move on we have the Spawn of Chotec which seems to be a type of Dimetrodon. There are no special abilities for this fighter beyond the generic Seraphon ones. It’s a beast so no opening doors or carrying treasure. At 130 points you’re getting good value with the wounds of 18 while the damage isn’t great. The melee attack is actually worse than the ranged attack which I do like to see. So this fighter is looking to get into that 3 to 7 range and get two attacks doing an average of 3 damage. Range 7 isn’t a lot but it’s enough to cause some havoc.
Kroxigors are even bigger than the already massive Saurus. These fighters come in around 200 points and although there is a slightly different profile for the Warspawned they aren’t heroes. Apart from the Warspawned doing more damage for that 5 points you also get some different abilities. Those big clubs do give them a reach of 2 which is always handy.
The normal Kroxigor have the Brute runemark which gives them Brutal Bows. This gets them half the value of the double as a bonus to the attacks characteristic, so 1 to 3 more dice. That they have only 2 dice at the start makes it a considerable boost, basically a bonus attack. Unfortunately it is only for the next attack rather than the full turn but it’s still very powerful. As Warriors they do have access to Tearing Bite as a double but Brutal Blows is just better.
The Warspawned has the Sentience runemark, which worries me for some reason. The ability it opens up is another double Spawn of Sotek. You get +2 to all attacks for the turn when within 6 inches of a fighter with the minion runemark, so most of the skinks, which is within melee or has taken damage. Although it is a little more effort, it doesn’t seem too hard to line up. Notably, if you’re only getting a single attack the normal Kroxigor gets better damage, if you’re making two attacks the Warspawned is better when the double ability has a value of 1 to 4 but with a 5 or 6 the Kroxigor actually wins out. Based on that I’m tempted to say run the Normal Kroxigors even if that does mean you’re more dependent on the values of the double.
That’s Order out of the way. We only have one new profile for Death, that’s the Mortisan Ossifector for the Ossiarch Bonereapers. This is a pretty typical caster profile that we already saw with the Spawn of Chotec, it’s very similar to the Battle Mage and Sorcerer from the Cities of Sigmar warbands. The range of 7 isn’t massive but it’s decent and being able to activate to drop an average of 6 damage onto a target is pretty nice. Unlike the Spawn, we do have some abilities. First off as an Ossiarch hero we get their Triple of Unstoppable Advance which will add half the value of the ability to the move characteristic of fighters in the same battlegroup. It’s a pain as a triple but is a very very nice ability.
The Ossifector also has it’s own special ability which is the Double Refined Creations.This is very similar to the very popular Brewgit, although on this case on a more expensive but more useful profile. You target an Ossiarch fighter with the Fly Runemark, that’s either the Morghast Harbinger or the Morghast Archai each of which can come with Halberds or Swords. The Archai have one more toughness but lose access to a Triple for a bonus move, since the damage is the same otherwise I’m tempted to stick with the Harbinger. The swords profile is 5 cheaper but in addition to the reach the halberd does slightly more damage with less dice. That less dice is important. I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent but we’re talking about this Double Refined Creations. After picking your target you add half the value of the ability to the attacks characteristic of the next melee attack made by that fighter. So on a Harbinger with Halberd who does 7 average damage a double 6 would get you an extra 7 average damage. If you happen to have your Ossifector already beside your big guy and you have a double 5 and a double 6 you could pass and use it, then activate and use the second one. That would make the first attack 9 dice doing 21 average damage and you still can use abilities with the Harbinger if you have ability dice left over. That sounds like a super fun list.
Moving over to Destruction, the Gloomspite Gitz got a lot of new options. First up are the Snarlfang Riders which have a hero and a normal version. These are super fast at 10 move and armed with Spears and Bows. They are quite expensive but are good value. Wounds are about right for 125 points while damage is closer to 110, but movement 10 does come with a big tax. The hero is similar but upscaled slightly. They do not have mounted which is a bit strange, that doesn’t have to be a mistake though as there are some units where the mount is smart or agile enough to justify not having the mount limitations.
