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Twistweald – Guide, Tactics and Overview

The Twistweald are a group of Sylvaneth infected with a parasite originated in the Gnarlwood region, as a consequence of the unnatural growth spurred by the broken and out-of-control realm-shaping engines crashed with the Seraphon temple-ship the Eye of Chotec.

Background and Lore of the Twistweald Warband

The Sylvaneth are the protectors of all sylvan areas and as such, it was only natural to see them in the Gnarlwood. They were initially unaware that a new parasite developed in the region as part of the unnatural growth caused by the crashed Seraphon machinery.

This parasite, a mixture of a mushroom and choking plant vines, manifests slowly and eventually take over entirely the host, preventing them to hear the spirit-song which links all Sylvaneth to their creator and goddess, Alarielle, and sending them in a state of madness and constant agony. They are called Twistroot and can be recognised by the many fungal spores and vines appearing on their body.

In search of a cure, many travelled the Realms to reach Ghyran and find Alarielle, entering in contact with other groves and infecting them. By when the danger of this parasite was fully understood, it was too late: many groves had to be contained and destroyed to avoid further damage.

While there is no cure to the parasite, the Swarmsages are able to control the Spiteswarm hives, tiny insects bee-like hailing from Ghyran, the Realm of Life, which are able to feed on corruption of all sorts and regenerate plants and flesh. These Spiteswarms can feed on this parasite providing a temporary respite and increasing the lifetime of an infected Sylvaneth.

Swarmsages were previously pacific beings tasked to protect the soulpods and most sacred Sylvaneth places, but they now decided to sacrifice their own life and lead a weald of Twistroot so they can alleviate their pain and direct them to continue their job, specifically in the Gnarlwood.

By contaminating all Gnarloaks, the Twistweald believe they can eventually sink the entire ruins of Talaxis burying forever the parasite so that with their death, it will also end its cycle and the realms will be spared from further pain. In order to achieve this, they need to fully embrace the parasite capabilities, accelerating its growth so that they can contaminate more trees and bring down the entire region.

Between them and their objective, bands of Ossiarch Bonereapers known as the Teratic Cohorts, are ravaging the same area destroying the engines they find and pillaging in search of any artefact to bring back to Nagash, the Supreme Lord of Undeath. If they destroy too many engines, the parasite will slow its growth delaying the fall of the region, so it’s war time!

But how do they spread their spores on a battlefield? Let’s look at them!

Twistweald full warband

Fighters in the Twistweald Warband

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

The Twistweald warband is made of 7 different fighters, of which 1 is the leader.

Swarmsage: 190 points

The Swarmsage is the Leader of the warband. She has a classic wizard ranged profile with 3″-7″ range, 2 attacks at Strength 4 for 3/6 damage and a more “melee” one with 3″ range but 4 attacks for 2/5 damage.

This is a great offensive profile considering the Toughness 4 and 22 wounds which allow her to attack without been engaged and survive much longer than other melee oriented leaders while maintaining a good damage potential.

The Swarmsage has also access to various abilities, starting from the reaction which is a great way for lower damage fighters to allocate some extra damage when being attacked: for each hit roll of 5+ rolled by the enemy, they receive 2 damage.

The warband’s Double, Eruption of Thorns, has a chance (4+, each die rolled separately) to allocate half the ability’s value damage to all engaged enemies. The range is small, but if you commit a suicide move, with a good Double you can do some splash damage.

The warband Quad, Twisted Song, is primarily a healing ability (as many wounds as the ability’s value), works also if engaged (differently from the universal Respite) and allows to then perform a bonus move or attack action.

But there are also two abilities exclusive of the Swarmsage: Voracious Swarm is a Double which allows to allocate some damage to an enemy within 12″, while Devour Infection is a Triple which sacrifices some wounds to increase the melee attacks of a friendly fighter within 12″.

They are both unreliable: the damaging ability requires to roll as many dice as the ability’s value and on a 3+ allocates 1 damage, the other ability works on a 4+ and allocates 1 wound to the target fighter and gives them +1 attack only for the next melee action. If it included all melee attacks in that battle round, it would be worth a bit more. But in this case, you have to hope he survives to his activation, and has only one action to get the bonus attacks…

Finally, the Swarmsage has also access to Thorned Grasp, another Triple with a chance to perform some random damage: roll a dice and on a 2+ allocate 2 damage. Keep rolling and allocating damage until you roll less or equal to the previous roll. So, in the perfect situation you can allocate 10 damage, but you roll a 6 or a 1 on the first roll and the game is over.

