With Briar and Bone we see another Death warband introduced, this time for Ossiarch Bonereapers (having had them for Nighthaunt, Soulblight and Flesh Eater Courts in previous releases during second edition, two in the first year and two in the second). This time we get something more interesting, with a warband featuring a lot of beast models, and a wild dice generation mechanic. Many thanks to Games Workshop for providing an advanced review copy of Briar and Bone.
In the background it turns out you can take a further step down from being the crotch of a Gothizzar Harvester, and that’s getting turned into a bone dog.
Table of Contents
Abilities and Reactions
There are some incredibly good abilities tucked away here for increasing the action efficiency of a warband that has some chaff (but not very cheap chaff at 80 points a model) or for increasing the effectiveness of attacks. However a lot of the abilities and the reaction involve spending wild dice to make them more effective, and even though there is a wild dice generation ability to compensate for this, this is a very dice hungry warband.
Reaction
Predatory Ravage
After being the target of an attack action, once all damage has been resolved, you can make a bonus melee attack as a reaction (with -1 attack dice and -1 damage to a minimum of 1). By spending a wild dice you can remove this penalty.
This is situational. If the model is going to survive, then don’t use it and make melee attack actions back once it’s your turn to activate. If you won’t survive another attack action, or can kill your attacker before they can make another action (to attack again, or disengage, etc) then it’s worth doing. This is still a reaction, though, and wild dice are precious.
Abilities
Double – Bestial Leaps – This is available to the Kavalos Centari and Mortek Cycloptians and gives them a free bonus move of 3″ treated as Flying (4″ if they spend a wild dice). Great for getting up ruins, leaping obstacles and getting into melee range so you can spend all your actions on attacks.
Double – Eyes of Kratakos – Roll a number of dice equal to the value of this ability; for every 5+ add a wild dice to your wild dice pool. This can be used by any model, so you could activate a dog, use this ability, wait, activate it a second time and use the ability again if you have a second double worth using. There are plenty of abilities improved by using wild dice, so building up your pool of them in the first turn or two is a good idea. If you get a single six in your initiative roll, then using a wild dice to get a second six and use this ability is a good trick as well.
Double – Nadirite Strike – Add two to your attack dice for your next attack action. If you spend two wild dice you score criticals on 5+. Essentially a more focused Onslaught, giving you exactly the same bonus as Onslaught on a model getting two attacks in, and likely to replace it on your non-beast models. The improved criticals are very dice hungry, but when used on a Centari rolling seven attack dice then that is potentially a lot of crits.
Triple – Artery-Severing Strike – Use after allocating damage to an enemy model as the result of a melee attack. Until the end of the battle round, when that model reacts or activates and does anything other than wait, roll a number of dice equal to this ability, and for every 2+ allocate a point of damage to the model. This is for beast models only, and great to use with a high triple to put even more damage on a model unless it sacrifices a turn waiting.
Triple – Unleashed Rage – One critical hit scored by this fighter in their next melee attack action during this activation scores an additional critical hit. You can spend two saved wild dice, and if so the next critical hit scores two additional critical hits. Sometimes you roll a triple 1, and if you don’t have the wild dice to bump it up to a quad then this ability is useful on models rolling a reasonable number of dice (the Centari rolling five gives good odds of getting a critical).
Quad – Savagery Unbound – Each friendly Teratic Cohort fighter in this models battle group (so hammer, dagger or shield) can make a free movement action. If you spend two wild dice, they can make a free movement action instead. Note that this is exactly the same.
I fully expect this to be FAQ’d, as I think the two wild dice should read that they can make a free attack action instead, as RAW there is currently no difference between spending the wild dice or not. This can be used by any Teratic Cohort model, including the dogs, and affects the models in the same battle group no matter how far away they are, which is great for moving a bunch of models at once to claim table quarters, run away with treasure, etc in the last battle round of the game.
Heroes
There’s only one hero with one loadout in this faction, the Kavalos Centari.
Kavalos Centari
A beefy bespoke warband leader with the 20 wounds we fairly consistently see across the bespoke warbands, but with a move of 7″ and a weapon with a 3″ reach, this model can get around quickly and engage from out of the range other models can strike it back.
You are paying 235 points for this hero, and while it is mounted – meaning you can’t enter buildings and climb things – it is very fast and with five attack dice, reach 3″, strength 4 and 2/4 damage it hits hard as well. You may even see it taken as an ally in other Death warbands due to its access to Eyes of Kratakos.
At toughness 4 and 20 wounds it isn’t super tough, and a blessing to increase toughness would help (though would make an expensive model even pricier), but you can use your reach to force your opponent to waste actions getting into range of you. This model also benefits from Unleashed Rage given it’s already rolling five dice and the odds of getting criticals are good.