As gitz they get some of the generic actions. The gitz reaction is pile in, after an enemy fighter finishes a move action within 3 inches of the reacting fighter, they can use their action to give another git a bonus move as long as they end up in melee. That the Snarlfangs are super fast mean they can be there for other gitz when needed and then they get to attack twice when they activate. That said, the Snarlfangs have reach, so getting into 1 inch melee range probably isn’t where they want to be. To also get the double Backstabbing Mob which gives them +1 attack and strength to melee when next to other gitz.
Their special ability is a Double Can’t Catch Us! Which I love. This can only be used if they’ve taken a ranged attack, luckily they don’t have to do any damage. They then get a bonus move equal to the value of the ability, so 1 to 6 depending on the dice. That means you can ping with a range attack, then use the ability to move in, and use your second action as a spear attack. Very cool.
Since they have the scout runemark they do have access to a Spore Cloud reaction which the Sporeplatta Fanatic has. It’s probably a mistake. The reaction gives friendly fighters cover from range attacks, so just +1 toughness. Unlikely to be used. As an side, this is a gorgeous box, probably the best GW have done for Goblins. All full box would be 915 points for Warcry, it might not be a great list but it would probably be fun.
There are two new heroes, the Rabble-rowza and the Squidboass with Gnasha-squig. Both are close in points and have 16 wounds which is about right for 130 points. The Squigboss is doing slightly better damage and does have reach making his weapon profile a bit better.
The special ability for the Suigboss with it’s Brute runemark is Mycophiles Pouch. This is a double that boosts all your nearby Squigs with +1 attack whether they are the normal ones with the Beast runemark or the riding squigs with the Fly runemark. Very nice.
The Rabble Rowza has the sentience runemark which gives it the Over Here Ya Lug! Double. You can pick an enemy monster and until the end of the battle round it cannot move away from the Rabble Rowza. Pretty niche and I’d imagine the Monster will just eat the Rabble-Rowza.
Interestingly, the Rabble Rowza also has access to the Poison Brew ability. This comes from the Spiker gobbo from the Gobbapalooza fighters. They’re a bit of a weird selection but technically they’re part of the Gitz so I’d imagine it was just an oversight by design. Maybe not though as the Rable Rowza is a bit weak. The Poison Brew ability is a double that has you pick a visible friendly within 3 inches and boost their strength by the value of the ability, although just for the next attack.
I might have missed something with the Rabble-Rowza, it does feel a bit weak.
Last for Destruction we have the Bloodpelt Hunter for the Ogor Mawtribes. As I’ve mentioned a few times I do like profiles where two ranged attacks are better on average than a move and a single attack. At 280 this is a big chunky hero but then almost all the Ogors are. We can compare the Bloodpelt Hunter against the Icebrow Hunter who is the same price. The Bloodpelt does have better ranged damage but has worse melee damage by 3 which does feel significant. So the Bloodpelt is a better ranged fighter. That ranged profile though is similar to that of the Firebelly and Butcher at 225 and 230 points. They’re both doing 4.5 rather than 4.6 but it’s a massive points discount.
Lets talk about abilities. First we have the generic Ogor abilities. So a double that gets a move or attack after a kill, always nice to have. That’s it, the rest of the generic Ogor abilities are locked behind the Brute runemark which the Bloodpelt Hunter does not have. The idea here was to seperate the Ogors from the Yeti, Frostsaber, and Gnoblars. So I think this is a mistake and the Bloodpelt Hunter should have the Brute runemark. An easy mistake to make.
The special ability is Haul ‘Em In. It’s a Triple for a bonus action which is great and then it’s a harpoon pull equal to the value of the ability in inches, so a triple 4 will pull back the target 4 inches. It doesn’t say up to, so it does have to be exactly the amount so be careful with that. You would prefer to drag the target into your reach of 2 which would then open up the attacks. This kind of ability is super good. That you’re also getting a free attack does make this fighter much better than I was expecting. In addition to pulling the target back to the Bloodpelt Hunter if you have another fighter next to the Hunter they will always benefit from the target getting pulled in. There are also a bunch of shenanigans you can get up to with pulling targets away from objectives or off buildings. So yeah, I wasn’t too hot on this fighter initially but the ability has won me over.
