Flesh-Eater Courts Questing Gallants Warcry Warband & Guide, Tactics, Overview

“Flesh-Eater Courts Questing Gallants” is the name of one of the Death warbands available for Warcry.

If you already have a Flesh-Eater army (FEC in short), you already have enough miniatures to play Warcry: all you need is to join someone with a board, the rules and some scenery.

This warband is characterized by tough models, expensive in point cost but with decently high damage output, accompanied by a vast horde of really cheap infantry units.

The range has been recently updated, and this was followed by a general update of the Warcry profiles, that is available in the Warhammer Community Warcry downloads section. The warband provides enough variety between flying elite units, strong cannibals, horde warband or mixing all three.

Things in this article show

Note: if you haven’t read the basic rules for Warcry before reading this article, it might be helpful to know that the game’s abilities are activated by using 6 dice that you roll at the start of your turn.

If two of the dice show the same value, they can be used to activate a Double ability. If three show the same value, they can be used for a Triple ability, and so on.

So, when this article refers to an ability being a Double, a Triple or a Quad, it refers to this system. It might sound a bit confusing, but takes no time to get used to when you start playing

What changed with the range update for the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband?

To start with, many new models were added: the Leaders Abhorrant Cardinal, Abhorrant Gorewarden, Champion of Morbheg, Crypt Captain with Cursed Blade, Crypt Captain with Cursed Halberd, Marrowscroll Herald, Royal Decapitator; and the other fighters: Morbheg Knight, Cryptguard with Cursed Blade, Cryptguard with Cursed Halberd.

All abilities have been rewritten, except the first reaction, and another reaction was added to the roster.

Background and Lore of the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

The Flesh-Eater Courts are gatherings of being who live in the illusion to be a knightly and noble order freeing the world from evil.

The truth is that they have been cursed to an undead life preying on their enemies to satisfy an insatiable hunger.

While most of them live in big congregations, some of them may gather in small groups acting as questing knights in search of powerful artifacts or to save damsels in distress.

It is about this latter group that the story here unfolds. Some of them are ruled by Lord Spliterbone, that has carved a neutral kingdom in the Bloodwind Spoil refusing to swear allegiance to Nagash and left to his own by most Chaos warbands.

This short introduction takes you through the fighters of the warband, their abilities, and a few tips on strategy and painting the models.

Overview and Points for the Fighters in the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

The FEC Questing Gallants warband is made of 21 different fighters, of which 13 are leaders.

Abhorrant Archregent: 205 points

The Abhorrant Archregent is the natural leader of a Flesh-Eater Army. His profile did not change much, but his abilities a lot. He has now access to 4 abilities, of which Victory Feast and Decree of Chivalry are shared with all leaders of this warband.

The first allows to heal all friendly fighters within 6″ up to 3 wounds after taking down an enemy in the same activation. It costs a Triple but is a good ranged healing, especially if you are surrounded by bodyguards (see Cryptguard profile).

The second one instead provides a buff area of 9″ to all friendly fighters adding +1 Attack. The area itself can be further increased if the activating hero is an Archregent by as many inches as the value of the ability. So a buff area of a potential 15″ covers a huge portion of the battlefield. While it can be stacked with the warband generic ability The Royal Hunt, that is also a Quad and you will most likely never have 2 Quads in the same round.

With the Archregent, this Quad may not be that useful, but the Double Hungry Talons that forces any disengaging enemy to suffer D6 damage may be useful.

The warband reaction reduces by 1 the amount of attacks you are going to receive, that is generally good to weaken the big hitters with limited attacks, but with an average Toughness 4, it really depends on the Strength of the attacking units.

As a melee combatant, he is slightly more fragile than the top Courtiers with 25 wounds instead of 36, but he is also much cheaper and has a stronger attack profile (4 attacks at Strength 4 with damage 3/5).

He could be a perfect support hero, but considering the high cost of leaders in this warband, he is probably best suited as the main leader.

