Warcry- Corvus Cabal Discussion

[Hairojin]

So I had my first games yesterday. Two out of two wins for the crow gang. We played on my friends special made terrain combining two starter boxes. There was a lot of terrain on the board, probably too much so we will scale it back a bit in he future.

First game against Unmade. Mission was kill the leader. It ended in turn two after my opponent had charged his leader into a Cabalist I had placed in front of my Shadow Piercer. In my activation after that I used Death From Above to get a free move and an extra attack, no extra strength as we were on the same level. Three hits later and his leader was down.

Second game was against Splintered Fang. Mission was kill half the opponents warband. I think i positioned my warband a bit better using my tough "heroes" in the frontline and keeping most of my smaller guys back. He on the other hand sent in his leader together with smaller guys first. He even one of his snakes just to tie me up giving me basically a free killpoint. I ganged up on his leader using inspiring presence and later using Grisly Trophy+Onslaught on a Spire Stalker which gave me the final kill I needed.

It's hard to draw any conclusions though as it was the first game of Warcry for both my opponents and both of them made tactical mistakes forgetting about the mission objectives. My general feeling is that we have a very well rounded warband with great speed, good combination of hard hitting heroes, expendable chaff and some great abilities.

My list was as follows.

Shield
Shadow Piercer
Spire Stalker
Spire Stalker
Cabalist with spear

Hammer
Shrike Talon
Cabalist with spear
Cabalist with spear

Dagger
Cabalist with familiar
Cabalist

[Paul Buckler]

I thought the Spire Stalker was a leader?

[Hairojin]

20 minutes ago, Paul Buckler said:

I thought the Spire Stalker was a leader?

No, Shadow Piercer is the leader. 

[thediceabide]

So question for you about the Shrike Talon. Their ability requires you ending your move >3” lower to get the extra bonus, so far very little of the terrain is over 3” tall, so far only the bell tower allows you to do this (if you’re using terrain cards), none of the graveyard or stormvault terrain has platforms over 3” from the ground either. Think there is hope they’ll change the wording on the ability?

[Lior'Lec]

4 minutes ago, thediceabide said:

So question for you about the Shrike Talon. Their ability requires you ending your move >3” lower to get the extra bonus, so far very little of the terrain is over 3” tall, so far only the bell tower allows you to do this (if you’re using terrain cards), none of the graveyard or stormvault terrain has platforms over 3” from the ground either. Think there is hope they’ll change the wording on the ability?

     While I don’t know about any FAQ’s being released yet with the local guy’s I’ve played with we’ve all agreed to just round it up when measuring distances. Otherwise there’d be no reason to worry about impact damage and falling which (to us) makes for a less cinematic battle. You fall 1/4”, it’s an inch. You fall 2-1/2” you fall three inches. 

[thediceabide]

39 minutes ago, Lior'Lec said:

     While I don’t know about any FAQ’s being released yet with the local guy’s I’ve played with we’ve all agreed to just round it up when measuring distances. Otherwise there’d be no reason to worry about impact damage and falling which (to us) makes for a less cinematic battle. You fall 1/4”, it’s an inch. You fall 2-1/2” you fall three inches. 

Well the flip side is that if you count it as being over 3”, then the Cypher Lords ability becomes really weak.

[Lior'Lec]

     @thediceabide No they don’t; their ability states they cannot move over 3” vertically. If the platforms are considered 3” then it is still a legal move. They can still move to all of the same places. Essentially what we’ve done is declare each “level” of a building to be 3” high for all movement and ability purposes. 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Lior'Lec
Clarification

[thediceabide]

2 hours ago, Lior'Lec said:

     @thediceabide No they don’t; their ability states they cannot move over 3” vertically. If the platforms are considered 3” then it is still a legal move. They can still move to all of the same places. Essentially what we’ve done is declare each “level” of a building to be 3” high for all movement and ability purposes. 

Ah I misread the abilities, it’s not greater than 3” for fall, it’s 3” or more. So treating it as 3” exactly works for everything. 

[Gwill_of_the_Woods]

So I'm a little confused.

Does the Death from Above/Swooping attack ability incur impact damage?

Also, can someone please explain the tactical use for the familiars preventing disengage. I have read through the Core Book several times and can't see the application.

I haven't actually played yet. I want to paint up the warband nicely before playing, and I don't want to rush the job for the sake of it.

 

Thanks in advance

Edited August 16, 2019 by Gwill_of_the_Woods
Typo on ability

[TribalFox]

Hello,

 

Yes I think you suffer impact damages with these abilities and the familiar is usefull to finish an ennemy's model by forced him to stay in a close at his disavantage. Seems very powerfull by the way

[thediceabide]

On 8/16/2019 at 9:38 AM, Gwill_of_the_Woods said:

So I'm a little confused.

Does the Death from Above/Swooping attack ability incur impact damage?

