Warcrow Syenann Action Pack Review

After covering the Winds of the North starter set for the all-new fantasy wargame Warcrow, we knew we needed to dig in deeper. Luckily, Warcrow creators Corvus Belli (makers of the fantastic sci-fi wargame Infinity) just sent us the latest release for the game, units from the brand new, elf-esque Syenann faction. Let’s dig in and see what they’re all about!

*Tariff Note: Due to the constantly changing tariff situation at the time of this writing, this product, though scheduled to launch this month, may be delayed*

 Who Are The Syenann?

In Warcrow, the Syenann are guardians of the great forests of the world of Warcrow, who like to stalk in the shadows and strike without warning. Using the forest to their advantage, and always with an eye toward gaining the upper hand on their opponents via their natural surroundings, the Syenann are a force to be reckoned with.

This Action Pack, which serves as a great starter kit for this upcoming army, contains the following units:

• 3 Protector of the Forest minis
• 2 Shadows of the Yew minis
• 1 Druid mini
• 1 Ynyr Daá Lainn mini
• 1 Grand Captain mini
• 1 Aiodos mini
• 1 Alula mini
• 1 Lioslaith Coic Caledhee mini

With exactly enough miniatures to field for each troop (most or one-off’s) you’ll have everything you need to dive in. Now let’s take a look at each troop, and speak briefly about what they do on the field.

Warcrow Syenann - Protectors of the Forest

The Protectors of the Forest are your boots on the ground unit for the Syenann. With impressive movement (they’re a 4-4 [10]), they hit hard from afar with their main attack, an 18 range rolling one red and three orange dice (if you’re not familiar with the mechanics of the game… that’s pretty darn far, and pretty darn hard-hitting).

Their two special abilities thematically link them to the whole army’s role as assassins in the forest. Their “Sharp Archers” ability says that if you inflict damage on a ranged attack, the target suffers one stress. That pairs with their “Stalking from the Forest” ability, which allows you to move this unit a short distance if they’re within 5 strides of a forest terrain piece of an allied unit.

Warcrow Syenann - Shadows of the Yew

But if you thought the Protectors of the Forest were assassin-like, wait until you see the Shadows of the Yew. This two-unit infantry troop moves even faster, strikes with two red dice, one orange, and one yellow (melee), and has lots of “switches” that allow it to cancel your opponents defenses, inflict extra damage, slip out of trouble, and cancel hits.

Their special abilities are also pretty impressive, with “Camouflaged” making it extremely hard to hit them from a distance, and “Silent and Precise” that shut down a lot of enemy options when you charge in on the attack.

Now let’s move onto talking about characters included in this pack.

Warcrow Syenann - Grand Captain

The Grand Captain is a unit that can be attached to another Infantry unit, or fielded on their own. They attack hard with ranged and melee weapon options, and when attached to a unit they offer up free hits per attack.

Their special ability “Maneuvers in the Forest” allows them to command up to two friendly units within 5 strides of a forest to position themselves next to the forest, and their “Ambushing Tactics” ability gives all allied units the ability to re-roll melee attack rolls if they’re close to a forest.

Warcrow Syenann - Lioslaith Cóic Caledhee

Lioslaith is another High Command unit that can be attached to an infantry unit, but on her own she’s a very fearsome warrior. With a hard-hitting melee attack (each roll is a red, two yellow, a defensive blue, and an auto-hit), and switches that allow her in offense to cancel blocks and in defense to move herself away from a fight, she’s brutal on the field.

Her special ability “Encircling Defense” lets allied units within 5 of a forest or an allied unit ignore 1 damage per activation, and her extremely powerful “Scabbard of Nuada” ability allows you, once per game, to ignore damage that would kill her, remove all damage from her character, and move her away (at the cost of two stress).

Warcrow Syenann - Ynyr Dará Lainn

This feather-bound character takes to the skies to attack! With a very interesting move allowing them to charge up to 20 (!!), and his special abilities are all about swooping in, attacking, and getting away.

“Death from the Skies” let’s you engage with an enemy 10 or less away and attack with an extra yellow dice, while his “To The Sky” ability allows you to remove him from the battlefield, remove all stress from him, and then re-deploy him using the scout rules.

Warcrow Syenann - Druid

The Druid is the magic-user of the group, with a very weak attack and average movement, but their use of magic sets them apart. Their “Punish the Intruder” ability is a ranged attack with heavy damage potential (and the ability to risk negative Tinge for extra stress added to the enemy).

Their “Exalting the Troops” special lasts 4 turns, and gives allied units nearby an extra orange die on all their attacks (with the ability to risk tinge to remove stress from themselves, or add a different colored die). And perhaps their most interesting ability is the “Defenders of the Great Forest” ability, which lets them just plop down a fresh piece of forest scenery!

Warcrow Syenann - Alula

Alula is a character unit built for getting the jump on the enemy. Their special ability “Surprise Attack” lets them jump into battle when another friendly unit within 10 strides of them is engaged. That enemy unit also receives the “disarmed” state, and you get to make an opportunity attack against them.

Add to that their “Vanguard Observant” ability, which basically allows all allied units to draw line of sight from anything this unit can see, and it’s clear the Alula is meant to wander off on his own, jump into surprise fights, and give your allies a clear view of the battlefield.

Warcrow Syenann - Aoidos

Finally, there’s Adidos, another character unit that can join infantry. Their spell, “Ballad of the Dryad,” gives an enemy unit within 15 strides of them a state of your choice (usually you’d likely want to make them stressed or disarmed). And, if they don’t pass a Willpower test with two successes, you can choose an ability on their profile and they can’t use it until the spell wears off (3 turns).

Their “Dance to My Tune” ability also inflicts stress on enemy units who fail a WP test, making them a walking problem for all enemies nearby.

Warcrow Syenann - Building The Kit

Warcrow prides itself on not including complicated models that need a whole booklet of instructions to put together, but I did find it difficult, at times, to know exactly how a specific piece was supposed to fit. Also, these are resin miniatures, so if you’ve gotten spoiled by the instant gratification of plastic glue on plastic minis, you’ll have to resort back to superglue for these Warcrow.

That being said, most models were, indeed, very intuitive to build, with each unit packaged separately so you know you’re not cross-pollinating bows and arrows across units.

Warcrow Syenann - Final Thoughts

This is a very, very slippery army. I love when elf-type armies are represented not as high-magic, civilized, or haughty - but as animalistic or like a true force of nature. These are definitely your archetypical wood elves, and I love the look of them.

With rules that rely on forest terrain, you’ll need to ensure you’ve got enough when going into battle to get the most out of this army. Without any forests, you’re kind of losing out on the whole point of the army - this could be a downside, if you were hoping to just build them up, grab some random buildings from your terrain shelf, and get them into the action.

But when all is said and done, the Syenann are an army that brings a whole new dimension to this brand new game - trading brute force for precise strikes and an overload of stress on your opponents.

The copy of Warcrow Syenann Action Pack used in the creation of this review was provided by Corvus Belli.