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Post by tiberius on Oct 5, 2017 18:41:22 GMT
Asphyxious the Hellbringer and Vociferon (page 1, 6, 7) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Bane Witch Agathia (page 7) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Captain Aiakos (page 9, 10) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Deneghra the Soul Weaver (page 7, 8) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Goreshade the Bastard and Deathwalker (page 8) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Goreshade the Cursed (page 8, 9) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Goreshade Lord of Ruin (page 9) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Iron Lich Asphyxious (page 1, 12) Ghost Fleet Dark Host Infernal Machines Black Industries Slaughter Fleet Raiders Scourge of the Broken Coast
Lich Lord Asphyxious (page 1, 2) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Slaughter Fleet Raiders Scourge of the Broken Coast
Lich Lord Terminus (page 2) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Lich Lord Venethrax (page 2, 3) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Lord Exhumator Scaverous (page 4, 5, 11, 12) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaugher Fleet Raiders
Master Necrotech Mortenebra and Deryliss (page 3, 4) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Mortenebra Numen of Necrogenesis (page 4) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Pirate Queen Skarre (page 4, 5, 15) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaugher Fleet Raiders
Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet (page 13, 14) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast (page 5, 6) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Sturgis the Corrupted (page 6) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Warwitch Deneghra (page 10, 11) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Witch Coven of Gharlghast and Egregore (page 7) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machine Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Wraith Witch Deneghra (page 12, 13) Ghost Fleet Infernal Machines Dark Host Black Industries Scourge of the Broken Coast Slaughter Fleet Raiders
I am kicking around the idea of discussing each of our warcasters in relation to our 6! theme forces and what they may bring to help that theme force shine or vice versa. I wanted to dig deep into the warcaster and provide a sample list for the theme and perhaps provoke some discussion about the caster and the themes.
How to use this thread? Anyone is welcome to contribute. If you have some wisdom, experience, a favorite theme list, whatever, post it and describe it. If I get around to it, I will link it up. Just click on the caster you are interested in and take a read.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 5, 2017 19:03:21 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Dark Host
Dark host is the next theme force, and this theme force already cracks armor. The theme force grants prowl to all banes and provides 2 4" clouds to place before the start of the game. This + ghostly + lots of terrain will help your forces close, because asphysious sure doesn't help with that. Again, the only thing asphyxious does for this type of list is helps it hit harder and this type of list provides threat saturation that cannot be ignored.
Ghostly weaponmasters with darkshroud that have tough and automatically stand up from knockdown effects...sounds good. The core of any of my dark host armies is the bane warriors. They hunt and eat all but the toughest heavies and with parasite, even the khador clam jacks are not going to be happy.
Bane knights, while not as good (in my opinion) have a place, can hit hard enough on a charge, are a big harder to kill, resistant to most anti-infantry tricks, and are annoying to charge and engage.
The riders got better in CID with improved accuracy and damage output and threat range.
In a Dark Host list, asphyxious will be more spell artillery as your bane brick relentlessly advances and eats whatever they encounter. The only issue is with defensive skew, but that is why Toruk created breath of corruption...and Tartarus now provides veteran leader.
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Cankerworm - Skarlock Thrall - Inflictor - Ripjaw x 2 - Shrike x 2 Bane Lord Tartarus Bane Knights (max) Bane Warriors (max) + CA Bane Riders (max)
I am tempted to trade the bane riders for a wraith engine to follow around the knights giving dark shroud and +2 armor. With asphyxious, everything in this list can hit harder but not more accurately. I included some accurate warjacks to help with infantry removal, such as the shrikes. They don't need focus to do their job, trampling for free over any size base and automatically boosted to hit rolls for POW 11 damage. That is enough to clear out most lines of infantry short of shield walled and mini-feated flameguard or something like that.
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unded
Junior Strategist
Posts: 760
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Post by unded on Oct 6, 2017 9:59:17 GMT
Since I've been playing him for the last week, I thought I'd try this for Asphyxious3.
I'll ignore ghost fleet because not only has it been done to death, but the theme bores me to tears. Someone else can chime on wasting Gaspy3's awesome potential on Ghost fleet.
To start off, I'll examine black industries. This is a magnificent theme for Gaspy, as it allows you to really double down on his field marshal. He supports warjacks incredibly well between a MAT/RAT/POw buff in one neat debuff, he has a solid upkeep-removal spell in hex blast, and mobility is amazing when you have a large battlegroup. The free warjacks are nice to have, and I appreciate a bonus arcnode (or 2), but I wouldn't try to max out free points in this theme. Two free turkeys are plenty, and the third isn't going to be worth neglecting units. Gaspy also wants to force enemies to get close so he can get the soul train running, and a battlegroup of Carapace-bearing warjacks absolutely does that.
Warjacks are gaining so much value between theme Carapace, Battlegroup-wide Mobility and the field marshal that you really want as many warjacks as you can fit. Slayers are fantastic here at a bargain 10 points that are accurate, crazy fast and can now weather shooting. You want one high-value warjack to hold cloak of Ash, and since hex blast can be cast with necromancy Deathjack just begs for inclusion. From here you have a number of reasonable choices. Leviathan(s) could be great if you want to put out ranged dominance while your opponent is forced to close with you thanks to Carapace. An Inflictor wouldn't go amiss to both protect Gaspy from eiryss and protect warjacks from disruption shots, and a seether for raw damage output could be great now that it won't get shot off the table.
So for a unit, you have no real access to Cryx units. You do however have access to a Merc unit, which gives you some tempting options. The obvious first option are Nyss hunters. While they're on the expensive side, the combination of shooting, weaponmaster and bodies is sorely tempting. The other option that calls out to me (my favoured choice) are the devil's shadow mutineers plus Lord Rockbottom. This unit can do a surprising amount of work, hunting solos, hurting heavies, assassinating casters or even clearing up bunched units (berserk Mar with Payday gets a shocking amount of work done). While it's easy to dismiss him with a half-inch range, never forget that in order to kill a heavy warjack an infantry unit has no choice but to clump up. Whatever you choose, I highly recommend taking a unit for scenario purposes. Similarly, a pair of sirens does double-duty as both scenario pieces plus as focus batteries.
Lastly, let's talk about pressure. Holy Toruk does this let you put out some crazy board control. Consider that if you get turn #1, Gaspy puts up Mobility, and the Warjacks run 16". You have 2" further deployment thanks to the theme, so your slayers are threatening 3" outside of your enemy's deployment zone. That's crazy useful when you don't care about enemy guns. In objective control turns, your warjacks are running to 25" up the board, 1" over the halfway mark. You're bullying your opponent out of the zones on turn #1, making it very difficult for him to meaningfully contest zones.
Here's the sample list I played last week, just for a taste:
Gaspy plus Vociferon Deathjack Inflictor Seether Slayer Slayer Cankerwork Nightwretch Nightwretch Siren Siren Devil's shadow Mutineers Lord Rockbottom Soul Trapper
When next I find some time I'll talk a bit about Dark Host.
-und_ed
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Post by tiberius on Oct 6, 2017 11:04:45 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Infernal Machines
(I guess we should label each block with its contents, thanks for the inclusion Und_ed, good write up)
Infernal machines is our thrall theme force, allowing you to take mechanithralls, carrion thralls, bile thralls and soul hunters. An interesting mix of units to be sure. The theme gives hyper aggressive to your warjacks and one mechanithrall unit gains ambush.
Two bits of skornergy here, though still potentially useful. Our warjacks don't want to be hit. Hyperaggresive allows our warjacks, after suffering damage, to make a full advance directly toward the source of that damage. That is a lot of movement potentially, though it also means your warjack is probably missing arms at this point. Ambushing mechanithralls are a lot of fun, but it also means you are away from the necrosurgeon and/or sepulcher for half the game if you are doing a recursion boat. So you have to decide if the board control afforded by ambush to a 10-14 guy unit is worth it or if you want to just run up with the mechanithrall recursion boat in full gear. In most cases, ambushing is worth it and you can just run the necrosurgeon to get them where you need them.
What does iron lich asphyxious do for this type of list? As we have discussed in other theme forces, asphyxious can do a 5 point armor swing on damage output. For something like carrion thralls that are only POW 7 + finisher (combined melee if necessary), that can be a huge boon. It can help soul hunters (that are very accurate in their own right) take on heavier targets like multiwound units with more ease. He can help mechanithralls take on heavy warjacks easier and brute thralls hit like trucks. Your bile thralls, already destructive to most single wound infantry with auto hitting POW 12 with auto corrosion, might get to ignore the corrosion part.
So here is a sample list that does mechanithrall recursion very well and brings good jamming along with a ranged presence. A decent all comers list in my opinion.
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Sepulcher - Cankerworm - Ripjaw x 2 warwitch siren pistol wraith (free) soul trapper Bile thralls (min) + skarlock commander Carrion thralls (max) mechanithralls (max) + 2 x brute thralls Necrosurgeon
The idea here is the sepulcher moves behind a cloud of thralls that the necrosurgeon and the sepulcher can keep replentishing, while using its impressive guns to remove any threats to asphyxious until either the sepulcher or asphyxious himself gets close enough to charge and eat the opposing caster. I typically ambush the mechanithralls and use the biles to remove jamming opposition. Asphyxious really doesn't have any special synergies with this list but he is more of a generalist caster anyhow, good at a lot of things.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 6, 2017 12:09:40 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Black Industries
Black Industries is the cryx warjack theme that gives a free light warjack (7 pts or less) for every 30 pts of warjacks you buy. This theme provides a powerful bonus with Carapace (+4 armor vs ranged attacks and free strikes) to your heavy warjacks. Also, your deployment zone is extended 2" for additional movement. Obviously, getting free lights is a very powerful bonus as is additional armor while closing across the board, so taking a lot of heavies is recommended in this theme.
Iron Lich asphyxious plays differently than Asphyxious the hellbringer discussed above, in that he doesn't care if jacks are in his battlegroup or not. In fact, its better for him if they are not so he doesn't have to feed them and the fact that he lacks any type of specific battlegroup spells or effects. Iron Lich Overseer with a seether or Aikos with a pair of stalkers or anything else you like work really well with Asphyxious and allow for more board presence that a single caster and his battle group could normally provide.
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Deathjack - Cankerworm - Inflictor - Slayer - Ripjaw x 2 (free from theme) Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Aikos, Scourge of Meredius - Stalker x 2 Warwitch Siren x 2 Machine Wraith
Deathjack is a centerpiece and with darkshroud and potentially 8 attacks, can one round almost anything in the game, sometimes two heavy targets if you roll well. Deathjack also loves asphyxious's spell list with a wide range of attack forms if he cant get into melee. Hellfire and breath of corruption are both legitimate attack modes if you find yourself out of charge range. Inflictor with carapace is a pretty awesome body guard and the slayer is a cheap beater that only gets better with a parasite target.
Iron Lich Overseer gives stealth to the seether on approach helping it close with both arms intact. They are also surprisingly survivable for a solo and can get some work done in melee if they have to. Especially if they have a soul or two floating around. Crush on a seether is a +4 damage swing with an extra attack and with sirens running around, you can get more swings.
Aikos and two stalkers is a nice little mobile assassin module. Dark shroud on a stalker and their ability to jump into the back arc of something will let them be accurate assassins with grievous wounds. I also added a machine wraith to the list as a filler, but an incorporeal flag scorer/contester is always welcome.
So a different build for Dark Industries that highlights the focus efficiency the list can bring.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Oct 6, 2017 12:28:08 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Black Industries Black Industries is the cryx warjack theme that gives a free light warjack (7 pts or less) for every 30 pts of warjacks you buy. This theme provides a powerful bonus with Carapace (+4 armor vs ranged attacks and free strikes) to your heavy warjacks. Also, your deployment zone is extended 2" for additional movement. Obviously, getting free lights is a very powerful bonus as is additional armor while closing across the board, so taking a lot of heavies is recommended in this theme. Iron Lich asphyxious plays differently than Asphyxious the hellbringer discussed above, in that he doesn't care if jacks are in his battlegroup or not. In fact, its better for him if they are not so he doesn't have to feed them and the fact that he lacks any type of specific battlegroup spells or effects. Iron Lich Overseer with a seether or Aikos with a pair of stalkers or anything else you like work really well with Asphyxious and allow for more board presence that a single caster and his battle group could normally provide. Iron Lich Asphyxious - Deathjack - Cankerworm - Inflictor - Slayer - Ripjaw x 2 (free from theme) Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Aikos, Scourge of Meredius - Stalker x 2 Warwitch Siren x 2 Machine Wraith Deathjack is a centerpiece and with darkshroud and potentially 8 attacks, can one round almost anything in the game, sometimes two heavy targets if you roll well. Deathjack also loves asphyxious's spell list with a wide range of attack forms if he cant get into melee. Hellfire and breath of corruption are both legitimate attack modes if you find yourself out of charge range. Inflictor with carapace is a pretty awesome body guard and the slayer is a cheap beater that only gets better with a parasite target. Iron Lich Overseer gives stealth to the seether on approach helping it close with both arms intact. They are also surprisingly survivable for a solo and can get some work done in melee if they have to. Especially if they have a soul or two floating around. Crush on a seether is a +4 damage swing with an extra attack and with sirens running around, you can get more swings. Aikos and two stalkers is a nice little mobile assassin module. Dark shroud on a stalker and their ability to jump into the back arc of something will let them be accurate assassins with grievous wounds. I also added a machine wraith to the list as a filler, but an incorporeal flag scorer/contester is always welcome. So a different build for Dark Industries that highlights the focus efficiency the list can bring. Adding some Drudges and perhaps WSC gives you a unit or 2 for scenario and a pretty decent cloud wall if you use Drudges as homing beacons. After the clouds dissipate, the Drudges can replenish themselves with Prep for Surgery, perhaps something like: Cryx Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] Black Industries (Asphyxious 1) Iron Lich Asphyxious [+28] - Cankerworm [9] - Deathjack [23] - Ripjaw [0(7)] - Ripjaw [0(7)] - The Withershadow Combine [9] Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [4] - Stalker [8] - Stalker [8] Iron Lich Overseer [5] - Seether [13] Machine Wraith [2] Machine Wraith [2] Warwitch Siren [4] Warwitch Siren [4] Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (max) [12] Seems better than something similar in Infernal Machines because the drudges fix their own MAT with CMA which Gaspy doesn't do.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 6, 2017 12:37:57 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
This is our living, non-satyxis theme. So all the units we feel are subpar compared to satyxis or banes. It includes black ogrun and blighted trolls and any living pirates like the devil shadow mutineers. I am a big fan of the devil shadow mutineers and I actually do like the black ogrun as they are cheap and accurate. Blighted trolls...I was a big fan in MKII but losing gang really hurt them. Now they are not accurate and don't hit hard, and unyielding on single wound infantry just doesn't cut it. With the nerf to tough and the loss of no sleeping on the job on Gerlack, these guys have a hard time finding it into my list. However, Asphyxious does fix one of their problems, and will allow them to hit a lot harder.
The main bonus of this theme in my opinion is that cryx jacks gain gang fighter!!! Holy cow. +2 to hit and damage to any jack that can get in melee with something already in melee with a warrior model. Sounds like a job for Aikos and a pair of stalkers. Or for a Kraken following behind a screen of trolls. 4" reach chain weapon at POW 21 and MAT 8 sounds pretty impressive to me. Like with Dark Industries, Asphyxious doesn't care if the warjacks are in his battlegroup or not. Anything that can remove his focus spending burden is a boon to him and this theme list provides options for that.
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Cankerworm - Ripjaw x 2 - Inflictor - Reaper General Gerlak Slaughterborn (free) Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius - Stalkers x 2 Black Ogrun Boarding Party (Max) Blood Gorgers (max) Devil's Shadow Mutineers
So your two win conditions are Asphyxious to the face or sneaky Aiakos and his battle group to the rear. Talk about gang fighting, amiright? Seriously though, stalkers are naturally accurate and hit hard against most casters (short of Karchev/Butcher/Terminus level) and with gang fighter on a module that you cannot keep away, potentially MAT 9, POW 16 with multiple attacks, that will hurt some people. I included some heavy warjacks with reach to help with the proctoring of that gang fighter bonus. I would use the trolls as a screen in front and the +2" deployment zone will help you get down the field faster. The boarding party can flank and drag key pieces out of position or just cause a nuisance.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 6, 2017 16:02:47 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Scourge of the Broken Coast
Scourge of the Broken Coast is the much anticipated satyxis theme and to be honest they didn't need much help. It predictably allows you to take anything satyxis, gives all satyxis pathfinder and allows a unit of blood witches to get ambush. Sounds pretty good on already fast, hard to hit units that are accurate and have lots of tricks like critical knockdown, immunity to blast damage (with a sea witch), hard to hit at range, naturally high defense, reach, naturally fast speed. And gang! The satyxis raiders are fast, accurate and can ding up an opponents caster through feedback assuming this is a warmachine drop, which it excels at.
Iron Lich Asphyxious does one thing for this list, helps it hit harder. With scything touch on a reach model or parasite on a heavy to ensure those charging gang attacks really do some damage, he shores up the one weakness the list had, lack of armor cracking.
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Cankerworm - 2 x Ripjaw - Leviathan - Scavenger Satyxis Raider Captain (free) Wrongeye and Snap Jaw Satyxis Blood Witches + CA Satyxis Gun Slingers Satyxis Raiders + CA
Wrong eye running behind a unit of satyxis with star crossed up just seems like a match made in heaven. There may be an issue of keeping up for a turn or two but once the lines are crossed, range wont be an issue. I like the ambushing witches, getting entropic force into your opponents back lines with a unit with gang and other tricks seems really good. Especially since one of those tricks is making themselves incorporeal if they kill something. Another is dispel on the hag who only needs to hit to remove the upkeep and/or animi. Oh, and their weapons are blessed apparently.
Gun slingers excel at infantry removal..this entire list excels at infantry removal. With a parasite target, even their POW 10's can put some damage on a hard target.
Overall, I think this is a theme made for Iron Lich Asphyxious. It brings sets of self sufficient troops that he can help hit harder, moves fast, jams well, and brings a lot of ways to soften up an opponents caster before asphyxious drops the assassination attempt on them.
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Grimolf
Junior Strategist
Posts: 246
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Post by Grimolf on Oct 6, 2017 17:54:44 GMT
Tiberius, I’m really enjoying your posts here. They’re insightful and push me to think through my options. I’m looking forward to more!
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Post by tiberius on Oct 9, 2017 11:08:24 GMT
Thanks for the recommendation of the list Gaming Devil, and thanks for the kind words Grimolf.
Lich Lord Asphyxious - Ghost Fleet
So moving on to one of our best known casters and probably one of the most played in MKII until he got the massive nerf bat into MKIII mostly on his feat but also on half his spell list, which have since been mostly alleviated. Asphyxious 2 plays a lot differently than asphyxious 1 in a few ways, mostly he doesn't care if he controls any warjacks, he loves infantry, mostly undead infantry. He is much better at collecting souls and with the right placement of his 5" template of soul sucking and a well timed strike from your army, collecting 3-4 souls is pretty easy...assuming your enemy brought some for you to collect.
One other major difference is that Lich Lord Asphyxious brings his own cloud wall. In most match ups, this will pretty much ensure that the important parts of your army make it to the enemy intact. Caustic Mist is a 2 cost 3" AOE spell (not upkeep anymore) that counts as a cloud that you can place anywhere completely within his 14" control range. On average, you can throw out 3 of them per turn and any models entering or ending their movement in the clouds get continuous corrosion. Not as good as the autopoint of damage, because anything running through them will survive to do attacks or what not, but the cloud wall still stands.
Asphyxious can also protect himself pretty will with the spell Hellbound...no longer an upkeep. You cannot be targeted by charges or slams and 5" around the caster is treated as rough terrain by enemy models. Pretty good protection against most things, double debuffing speed of incoming things. Considering I played a game last night where my caster was assassinated by Thyra charging through a colossal, that would have helped.
Asphyxious brings an attack spell called Excarnate which allows you to so some attrition/recursion play. Kill a living enemy warrior model, bring it back as a small based undead grunt within 3" of the caster and in formation of the unit. So refill used bile thralls, keep the banes up and running, or in the case of ghost fleet, make pirate recursion even stronger.
Asphyxious's feat, the single most nerfed rule in the game, has been hit what? 3-4 times? So now you bring d3+5 destroyed small or medium based grunts from a friendly faction unit to play, completely within 3" of asphyxious, they get ghostly, undead and have to charge. They activate as solos and cannot be damaged during this turn. Then they leave play at the end of the turn. Potentially brutal feat, all depending on the match up and what you have to fuel the feat.
Lich Lord Asphyxious - Cankerworm - Inflictor - Seether - Ripjaw - Reaper Captain Rengrave Pistol Wraith x 2 Blackbanes Ghost Raiders (Max) Revenant Crew (Min) + 2 riflemen Revenant Crew (Min) Revenant cannon crew
So first off, I really need to buy more pirates if I want to make a better list...anyhow, packing parasite like his previous incarnation, cracking armor is something Asphyxious can help his army do and he can help the groups close. That being said, I was on the fence about adding a wraith engine in to bring dark shroud along but I decided against the huge base (even if it is incorporeal) because the cloud wall doesn't hide its size of base. So I opted for a few heavies instead. I probably do not need the inflictor which may be better served as more troops or additional solos.
Though what I am seeing here is between laying out clouds and upkeeping parasite and trying to do excarnate and casting hellbound...I had better have that soul train running because he just cant do it all. The clouds can be alleviated by including a model like Gorman Di Wulf who does clouds, helps with cracking jack armor or a blind bomb for high defense targets.
The win condition here is more than likely attrition/scenario as Lich Lord Asphyxious is not the melee or spell assassin that his previous incarnation is as he lost sustained attack and his feat no longer refills his focus reserve. He relies on getting souls to cast his many spells and he relies on you having a bunch of hard hitting troops he can recycle to grind your opponent down. With gang and parasite, charging pirates can take out heavies a little at a time. Asphyxious does not have any type of upkeep removal so Eilish Garrity may be a desired option to strip upkeeps and animi to help your pirates have an easier time of it against guys like menoth or cygnar. Lots of options to consider and many ways to build an effective list, though in my opinion, ghost fleet is probably not the theme for Lich Lord Asphyxious. Something like Dark Host would be much better served.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Oct 9, 2017 11:34:40 GMT
Lots of options to consider and many ways to build an effective list, though in my opinion, ghost fleet is probably not the theme for Lich Lord Asphyxious. Something like Dark Host would be much better served. Mostly this, as you have basically no feat. Pirates top at POW 10 before Parasite and that's just not scaring anything, they also won't get gang, so their ability to hit something is also no reason to bring them back. He's much better served by a bunch of self-sufficient models, which is currently really only Bane Warriors and Knights. They only have MAT 6, but all our infantry except Black Ogrun are stuck there, at least without Gang or CMA, but at least they hit very hard when they do connect. Some Stalkers for Leap + Headbutt or Gorman for Blind are a good idea, Raider captain when playing out of theme is also excellent.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 9, 2017 11:56:50 GMT
Good catch, I didn't read gang closely and it specified unit to get the benefit. I had thought it was another model with gang, so that was my mistake.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 9, 2017 12:48:56 GMT
Lich Lord Asphyxious - Infernal Machines
Infernal Machines, our thrall theme. I discussed it quite a bit when talking about Iron Lich Asphyxious, now with Lich Lord Asphyxious, a couple of things are different. He doesn't bring quite all the armor cracking that his previous incarnation does as he doesn't have scything touch, just parasite, which is limited to a single unit or target, though it can be cycled. A cloud wall will all but ensure your soul hunters or bile thrall groups make it to do their job. Bile thralls and bloat thralls are awesome at netting you souls via soul reaper, your 5" AOE of soul sucking. Keep in mind, soul hunters to not net Asphyxious souls, only themselves until they are full...and they are never full.
And something else this theme provides...free Iron Lich Overseers. Slap a seether onto our jack marshall and you get dark shroud, a source of stealth, some ranged magic support and a competent melee combatant. Lich Lord Asphyxious loves these guys because he doesn't want the jacks to feed, he likes to delegate the responsibilities, and who better than subservient overseers.
Lich Lord Asphyxious - Corruptor - Cankerworm - Ripjaw Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Darrah Wrathe Bloat Thrall Overseer Mobius Soul Hunters (max) Mechanithralls (max) + 2 Brute thralls Necrosurgeon Bile Thralls (min) + skarlock commander
What is the corruptor doing in there? Well I have been searching for a place to put one because I legitimately like the options it brings. Potentially get an arc node, potentially heal your caster, or the 5" AOE burster effect. The only problem with the burster is that it removes from play your initial target. Aside from that, the corruptor is also immune to corrosion so the clouds you can drop on top of it wont bother it, or if you have order of activation problems, you can drop your cloud wall, move into it and shoot stuff. The gun is pretty legit at RNG 12 and POW 14. It is corrosion type damage to be careful of your target. No slag trolls. And its akin to a paint ball game against another corruptor.
Darrah Wrathe brings his typical took box, makes things faster, reduces living things damage output against your models or a ranged remove from play spell.
Bloat Thrall Overseer Mobius is a lot of fun. I was tempted to bring another bloat thrall just for fun but it seemed like too much, but if I am going for some janky troop removal list, that is an option, because what is better than a fairly accurate 4" autocorrosion AOE? 2 fairly accurate 4" autocorrosion AOEs. You probably run big fatty the first turn, the 2nd turn you can assault, and by turn three you can aim with spotter ability at an effective RAT 9. Impressive for that gun.
Asphyxious's feat is limited to mechanithralls here, so not that great. MAT 5 isn't going to be tearing up the world but if you really need to ding up a heavy, you can get another wave of POW 13 charges into it. It doesn't hurt, but certainly not ideal use of his feat. I see Asphyxious spending most of his time being a cloud generator and slinging the occasional parasite or excarnate with this list. Again, Garrity or Gorman would be a good addition to any list with Lich Lord Asphyxious in it. Or as Gaming Devil mentioned above, stalkers to do leaps and heat butts to help with high defense.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 10, 2017 11:10:54 GMT
Lich Lord Asphyxious - Dark Host
And here is where the rubber meets the road folks for Lich Lord Asphyxious...at least in my opinion. Probably the best theme for him that brings him the most ammo and he helps the most. Banes! Lots of hard hitting, recycling banes. Asphyxious's feat brings back d3+5 destroyed grunts and forces them to charge. He points at that colossal and says "be gone" and the bane warriors do it. You are limited to MAT 6 for the feat turn though Tartarus still provides a +1 to hit for all banes assuming he is still alive at that point. Even bane knights are okay targets for the feat as on a charge they are POW 14, and with reach, you can get more of them on a target.
This theme also provides 2 4" dense fog clouds that you place. This allows you to ensure you have an effective cloud wall moving forward the first 1-2 turns of the game between the theme benefit and Caustic Mists. The banes are granted prowl as well so if you are dealing with something that can ignore clouds but not stealth, you can hide banes in the clouds to give them stealth. If you are dealing with something that ignores both, they probably don't have that many shots to deal with your 3-4 units of dudes. While trolls play like an anvil, letting other people bounce off of them and then hit back, this is the freaking sledge hammer.
Lich Lord Asphyxious - Desecrator - Cankerworm - Ripjaw x 2 Wraith Engine Bane Lord Tartarus Soul Trapper Bane Knights (max) Bane Warriors (max) + CA Bane Riders (max)
I know I said earlier that I was on the fence about including a wraith engine because of its base size and its inability to be hid by clouds. Well it will be ARM 20 against ranged and magic attacks from its Unhallowed ability and making the bane knights effectively ARM 20 as well, all but immune to blast damage and some actual ranged weaponry. That and there isn't that much in the way of plentiful magic weapons that can reliably remove something like that from range short of very specific builds. It helps deliver your army in some match ups, provides a source of dark shroud apart from your bane warriors and can generate machine wraiths when you are lucky. It is also a self sufficient equivalent of a heavy warjack hitting at P+S 17 with three attacks and reach. It will not drop another heavy short of some massive dice spiking but it is sufficient to finish something off that your banes charging in didn't quite get. Its not plan A, its the clean up crew.
Asphyxious loves souls so having the soul trapper will help him keep a good fill from what the banes manage to kill.
The desecrator is a decent jack, being the cheapest of the crab jacks and having accumulator: Bane. Meaning it gets a free focus when it activates near banes. That means its less Asphyxious needs to pay attention to it or feed it. It has a nice scather for infantry removal and a decently high P+S 17 weapon (compared to our other jacks) with a small chance of getting extra attacks. So it is fairly self sufficient.
The bane riders provide another accurate means of infantry removal with boosted charge rolls, impact attacks and a naturally high armor. They also benefit from veteran leader of Tartarus if they are nearby. While not impossible to kill, most anti-infantry tech such as covering fire, electroleaps, etc, has a tough time dealing with ARM 18 + 5 wounds.
So overall, I think this theme is Lich Lord Asphyxious's best fit. It feeds his feat, he protects the army and can help keep numbers up with excarnate when lines cross. Like anything, there are match ups it does not want to see such as a lot of remove from play tech (i.e., band of heroes, though the sheer number of banes could probably overwhelm the more expensive trolls) or cloud ignoring gun lines (most of lylith lists in everblight). But those matchups are far from unwinnable and while they have the right tools to take on your list, they may not have enough of those tools to deal with the numbers. In any event, a powerful caster with a powerful list.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 10, 2017 11:15:31 GMT
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