Warcry 2.0: What it Takes to Compete
Warcry 2.0 has been a monumental shift in the skirmish landscape of Warhammer, with smaller, faster-paced games becoming all the more interesting. It’s been heralded as one of the best systems Games Workshop’s ever put out, by several other mainstream publications, but the question I ask today is: How does it play in a tournament setting? As someone who’s taken top spot in a 32 man league during the course of Warcry 1.0, I feel I can speak with some authority on the subject, and about why I’m so excited for this brand-new look at Age of Sigmar’s smaller sister game.
The core of Warcry’s gameplay is much the same as Age of Sigmar, where positioning and movement are king, though for Warcry specifically, games are often decided by genuine measures of inches. Although some missions tend to favor slower warbands, the general rule of thumb is that you need some mechanism to score early objectives, as well as enough raw bodies on the table to hold them. By that logic, I entered my first Warcry Tournament in 2.0 with a Beasts of Chaos warband; for background, I traditionally played Skaven (the obviously best faction in 1.0) as well as Nighthaunt (where universal Fly & Toughness 5 were pushed to a broken degree), so I’m very well-adjusted to highly mobile warbands. However, Skaven have been thoroughly nerfed, and good riddance too, on top of Nighthaunt losing their Universal Toughness 5, being point-hiked, and flying being worse as well. My mainstays were, predictably, neutered in the changeover of editions. That’s no cause for alarm though, as so much was expected by anyone utilizing them in high-level play. Furthermore, armies that would normally celebrate these factions’ demises (Ranged-Heavy warbands like Lumineth Realmlords & Kharadron Overlords) were similarly ‘taken behind the shed’ and nerfed. Fly, Ranged Damage, and high Toughness over multiple models have all been appropriately costed now, opening the gates for a new top contender. All said, one key feature of 2.0, however, which is made very evident in other recent tournament results, is that the Ally system is by far the biggest winner in the edition’s rules renewal.
In the new edition, allies have been made far more accessible at the tournament level, and ‘goodstuff’ lists have been popping up because of that; the top list from the NOVA Open was Destruction Soup, an amalgam of Gloomspite Gitz and various leaders from the Grand Alliance, providing both quality swarming capabilities, and Strength 5 attacks, which tends to be the point where 3+ to hit is all-but-assured. Though it’s not prudent to go through all of the recent top lists, out of the multiple Top 4 cuts for Warcry 2.0, the overwhelming majority (90+%) have some degree of Ally usage, between those from other factions, Monsters, or the generic Chaotic Allies, like the Mindstealer Sphiranx or Centaurion Marshal. So, with the knowledge that a good starting point for 2.0 Warbands is: Generally, pretty fast with a reasonable amount of units, that take advantage of the Ally rules available to every player, what have I been running, myself?
Beasts of Chaos wasn’t likely what came to mind, but given my performance across both testing and tournament play, I’m very happy with the performance of these GOATed Goats. I was drawn to this warband based primarily on the core synergy between the two Leader models, being the Great Bray-Shaman, and Slaangor Slake-Horn. Each of these has a Doubles ability (that is to say, an ability that’s essentially automatically available) which allows you to manipulate combat distance, either by pulling Enemy models towards you, with the Shaman, or moving towards them, with the Slake-Horn. Due to how the Wild Dice system works, you will always, no matter what circumstance, have the option to utilize these abilities, making the core strategy something that’s highly replicable across long-term tournament play (which, like any game, means a more consistent win/loss ratio). Beyond that, we have the Centigor as our objective-holding unit; at Toughness 4 and 10” move, it’s brutally efficient for crossing the board and surviving the journey. The rest of the list is filled-out symmetrically, where our two non-Shield contingents (the Hammer & Dagger) are each made up of an Ungor Raider (An effective skirmish archer), a Gor with Gor Blade and Beastshield (A cheap, Toughness 4 chaff unit that moves reasonably fast), and a Bestigor (A unit which is essentially a Gor with extra Strength & Damage, making them better at close combat).
This entire list is focused on maximizing consistency across tournament play, and I’ve seen that reap results for myself, never placing lower than Top4 in GT & RTT side events, though also never winning them outright (though ties have occurred). One of the significant weaknesses of the list is that our Strength caps out at 4, which means Toughness 4+ enemies usually shrug damage across multiple activations; this is usually circumvented by outmaneuvering them, or simply playing to Mission Objectives, leveraging our high model count & speed to win-out. Because everything we’re aiming to do is dependent on Doubles, our turns are easily plotted-out, and we can allot variable rolls towards higher risk/reward plays, keeping our crucial activations towards the end of a Turn Sequence, and playing conservatively. With this list, we’re dead-on at 1k points, which is always efficient to do, and with 9 models, we outdrop the “standard 7 model rule”.
All said, I do think that 2.0 is shaping up to be a far more interesting, dynamic edition of Warcry than its predecessor, and I’ve seen so many folks enter into the hobby just to try it out. Between its fast-paced, quick rounds, endless replayability, and crucially, its small buy-in, I thoroughly recommend you give it a shot, even if you’re less competitively-minded with your listbuilding!
That said, for my fellow competitive players, the data shows that Ally smorgasbords seem to be winning-out over the more traditional monofaction Warbands, and worse still, all of the best lists are taken from Age of Sigmar factions, not the exclusive Warcry Cults. There’s certainly a chance we see some adjustment to this, whether that’s Allies losing out on their inherent faction abilities, smaller caps for how many you can include, or even a greater striation in which Allies can even be taken, it’s up in the air. Until then though, there’s much fun to be had with souped lists, and essentially every faction under the sun can achieve some degree of viability with the right mercenary models. The balance is much finer now, with the only real ‘problem units’ slightly over the power level being such by 10-20pts apiece, and I expect to see it become a popular side event at more dedicated Warhammer Tournaments, going forward.
What sort of allies are you taking in your Warcry Warbands, now that 2.0 has dropped? Do you think these souped lists are healthy for the game? And finally, any thoughts on the list I’ve been playing, seen in this article? Let me know any thoughts you have in the comments below!
