Are you new to Warcry? Is the new Crypt of Blood Starter Set worth getting? I’ll share my thoughts after having painted the entire set. I’ll also share painting guides for the entire contents of the box alongside some stunning cinematic photography.
Let’s start this blog post off with a cinematic battle scene. Warcry Crypt of Blood sees the Crimson Court warband, a group of accursed Vampires led By Prince Duvalle who are obsessed by the hunt take on Xandire Truthseekers, who are Stormcast sent on a Quest by Sigmar himself. These two warbands clash high in the mountains of Shyish as they both seek out the treasures imbued with arcane power in the Crypt Noctis.
These models were supplied to me by Games Workshop for free.
This isn’t a review, I leave that to Stahly who wrote a great review here, but I wanted to share my thoughts on Warcry Crypt of Blood before we get into the close up pictures and painting guides. This set is a starter set. It’s designed to introduce new players to the game. So, that’s exactly what I did, over two sessions My 6 year old and I played through the first 6 Battle Plans over two sessions. It starts off with a model each and just movement rules, then the next battle plan introduces shooting and the like and each battle plan builds upon the previous to teach you the rules. It feels like a Warhammer Store demo. It’s pretty cool and my daughter could grasp it and understand what we were doing. We just have Battle Plan 7 left to play which uses all the rules and all the models.
What if you’re not a new starter like me? Well this set is a stepping stone to a full blown experience. It isn’t a full blown experience for the following reasons: Lack of terrain with raised platforms, warbands that don’t add up to the minimum 1000pts and a Rulebook that has core rules but doesn’t have the match play or narrative rules. The Stormcast come in at 660pts and the Soulblight a measly 565pts.
The big problem though are these Warbands are Bladeborn fighters. They’re named elite characters. In short you basically need to ally them to an existing warband for open, narrative and matched play. The rulebook included in Crypt of Blood explains Bladeborn fighters, doesn’t include the rules for allies but refers to rules in the core rulebook (which is at least accessible for free here).
Crypt of Blood leaves you having to buy models for Soulblight and Stormcast warbands. It’s the only way you can field your allied Bladeborn fighters that come in the Starter Set. It also leaves you buying more terrain so you can play a decent game running across platforms and walkways and finally for the full experience that comprises of open, narrative and matched play games you’ll have to buy the Core Rulebook.
Is Crypt of Blood worth getting? Well for £65 you get your money’s worth with the Warbands and terrain. Underworlds Warbands are £25 individually, so for an extra £10, you’re getting a terrain sprue, fighter and ability cards, tokens and a striped down rulebook. So I think it is worth it and at this price point it’s certainly more accessible than the £120 previous starter sets like Heart of Ghur or the first Warcry Starter Set, although those were complete games in a box, with full terrain and even full Core Rulebooks.
How to paint Warcry Nightmare Quest
I love making these painting guides, not only do people on twitter/instagram tell me how useful they are for them but it’s a way for me to write down my recipes in a really visual way and ensures a continuity and consistency to my painting even when units are painted months apart.
Xandire’s Truthseekers and the Crimson Court are not new warbands, they have been previously released under the Warhammer Underworld’s game. The Stormcast warband is box locked in the £47.50 Harrowdeep game (still available at time of writing) and the Crimson Court can be bought individually for £25. They don’t come with Warcry fighter and ability rules though so if you really want to play these in Warcry you will have to buy this Crypt of Blood Starter Set.
This Warband is pretty cool and features the Stormcast in their new Thunderstrike armour and accompanied by their loyal Aetherwing.
How to paint Xandire’s Truthseekers
There is no easy way to approach painting this Warband. A white undercoat helps with the yellow and white capes, but makes painting the metals, grey and purples harder. Grey or black undercoats make it easier to paint the armour, metals and purple but then you’ll have hard time painting whites and yellows. I ended up choosing white undercoat.
For a couple more important tips on painting the Stormcast check out this link here.
These are probably the best Vampire Sculpts in the entire Age of Sigmar range. They’re absolutely perfect and they’re a fan favourite. I have a Soulblight Gravelords army so I was excited to paint these up and add them to my collection.
How to paint the Crimson Court
Painting the Warband was easy for me because I have already painted quite a few different Soulblight units. To match in with the army I painted the models to match the armour of my Ulfernwatch skeletons. I know, it’s kinda odd to paint the ‘Crimson’ Court in black armour but I have some reds in the scheme so I think I get a pass… just.
As I mentioned, this isn’t a review, it’s more of a round up of my journey working on the set for a couple of months. Warcry Crypt of Blood started off as a bit of a head scratcher but quickly turned into a fun hobby journey of building a board, adding terrain and introducing my daughter to wargaming. It’s been a lot of fun and I really enjoyed painting both warbands and adding them both to my Age of Sigmar Warhammer collections. I think this set has something for everyone, new and old players alike.
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