If you have too much free time, are preparation freak or are obsessed in competitive gaming follow my steps. Otherwise please don’t judge me ;). Either way – I hope you will find some value in my attempt at an article.
1. Tournament
The tournament that this article is about will happen on 15.01.2023 in Wrocław and to my knowledge will be the biggest Warcry tournament in Poland. It may sound impressive but in fact its only 16 people “friendly” (there will be few beginner players and although the lists will be quite cutthroat I expect no Chimeras), “local” (some players will travel 350 km to Wrocław) tournament. We will play 4 rounds with battleplans randomly drawn from the pool of 12 (6 from corebook and 6 chosen by tournament organiser) with standard scoring from core book. Every game will also require picking one Hidden Agenda for potential additional victory point. The organizer has very liberal approach to proxying and allowed Gnarlwood and HarrowDeep Underworlds warbands.
2. Limiting factors
I would love to say that sky is the limit but when speaking about miniature wargaming (even skirmish games) the price of the models, free time for painting and availability of the models are important limiting factors. I will do my best to consider all grand alliances, but due to how my collection looks like I will most probably use Death or Destruction warband (as with some proxies I have access to almost all of the models). Order and Chaos are also an option as long as I stay within Skaven, Stormcast or Cities. I will include 2 or 3 lists from grand alliances that didn’t make the cut later on so even if you don’t play the grand alliance I chose you can find something interesting for you.
I mentioned earlier that the tournament is “friendly” and I don’t expect any Chimeras, so this is my first assumption and first limitation (I’m not playing Chimera too. After Chimera dominated our last tournament I believe most of the players instinctively banded together in some form of “gentlemen’s agreement”)
The other limiting factor is my play style. I rarely play war bands with less than 8 fighters but if I will find that sacrificing quality for quantity isn’t worth it I will play with smaller than usually team (and certainly practice more to get more familiar with play style with less usage of “wait” actions)
3. Battleplan Analysis
As some of the missions are very similar to each other I will describe few mission defining concepts at the start, not to repeat the same ideas over and over again.
Conquering Objectives – in case of uneven value of objectives it may be required to fight over objectives that the opponent has better access to. This require not only to have sufficient enough numbers on the battlefield but also enough of both mobility and damage to win over different objectives over time. The same conditions apply to the enemy so survivability is also very important
Initiative Bias – The scoring is connected with winning/losing initiative or there is uneven number of treasures. Strategic usage of “Inspiring Presence” (to pick up 2 treasures) may lead to very big advantages before opponent’s first activation. This kind of victory conditions completely changes wild dice priorities.
Fighting through enemy forces – There is enemy deployment group between your deployment group and objective so in case of slow enemies or purposeful path blocking you have to fight your way through
Deleyed deployment matters less – The scoring happens after 4th turn. In such missions appearing in round 2 is way less impactful than in missions where every round ends with scoring, for calculating importance of deployment groups this missions will be ignored (aside from single mission where one deployment group starts in third round)
Perfect for Brutes – victory conditions require control of small number of objectives where you messin’ value goes through the roof.
Shifting Tides. North and South Objectives are worth 3 points and the rest is worth 1 point in rounds 1 and 3. In rounds 2 and 4 its the opposite.
The deployment map clearly set 2 objectives as easy to grab and distant from enemy (when deployed as close to enemy objective as possible it will require to move over 9,81’’ to get to enemy objective), so attacking enemy objective round one require movement abilities or 5+ move fighters. This may lead to false sense of security and some sneaky objective steals when outwaiting enemy and saving wild dice for movement abilities. It looks like the fight over 2 “side objectives” near the place where daggers enter the battlefield will decide who will have early advantage(Conquering Objectives). As there are only 2 high value objectives at any given time this battleplan is Perfect for Brutes. As with any objective missions, resurrecting fighters on objectives can give Death warbands some flexibility, 2+ mobile heroes with resurrection ability will open a lot of options and will make predicting the number of bodies on objectives difficult for opponent. The deployment map suggest that both Hammers will have to either fight through enemy Daggers and Shields or defend “home objective” initiating “counterclockwise” movement of whole warband. The minimal distance between closest objectives is 5,314’’ which makes it in range of well placed 3’’ move fighter so smart body blocking may be the key to victory versus slower warbands. Constant change of important objectives improves the value of Greenskins(non-Ogor Destruction) and Skaven reactions.
Laylines (2.0 core book). Every round 1 objective becames awakend and gives 2 points, not awakened are worth 1 point. Central one starts awakened
Existance of awakend objectives make it Perfect for Brutes and potential for enemy awaking objective where we have limited access may require Conquering Objectives. There is a very strong Initiative Bias, as the player that lost the initiative is picking which objective will be awakened next it’s important to whenever possible use wild dice to create doubles (instead of upgrading your doubles/triples) to lower your initiative and give your opponent initiative. In case that losing initiative in first turn is impossible it may be a good idea to store wild dice and potentially lower the number of your singles by 2 next round. Dagger is the closest to middle objective that starts awakened so higher numbers and mobility are advised there. Shield starts a bit surrounded and distant from objectives so its impact will be much lower.
