Warcrow Winds From The North Review

In the world of Lindwurm, the star known as Warcrow passes once a millennium causing the cycles of magic and increasing the potency of the mineral orichalcum that sits beneath the earth's surface. This increasing change, whether they feel it or not, has caused the world's factions to seek out victory for themselves. The Orcs of the Northern Tribes now battle with the armies of the Hegemony of Embersig, the Black Legion, as the Northern Tribes stray beyond their boundaries and the Hegemony seeks to find out why.

Warcrow is a fantasy wargame by Corvus Belli, the creators of Infinity. Warcrow initially launched with a dungeon crawler adventure game, Warcrow Adventures, and now expands into a full tabletop wargame with the launch of its first starter box, Warcrow Winds from the North.

How Does Warcrow Play?

Warcrow uses a mix of mechanics from 2 of Corvus Belli's other games, Infinity, their Sci-Fi wargame, and Aristeia, the board game battler set in the Infinity Universe, but it feels very different from both.

Each unit in Warcrow comes with a stat card that details its abilities, and the dice it rolls in attack and defense. Warcrow uses custom dice which contain a mix of successes, blocks, and special symbols. There are 2 types of rolls that the game calls for, simple and face-to-face. Simple rolls require the player to roll the number and colors of dice shown on the unit's stat card for that action, requiring a single success to achieve.

Face-to-face rolls allow your opponent to cancel out your successes with their blocks, making them harder to achieve. The special symbols on the dice enable you to activate unique abilities, known as switches, which can be anything from increasing damage to activating effects and giving states to units.

Combat with large units is streamlined by increasing and decreasing stats, depending on the number of troops left in the unit. For example, the Black Legion Bucklermen roll 1 red and 3 orange dice in attack when they have 3+ troops, but 2 orange and 2 yellow when they have 2 or fewer troops left.

Characters can also join units, and their stat card has 2 elements to keep this straightforward too. The top half of a character's stat card has their full stats when they're functioning as a solo character, but when they join a unit, their cards sit under the unit's card and only uses the bottom half of their stat card, which details the stats they modify for the unit (rather than using their own while part of the unit) and what abilities they can use whilst part of it.

Warcrow also uses a Turn Counter to track in-game effects. The game is split over several rounds, and each round consists of a number of turns indicated by the scenario. During each turn, both you and your opponent can activate 1 unit. An end-of-round counter is placed on the turn tracker, and scenario events, and the duration of magical effects are also tracked using it.

What's Included In Warcrow Winds From The North?

Warcrow Winds from the North is the launch box for Warcrow and contains everything that 2 players need to start playing. Included in the box is:

• Warcrow Learn to Play Booklet
• 7 Northern Tribes miniatures
• 7 Hegemony of Embersig miniatures
• Gaming Mat and Bakhlia Farm Scenery Pack
• 18 Custom Dice
• Measuring tools, tokens, and markers

The full rules for Warcrow are available for free online and can be found under Resources on the Warcrow website. You will use these rules after playing through the scenarios in the Learn to Play booklet, and it can be used straight away if you want to try out the game.

What Are The Two Factions Included In Warcrow Winds From The North?

Northern Tribes

Made up of the orcs and varank that have populated the inhospitable Boreal Lands since ancient times, the Northern Tribes have forged an alliance that terrorizes humans, dwarves, and elves the whole world over.

They are the Tribes of the North and they have descended from the cold northern lands to sow panic in the world, lop off heads and drown the earth in the bloody entrails of their enemies; in order to reconquer what belongs to them and continue living in a manner that is faithful to their own nature. They are the orcs and varank, and woe betide anyone foolhardy enough to stand in their way!

The box contains 7 Northern Tribes miniatures:

• Alborc / Wraithmane
• Evoker
• Wisemane
• 4x Orc Hunters

The Northern Tribe's characters in the box are more expensive than the Hegemony's, which means that points for points are hard to balance against the Hegemony, but at this lower points game, the Hegemony tends to do better, with the Northern Tribes relying on other units from other sets to make the most of their characters (Alborc's Warg and the Crow ability, for example, needs a Varank unit which aren't release yet). The Orcs in Wind From The North are faster than their human opponents and come with more wounds and they hit harder.