Abhorrant Ghoul King: 165 points

The Abhorrant Ghoul King shares the same abilities as the Archregent but is the only hero that adds +4 to the amount healed using the Triple Victory Feast (to a maximum of 7).

With 5″ movement and 4 attacks at Strength 4 for 2/4 damage, you can pick an easy target and kill him off to heal then a good chunk of your army. If you sacrifice a spot for an elite fighter, he is a great support hero but with Toughness 4 and 20 wounds, it may be a risky Leader to throw in the melee.

Varghulf Courtier: 300 points

The Varghulf Courtier is the profile that changed the most, losing Fly but maintaining the 8″ movement. His ability costs a Double and allows to ignore the vertical distance when choosing a target, that is great with terrain with lots of verticality, but pretty useless in Catacombs or otherwise flat terrain.

With 35 wounds he has now a profile even better than an Archregent with Strength 5, but he is also the most expensive leader in the warband.

Abhorrant Cardinal: 130 points

The Abhorrant Cardinal hits slightly better than a Ghoul but the reason why you consider taking him is because of his ability that for a Double on a 3+ removes one action to an opponent within 3″. In itself is a powerful ability, quite cheap, pity for the range that cannot be extended.

Abhorrant Gorewarden: 225 points

The Abhorrant Gorewarden has a similar profile to the Ghoul King but with 2 important differences: he can move 10″ flying and his Toughness is only 3 making him the weakest hero in the warband in par with the Crypt Ghast.

His ability, would be extremely powerful to allow to teleport him and another fighter anywhere on the battlefield outside of 5″ from enemies. However, it requires to not be already within 3″ on an enemy, the fellow comrade has to be within 3″ from the Gorewarden and must have a Wound characteristic of 12 or less, so basically a Cryptguard, a Crypt Captain or a Crypt Ghoul. Considering none of them is resolutive on its own, and that this model can normally fly 10″ anyway, it is not a game winner.

Marrowscroll Herald: 155 points

The Marrowscroll Herald has 1 less attack of a Ghoul King but the 2″ reach weapon that allows to attack without being directly engaged. In addition, his ability costs a Triple but introduces an interactive mini-game with your opponent.

Once an enemy fighter within 3″ has been picked, his controlling player has to decide if to accept the infected bone or not. If they accept it, after each activation on a 5+ that fighter dies. If they don’t, that fighter can’t use abilities for the rest of the battle.

It costs a Triple and it may not be a convenient choice in many scenarios, but it is an interesting alternative on a relatively cheap leader that is more durable thanks to his extended weapon range.

Royal Decapitator: 175 points

The Royal Decapitator does not have any extra abilities aside from the warband ones and the 2 generic for all Leaders, but compensates with a 2″ range weapon with 2 attacks at Strength 5 for 4/5 damage!

Statistically performs like a Ghoul King, but if you manage to activate any of your 2 Quads, then now you have a power house and the best fighter at its point cost. Worth considering as a support hero.

Morbheg Knights

Champion of Morbheg: 295 points
Morbheg Knight: 220 points

The Morbheg Knights represent the newest addition in the cavalry range of this warband. With 10″ of flying movement, they don’t care much that they are mounted and can’t go through archways and similar.

They also introduce Toughness 5 that combined with the 2″ range weapons and high wounds (25 for the Champion and 20 for the Knight) guarantees extreme durability although at a considerable cost in points.

The Champion of Morbheg is the leader option and has 1 attack more than the Morbheg Knight (4 at Strength 4 for 3/4 damage), apart from that and the Wound characteristic, they are identical. They share the same ability that for a Triple allows a bonus disengage followed by a bonus move. As you want these guys always engaged with the best targets, 13″ of free movement are not bad, but it does cost a Triple.

Crypt Flayers

Crypt Infernal Courtier: 315 points
Crypt Infernal: 285 points
Crypt Flayer: 235 points

The Crypt Flayers are your winged option from the Crypt Flayer/Horrors box. As such they can all fly with Movement 10″ and share the same ability: Death Scream, that for a Triple prevents enemies from using reactions while within 6″ of the screaming fighter.

