Welcome to Warcry!

Welcome to Warcry!

I heard a lot about Warcry - Games Workshop's latest skirmish level system - on release in the summer, so I decided to pick up a Starter set when I was in the UK.

The simple reason is that it ticked many boxes for me:

• Low model count for each warband.
• Good opportunity to try Contrast paints.
• Starter set comes with lots of gorgeous terrain and nice models
• Quick to play - under an hour by the looks of things!
• Streamlined rules with minimized steps (compared to 40K etc.)
• Interesting setting.

It was a royal pain to haul the 5Kg box half-way around the world to where I live (Japan), but seeing as the same set is double the price locally, this made commercial sense, even if it made for unwieldy hand luggage! (I was asked more than once at airport security about the box content - my honest reply got me a thumbs up at least once.)

After getting home I went to my local GW to buy some paints, glue and new brushes. The Citadel Colour app for Android actually proved very useful for doing an inventory of my existing paints prior to setting out (those that could be rescued - it wouldn't register a lot of my older paints at all) Although I didn't buy the Warcry set in Tokyo, I still wanted to support GW, which I did in style by purchasing new paints, brushes and spray primer. These alone weren't cheap, but as usual the GW staff at the Jinbocho store were incredibly helpful and full of good advice on which contrast paints to start out with etc.

Once I got down to assembly, it felt pretty good to get back into painting and assembling, although my clippers were dull from disuse and age! Overall, it took me a couple of weeks of painting in the evenings - accompanied by Season 1 of "Vikings" of Amazon Prime video - to get everything up to tabletop standard. 

In the end I used contrast paints for large areas of flesh, and the "Classic" method (base coat, wash, layer, highlights) on some of the other areas. I think this turned out OK. Here are some images of the final ready-to-play warbands and monsters.

Warcry Untamed Beasts:

Warcry Iron Golems:

 

Monsters (Furies and Raptoryx)

Warcry Terrain

As well as the warbands in the box, there is a really nice selection of high quality terrain. However BEWARE putting this all together as suggested in the instructions. Apparently the way that you need to use the terrain for the actual game means that some of the pieces will need to be used separately, when if fact you might think you need to glue everything together.

You can find an excellent guide to this over here:

https://waywalkerstudios.com/assembling-terrain-for-warcry/ 

...and a video walkthrough based on that guide here:

(All credit must go to Waywalker studios for their excellent article on this, and to BlackJack Legacy for the video - which also credits waywalker.)

There are lots of guides around for painting the terrain, but I went with Gray primer and Agrax Earthshade washes, followed by a Deneb Stone drybrush.

Over time, I'll probably add some details like blood stains, rust, patina, rivets etc, but now I feel I am ready for a game!

Cheers,

Squeek.

Black Templars and Warhammer 40K 8th Edition first games

I got in my first two games of Warhammer 40K 8th edition over the last two weeks.

My first game with the new system was at a Games Workshop store in Tokyo (yes, I still never call them "Warhammer Stores", no matter what the sign on the shop says!). I thought it would be good to have a game with the staff to get used to some of the new mechanics, and to help refresh my knowledge of the game as I haven't played in months.

Before I went I spent some time putting together a Black Templars list using the new "Power level" system. This is designed to be a quick and easy way to put together an army without worrying about calculating the exact points value of everything. Each unit has a clearly marked power level, which is adjusted based on the number of models in the unit, but not on their wargear or accessories.

Overall, this system works quite well in specific circumstances, and I was able to pull together a bunch of my old Templars models with relative ease. It makes calculation pretty easy, and various list building apps have already included it. (I used Battlescribe and this seemed to work fine). In a few minutes of playing around I put together a 75 point army of Black Templars (50 points is about 1,000 points according to some sources). More on that later.

Black Templars bike squad zooms in.

