The Road to Warhammer Fest 2023 - part 6, The Fest Warcry Rumble

• Part 1, Themed box for counters, ruler, combat gauges, cards and dice.
• Part 2, Themed Warcry Dashboard
• Part 3, planning the Gnarlwood Encampment Mini display board
• Part 4, building the Gnarlwood Encampment Mini display board
• Part 5, The Tangled Depths
• Part 6, The Warhammer Fest Warcry Rumble

It's happened!

I've been trying unsuccessfully to get my thoughts together about my experience of Warcry at Warhammer Fest for a few days now. So this post might be a little long, disjointed and/or rambling.

But I can safely say it was an incredibly positive experience. Everyone I spoke to was amazing, friendly, enthusiastic and happy. There was a whole spectrum of Warcry players - experienced tournament players and newbies who had only started playing Warcry in the last few weeks!

I played an mind-boggling nine games over the three days! NINE!?! That's more than I have managed for the rest of the year put together (and that includes the 4 games at my first Warcry tournament; Tangled Depths at Warhammer World, back in March).

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Day 1, Saturday

I arrived at Manchester Central a bit later than I intended (in fact I did this every day to be honest!!) and the queue to get into Fest was very long. In hindsight, as I didn't want to even try to get into the 9am WH40K 10th Edition Preview, I should have arrived an hour later and avoided the busiest time.

I've seen a fair bit of quite negative reactions to the weekend online, mostly about having to queue to do almost anything and the lack of activities for visitors not doing paid add-on events. I don't have much to add to that hasn't been said already, but I can say I had a really great experience of the whole thing - obviously my I expectations for the event were different from many peoples' and I definitely made a very conscious choice to avoid queuing for anything, and to focus on socialising and playing Warcry games.

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I saw Viktor ahead of me in the queue outside as it snaked back on itself and we said hello as we passed. A few minutes later I saw Lee just a little behind me so I waited for him in the entrance foyer after I had my ticket scanned and got my 3-day pass wristband.

Viktor and a load of friends from Nottingham were doing the Hobby Challenge, so they were busy for a good chunk of the day. Lee and I spent several hours looking round the huge event space.

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Viktor messaged to say he was done in the Hobby Challenge so we met up with him to play some casual Warcry. There were dozens of tables set up for casual AoS, 40K and Kill Team, and hardly any were in use, but none had been set up for Warcry on Saturday (I suspect that, as the tournament was on Sunday, the scenery was still packed up - it might be that they were worried about brakages, or they just didn't expect any one to want use it). I asked a couple of tournament judges what the deal was for casual play, when I said we wanted to play Warcry their  reaction was lovely! They were really excited and enthusiastic, and said we should feel free to move scenery around to make more compact boards on as many tables as we needed.

I posted on the Warcry Discord that we were going to play and more people joined us within a few minutes!

I used my Rumble warband, so I would be able to keep their rules straight in my head the next day:

The Swordfyshes - Ironjawz Pirates

DAGGER

Lord Krashhart - Orruk Warchanter [80] Leader

Leeway Ruk - Orruk Brute with Jagged Gore-hacka [150]

HAMMER

Lugger Dag - Orruk Brute with Pair of Brute Choppas [140]

Docker Goff - Orruk Ardboy with Ardboy Choppas [80]

Hook - Orruk Brute with Pair of Brute Choppas [140]

SHIELD

Old Mudgob - Orruk Weirdnob Shaman [170] Hero

Yardarm Gark - Orruk Brute with Pair of Brute Choppas [140]

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DAY 1 - GAME 1

Opponents and warbands:

Lee's Anvilguard  (AKA Blessed Knight, on the Warcry Discord).
Viktor's Soulblight (AKA Godfather Viktor)
Kirian's Kharadron (AKA goldensire)

Battleplan: There Can Be Only One

A 4-player Triumph & Treachery game.

(No Twist card used but only because we forgot we should draw one until about half way through!)