The leader options, the Crypt Infernal Courtier and the Crypt Infernal, are veritable killing machines, indeed the two of the most expensive fighters of the entire warband: 32 wounds (36 for the Courtier), Toughness 4 and 4 attacks at strength 4 (5 for the Courtier) for damage 2/5.

The Crypt Flayer loses just 1 damage on critical (2/4) and few wounds.

The weapon profiles are identical between Horrors and Flayers, the main difference being the special ability and the flying movement of these profiles. They hit slightly better than a Morbheg Knight, but they don’t have the same resistance.

They are versatile models although quite expensive, but thanks to the high movement, they can be used to support the flanks, grab an objective, engage a powerful enemy, etc.

Crypt Horrors

Crypt Haunter Courtier: 255 points
Crypt Haunter: 225 points
Crypt Horror: 180 points

The Horrors are the second option available from the Crypt Flayers/Horrors box. They share the same statistics as the Crypt Flayers and they lost their special ability, so that now their attacking profile and the 6″ movement are all is left of this elite unit.

The Crypt Haunter Courtier is the most elite leader of this group, the Crypt Haunter a slightly weaker leader option and the Crypt Horror the main elite non-flying choice.

They are still good, and cheaper than their flying counterparts, but they are now a more niche profile.

Cryptguard

Crypt Captain with Cursed Blade: 135 points
Crypt Captain with Cursed Halberd: 140 points
Cryptguard with Cursed Blade: 80 points
Cryptguard with Cursed Halberd: 85 points

The Cryptguard is the latest cheap infantry option added to the warband. There are 2 Leader options, the Crypt Captains, and 2 standard fighters. The main difference comes from the weapon used:

The Crypt Captain with Cursed Blade is the most balanced profile with 4 attacks at Strength 3 for 2/4 damage.
The Crypt Captain with Cursed Halberd inverts Strength for Attacks (3 at Strength 4) and increases the weapon range to 2″.
The Cryptguard with Cursed Blade goes down a bit with 3 attacks at Strength 3 for 1/3 damage.
The Cryptguard with Cursed Halberd has the same attack profile than the other version, but with the 2″ weapon range that makes him the preferred choice.

The Crypt Captains are not that enticing, apart their low cost, 10 wounds on Toughness 4 makes them a poor choice as a Leader and as support the Cryptguard are enough: as a reaction, any fighter within this group, can decide to allocate the wounds inflicted to a nearby hero that would be fatal, to them instead. With 10 wounds (all profiles) that’s a lot of wounds to distribute around at the cost of a reaction, almost worth to protect your main hero with a couple of these guys with Halberd all the time.

As minions, they also all have access to the Double Scrambling Hordes that allows them to chain activate one after the other before the opponent can retaliate. This is probably more interesting if you are not defending a hero because you need a free action to use the reaction.

Crypt Ghouls

Crypt Ghast Courtier: 135 points
Crypt Ghast: 105 points
Crypt Ghoul: 55 points

Your last options for leaders come from the smallest models of the warband: the tiny Ghouls. Let’s start in saying they are extremely squishy, both the Crypt Ghast Courtier and the normal Crypt Ghast, and they seem to be a valid alternative only as Heroes in a Narrative campaign.

The only special ability being Scrambling Hordes to enable consecutive activations between Minions, 16 (or 12) Wounds, Toughness 3 and average attacks (4 Attacks at Strength 4 or 3 for damage 2/4) makes them unremarkable leaders.

If you only have ghouls and want to start playing with one single box of them, for 960 points you can have a Crypt Ghast Courtier lead 15 Crypt Ghouls, pity 15 is also the limit of maximum fighters allowed.

Aside from the fun of covering your enemy with a wave of models, although with low survivability, this is probably a pass (from a competitive standpoint).

