Warcry Battle Report: Questor Soulsworn vs Hunters of Huanchi

Update: note that these lists were built prior to the errata release for Warcry on May 09, 2024. As such, the points values here have changed and these lists would have to be modified to be played within the current rules and meta. Notable, there were massive points changes to the Hunters of Huanchi.

Nothing like a good Order vs Order slugfest.

Over the weekend, I got a couple of in-person games of Warcry in, and here’s the full battle report for my matchup as Questor Soulsworn vs the Hunters of Huanchi.

Note: All I had with me was my crap cell phone camera, so apologies in advance for some of the blurry images.

The Warbands

For this game, I challenged a friend to go head to head with these two warbands as I really wanted to see how a numerically small warband could do against one that was nearly double its size – and way faster, too!

I also wanted to play something simple, straight from a box, and drastically different than the Scions of the Flame list that won me the Golden Troll Tournament recently and which I definitely feel can go and quietly rest on my shelf now.

Questor Soulsworn

I was pretty excited to use these fellows as they’d been sitting in a box near my painting station for the better part of the past six months without much love (I’ve been busy focusing on SCE Sacrosanct and SCE Thunderstrike lately).

The Questors were my first SCE list that I owned, as I picked them up with the Nightmare Quest box a while back. I’ve always had a blast using them and while some people were talking about how they were better than allies than as a warband, I really loved their abilities and action economy tricks up their sleeves.

Plus, I also recently watched a good strategy take for these dudes from 3 Heroes, 1 Chaff that reinforced in my head that the Questors are the sneakiest of all Stormcast factions (and in a good way).

Here’s the list I ran:

----------
Warband Roster
995pts | 6 fighters

- Errant-Questor with Grandspear (170pts, Hero)
- Questor-Prime (170pts, Hero)
- Errant-Questor with Grandblade (165pts, Hero)
- Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
- Soulsworn Knight-Relictor (165pts, Hero)
- Errant-Questor Duelist with Twinblades (160pts, Hero)
----------
Generated on Warcrier.net

For my setup, normally, I run with 2 Grandhammers as I really enjoy getting 3 damage on a regular hit (and where 2 hits and a crit amounts to 10 damage, killing a lot of chaff in one activation).

However, I hadn’t ran any Grandblades recently so I figured I would see how the two units compare (and in this case, I proxied in a Vanquisher with the same theme to act as my Errant-Questor).

In any event, I split them up in the following deployments:

• Dagger: Errant-Questor with Grandblade and Errant-Questor with Grandspear
• Shield: Questor-Prime and Errant-Quester Duelist with Twinblades
• Hammer: Soulworn Knight-Relictor and Errant-Questor with Grandblade

Hunters of Huanchi

While I forgot to take a photo of them, but they were the same list this friend ran at the Golden Troll Warcry Tournament (so fortunately, I have an old photo that’s still representative of his list).

One thing of note is that this is a fairly optimized list, with as many Claws of Huanchi as he could fit in (he told me he kit-bashed the regular skinks and added Ork skulls from one the Box of Skulls.

(A way cheaper alternative than buying a bunch of boxes of Hunters of Huanchi to get all the Claws).

Here’s the list he ran:

———-
Warband Roster
1,000pts | 11 fighters

– Kixi-Taka, The Diviner (125pts, Hero)
– Chameleon Skink Alpha with Moonstone Club (90pts, Hero)
– Klaq-Trok (190pts)
– Otapatl (80pts)
– Huanchi’s Claw (75pts)
– Huanchi’s Claw (75pts)
– Huanchi’s Claw (75pts)
– Huanchi’s Claw (75pts)
– Huanchi’s Claw (75pts)
– Huanchi’s Claw (75pts)
– Xepic (65pts)
———-
Generated on Warcrier.net

His deployments were as follows:

• Dagger: Klaq-Trok, Chamelion Skink, 2x Huanchi’s Claw
• Shield: Kixi-Taka, 2x Huanchi’s Claw
• Hammer: Otapatl, Xepic, 2x Huanchi’s Claw
  

Match Setup

We opted for a Core scenario.

I figured I would be at a disadvantage in most of the multi-objective scenarios there, owing to my low number of units, but was fine with the challenge if we wanted to go that way. In the end, we opted for a Core mission from the rulebook and rolled to determine which one.

To my delight we rolled off and ended up with The Hidden Vault.

In the Hidden Vault, three objectives are placed on the board and after each of the first two rounds, one is removed, leaving only a single objective that needs to be controlled at the end of round 4.

It’s a good mission for warbands with good combat stats as the single objective creates a focal point where most of the units on the table will converge. The only question in my mind was whether the Hunters of Huanchi would be able to do enough damage to my Questors when it came to the turning point.

The terrain we ended up using was as below was a great (randomized) pick:

When we rolled off for colours, my opponent chose Blue while I ended up with Red – neither of which seemed stronger or weaker than the other.

That meant we each began the game with our Hammer and Shield on the board with Dagger coming in round 2 as reinforcements.

Round 1

The first round of this match was probably one of the most exciting and happening that I’ve had for a while. Normally, round 1 is all about maneuvering into a better position (and sometimes round 2 as well).

This time around, we started off pretty much going for the eyes right away owing to the ranged attacks of the Hunters and the abilities of the Questors.

The short of it is that the Huanchi Hammer deployment was able to creep up and get into shooting range with my Shield deployment. They took some pot shots but only dealt 4 damage in total.

By contrast, my Knight-Relictor was in range to shoot back with his own blast attack and over 2 attacks did 10 damage and removed a Huanchi’s Claw.

