Warcry Battle Traits: We Somehow Missed Them for Months
We had one of those very hobby moments recently: discovering that something has been in the game for months, and we just… never used it.
This time it was Battle Traits in Warcry.
As Michał pointed out on our chat, the factions in Warcry got new Battle Traits in the September supplement. These are faction rules that are usually passive abilities, so unlike normal abilities in Warcry, they don’t need dice to activate. Which is a pretty big deal, because anything that works without spending your precious ability dice can have a real impact on how a warband plays.
And yet somehow, despite playing Warcry, checking rules, and generally trying to stay on top of things, we hadn’t used them even once.
Why? Because they were sitting in a different place on Warcrier than the one we usually check.
That is such a relatable modern skirmish-gaming problem that we almost have to respect it.
A small rule, a big difference
What makes this especially funny is that Battle Traits are not some tiny obscure optional note. They can genuinely shape how a faction feels on the table. Passive rules often do a lot of heavy lifting in game design: they define identity, reward a certain style of play, and make a warband feel more like itself before the first ability dice are even spent.
So this was one of those moments where we looked at the screenshots and immediately had the classic reaction:
Wait, these have been out since September?!
Apparently yes.
The real enemy: rules in three different places
We’re not even blaming the game here as much as the reality of how we all use online tools. If a rule update lives in a slightly different section than the one we’ve trained ourselves to open before a game, there is a very real chance it simply won’t exist in our collective memory.
That seems to be exactly what happened here. The Battle Traits were there, but not where we instinctively looked for them, so for months our brains just skipped over them.
Honestly, this is a good reminder for us to do a proper rules sweep from time to time, especially in games like Warcry where updates, supplements, and online references can spread things around a bit.
Time to actually use them
Now that we’ve noticed them, we’re definitely going to start including Battle Traits in our games. Even before testing them properly, they look like the kind of addition that can add a bit more flavor to each faction without slowing the game down.
And that’s always welcome in Warcry.
Below are the screenshots Michał shared when he found them:
Our takeaway
If you’ve been playing Warcry and relying on Warcrier the same way we have, it may be worth double-checking whether you’re actually using all the current faction rules.
We definitely weren’t.
Sometimes the biggest update to your next game is not a new warband, terrain piece, or scenario.
Sometimes it’s just finding the rules you already should have been using.