On the other side the Crypt Ghouls are your basic infantry. Don’t throw them straight in the fight as with toughness 3 and 8 wounds they will be hammered by most models.

However, with their low point cost, you can fill the gap in your roster after choosing your elites and deploy them strategically to give you superiority when counting for an objective or other situations where you need to delay an enemy from getting somewhere.

A few of them are essential in any list and don’t forget you can increase also their attacks when activating Decree of Chivalry that makes even these tiny guys fight with even more fervour.

The Grymwatch (565 points)

Duke Crakmarrow: 140 points
Gristlewel, Greatsword: 80 points
Valreek the Tracker: 60 points
Night’s Herald: 65 points
Royal Butcher: 70 points
Master Talon: 75 points
Duke’s Harriers: 75 points

The Grymwatch is a Flesh-eater Courts Bladeborn warband from Warhammer Underworlds Season 3.

Royal Decree (Double, Duke Crakmarrow): a friendly close-by Ghoul from the Grymwatch can perform a bonus attack.

Crakmarrow and his band of ghouls are not the strongest fighters you can field. With Toughness 3 and 10 wounds on average (20 the Duke and 8 the Harriers), they have their hours counted. Their strength is in the numbers, the Duke being able to perform a bonus attack with one of his ghouls for a Double.

Even with that, you will need to add some heavy hitters to this warband to stand a chance. The Duke himself has the same profile of a Crypt Ghast Courtier but 2″ range that can allow him to attack without immediate retaliation.

All the others are a variation on the Crypt Ghoul profile, only more expensive:

Gristlewel is the “heavy-hitter” with 2 attacks at Strength 4 for 2/4 damage.
Night’s Herald has the base Ghoul profile: 3 attacks at Strength 3 for 1/3 damage.
Valreek sacrifices 1 attack to add to the critical damage (1/4).
Same for the Royal Butcher, but his Strength is upgraded to 4.
Master Talon instead increases his attacks to 4.

The Duke’s Harriers are bats with 10″ of flying movement perfect for reaching far objectives and the same weapon profile of Master Talon. With Toughness 2 keep them away from most fights.

Abilities for the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

Hungry Talons (Double, Everyone): Until the end of the battle round inflict D6 damage to any enemy fighter disengaging within 6″ of this fighter.
Scrabbling Hordes (Double, Crypt Ghouls and all Cryptguard and Crypt Captains): Immediately after, activate another Minion fighter (Ghoul, Captain or Guard) within 6″ that has not activated yet.
Winds of Shyish (Double, Abhorrant Gorewarden): If not within 3″ of enemy fighters, him and another Cryptguard or Ghoul can teleport anywhere on the battlefield outside 5″ of enemies and within 3″ of each other.
Noble Winged Beast (Double, Varghulf Courtier): Do not count vertical distance when attacking.
Speak in Tongues (Double, Abhorrant Cardinal): An enemy fighter within 3″ can perform 1 less action (to a min of 1) at his next activation.
Death Scream: (Triple, Crypt Infernal Courtier, Infernal and Flayer): Until the end of the battle round, enemy fighters within 6″ cannot make reactions.
Predator’s Pounce: (Triple, all Morbheg Knights): Can perform a bonus disengage and then a bonus move action.
Victory Feast: (Triple, all Leaders): After taking down an enemy can heal up to 3 points to all friendly fighters within 6″. If the Leader is an Abhorrant Ghoul King, add 4 to the amount healed.
King’s Entreaty (Triple, Marrowscroll Herald): A chosen enemy fighter within 3″ has to choose if to accept an infected bone or not. If he does, after each activation until the end of the battle roll a die, on a 5+ the fighter is taken down. If they don’t, they can’t use abilities anymore.
The Royal Hunt (Quad, Everyone): For each friendly fighter within 3″, add 1 to Attack and Damage.
Decree of Chivalry (Quad, all Leaders): Add 1 to the Attacks of melee actions of friendly fighters within 9″. If the the Leader is an Abhorrant Archregent, add up to 6″ to the range.