Move over to Chaos we have the Lord of Hubris from the Hedonites of Slaanesh Sybarite warband. This is a fantastic model and great fighter. It’s a super cheap 155. Wounds are about right for 165, the attack profile is more like 120 but it’s all on a 5 move profile which is super nice. So interesting but not super amazing yet. As a sybarite there are some nice abilities. There reaction is Shared Pain which does damage back to the attack for each hit or crit. A different take on counter. The double Unrivalled Velocity will give plus three to movement for one action which can be a nice burst of spear. As a Sybarite hero they have a Double to gets a bonus more or attack after a kill. All fun abilities, what you’re probably going to use though is the very interesting double You First, I Insist. You give a enemy fighter in melee with you free attack. After that you get plus two dice and plus two strength for the rest of the Lords activation against that target along with an extra 3 to the crit damage. So the average damage pops up to 12 per attack which is pretty insane. So this guy has been dubbed a chaff killer. If a fighter has about 10 health, you can move up to it, trigger the ability expecting to take 2 or 3 damage, and then pretty reliably kill it. If he has to go up against one against a Titan, he can take a single big hit and dish out about 24 average damage assuming he started in melee. Very nice. Love this fighter, also a great model, win win.
The Maggotkin of Nurgle Rotbringers get the Harbinger of Decay with Doombell. There is already a Harbinger of Decay for the older model which just has the Scythe. That’s 195 points with a 5.3 average damage with a reach weapon. Stats are the same as we have here and it has a special ability with a triple that gives a bonus melee attack.
The new profile is the one with the Doom Bell which is an optional build for the new kit. That said, I suspect you could play either profile with the same model and no one will care. So lets look at this new profile. Wounds are great, worth about 210 points. Damage is poor at about 75 points. Part of that is the Rotbringers faction tends to have lots of wounds. This is a fast profile as well at 6 move. We think it should have the mounted runemark as the other profile does. Typicallym Rotbringer abilities are a reaction that reduces damage taken. A double that does damage to a nearby enemy, and a Triple that is the same as the universal reprieve but the healing is double the value. And as a hero, it does have a triple that boosts melee attacks of nearby fighters by 1.
The special ability of this fighter is Toll of the Doom Bell which is a Quad. Quads are unreliable and you’re always comparing them against Rampage. So I definitely wouldn’t recommend taking this fighter for the ability. The effect could be game winning though. Once triggered it stops your opponent using abilities of reactions while within 7 inches of the Harbinger. Sticking the Harbinger in the middle of the board is going to end up with a massive area of the map under this effect. The base is about 3.5 by 2 inches and then stretches 7 inches on either side. So 16 diameter on one side and 17.5 on the long side. That’s a good chunk of the 30 by 22 inch board. Now, you can kill the Harbinger to end the effect, but that’s still 25 wounds to get through. As the Rotbringer player it might be worth considering passing to use this ability to save a reaction to reduce damage taken.
An interesting fighter. I think it could have a use in competitive games, if you can manage to trigger the ability in the last two turns of the game it could be game winning. I don’t think I’d play this in friendly games though, it would be pretty feels bad to have a turn where you can’t use any abilities.
Next up we have the Chaos Chosen. So these are basically the classic Chaos Warriors but with two handed weapons. They did have previous profiles but these are the glow up for them making them a little more like a mirror to the Stormcast.
Looking at the normal fighter first, the wounds of 20 and damage profile both are worth around 165 so we’re getting a bit of a discount. That this is a 5 toughness model is a bit of a bonus. The general slaves to darkness abilities are a reaction that gives 3 health back and a double which boosts strength. Maybe not too important since we’re starting with 5 strength. The Warrior runemark opens up a quad which can only be used after a kill and adds 3 dice to attacks by friends within 6 inches for the rest of the round.
