Warcry 2nd edition is now nicely settling in. With the core rules and an enormous number of factions available for free on Warhammer Community, the changeover has been very smooth between editions. The rules changes are all improvements, reactions add a lot to the game, but the new edition has been a small evolution, not a revolution in the rules. Edge cases are fixed, and you can’t play fetch with objectives using beasts anymore, etc etc. They’ve also tidied up runemarks so there aren’t 27 variations of a skull in a circle and you’re left trying to work out which is which without using a magnifying glass. The armor panels were highlighted along the lines where it connects to the silver trim with first Wild Rider Red, then very carefully with Fire Dragon Bright. If you are running a three game event, I would heavily recommend choosing a mission from each sub category (for example Treasure Hunters, No Quarter and The Hidden Vault would be a good set of missions). He makes up for this with his unique ability, the Double Gladiator’s Net, which lets him tie an enemy fighter to the ground for one battle round on a dice roll of 3+. They have been raised as fighters in the pits of the Varanspire, and have spent their whole lives trying to catch the attention of Archaon with their victories in battle.

With dedicated strategies, the Spire Tyrants can get missions done. Removing a section of the enemy or holding an objective can be straight-forward with the right deployment. If the enemy has fast-moving targets, that need to be removed, try to herd them into a corner. But once you focus on a task, see it through to completion, they don't have the maneuverability to be able to change plans half-way through the game. A bonus to mention is the Warcry Cultists which used to be ignored but saw a slight improvement in Broken Realms: Morathi with an ability to gain Marks of Chaos in a specific subfaction which didn’t quite get them there. They finally crossed the finish line in White Dwarf which finally made them battleline if the mark matches your General which makes Iron Golemsand Spire Tyrants notable when marked with Nurgle and Khorne, respectively. Other Units The paralyzing edge is a nice touch too, given you can use this to punch an absolute hole in an enemy threat and also prevent it from even being able to move.The Pit Champion is the greatest warrior amongst the Spire Tyrants. Taking charge through intimidation and brute force, these champions can never let down their guard, for those they command will seize upon the briefest moment of weakness to secure their own ascension. [1a] Headclaimer I don’t think an optimized Spire Tyrants lists needs a Frenzied Rager, but if you care about narrative and visuals, he is a must-bring like the Bestigor, since the diversity of the Spire Tyrants warband is part of its lore and cool aesthetic. Abilities for the Spire Tyrants Warband Honestly not too bad, but compared to other Leader-specific abilities like Spine-Crushing Blow and Harrying Raven, which have utility AND can be used by other fighters if you choose to build that way, this is nothing special. The Spire Tyrants get this on a Chaff model. Rabble of Reptiles –The warband straight out of the box is not good. Like the Iron Golems, you will NEED a Slaves to Darkness Double Box to contend with the other warbands.

The first step to an effective Splintered Fang warband is deciding which direction you want to build them in. The warband direct from the box is fine against other boxed Warcry warbands but the moment you face an optimized list you will go down hard. The two key ways to build a Splintered Fang warband are choosing to prioritize the strength of your infantry, or the unique nature of your Serpent Caller. Personally I opted to play around with infantry, so that is the list we will go over. Look at the big hitters you have available, and what abilities you have that boost either damage or strength in combat. If you don’t have access to strength 5, what do you have for damage output? Do you have large numbers instead of it? Does your warband go for whittling down with ranged weapons, or board control, or something else to replace punching really hard? This sets them apart from the rest of the Warcry Chaos warbands, since they don’t worship a shamanistic symbol of Chaos. The Spire Tyrants know what they’re dealing with, and calls themselves the Chosen of Archaon himself. Here we go, the Venombloods. These units in all their variations are the REAL combat threats compared to the Pureblood. This model can also be equipped with a Spear instead of a Whip which is my preference. This is a continuation of a concept introduced in the Stormcast Battletome. Heroic Upgrades let you upgrade your Heroes to a different warscroll once you have the necessary Renown and Glory. Mostly they are what you expect. Want to give your Chaos Lord a mount? You can do it here. Make your Exalted Hero of Chaos a full blown Chaos Lord? Right here. This is great for serving the narrative of taking your lowly Hero to the top of the ladder of Daemon Princedom. Or he can just cheat and roll it on the table.

The Leather

Open play has always been sort of an Enigma, but Games Workshop wants to keep it around. The rules here…are actually pretty cool? There’s a “twists” table that a player can roll at the start of the game to add some sort of special rule to the match, similar to Realm Rules from second edition. There are 6 in total and they represent each of the gods pushing their influence onto the battlefield (With one being “Nothing Happens” and one having players reroll the effect each round). The effects are all fitting for the god, such as Tzeentch giving Crystal Wyldshards where all Wizards can Reroll casting rolls but take D3 mortal wounds if they do or Khorne’s Furious Bloodstorm giving +1 to wound while forcing a -1 to casts. I actually dig this a lot and the reroll each round especially sounds like it adds the right amount of anarchy to the match. We’re going to eschew Archaon as he changes the dynamic significantly and look at a variety of options that lay open to you as a Slaves to Darkness warlord. Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness You have to have some numbers in this game. The minimum warband size is 3, and that would be a super bad idea. The maximum warband size is 15, and while that would be amusing that would force you to take a lot of low point models like goblins or skeletons or gnoblars or whatever, which have their place (pushing buttons, dragging treasure, tying up models that cost four times as much, etc). They aren’t necessarily what you want to spend all your points on when you will want to take some good stuff. Hooh boy, now this is a quad. A quad 6 spent on this on say, a Serpent, will result in the on average 1 Crit it does to 10 DAMAGE. If it Crits twice? No need to even roll to see if they’re paralysed, they’re straight up dead.