Twistroot Spite-Revenant with Briarlash: 110 points

The Twistroot Spite-Revenant with Briarlash is the most feral of the warband, letting vines grow from his body to lash to any trespasser. He has the same speed and Toughness of the Swarmsage (4″ and 4) but goes down in wounds. For this reason, his 3″ melee profile is excellent to keep the distance from his quarries: 3 attacks at Strength 5 for 2/3 damage.

He is an interesting profile, and has access to the Triple Thorned Grasp plus a Double which allows to score critical hits on a 5+. Considering his low critical value and amount of attacks, neither ability is particularly tantalising. But if you need to fight tough opponents, it may be worth to sacrifice some of his wounds with the Swarmsage’s Triple Devour Infection to give him more attacks and more chances to do damage.

Twistroot Warden with Guardian Bow

Twistroot Warden

  • Twistroot Warden with Guardian Halberd: 125 points
  • Twistroot Warden with Spitespear: 120 points
  • Twistroot Warden with Guardian Bow: 120 points

The Twistroot Warden should be the guardian of the warband, but it does not have any specific ability on that front. Instead he has 3 profiles very different from each other.

The Guardian Halberd is the most damaging with 3 attacks at Strength 5 for 3/4 damage and 2″ range. Another great candidate for the Triple Devour Infection.

The Spitespear increases Toughness to 5, maintains the 2″ range and presents 4 attacks at Strength 4 for 2/4 damage, which is the most balanced profile.

The Guardian Bow has a ranged profile for 3″-15″ range, but only 1/2 damage, while the melee profile is even weaker with 2 attacks at Strength 3 for 2/3 damage. Pity because a good ranged fighter would have been extremely valuable in this warband. In this occurrence he takes the space of an Halberd or a Spitespear and struggles to stand-out.

In theory, the first two represent a decent elite melee profile, but weirdly enough they are not the only ones in this warband.

Twistroot Revenant with Harvester Blade: 110 points

The Twistroot Revenant with Harvester Blade, which can be assembled with different blade options but both have the same profile, is another elite melee profile, with 4 attacks at Strength 4 for 2/5 damage, whose passion in life is to use the Double Flesh-Piercing Talons which allows to score critical hits on a 5+.

This is the best profile on which to use this ability, and you may want as many of them as you can because, thanks to the 1″ range weapon, they are cheaper than the Wardens.

Twistroot Dryad: 110 points

The Twistroot Dryad is another weird profile as it is basically the same as the Twistroot Revenant but trades 1 damage on critical hit and 2 wounds less (10) for 1″ move of movement (5″) at the same cost. They also have access to the same abilities including the Double Flesh-Piercing Talons, so better stock up on them!


Abilities for the Twistweald Warband

  • Flesh-piercing Talons (Double, Twistroot Spite-Revenant, Twistroot Revenant and Dryad): Score critical hits on a 5+ on the next melee attack action.
  • Voracious Swarm (Double, Swarmsage): Roll up to 6 dice and for each 3+ allocate 1 damage to an enemy within 12″.
  • Eruption of Thorns (Double, Everyone): Roll a dice for each enemy engaged, on a 4+ allocate up to 3 damage.
  • Thorned Grasp (Triple, Swarmsage and Twisroot Spite-Revenant): On a roll of 2+ allocate 2 damage to an enemy within 3″. Keep rolling a dice and allocating 2 damage until the roll is equal or lower than the previous roll.
  • Devour Infection (Triple, Swarmsage): Pick a friendly fighter within 12″ and roll up to 6 dice. For each 4+, allocate 1 damage and add +1 attack to the next melee attack action of that fighter.
  • Twisted Song (Quad, Everyone): Heal up to 6 damage, then perform a bonus move or attack action.

Reaction for the Twistweald 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:

Mycelial Ravaging (Everyone)

  • When: When targeted by a melee attack but before hit rolls.
  • What: For each roll of 5+ allocate 2 damage to the attacking fighter.

Battle Trait for the Twistweald Warband

Ravaged by Corruption: At the end of a battle round you can pick one friendly fighter and allocate 1 damage to them. If they are still alive, they can allocate D3 damage to an engaged enemy.


Strategy and Tactics for the Twistweald Warband

The Twistweald is an extremely offensive warband, with almost all abilities oriented in damaging the opponent. They have average Toughness (4) and movement (4″ except the Dryads with 5″) and interestingly enough, they don’t have a cheap profile to spam.

