Skaven for War+squeek+

On a quick trip to Warhammer in Jinbocho Tokyo this week I picked up some Warcry cards for my Skaven (as well as treated myself to a 40K chibi pack. Which model did I get? Keep reading...)

I've enjoyed a couple of games of Warcry now using the Starter Set warbands that came in the box, and I have really enjoyed the overall experience. However one of the things that attracted me to the game initially was the opportunity to use other armies. Especially the Skaven, for whom I have a soft (corrupt) spot. After all, we know that Skaven get everywhere, so wouldn't it make sense for them to be exploring that part of the world as well?

So what comes in the cards, and do I have models that will work?

It looks as though I can definitely put together a band based on the majority of the cards, but it does appear I have a gaping hole (wound?) before I even get on the table. 

Let's see what I have. (For today I'll just use some old photos, so they won't exactly match the Warcry cards, but I think I have exact copies somewhere in my warband!). Let's start with one of the most iconic models in Skaven lore. The humble Giant Rat...
...(love these little guys - back in the day they were great little units of 12 or so that could slow our enemies down or nibble on small enemy units).

Check!

Next, one of the biggest units, our old friends the Clanrats. Fearful individually, fearless in big numbers (and they were used in big numbers in Warhammer Fantasy)...

Check!

Plaguemonks! These pustulent fanatics have all sorts of diseases to spread. Thanks to their decaying bodies they also are remarkably tough (for Skaven at least). Do I have any of them?
...Yes! Yes!

Stormvermin always look great ranked up, and I love the lore behind them and their armour and weapons. 

Night Runner (counts as)...

Finally in my current Skaven Clan I do have a Packmaster and Rat Ogres...

What about that gap I mentioned?
There is a gap in my current army. It is a large one too - monstrous in fact. That is Stormfiends. These are really great models that came out some time after I finished up my Skaven clan, and I don't have any of them! Sadly they just happen to be the most powerful cards in the deck (at first glance and judging by the expense.)

However, I'm also not going to try to get hold of any, as most of them seem to come in at 30-50 USD on ebay (before shipping) or more (close to 90 USD here in Japan new and boxed.)

I hope I can put together a fun Warcry warband with what I have. The next step will be researching other Skaven player's bands to see what they have and what is competitive. If anyone has any ideas please let me know!

*Squeek*

p.s. The chibi 40K figure was just for a bit of fun. There are 5 possible models. You guessed it, I got the one I didn't want, the Eversor:

Nevermind!

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.