New Battles Await In Warcry: Red Harvest

Warcry, the Age of Sigmar skirmish game, gets a new boxed set with some new warbands vying to control Varanite Delves. We check out Warcry: Red Harvest and the new warbands.


Published: November 9, 2021 6:20 PM /

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Warcry: Red Harvest

Warcry, the action-packed skirmish wargame set in the world of Warhammer Age of Sigmar gets a new starter set with two brand new warbands and a new battlefield in which to defeat your enemies, in Warcry: Red Harvest. In this article, we’ll have a look at what’s in the box, as well as looking at who the product is for. If you want to know more about the two new warbands, you can check out our dedicated guides for the Tarantulos Brood and the Darkoath Savagers.

If you’re interested in learning more about Warcry, you can check out our Warcry Guide, or Introduction to Warcry.

Warcry: Red Harvest.

Warcry: Red Harvest is a two-player starter set. It contains everything two players need to get started with Warcry without any additional purchases required. If you’re new to Warcry, this is an easy way to start and if you’re an existing player, this set gives you two new warbands, access to Varanite Delves scenery, and a set of new battleplan cards.

The Warcry: Red Harvest box contains:

  • Two warbands and stat cards - Tarantulos Brood and the Darkoath Savagers
  • Warcry: Red Harvest rulebook (which contains the core rules)
  • Double-sided Varanite Delves board
  • Varanite Delves scenery
  • Set Up Cards (Terrain, Deployment, Twist, and Victory)
  • Dice, tokens, and measuring stick

If you're brand new to Warcry, this set contains everything you need to start playing. Including the core rules and all the dice, tokens, and even the setup cards you need. Straight out of this set, you can pick up the Grand Alliance Books, and then any build any warbands that take your fancy or even just pick up one of the Warcry Warband sets that come with the miniatures and stat cards to start playing straight away.

Warcry: Red Harvest.

Warcry

The Warcry rules are extremely simple to learn and teach and each Warband is made up of a small number of fighters. This makes Warcry extremely beginner-friendly and a great entry-level product.

Battles are set up using the four set-up decks for Terrain, Deployment, Victory, and Twist. One card from each deck is drawn and combined, they show players how to set up scenery, where they can set up their force, how the game is won, and a random effect for the game. This allows games to be set up very quickly. If playing in Open Play, this set-up can provide a huge variety in terms of games, but not entirely balanced. Players can also play Warcry competitively in Matched Play, in which case only specific balanced options are used. Narrative Play opens up some interesting scenarios and players can take it even further with a detailed campaign system where warbands can receive upgrades and capture spoils after each game. In campaigns, fighters can also be slain or injured, but such is the way of Chaos.

Warcry: Red Harvest.

Warcry has a very interesting initiative system, where players all roll six dice each. Any doubles, triples, or quads rolled by a player (two, three, or four of the same number) are put to one side and can be used to activate powerful abilities for your Warband. The player who rolls the most amount of unique numbers gains the initiative and gets to go first. Players also get a Wild Dice each turn, which they can use to add either another unique number to try and win the initiative, or to boost their existing dice to make a single a double, a double a triple, or a triple a quad.

The game turns are very straightforward, with players alternatively activating their warriors, who each have two actions with which they can move, attack, disengage or wait. Attack rolls are streamlined into a single roll. Players simply select the weapon their warrior is attacking with, check the range of that weapon, and roll an amount of dice equal to that weapon’s attack roll. There is only one roll, which combines the rolls to hit, wound and any saving throws into a dice throw. This keeps games very quick, as it’s very easy to work out.

Warcry: Red Harvest.

Warcry: Red Harvest

Warcry: Red Harvest, along with being the perfect place for new players to start, also contains a whole host of new content for veteran players. The two warbands it contains are currently unique to this set, but as with all previous Warcry boxed sets, should see their individual release later. The boards and scenery are also unique here and come with four new battle plan decks. The battle plan terrain cards are all based on the new scenery, and the deployment, victory, and twist cards are also different from those from the core set.

Warcry: Red Harvest.

The new scenery, of which there is a lot, is awesome and will almost certainly see play in systems other than Warcry. The terrain battle plan cards provide some great setups for filling the board and making some unique battlefields. The Varanite Delve rules add molten pits terrain features, along with features for the delves engine scenery pieces and sluices. These scenery pieces can be turned on and off with new universal abilities, which make some sluices become hazardous dealing damage to any fighters on them.

Four new branching quests are also included, one for each grand alliance. These are 'Choose Your Own Adventure' campaigns for your warbands and are a nice addition for veteran players. It's also nice to see that the core rules presented in the Red Harvest book aren't just a reprint, but use examples from the Red Harvest set to illustrate it throughout.

A big part of the Red Harvest box is obviously the two new warbands, and we look at each in their own guide - Tarantulos Brood / Darkoath Savagers.


The copy of Warcry: Red Harvest used to produce this preview was provided by Games Workshop

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A Potts TechRaptor
| Senior Tabletop Writer

Adam is a Tabletop Specialist for TechRaptor. He started writing for TechRaptor in 2017 and took over as Tabletop Editor in 2019 and has since stood down… More about Adam