On the other side of the board, my opponent also inched up to take some more ranged attacks on me after my Grandhammer used his Thundering Strides to send my Duelist up 4″ for a double. (Duelist only took 1 damage though)

The big twist was that I was then able to double move activate my Duelist to get him into 1″ engagement with two of my opponent’s units (Kixi-Taka and a Huanchi’s Claw).

Objective Update: After we rolled off, I won and chose to remove the West Point from the board.

Round 2

At the start of the round, we brought in our third deployment each.

My opponent had the initiative, and decided to send in his Klaq-Trok to try and crush my Knight-Relictor. What made it really scary is that he had a triple 6 which meant he was hoping for big damage on this ability:

Fortunately, on his attack, he only scored 1 Critical hit, dealing 10 damage to my Knight-Relictor.

Shortly after that attack, I ended up retreating with both the Knight-Relictor and Questor-Prime, with the aim of getting them out of harm’s way.

While it was tempting to rush back into his deployment and use my Prime’s triple to damage everyone in the area, I chose into to get closer to whichever objective would become the final one. I also managed to heal my Knight-Relictor using a Triple for Respite.

Across the board, my Duelist tried to lay the hurt on Kixi-Taxa, but I only dealt 9 damage and he was able to disengage and flee.

In the remaining combats there I was able to take out another Huanchi’s Claw with my Dagger Deployment while severely wounding another who ran off and hid in a corner.

Elsewhere, my opponent started sending his units towards the middle of the map in anticipation of the roll-off.

Objective Update: At the end of round 2, we rolled off and my opponent won. He removed the East objective, making the centre the only point that mattered.

The real game was about to begin.

Rounds 3 and 4

During the first 2 turns, it could have been anyone’s game. I had been able to remove some enemy units while my number had the pieces advantage still.

Unfortunately for my opponent, there isn’t going to be much to say about how the final 2 rounds went.

With numerous objectives, he could have attempted to thin out my numbers and use his to seize victory. However, having only a single objective in the middle was a gift to the Questors.

I had all 6 of my units in relative proximity to the objective, and with a plentiful supply of doubles had no issues getting everyone closer with lots of free moves and free attacks.

Worried about having my units crowd the platform where the objective was located, my opponent spent most of this round and the following getting his units onto the objective and harassing me with ranged shots. Unfortunately, I only sustained minimal damage.

By early round 3, he did manage to get 6 units onto the objective platform, making it look nice and secure. But that was also a mistake.

Close combat fighting is peak Questor gameplay. No contest here.

Things went downhill for him when both my Knight-Relictor and Errant-Questor with Grandhammer made it up onto the platform.

I spent my activations using my doubles to give my units a free move or With the Force of a Thunderbolt to get free attacks.

After both of those guys got off at least one attack each, my opponent lost 3 units up there.

Realizing his mistake but being unable to turn the tides now, my opponent did his best to put up a good fight. However, by round 4 I had also gotten my Duelist up there who finished off Kixi-Taxa.

More impressively, my Grandhammer got a double attack activation off on Klaq-Troc and deal an impressive total of 28 damage while using Onslaught for more dice. It was a one-shot wipe.

By the end of round 4, there was only a single Huanchi’s Claw left on the map and hiding in the corner (who my opponent and I had both forgotten about). Fortunately, he could slip away unnoticed and go warn the others not to play around with the Questors in close combat.

In the end, I had 6 units on the objective while he had none.

Questors were the victor.

Denouement and Wrap-Up

In our post-match discussion, we both agreed that mistakes were made by the Hunters of Huanchi that cost my opponent the game.

Here’s what he would have changed, done differently, or simply not done again.

1. Hunters of Huanchi‘s strengths are in their numbers and speed, not survivability. He committed to taking the objective too early, resulting in my Questors being able to cut through them like butter in close combat.
2. Hunters of Huanchi’s range is also a strength. Had he focus-fired more of his units against 1-2 Questors maximum he might have taken out or severely damaged 1-2 by the start of Round 3.
3. The Hunters didn’t wait. He could have forced me to move first by using his wait actions, but he was too focused on moving his units around, often leaving me with the better activation order.
4. The Gang Rush. He could have also used his first 3 turns to simply pick away at me and then move everyone, all at once, onto the final objective at the last moment. It’s not a guarantee that he could have fit them there, but if I had only 4 or 5 units left I wouldn’t have been able to entirely body block owing to the size of the platform.

Notes from the Questor side of things:

• The Grandblade unfortunately got in very little action while the Grandhammer was arguably the MVP. The 6 strength was overkill except in the case of his 1vs1 with Klaq-Troc where it gheve that unit the edge to utterly, and brutally annihilate him.
• The Duelist was also a good pick. Even though he never got to use his triple, his 5 attacks at 4 strength made him something of a murder machine when he managed to attack.
• The Prime and the Knight-Relictor never got to use their special abilities either (I was too focused on using my doubles). It also made me wonder if just using doubles isn’t a better call for the Questors when using their ability dice, rather than saving for the big ones.
• The Knight-Relictor was also a key piece. His 8″ range made him on equal footing with the Claws and when he shot back he hit WAY harder, and had a strength advantage to boot.
• Questors are sneaky and move way further than you expect. I think I was able to double move and attack more than 3 times this game (either from a friendly giving them a free move or by crashing into two opponents within 1″). Their sluggishness compared to the Huanchi was hardly noticed.

For some more battle reports, check out:

• Golden Troll Tournament Tie Breaker Match
• Scions of the Flame vs SCE Thunderstrike