Warcry

What is Warcry

Warcry is Games Workshop’s warband skirmish game for Age of Sigmar. It came out in 2019. Small warbands fight over loot and glory in the Mortal Realms, and the fights happen up and down the scenery as much as across it. The core rules put it simply: fighters “can scale it, leap from it, take cover behind it, and even fall foul of it.”

The current version is the second edition, which launched in July 2022 with the Heart of Ghur boxed set. That box set the game in the Gnarlwood, a living forest in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, and pitted the Horns of Hashut against the Rotmire Creed. It came with a Core Book covering open, narrative, and matched play, plus a warband tome with campaigns for both warbands.

The part that makes Warcry easy to get into: it isn’t limited to the warbands made for it. Games Workshop publishes free fighter cards for factions across all four Grand Alliances, so a lot of the Age of Sigmar models already on your shelf have Warcry rules. In Games Workshop’s words, “every faction’s compendium of fighter cards are available to download for free.”

How it plays

Small warbands. A warband has 3 to 15 fighters, all from one faction, with a points limit of 1000. The first fighter has to be a Hero and leads the warband, and you can take no more than 3 Heroes.
A small board. Warcry mats are 30 × 22 in, and the rules are built around that size.
Three battle groups. You split your warband into the Dagger, the Shield, and the Hammer. Some start on the table and some arrive later as reserves.
The initiative roll. Each battle round starts with both players rolling six dice. Singles decide who goes first. Doubles, triples, and quads pay for your fighters’ abilities that round, and wild dice let you improve a roll or bank it for later.
Alternating activations. Players take turns activating one fighter at a time. A fighter gets 2 actions (move, attack, disengage, or wait) and 1 ability.
Reactions. Fighters can react during an enemy’s activation, like countering an attack or ducking for cover. Games Workshop called reactions “one of the biggest changes for the new edition.”
Allies and beasts. You can add up to 2 allies from other factions in the same Grand Alliance, up to 3 thralls, and monsters.
Four rounds, then score. Every battleplan in the Matched Play Battlepack ends after 4 battle rounds.

How to start

Read the free core rules. The Warhammer Community Warcry downloads page has the Core Rules, the latest Rules Update, and a compendium of fighter cards for each Grand Alliance.
Check what you already own. If you have Age of Sigmar models, look them up in the compendiums before buying anything. There’s a good chance they have Warcry cards.
Or get a starter set. The most recent Warcry starter set is Crypt of Blood, released in 2023. It has two smaller-than-usual warbands, the Crimson Court and Xandire’s Truthseekers, plus a double-sided 30 × 22 in board, six pieces of terrain, a 72-page rulebook with the full core rules, and fighter cards for both warbands. It launched at $99 / £65.
Pick up the Matched Play Battlepack for pickup games. It’s a free download from November 2025, with twelve battleplans (six updated older ones and six new), plus battle traits for each Grand Alliance.
Build on the scenery. Warcry rewards tall, cluttered tables. Ladders, walkways, and ruins matter more here than in most games.

As of this writing, Warcry wasn’t part of Games Workshop’s Big Summer Preview in 2026. Games Workshop said afterwards that new Warcry rules are on the way, covering the new Ogor Mawtribes models among other things. There’s no date yet.