Also, can someone please explain the tactical use for the familiars preventing disengage. I have read through the Core Book several times and can't see the application.

I haven't actually played yet. I want to paint up the warband nicely before playing, and I don't want to rush the job for the sake of it.

 

Thanks in advance

You can still climb down the wall normally with the bonus move action from both of those abilities. You may want to consider jumping though for the sake of cutting the distance shorter.

A way I’ve used the crow is to keep an enemy engaged with one of our tougher models (i.e. not a cabalist), while my cabalists with spears are safely 2” away. The enemy can’t disengage the tougher model to go punch the squishy ones, and is going to waste two activations attacking something that they may only be wounding on 4’s or 5’s. 

[Skyeline]

Another more niche use of the raven is making sure a fighter doesn't get to where they need to be. If you harrying raven a model who you know your opponent wants to disengage with then move to an objective or something like that, then that raven may allow you to secure an objective that you would otherwise be contested on.

Obviously there's a ton of factors there which revolve around when you activate your shadow piercer or cabalist w/ familiar, if the model you want to stop is already within 1" of one of your fighters when your activation comes up, if you think the model that is keeping the enemy engaged will just die anyways by invoking 2 attack actions in retaliation, etc. etc.

I've only got 3 corvus games under my belt so far and haven't had the harrying raven ability result in any big plays for me yet, so I'll see over time if it's worth it or not. 

[mhsellwood]

Had my first game with the Cabal last night which resulted in a win. I really liked the Shrike Talon's speed and hitting power, and generally the good damage output. Not too much to take away from it though as I was fortunate enough to have my deployment right where the objective arrived so kept control without too much hassle.

One question that came up was around the Shrike Talon's Swooping Attack. The bonus move is obvious, but the bonus attack if ending a move 3" or more vertically lower is worded in such a way that it seems to be that you can take the bonus attack when you want.

To put this in context Rampage says you make a bonus move, then a bonus attack. Swooping Attack says you get a bonus move, and if you meet the lower vertically condition you get a bonus attack, but this is not specifically stated to be immediately after the move. Is there a consensus on this?

[Kilofix]

One thing good about the Shrike is it isn’t a Leader so technically you could have 2. Also, the little guy with the spear hits quite hard for his cost.

[Veriel]

I've struggled with the crowboys. The 3 of the 4 games have been very tough.  One and  only win was due to mission not skill. We used the battle cards. So far the terrian hasn't been in a position to really help as the fighting took place in open due to deployment/objective.  

I tried to lock the enemy using control zones ( eg you can't move out of 1" if you start/finish a move action within 1") to protect my key birds. Out placed my opponent but didn't matter as his guys where faster and where harder to kill.

Same thing happened in the other 3 games.  I couldn't stop my opponent from moving nor kill what I needed.

Any advice? I love the models but want to feel like I have a chance to win each mission.

Thanks in advance.

[SolidusPrime]

I have played 5 games with CC now. I won two against Untamed Beasts, and lost one to Cypher Lords (it was a really uphill battle from the get-go). I also won one and lost one against Iron Golems.

Everyone around here is excited for the new warbands so it will probably be a minute before I get to play against any of the armies from AOS prime : /

[Christopher Rowe]

When talk turns to the corvidae,
There’s things to say for days.
The raven that croaked “Nevermore,”
The crow that solved a maze.

A jackdaw is a corvid, too,
And magpies with their beady gaze.
Less known are treepies and the choughs,
Which haunt the seaside cliffs and bays.

But a corvid with an attitude,
And eyes that dance a-crazed?
Forget your ravens, rooks, and crows,
The MEANEST are bluejays.

[AthelLoren]

My dad just picked up the Corvus Cabal for me today, and I am assembling them right now. Really great models, having some trouble with Spire Stalker #2, but overall a really great kit. My favorite model by far is the Shrike, Their playstyle looks very intricate - Lots of planning involved. I plan to pick my enemies apart one by one.

[AthelLoren]

Played a couple of games, and have a couple of notes - try not to separate too much. Stay in one big group.

[Requizen]

I've had some great games with the Cabal so far, but I'm thinking of a second box for another Shrike Talon and more Spear Cabalists. I feel that these guys are quite good out of the box, but I might optimize to something like:

Shadow Piercer
Shrike Talon
Shrike Talon
Spire Stalker
Cabalist with Familiar
Cabalist with Spear
Cabalist with Spear
Cabalist with Spear

Lose out on one model comparatively, but gain mobility and positional flexibility, which I think is worthwhile. Could even drop another Cabalist and Stalker for a third Talon, but that might be going too Elite for my tastes.

