Half of this website is dedicated to our love of the game Mordheim.  The gritty and violent nature of the game is unmatched.  Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much in the way of new content for the game in a very long time.  To compound the issue the scale of the game has surpassed the old 28mm standard making the original classic models appear more and more outdated.  So Mordheim may be fading away, but there is a new source of excitement on the horizon.

The past few months has seen the steady drip of glimpses into the world of Warcry.  Does this game have a chance of stealing the Mordheim crown?  More importantly, lets see some new models!

The story of Warcry revolves around the bitter life of those in the Age of Sigmar who have spent their lives raised in Chaos controlled areas.  According to the game designers, the concept of the game is that these warbands are people that aren’t necessarily familiar with the Dark Gods, but have done what they must to survive in a rather horrible way of life.  These tribes have heard the call of the Everchosen and are making there way to the Varanspire to present themselves to the Everchosen in hopes of joining his legions.

While much debate can be made of the backstory, terrain, components, and theme of the game, here at WSTZ, like most hobby fanatics, we are interested in some sweet new models!  Below we offer our opinions on the six new warbands that will be seeing life in the next few weeks and ranking them from our most favorite to the least.

Jeff – As a fan of Barbarian media, I’m really into this warband. Especially, since they’re channeling Fire and Ice’s Dark Wolf. These models are primal. Every time I look at ’em I hear a set of Basil Poledouris drums pounding in the background of their savage howls. I really enjoy painting bone as well as animals, so this warband looks like a hobby treat. They may look a bit too similar to what we’ve seen of the Darkoath, but hey, I like their Barbarian look too.

Casey – Beastmasters assemble! Looking for some archetypical barbarian dudes for Age of Sigmar? This is it! These guys are covered in fur, skulls, horns and carry weapons made of bone, fangs and spikes. They look primitive and wild, just as you would imagine life is like in the Realm of Beasts. I think these guys are pretty cool, I like the leaders triumphant pose, raising his jawbone axe to the sky while swearing dark oaths or rallying his troops. The guy with the spear and axe appears to be a warband champion or second-in-command type. There’s a good variety to the models included in this warband too, male and female, two-handed weapons, whips, axes. And the best part, they have a pet! For me warbands really shine when they include either a big dude, a little guy and/or a pet. If the critter had wings it would look like a juvenile manticore, and I like me some manticores.

James – These guys are barbarians!  The use of bone weapons, fur, and horns really gives off a feral vibe.  They are certainly low-tech but the sheer size of these guys and their nice little pet lets you know that they are doing fine.  They certainly look like marauders on steroids!  The entirety of the warband is excellent, but it suffers from one flaw.  The fact that they remind me of marauders is their biggest disappointment.  After seeing the new designs of the other warbands these guys are left looking a bit like an update to your slaves of darkness.  Again, the models are great, but when compared to the craziness of  their peer’s these guys don’t bring anything too new to the table.

Jeff – Iron Golems – After bone, the easiest thing for me to paint is metal. And these dudes are METAL in all the right ways. \m/ I could see this warband serving a acolytes for my Bloodskin tribe. It’s also cool that they seem to have an ogor…and a chaos duardin? I’m intrigued by this warband as well and feel the base set offers the strongest line-up in the game with these Golems vs the Untamed Beasts.

Casey – I am iron golem! These guys look so metal, dude. Heavy metal. I dig the old timey deep sea diver look they have going on. And so many hammers, they take the name Warhammer and take it up a notch. This group has a big guy! I like the big ogre guy with smashy fists. Poor guy needs to rely on his friends when it comes to meal times, huh? Unless those hammer firsts are like gauntlets? Also there’s a little guy! This is the first time we’ve seen a chaos dwarf … er duardin in ages. I know there’s some available on Forge World, but even those seem to be pretty old sculpts now. I also like that their scale mail appears to be a bunch of coins linked together? This warband has a lot of variety in its sculpts which is very cool.

James – These guys look brutal.  Everytime I use a meat tenderizer in the kitchen I wonder what it would feel like to hit a person with it.  These guys look to be doing that on a daily basis!  The hammers and the armor style are very interesting.  The scale mail and shield designs are both very good.  The Ogor and Chaos Dauradin are both interesting looking models.  The Ogor must live a pretty tortured existence with no hands and I’m sure that doesn’t help his attitude much.  I wouldn’t want to see that charging at me!   The look of these guys is fresh and I think they are great choice to use as the poster boys on the box set.

Jeff – Not really feeling this one. Looks a bit like a flashier, but more posh Tzeentch Acolyte unit. I _much_ prefer those Acolytes. Maybe it’s the helmets throwing me off. I just to see those as being easy to move around with the size of the buckets on their heads.

Casey – You’ve got to stick to the beat to make the cypher complete. For me this is the most interesting of all the warbands. Hailing from the Realm of Light, we haven’t seen any other models from this realm yet, so I was really surprised to see chaos emerge from the Realm of Light before light aelves. They have a very martial arts vibe with little to no armor, and poses and weapons that appear to prefer grace and poise rather than brutality. They have some weird helmets and big hair, but nothing about them really screams chaos. Which is another thing I find interesting about them. They really feel like a cult you could see existing more or less out in the open. You’d think they’re some sort of Sigmar sub-religion but then, uh-oh you’re suddenly worshipping Tzeentch. And there’s definitely a Tzeentch vibe going on here, maybe a little Slaanesh too as they feel a bit decadent.