Result: Loss

As half an AoS table (with the scenery from the whole board moved into one half) is the same size as two Warcry boards put together, its just right for 4-player Warcry games. So using the AoS tables worked well for this one.

Player: Lee

Warband: Cities of Sigmar - Anvilguard

DAGGER

Freeguild Handgunner [90]

Freeguild Handgunner [90]

Freeguild guard sword/shield [65]

Freeguild guard sword/shield [65]

HAMMER

Preceptor [225] Leader

Freeguild Handgunner [90]

Freeguild guard sword/shield [65]

SHIELD

Freeguild Handgunner [90]

Freeguild Handgunner [90]

Freeguild guard sword/shield [65]

Freeguild guard sword/shield [65]

Player: Viktor

Warband: Soulblight Gravelords

DAGGER

Grellem Valkern: Wight King [155] Hero

Tollich: Grave Guard with Great Wight Blade [65]

Keinrich: Grave Guard with Great Wight Blade [65]

III: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear [40]

VI: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear [40]

HAMMER

Krunti, the Duardin: Skeleton Champion with Mace [70]

The Drummer: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Blade [40]

The Skaven: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear [40]

I: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Blade [40]

II: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear [40]

SHIELD

Kalyustar the Soulchemist: Necromancer [145] Leader

Grond: Kosargi Nightguard [140]

Thronir, the Aelf: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Spear [40]

The Orruk: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Blade [40]

The Gor: Skeleton Warrior with Ancient Blade [40]

Player: Kirian

Warband: Kharadron Overloads

Arkanaut Admiral [145] Leader

2 Endrinrigger with Rapid-fire Rivet Gun and Aethermatic Saw [190]

5 Arkanaut Company Privateer with Pistol and Cutter [50]

Arkanaut Company Privateer with Skyhook

Arkanaut Company Privateer with Volleygun

(I don't know Kirian's Dagger/Hammer/Shield Battlegroups but I will update if/when I do.)

The Swordfyshes weathered a hail of fire from an unlucky group of handgunners, closed on them and quickly took two of them down.

Krashhart spotted their mounted leader and went flying after him.

It didn't go how he'd hoped... and he got knocked on the head.

This Triumph & Treachery Battleplan has a kind of "sudden death" rule, when your leader is taken down you remove the rest of your warband, so that was the end of the game for me. Viktor went down in Round 5 and Lee and Kirian carried on to Round 10 or 11, I think!

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Since I crashed out of that game early, and there were both more boards to play on other people to play against, Kit (AKA ToughTootinBaby on the Warcry Discord) and I started another game straight away.

DAY 1 - GAME 2

Opponent: Kit

Warband: Chaos Legionnaires

Battleplan:

Deployment: Stand-off

Victory: The Comet

Twist: At My Command

Result: Loss

DAGGER

Decuriarch [170pts] Leader

Trueblood [170pts] Allied Hero

HAMMER

Hornhelm with Darkiron Mace [120pts]

Hornhelm with Darkiron Mace [120pts]

SHIELD

Hornhelm with Steelbite Axe [125pts]

Hornshield with Mace [100pts]

Slaughterpriest with Bloodbathed Axe [195pts] Allied Hero

After the comet fell the fighters of both warbands raced to capture it.

Krashhart got tangled up in the Trueblood's net and was unable to help for half the battle. Almost all his fighters had 15 or more wounds too, so You Messin' wasn't going to help!

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Day 2, Sunday - The WH Fest Warcry Rumble:

Finally: Warcry boards appeared!

This is one of the boards I played on in Warhammer World last month:

And I've seen photos of this in other Warhammer World events:

These I had not seen before, but they aren't new apparently. Rumour has it that they had scenery for 20 tables and had to spread it over 30, so each board was a little more open than they normally are at Warhammer World.

