When it comes to creating a roster for a Games Workshop game, there are generally quite a few rules to follow. Apart from the obvious point values in order to keep forces fairly balanced, there are often limitations on how many kinds of units of a certain type you can field in competitive play. Even more common is a mandatory minimum number of basic units or troops that you are required to field before you can start to have fun by adding additional models to your army. While this can be a bit tricky to get your head around at first, most players quickly become accustomed to ‘army building.’
However, sometimes a game comes along that takes what we know about ‘army building’ and throws it out of the window. These games offer a greater degree of freedom for players when it comes to assembling their forces, and as a result, leads to wild and interesting armies. Warcry, the fast-paced skirmish game set in the mortal realms, is one such game.
The basic rules of creating a warband in Warcry are very simple.
1. Warbands can have between 3-15 models. No more, no less.
2. The combined point value of all models must not exceed 1,000 points.
3. All fighters must share the same faction runemark.
4. You can only have one leader.
And that’s it. No minimum or maximum numbers of a specific model. No limit on models with certain types of wargear. Just pick your models and go nuts.
Now it is still advised that you take a balanced force with a variety of different models. This helps plug gaps in possible weaknesses certain fighters might have, as well as gaining access to all your faction-specific abilities. Additionally, with the game being heavily objective-oriented, these more balanced warbands are more capable of adapting to the many scenarios that can get thrown at you. These ‘fair’ lists are typically well-represented by the boxset for each of the chaos-affiliated warbands and are a great place to start when first exploring eight points.
But if you don’t mind having access to only some of your faction abilities and want to try something a bit narrower in terms of your warband, then there is nothing stopping you building something a little bit more “fun.” In fact, when you do you start to come up with some extremely potent lists, they can easily catch your opponents off guard and steal wins out of nowhere.
For example, let’s say you’re an Iron Golems player and want to play a ‘tanky’ force that can both take and deal out damage without giving up ground. Well, you could always run a Dominar and a Signifer accompanied by three Ogor Breachers. Sure, you are never going to win the objective game, but if you find yourself in an elimination-style mission where you have to take out Shields or Daggers, your opponents could suddenly find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to take out up to two ogors that can more than hold their own in a fight.
Perhaps you’re more in the mood to run a horde of greenskins, maybe even a ranged list that can take out most foes before they can close into hand to hand combat. Well, why not take a Gloomspite Gitz warband comprised of a Moonclan Boss and thirteen Shootas. Not only will you almost always win capture the objective missions, but the sheer amount of firepower you will be dishing out is damn near terrifying.
Or you could be like me and run a list that hits hard and fast, outpacing most other warbands and being well-suited to assassination-style missions. For my local Warcry league, I have been using my Stormcast Eternals to great effect, running a reasonably fair and balanced three Hunters and three Gryph-hounds list. However, as everyone is getting ready to add allies and monsters to their warbands as week four approaches, I have decided to change up my tactics and swap to the following build.
Atalanta Boarsbane (Hunter-Prime) 210
Pransino (Gryph-hound) 150
Kokkino (Gryph-hound) 150
Kitrino (Gryph-hound) 150
Ble (Gryph-hound) 150
Mavro (Gryph-hound) 150
Total: 960
Not only is this a super-fast force that can run rings around most other warbands, but it has one of the most devastating alpha strikes in the whole game. A single Gryph-hound is more than capable of chasing down and eliminating all but the strongest warriors, so you can just imagine what a whole pack is capable of.
Now there are issues with running such a list. Firstly, my ranged combat is all but non-existent, leaving me with only a single model that can attack anything more than one inch away. Secondly, while Gryph-hounds are faster than Stormcasts, they sacrifice their armour for their speed. However, in combat they are just as hardy as their armoured brethren, and if you can make use of their Darting Attack you can hit hard and fast before disengaging to avoid retribution.
At the end of the day, there are no wrong ways to build your warband in Warcry. If you want to play a fair and balanced warband with lots of varied models in order to be diverse and ready to face all opponents, then go ahead. If you would rather maximise on one aspect of your warband and run a linear but fun list, then there is nothing stopping you. My advice would be to try a lot of different builds and see which one works best for you and your play style. After all, the most important thing about playing any game is to have fun (and to crush your enemies like Conan).
What lists do you like running when it comes to Warcry? Are you more of a Fair or Fun type of army builder? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and while you are there remember to like and subscribe to us here at Master of Magics to keep up to date with all we do.
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