Fighters
Mortek Cycloptian
This is the beefy fighter in the warband, and you’ll be relying on these to be the main damage dealers in the warband. They come in two flavours: Dread Glaives or Nadirite Bidents.
| Average Damage vs. | T4 | T5 | T6 |
| Dread Glaive | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Nadirite Bident | 4 | 3.5 | 3 |
Glaives have a 1″ reach, and Bidents have a 2″ reach, so it’s a straight trade off of damage for range. Both options cost exactly the same. With move 4, toughness 4 and 18 wounds they’re fairly tough and with Bestial Leap or Savagery Unbound for a free move they can move around the board somewhat faster than their move of 4 indicates.
Teratic Prowler
Bone dogs are essentially the chaff model for the warband at 80 points. They’re slower at move 4 than many doggos, but with toughness 4, 10 wounds and a 3 dice strength 3 2/4 bite they hit harder than a lot of similar units. They are beasts which stops them carrying treasure, and that limits them a little in tournaments, as you have to rely on your Centari and Cycloptians for that.
It is an 80 point model, it is a solid fighter, and it’s cheap enough to take plenty of them. While cheaper chaff is available through taking a Bladeborn hero and some chaff, but the cost for the hero undermines the cheapness of the chaff. With 2/4 damage and the ability to use Artery-severing strike, this model can put out reasonable damage, and chomp hard on other chaff.
Aviarch Harpy
Bone birds give you a slightly faster Teratic Prowler with Fly and a better attack (4 attack dice, strength 4 and 1/4 damage). Tougher but slower than a lot of other bird models, these are useful but I think will struggle to justify taking two instead of dropping one to spend the points on something else.
Fly and move 5 is useful, but more useful on a map with a lot of terrain that you can ignore the verticality of than one with sparse terrain.
It’s useful, but at 115 points it’s fighting against the much more survivable Cycloptians and the cheaper Prowlers for space in the warband.
Example Warband
In the box you get one Centari, two Cycloptians, three Prowlers and two Harpies, which comes to a total of 995 points.
If you had access to two boxes I would look at the following:
- Centari
- 2 x Cycloptians with Dread Glaive
- Cycloptian with Nadirite Bident
- 2 x Teratic Prowlers
- Aviarch Harpy
Leaving 55 points for blessings and a seven model warband. For blessings Resilience for toughness 5 makes the Centari or Cycloptians significantly tougher for 15 points, and Brutality to change the Centari to 3/4 damage (with five attack dice) is another option worth considering.
Overview and Suggested Allies
The warband as a whole has a decent amount of punch, and bearing in mind abilities, a decent amount of speed. What it lacks is numbers, and probably the only source of chaff without a hero tax that completely undermines the point of taking it would be Sepulchral Guard. Kainan’s Reapers would be thematic, and add shooting to a warband without it, but Kainan is so expensive (though big and tough and has a shooting attack as well as nasty melee attack) that if you ally him in and take some of his bone boys you are essentially replacing Prowlers with tougher but slower alternatives for the same cost as well as lowing a Cycloptian and Harpy to take Kainan.
The obvious and lazy ally choice is something like a Dreadblade Harrow for the movement and punch. There are nothing that can be summoned in the warband, but the Mortisan Boneshaper’s healing affects friendly models even if it’s not that impressive when not in the centre of a horde of chaff.
I can see the Centari being taken as an ally in other Death warbands due to its combination of speed, punch and ability to generate wild dice in a grand alliance that doesn’t have access to another hero capable of doing that.
I think the faction has potential and with the right allies/build can be competitive, but I think it isn’t as straightforward as factions like Questor Soulsworn or Vulkyn Flameseekers where they are obviously very good just out of the box. I think this is a faction that will need some experimentation to get the best out of it.
Conclusion
Death have been well served in the second edition of Warcry, with every faction in the Death Grand Alliance getting a release. I like the aesthetic of the faction, and a faction where the majority of fighters are beasts is interesting if a little limiting in competitive play.
The design of the faction reflects the changes in second edition, with an emphasis on mid range fighters (though Bonereapers are not a faction with very cheap chaff in any case) and the fighters across the warband feel solid (no six wound doggos here) with decent toughness and a decent punch on even the cheapest models.
The abilities require you to generate and save wild dice in the first couple of rounds and start going crazy towards the end of the game, and lucky dice could see you going bananas with abilities in the final turn.
If you’re a Bonereaper fan I don’t need to recommend the box to you; you’ll be picking it up anyway, and it plays simply enough for beginning players to pick up, but I think you’ll need to play a few games to nail down how to take them to the top in tournament play rather than hanging around in the top 16 but not the top 8.
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