Strike the Heart. Home objective is worth 1 point, side objectives are worth 3 points and enemy objective gives 5 points
It’s a bit similar to first battleplan as there are 2 special objectives that are very highly scored (home objectives), the difference is that the value drop of “secondary” objectives is way lower than in first objective so mobility and numbers are way more important. As the Highest Value objective is basically in enemy territory, this mission will require Conquering Objectives and is Perfect for Brutes. As both players Hammers can deploy on opponent “home objective” fighting off enemy Hammer (or at least out numbering it) is the highest priority. Out activating enemy and last second stealing objectives (thanks to mobility or resurrecting fighters on objectives) seems to be the key to victory here. Trying to fight for too many objectives at once may lead to disaster. Its a very well balanced scenario where numbers, damage and mobility play huge role. Hammer composition seems to be the key in this mission
The Hidden Vault (2.0 Core Book). 1 Objective scored at 4th round (each player discards one of the objectives during the game)
In 90% of the games its simply single objective in the middle of the board scored in 4th round. As the scoring happens basically “after the game” (Deleyed deployment matters less) the strategy is simple: Remove the objective between enemy dagger and hammer and move towards the center trying to keep as much numbers and sniping chaff whenever possible. In this Perfect for Brutes battleplan warbands good at Conquering Objectives will shine. One interesting point is that Dagger may need to Fight through enemy forces so it may be good idea to have some mobility/hitting power there.
No Quarter (2.0 Core Book). At 4th round every quarter is worth 1 point if you have fighters wholly within it and there are no enemy fighters wholly within it
Despite the fact that this Victory Condition is very unique the basic plan for more numerous warbands is similar to single objective missions scored at the end of the game – keep as many numbers close to crucial areas over the game (don’t go too far from one of the quarters) and trim enemy chaff whenever possible (To win you have to clear one of the quarters from enemy fighters). Numerous Death warbands can be very difficult to win with due to combination of numbers, resurrection and popular in local meta teleporting ally. As scoring happens in 4th round Deleyed deployment matters less. High draw potential
Reaper (2.0 Core Book). Every turn the player who killed more pointcost of enemy models (that turn) scores 1 point
Second battleplan with high draw potential (4 rounds of 1 point scoring). Mobile heavy hitter in Dagger is very important for this mission as potential Rampage first turn may help score early advantage, the other alternative that may lead to 1st round advantage is good quality long-range shooting (I expect up to 2 KO players), so it’s important to keep this 2 options in mind when deploying fighters before initiative is rolled. In this mission resurrection gives huge advantage.
Bring to Ruin. 1 terrain feature (at least 6” wide) is scored at 4th round, leaders count as 3 fighters
This is exception to the rule that “you messin” is the strongest ability in 1 objective missions as it doesn’t work here. Tough and mobile leaders are important for this mission. The other exceptions to standard “1 objective” principles is that resurrection is potentially 3x more valuable when resurrecting leader and Deleyed deployment matters less with exception of Shield as it arrives in 3rd turn and with slower movement can be unable to reach the scoring area. “Tools” for leader hunt may be useful.
Take and hold. At 4th round if only your leader is within 5” from the center of the board you win, otherwise who has more fighters with 5” from the center wins
Depending on the current condition of leaders it changes from whomever leader survives win to kind of simple objective mission. Resurrection for leader and leader hunting capabilities seems to be the keys to victory. This battleplan increases the defensive stats value of your leader drastically. What’s unusual is that all deployment groups start the battle first round so there is way less room to maneuver since the start.
Treasure Hunters (2.0 Core Book). Standard 5 Treasures mission
Very strong Initiative Bias. Important to have some mobility in Dagger to grab middle treasure in case of winning initative. Important note is that Nighthaunt faction reaction and Tree-Revenants/Calthia Xandire(her warband is legal for this tournament) abilities are the only ways of escaping engage with treasure (not counting abilities of other fighters like infamous “drag and maul”).
Cursed Relics. 5 Treasures that deals D6 damage to its holder at the end of his activation
With big number of “spiky treasures” it may be a good idea to drop some treasures carried by more squishy fighters (in a safe space surrounded by friendly fighters). Chasing all enemy treasures may also not be a good idea and focusing on one may help avoiding spreading your forces too much. Initiative Bias is not as strong due to similar access to all objectives but winning initiative and using inspiring presence have great impact on who will start the game with advantage. Shield main job seems to be Treasure Hunting.
