In the heart of the Gnarlwood, two rival forces are engaged in vicious conflict. The Nighthaunt Pyregheists look to burn the forest to the ground in the name of Nagash, while the Lumineth of the Ydrilan Riverblades look to restore life to the Great River Derovar that lies chocked beneath the Gnarlwood.

In Warcry Pyre and Flood, up for pre order today, players are able to take command of two new Warcry warbands and fight over the ruins of a giant Slaan statue in order to change the fate of the Gnarlwood. Will they wash away the taint of evil from the lands, or wipe it off the face of the realm?

In this review we’ll be unboxing the new Pyre and Flood set, seeing what is inside and checking out the new gaming content for Warhammer Age of Sigmar Warcry. We’ll also build up the new models and see how they look in the flesh.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us early review copies to check out! If you would like to support the site then why not order your Warcry goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some cash too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing which you can watch just below or over on YouTube

So let’s venture once more into the Gnarlwood and see what is new in Pyre and Flood

Warcry Pyre and Floor Unboxing and Review

The latest box for Warcry is with us and pits the Lumineth against the Nighthaunt, giving us a perfect excuse for new models for both factions.

For the Nighthaunt we get the Pyregheists, which while not a massive deviation from what we currently have for the Nighthaunt, add some nice new aesthetic to them with them all bruning with Balefire. Where some Warcry warbands can be a little difficult to differentiate between the different unit types, the Pyregheists all have distinctive silhouettes that nicely captures them. Now, in the past some Nighthaunt units have been a little fiddly to build with some unusual joins needed in order to capture the illusion of them floating through the air. I was expecting the ones in this set to be tricky to build, but actually they were a lot easier than some other ones I’ve built in the past and took no time at all to get together. Sadly with the mountain of review stuff needed this week I’ve not managed to get any paint on them yet, but I’m planning on working on these soon and will update the article with some painted images.

The other warband in the box are the Lumineth Ydrilan Riverblades, who appear to be an Age of Sigmar take on Wardancers, fighting in different aspects based on the flow of a river. These are also really nice models with a host of different weapon options, though interestingly some models only have a single weapon build, I guess in order to keep them as fluid looking as possible. The Senschal in particular has 3 different weapon options, and each of these swaps both hands completely, so completionists will want a couple of boxes in order to have access to all loadouts.

Also included in the box is a new scenery piece, the Idol of the Old Ones. This is a great piece depicting a fragment of a Slaan statue, half buried in the ground following the crash of the Eye of Chotec. This builds on the Seraphon ruins that we have got in this season, and makes the scenery assortment for Warcry much more interesting. When combined with the older Gnarloaks, we now have a brilliant collection of scenery that can even be used to fill out an entire Age of Sigmar battlefield to represent battles that are happening in Ghur and the Gnarlwood. I was worried at the start that we would just see more combinations of the Gnarloak frames, but outside of a couple of duplicate parts we have a nice varied collection, and this is another great addition. My one disappointment is that to really get the most out of this box then you really need the Scales of Talaxis set too, which is sadly no longer available. The Idol is a fun build however and I’m looking forward to adding it to my Age of Sigmar scenery collection!

I just want to give a quick should out here to the fact that Games Workshop have stopped using single use plastic to wrap the paper components in their boxes. Previously, GW used to shrink wrap everything which was not only annoying to remove, but also not great for the environment – instead all the card elements are in a card envelope. Now, Kill Team, also up for pre order today, has a really nice fold out wallet that contains the components and the book, which I feel really adds to the feeling of quality when opening it up, and I’d love to see Warcry supplements also have this style too, but scrapping the shrink wrap is a great first step!

Warband Tome Pyre and Flood

So what’s in the book itself?

As is tradition, the book contains quite a lot of lore about both of the warbands in the box, and theres some interesting new information here. We learn about the Lumineth River Temple and how the act under the guidance of beings known as Aelementors in order to restore the flow of rivers and cleanse them from evil. One of these river spirits is Daxio Whitecrest, a being who takes the form of a giant horse crashing through water – though he has not been seen for a long time (I suspect we will be seeing him soon however in the 4th edition of Age of Sigmar when the Lumineth get some new models!) In the same way we have the Wind and Mountain spirits in the Lumineth range, I’m pretty certain we will see these water spirits (Both Daxio and a generic one) at some point in the future, probably with some more elements of the water temple alongside them!

