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 buy the book the Warcry Compendium and 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.

While there are only 6 models available, there’s enough variety between flying elite units, strong cannibals, horde warband or just 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 in the new edition for the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband?

The only buff they received is the Varghulf weapon range increasing to 2″, otherwise many leaders lost an attack (from 5 to 4) and Wounds went down quite considerably. Point adjustment did not all go down, the Varghulf “pays” his range upgrade with 20 points.

Abilities remained mostly unchanged, only the Chosen of the King now specifically requires an Archregent or Ghoul King in range and Stir of the Black Hunger went from a Triple to a Quad.

The FAQ reduced Bringer to Death from 6″ of potential extra movement to 3″ potential.

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

Abhorrant Archregent: 205 points

The Archregent is the latest miniature released for FEC for Age of Sigmar (outside of the Warhammer Underworlds warband). He has also access to a record 5 abilities, of which Unnatural Vitality and Stir of the Black Hunger are specific to him (and the Ghoul King).

The first allows some healing for a Double, really powerful considering Feeding Frenzy, the generic ability available to all, requires to kill an enemy in the same activation.

The second one instead provides a buff area of 9″ to all friendly fighters adding +1 Attack. The area itself is huge, but the cost is now a Quad, and can be stacked with other similar abilities. For example for another Double a Crypt Horror can reach 7 attacks per action.

As a melee combatant, he is slightly more fragile than the Infernal or the Haunter with 25 wounds instead of 32 and Toughness 4, but he can heal himself easier. 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, was not for the cost of the leaders in the warband that would mean he is probably best suited as the main leader.

Abhorrant Ghoul King: 165 points

The Ghoul King shares the same abilities as the Archregent and as such is the ideal meter of comparison.

He is cheaper than the Archregent, good attacks but less damage (2/4) and less Wounds (20). For the rest he is identical, so if you need a support fighter not necessarily directly involved in melees then you can save some points switching to the Ghoul King.

Varghulf Courtier: 285 points

The Varghulf is now the most expensive leader, with same damage as the Archregent but less attacks (3) with greater Strength (5) and the highly coveted 2″ range. Statistically does not fare much better than an Archregent and trails behind the Courtiers but it can now attack without immediate retaliation.

Apart from that, he can fly with a Movement of 8″ that gives him great flexibility. Toughness 4 and 35 Wounds assure also high survivability.

His trademark ability allows him for a Triple to add up to 3 to his Attack characteristic. Remember Stir of Black Hunger from the Archregent or Ghoul King? Well now for one action the Varghulf has 7 attacks at Strength 5 for a statistical average of 16 wounds…

He could work as an expensive elite unit (used as a Hero) or as a leader together with a Ghoul King as support.

Crypt Flayers

Crypt Infernal Courtier: 305 points
Crypt Infernal: 275 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 abilities.

Death Scream for a Double allows to increase Strength by 1 and “skewer” your enemy (preventing him from moving if you score at least a critical hit).

On a Triple they can instead “scream” at all visible units within 8” for some bonus damage on a critical hit.

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

The non-leader option 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 abilities and the flying movement.

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: 250 points
Crypt Haunter: 225 points
Crypt Horror: 185 points

The Horrors are the second option available from the Crypt Flayers/Horrors box.

They share the same statistics as the Crypt Flayers regarding Attack and Wound characteristics so the main difference is in the special ability that allows them to add 2 to their attacks as long as they are in range of an Abhorrant Archregent or Ghoul King.

Combined with a Ghoul King or Archregent ability, this means a simple Horror can now be 7 attacks per action (14 total if required).

Haunters can become your heavy hitters and if you want a leader with strong personality they are those for you. Since you need an Archregent or a Ghoul King to use their best ability, having 2 leaders in the warband can be quite taxing, so of all leaders, these are probably the worst to choose.

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 Courtier and the Ghast, and they seem to be a valid alternative only as Heroes in a Narrative campaign.

No special abilities, 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 as a side effect of using Stir of Black Hunger to buff your more elite fighters.

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

Feeding Frenzy (Double, Everyone): After taking out an enemy you can heal yourself up to 6 Wounds.
Skewering Strike: (Double, Crypt Infernal Courtier, Infernal and Flayer) +1 Strength for the next attack. In case of a critical, the opponent cannot move or disengage.
Chosen of the King: (Double, Crypt Haunter Courtier, Haunter and Horror) +2 to the melee Attack characteristic if they are nearby an Abhorrant Ghoul King or Archregent.
Unnatural Vitality (Double, Abhorrant Archregent and Ghoul King): Heal up to 6 Wounds.
Bringer of Death: (Triple, all Leaders) Add up to 3″ to the Movement of all friendly fighters within range of the leader.
Death Scream: (Triple, Crypt Infernal Courtier, Infernal and Flayer): Damage enemies within 8″ range depending on the dice roll (5+ for each enemy).
Terrifying Frenzy (Triple, Varghulf Courtier): Add up to 3 to the Attack characteristic for the next melee action.
Stir of Black Hunger (Quad, Abhorrant Archregent and Ghoul King): Add 1 to the melee Attacks of all friendly fighters within 9″.
The Royal Hunt (Quad, Everyone): Perform a bonus move and a bonus action. Add 1 to the bonus attack if close to a friendly fighter.

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.

Strategy and Tactics for the Flesh-Eater Courts Warband

The FEC is a warband extremely versatile.

They combine some resilient elite units with cheap dispensable models. What is missing is the middle range so you will need to position your characters carefully.

Movement will not be one of your problems between the flying units with movement 10″ and the leader ability Bringer of Death that with a triple gives extra movement to all units within range of the leader.

When you need to punch hard, a Crypt Horror within range of a leader can use the Chosen of the King for a simple Double transforming this unit into a veritable monster: 6 attacks per action at strength 4 with damage 4 on a critical. Or even 7 attacks if you choose an Archregent or Ghoul King as leader and you have a Quad available.

Despite an average strength (5 for your top leaders, 4 for the elite and 3 for the ghouls) 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.

Ensure you always have a weaker enemy nearby and heal your wounds using the ability Feeding Frenzy as soon as you get rid of the nuisance.

Your ghouls will mostly 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 real decision making in this warband is about the leader. 9 options against 3 units, 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 attacks.

On the other you have the Archregent and Ghoul King with the ability to increase attacks and finally you have the Varghulf Courtier that seems more an elite fighter than a leader.

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:

– Not a lot of different model types

– 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: Aborrhant 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, 3 Crypt Ghouls for exactly… 975 points and plenty of options for every situation. When it first came out it was 1000 points, still a valid list.

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.

Both boxes are available in the Flesh-Eater Courts Start Collecting box together with a big centrepiece.

The latter can be assembled as a Zombie Dragon or a Terrorgheist that, while it cannot be used in the warband directly, it is part of the new monsters that can be tamed in the latest expansion. As part of the different options it’s also possible to create a Ghoul King on foot.

The Start Collecting box presents 10 ghouls (instead of 20 as in the separate box) with an option for 1 Crypt Ghast Courtier (only the 32mm base differentiates it from the simple Ghast on a 25mm base) and 3 other miniatures.

Those 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.

This would be enough to start the warband, but for extra punch you can buy another Crypt Flayer box to add more power or options to your warband.

Some extra heroes that can be bought separately: Abhorrant Archregent and Varghulf Courtier, the latter being an exclusive GW store.

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.

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Overview of all Warbands in Warcry