Warcry Pyre and Flood Guide - A Life vs Death Clash

Warcry Pyre and Flood is the second expansion in the latest season of Warcry. It follows the same format as the previous expansion release, Hunter and Hunted where it contains 2 new warbands and their rules, and a single piece of scenery, rather than the full scenery set up that earlier season's boxes contained. In this article, we'll have a look at what's in the Pyre and Flood box, talk in-depth about the 2 new warbands, and explain why this box is different from previous seasons, and if you're a new player, what you need to use it.

Warcry is a skirmish wargame, set in Games Workshop's larger Warhammer Age of Sigmar setting. As a skirmish game, Warcry features a small number of fighters, rather than huge battles fought with entire armies. We've covered Warcry in depth since the last edition, and you can read our review of the latest starter set Crypt of Blood.

What Does Warcry Pyre and Flood Contain?

Warcry Pyre and Flood contains:

• Warcry Pyre and Flood Warband Tome
• 10x Ydrilan Riverblades miniatures
• 8x Pyregheists miniatures
• 1x Idol of the Old Ones scenery piece
• Fighter and ability cards for both warbands
• 42x Battleplan cards

What Do I Need To Use The Warcry Pyre and Flood Box?

Warcry Pyre and Flood is an expansion pack for Warcry, so it doesn't require everything needed to play.

To use Warcry Pyre and Flood you will also need the following Warcry products:

• Warcry Core Rulebook
• Six-sided dice (D6), measuring tools and tokens
• A game board and scenery set (you can use anything you want, including your existing scenery, or the new official set for this season, the Savage Lands: Scales of Talaxis scenery box)

What Does the Warcry Pyre and Flood Warband Tome Add To Games?

The Pyre and Flood Warband Tome contains the setting and lore for this season of Warcry, along with background information for the 2 new warbands, the Ydrilan Riverband, and Pyregheists. It also contains the faction rules, which are then duplicated on the ability and fighter cards for both warbands. It also contains the rules for the included scenery piece, the Idol of the Old Ones, which includes the use of the Stuttering Beam ability, which on a triple, can deal half the damage of the dice used to all fighters within 3 inches of a point visible to the fighter using it.

The Place of Power section of the Warband Tome includes details of how to add special rules to pieces of scenery you might already own, such as the Diving Attack off a Lethal Vantage, which allows a fighter to ignore impact damage and boost their strength and damage characteristics. The book closes with quests for both warbands and a campaign arc of 3 missions to play through.

What are the Ydrilan Riverband Warband Troop Choices?

The Ydrilan Riverband serve as the protectors of rivers for the Lumineth Realm-lords. Slaying all who would defile their sacred waters. They have entered the Gnarlwood on a quest to purify the waters there.

The Ydrilan Riverband fighter choices are:

• Pureflood Seneschal - The Riverbands leader comes with 3 armament options. The Ydrilan Warglaive is the cheapest option by 5 points and offers a range 2, 4 dice attack that has a higher strength than the other 2 options, but only 2/5 damage. The Master's Blades option is a range 1, 5 dice attack doing 3/4 damage and the Ythara Darts is a range 8, 4 dice attack doing 2/3 damage. They're all viable options depending on what you do with the rest of your warband. The loss of an attack dice and lower damage for the extra inch attack with the Warglaive can be worth it to attack over the heads of your other fighters. The Seneschal also has access to the Whitecrest Strike double ability that adds 1 to the strength of their attacks and the Release the River triple ability that increases the move of any fighter activating within 6 inches of the Seneschal by half of the triple used to activate.
• Stream-runner with Crestblades - The Steam-Runners have 2 weapon choices. The Crestblades option rolls 4 dice at 1/2 damage, but their real ability comes with the Agile runemark. All of the Riverblades have access to the Lethal Gyre reaction when an attack hits them. They can deal 3 damage points to their attacker for each roll of a 1 to hit, and instead, the Crestblades fighter can allocate 3 damage to all enemy fighters within 1 inch.
• Stream-runner with Riversteel Weapons - The Riversteel Weapons weapon option rolls 3 dice, doing 1/3 damage, but the loss of a dice isn't worth the extra crit damage, and also the loss of the Agile runemark. So if you're taking Steam-runners, always take the Crestblades option.
• Crestdancer with Twin-Spear - The Creastdancers also have 2 weapon options. The Twin-Spear option has a range 2, 3 dice attack doing 2/4 damage and access to the Rapids Rising Leap double ability that gives them fly (but limits them to a 3-inch vertical move).
• Crestdancer with Roped Sickle - The Roped Sickle weapon option has a range 3 attack, rolling 4 dice at 1/4 damage. The extra range and dice is handy, but the 1 base damage hurts. A mix of the two types would give you options to keep your opponent's fighters at range. They also get access to the Rapids Rising Leap ability.