++ Game 1: Black Templars v. Ultramarines ++

Here is the 75 Power Level list I used:

• Captain on Bike
• Chaplain Grimaldus
• Crusader Squad A (9 Initiates with Chainsword, 5 neophytes with combat knives, 1 Sword Brethren).
• Crusader Squad B (4 initiates with Bolters, x1 with Flamer, x1 with Plasma)
• Crusader Squad C (5 initiates with Chainswords, x1 Flamer)
• Dreadnought with Autocannon
• Land Raider Crusader for Squad A
• Razorback for Squad C

My opponent had about 70 points of Ultramarines. From what I remember:

• Captain on foot in Terminator armour.
• Venerable Dreadnought with Las cannon, Dreadnought power fist/ flamer.
• x1 smaller Unit of Primaris Ultramarines (x5?) on foot.
• x1 large unit of Ultramarines (x10, with Missile Launcher)
• x1 large unit of Ultramarines (x10, with Missile Launcher)
• Close combat Terminator squad. (x10 or so, brought in from reserve. Half with lightning claws, half with thunder hammer and shield.)

If I can, I'll put together a separate report in more detail, but the highlight of the game had to be my excitement at using Chaplain Grimaldus, only for him to kill himself in his first shot of the game when his pistol overheated and exploded in his face. 
Classic WH40K Bittersweet moment™!

My opponent was the underdog in terms of points, but his large Terminator squad pretty much made mincemeat of my troops. That, coupled with some bad placing of charging bikes on my part opened them up to a lot of attacks that overwhelmed them.

10 Enemy Terminators arrive (top right). The end is near (for me).

++ Game 2: Black Templars v. Tyranids ++

The Thin Black Line v. The Red Tide of Death...

In my second game (this time with a friend at home) my list was a little different:

50 Power Level Black Templars

• Emperor's Champion
• Crusader Squad (7 initiates with Chainswords, x1 flamer, x1 Sword Brother.
• Sternguard x5 (x4 vets, x1 Sergeant All with flamer combi weapons)
• Terminator Assault Squad (x Sergeant, x1 Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer, x2 with paired lightning claws)
• Landspeeder x1 (Typhoon missile launcher, Heavy bolter)
• Devastator Squad (x1 Sergeant with Plasma pistol,  x4 with Missile launchers
• Rhino

49 Power Level Tyranid army

• Hive Tyrant (Shooty) PL10
• Carnifex (kinda shooty) PL6
• Tervigon (kinda poopy - "releases" 10 Termagants every turn.) PL13
• Genestealers (x5) PL4
• Genestealers (x5) PL4
• Zoanthrope (x3 in a single unit) PL6
• Termagants (x10 on the table at first I think?) PL3
• Hormagaunts (x10) PL3

We played an "Open Play" game to get a hang of the basic rules, using just the Indexes. 

There were four objectives, and points for control of each objective were collected at the end of each player turn. There is no 8th Tyranid Codex available at the time we played, and I don't have the SM Codex. Even if I know the rules, I didn't feel it would have been right to have access to my Chapter Tactics if my opponent didn't have any info from a codex of his own, so we didn't use those.

The Devastators...um...devastated (bottom left)

I ended up losing this game as well!

• The Hive Tyrant and Carnifex pretty easily shot my Devastators off the table in the first round of shooting, meaning I was out of massed heavy weapons that could have seriously dented his Tyrant, 'Fex and Tervigon. This was even with an improved saving throw due to being in cover.(I still had the Land Speeder with heavy weapon and Typhoon Missile launcher, but felt that wouldn't do the trick)

• The ability of the Tervigon in 8th edition to just add an extra 10 Termagants on the table without a chance of the ability stopping (as in 7th if I recall?) meant that the table quickly became full of little critters!

• This small Tyranid force still has 3 psychic units, who in the psychic phase managed to get off Smite a fair few times, as well as some tasty buffs and debuffs (The Horror, Catalyst and Onslaught). As it only takes a 5 or more to get off Smite, it isn't difficult to get off, but even 1-3 mortal wounds on a small unit in a game of this size is going to hurt over time. (Bear in mind that as I don't own the SM Codex yet, I wasn't using Abhor the Witch, which would have given me a 4+ Deny the Witch roll, even without any psychers of my own.)

