Warcry at the Sentry Box

Apparently in addition to yet being able to paint, I still remember how to play miniature wargames as I went undefeated in Warcry at the Sentry Box last weekend. That was one of the last gaming events in Alberta for a while as we are being strongly encouraged to stay home now due to the Coronavirus. I’ve been working from home since then, no gym, not supposed to go out except if necessary. I did a little painting, but I need my desk for my work laptop. Apparently I am an expert at T-SQL and SSRS now, at least for a few more weeks.

Winning at Warcry

Bill of course will say it was all luck, but the truth is it was not getting distracted by shiny newly painted models and focussing on completing the mission. When playing as goblins you are usually at a disadvantage because your guys are smaller and weaker than than the enemy in almost every case. The traditional goblin equalizer is cheating using wacky warmachines. There are no warmachines in Warcry. So how do goblins or Gloomspite Gitz win?

Are spreadsheets the answer?

Self proclaimed Internet experts seem to build spreadsheets, then film YouTube videos where they distill their wisdom. But how many hits on average you do against toughness three or toughness four doesn’t seem that important to me having actually played Warcry against random opponents. What seems important to me is:

• High Movement
• Key Initiative Roles
• Outnumbering Your Opponent

Lots of Attacks = More Criticals

I played against the Iron Golems and the good guys. They didn’t have a lot of toughness three or even four models. They had a lot of higher toughness models that I often could only wound on a five or a six. Warcry follows GW tradition in that a one always misses and a six always hits, but in Warcry a six is a critical. So rolling more attacks is good and of course doing extra damage on the six is better. Gloomspite Gitz can use a triple to “Stab em Good” they can also use a double to “backstab”. I see no reason they can’t do both if they activate two models carefully positioned.

Killing Isn’t Everything

Even with all those extra attacks you don’t actually need to kill anyone to win, this is where speed or maneuverability comes in. In both missions I played there were objectives, one game had six and one game had just one. In both cases I strategically chose to defend and use my superior numbers to grab objectives quickly. Even coming on late, Squighoppers which move ten whole inches, twenty if they double move are great. They also have more attacks than a Boingrot Bounder which as the biggest toughest model in your gang becomes a giant target, so don’t grab the treasure with him, use him as a decoy or feed him to some combat monster.

Sacrificial Goblins

I played Skaven mostly in Bloodbowl and was famous for my fall down defence. In the original Necromunda and my memories getting hazy but probably Mordheim too, your leader was more valuable than any other ganger and you had to worry about running away. In Warcry, games only last three turns in general and although valuable your leader is as expendable as is any other goblin. Obviously in a campaign your thinking will change as models gain skills but in a one off game, I sacrificed my more expensive models and my netter to try and slow up the bigger enemy models while I used lesser gobbos and my squig to grab the goods.

Ranged Attacks are Useful

Bill says there are Twists that make them less useful and I know two attacks at strength three doesn’t seem like much, but I’d much rather shoot at an Ogre with bows than have to fight him in H2H. The double volley of arrows is more effective and again you need those sixes but if I paint more models and revamp my Gloomspite Gitz Warcry gang I’d have more Squighoppers, more Shootas and more Netters. Netters are only 45 points and although two out of three times I missed the crucial netting roll after spending the double, the fact that a 45 point model can hold up a 200+ point model for a single turn is a valuable skill.

What about Nurgle?

I bought the Maggotkin of Nurgle card pack for Warcry and although Nurglings getting 30 wounds or something ridiculous sounds impressive if you scroll back above I think speed, winning key initiative rolls, and outnumbering your opponent are more valuable than having the biggest toughest model on the board. Luckily some Nurgle daemons fly, so I would definitely buy and paint some of those models. I could use them in 40K too, so I just might. But first I’ll paint more Nurglings, I actually think Gloomspite Gitz is likely a better gang than Nurgle daemons. I’ve played all Nurgle daemons in Warhammer Fantasy Battle before they are slow, have almost no ranged attacks and get outmaneuvered, outshot, outmagiced, and charged. Warcry is of course a different game but one of the uses of lots of models, is making the enemy charge you so you get double attacks back with your activation. Exploiting that and using your flying guys well is likely key for Nurgle in Warcry.

What’s Next?

During isolation I probably won’t get much gaming in, though I might play my first video game on my new laptop. I of course must work from home and I will also be taking a selfstudy course for work when the book arrives. I paid extra for the e-Book so lets see if I can download that now should I get ePub or PDF or both? Anyway for the purpose of this blog I primed more models, yet more Nurglings and I bought more paints, even more Contrast paints so that means more Contrast Nurglings are coming. I’m also going to try some Contrast paints out on my OOP Necromunda Escher gang. I need to paint more efficiently and if Contrast paints will help me, why wouldn’t I use them? Alas I just seem to end up using multiple washes and highlights on top of the Contrast Paint anyway.

It appears I will be reading another 325 pages about T-SQL, but I’ll also try to do some painting during the time of the Coronavirus. If you have any thoughts on miniature painting, Warcry, Gloomspite Gitz, Nurgle or Necromunda you can leave them below.