Rotmire Creed Warband Warcry Guide

The new season of Warcry launched with a box set in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts. The Rotmire Creed is the first warband that was revealed pitted against the Horns of Hashut.

While they don’t call their god directly Nurgle, you will see they share many traits with the Plague God followers, by whom they were corrupted.

Background and Lore of the Rotmire Creed Warband

Generations ago the Rotmire Creed were alchemists trying to discover the secret of immortality. Nurgle took offense in this and slowly corrupted them until they were discovered performing the darkest rituals and forced to ran away from Excelsis before being purged by the Devoted of Sigmar.

They found refuge in the Rotmire, a swamp that once was an island populated by Nurgle followers but was since being eaten by Thondia, one of the alpha continents of Ghur. And yes: in the Realm of Beasts even continents eat each other.

The Rotmire is a place of plague and decay where no mortal can go and hope to survive. This is however, the ideal breeding ground for Nurgle followers. These twisted alchemists call their divinity Lord Leech and are guided by him to concoct the perfect disease as they believe in putrefaction there is perfection.

The elite fighters use stilts to navigate through the swamps, but the best warriors now moved to the Gnarlwood, guided by prophetic visions inciting them to corrupt the ruins at the very centre of the forest. And in the meanwhile they discovered there’s plenty of fresh ingredients and corpses to use in their experiments.

The Rotmire Creed is the first Warcry warband dedicated directly to a Chaos god, Nurgle (even if they don’t know it yet). But how do they spread their diseases on a Warcry battlefield? Let’s find out.

Fighters in the Rotmire Creed Warband

Hinweis: Wenn du die Grundregeln von Warcry noch nicht gelesen hast, bevor du diesen Artikel liest, ist es vielleicht hilfreich zu wissen, dass die Fähigkeiten des Spiels durch 6 Würfel aktiviert werden, die du zu Beginn deines Zuges wirfst.

Zeigen zwei der Würfel den gleichen Wert, können sie zur Aktivierung einer Doppelfähigkeit verwendet werden. Zeigen drei Würfel den gleichen Wert, können sie für eine Dreifach-Fähigkeit verwendet werden, usw.

Wenn also in diesem Artikel von einer Fähigkeit als Double, Triple oder Quad die Rede ist, bezieht sich das auf dieses System. Es mag ein wenig verwirrend klingen, aber man gewöhnt sich schnell daran, wenn man anfängt zu spielen

The Rotmire Creed warband is made of 7 different fighters, of which only one is a leader.

Witherlord: 175 points

The Witherlord is the only leader option available to this warband. He has a good profile with 4 attacks at Strength 4 for 3/5 damage and good survivability with Toughness 4 and 20 Wounds.

He has access to the warband default ability, Gruesome Harvest, a Double that can be used only after killing an enemy in melee. It allows him to collect the essence of the fallen fighter and improve his own abilities. In game terms, it means from this moment on you count your abilities as having a value of 6 independently from the dice value.

But is it useful? It depends from the fighter’s ability, in the case of the Witherlord, his signature ability, Lethal Injection, for a Triple allows to roll as many dice as the value of the ability and for each roll greater than the enemy Toughness, allocate 5 damage. Now, if you roll 6 dice all the time, you have big chances to do high damage. And if your opponent has too high Toughness, the other members of the warband can compensate reducing it (Blowpipe).

Apart from that, he can guarantee 6 wounds back using the universal Respite, as long as he is not engaged and has another ability that costs a Quad, Ensnaring Strike, that allows a free attack action that on a critical hit would prevent the target enemy from moving or disengaging for the rest of the battle round. A bonus attack is always welcome, but when you compare to the universal Rampage, that gives also a bonus move, it becomes much more situational when to use it. With 5 damage per critical hit and 4 attacks, not much would survive either…

Bloated One

• Bloated One with Raker-claws: 145 points
• Bloated One with Raker-claw and Hooked Net: 140 points

The Bloated One represents the champion of your warband and comes with 2 weapon profiles:

• Die Raker-claws adds 1 attack more to an already strong profile (5 attacks for 2/4 damage).
• Die Raker-claw and Hooked Net trades 1 attack (only 4) for an extra ability, Hooked Net, that on a 3+ does as much damage as the ability (can be combined with Gruesome Harvest explained above) and prevents the target from moving or disengaging.

Bloated Ones are good fighters with 18 wounds and Toughness 4, and an area of effect ability, Slashing Attack, that can damage all enemy fighters within 3″. The damage depends on a dice roll and the ability’s value, but combined with Gruesome Harvest, it can mean 6 damage on a 5+ that is not to be underestimated, especially if there’s enough meat around them.