This loss was my fault too though for sure, with plenty of bad choices on my part:

• I wasn't confident about driving my Rhino straight up to the Tyranids to disembark my Crusade Squad. It took me too long to do that, by which point there were lots of additional 'gants to deal with. They disembark now only at the beginning of your movement phase. If I had moved up within charge range, would the Tyranids have swarmed the raider and managed to simply take off enough wounds for it to explode? Once surrounded, the models inside have no exit point so simply die in that case? (My concern)! 

Because vehicles are more durable in 8th, being more confident about this is probably a key takeaway.

• I became too distracted by worrying about the units I had and should have paid more attention to the game objectives, and could have contested those in his back field earlier (using different vehicles such as the Land Speeder) to take pressure off my front line.
• I could have placed my devastators further back so they could have got one round of shooting off before being in range of the Hive Tyrant and Carnifex.
• It was a mistake not to try and whittle down the large number of Termagants that the Tervigon was throwing out. By the time I got into close combat there were too many of them.

It wasn't all bad news though! :-)

Having been slaughtered by some Terminators in my first game, I had put a small squad into this game and they worked quite well. Those 2+ saves make a huge difference, even under quite a weight of attacks. After his compatriots were struck down, the Terminator Sergeant duked it out with the Hive Tyrant and brought him down with a thunder hammer (only then to face the wrath of the Carnifex...)

Classic WH40K Heroic-Moment to Enjoy before Death™!

Terminator Sergeant alone, but not unbeaten!
In the next turn, he takes out the Hive Tyrant (at right.)

Another positive was to see how the Sternguard did with their combi-flamers. After moving up, they quickly crisped a unit of Genestealers with no problems (but then fell to all that dakka from the HT and Carnifex.) Flamers = Fun (although somehow, I miss templates...)

Two Sternguard fall to incoming fire, but the other three advance
and fire their combi flamers into a unit of Genestealers.

To finish, here are a few takeaways of main mechanics (mainly confirming what I have read elsewhere.)

Power Levels:

It won't satisfy players who like to carefully calculate everything, or gamers interested in "Match play" style games where opponents want very evenly balanced points, but for putting together a quick "pick-up list" it does the job...
...as long as you accept there will be imbalances.

Depending on the army, some decent war gear or other options will slip in, and according to some reports, these could make make for an actual points difference of a couple of hundred "match play" points.

Simplified Gaming:

Yes, the game is more enjoyable with simplified shooting, wounding and saving. It will make things faster and easier for most gamers, and especially casual gamers (like me.)

Flamers Sans Templates:

With my dice rolls, I feel like I need to take flamers en masse. The D6 automatic hits sounds good, but with just one in a unit, that could just be one hit (for me at least!) 

Dataslates:

Mixed bag! Great to have all the rules for a unit in one place. Not so great if you don't keep a close eye on where the dataslates are (or if you have an army with a load of units.)

Thanks to both my opponents for the games. I'm looking forward to using 8th edition more than 7th because I think the overall simplification of the game suits me as a gamer.

Games Workshop Crusade Case

After some years getting back into the hobby, I've been finding the urge to tidy up my tiny workspace and better organize my armies for storage or battle. 

As mentioned before, I have a variety of storage options, from GW (the old, flat cases) to Battlefoam (Pack 1520 - no longer in production) to recently throwing together some homebrew solutions (plastic boxes stacked and transported in a suitcase). 

For a previous storage wars post, I asked people to share how they store their miniatures. Here is the updated information as of the other day:

After 187 votes the results, in order of popularity:

1. DIY/ Made it myself: 36%
2. Games Workshop: 27%
3. KR Multicase: 16%
4. Battlefoam: 15%
5. Sabol Designs: 6%

This Christmas, I decided to try out the new GW cases. The army I have wanted to tidy up has to be my Black Templars. They have a good mix of infantry, bikes and larger models (x2 landraiders, air support, speeders, Predator tanks and Rhinos/ Whirlwind launchers). To date, I have kept the infantry in a smaller GW case, and vehicles in cardboard boxes.

The size of the army meant that if I was looking at GW as an option, it had to the Crusader case. This was the largest. 

