AoS: Warcry Catacombs – Fun & Spicy House Rules
With Catacombs coming out this weekend, there’s a lot of new stuff that you can try, should you be brave enough.
This weekend, the battle for the Eightpoints ventures underground with the release of Catacombs. Alongside the two gorgeous new warbands, Catacombs promises to offer new ways to play your games of Warcry, as well as expanded quests and campaigns for all factions. But the fun doesn’t have to stop there if you are feeling creative, so here’s a few things I was thinking of doing with my new catacombs set (assuming the rules don’t already exist).
Double Map Games
If you picked up the original Warcry starter, or have invested in any of the terrain kits that have been released since then, you’ll have a spare board or two lying around. Using the Catacombs rules and scenery, especially the sewer grates, you could potentially run a game of Warcry where fighters can move between the surface and the sewer. Setting up a standard Warcry match next to a prepared sewer board will allow the fighters to move between both, potentially allowing for expanded scenario victory or outflank potential.
Plus, with all of the lava and kick rules, you could incorporate the pit kicking action into multilevel combat, or add some drop damage if a fighter jumps down and lands on an enemy. An enemy that gets knocked down to a lower level could take a movement penalty to stand up, similar to the prone condition in D&D, or you could add re-rolls against downed enemies. And of course, and model that falls into the sewers takes damage as though they fell off scenery as per the regular rules. I think it could be a fun challenge and makes the most use out of the new terrain.
Custom Scenery Rules
Now, this next one is, of course, a house rule and has the potential to be wicked unbalanced, but it could also add a bit of fun to casual or home games. During a standard game of AoS, you and your opponent each set up a sewer marker, and then whenever a unit enters from reserve, they can enter from a sewer opening in the same manner as Skaven Gnawholes. In addition, an unengaged unit within 1” can use the sewer to enter reserves for a turn, arriving from the opposite at the end of the following movement phase so long as no enemies are nearby.
This would add a bit of positioning strategy to the game, as your opponent will need to keep an eye on both your sewer positioning and their own. If you want to get extra spicy (literally) you can add some sort of fire benefit to the weapons of units coming out of the catacombs, as if they superheated their weapons in the lava streams around the walking paths (maybe a mortal wound on 6 or re-rolling wounds, pick your flavor). I’m not saying it’s particularly good, but it might be a nice shakeup to non-tournament play.
Are you planning to pick up Catacombs?