The Cursed Relic (2.0 Core Book). 1 Treasure that deals D6 damage to its holder at the end of its activation
Strongest Initiative Bias in the game. Winning initiative will dictate who will have huge advantage over the course of the game. If the treasure drops in the middle of big cluster of fighters where everyone is engaged with everyone flying units may be the only way to pick it up. Preparing landing position may be required first.
The Comet. In the 2nd round 1 objective will arrive in the center of one of the quarters (2/3 chance) or at the board center (1/3 chance). Scoring at 4th round
Basically it’s the copy of The Hidden Vault. The only difference is that the objective position is determind randomly and Dagger can be forced to Fight through enemy forces to get to it.
As far as starting position and the turn of deployment Shield seems to be the least important deployment group (the only one that starts in 3rd round in one of scenerios). Dagger and Hammer seem equally important damage and numbers wise, but the dedicated treasure holder nad best mobile unit should be in Dagger.
Local meta considerations
I expect a big representation of SBGL (with some Monsters), small amount of heavy shooting (2 players seem to switch to KO and there are some Slann enthusiasts), few Varanguard and Megaboss/Ogor allies and no Chimeras (after its domination last tournament). Avarage number of fighters in warband in last tournament (excluding my list) was 7 so I don’t expect many hordes. There will be few inexperienced players and I predict most players will put way more consideration into actual list than how to split it to deployment groups so there is a big room for some surprises. Overall I expect the trend of “Harder lists than average tournament” (as SaltySea described our last tournament) to stay. There was a lot of Destruction warbands last time so I’m a bit worried that some Brutes may burry my dreams of controlling objectives. I’m also scarred to death that I will be obliterated from distance by Horns of Hashut Flamehurler ability, but I don’t expect more than one of them so maybe it won’t be as bad as last time I played it (there were a lot of High Value triples that game).
Listbuilding
First I will try to narrow down which aspect of warband will be the center of gravity. High number of fighters will be impactful for scoring in 7 battleplans (and 2 tournament quests), so I definitely want to have a numerous warband. If possible it’s better to have uneven number of fighters due to how Minor/Major Victories are separated and to improve chances with one of Hidden Agendas (Example for my logic: with 11 fighters I need to lose 6 fighters to drop below half which is one more than if my warband would have 10 fighters. the Minor/Major Victory conditions are the same in case of both 11 and 12 fighters in Warbaand but with 11 you can have a bit better quality of fighters)
Let’s look at Destruction, heavy damage seem to work great when there is a need to “Conquer Objective” or to kill enemy treasure bearer. You messin’ ability is potentially game winning in 2 missions and impactful in other 3, but due to expected low model count of other warbands I don’t expect to get huge advantage from it (Most fighters will have 15+ Wounds). The other problem with running destruction is that mobility is super expensive. I believe that there is only one puzzle peace missing from Kruleboyz reaction based warband that uses both the power of You messin’ on objectives, the numbers from Stabgrots (I know they don’t mesh well with You messin’) and the devastating Damage of destruction heroes (used in tandem with Kruleboyz reaction). Somehow it will also has to be mobile, maybe the Brutes Underworlds team will be that missing peace, we will see. Currently I can’t decide how to have “sufficient mobility”, “enough activations” and acceptable fighters. So Destruction is out (You messin’ will be game changing not often enough to justify building around it and I can’t have both numbers and mobility with any of the factions).
Let’s look at my Order options, I can have enough damage in Stormcast Eternals but they won’t have the numbers that are required in over half of battleplans. Mobility will also be easily turned off by sniping TE ally. The other Order fighters I have access to are Wanderer elves and they will definitely have enough mobility, but lack staying power and power projection against expected Elite warbands.
In Chaos (my wife’s Skaven) I can reach both numbers and mobility without any issues, staying power will not be a problem with their slippery reaction and T5 on Stormvermin with shield. But the main problem with Skaven is that some scenarios require Leader hunt and while RatOgors are great at killing chaff, but S4 may not be enough to kill enemy leader, even bigger problem is that Skaven Leaders are made from paper (Stormvermin double may help here a bit but it forces your units to not move which is death sentence for Skaven). Skaven seems to be strong pick but when running numerous warband I’m limited to only 1 RatOgor and I don’t wanty to risk having my main damage peace “netted to irrelevance” by destruction doubles that I expect to see a lot.