Reaction for the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

Introduced in the new season of Warcry, Reactions are things that can be done in certain circumstances, but always during the enemy turn. They cost one action, so they can be used only by fighters that have not activated yet or are waiting. There are 3 universal reactions and one specific to each warband:

Baffling Parlay (Everyone)

When: During an enemy melee attack action but before hit rolls.
What: Subtract 1 from the enemy attack characteristic to a minimum of 1.

Royal Bodyguard (all Crypt Captains and Cryptguard)

When: After a friendly Hero within 3″ is damaged by an attack enough points to be taken down.
What: Allocate that damage to the reacting fighter instead. If the latter is taken down, any remaining points are still allocated to the Hero.

Strategy and Tactics for the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

The Flesh-Eater Courts is a warband extremely versatile.

They combine some resilient elite units with cheap dispensable models. The middle range is covered by the Crypt Horrors, although with a premium price.

Movement will not be one of your problems thanks to the flying units with movement 10″.

When you need to punch hard, you need to activate the Quad Decree of Chivalry for a big bubble of +1 attack, even better if activated by an Archregent for an expanded range. Otherwise, your best attacking profiles are on the Horror/Infernal and some high-level heroes.

Despite an average strength (5 for your top leaders, 4 for the elite and 3 for the Ghouls/Cryptguard) they compensate with a good number of attacks and decent value of damage allowing them to go through most enemies.

However, do not overestimate the moderately high number of wounds: with Toughness 4, they may be singled out by the strongest character of your enemy and dispatched relatively quickly. To compensate this, the warband reaction, Baffling Parlay, reduces by 1 the attacks of your enemies for a single action. It can be useful when you face low attacks but high damage opponents, especially on critical hits. Or when they use abilities that improve their attacks and you ruin their plans.

In addition, the new ability Victory Feast that enables a Leader that takes down an enemy to heal up to 3 wounds all nearby fighters, is a great way to increase durability of the army, especially if you have some Cryptguards “bodyguarding” a Hero or many low-wound profiles. The Ghoul King is the ideal user of this ability as he adds 4 to the total healed, but having both the Archregent and the King is too expensive, so you’ll need to choose between the extended range on the offensive ability, or the extra wounds healed by the defensive ability.

There are many other new leaders, almost all debuffers, in particular the Cardinal has a 66% chance to remove 1 action from a nearby enemy fighter, the Marrowscroll Herald plays a mini-game with the opponent that has to choose between a chance of sudden death, and not activating any more abilities for the rest of the battle, and the Gorewarden that is an expensive teleporter.

The debuffs in this warband don’t end there, as the Flayers can prevent the use of reactions at the cost of a Triple on a 6″ bubble, and everyone can do D6 damage to any disengaging unit at the cost of a Double. Especially on low profiles would force your opponent to deal directly with them rather than relocating towards a juicer target to avoid the risk to be killed by “an attack of opportunity”.

The Cryptguards most likely will stay close to your heroes/Leader, but the Ghouls can be used strategically to get numbers where needed (when counting for an objective for example) or to delay the strongest enemies of your opponent. How furious would your opponent be if you blocked his Ogre Breacher for 3 rounds with 3 ghouls?

The latest addition to the non-hero side is the Morbheg Knight that introduces a Toughness 5 that combined with high flying movement and the 2″ range weapon is a great profile with a decent versatility.

The real decision making in this warband is about the Leader: 13 options out of 21 total options, it’s a really unbalanced proportion. On one side you have the Courtiers, all better options (but more expensive) than their counterpart, mostly in number of wounds and Strength.

On the other you have the Archregent and Ghoul King with no special ability other than buffing existing abilities and finally you have the Varghulf Courtier and the Royal Decapitator that are more elite fighters than leaders.

Normally you would choose the leader and then build the warband around, but for the Questing Gallants you can go the other way around and decide the leader based on how many points you have left. To complement the warband you could add a Hero, in Narrative Play there’s definitely space for more than one.

