Reading the scenarios in Song of the Dormant, the new two-player starter set for fantasy skirmish wargame Warcrow, I was surprised by a lot of what I found: branching objectives, reactive narrative choices, asymmetric outcomes, and consequences that follow you between missions. While that kind of gameplay might be familiar if you've played narrative-heavy indie wargames like Rangers of Shadowdeep and Don't Look Back, it's genuinely refreshing to see a major miniature wargame company like Corvus Belli deploy them in a premium starter set.
I've got access to the introductory booklet from Song of the Dormant (though editor Alex will be doing Wargamer's review), and a lot of it will be familiar to anyone who has picked up a starter set for a miniature wargame before. A light lore section introduces the world of Lindwurm and frames the scenario that led the two forces included in the box into conflict. The booklet introduces the basic rules before referring the player on to the free full rules available on the Warcrow website.
After that are the scenarios which together tell the story of the mystical Scions of Yaldabaoth and knightly Feudom warring over the Wheel of Mathalazz, a fragment of an ancient artefact, all the while discovering deeper secrets hidden beneath their feet.
What's unusual for the beginner box is how rich those scenarios are, and how much connection there is between them. This doesn't start with a dummy "here's how to roll dice and use a tape-measure" scenario - there are multiple secondary objectives from mission one. The first player to interact with each of those objectives opens up a whole new section of narrative, with choices to make about how to proceed. Light spoilers for the first scenario ahead!
While the main mission is to secure the Wheel of Mathalazz, there are two significant side objectives. When a model interacts with them it will find an access point to an underground complex: one objective takes them through a fissure in the floor, while the other is a tunnel mouth.
Going into the tunnel reveals an impossible underground lake, beside it a broken mirror and an ancient chest. There's an option to rebuild the mirror, which forces a willpower test on the model involved, with bad consequences should they fail but bonuses if they win. Alternatively the player can crack open the chest and simply roll a die to see how lucky they are, with a chance to find a Map of the Undersoil that actually has an impact on later scenarios.
Going underground via the fissure in the rock brings the character out much closer to the lake, again giving them choices about what they want to do. How one of the encounters plays out actually depends on which faction the character is from: there's a mysterious presence beneath the Dormant Lake, and the Feudom and the Scions have very different reactions to their chance encounter with it.
This system reminds me so much of Rangers of Shadowdeep, a co-operative indie wargame by Joseph McCullough (he of Frostgrave fame) that is halfway to being an RPG, with each scenario having multiple interaction points. Where that game is very open ended and model agnostic, Song of the Dormant is focused around the specific forces in the box, which gives it a coherent narrative, and allows for those flourishes like faction-specific events.
Just like Rangers, your achievements in one scenario can affect another: if you find the map in mission one, you can deploy a unit beyond your normal deployment zone in mission two. The Wheel of Mathalazz you're fighting over in the first scenario will follow you into subsequent missions, potentially changing hands more than once before the campaign ends! Each decision and outcome unlocks unique content, like an RPG hiding in a skirmish starter set.
All told, it's an innovative way to add value to a starter set - the scenarios in the box are tied closely into the specific models you get, narratively and in terms of rules design. So you're not faced with an overwhelming number of units to master rules all at once - though you can easily expand to full armies for both forces with the Beyond Song of the Dormant expansion if you want to - but you still get a really meaty gameplay experience.
If narrative gaming is big for you, Corvus Belli promises that it's working on a lot more for Warcrow. A Warcrow Alternate Reality Game has been running all July, with clues hidden both in our world and in new lore drops for the world of Lindwurm - and you can still join in!
The firm is also working on some mysterious tools it says will help the community to grow the narrative. As someone who grew up on Games Workshop's classic world-wide participation campaigns - in which players submitted the results of battles to affect the outcome of whole wars - I have my fingers crossed that Corvus Belli is working on something similar. The firm has a proven track record with apps so if it wanted to, it could make a modern interface for this kind of community event.
Corvus Belli will be at Gencon in Booth 605 from July 31 to August 3, and you can both demo and purchase Song of the Dormant there - otherwise, you will be able to order it via this link when it launches! If you already play Warcrow, or you're excited to hop on board with this box set, come and let us know in the official Wargamer Discord community!
Editor Alex has done a rundown of Song of the Dormant's contents; while if you want to know how Warcrow itself has matured as a wargame since its initial launch in 2024, check out this article.