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DAY 2 - GAME 1

Opponent: Kit

Warband: Chaos Legionnaires

Battleplan: Power Struggle

Subquest: Early Grave

DAGGER

Decuriarch [170] Leader

Trueblood [170] Allied Hero

HAMMER

Hornhelm with Darkiron Mace [120]

Hornhelm with Darkiron Mace [120]

SHIELD

Hornhelm with Steelbite Axe [125]

Hornshield with Mace [100]

Slaughterpriest with Bloodbathed Axe [195] Allied Hero

Another blinder played by Kit - he seemed to have a counter for every move I made and was able to capture and hold 3 out of the 4 objectives in Rounds 1 and 2. I managed to take one back in Round 3 and equalise the VP earned from then on but I couldn't get 3 objectives to catch-up on his early VP lead.

The Swordfyshes found the armoured Legionnaires tough nuts to crack, and surprisingly fast.

Where-ever the Swordfyshes turned the Chaos heavies seemed to second-guess them and have a countering move, all the while keeping just out of arms' reach!

Victory Points: 17-23

Kill Points: 100-130

Result: Loss

(Running score: L, 100KP)

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DAY 2 - GAME 2

(Best game of the weekend)

Opponent: Leila

Warband: Gloomspite Gitz

Battleplan: Supremacy

Subquest: Strongarm the Competition

DAGGER

Squig Hopper [200]

Stabba with Barbed Net [55]

Stabba with Moon Shield [55]

SHIELD

Squig Hopper boss [255] Leader

Stabba with Barbed Net [55]

Stabba with Moon Shield [55]

HAMMER

Squig Hopper [200]

Brewgit [70] Hero

Stabba with Moon Shield [55]

We were both really pleased about the paring for game 2! 

Leila and I have been friends for nearly 3 years but this is the first time we have ever managed to play a 2-player game together! Leila bought me a coffee and we started the game a little late...

I forgot the subquest in the first and second round!

Krashhart spent far too long trying to get at a dug-in grot while the rest of the Swordfyshes chased bounding squigs and grumpy Brewgit around. The ruins seemed to be overrun with dozens of the little blighters.

I think we were the last to finish this round as well. Too much chatting and not enough dice rolling. Leila managed to multi-task and keep her head in the game much better than I did.

Victory Points: 13-26

Kill Points: 125-150

Result: Loss

(Running score: LL, 225KP)

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DAY 2 - GAME 3

I forgot to take a selfie with Chris! But his warband looked lovely - it was very distracting.

Opponent: Chris

Warband: Hedonites of Slaanesh

Battleplan: Spoils of War

Subquest: Stolen Wares

DAGGER

Blissbarb Archer [95]

Blissbarb Archer [95]

Blissbrew Homonculus [55]

HAMMER

Slickblade Seeker [155]

Symbaresh Twinsoul with Sinful Cleaver [120]

SHIELD

Slickblade Seeker [155]

Myrmidesh Painbringer [105]

The Swordfyshes managed to grab two of the four piles of supplies and stop the Hedonites from getting more than one. The Hedonites found two artefacts.

The Swordfyshes captured a third pile of supplies and, as soon as they got the chance, they started looting: they took the best stuff from two of the piles of supplies and set the rest on fire, so the Hedonites couldn't benefit from it later.

The Hedonites and the Swordfyshes carried on burning things until there were no supplies left, then started fighting over the artefacts. The Swordfyshes killed one of the Hedonites' riders, but the survivors managed to run off with the prizes.

On balance though the Swordfyshes came out on top, loaded-down with masses of much-needed supplies!

Victory Points: 9-5

Kill Points: 310-140

Result: Win

(Running score: LLW, 535KP)

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DAY 2 - GAME 4

This was the toughest game of the day. The Battleplan/Subquest combination really complicated things. The interaction between cleverly picked Predator and Prey and the six objectives made my life hard. Add that to being significantly out-numbered and slower made this super hard.

