Here’s a ton of info on the new Warcry!
These articles were originally published on the Warhammer-community site.
We thought the ATC would be the perfect place to reveal our latest Warcry warband – a seemingly civilised pack of killers from Hysh…
The Cypher Lords are a gloriously weird Warcry warband, quite different from any of their more barbaric kin. Unlike, say, the bloodthirsty Blades of Khorne or the roaming Untamed Beasts, these mysterious cultists hail from a city in the Realm of Light called Nochseed and, to the wider Mortal Realms, seem more or less ordinary – barring perhaps their taste in headgear.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Cypher Lords are as mad as the most frothing cultist of Tzeentch, delighting in spreading mayhem and madness wherever they go. They’re deadly fighters, too, using skills earned in the martial colleges of Nochseed to deadly effect, whether they’re cutting down rivals in the streets of their city or shedding blood in the shadow of the Vararspire to catch the attention of Archaon.
The Cypher Lords are the perfect warband for players that like the seductive, almost civilised side of Chaos – the esoteric cults and shadowy gatherings of nobles within cities all across the realms, as opposed to the unwashed, screaming barbarian masses outside them. They’re also perhaps our first-ever look at just what life might look like in the Realm of Light – a place which, until now, has been associated with the ordered kingdoms of Tyrion and Teclis.
With that, the first six Chaos Warbands for the game are revealed! To recap – here’s all of them so far…
Thanks again to the ATC for giving us an incredible event to reveal this warband! With that, the first wave of Warcry warbands has been revealed! Make sure you check back later today for the Pre-order Preview, and let us know what you’re looking forward to most about Warcry on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page. Meanwhile, if you’re looking to learn more about the ATC or even attend yourself next year, check out their website.
Coming Soon: WARCRY
Do you hear the whispers on the wind? Is it the call of Archaon himself, beckoning you to the Varanspire? Or is it thousands of fans asking “where’s Warcry, then?” on Facebook? Either way, we have good news – Warcry is available to pre-order in ONE WEEK.
Next weekend, you’ll be able to pre-order the new game of skirmish combat in the Mortal Realms, offering you a dark new setting to explore, a fast-paced battle system to master, new models and new ways to play with your existing ones.
What is Warcry?
We’re glad you asked! We caught up with the team behind the game to find out…
If you’re looking to get stuck in with Warcry, there’s a range of sets and accessories to help you get started.
Starter Set
This massive boxed set (seriously, it’s huge) gives you everything you need to start fighting in the Ravaged Lands. Two warbands – the Untamed Beasts and the Iron Golem – let you battle with a friend out of the box. A selection of Chaos Beasts add extra challenges to your games, and can even be added to your warband in longer campaigns. Meanwhile, a brand-new set of scenery and a folding gaming board brings the desecrated ruins of the Bloodwind Spoil to life, designed to provide a tactically varied and thematically rich backdrop to your skirmishes.
What’s more, the Starter Set is packed with handy extras for gaming. Fighter and Ability cards for both warbands help you to track your warriors at a glance, a sheet of tokens allows you to keep an eye on persistent effects and mark activations, while battleplan cards and terrain cards allow you to generate new games in moments.
Just look at those wicked dice (with the Warcry symbol on the 6s!). And, if that wasn’t enough, the set also contains the full and unabridged Core Book – your guide to battle in this new era of skirmish gaming.
The Core Book
The Core Book is your primer to the Warcry, giving you the rules to play alongside art and lore that sheds light on the shadowy reaches of the Eightpoints. You’ll have the chance to discover the world of Warhammer Age of Sigmar as you’ve never seen it before – a dark and wondrous realm of blood, magic and monsters, where spires of cursed crystal and gheist-haunted ruins litter a broken land.
You’ll be able to recreate this world for yourself on the tabletop with rules for gaming, including expanded options for open, matched and narrative play. Perhaps you’ll fight sprawling, chaotic multiplayer battles – or fierce, tightly balanced tournament-tier games with like-minded friends. For narrative players, meanwhile, an in-depth campaign system brings incredible opportunities for storytelling.
Warcry campaigns are your chance to tell truly epic tales of conquest and bloodshed. Assembling your roster, you’ll embark on your choice of faction quests to search for relics, empower your fighters, and win glory for your leaders. As you triumph in battle, you’ll add more fighters to your warband, improve existing ones, and embark upon convergences – key narrative battles in the story of your warband that depict anything from bloodstained shamanic rituals to a madcap attempt by the Gloomspite Gitz to steal as many glass bottles as they can.* Even if you’re new to narrative play, generation tables for names, warband origins and warrior backgrounds allow you to forge compelling stories easily.
The Core Book is included in the Starter Set, as well as being available separately at launch – perfect if you’re splitting the set with a friend and don’t want to have to share a rulebook with your new arch-nemesis!
The Warbands
From day one, you’ll be able to expand Warcry with another warband outside of the Starter Set – the mad duellists of the Cypher Lords.
This warband set contains models plus rules for using them in your games in the form of sets of cards. An abilities card allows you to master the underhanded tactics, dazzling ploys and special moves available to the Cypher Lords. Meanwhile, a set of fighter cards make checking the characteristics for your warriors simple. These are just one of a host of new warbands on the way – some of which we’ve already seen…
Ravaged Lands
The Eightpoints – the heart of Archaon’s dominion and the foremost stronghold of Chaos – is a vast place with its own nations, cultures and climates. Home to choking jungles, ice-capped mountains, sprawling cities and more, this tainted landscape will form a varied background to your games both in the lore and on the tabletop, thanks to the first of the Ravaged Lands sets.