The champion is similar, the wounds are about right for 200 points while the damage would match 215, so it’s a really solid fighter stat wise. For abilities, in addition to the ones just mentioned the hero runemark opens up the Triple Champion of Darkness which can only be triggered after a kill and gives an extra move and an extra attack.
So some solid fighters to go along with some lovely models.
In the same set we got the new Chosen we also for these Theridons. These are definitely one people have been keen to seen and sometimes went to with the profile of the Ogroid Myrmidon. We have a hero and fighter option for this unit and we also get to choosen between Falchion and Shield which we’ll look at first, but also two handed axe.
These are super chunky. The 28 health is worth around 230 points, and with the shields they’ve got 6 toughness which makes them super hard to kill. They’re fast at 5 move which doesn’t seem like a lot but does make a difference. The damage profiles aren’t super sexy, these both have 6.6 damage which you’d expect on a 165 point fighter. It does feel weird that the leader costs more for nothing on the stats but getting access to that Slaves to Darkness hero triple is still nice and it is the profile Chaos warbands outside of the Slaves to Darkness will get access to. On a quick comparison to the Myrmidon, this Thorakon costs 65 points less, losing 3.5 damage, and gaining reach.
Their special ability is the double unleashed savagery which can only be used once per battle. You roll dice equal to the value, so lets say 6, and for each 4+, so half the dice) will add 1 to the strength and attacks of the next melee attack. So we’re probably looking at 3 extra dice and strength. The strength is probably not going to make any difference, but the attack dice boost will be close to an effective free attack.
As an extra bonus, if you have a Myrmidon within 6 inches then those dice get +1 so it’ll succeed on a 3+. It could be pretty random though and it is weird that it’s once per battle. Anyway, some incredibly hard to kill fighters and some good damage. There is an extra twist that I’ll talk about in a second.
The second set of profiles are with the Great Axe which I think is probably where you’re going to go with. Now these do cost a lot more. It’s 25 more for the Theridon gaining about 1 average damage, reach, and losing 1 toughness. For the Thorakon that’s 65 more points and around 3.5 of a damage increase. That did make me wonder if the Thorakon with Falchion and Shield should have had more damage, but then the increase from Theridon to Thorakon there was only 15 points while here with the Great Axe it’s 55 more points.
Everything we’ve said before still counts, same great ability. Now, the twist here is the Ferocious rune is the target of one of the Blades of Khorne abilities. The 165 points Bloodstoker has an ability called Whipped to Fury which is a double gives a Ferocious fighter a bonus attack action. Previously you would have used it with the Khorgorath which is locked within the Blades of Khorne. In theory now you can take a Thorakon and Bloodstoker in any chaos list, that’s 440 points but pretty scarey.
As a side note, a box of these built with Axes and a Myrmidon is 990 points. That could be a lot of a fun to play.
Alright, that’s it for this episode. This new FAQ and the meta watch video was fantastic for the game. It’s also worth noting that we have an absolutely fantastic community. With 24 hours of the FAQ , servo_scribe had Warcrier updated so we’re already able to use the list builder to play around with new lists. Part of that was because Krisling has a Warcry data repo that quickly got updated. That’s why my Warcry Card Creator and the dashboard already have the new profiles and it’ll also let hood get the table top simulator version up to date pretty soon.
We also had videos from SaltySea and OffMetaMusings who quickly turned around some react videos to give the changes some context. If you haven’t yet I recommend checking them out. I expect to see a Wargames on Toast video soon and hopefully a Hobby Jackal video. I’m sure there are plenty more, so please do comment to tell me your favourite Warcry channel so I can check them out.
If you have any comments or feedback please post them in the comments section below. Check us out on the Optimal Game State website, instagram, and YouTube channel for more discussion about the Games Workshop Specialist Games.
