So now that I've had a few more games under my belt, along with my most recent one being a Coalition of Death game, I'd figure I should talk some more about it.
Most of the games I've play have been with my Gloomspite Gits, with me changing them around each game to test out new combinations, though I did have one game using the Legions of Nagash in which ended with a run around until my opponent finally ended my last Shield member. I've fought mostly the Corvus Cabal, though I have fought against Stormcast, Sisters of Khaine and Flesh-Eater Courts. My thoughts all the factions I've played/vs so far on them are:
Legions of Nagash:
Necromancer is good, but being your only leader option and being a caster makes him vulnerable to being targeted first. Doesn't help when he's in a mission when the only friendly models near him are also ones that need to remain alive and so draining them of health becomes a serious problem. Grave Guard are alright, but it's the Cursed Weapon ability that can really help them out in combat, as it adds 1 to damage from hits and critical hits and is a double ability. Any other ability requires you either be within 6" of the leader or can only come from the leader himself, which is why he is such a massive target. The cheaper skeleton warriors are alright, but tend to die just as easily.
Apart from the Necromancer, the other major problem is speed as (apart from the Necromancer) everyone has a move of 3". Not great, particularly if you get the twist card that subtracts one from movement at which point you'll probably find yourself debating if you need to waste doubles on movement based abilities over damage based ones.
Gloomspite Gits:
Kinda spoiled for choice with options, though most will prove to be difficult to manage. You have three options for your leader (Boingrot Bounder, Squig Hopper or Standard Git) and both Boingrot Bounders and Squig Hoppers have the flying ability, though Cave Squigs don't. However, these units are also kind of expensive and can die easily if your not smart with them. That said, they hit hard and should you have a high triple for Boing! Boing! Boing! or a quad for Sneaky Stab, they can really stack up that damage.
Smaller gits tend to be weak, with Netters and Squig Herders being cheap and weak and only kept in for left over points or abilities (which I feel are just not as good as other ability options), but you can have a good number of Stabba's and Shoota's in a git crew. Obviously, you want many of the stabba models near each other to benefit from the Backstabbing Mob ability on a double so you can dish out some stronger hits, while shootas work better with the Onslaught universal ability on a double (as it is a straight out extra attack, turning your 2 shots per action into 3 shots per action, unless it's changed in future FAQ's).
Sum up, Squig based models are good, but expensive while Gits tend to be weaker but cheaper. Now I just need to figure out what combination works best.
Sisters of Khaine:
Fast and powerful in their attacking, though weak against a few blows. With the right dice, they can really dish out pain in bursts, but have very little to save them from counter-attacks. In the game we played, most of my LoN skelly crew ended up removing most of my opponents sisters, with only two snake ladies remaining in the game. My fault against them was with their speed as they were able to close in and silence my Necromancer early on (thus removing both his damage and his resurrection abilities), while in the latter half of the game being able to avoid loosing their last Shield member through pure movement alone (my crew could not keep up with her, while my own last Shield member was chased down and killed by the melee snake lady). Speed 3 Skeleton/Grave Guard are no match for speed 7 snake elves.
Stormcast:
A mixed bag as they tend to have good strength, toughness and wounds, though they appear to be expensive as the one I fought against didn't have a whole lot of models. Not that it mattered as it seems the mission to kill his Shield (a Gryph-hound and his Leader), proved to be more difficult then I expected. The twist of everyone having +1 Toughness worked more for me then it did for him, but most of my Gloomspite were still hitting on 5's, so trying to grind him. That and I completely underestimated just how powerful those Gryph-hounds could be against my boys.
I would later team up with Ironjaws to verse both the Stormcast and Corvus Cabal in the Coalition of Death game and learned that they are way more limited in tighter terrain and that Ironjaws can beat the snot out of just about anything.
Flesh-Eater Courts:
Big guys or little guys, that seems to be the option when fighting them. The big guys tend to have a nice stat line with their big winged boss having a hefty amount of wounds. I learned too little - too late that when fighting these guys just how hard they hit and that my Boingrot Bounders didn't stand much of a chance (though a Cave Squig double-team did take out one of the large brutes). I learned that when fighting them that they tend to have the big guys deal the brute force damage charge, with the little ghouls being used either as support or to take objectives.
I look forward to the day when I can have a re-match so I can see how much I've improved since that first game.
Corvus Cabal:
Staying up high and striking downwards seems to be their main strategy, though they can move through or over terrain with equal speed if given a chance. The Shrike Talon in particular (those guys with wings and stilts) are deadly if they can swoop in to attack from up high. That said, my opponent had two of these guys and it didn't come without cost. Being a more expensive model for the crew, his force was limited to 6 models, so when it came to collecting treasures or holding objectives, it proved a bit more harder. The second is that striking by themselves against a group of enemies can almost lead to certain death against harder hitting units. Needless to say, the battle against the Ironjaws he fought did not last long.
I'm still working on the best list to fight him with, as he tends to focus on my Squig models first as they pose the biggest threat to him. Perhaps I should try an all Git crew instead? But moving on to other thoughts.