So what do I think after one month of trying to fit stuff into it?

Overall Build Quality:

Good. 

The plastic feels tough, the ribs serve to strengthen the case, and strap feels solid, with metal clips. The clasps could be bigger and chunkier, but so far I have no reason to think they are going to break or flip open unexpectedly (although the old GW cases had larger, tougher-looking clasps)

A nice touch is the little depressions around the case that help to make the unit stackable with other crusade cases.

The "Channel Foam" itself is of a good quality, but like some other foams it can rip and tear, or have parts gouged out of it.

Storage:

My first impression was that the case is a bit...small! 

That could just be compared to the Battlefoam 1520, but I was surprised at the relatively compact size. 
Width: 19" (48.5cm)
Height: 9" (23cm)
Depth: 12.5" (32cm) including the lid pins

That isn't necessarily a bad thing - for the vast majority of players a 1,500-2000 point game is probably the norm, and I think that this case should carry that number of points without any trouble. I'm not embarrassed to lug this around town on the train.

However, if your primary goal is to store large numbers of large vehicles AND infantry, a Crusade case alone may not meet you needs.

In my case (geddit?), I was able to get the following in, in varying combinations:

Top Trays: 94 models

Left: x48 infantry

• x16 Sternguard
• x1 Chaplain Grimaldus and x4 servitors with relics (all prone)
• x1 Helbrecht (prone) 
• x8 Assault marines
• x18 Tactical Marines

Right: x46 infantry

• x1 Chapter Master
• x1 Standard Bearer
• x1 Emperor's Champion
• x10 Neophytes (Scouts)
• x33 assorted infantry (Sword Brethren, Initiates)

Middle Trays:
Left:

• x1 Predator (with separate turret)
• x6 Terminators (including Chaplain)
• x8 Bikes with separate

Right: (Airwing)

Black Templars airwing

• x1 Stormtalon (with separate base)
• x1 Dreadnaught
• x4 Landspeeders with separate bases

Bottom Trays:

x2 Landraiders

OR

x1 Landraider and x2 Drop pods

(Tip: you will be better served by this case if don't glue vehicle turrets in place. I have a couple of Predators with fixed turrets and commanders. This seriously impacts the storage as the layers above won't fit on top of the lower layer properly)

x2 Landraiders

x2 Drop pods

Foam Quality

The "Channel foam" as GW calls it definitely has some pros and cons. 

The Landraider at right shows just how much this foam will flex!

On the positive side:

+ You get a LOT of flexibility, both literally and figuratively (see what I did there?). The foam is very flexible, and deforms a lot without tearing or ripping. It will mould itself neatly around your models, compress them, and keep them snug.

+ This foam takes the worry out of trying to plan and get custom foam and all the hassle that can be on vendor's websites. I have spent literally hours and hours on sites like KR Multicase and Battlefoam trying to work out what trays I need, and invariably I gave up. (NOTE: this is not always a problem with those sites - I just don't have the patience)

However, be aware that there are negatives:

For infantry in particular, you have to play around a LOT to get stuff in the way you want it. What do I mean?

- For maximum numbers of models (e.g. you want to store everything) some of them will rub against each other if you pack them in. Remember, each individual model is not completely walled-in (as you might find with custom foam or compartments.) This is especially true for infantry. 

- Packing and unpacking can be a long and finicky process. You might think it would be faster with foam that works with everything, but as you don't have a special size slot for a model working out where it will go actually takes longer!

- For maximum protection, be aware that models may still move around a fair bit. You will need to spend time making sure you get things just the way you want them to protect certain special models.

Cost performance

The Crusade case is 75.00 Pounds on the GW website (14,500 Yen or approx 80 GBP in Japan). You will find them at online retailers for around 65 GBP if you look. 

Should you buy this case? 
If you are in the market for a hard plastic case and don't want to make your own, then I think this is a reasonable price for what you are getting and seems competitive with other manufacturers. The quality is fine for everyday use, the foam works well and it will store quite a large number of figures. Other manufacturers have many more case styles and options to suit all budgets, but I don't think you can go far wrong with this.

Cheers,