Warcry – Hunter and Hunted

This weekend WarCry receives a larger update, covering a terrain set Ravaged Lands: Scales of Talaxis, two warbands and a new supplement Hunter and Hunted. And this supplement will be covered today.

With Hunter and Hunted we move within the Gnarlwoods into a part, where we find new Seraphon relics, and two new warbands, Gorger Mawpack and Wildercorps Hunters, fight each other. Please note, this is not a stand-alone, you need either one of the starter boxes (or at least the rulebook) to be able to make use of this boxed set.

This boxed set has a RRP of 105 EURs, covers a thin campaign booklet, instructions, a  card deck, a large sprue for the terrain and two sets of a pair of medium sprues for each of the warbands.

Within the campaign booklet you can see the new Scales of Talaxis terrain put into use.

The sprues are densely packed and cover a lot of pieces. In the case of the terrain sprue, they cover only a single centre piece of this supplement, the mawpit, without any further scatter terrain. The double-sprues cover a warband each, including various options for gear / weaponry for each warband, which we will cover in detail further below.

Casting is well done, minor mould lines and sharp details.

We begin the build with the terrain piece of the mawpit. This is very obvious inspired by the Sarlacc from Star Wars (where Boba Fett finds his - penultimate - destiny in Episode VI). The huge main parts needed a bit of force to stay together. I used super glue to fix the alignment and then added plastic glue to "melt" the parts together. I was a bit surprised, as it has been quite some time, since we've had these kinds of problems with larger pieces / terrain. Usually this was something, that happened with the terrain kits made in China, that didn't always met the higher standard from the factory in UK, but these sprues were made in Nottingham.

The mawpit is detailed with the addition of a circle of sharp tooth. These fit nicely and create more depths for the maw.

Over the mawpit thrones a plateau made from a large dinosaur skull. This one again has some fitting issues and creates a gap on either end. I assume if you file done the middle connecting piece, you can reduce this, but I will probably fill in the outer gap with green stuff. Again, a bit surprised, as this is rather uncommon.

The upside-down dinosaur skull is kept in place by large bones and further spines / ribs line the rim of the maw pit, binding it further to the other Gnarlwood terrain pieces.

And as you can see, this fit properly with the other Gnarlwood pieces and probably the new Seraphon relics. Some kind of ladder to reach the plateau would have been nice.

Let us move on to the warbands and begin with the first one, the Gorger Mawpack. Gorgers have been around since the 6th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy, and are part of the Ogre Kingdoms / Ogor Mawtribes in Age of Sigmar. They are pale variants of the Ogors, like Ghouls but of monstrous size, they are feral creatures and feast on the carcasses of others. The Mawpack from Hunter and Hunted consists out of five miniatures, all on 50mm round bases.

The Clawback is the leader of the Mawpack and is armed with two clubs. He wears a cloak and a wreath made from jaw bones, along with a lot of teeth and horns as decoration on his body.

Within the Mawpack sprue you can choose from four different heads for the clubs, from picks, hammer and axe-style heads. The remaining ones will be options for the other Gorgers. The wide stance gives him a stable position and he is quite broad with the spread-out arms.

Next one is the cave howler, a Gorger with bare hands and screaming pose. No options, build as he comes.

As for the remaining three miniatures of the Mawpack, these are regular Gorgers, either build with weapons or without. And for those weapons, you have the option between clubs and a great club. But more on that later. You receive three dynamic poses, all very plastic and using a lot of the space the base provides. Fit isn't an issue here and the way the parts connect is cleverly handled, as they usually use cloths, ropes or other covering bits to cover the connecting pieces.

For the weapon options, the first Gorger can be assembled either with a great club or bare hands, the second one either with bare hands or a single club, as this is the option for the third one as well.

I chose one of each, and you can use the remaining weapon heads for the regular club. For the three Gorgers you have a total of six different heads to choose from, they come partially with covered eyes, with picks up a design aesthetic from the old models, who partially had this kind of heads as well. And last but not least, the assembled warband, with the Clawback, a Cave Howler and three Gorgers.

The second warband in Hunter and Hunted comes from the faction of City of Sigmar, the Wildercorps Hunters, a total of seven human fighters and four (five if you include the one with the warden) trailhounds. They loosely remind me of the Empire Archer boxed set, which was released with the 8th edition of Warhammer Fantasy, but of course with the new Age of Sigmar design.