In synthesis this is a good warband, with tools for every situation and few but really good options. The cost to build your warband could also be quite low as we will (see the last section).

Pros and Cons of the Flesh-Eater Courts

Pros:

+ Access to high movement and flying (which is pretty good in Warcry)
+ Hard-hitting fighters and cheap disposable bodies
+ One of the easier/cheaper non-chaos warbands to build

Cons:

– No ranged attacks
– You could get tired of the naming of your models (they really like that crypt…)

Some thematic warbands for the Flesh-Eater Courts

Just for fun here we present few thematic warbands, meant more for fun or narrative context than for competitive play. Note that in narrative play you need to complete a quest that allows you to recruit a Hero before being able to add him to your roster.

Questing Gallants: Abhorrant Archregent, Varghulf Courtier, Crypt Flayer, Crypt Horror, Crypt Ghoul. One of each, allowing to use most abilities available in the warband. Each one represents a specific role in the Flesh-Eater Courts.

Perfect 1000: Abhorrant Archregent, Crypt Flayer, 2 Crypt Horrors, 2 Crypt Ghouls and 1 Cryptguard with Cursed Blade for exactly… 1000 points and plenty of options for every situation.

The Grymwatch: the entire Grymwatch plus 2 Crypt Horrors and 1 Crypt Ghoul for 10 bodies and at least 2 heavy-hitters. You could replace one Horror for a Ghoul King or a Horror and a Ghoul for a Flayer.

How to buy a Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

FEC are a really versatile warband whose most models can be found in 2 kits: the Crypt Flayers and the Crypt Ghouls.

They have since lost their Start Collecting box, but the Spearhead box is a great way to start the army and therefore a warband. You will still need some Horrors/Flayers and maybe some Crypt Ghouls as the Cryptguards are more expensive infantry, but a single Spearhead box is more than enough to give you some options.

The Spearhead box presents an Archregent, a Varghulf, 3 Morbheg Knights and 20 Cryptguard. They can all also be bought separately.

The Crypt Ghouls have also their own box with 20 models that allows also to build a Crypt Ghast Courtier (only the 32mm base differentiates it from the simple Ghast on a 25mm base), but we don’t really recommend it. If you really want, use Duke Crakmarrow as a Ghast Courtier instead.

The Horrors/Flayers can be assembled as 1 Crypt Infernal or Crypt Haunter and any 2 between Crypt Horrors and Crypt Flayers. The Courtiers replace the leader of the unit so a Crypt Infernal can be also created as a Crypt Infernal Courtier and so on.

Apart from the Abhorrant Archregent and Varghulf Courtier mentioned above, these are the other leaders available in individual blisters:

Abhorrant Cardinal
Abhorrant Gorewarden
Marrowscroll Herald
Royal Decapitator
while the Ghoul King can be obtained from special edition miniatures or from the Terrorgheist/Zombie Dragon set if not mounted over the beast

To have all possible options of leaders for this warband without conversions or magnetizations, at least 4 boxes of Crypt Flayers are required, so conversion or pre-planning is highly recommended.

Tips on painting the Flesh-Eater Courts

Do you have some nasty ghouls painted up?

I would very much like to display them right here on this page.

All you have to do is send my some files. You can read more about how to make that happen here.

The newest FEC battletome introduced new ideas on painting the FEC using alternative schemes to the “undead pale” one.

The Blisterskin Grand Court from Aqshy, for example, uses red tones over a bright orange.

There are few tutorials on how to paint them in both the battletome and the Warhammer TV channel. This could inspire you to use new colour schemes from other realms.

For a more classic painting guide, the FEC really benefit from contrast paints and some extra layers of highlights using the flesh tones.

Start with Grey Seer and build up from there with Guilliman Flesh for the flesh and Skeleton Horde for the bones. Highlight then with Kislev Flesh and Ushabti Bone.

Looking for more Warcry Content?

Check out our Warcry Content Hub here!

Overview of all Warbands in Warcry