Dromm, Wounder of Worlds, Lord amongst the Slaughterpriests of Khorne, moved his blade with purpose through the blood and viscera of a dozen sacrifices mixed in the simple wooden bowl. The warband stood around, each cast in shadow from the fires behind. They waited patiently, knowing that their god demanded blood, but whose blood was the question. Dromm would soon have the answer…

Game 1: Conquer

The Crows spread out from their roost, startled suddenly to flight. Zor pointed, indicating a Crow with a beaked-mask and a spear. “That one. Khorne demands his blood”, he growled. Kor, the Hound of Wrath, didn’t pause. It bounded straight at the enemy, fangs gnashing.

Vitruz Barbbane had gathered the Crows here, his Lord demanding they join the crusade. He would not brook this impertinence from the ill-disciplined dogs of Khorne. Weapons in hands, Vitruz galloped out to meet the hound.

This game came right down to the wire. I had three models that I had to try to keep alive until the end of the fourth turn. I almost managed it, but the vision of Zor Bloodpelt hunting down a Cabalist was worth losing the game to witness.

Game 2: The Ritual

Dromm was pleased. The corpse was fresh. The blood would flow freely. The moons rose high in Ghur’s night sky, Koptus taking on a blood red tinge. This too pleased Dromm. The ritual could begin. His carving was precise and the gutural intonations animalistic. This was the work of Khorne; this is what he was born to do.

A caw sounding from the ruins. Dromm’s attention could not be diverted. Zor would have to deal with the pesky Crows.

My plan for this game was simple. Crowd out the centre of the board and try not to die. I reckoned if I could prevent John getting any substantial score on the first two turns, I’d have a good shot at disrupting the ritual. And that’s just what I did. Lot’s of tense moments and close fights, but The Hooded Crows hung in there and stopped the blood ritual.

Game 3: Isolated

They had prevented the ritual, but the cost had been high. The Crows fled in different directions, all looking to use stealth to make it back to their roost. Stealth wasn’t an option for Vitruz Barbbane and the dogs of Khorne pursued him relentlessly. Somehow, they had managed to push him into an ambush. He had little choice. Zor Bloodpelt stood opposite him, braying in the early dawn light. Vitruz kicked into action, putting all of his remaining energy into a full tilt gallop towards the foe.

This was a tough ask – two models from my warband needed to stay alive for three turns against John’s whole warband. I probably made that tougher by barrelling straight into Zor with my Rampaging Centaurion. I took him down to one wound remaining. My Cabalist managed to Raven Dart him in the following turn and then tried to run away, but they were caught and just about killed (thanks to John’s dice, which almost fluffed).

Game 4: Ebb and Flow

Zor was in pain. He was certain that several ribs were broken, but he did not have the luxury of taking time to recover. The Hand of Dromm was his warband, but it would not be his for long if he showed weakness. He howled a summons to his pack of hunters. The gathered around him quickly, “We chase down the Crows. We bloody them. Blood for the…”. “Blood God!”, they finished.

I had a blast using the Centaurion – it’s fast, hits like a ton of bricks and has some great abilities. It does take the place of three models and that showed in this game, where model count matters. It was a tricky game and I was on the back foot from the start. The Centaurion got to do a Trampling Charge though, so that was cool!

Aftermath

What a fun way to spend a day. Warcry offers a really satisfying game – it’s fast to setup, fast to play and the missions tell stories. John and I were bold and didn’t do the campaign steps after each game – we were too focussed on playing – but we decided to do them, well, those we could, offline afterwards.

Until next time,

Owen