Opponent: Bentley

Warband: Beasts of Chaos

Battleplan: Tides of War

Subquest: Predator and Prey

DAGGER

Gholoor Stormhoof. Gor with Gor Blade and Beastshield [65]

Khozgrol Fleethoof. Gor with Gor Blade and Beastshield [65]

Durthar Mooncaller. Gor with Gor Blade and Beastshield [65]

Aghus Bloodmoon. Centigor [120]

HAMMER

Khultrak The Favoured. Gor with Gor Blade and Beastshield [65]

Ugrok beathshrouded. Ungor Raider [90]

Khordorash Realmsplitter. Dragon Ogor with Draconic War-glaive [205]

SHIELD

Morghras Eye-Eater. Great Bray-Shaman [145] Leader

Oghrar Fanghoof. Centigor [120]

Festosh The Runt. Gor with Pair of Gor Blades [60]

Once again the Swordfyshes were basically defeated by the initial moves of their opponents. The Brayherd captured three out of the six objectives in the frozen graveyard, including the most important "Prime" (which shifted each turn from the northeast to the south east corner) and that was worth even more points.

They swamped the others with shear weight-of-numbers and even though the Swordfyshes all survived and used their bulk to block access to many of the objectives, the Beasts of Chaos managed to manoeuvre around them and grab all the loot.

Victory Points: 12-20

Kill Points: 255-0

Result: Loss

(Final score: LLWL, 790KP)

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All four of my opponents in the Rumble were very very cool. They all seemed just as enamoured with Warcry as I am, and they were all very relaxed and enjoyable to face. So all four of my games were fun. The whole tournament was great, from start to finish!

And the winner is... (spoiler: it was not not me: I came right near the bottom of the table - 51st out of 55 players.)

The winner was this absolutely lovely man!

Michael played Soulblight and smashed everyone - 4 wins and a huge Kill Points total (the tie-breaker, because quite a few people got 4 wins!)

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DAY 3, Monday

And then on Monday, with the tournament over, I switched to one of my Bonesplitterz Pirate warbands: The Cleavermaws:

DAGGER

Kaptain Mogrum - Wurrgog Prophet [155] Leader

Harbour Skag - Savage Orruk Morboy [95]

Dogvane Murt - Savage Orruk Morboy [95]

HAMMER

Kurbak Sloop - Savage Orruk Morboy Bone Totem Bearer [115]

Crowsnest Dag - Savage Orruk Morboy [95]

Deadlight Zag - Savage Orruk Morboy [95]

SHIELD

Lost Uzzog - Wardokk [155] Hero

The Barron - Savage Orruk Morboy [95]

Wrekka Groz - Savage Orruk Morboy [95]

There were also half a dozen Casual Play Warcry boards available (in a much quieter event hall).

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DAY 3 - GAME 1

Opponent: Jose

Warband: Rotmire Creed

Battleplan:

Deployment: Outflank

Victory: Hidden Vault

Twist: Rising Hatred

Result: Loss

DAGGER

Witherlord [175] Leader

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield [75]

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield [75]

HAMMER

Witherlord [175] Hero

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield [75]

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield [75]

SHIELD

Bloated One with Raker-claws [145]

Bloated One with Raker-claw abd Hooked Net [140]

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapons [65]

When rumours spread like wildfire, that a secret entrance to a tomb had been discovered in the forest, a number of warbands closed in on it.

The Rotmire Creed got there first with the Cleavermaws close behind them. After an early tangle with one of the two Witherlords the Cleavermaws tried to avoid both of them.

The pirate orruks all headed into the middle of the Gnarlwood camp, hoping to take and hold it for long enough to break into the treasure vault hidden within.

But the toxins used by the Rotmire Creed proved to potent for the orruks. The Rotmire overwhelmed them and stood firm around the find.

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Jose absolutely smashed me as he is a much better player than me... and I realised I had forgotten how to play Bonesplitterz after so long with Ironjawz!