Let us begin with the leader of the Hunters, the Wildercorps Warden. He is accompanied by a trailhound on his 40mm round base and can choose between three heads and three weapon options, a double bitted axe, a hunting crossbow and the fierce pointing finger of Harrison Ford. I chose the bare headed variant with the axe, as it seemed fitting with a grizzled veteran.

The next two are a Trailblazer and a Wildercorps Leatherhide, with a proper belly. The two are put on 28mm round bases, and have weapon options. In case of the Trailblazer, who was a bit fiddly on the bits, especially proper alignment of the main body, can choose between a duelling sabre and a crossbow for his offhand. As for the Leatherhide, he either carries a Troggslayer spear or Hunting Crossbow. The leatherhide can be assembled with or without a helmet.

Two scouts and another leatherhide are the remaining soldiers. Once again you have the option between close combat weapons (hatchets for the scouts, a spear for the leatherhide) and hunting crossbows. Each of them either carries a helmet or is bare headed in combat. The wildercorps consists of female and male hunters.

As a heavy support, the Wildercorps Hunters have a soldier with an Arbalest, beside the helmet there are no options for this miniature on a 40mm round base.

The hunters have four trail hounds, all of them are built from two halves and a head (not swappable) and have dynamic poses. The gaps on some parts will need further filling.

There are small creatures, very Blanche / Mordheim looking familiars, that can be placed on the bases, if you want to. They are optional and entirely decorative. The whole Wildercorps makes a great looking warband and probably would fit in with the updated Mordheim / AoS28 look.

After I had assembled both warbands, you still have some parts left for your bitbox, to convert other miniatures, if you want to.

These new models are tall, quite taller than their old counter parts from the Old World. The Gorgers are still lean, but beefier. Shoulder height is about 5 cm. As for the City of Sigmar, these are new 32-35mm, now completely cut from the old Empire range, much taller than the 28-30mm, and moved one from the Holy Roman Empire look towards the new design.

The Gorgers make for a great warband, beyond Age of Sigmar. I can see these as monsters for Frostgrave for example, and I love the long limbs and feral look of these miniatures.

The Wildercorps Hunters are a stunning looking warband as well, especially with the huge pack of trailhounds, these are very complete. You can easily use them for a Mordheim warband, I think if you add the Hexbane Hunters from Warhammer Underworlds Nethermaze, this would be a really round thing.

Conclusion

The releases around Warcry have felt a bit thin lately. For example, with Curse of the Blood, you have a quite small set, with two small warbands, repacks from Underworlds, with some scatter terrain. Then some of the new, larger boxed sets, weren't even "full" stand-alone sets, but supplement, that you couldn't play without having a rulebook that was sold separately.

And with Hunter and Hunted, it is a bit similar. Two warbands are about 45 EUR each, a terrain piece of this size around 40 EUR, this adds up to 130 EUR RRP (without the booklet and cards) for a 105 EUR box. There were better deals in the past. If you count in the separate release of the Ravaged Lands set for 85 EUR, which would provide a proper starter set amount of terrain, along with the 50 EUR rules, it feels a bit as if they split this in a very DLC-like release, compared to the ~150 EUR starter sets we had before.

Yet, overall, I very much like the design of all components. The Gorger Mawpack looks stunning, and has potential to be used beyond Warhammer settings without question. As much difficulty I have with the new Cities of Sigmar design, as it just doesn't feel like Warhammer to me. They are well done, interesting design, but it could be a miniature range for a Diablo wargame and lacks a certain Warhammer-vibe, at least for me. Maybe it is the upscaled 32-35mm size, but mostly probably the non-heroic scale but leaner, more realistic proportions. But again, you have proper band, with good options for close and ranged combat and the pack of warhounds looks really dynamic.

The terrain piece from this set caught my eye back when it was announced in the Nova Open teaser back in August. The ill-fitting pieces were a bit of a disappointment, and very unusual, yet the design is quite cool, but the set would have benefited from some scatter terrain. And of course, could be used with Star Wars Legions or Shatterpoint as a Sarlacc.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar is a brand by Games Workshop

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.