James – I had a good laugh when I first saw this warband.  I couldn’t wrap my brain around the helmets and frankly I thought someone had made a poor design choice.  Something weird happened though and I couldn’t help but rechecking the pictures of the models.  Of all the warhammer designs I’ve seen for normal humans (and those with a third arm) these are the most unusual that I can think of.  They have an Eastern vibe to them that truly makes them unique and appealing.  Perhaps this is how chaos corruption is supposed to happen, but I can’t help thinking this design may be the best of the bunch.  Let madness reign indeed!

Jeff – These serpents probably run neck and neck with Iron Golems on how I feel about them. I dig their helmets, and the whole Gladiator vibe. Not too sure I could do justice to the scales though. if I were playing Warcry, I’d definitely want these models involved in the game in some capacity. They’re just too cool. They’d also do a great job of pulling double duty for the old Pit Fighter game Jervis Johnson cooked up years ago as well as sweet conversions for Necromunda. I can see a lot of hobby uses out of these models.

Casey – I was born a snake handler, I’ll die a snake handler. These are my boys right here! I really like their gladiatorial look. They’ve got nets and tridents and swords and snakes. Snakes? I’m not a big snake person and I’ve had to tell my son repeatedly that we’re not having a snake as a pet, but I’m down with the Death Eater look these guys have. And that one guy with the snake coiled around him screams He Who Shall Not Be Named and Nagini. I feel like these guys also share a lot of similar design motifs as the Idoneth Deepkin, the helms, leg greaves and scales remind me a lot of the aelves from the deep. And speaking of aelves, our first ever chaos elf! Of course there’s always been evil elves in the form of the dark elves, but to my knowledge Games Workshop has never produced a chaos elf model. This is my favorite warband for sure.

James – Great tag line with these guys.  One cut, one kill!  It just sounds nasty.  I love the snake vibe as it reminds me of the Conan the Conqueror movie with the snake cult.  Everybody loves the gladiator esthetics and these guys have plenty of it.  My one complaint is the leader model of the group.  Something about him just doesn’t do it for me.  Perhaps it is the posing of the model?  It just doesn’t look like a good leader for the group.  The snake handler I think does a much better job in the intimidating factor than he does.

Jeff – Aesthetically, these models are right up there with the top of the Warcry offerings. I think they probably have the best overall design and I would imagine one of the more interesting backstories. I’m not the best painter, so that’s always something I consider when looking at models, and like scales…feathers have always been something I struggled with. If I thought I could do a warband’s worth of feathers justice…I’d go for these guys big time. As it is, they are another very cool design giving a unique look to the tribes of chaos.

Casey – Birds of a feather flock together when these crow boys are in town. This warband features some really dynamic poses, there’s so much motion everywhere in them. From the flying winged guy to the lunging poses of the other guys, it’s a lot of implied movement. And then you have the one member of the warband crouched with a crow, it’s a nice juxtaposition to the rest of the warband. They’re all so textured as well, layered with bird skulls, beak shapes and feathers.

James – These guys look like they are flying across the battlefield.  Not seeing much in the way of armor on these guys so I imagine they are using speed for their survival.  The beak masks and feathers are a great touch and I love how the weapons are all talon hooks.  Overall I think they are middle of the road with no glaring issues in the bunch.

Jeff – With friends getting the base set (so having the Untamed Beasts and Iron Golems), this will probably end up being my warband. I’ve always tended towards Death so Realm of Death would probably be where I’d be fighting out of. They do have the most uniform look overall. The least variety amongst the warbands so far, but I do like their look…and they look easy to paint. However, I find their ‘leader’ model the worst one in the game. That scarecrow would certainly be replaced. I might use a Crypt Horror model or something. Drop a helmet on its head, replace a hand or two with blades, and I think there are some orc, goblin, or chaos shields out there from the old world that look like faces stretched on them. I’d modify one of those shields as the ‘skinned face belt buckle’.

Casey – I’m not sure I can make a pun for these creepy guys. The leader is a really great model, it’s Blanchitsu style all the way. The big sickles for hands with the streamer banners running down, and the skull perched on top of the robed head, there’s a lot to look at here. These guys skin their faces and then stretch them out to wear as belts. It’s so hard to find good belt buckles these days, these guys really pay the price for it. Is what’s left behind on their heads their fleshless skulls? Or helmets? The leader really stands out in this warband, and while the rest of the models are good, I wish there was a little more variety. It’s hard to tell who the second in command is supposed to be. I guess the fighter with the double daggers? It’s hard not to feel like this is all about the leader and then the rest of the fighters are just goons.

James – These guys do well on a couple of points.  First, their backstory is probably the most disturbing of all the groups.  The studio artist adds to this by painting the models up to amplify their creepiness.  Second, weapon design on these creeps are just unpleasant to look at.  I think the designer did an excellent job of marrying the back story to the design.  All the weapons they are carrying just look unpleasant.  The leader is an unusual design.  Its easy to forget that the skull on the helmet is not the actual head of the model.  It tricks your eye and always makes me think that the thing is a giant.  True the thing is over the top, but that’s probably something that you have to do to inspire a group like this.

Final Rankings

Jeff –  (in order from best to least favorite): Untamed Beasts, Corvus Cabal, Splintered Fang, Iron Golems, The Unmade, Cypher Lords.

Casey – This is hard because I really feel like these are all great warbands and there are no losers here, but if I had to rank them in order of my preference I’d say: Splintered Fang, Cypher Lords, Iron Golems, Corvus Cabal, Untamed Beasts, The Unmade.

James – At the end of the day I think that all the models are great and I’ll probably end up owning them all.  So far I would rate them from best to worse: Cypher Lords, The Unmade, Iron Golems, Corvus Cabal, Splintered Fang, The Untamed Beasts.

So how do you think the warbands match up?  Any plans on getting Warcry?  Comment below and let us know.