Carrion Catcher

• Carrion Catcher with Impaler: 105 points
• Carrion Catcher with Snatcher-hook: 100 points

The Carrion Catcher is the elite fighter of your warband and comes with 2 weapon profiles:

• Die Snatcher-hook allows for 2″ range, 3 Attacks at Strength 4 for 2/4 damage and enables the use of Ensnaring Strike, that for a Quad provides a free attack action with critical hits preventing the target from moving or disengaging.
• Die Impaler has the same range but better critical damage (2/5) and no extra ability.

Both Carrion Catchers have access to the Double Blowpipe, that synergises well with the warband abilities. If you managed to kill someone beforehand and use Gruesome Harvest to buff all your abilities, Blowpipe would do 3 damage for each 4+ on the 2 dice you roll at 6″ range. But the reason why you use it is not much the damage from those missiles but for the reduction of Toughness on each 6 (to a minimum of 1).

This complements nicely the Witherlord’s ability, improving their chances to devastate the target, but can also be useful to increase the chances to hit considering the entire warband is on Strength 4 and 2 damage per hit, except the Mirefolk (and the Witherlord starts at 3 damage).

Mirefolk Outcast

• Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield: 75 points
• Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapons: 65 points

The Mirefolk Outcasts are your basic infantry, also coming with 2 weapon profiles:

• Die Bilewood Weapons point on quantity, with 4 attacks for 1/3 damage.
• Die Bilewood Weapon and Shield instead prefers quality with 2″ range, 4 damage on critical hit but only 3 attacks. They are more expensive but they also increase their Toughness to 4 being in line with the rest of the warband (their alternative profile has Toughness 3).

As the Carrion Catcher, they also have access to the Blowpipe, that can really soften up some tough opponents for a round. For the rest, they are your cannon fodder but with 10 wounds they can survive a bit of damage. And if they are on their way out, and your enemy rolled some critical hits, don’t forget to use the Reaction Bile Blood for some on-death damage.

Abilities for the Rotmire Creed Warband

• Gruesome Harvest (Double, Everyone): After taking down an enemy, treat all ability values as 6.
• Blowpipe (Double, all Carrion Catchers and Mirefolks): A chance do up to 6 damage and reduce enemy Toughness.
• Hooked Net (Double, Bloated One with Raker-claw and Hooked Net): A chance to do up to 6 damage and prevent the engaged target from moving or disengaging.
• Slashing Attack (Triple, all Bloated Ones): A chance to do up to 6 damage to all close-by enemies.
• Lethal Injection (Triple, Witherlord): A chance to do insane damage based on the engaged enemy’s Toughness and dice rolls.
• Ensnaring Strike (Quad, Witherlord and Carrion Catcher with Snatcher-hook): A bonus attack action and on a critical hit prevent the target from moving or disengaging.

Reaction for the Rotmire Creed Warband

Eingeführt in der neuen Staffel von Warcry, Reaktionen sind Dinge, die unter bestimmten Umständen getan werden können, aber immer während des gegnerischen Zuges. Sie kosten eine Aktion, so dass sie nur von Kämpfern eingesetzt werden können, die noch nicht aktiviert wurden oder noch warten. Es gibt 3 universelle Reaktionen und eine spezifische für jeden Kriegsverband:

Bile Blood (Everyone)

• Wenn: During an enemy melee attack action.
• Was: a good chance to do 3 damage for every critical hit endured.

Battle Trait for the Rotmire Creed Warband

Waiting for Lord Leech: Enemy fighters engaged by 2 or more fighters cannot disengage.

Strategy and Tactics for the Rotmire Creed Warband

The Rotmire Creed is the newest warband for the Ghur season of Warcry. They have some really good synergies without focussing too much on them, but also they don’t feel like playing a Nurgle warband.

Their main play is on reducing the enemy’s Toughness to take advantage of their high damage on normal hit (on average 2) and the Witherlord special ability that can do 5 damage if the die roll is higher than the enemy’s Toughness.

To achieve that, all weaker profiles (Carrion Catcher and Mirefolk) have access to Blowpipe, that is a Double and has 6″ range, providing enough coverage to then land your combo.

On top of that, they all share the Double Gruesome Harvest that allows to permanently buff your abilities considering them with value 6 independently from the dice value. As a catch, you first need to kill an enemy in melee (abilities don’t count) and of course this also means it is not something you are going to achieve immediately. And each fighter using it needs to kill its own quarry.

