Warcrow: Or why I learned how to relax and enjoy custom dice.

Is that title good SEO? No. Am I back? No, probably not. I just want to make the bird happy and offload some of this “waiting for a game I want” energy.

One of the first things that comes up when people start talking about Warcrow, after they learn what it is, is the fact that it uses custom dice. Some people absolutely hate custom dice and will refuse to play any game that uses them. I don’t mind them, especially if they are used well.

But first…

What is Warcrow?

Warcrow is a new property from Corvus Belli, the makers of Infinity and other games I enjoy. This is a fantasy property with a boardgame and skirmish wargame. The boardgame is called Warcrow Adventures and the skirmish wargame is just being called Warcrow. To simplify – since I’m not getting the boardgame – whenever I say Warcrow from here on out I’m referring to the skirmish game. At least CB has learned their lesson from the SEO nightmare that is Infinity the Wargame. Even the official site has a nice URL, and easier to spell than Aristeia!.

So, the wargame, from all the information I’ve been scouring, is a small-unit skirmish game set in a fantasy world created by Corvus Belli. There’s the regular cast of fantasy races you would expect – Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Humans – with a bit of body horror in the form of the Scions of Yaldaboath for spice. They are not monolithic structures like other fantasy worlds where each race is a self-contained faction. Instead the wargame’s factions are nations which may contain examples of different races.

For my taste this is the perfect balance. When I think of fantasy I am thinking of these classic races. Yes, there are great examples of fantasy where they create their fauna out of whole cloth, but there are plenty which just change the name without adding anything new. Like the bard said, a rose by any other name.

I recommend checking out the playlist I linked for more details on the lore.

What is the game like?

The skirmish wargame of Warcrow is what I’m most looking forward to. I have become a one-game-gamer after decades as a butterfly, playing Infinity almost weekly for over a year now. I am also a big fan of Aristeia! which is set in the Infinity universe. When Corvus Belli announced this new game I’ve been eagerly snapping up every nugget of information I could find.

The game is most likely going to feature small units of fantasy warriors lead by heroes. The miniature count is expected to be around 20 miniatures per side, with units of 3 models plus a hero shown in demos.

Character models are available in named and generic versions. Some will operate solo, some will join units and some will have the option to do both.

Magic carries a cost, so casters have the option to trade power for something called “tinge.” This gives players some interesting choices which keeps magic from just being a differently flavoured ranged attack.

Custom Dice

Like Aristeia!, and some of Corvus Belli’s other games, Warcrow uses custom dice. This is something that rightly brings some level of complaints but is not too much of a concern for me. Replacing rolling against a target number with symbols can speed up gameplay, and in the case of Warcrow they are leveraging the symbols to do more with a roll than could be done by saying “hits on a 4+”.

There are 6 dice types in the game, and stats are given as a dice pool. This is already automating a lot of mechanics and providing more nuance than is possible with numbered dice. There are attack dice and defense dice. You compare the number of stars rolled to the number of shields rolled. Any excess stars cause damage. There are also “specials”, which are the exclamation marks, or as I like to call them, “bangs.” These can be spent to trigger “switches” on a unit or character’s card. Let’s take a look. Thanks, by the way, to Corvus Belli for their excellent press kit. I hope someone uses it to promote the game widely.

There are two lines of stats, representing the full strength and weakened versions of this unit. The sword is a melee attack, the tower is the defensive roll. This is based on memory and interpreting the design, so may not be perfectly accurate.

On the attack the Bucklermen roll 1 Red and 3 Orange dice. CB kindly gives colour-blind people a thought, at least on the unit cards. They still need someone to tell them which physical dice are which. On the roll, any stars are hits, and any hollow specials count as blocks. This hints that it’s possible to inflict hits when defensive.

On defense this unit rolls 2 Green and 1 Black dice, with the more common specials adding additional blocks. This indicates that this unit is very defensive and should be able to hold their own against nastier fighters.

Specials are not the only results which can trigger switches. This character has the same switches on attach and defense, and has multiple switches to choose from. I don’t know if this has been officially announced, but based on Aristeia! I expect that the symbols used to trigger a switch are “spent” and cannot be used for multiple purposes. For example, the Orc Hunters unit has the option to trade shields for stars on their defense rolls. Those shield could not then be used to cancel attacks.

So, not only do custom dice allow dice pools to give nuance to rolls, not only does looking for successes instead of comparing results to target numbers speed up gameplay, but the switches in this game provide gameplay and choices that just wouldn’t be practical with normal dice and a target number. How could you possible recreate this with normal dice? Comment below.

The dice in the skirmish game are the same as the dice in Warcrow Adventures, the rulebook for which has already been released. We can see the different faces and the distribution of symbols. Dice which have more successes tend to have less specials and vice versa.

I understand that custom dice can be annoying because they represent a cost to pay to play the game that isn’t miniatures. I am also resentful of any money I am forced to spend beyond miniatures. And some games don’t really leverage their custom dice as much as they could while also charging premium prices for the dice. I hate having to roll dice in batches but I’ve accepted it for some games because the price for additional dice is just too high.

Warcrow itself really requires having all the possible dice you can need. It’s one thing to need 10 dice, roll 5 and remember how many were hits and how many were crits. In Warcrow you have to remember hits and specials, plus hollow versions of each. I hope that they keep this in mind as they design stats and don’t charge too much for their dice.

Based on their history I don’t think this will be a problem:

Don’t forget, this is Corvus Belli. The rules will be free, there will likely be a free army builder. Yes, you have to buy custom dice and custom measuring sticks, but after that it’s all miniatures all the time.

In the end, I think Warcrow will be an example of how to make use of custom dice in a way that is worthwhile and not possible with normal dice.

When is it out?

Warcrow is going to be released at Gencon 2024. Pre-orders will start 15 days earlier. Normally I am not a fan of pre-orders but in this case I plan to put my name in with my FLGS, Red Dragon, to get a copy as soon as possible.

• Tweet
• Pin It