The cost and quality of a Warcry faction’s chaff is one of the main considerations that goes into listbuilding these days.
Having lower cost chaff, such as Skeletons and Zombies from Soulblight Gravelords means we can fill in a list with plenty of extra bodies and still have space for champions. Having powerful chaff, such as Shatterers, also means that our extra bodies can serve a purpose other than being more meat in the grinder, or more bodies on objectives.
A lot has been said about the undeniable and usual suspects of the S-tier chaff lists, so I won’t be going onto them here today. Instead, I wanted to take a closer look at some pretty awesome chaff pieces that might not be at the top of everyone’s mind and which can fulfill a useful, if risky role.
I’m talking about using chaff as crit farmers to harass and deal unexpected damage to your opponents. After all, nothing surprises (and hurts) your opponents more than a little dude rolling a flush of 6s against something outside of their league and slapping it down.
Now, this might not be a strategy that everyone wants to go for – it’s high risk, meaning a lot of the time you end up with nothing but a whiffed activation – but if you are able to be consistently aggressive without losing your model, the odds eventually work in your favour.
Of course, in my case, I’m one of those people who seems to have an unnatural ability to roll a 6 more often than I should – but building lists with chaff that serve a secondary purpose is always better than just loading on some 55 point junk for the sake of filling a list.
So, if you haven’t taken a look at these folks below and have been hankering for something new, maybe you’ll get some ideas for some interesting and still fairly competitive directions without being as predictable as rolling out the Arkanaut company.
What is Crit Farming?
Crit farming is basically when you hold out all hope for rolling a critical hit (that lovely 6) for way more damage than landing a couple of regular hits would. It works best when you have lots of of dice, because the more you roll, the higher the chance of landing one or more 6s on them.
Crit farming has always kind of been built into Warcry by virtue of how much more damage a 6 deals on almost every weapon. In fact, I recall it was one of the things a friend of mine pointed out during his very first game of Warcry – “Holy shit, 6s matter!”
Now, a lot of different units can be used to crit farm – but in general, I feel that bigger, beefier ones don’t need to play this role. Units with high strength and base damage can count on consistently doing great damage on a regular hit, with their crits being a nice bonus to the slaughter.
For weaker units, like chaff in particular, it can give them added utility and damage that will either finish off weak models or soften up opponents for your other pieces who may need to move and attack on a single turn.
It also helps if your chaff crit farmers have range – more range, means more chance they can hit opponents without being hit back, helping ensure their survival for one round longer.
Now, let’s look at some good pieces that can fulfill this role.
Initiate with Morning Star
This fellow is one of the standout pieces form the Scions of the Flame warband that came packaged with the Catacombs set from yesteryear.
As a bespoke Chaos warband, I’d probably rank the scions as one of the strongest out of the box – very versatile, some decent abilities, and a powerful leader. Just rolling with them as intended can get you a team that works well in casual and won’t necessarily get utterly annihilated against more thoughtful lists.
That said, if you wanted to build a strong Scions list like I did for a tournament recently (at least while they’re still officially in the game, who knows about next year), these guys can be the backbone of your efforts.
At 65 points, they’re priced fairly, and just above the S-tier chaff (a lot of whom are at 50 points). They have 10 HP and 3 toughness which puts them in the danger zone of getting on shot by mid-tiers and up, but the beauty is their weapon.
With 3″ range, these dudes can outrange spears, meaning you can lash out while your opponents have to move up and nice close to be able to hit back.
The 4 damage on the crit is what seals the deal here compared to other whips and flails, which sometimes have only 2 or 3 damage.
Crit farmers aren’t for everyone, as it comes down to change, but pair high crit with high melee range and you have a unit who will reap its harvest more often than not.
Blasting out 3 to 6 dice on regular activations (which can be onslaughted to 4 to 8) gives you a great chance at landing at least a hit or two and a crit before your opponent gets within range.
Using these guys, I’ve been lucky more often that not, where in some games I might swear that I was getting at least 1 crit per attack activation, and just tearing up opposing chaff and spears.
The funny thing is, before thinking about the tournament, I never noticed how good these pieces could be. Before, I typically went with the fire pot version where for a double I could chuck a fire bomb at opponents (and knowing my luck, often do 5+ damage with a good double).
While fire bombs are kind of the ultimate crit farmer tactic (basically worthless save for that 6), removing the ability and just lashing out was far more effective in the long run.
Some considerations when lisbuilding: being part of a bespoke Chaos faction means you’re limited to the units in that warband, save for your allies and thralls. They suffer from the mid-tier trap to a certain extent like everyone else, albeit not as bad (their 100+ point units at least have more than 10 health and 3 toughness).
Their leader, the Blazing Lord is also pricey at 200, but he comes with a great profile and strong ability that can buff the amount of attacks on your little crit farners! Meaning, when you onslaught, you could be rolling 5 dice a piece, and landing even more crits.
Chaos Maurauder with Barbarian Flail
This model is like the little brother of the Scions Initiate above. As you can see, his profile is very close, with two small differences.
He does 1 less damage on the crit, which is a shame, but he also costs 5 points less.
Some considerations when lisbuilding: It’s no secret that having a low cost is one of the defining factors of the top chaff out there, most of whom are priced around 50 points or less. So he comes in a bit more expensive, but 60 points is still a great range to be in.
For instance, loading up on 6 of these guys – with 2 in each deployment – will cost only a bit more than 1/3 of the warband at 360.
If you bring in some beefier guys in each deployment, such as a Varanguard and friends, you can easily get your warband to 9 models. That way each deployment has a champion to tank and punish, while these little guys support on objectives, and hide behind what they can while whipping away.
Vanari Auralan Warden
Jumping over to the side of Order, we have these folks from the Lumineth faction.
Like the Initiate with Morning Star, they come in at 65 points and have that beautiful 3″ range, 3 attacks with 4 crit damage profile.
It’s honestly surprising that they have so much range given that they use spears, with most being in the 2″ range (save for, say, the Grandspear of the Questor Soulsworn).
They also have 5 move which gives them a 1 move / 1 attack threat range of 8″ (even if they are not super threatening overall). What’s best about the move is that they can whip across the map as needed to try and finish off weakened opponents as well as pile more bodies on more points.
Some considerations when lisbuilding: The Wardens suffer from having the abysmal HP count that is common among aelves and some chaff in Warcry. 8 HP pretty much means you are constantly in the danger zone, as two lucky 4 damage crits knocks you off the board.
Fortunately, they do have 4 toughness which might help keep them alive while battling other chaff, and this strange ability where they can decrease opponent attacks when surrounding by 2 or more other Wardens or similar units.
Needing 2 friendly units within an inch isn’t great, but it’s certainly doable considering how cheap these models are (having 12 units in a warband isn’t difficult with this faction).
It’s also nice that the ability applies this bonus to the entire little party, meaning anyone attacking any of the 3 friendly units loses an attack per activation.
Not perfect but it might help keep these guys alive as they are on the weaker side HP-wise.
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