They also have some profiles which step on each other toes, like the Twistroot Revenant is really similar to the Dryad, yet the extra inch of movement of the Dryad may justify the variance. They have access to a great Double which allows to score critical hits on a 5+ and with 4 attacks each and decent critical hit damage (5 and 4 respectively), that is a no-brainer ability.

Their Leader, the Swarmsage, is the only reliable source of ranged damage, and her 3″ melee profile really guarantees survivability as it means when going on the offensive, she can still attack without being engaged (it means the opponent with a 1″ range weapon will have to spend at least 1 action to move and engage).

Her abilities are not the best, but if she can pump up one of the other fighters with Strength 5 with her Triple, it may be worth the gamble. The downside is that all her abilities are unreliable.

This leaves us with the Wardens and the Spite-Revenant. All have either a ranged weapon or a melee profile with more than 1″ range, meaning that they can dance around the enemy without getting stuck. The Warden with Halberd and the one with Spitespear are definitely some interesting profiles, pity they don’t have any exclusive ability.

The Spite-Revenant comes second, as they have access to all non Swarmsage-exclusive abilities but on him, they don’t do as much as the others.

The Warden with Bow is statistically just less performant than a Kurnothi Hunter with Bow (from the Sylvaneth warband) but costs much less. Yet, it seems like it could have bene more. There are no abilities which complement him and is the only pure ranged fighter in the warband.

The way the warband can be composed from the original sprue is also peculiar: normally you would be able to choose for some fighters between 2/3 distinct weapon loadouts which occasionally would provide access to a different ability. In the case of the Twistweald, the Revenants can choose between the Glaive and the Sword, but both have the same profile, the Spite-Revanant can alternatively be assembled as a normal Revenant, a Warden can choose between the 3 weapons, and the other Warden cannot choose the Bow.

It seems odd, compared to other warband assembling options, leaving this entire warband with a weird taste. And we guess, that’s what the parasite which infects them wants to convey. A warband made of offensive profiles with attacking abilities and the moral obligation to sacrifice themselves to hurt the others more.

And in all of this, out of the blue, a healing ability which combines the universal Triple Respite with the universal Quad Rampage in a smart and efficient way.

Mastering this warband will take some time. There are many similar fighters, which need to be placed in the right context to thrive, and more than other warbands, buying a second box may be required to try out what works best.

Our stand-outs are the Warden with Spitespear for his Toughness 5, the Warden with Halberd for his damage potential, and the Revenants with Blades for their access to the Double which allows to do 5 damage on each 5+ rolled.


Pros and Cons of the Twistweald Warband

Pros:

+ Lots of profiles
+ Many offensive abilities
+ Many 2″/3″ melee profiles

Cons:

– Feeling something feels off


Some thematic warbands for the Twistweald

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.

Out of the box: 1 Swarmsage, 1 Twistroot Warden with Bow, 1 Twistroot Warden with Halberd, 1 Twistroot Spite-Revenant with Briarlash, 1 Twistroot Revenant, 3 Twistroot Dryads. Alternatively, for a more offensive warband, replace the Warden with Bow with one with Spitespear and the Spite-Revenant with another Revenant.


How to buy a Twistweald Warband

The Twistweald were initially released in the quarterly box Briar and Bone, but a new individual box has since been released.

A single sprue allows to assemble:

  • 1 Swarmsage
  • 1 Twistroot Warden with either Bow, Halberd or Spitespear
  • 1 Twistroot Warden with with either Halberd or Spitespear
  • 1 Twistroot Spite-Revenant with Briarlash or 1 Twistroot Revenant with either blade option
  • 1 Twistroot Revenant with either blade option (aesthetic choice)
  • 3 Twistroot Dryads

Tips on painting a Twistweald Warband for Warcry

The Twistweald are a Sylvaneth warband and as such you can paint them in however theme you prefer. There’s who prefers a winter theme, or who, like Vincent Venturella, has a theme for each leader of his Sylvaneth army.

MasterIII on YouTube shared his playlist of Sylvaneth tutorials which includes classic guides like this one from Warhammer Community related to Ylthari’s Guardians (a Warhammer Underworld warband) and the unmissable Pete the Wargamer.

More recently, with a great use of contrast paints, we have Warhipster’s take on Sylvaneth.


Other great resources: