About That Warcry Thang?

[Tao Tsê-Mung]

Warcry is looking more and more fun as my introductory 40k faction smolders further into the dumpster fire.

However I’d really like to avoid a repeat so are there any Warcry factions to avoid as a beginner that just don’t play the game/missions well.

I’m hoping without so many individual faction rules and books the balance is a lot closer than 40k currently.

Thoughts?

Appreciate it!

[Ish]

As a general rule of thumb, WarCry is balanced and designed around the nine main Warbands created for the game: Iron Golems, Untamed Beasts, Splintered Fang, Corvus Cabal, The Unmade, Cypher Lords, Spire Tyrants, Scions of Flame, and the Shadowstalkers. They're all balanced well against each other and internally, they have the most support for campaigns, missions, and other such game features.

There are WarCry rules for just about every faction to be found in "mainstream" Age of Sigmar, for the most part, they're all perfectly playable and balanced enough that no one is going to accuse you of being a cheatin' bastard for using them. Stormcast Vanguard and Idoneth Deepkin are probably the most "cheesy," but they're not indestructible or anything.  I'm rather partial to my Ironjawz Orcs, because Orcs is da best!

There are also a couple of “special event” Warbands meant for special scenarios and not for regular play, like Archaon's Varanguard. These guys are all intentionally imbalanced as they are more like "Boss Monsters" than regular warbands.

[Tao Tsê-Mung]

Yeah, I like the AoS warbands the best because there’s more customization to build my own dudes and I can throw in a small monster here or there. Plus I can change it up more from one game to the next.
TabletopMinions did some great videos about which factions can build a playable starting list from just one box of troops. Thinking I’d then pick up a matching underworlds team and end up with more options than the canned warbands.

[Tao Tsê-Mung]

Also looks like several of the broken realms boxes would be excellent warcry starters as they have more leaders/heroes/fighters options instead of a big monster in the start collectings.

[Ish]

Take a look at some of the boxed set for the Warhammer Underworlds game as well. The game seems pretty "meh," but they have some neat miniatures that are all cool variant poses of some of the "rank and file" units for the main AoS factions. Nice way to add some character to your WarCry gangs.

[Inquisitor66]

I would grab one of the set warcry bands, and probably not iron golems, not they aren't good, but they are very slow.  After you play the game for a bit you can go into regular AoS factions you think look cool.  They all seem playable and fun, though not strictly very good some of the time.

[Ish]

In my un-expert opinion, WarCry rewards warbands that have multiple bodies, speed, and durability. Anything else can be useful, but those three are the “god stats” of the game.