[Kilofix]

On 8/29/2019 at 3:35 PM, Requizen said:

I've had some great games with the Cabal so far, but I'm thinking of a second box for another Shrike Talon and more Spear Cabalists. I feel that these guys are quite good out of the box, but I might optimize to something like:

Shadow Piercer
Shrike Talon
Shrike Talon
Spire Stalker
Cabalist with Familiar
Cabalist with Spear
Cabalist with Spear
Cabalist with Spear

Lose out on one model comparatively, but gain mobility and positional flexibility, which I think is worthwhile. Could even drop another Cabalist and Stalker for a third Talon, but that might be going too Elite for my tastes.

 

I like that list myself

[Skyeline]

On 8/29/2019 at 12:35 PM, Requizen said:

I've had some great games with the Cabal so far, but I'm thinking of a second box for another Shrike Talon and more Spear Cabalists. I feel that these guys are quite good out of the box, but I might optimize to something like:

Shadow Piercer
Shrike Talon
Shrike Talon
Spire Stalker
Cabalist with Familiar
Cabalist with Spear
Cabalist with Spear
Cabalist with Spear

Lose out on one model comparatively, but gain mobility and positional flexibility, which I think is worthwhile. Could even drop another Cabalist and Stalker for a third Talon, but that might be going too Elite for my tastes.

This seems like a solid call. Most of my games have felt like the Shrike Talon and Shadow Piercer show whilst the rest of the team tries to just hold objectives.

In particular I haven't been that impressed with the Spire Stalkers. More often than not it hasn't been their damage that was useful to me but simply having the extra life tacked on to make sure they don't die and cost me an objective.

[Requizen]

6 hours ago, Skyeline said:

This seems like a solid call. Most of my games have felt like the Shrike Talon and Shadow Piercer show whilst the rest of the team tries to just hold objectives.

In particular I haven't been that impressed with the Spire Stalkers. More often than not it hasn't been their damage that was useful to me but simply having the extra life tacked on to make sure they don't die and cost me an objective.

This is my feeling too. The Spire Stalkers are good, but the Shrike is basically a straight upgrade. 

The weakness is losing the utility of Swift Climb, which is actually super useful overall for a double. Especially on clustered maps where Stalkers can just move however they want, while the Talon has to climb and jump. 

[Myrdin]

So I decided to get my own Corvus Cabal as well, after playing few games with other warbands. Cabal miniatures look amazing, and the units stats and abilities pretty decent. Not best not worst either.

Now I have yet to play a game with the cabal, but seeing  how the game flows and how the units with this or that stat line perform I can pretty much make a decent guess on how these guys will run. My two cents about the Cabal  I have drawn though> they can be a fantastic Elite army, rather than the Zerg mob they are introduced as.

I have both DoK (who are rather underwhelming honestly, even their elite stuff doesnt have the stats, and you are essential crit fishing the whole time.) and Untamed Beasts who are one of the better warband out there. From the 5 games I played with both these warbands, I can draw a conclusion, that the Corvus Cabal has some fantastic potential for a elite army.

The Shrike is one of the best units out there. From my experience with Melusai Blood Sisters who are of similar price and stat line, he has both better move, S4 and the basic dmg of 2. Overall better even if with just range of 1". S4 means less reliance on crits, and basic DMG2 means you can kill small units even without crits.

For those points its very fast, very killy unit, under 200pts.

If you wanted you can easely take 3 in your warband and fill the rest with Cabalites. There wont be many things these guys cant sweep through, and unlike Cypher Lords, who have the damage but lack the durability and fold once hit, the Shrikes can withstand pretty decent punishment (again similar to Melusai Sisters in this regard.).

Honestly the list posted above is the same I want to run and seems pretty good overall.  Seems like the best choice for the Cabal.

I think it could also be interesting running just without a Shriek and have 5 Spire Stalkers and one Cabalite with crow, for some insane mobility without any real weak links, but also without any real umpfh to throw at something . But lets be honest, The Shrike is just way to cool. to Ignore.

The whoel warband pretty much boils down to the Leader, Shrike, and the crouching cabalite with the Crow familiar  Those are the top minaitures and thing that drew the most people in.

[thediceabide]

So who has had a chance to play with the allies?

After looking at it, I've narrowed it down to 3 for my Corvus Cabal.

• Chaos Sorcerer Lord - solid ranged attack, though slow for Corvus, the double giving +1 Strength and Attacks for an action can be fantastic on just about anything, especially the Shrike Talon though.
• Slaughter Priest (either) - decent tanky fighters, but both abilities are super handy for Corvus, giving a solid long-range attack, plus forcing enemies out of cover. Eating triples is annoying, but less bad for Corvus since ours are so situational.
• Tzaangor Shaman - another good ranged attack, fast enough to keep up, fairly resilient, but their triple works lets you activate a friendly fighter, like the leaders ability, but on a faster model with longer range.

Think I missed some? I don't really rate the allies that just smash face, they don't add a whole lot I think, but maybe I'm wrong.