Hegemony of Embersig

The most illustrious Hegemony of Embersig is a young, dynamic, diverse and expansionist empire. Armed with the iron fist of its Black Legion, the world’s most powerful and well-trained army, wrapped in the silk glove provided by its skilled diplomats and spies, the Hegemony has grown into a power without equal.

The word “Embersig” describes, in the Maghar language, the concept of “all people” which includes, not only humans, but also elves and dwarves. Thus, the Hegemony is a melting pot that synthesizes the best of each culture.

The box contains 7 Hegemony of Embersig miniatures:

• Dragoslav Bjelogric / Hetman
• Frostfire Herald
• War Surgeon
• 4x Black Legion Bucklermen

The Hegemony units in Winds from the North, while looking weaker stats-wise, have a brutal combo with the Bucklermen and the War Surgeon, who can roll against their willpower to stop damage to the unit when attached to them, and when they rest, they heal all wounds. This makes them extremely durable against the Orc Hunters, who can have a hard time removing them from the battlefield in the lower points introductory scenarios. This is compounded by the Bucklermen also adding a Block symbol into their rolls, even when attacking.

How Do I Expand From Warcrow Winds From The North?

Following the same format as Corvus Belli's Infinity, the next set for Warcrow will be a Beyond Winds of the North set, that will add 3 miniatures each to the Northern Tribes and Hegemony of Embersig.

The Hegemony gets Lady Telia, a ranged warrior who can target characters attached to units, which is extremely powerful for weakening units with strong support characters. Accompanying Telia are two Pioneers, another ranged unit that can target enemies without having line of sight to them.

The Northern Tribes get Njord the Merciless, who's extremely fast, and hard-hitting in combat. Also included for the Northern Tribes are 2 Skin Changers, who pick a Totem at the start of the battle which can either give them scout or reduce their movement slightly and give them an extra wound. The Skin Changers are Varank warriors, so can benefit from Alborc's ability which will increase his value.

Further products for the Warcrow line haven't been announced yet, but if it's anything like Infinity's release roadmap, we'll see a few more units for the current 2 factions, before we get another Battle Box introducing the next 2 factions.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Warcrow Winds From The North?

Winds from the North is a great introductory pack for Warcrow. It gives a good taste for the styles of the first 2 factions, but they could be better balanced against each other, even if it was stat cards just to use in the narrative campaign that's included, before moving into the full stat cards.

It's quite deflating to have some raging Orcs just rebound off a unit of humans because they have a healer with a crowmask. It's easy to see that in larger point games (full games are advised at 250 points and the battlepack has 120/130 points for the 2 factions), the Northern Tribes will have a lot going for them as they load up states on enemy units, and Alborc allows a free activation chain with a Varank unit (not included in this set).

Some of the rules in the Introductory booklet aren't super clear, and the turn counter initially seems overly complicated before you play a few games and get into it. Making sure you move the tokens on the tracker is essential, and even missing one turn on it can make tracking events and tokens complicated to fix. The tutorial and the narrative campaign do a good job of onboarding before progressing to the full rulebook though, even if some of it isn't super clear on first read-through.

The custom dice and the way unit combat works make the game very streamlined. Character insertion into units also keeps this seamless nature, adding dice and abilities rather than having to work out multiple combats for different units involved. I like the way the game flows as well, and once you get used to the turn tracker, it has a nice pacing to it with alternating activations, and the face-off rolls for combat.

Should I Buy Warcrow Winds From The North?

If you're looking for a new fantasy wargame, then Warcrow has a very interesting setting, and the mechanics work well for a great-paced game. With the limited products (2 factions with not enough units for a full game yet), games may become stale after you've played with both factions through the campaign and initial scenarios.

How Corvus Belli paces their releases will be key to keeping interest. Details of several other factions are mentioned in the lore, game details, and on the Warcrow website, but we don't know when they're planned for release. Winds from the North does have a great narrative campaign (that's not in the online rulebook or the full printed rulebook with lore details you can buy separately), but the balance of the 2 included factions is off, so make sure any beginner players get the Hegemony, who are a lot more forgiving to pay with than the Northern Tribes.

The copy of Warcrow Winds From The North used in the creation of this review was provided by Corvus Belli.