I believe when numbers matter (and 7/12 battleplans is a lot) there is no better spammable unit than resurrectable Grave Guard. As already mentioned Tough Leader is required so that means Necromancer is out. As all of the leaders have access to resurrection ability and we are already willing to pay premium for its survivability it would be best to spend our “mobility budget” here. That narrows down the pool of potential leaders to Kastellan, Vargoyle and mounted Wight King. Kastellan and Wight King are similar so the main choice here is simple: T4 and flying or T5 and no flying. As there will be record breaking 8 tables of terrain (2 more than previously) I don’t expect it to be too dense, additionally as the mobile resurrection source, it will most probably be in a lot of fights and with the emphasis on killing leaders I think it’s safer to go with mounted leader (Wight King also has 2” reach which boosts survivability even more). Now between Mounted Fighters – the biggest advantage of Vampire is access to +1 attack buff on triple, Wight King however has Higher Strength and 2’’ reach for 10 points more. As my triples will be used for resurrection in most cases I will go with Wight King. So currently the list includes some number of Grave Guards with Great Wight Blade and a Wight King on Skeletal Steed. What the list lacks so far: more mobility for grabbing treasures and last minute stealing objectives as I plan to out-activate my opponents anyway, 2nd resurrector for redundancy (for example when leader starts in 2nd round), potential for hero resurrection, one flying fighter so it can easily do or stop opponent from doing “the only one on platform Hidden Agenda” and has potential to pick up treasure burried in a forest of engaged fighters. Additionally the fighters added can’t be expensive to not interfere with a plan of deploying a horde list. There are 3 clear candidates to fill these roles: Cheap Nighthaunt ally (secondary resurrector, ability to resurrect leader, has flying), Crypt Ghast/Mortek Hekatos (movement buff on triple, improving overall mobility while also being the cheapest heroes in DEATH), Dire Wolf (cheap and mobile fighter that can carry treasure and has base that helps bodyblock areas that can’t be bodyblocked with small 25mm bases of GG). Last thing to consider is: “Should I sacrifice some of the quality for even more quantity”? I believe the answer is “no” as there is small number of objectives per mission so there will be way more fighting on objectives than in for example Gnarlwood Champion battlepack. Also dilluting the chaff pool will make some resurrections less impactful. But first of all I think I have a high enough number of fighters in warband so there is no need to exchange Grave Gaurds for cheaper fighters. Final List:
Dagger:
Wight King on Skeletal Steed
3x Grave Guard
Hammer:
(NH ally) Dreadwarden
3x Grave Guard
Shield:
Dire Wolf
2x Grave Guard
Tips & Tricks:
Dreadwarden in SBGL is better than in its native faction due to much more fighters with Minion runemark around. It can also (in some situations) use reaction to leave engagement with enemies even when holding treasure
Dire Wolf can use double to move 24’’ (if there are some enemy fighters on the path). If there will be any unguarded treasure/objective – this is when he “strikes”
Explanation for some of my decisions:
Why no movement buffing ally? This is the risk I’m taking to keep numbers and damage as high as possible and to be able to resurrect as much as possible. Most of objectives doesn’t require much movement and there is always a double to speed single skeletons up. I hope it won’t hurt me too much.
Why no Zombie Dragon? I believe that GG spam is simply better. SBGL’s strongest points are ressurection (triple) and how stupidly cost-effective Grave Guard’s damage is, when combing that with Zombie Dragon we end up with lower number of Grave Guards and we must decide which of two best abilities in game we aren’t using (Drag and Maul and Resurrection are both triples).
Honorable mentions (alternate lists)
Lists I decided are worse in tournament battleplans from other grand alliances:
Stormcast Eternals (Dragon Paladins):
Dagger:
2x Paladin with Starsoul Mace
1x (TE ally) Old Guard
Hammer:
1x Retributor-Prime
1x Paladin with Starsoul Mace
Shield:
1x Paladin with Starsoul Mace
1x (KO ally) Company Captain
This list is named paladin dragons, because with “Fight for Profit” triple near objectives Paladin’s attack profile changes to the same profile as unbracketed Zombie Dragon. I’m not running this as it lacks bodies to challenge death warbands and lack speed to chase treasures. But with single objective missions I don’t see much warbands being able to survive the damage, especially when buffed by Company Captain triple.
Skaven
Dagger:
1x Rat Ogor
1x Master Moulder
1x Stormvermin with Rusty Halberd and Clanshield
Hammer:
1x (SF ally) Trueblood
2x Stormvermin with Rusty Halberd and Clanshield
Shield:
3x Stormvermin with Rusty Halberd and Clanshield
It has access to great Doubles, but lacks survivable leader and good treasure grabber (RatOgor has a “beast” runemark). The hidden gem is definitely “Hired Bodyguard”
What not to do?
When you spend a lot of time preparing for a tournament don’t be like me and make sure to doublecheck if you filled the sign up form correctly. I obviously didn’t and now my Shield and Hammer are reversed (I figured this out too late to fix). The most important thing you should never do is to stress out about the whole thing as first and foremost is should be FUN.
Thanks for reading this enourmous wall of text and if you have any opinions please comment on Reddit/Discord as I would like to hear your thoughts. Next article will most probably be way shorter and will be some sort of Tournament Report.
Overthinking Warcry 