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DAY 3 - GAME 2

Opponent: Kirian

Warband: Kharadron

Battleplan:

Deployment: Close the Jaws

Victory: Assassinate

Twist: Bitter Rivals

Result: Win

I found my feet with Bonesplitterz rules again with this game! The Victory and Twist cards were also a very cool combination that made a great narrative.

Drekki Flynt gathered his crew around him as the Cleavermaws arrived and made themselves known.

The orruks appeared out of the trees and noisily fell upon the Arkanaut Company.

Kaptain Mogrum shouted a challenge peppered with insults and the duardin took the bait. But Mogrum went down when Captain Flynt sucker-punched him, right in the middle of his challenge. The Wurrgog Prophet clearly expected the Kharadron to follow their own rules. Drekki Flynt was not like other Kharadron.

Luckily the orruk pirates of the Cleavermaw were also not like Kharadron and they swarmed Flynt en-masse and bashed him over the head.

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DAY 3 - GAME 3

Opponent: Matt

Warband: Flesh-Eater Courts

Battleplan:

Deployment: Encircle

Victory: The True Prize

Twist: Gaze of the Dark Gods

Result: Win

DAGGER

Abhorrant Archregent [205]

Crypt Ghoul [55]

Crypt Ghoul [55]

HAMMER

Crypt Horror [185]

Crypt Ghoul [55]

Crypt Ghoul [55]

SHIELD

Crypt Infernal [275]

Crypt Ghoul [55]

Crypt Ghoul [55]

The Cleavermaws found another way into the underground crypt. But just as they discovered what they thought was a huge haul of treasure and artefacts they found they were surrounded by a horde of ghouls and other horrors, looming out of the darkness!

They ran with their loot, toward the Baron and the crew who were keeping watch at the entrance.

Some of them realised the "treasures" they were carrying were just rubbish! Gold-painted plaster crumbled in their hands, revealing nothing but bits of bone and rotting flesh inside! The pirates cast them down in disgust.

Eventually they discovered that only one of the artefacts was truly magical, but they were determined to escape with it. As they ran some were cut-down by the horrors lurking in the dark on all sides, but each time the loot fell to the ground another member of the crew was nearby, ready to scoop it up and keep running.

Finally Mogrum burst out into daylight again, followed by the exhausted, and frankly terrified, survivors!

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We loved this Battleplan, really good combination of cards that made for a very interesting mystery game! Matt chose to reveal the fakes in a way that always kept me guessing, but I was able to make good use of the Bonesplitterz movement abilities to escape his carnivorous clutches!

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As well as nine (!) amazing games of Warcry over the weekend I also got to chat with this bunch of lovely people:

Long-time friend and hobby guru, Tommie (the_miniature_painting_tutor) and Kel (daphnelaurelp) who has only just caught the miniature painting bug but is fast becoming as obsessed as the rest of us!

Sam (cupboard_of_shame) - I was really pleased I got to meet Sam in real life for the first time. He's an absolute gent and we have been chatting on Instagram DM for ages. Apparently the good times I was having with Warcry convinced him to give it a try and he signed up the the Fest Rumble after just three games!

We had another Animosity Campaigns Discord Meet-up!

Left to right:

Ed (Maps)

Viktor (Godfather Viktor)

Saul (Saul | WarbossKurgan) - yes, I am smol

Michael (Malthan) - winner of the Warcry Tournament

Leila (Mura)

Nick (Nick | Beithir)

And there were a few more people that I didn't get selfies with: storm_of_chogoris and jon.hrt among them.

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It's over!

As I said at the start of this post (that seems to have grown way beyond my intended "brief summary"!) I had a really great long-weekend at Warhammer Fest 2023. I went in just hoping to see a few friends and play some Warcry and I exceeded that on all counts. I played a vast number of games, had a long chat with one of the Warcry TOs (who was really excited to see us playing more games after the tournament), I managed to meet-up with loads of people I know but haven't seen in ages, and I think I made a bunch of new friends too.

I really hope WH Fest is in Manchester again next year, so I can do it all again. In the mean-time I need to find a way to play some more Warcry games...