Warband Cards
If you’re looking to add an army from Order, Death or Destruction your games of Warcry, you’ll need some Warband Cards. At launch, you’ll be able to get these for the following factions:
Each set contains an abilities card, plus fighter cards for every model you can use in these warbands. The scale of Warcry means that a single box of miniatures will usually give you enough fighters for a full 1000-point Warband roster, with some leftover for reserves. If you’re looking to play Warcry with forces from one of the other Grand Alliances, these are a must-have.
Battleplan Cards
Generating a battleplan in Warcry is as simple as drawing four cards! In the Battleplan Cards set, you’ll find countless combinations of deployment set-ups, challenging victory conditions and game-changing twists. Combined with the terrain cards found in Ravaged Lands sets, the possibilities are nearly endless. Seriously, there are literally millions of possible combinations!
The Warcry Ruler
Every warrior knows that to go into battle unarmed is foolishness – which is why you need the new Warcry ruler. Designed to look like a jagged-edged sawblade (don’t worry, it’s made of rubber), this nifty accessory doesn’t just look awesome – it’s designed especially for Warcry – it bends around corners!** The flexible nature of its construction makes it ideal for tracking daring leaps over low-lying cover or desperate scrambles up the ruins of the Allpoints.
Carry Case
Picture the scene. You rock up for a game of Warcry. It’s the final campaign quest, and you’re PUMPED UP. Your champion is ready to ascend to greatness, and you deliver a speech of such verve and fervour that several people in the Warhammer store that just came in to buy paint have gathered round to chant your name in solemn, terrifying tones.*** You prepare to remove your leader from your pocket – only to realise his mace has snapped off. What should be your moment of glory becomes a nightmare of plastic glue? To add insult to injury, the cool freehand you did has chipped off.
Don’t let this be you! The Warcry carry case is the ideal way to take your miniatures into battle, protecting them from anything the Eightpoints (or your backpack) can throw at them.
Mark your calendars – you’ll be able to pre-order everything next Saturday – that’s the 20th of July. The game will be available to pre-order for two weeks, before hitting shelves on the 3rd of August. To tide you over, we’ll have LOADS of Warcry Content right here, with in-depth looks at the warbands, tactics and more – check back tomorrow when we’ll be unboxing the Starter Set in detail.
In the meantime, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for the latest Warcry updates delivered straight to your inbox, and get your tickets to the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Open Day for the chance to learn about Warcry directly from the team who made it.
* As the Warcry Core Book reveals, the Gloomspite Gitz are incapable of creating glass bottles. Thus, as other warbands compete for glory or survival, these grots are hunting for decent glasswork.
** We spent way too long trying to find a joke, which is obviously here somewhere, about how this ruler bends to your will… if you locate it, please let us know on Facebook.
*** This story is, of course, highly improbable. After all, it’s almost impossible to come out of a Warhammer store with just paint.
Warcry: Unboxed
So just what’s inside the Warcry Starter Set? Quite a lot, as it turns out! While you’ll be able to get your hands on your copy in a couple of weeks, we gave some Warhammer Age of Sigmar fans a chance to crack open the box and try the game for themselves – here’s how they found it…
They’ve got a good reason to be excited! The Warcry Starter Set is absolutely packed with content – and we’re going to take you through all of it. First up…
The Warbands & Chaotic Beasts
You’ll be able to battle out of the box with two Warcry warbands – the Untamed Beasts and the Iron Golem – and a host of Chaotic Beasts. Supplied in plastic, each of these offers their own opportunities for modellers, painters and gamers alike – here’s how they look on the sprue…
And here’s what they look like painted!
But just where are you meant to battle? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered there, too!
The Terrain
The boxed set contains loads and loads of brand-new scenery, bringing one of the ruined cityscapes of the Bloodwind Spoil to your tabletop. Depicting the remains of one of the great cities of Order built in the Eightpoints in the Age of Myth, this modular terrain set can be configured in all sorts of patterns to build awesome battlefields. It’s even got stairs designed for your miniatures to slot into!
A double-sided gaming board, meanwhile, gives you a great-looking playing area wherever you are. Meanwhile setting up your games is simple thanks to the battleplan cards…
The Battleplan Cards
In Warcry, games are super-varied thanks to the battleplan cards – an innovation designed to generate epic battles in moments. Simply draw one card from each of the four decks, and you’ll have a thrilling gameplan sorted, including terrain, objectives, deployment and twists that offer new challenges for your games. With literally millions of possible outcomes, no two games need ever be alike. You’ll find a set of battleplan cards and terrain cards for the ruined city terrain in your core set.
Now all we need are the rules!
The Core Book
We’ve included the full and unabridged Core Book in every copy of Warcry. This dark tome is your guide to the world and game of Warcry – you can read more about it in yesterday’s preview.
This is your essential resource for playing the game itself, while rules for individual warbands can be found on your fighter cards.
Fighter and Ability Cards
Every warband in Warcry has rules on a set of nifty cards. These take the form of an abilities card – which includes names for each type of a fighter on one side, and special abilities on the other…
Fighter cards, meanwhile, let you track the rules for the warriors in your warband at a glance. For convenience, these use symbols known as runemarks instead of words – after a few games, you’ll find knowing what these mean becomes second nature. We’ll be looking at a few fighter cards throughout the week – this key shows what the different symbols mean.
Last, but not least, we’ve got…
The Tokens!
Token sheets! We can’t get enough of them. Your Warcry set contains a token sheet to keep track of ongoing effects, objectives and so on at a glance. Handy… and oh so satisfying to pop out before the first time you play!
You’ll be able to pre-order your Warcry Starter Set this weekend. In the meantime, check out yesterday’s preview for more details on what you’ll be able to get on launch weekend, and let us know what you’re looking forward to most on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