Once you do succeed in giving this potent vial to one of your fighters, you then have access to empowered abilities like doing 3 damage with each blowpipe (on a 4+), 6 damage while using the Bloated Ones area of attack (on a 5+ for each enemy within 3″) or healing yourself 6 wounds (universal ability Respite).

This buff/debuff system is really interesting and captivating, but for some reason doesn’t sound Nurgle enough. But it works and is not hard to pull it off, making this warband beginner friendly.

The role of the different fighters is also clear: the Witherlord waits for his occasion to finish off a weakened enemy and then is ready to get to the beefy ones. The Bloated Ones are there to soften up the enemies and if surrounded they can pull off an area of effect attack whose only existence most of the time would discourage your opponent from ganging up on them.

The Carrion Catchers are more elite fighters: 12 wounds don’t make much a difference compared to the cheaper Mirefolk with 10 wounds. But they have also better attack profiles and 2″ range, that is extremely important in Warcry to attack in melee without being fully engaged (this means 1″ range opponent will have to spend an action to move towards you).

Both Carrion Catchers and Mirefolk are there to try to reduce the opponent Toughness, but Mirefolk are better suited, since they are fragile but also cheap and you can fit many of them. Although do not underestimate the Outcast with Shield, as Toughness 4 and 10 Wounds may get them to the finish line and the 4 damage on critical hit is always a threat.

Once an enemy lost Toughness, the Carrion Catcher can really make a difference as against Toughness 3 they would be hitting on a 3+ and their cost is not high.

There are some abilities that reduce the opponent’s mobility, but they require rolling 6s and a Quad (Ensnaring Strike, usable by the Witherlord and the Carrion Catcher with Snatcher-hook) or the weaker of the Bloated Ones (the one with the Net) and a 3+. Overall, they are good options in certain scenarios to avoid an enemy from escaping, but they compete with other Doubles like Blowpipe und natürlich Gruesome Harvest.

And finally, there’s the faction-specific Reaction: Bile Blood. The power of this reaction is that it can be used just before dying by a fighter that otherwise would not do anything else. You can use it after you know the enemy’s attack and therefore if he has critical hits or not, and especially before you know if that fighter will die or not. For each critical hit scored by the enemy, the attacking fighter gets 3 damage.

And is not limited to one per turn, so all your Mirefolk that have spare actions can be sacrificed without too many regrets. They could actually end up doing more damage this way than if they were alive.

The clear role each fighter has, the simple structure of buffs/debuffs and the synergetic abilities but not over-the-top, make this warband an interesting alternative for players just starting in Warcry.

Pros and Cons of the Rotmire Creed Warband

Vorteile:

+ Good movement
+ Structured hierarchy, each fighter has a role
+ Synergetic play

Nachteile:

– No big damage dealers
– Not enough Nurgle

Some thematic warbands for the Rotmire Creed

Nur zum Spaß stellen wir hier ein paar thematische Warbands vor, die mehr für den Spaß oder den erzählerischen Kontext als für das kompetitive Spiel gedacht sind. Beachtet, dass ihr im narrativen Spiel eine Quest abschließen müsst, die es euch erlaubt, einen Helden zu rekrutieren, bevor ihr ihn zu eurem Dienstplan hinzufügen könnt.

Aus der Box heraus: Witherlord, 1 Bloated One with Raker-claws, 1 Carrion Catcher with Snatcher-hook, 1 Carrion Catcher with Impaler, 3 Mirefolk with Bilewood Weapons, 3 Mirefolk with Bilewood Weapon and Shield all straight from a single box.

How to buy a Rotmire Creed Warband

The Rotmire Creed were previously available only in the Das Herz von Ghur launch set, but have since received their own stand-alone box that allows you to build:

• 1 Witherlord
• 1 Bloated One (choice of 2 profiles)
• 2 Carrion Catchers (both profiles even duplicating the same)
• 6 Mirefolk Outcast (in any combination of the two profiles)

For a total of 10 miniatures. A single box allows you almost all combinations, you would be missing only 1 Bloated One profile.

Tips on painting a Rotmire Creed Warband for Warcry

All starter boxes of a new game get quite some attention, so there’s plenty of tutorials available online. If you want to go for a classic GW battle ready finish, then Die Warhammer-Community hat für Sie gesorgt. If you want to get a step further, there’s also the Anleitung für die Parade.

If you prefer some more professional speed painting, and you know how to use oil colours and an airbrush, we would recommend Marco Frisoni’s tutorial.

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