The Riverband has movement 5 across the board, but low wounds mean that you will need to keep them mobile and your enemies at length. They have an outstanding double ability with Riverblades, which adds 1 to their movement, and after each action on a 2+ deals 1 damage to a fighter within 8 inches, allowing them to stay mobile, and whittle away at their opponents.

What are the Pyregheists Warband Troop Choices?

The Pyregheists exist only to burn the living with their balefire, and Nagash has sent them to the Gnarlwood to burn it all to the ground.

The Pyregheists' fighter choices are:

• Deacon of Flame- The Pyregheists leader comes with 2 weapon options. Both have a range 8, 2 dice 2/4 damage attack, but the Braizer-Staff has a range 2, 4 dice, strength 4, 2/5 damage attack and the Pyrekeeper's Tongs has a range 2, 3 dice, strength 5 3/4 damage attack. They're both the same points, so your choice will depend on the toughness of the enemies you're facing, I would always lean towards the higher dice Braizer-Staff. They both have access to the Soulblaze triple, which allows you to pick a number of visible Pyregheists equal to half the number of the ability used to activate (rounding up), and they can make a bonus move or attack action. So you could possibly get 3 free fight actions with a triple.
• Balefire Guard with Scorch Flail - The Balefire Guard has 2 weapon options. The Scorch Flail is a range 1, 4 dice, strength 4, 2/4 attack, along with access to the Unblinking Guardian double ability, which can boost the toughness of nearby Decon and Guard fighters.
• Balefire Guard with Flaming Halberd - The Flaming Halberd Guard weapon options has a range 2, 3 dice, strength 5 2/4 damage attack. Your choice between the two will depend on whether you need that extra range to engage enemy fighters, which also comes at a bonus of an extra strength, or just pile in with the 4-dice attack for weaker enemies.
• Flamewraith with Brazier-Staff - The Flamewraiths are only 30 points cheaper than the solid Balefire Guard, and they lose out to them on damage and toughness. The Brazier-Staff option comes with a range 2, 3 dice, 1/4 damage attack.
• Flamewraith with Balefire Torches - The Balefire Torches weapon option has a range 1, 4 dice 1/3 attack. As the cheapest units for the Pyregheists, you're probably going to be engage close with these to protect your more valuable fighters, so taking the range 1, higher dice Balefire Torches option will probably be your best choice.
• Torchwraith - The Torchwraiths are fast with move 6 and a range 8 attack, with 3 dice, 1/3 damage. They also have an identical range 1 attack in case an enemy fighter is able to engage them. They can boost the strength of their attack with the Pyrerobber's Curse double.

The Pyregheists all have move 4 (apart from the Torchwraith with 6) and fly and some of their abilities let them cremate an enemy when they defeat them, which replaces their model on the battlefield with a Pyre token. These tokens deal 3 damage to any enemies with 1 inch at the end of each battle round.

Should I Buy Warcry Pyre and Flood?

If you want either of the warbands and the scenery piece in this set, then this will probably be the only way to get them for a couple of months before their individual release. I do love the Life vs Death focus of this set, and the mobile nature of both warbands (the Riverband are fast and the Pyregheists with fly). Both want to engage slightly beyond normal engagement range, which makes outmaneuvering the other challenging. The Riverband tends to outnumber the Pyregheists, which can help them if the Pyregheists don't pin them down. Both warbands have some awesome abilities that can lead to some very cinematic moments.

The copy of Warcry Pyre and Flood used to produce this guide was provided by Games Workshop.