Coalition of Death:
Man was this both an exercise in having a both a fun and frustrating game. Given my own health issues, I had some trouble not letting everything overwhelm me, but in the end it was a mostly fun game. As mentioned earlier, the Coalition of the Greenskins (My Gloomspite allied with Ironjaws) meant that I got a few extra points, so I upgraded my boss to a Boingrot Bouncer Boss, which would prove to be my Git of the Match. We were up against the combined might of Stormcast and Corvus Cabal.
Coalition of Death has two boards placed side by side and our game was four players in two teams squaring off to fight for victory. You count only your own crew as friendly, but do not count your ally as an enemy (so basically, you can't benefit from their abilities and they can't benefit from yours, so as to balance it out), but both opponent crews do count as enemies (so abilities that target enemy models count both opponent crews as being enemy models). What makes this more interesting is that beyond the fact that the team that looses priority roll gets to set up the terrain in what ever way they want, is that each battle round you roll on two charts and those two results are the way you score victory points in that battle round, rolling new ones in the next battle round. This is by far the most intense part in the game it seems, as suddenly you realise that your opponent just happens to be on the highest terrain piece at the start of that turn and moving him off it to claim it for yourself would prove difficult now that it is suddenly a means to score points, or how you run your Hammer models in one turn in an attempt to kill a Shield model for that rounds victory point, only to fail and take damage back, then find out on the next turn that it is the Hammer models that are worth the points and now they are vulnerable in combat.
Honestly, it involves some sneaking discussions with your ally and hoping you opponent isn't paying too much attention so that you can make the most of a battle round. I was lucky to have such a great ally who, while taking the game more serious in one sense, was also having fun on the other hand. It was quite clear that by the end of turn 2 that things weren't going well and by turn 3 we were needing a real play. I was lucky that my opponent forgot about by Hammers and went to secure our starting zone, but in a stroke of luck, my Quad allowed my Boss to get into combat with a basic Corvus member and kill him, which not only took out a Hammer, but tied the number of enemy models in the starting zone objective (The bird crew kept hiding out of view or attack range due to them standing on the trees, which we all agreed that they could do in the game, though it did go against us so that felt satisfying). Despite it being a draw at the end of turn 3, it was already getting late so we called it there, even though you are meant to keep going until one side officially wins.
Turns out having the dusk twist effect didn't make much difference to our shooting when you have such dense terrain, but still was a great game. If you have a Warcry community or just a bunch of friends that you want to get into a single game at once, then definitely give this option a go.
Monsters and Mercenaries - The Warcry Expansion:
So now lets talk about the recent expansion to the game, Monsters & Mercenaries. Much like the expansions for 40k's Kill Team game, this was hit with mixed views and it is easy to see why. Monsters are powerful units that can devastate weaker models with ease, while some Mercenaries are more powerful then most units out there and cost similar points. It can also throw some people off enjoying the game this way too, so I suggest a few options if you do plan on using it:
1. Don't add Monsters or Mercenaries until your crew have completed at least one campaign.
The reason for this is that by this point, you and your opponents are already becoming quite powerful and this is the next step up. As far as the Chaotic Beasts and Thrall options from the book are concerned, I'm fine for them to be in a starting game, but feel your crew has to at least prove itself by completing one campaign in order for them to advance to bigger things. I have some suggestions if you do want to use the rules in 2 & 3 below.
2. You can still fight Monsters
Fighting a Monster as a one off mission just to test your crew or for a story purpose is fine, but just don't allow them to hire the monster if it's early on. If you do want to add monsters at some point, have it that after a set number of games that crew can hire the monster as by this time it has recovered and is now properly tamed. Personally, I'd still stick with my first one of not adding them in the first campaign, but let the warbands fight them if they want to see how they fair.
3. Mercenaries are one-off story combats
Have the option for a mercenary to join the crew for a single story battle as you have two rivals wanting to best the other and have dragged two warbands in as pawns for their victory. It makes sense for two powerful foes to suddenly drag a lesser group into battle with promises of riches and glory, knowing that many wont survive the conflict. It makes a good story mission early on until your warband has become powerful and well-known that mercenaries want to join you in your quest for glory and power.
4. The Campaign missions are fine to use.
As with my comments on letting the Chaotic Beasts in both as Beasts and as Thralls, the campaigns in the book should also be allowed for people to pick from as some people might not like the campaign stories they have or feel the rewards are not fitting of their crew. I do like the idea of either picking Honour (a sort of lighter option and grants an Exalted Command Trait) or Glory (a more darker option and grants an Artifact of Power). These ones do require two sets of different warcry game terrain sets (the starter set and one other from each terrain set released), but most players should be fine with running with whatever they have (after all, the game is meant to be fun and not everyone is loaded with cash).
That said, if people do not want to use this book or just use it for the campaigns, then that's fine and I can totally understand why. Shaking up your crews with monsters or heroes can really limit option or strategies and depending on your opponent, make the game a lot less fun to play.
Overall
In the end, Warcry is by far the best thing to come out of GW recently and one of the few things that still keep me tethered to the Warhammer franchise. I have enjoyed it and who knows, maybe at some point I might work my way up to Path to Glory or even a normal Age of Sigmar game, but for now Warcry keeps my gaming itch satisfied for the moment and I hope to keep playing it for some time.
