Warcry: Red Harvest is up for pre-order this weekend, and it’s your first chance to get your hands on two brand new warbands – the Tarantulos Brood and the Darkoath Savagers. We’ve already seen what’s in the box – so we now turn to how the new factions play.
The Tarantulos Brood worship Chaos as a bloated, eight-limbed spider, just as the Splintered Fang prostrate themselves before the great serpent and the Corvus Cabal venerate and steal in the name of the avian Gatherer.
Just like these other bestial bands, in combat the Tarantulos Brood exemplify the aspect of Chaos they worship. They are commanded by the ferocious Broodmaster, whose spidery blessings make them more than a match for the formidable fighters who walk the Path to Glory.
Not only can he pump out an overwhelming number of attacks with his extra limbs, but like many fighters in the Brood, he can also use a Double to activate Skittering Ascent, allowing him to scale terrain for no movement cost and ambush fighters who may otherwise consider themselves safe.
Warbands fighting alongside critters is nothing new in Warcry, but the Spider Swarms accompanying the Tarantulos Brood are something else. Tuned into the psychic gestalt that links the brood, they act in unison with their bipedal allies, swarming and overwhelming their foes.
While Spider Swarms are relatively weak, they do move fast, come with a handy eight attacks, and can be summoned back by a Broodmaster after being taken out.*
If you’ve rolled a Quad you’ll be looking to spend it on one of your Swarms – the terrifying Gifts of the Eightfold Watcher ability gives your spidery pals a chance to incapacitate a foe and potentially deal a whopping 10 damage.
While the corralling of spiders large and small is the crux of this warband’s fighting style, the individual warriors are deadly in their own right. The Doomweavers use biting weapons to inflict maximum hurt on their foes.
The lesser Broodkin make up for a relative lack of strength with their ability to deliver a savage flurry of blows, and when they land a critical strike their keening weapons will cleave through flesh and bone with equal ease.
Finally, suppose you’ve got an excellent Triple roll available. In that case, you can use your ranged fighters to harangue your opponents with an Envenomed Projectile, using the toxic secretions of arachnids to defeat your foes.
Put all of this together – along with the ability of certain fighters to trap enemies in adhesive webbing – and you’ve got a mobile, hard-hitting Warband with lots of tricks up their spidersilk sleeves.
Join us later in the week, where we’ll take a closer look at the decidedly less delicate Darkoath Savagers and the nominal “rules” they use to tear up their foes.
Warcry: Red Harvest comes with both warbands, and will be available for pre-order from Saturday. Our pre-order weekend promise is in place – which means that if you place an order over the weekend, you’ll be guaranteed to receive a box, even if we have to make you a new one from scratch.
Meanwhile, let us know what you think of the Tarantulos Brood on Warhammer Community Twitter.
* Where do these spiders come from? We reckon the Broodmaster throws them out of his webbed pockets.