The Nighthaunt also have some interesting lore. Nagash always subjects those who have committed crimes against him to a twisted mockery of that in the afterlife. The Pyregheists have a particularly cruel fate as their numbers are made up of people who tried to save or protect peoples souls in the afterlife. Embalmers, Priests, Funerary wardens, anyone who wanted to ensure that the soul managed to find freedom away from the horrors of Shyish. In punishment, those people are doomed to become Pyregheists, particularly cruel spirits who torture souls with Balefire, while in life they tried to save souls, in death they become something that can destroy a soul. I really like these twisted takes on punishment from Nagash and find they lead to some really interesting concepts in the lore.

Likewise we also learn that the scenery piece is actually a fragment of the Eye of Chotec, the Seraphon ship that crashlanded and caused the events of the Gnarlwood storyline to take place. The Lumineth are attempting to cleanse and release the river to wash away the tail that has fallen upon Ghur, however this Idol is actually a piece of arcane technology that can control the weather, and until it is disabled, the Lumineth will not be able to complete their mission – and this is made difficult by attacks from Seraphon looking to defend the ship and from the sinister Nighthaunt who want to burn the entire wood to the ground.

From a gaming point of view, the Riverblades are quite a fast and hard hitting force with some nasty tricks. They are very agile with some great mobility and some nice spikes with crits.

Their Lethal Grace reaction makes anyone who attacks them take 3 points of damage for each 1 which is rolled, which can be really nice, and the Stream Runners with Creastblades deal 3 damage to every enemy within 3″ when doing this, which is ace!

Their double Riverblades increases move by 1 and does splash damage of 1 to an enemy within 8″ after every action, which is great for inishing off things without having to get close

Rapids Rising Leap is a double that allows them to fly

Whitecrest Strike is a double that adds 1 to their Strength, making those units quite hard hitting

Standing Wave Stance is an interesting triple – you can’t move, but you increase your attacks and strength by 1 for this activation and toughness by 1 for the turn.

Release the River is another fun triple that increases movement of all friendly models within 6 by half the value, making the Riverblades very quick indeed!

Finally their quad is Boiling Wrath which gets stronger the more of your warband has been taken out – you get to make a number of bonus actions equal to the number of fighters that have been taken down, which can be a game changer if used at the right time.

The Pyregheists don’t get a unique reaction, instead a number of their abilities trigger the Cremate rule – with this when certain conditions are met enemy models are cremated when taken down are are replaced with a Pyre token, this token deals 3 damage to enemy fighters within 1″ of these tokens at the end of every battle round

Fan the Flames is a double which increases damage by 1 to hits and crits, which considering most of the Nighthaunt have crits of 4 or 5 damage can add up pretty quickly

Pyrerobber’s Curse is a really good ability to trigger Cremation, increasing your strength by 1 and causing anything taken down to be cretated

Unblinking Guardian adds 1 to the toughness of Elites and Heroes within 3″ making these fighters toughness 6, which is pretty nasty.

Light the Pyre is a triple that cremates a target that has been just taken down – while this is more expensive than the Pyrerobbers curse, it has the advantage of being able to be used after someone has been taken down

Soulblaze is a triple allows a number of friendly fighters equal to half the value make a bonus move or attack action

And finally Agonising Penance is a quad that moves an enemy fighter towards another enemy fighter then cause 3 damage to the target and every fighter within 2″ – on top of making your enemy warband explode, any model taken down by it becomes cremated!

Both of the warbands look really fun and have some unique abilties.

Like with all the other Warcry supplements we get full quests and campaigns for the factios in the box, and we also get some rules for the new scenery piece. This is pretty fun, with fighters being able to use a triple to shoot a laser out of the gem at the statues head, or ransack the treasure trove for a double for the chance to get healed or get a bonus wild dice

We also get some optional rules for places of power, these are additional special rules for scenery pieces to add some more interest to game, but my only fear for these is that they add a little more complexity and take away from one of the things that makes Warcry so great, how fast it plays

Summary

Pyre and Flood is another great supplement for Warcry, following the trend of having another box with less scenery but at a slightly lower price point. My only negative to this is how integral the Spires of Talaxis box is to this set, with all the included scenery cards needing it. This isn’t a problem unique to Warcry, as I also have the same issue with Kill Team, I just wish that those boxes stayed as a determinant addition to the range during the season to allow people to jump in – most of the separate scenery is available, but the frame of scatter terrain being exclusive to that box is a massive shame. Hopefully by the time the next Warcry box is released there will be a way for people to get that without resorting to scalpers.

Pyre and Flood is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 20th April

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes