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Post by tiberius on Dec 19, 2017 17:40:36 GMT
Lord Exhumator Scaverous - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Slaughter Fleet Raiders provides two nice bonuses for your list. The first is a 2" deployment zone extension making your slow blighted trollkin reasonably fast. The second is gang fighter on all of your warjacks. That is triggered if the warjack gets into melee with an enemy model that is already in melee with a faction friendly warrior model. Gang fighter gives the warjack +2 to hit and damage, which is significant.
Lord Exhumator Scaverous - Erebus - Ripjaw x 2 - Stalker - Slayer General Gerlak Slaughterborn Ragman Black Ogrun Boarding Party Bloodgorgers The Devils Shadow Mutineers Croe's Cutthroats
Here I took a very large amount of infantry and none of them have a real straight forward armor cracking potential but they all have triggers that allow them to do a little more that can make a big difference. In the case of Croe's Cutthroats, they can flank and try and get behind the enemy forces to get their additional dice of attack and damage from their backstab ability or you can just have them follow around an arc node and wait for the telekinesis shenanigans to turn around key models as the cutthroats light them up and wipe them out. Back stab + telekinesis makes them extremely accurate and hard hitting.
The black ogrun boarding party has access to combined ranged attack and the drag ability to get an additional melee attack from their activation. The combined ranged attack, typically 3 of them can get into range and line of sight fairly easily, can hit with a RAT 8 and POW 15 attack, and if the target lives, they drag it in and the initiator of the attack gets another swing at MAT 7 and P+S 13. They are competent melee combatants as well for their cost, at 11 points for the entire max unit of 5 5 wound models.
Bloodgorgers have access to berserk and overtake and with two initial attacks can step through single wound infantry groups if they can hit. Scaverous and Gerlak help with this from Gerlak's veteran leader ability for +1 to hit and Scaverous can hit their targets with icy grip, giving the unit -2 DEF.
Ragman can give a group of models dark shroud with good positioning. This most benefits either the bloodgorgers after they are already engaged or the black ogrun to get an additional debuff on their drag melee attack. But if you get really good at positioning this guy, you can set up a stalker to get the dark shroud debuff and the gang fighter trigger all at once. That really makes a target have a bad day.
I included a slayer in the list but that could easily be replaced with a second stalker as they do run better in pairs. and if you can find 2 more points in the list, add in Aiakos to control them. Downgrading the ripjaws to deathrippers could get you there if you still have enough points to fill in Scaverous's warjack points. The slayer is a fast, glass cannon and most of all very cheap for a heavy warjack. At 10 points, you get what you pay for, the chassis of a cygnar light warjack hitting like a heavy warjack. It has 2 P+S 16 claw attacks that it can combine for a combo strike at P+S 20 and has horns at P+S 12. Its SPD 6 and MAT 7 so is decently reliable, especially with boosts. Its biggest drawback is its low armor and small amount of boxes, especially in its arm columns. But if you have 10 points with nothing better to do, our discount heavy can get work done. Especially with threat extensions and debuffs floating around.
Overall, probably not Scaverous's favorite theme. In fact, I would lump this and ghost fleet as his least favorites. He can use it, and it appreciates what he brings, but there are no special synergies with it.
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Post by tiberius on Dec 19, 2017 17:44:06 GMT
I’ll second the value of Croe’s getting backstrike with Scaverous thanks to TK. Another thing to consider with Scaverous, based on my experience, is which unit you’d like to target with Soul Harvester. I really want a good unit to go collect souls for him. Unfortunately, it’s “friendly faction,” so Croe’s don’t work here. I like fast units that can zip ahead and grab some souls early, so in IM I like Soul Hunters (although this strips souls from them), in DH I like Bane Riders, in SotBC I like Satyxis Raiders, and in SF I’d try Bloodgorgers (Overtake and two attacks seems like it might work nicely). As much as I like BI I can’t find a great unit to go get those souls for him. Soul Harvester requires a melee attack, so Cephalyx Overlords aren’t helpful, you only get three Iron Mongers, and Cephalyx Drudges are slow and not that accurate (let me know if I’m being unfair here). It’s not a deal breaker necessarily, but the lack of quality units for Soul Harvester makes me dislike BI with Scaverous a little. In the case of black industries, I would throw it on a warjack that isn't deathjack. Maybe the Seether with its berserk. Erebus already feeds you souls. Deathjack removes from play, soul hunters as you suggested as proximity doesn't matter for infernal machines.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Dec 20, 2017 7:26:58 GMT
I’ll second the value of Croe’s getting backstrike with Scaverous thanks to TK. Another thing to consider with Scaverous, based on my experience, is which unit you’d like to target with Soul Harvester. I really want a good unit to go collect souls for him. Unfortunately, it’s “friendly faction,” so Croe’s don’t work here. I like fast units that can zip ahead and grab some souls early, so in IM I like Soul Hunters (although this strips souls from them), in DH I like Bane Riders, in SotBC I like Satyxis Raiders, and in SF I’d try Bloodgorgers (Overtake and two attacks seems like it might work nicely). As much as I like BI I can’t find a great unit to go get those souls for him. Soul Harvester requires a melee attack, so Cephalyx Overlords aren’t helpful, you only get three Iron Mongers, and Cephalyx Drudges are slow and not that accurate (let me know if I’m being unfair here). It’s not a deal breaker necessarily, but the lack of quality units for Soul Harvester makes me dislike BI with Scaverous a little. Honestly, it's not a necessity to use a unit, though it is more efficient. Erebus can easily kill 2-3 infantry, more with Overtake taken into account, as can most heavies and even Stalkers. You don't really need more than 4-5 souls per turn except when maybe going for the assassination.
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Post by tiberius on Dec 20, 2017 18:18:41 GMT
Okay folks, I have updated the first post with a big table of contents with links. Special thanks to Gamingdevil for showing me how to link up stuff and all the people that provided input as I went.
That only leaves Wraithwitch Deneghra to be written up and linked up and I will wait until the CID updates in warroom for that. I guess Skarre 3 will be hitting the books at that point too.
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Post by Cryptix on Dec 20, 2017 19:21:26 GMT
Okay folks, I have updated the first post with a big table of contents with links. Special thanks to Gamingdevil for showing me how to link up stuff and all the people that provided input as I went. That only leaves Wraithwitch Deneghra to be written up and linked up and I will wait until the CID updates in warroom for that. I guess Skarre 3 will be hitting the books at that point too. I really think she'll be good for Crtlyx, especially SFR (ARM 18 Trollkin) and IF (ARM 16 mcthralls against ranged with Wraith Engine)
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Grimolf
Junior Strategist
Posts: 246
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Post by Grimolf on Dec 20, 2017 19:32:13 GMT
Okay folks, I have updated the first post with a big table of contents with links. Special thanks to Gamingdevil for showing me how to link up stuff and all the people that provided input as I went. That only leaves Wraithwitch Deneghra to be written up and linked up and I will wait until the CID updates in warroom for that. I guess Skarre 3 will be hitting the books at that point too. Amazing work here, Tiberius! This has been fun to read and really informative. Now, how can we get this stickied in the Cryx forum so that newcomers will be able to find it easily?
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Post by Cryptix on Dec 21, 2017 1:10:19 GMT
I'll pass it along to Nyxu.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Dec 21, 2017 8:02:26 GMT
Okay folks, I have updated the first post with a big table of contents with links. Special thanks to Gamingdevil for showing me how to link up stuff and all the people that provided input as I went. That only leaves Wraithwitch Deneghra to be written up and linked up and I will wait until the CID updates in warroom for that. I guess Skarre 3 will be hitting the books at that point too. You're welcome I've been wondering how you would handle the first post having both a table of contents as well as the actual first post with Asphyxious 1 in Ghost Fleet. When you click on that link all you see is the table of contents again, which might be confusing. I know you don't have an extra post available to put it in, but perhaps you could combine the post for Gaspy 1 GF and DH? It would also be a little weird, but neither of them are very long and I think it would be a better compromise?
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Post by tiberius on Dec 21, 2017 11:27:16 GMT
I will slap Asphyxious 1 in his own new post back here and link it up. Probably needs a re-write anyhow.
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Post by tiberius on Dec 21, 2017 13:34:17 GMT
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Ghost Fleet
Iron Lich Asphyxious is our original moustache twirling bad guy warcaster with an all around solid stat line and kit of abilities and spells. He has no real weakness and is what I would consider a super solo, as in he can get in and get it done himself, and in a lot of ways, is better at it than anything in his list.
Asphyxious has a great stat line with DEF 15 ARM 16 and a FOC 7 stat. He is deceptively powerful in melee and spell casting with his feat and sustained attack. If he can reach it, he can literally remove any single, or perhaps more, pieces on his feat turn when he can refill his focus pool and not worry about rolling to hit or boosting to hit (after that first hit of course). He has a 2" reach melee weapon at P+S 15 and sustained attack. Like I was saying, once he hits with it, you don't have to roll to hit again.
Asphyxious brings a lot of armor cracking potential to any list with parasite and scything touch. Both upkeep spells that can really swing the damage of your list. Parasite gives target model/unit -3 ARM while the caster gets +1 ARM (get it? Parasiting the armor). This is a damage multiplier to anything attacking the target, turning normally low hitting infantry or warjacks into hitting above their weight class. Scything touch is similar only its a friendly buff that gives target friendly faction model dark shroud. That gives any enemy models in the targets melee range -2 ARM. Best used on a reach model if available.
Asphyxious has an interesting attack spell that can remove camp or transfers from a target called spectral leech. It does no damage but removes D3 focus or fury points on hit. This can mess up some hordes casters in a big way by shorting them fury for a round...or solving the fury problem if they build too much. You could use this on a beast under wrongeye or Rorsh if you bring along one of the lesser warlocks that work for Cryx.
Asphyxious has two great attack spells for ruining unit formations with breath of corruption, or spot removal with hell fire. Breath of Corruption is a 3" AOE POW 12 spell that does not deal blast damage, everyone under the template takes POW 12 which makes it great for assassinations as well as even on a scatter, it deals full damage. The AOE is a cloud effect that stays in play for 1 round, so other uses are to build a cloud wall with your opponents or even your own expendable models. Any model entering or ending their activations in the cloud take a automatic point of corrosion damage.
Hellfire is a high POW (14) single target attack that removes tough and removes from play when it boxes them. Great if you are confident in hitting your target and still want to spell assassinate. Even better to remove problem solos.
His last spell is Teleport, which is a 6" placement effect that also ends his activation. Charge in, kill your target or soften things up with your melee or spells, pop your feat, refill, kill more stuff, teleport to relative safety. Let the rest of your army charge in to block or mop up.
With parasite on a low armor unit, he can vaporize them with his feat dealing a POW 5 damage to all enemy models in his control range. His feat also refills his focus pool up to 7 focus. This alone makes him a premier super solo capable of one-rounding anything in the game. Up to 14 (auto-hitting after the first attack assuming it hits) P+S 15 attacks, doing more damage if you had upkeep spells on himself or the target (less attacks if you are upkeeping spells obviously).
What does Asphyxious want in a theme or list? Accuracy! He doesn't help your army hit, just hit harder. He also wants at least one arc node, and while helpful to spread around his buffs, it isn't necessary as his win condition is probably his staff to the face of the opponent. He likes spell support either through spell slave, free upkeeps, rerolls, help with his battlegroup, soul delivery, etc. Again, he doesn't need any of that to do his job, but it helps.
So for our themes, a few of them really shine with him (or any parasite caster). Ghost Fleet comes to mind with an army of low power attacks. Your recurring pirates, or your incorporeal POW 10 pirates, now become a threat with dark shroud on a strategic piece, and parasite on the target. The recursion is hard enough for a lot of armies to deal with and typically require some sort of remove from play tech to feel like they have a chance against ghost fleet.
The pirates are accurate enough with gang and veteran leader from Captain Rengrave so they really don't need much MAT. They recently lost point blank so they did lose one of their initial attacks in melee. Asphyxious doesn't do much to help them hit at range, but aiming, there is still a good chance of hurting targets under parasite.
Iron Lich Asphyxious - Cankerworm - Ripjaw x 2 - Harrower - Stalker x 2 Captain Rengrave (free) Hellslinger Phantom (free) Pistol wraith Blackbanes Ghost Raiders (Max) Revenant Cannon Crew Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (Min) + 2 riflemen Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (Min)
(I know, its not an ideal build, but its what I own for that list...the sad part is, with Iron Lich asphyxious, it still works). Lots of accurate, low power attacks that asphyxious can make hit harder either through dark shroud or through parasite. And the army jams and ties things up enough until he gets into position and either spell assassinates or more preferably melee assassinates, or takes out any threats to himself with his feat. I expect Asphyxious to do the heavy lifting and is your primary win condition, but double tapping a parasite target with a hellslinger and/or a pistol wraith especially if they have a soul or two, can put something down just as easy.
The theme bonuses do nothing for Asphyxious apart from increase list recursion and give +1 to the starting roll of the game. Both useful, but no more so than for any other warcaster.
Pistol wraiths are accurate incorporeal ranged solos that are great at anti-infantry with two initial POW 12 shots (RNG 10, magic weapon) that gives the pistol wraith the soul of any living thing they kill. They can use the soul to boost to hit and damage rolls. More importantly, if they hit the same target with both initial attacks, they can do a chain attack giving the stationary effect to the target, assuming its still alive. This is great for board control. A stationary kriel stone cant activiate its aura. A stationary jack, warcaster or beast can shake the effect but it costs resources that they don't want to spend when faced with your pirate extreme attrition recursion list.
The hellslinger phantom is a character version of a pistol wraith with better stats, more accurate, higher defense and armor. It looses chain attack and gains multiple types of shots you can choose from when you make basic ranged attacks. Critical Grievous Wounds, Ghost Shot or Incindiary Shot are the current choices. It also has swift hunter allowing it to move 2" after it kills an enemy model with a basic ranged attack and it can use souls to buy additional attacks (up to one additional shot for each of hits two guns). It can boost attack and damage rolls like a pistol wraith as well. Not bad for a free 7 pt solo.
Cankerworm is Aphyxious's character warjack. Honestly, I take it whenever I can with Asphyxious because I think it is that good for its cost. It has advance deploy, parry, pathfinder, stealth, two initial attacks, one of which is armor piercing, the other can adapt weapons from warjacks that are killed in base to base with it. It heals itself when a warjack is destroyed near it and it gains reposition 5" while in asphyxious's control area. Its damage grid is really well set up too. It is almost impossible to take out a system without just killing the cankerworm outright.
The harrower is my favorite crab jack. It has a 2" reach melee weapon with thresher meaning it gets an attack against each model in range and in its front arc. It can collect souls from what it kills to feed itself the following turn, or activate quick work when it is no longer engaged, spend a soul token and activate wraith shot from its mortifier cannon. Wraith shot gives it fully boosted attack and damage rolls for its 3" AOE POW 12 cannon, meaning that all the blast damage is also boosted.
Stalkers are great assassin and flanking light warjacks. Extremely mobile, hard to hit and hard to pin down, they can move with a 7 speed and have two initial attacks at MAT 7, P+S 12 with grevious wounds, and can leap with a 5" placement effect after a normal movement (no charging or running and then leaping). It costs a focus to leap, but as it is a placement effect, there are no free strikes associated with it. Great for getting behind the front line or ignoring a key piece that you don't want to deal with to get to the meaty middle of your opponents army that they are trying to protect. They also have stealth and advanced deployment so can deliver themselves fairly easily.
The meat of the army is the revenant crew of the Atramentous. At first glance, there is not much to look at with an expensive price tag and below average stats until you realize they just don't stop. They are fast, and when they die, if not removed from play, can come back the next turn. In theme your D3 returned during your upkeep turns into a D3+1 (per unit including riflemen attachments) and they can activate the turn they return, which makes it even more powerful. They have gang so it adds to their offensive potential and accuracy raising them to a P+S 11 at MAT 7. With parasite and dark shroud floating around, they are a real threat. They did recently lose point blank shot so they no longer get two initial attacks in melee. Their ranged attack is pretty inaccurate but with Rengrave around giving +1 to hit through veteran leader and the ability to aim, you can get up to a RAT 7, which will hit with average dice, most targets.
Overall, Asphyxious doesn't realy care whats in his list. He can support, or let them deliver him, as long as he gets his sights on the opposing warcaster and a clear charge lane, he can get there and finish the job.
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Post by tiberius on Dec 21, 2017 13:44:57 GMT
Wow, that was about...3 times as much write up. I guess my writing style has definitely evolved.
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Post by tiberius on Jan 29, 2018 19:49:08 GMT
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Ghost Fleet
Wraith Witch Deneghra is the second incarnation of Warwitch Deneghra, after her twin sister haley takes over her slayer and has it rip Deneghra in half. Asphyxious takes her and stitches her back together and brings her back as the wraith witch, incorporeal half the time and more than half the crazy. She used to be the queen of scenario play with a feat that shadow bound all enemy models in her control area, and that used to not be shakeable. She would basically auto win on scenario if you brought a fast enough force to lock out your opponent from the zones and in combination with her old feat. She was also fun to run in an incorporeal skew so herself and whatever units she brought (ghost pirates, blood witches that could turn incorporeal back in the day, soul hunters with wrathe, machine wraiths, wraith engine, you get the idea). She required a special anti-cryx build to defeat. Then she was nerfed into oblivion going into MKIII and now has been completely re-vamped in the latest black fleet CID.
She has good stats being extremely fast and hard to hit. SPD 7, MAT 6, DEF 16, ARM 15 with natural parry. She has a single 2" melee weapon P+S 12 called Eclipse that dark banishes whatever she hits. Dark Banishment allows you to place any enemy you hit during your activation completely within d6" + 3" of its location and you can only dark banish each model once per turn. But its open to hitting multiple models. Great for getting deneghra freed up, or moving something into range of a heavy. It doesn't say there is any restrictions on direction for the placement so go nuts. Move them out of a zone and into Nightmare's loving grasp.
This version of Deneghra is undead and has soul taker: cull soul. This means she gets souls within 2" of her and changes them to focus during her control phase. And she has her defining ability of Wraith Walker. She can turn incorporeal as long as you did not turn incorporeal last round. It does not say that that has to be from Wraith Walker, if she gained incorporeal from another source, it would still count (aka her feat).
Her spell list went to fantastic. She has a combination of control, debuff, and anti-infantry spells that make a really powerful and interesting tool box. Starting with the spell Breath Stealer, a 2 cost, RNG 10 attack spell that gives the target model/unit -2 SPD and -2 DEF for one round. This is not an upkeep so can be cast by any number of spell slaves or deathjack. This reduces the threat range of enemy forces and makes high defense infantry or key piece easier to hit.
She has two upkeep spells. The first is Curse of Shadows. This spell is both an armor debuff and way to move through or ignore free strikes from a unit or model. This spell also has a lot of uses as the witch coven can attest. It helps your army hit harder, get to where they shouldn't be able to go and ignore free strikes. She doesn't have ghostly so this is your source of free strike immunity. It is an upkeep so no spell slaves.
Her other upkeep is Damnation. Its basically a better version of hunters mark because in addition to getting +2" of movement toward the target, you ignore clouds and forests and gain pathfinder. This affects all warjacks in your battlegroup so long as they charge or slam toward the target of the spell. This is an upkeep as well so no spell slaving.
Her main attack spell and one of her most powerful tools for control is Hellmouth. It costs 4 so herself and the Deathjack can cast it, no spell slaving. It has a Range of 8, if it misses, nothing happens, if it hits the target, push all models within 3" of it directly toward the target 3", then center a 3" AOE on it and everything under the template takes a POW 12. Sure its great at removing swaths of infantry, but it can also be used as a threat range extender, or pull something out of a zone or mess up your opponents positioning. Lots of uses. And with Deathjack's help, you can be slamming two of these a round.
Shadow Step is a new spell based off of Feora's fire step spell. Enemy models currently within 2" of the spellcaster suffer shadow bind for one round, then place the spell caster anywhere completely within 3" of its current location. I love placement effects, and this locks models in place and gives them -3 DEF. Charge a target you want to kill, cast shadow bind, teleport behind it, now you just swung its def by 5, go for 7 if you also breath stealer it, but now you are getting expensive. Great for assassination runs. See her feat discussion for more on that.
Classic Deneghra spell Venom was kept. Her cost 2 spray 8 POW 10 continuous corrosion spell. Great at infantry clearing, can be spammed pretty easily from its cost and can be spell slaved.
Deneghra's feat has changed 3-4 times since I have known her. Web of Shadow gives d3+3 friendly non-warcaster faction models in her control area incorporeal for one round. This can protect things that charged in, facilitate moving through enemy forces to get to the support behind (like curse of shadows, you can do both if you are dealing with magic weapons FYI). Incorporeal does not make you immune to free strikes, it only makes you immune to non-magical damage and allows you to move through whatever you want. If something like Knights Exemplar are in your way, be careful, you may want to hit them with curse of shadows and just move through that way. Or kill them all with hellmouth and eat their souls...you know, whatever. Set up right, her new feat is a game winner. As discussed above, you can choose wraith walker incorporeal on her feat turn, pop her feat choosing a few heavies or cool solos or jimmy mcmooks or whoever can get to the opposing caster, charge in deneghra, shadow step behind, breath stealer, attack, dark banish them up into your army, then let the rest of your army who at least 4 other dudes are incorporeal can get there and now are hitting at +5 MAT (go nightmare at MAT 15 vs prey?). Yeah, so that's silly but with her toolbox, actually doable.
So what does Deneghra want? She has a lot of really powerful spells and tools, but with 7 focus can only do 2-3 things a round. Especially if she has to upkeep curse of shadows on some poor target. She wants some support for spell casting and running jacks. She wants at least two arc nodes. She also wants some finishers. Either powerful units or solos or warjacks that she can enable to get the work done because she isn't winning any awards in the personal damage output department.
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Nightmare - Ripjaw x 2 - Seether Captain Rengrave Agrimony Crone of the Dying Strands Hellslinger Phantom (free) Pistol Wraith x 2 (one free) Ogrun Bokur Machine Wraith BlackBane's Ghost Raiders (max) Revenant Crew (max)+ 2 riflemen
So a fun thing is to skew hard into incorporeal and ask your opponent a question if they can handle it or not. If not, scenario is probably not going to be a problem, or getting behind enemy lines and assassinating. If they bring lots of magic weapons, Deneghra is a unique caster that can deal with it with curse of shadows.
The list I built feels like it will have some problems dealing with armor spam or meat mountain. Though the Seether and Nightmare are both very capable of dealing with armor, they cant handle armor spam by themselves. Luckily you have a ton of recurring body blockers to screen them as they chew apart your army for attrition until you can get a bead on the warcaster and then use the feat (hopefully you didn't have to use it defensively) to move the warjacks through and kill the caster.
Nightmare is Deneghra's character warjack. Storywise, its the slayer that killed her, now bonded to her. It has Prey (+2 to hit and damage vs its prey target that you have to declare at the beginning of the game - after deployment, before the first turn). If your prey target dies, immediately choose another. Nightmare also has stealth in deneghra's control range and has innate ghostly. It hits with P+S 17 at 1" range and has an additional P+S 12 attack (tusks). So 3 initials like most slayer chassis on a speed 6, MAT 8, DEF 13, ARM 18 body. It is expensive to field but it gets its job done to anything it can get ahold of.
Seether is also a very accurate hard hitting heavy. Both of these warjacks however, have terrible damage grids so beware of losing arms. Stealth helps nightmare but nothing really helps seether unless you can protect it somehow, like a shield guard. The seether also has berserk, has to run or charge every activation unless it is already engaged and has countercharge. Its saving grace for its terrible damage grid is its fast, hits like a truck and is cheap at 13 pts.
Arc nodes are a dime a dozen. I picked ripjaws in case you really needed to get a potentially hard hitting warjack somewhere but really, they are here as arc nodes as the primary purpose and combatants only in a pinch. Any arc node will do, just pick your flavor. Critical Armor piercing combined with powerful attack is my favorite flavor.
How I would use this list is a delivery mechanism to get one of your two warjacks into the face of a debuffed opposing warcaster. But this list has game in both scenario play and attrition. You can use the pistol wraiths to control or clear zones. You can use the hellslinger phantom the same way, mostly clearing high defense infantry from zones. You can also use them all as incorporeal contesters or assassins in their own right. The hellslinger has ghost shot (as does rengrave and the revenant crew riflemen, who can also combine ranged attack) and doesn't need line of sight to its target.
Overall, Deneghra would like some support that this theme does not give her, but it makes for some fun incorporeal skew and can be built to play any way you like. Assassin, scenario or attrition.
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Post by tiberius on Jan 30, 2018 13:39:29 GMT
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Infernal Machines
Infernal Machines is our thrall theme that allows a unit of mechanithralls to ambush and gives your warjacks hyperaggressive. Frankly, while the ambushing mechanithralls can be useful for board control, the hyper-aggressive on Cryx jacks is something you do not want to trigger because the Cryx jacks are so fragile. You are better off protecting them using terrain or other features and relying on your list's innate speed to get the alpha strike. Infernal machines does give access to a lot of war caster support however, with our journeyman warcaster, our jack marshall (which can be free in theme), the withershadow combine or a skarlock thrall, war witch sirens and deathjack. You can bring a lot of support for a spell casting focused caster.
Wraith Witch Deneghra - The withershadow combine - Deathjack - Nightmare - Ripjaw x 2 Warwitch Siren Pistol Wraith (free) Soul Hunters (max) Mechanithralls (max) + 2 Brutes Necrosurgeon
I would consider dumping the necrosurgeon or another warwitch siren if you don't want to go for any type of attrition or scenario, but if you can protect her, she can keep your mechanithralls going long after they should have been wiped out.
The withershadow combine brings a lot to the table, a free re-roll, magic weapons, a free upkeep and a spell slave. That is a free casting of either venom or breathstealer. They also have dark fire if you want a targeted longer range attack spell, which also awards the caster with a soul token. They are the best Cryx caster support points can buy, but they do come at a premium cost of 9 for 3 bodies. They are pretty resilient with innate stealth and 5 wounds each.
Deathjack is a great side kick for deneghra in that it can cast hellmouth with her, making two castings of it per turn if you really want to move things around and destroy infantry. Hellmouth isn't going to hurt hard targets but it can pull something up to 3" in a direction and you can target your own mechanithrall or better yet, a stitch thrall in the back, positioned to get maximum effect on your opponents models. Deathjack gives itself 2 focus every turn as long as its arms are intact, allowing it to be allocated 3 additional, one of which it gets from power up. So up to 5 focus on a heavy warjack with a good damage grid, decent defensive stats, advance deploy, really hard hitting melee attacks and decent speed. It costs a premium to field but well worth it if used wisely.
Soul Hunters are great anti-infantry cavalry. They have three initials if you include the mount attack, and on charges like any cavalry model, they get boosted charge attack rolls. They collect the souls of those they kill in melee and can use the souls to boost attack or damage, or turn themselves incorporeal, protecting themselves from reprisal and allowing their 5" reposition without getting hurt from non-magic weapon free strikes. They are really fast, as in SPD 9 fast with resposition 5. They also have a 2" reach melee weapon, so that is a threat range of 15" + repositioning further after their activation if you want.
Mechanithralls with the Brute thralls are a good backbone of the theme. They are cheap and disposable, and recyclable. The brutes are not as disposable but with 8 life are not insignificant to remove. The brutes also provide shield guard for things that want it, which is a good reason to not ambush with them. Run them with Deathjack to keep it safe and deliver deathjack into position, casting hellmouth or removing heavy threats until he can get into charge range of a premium target. Deneghra's feat and debuff spells can facilitate getting the deathjack or nightmare to the opposing warcaster without anything the opponent can do except screen well enough to not give you a base landing zone. In that case, you will have to either flank or chew through until attrition gives you a spot to land.
Overall, not a bad theme for Deneghra, as it has a lot of support she likes. But aside from support, it has access to Deathjack which is one of her favorite side kicks.
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Post by tiberius on Jan 31, 2018 13:41:59 GMT
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Dark Host
The theme that probably needs the least amount of help that Deneghra provides is Dark Host. They already have an army wide ghostly buff just by being banes so no while they can still use curse of shadows to move through enemy models or get the -2 ARM debuff to stack with dark shroud for some really hard hitting melee, they are already immune to free strikes and are all naturally ignoring of terrain and obstacles. Dark Host gives all banes in the army prowl, so if they are using terrain, or the two clouds you get to place as a theme benefit, you can trigger stealth for a large portion of your army and really protect the troops as you close. That is something that Deneghra really doesn't do so that alleviates a burden from her. She likes an army that can deliver itself.
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Desecrator - Nightmare - Ripjaw x 2 Wraith Engine Bane Lord Tartarus (free) Darragh Wrathe Machine Wraith Bane Knights (max) Bane Warriors (max) + CA (free)
It boggles my mind that the Wraith Engine counts toward free points in this theme, but who am I to complain. It has received some buffs over recent CIDs. So its a huge base with permanent incorporeal (not like deneghra that is every other round), SPD 7, MAT 7, DEF 12, ARM 18, two melee attacks at 2" reach P+S 15 (17 if you factor in dark shroud, giving everything within two inches of its huge base -2 ARM). It gets an additional melee attack from rapid strike, and creates machine wraiths when living enemy warrior models die within 2" of it (once per round, remove from play effect). Oh and it provides a blanket buff within 10" of it providing +2 ARM vs ranged and magical attacks. Hello ARM 20 bane knights, making them pretty much immune to blast damage and highly resistant to most forms of small arms shooting short of combined ranged attacks. So all this for 15 points and since it counts toward free points, its like it really costs 10 points because I am taking the command attachment for bane warriors before I take the wraith engine.
The desecrator is a solid warjack for Cryx when you are using Banes. Its self sufficient which Deneghra likes, brings a decent gun that has a nice AOE and leaves a scather in play, a hazard that hurts stuff moving into or through it. It also has a decent P+S 17 for its melee attack and has critical shred, meaning if you hit the crit, it gets another attack at its original target. That does not trigger if you kill what your original target was. And as long as you keep hitting the crit, you keep getting the extra attack. So if you have some way of boosting the attack roll and are really lucky, you could just keep making free attacks until your target is dead. Venethrax is probably the better caster for that with Terminal Velocity. Deneghra doesn't help hit the crit, but she can definitely help it hit more reliably and harder.
Darragh Wrathe is our dragoon with a toolbox of useful abilities like making your banes gain +1 Speed within his command range (also affects all undead friendly faction models including wraith engine and deneghra herself). He has Mortal Fear which reduces living enemy damage rolls within 9" of him, further protecting things like Bane Knights that are already ARM 20 against ranged and magic thanks to wall of steel and the wraith engine aura of protection. Of course the source of damage has to be within 9" of Wrathe, but it will still come up. He also is competent in melee like most cavalry based models with an auto boosted attack roll on the charge, impact attacks, and battle wizard if he kills something, he gets to cast a free spell.
Bane Lord Tartarus is definitely worth his price in this list too (free!). He has received some nerfs coming into MKIII but I think he works well with SPD 5, MAT 8, DEF 12, ARM 17 and 8 life. He has a single melee attack at 2" reach of P+S 12 weapon master with rapid strike (2 attacks with it) and innate stealth. He has dark shroud, ghostly and veteran leader banes (+1 for banes to hit if they are within 9" of tartarus). He also replenishes bane units by killing living enemy warrior models and turns them into bane grunts, your choice, small based bane grun, in his command range, in formation of an existing unit, has to sacrifice combat action when it comes into play.
The backbone of the army is the bane brick, or 2+ units of banes of whatever flavor you like. I like to vary it up, but some people just spam the warriors for weapon master and dark shroud and tough, then prowl/stealth from the theme benefit. They are a hard nut to crack and will destroy anything they can hit. They can also replenish their numbers by using their mini-feat from the standard bearer to bring a few back to undeath, assuming they were not removed from play. They also have the dead rise, so if they do make a tough roll, they don't slow the unit down and can continue the advance/charge and combat.
I play dark host as a powerful attrition army. Your opponent needs some dedicated moderate to high armor infantry removal to handle the list and needs to be able to circumvent prowl/stealth and terrain. If used right, this theme will be able to close fairly unscathed. You may not get the alpha strike thanks to banes being slower than our other troops, but with breathstealer available and wrathe's speed up, you just might be able to squeak it out.
This is one of those themes that works for almost any caster. Deneghra helps their accuracy significantly and helps damage output, as well as messing up the enemy with debuffs. She allows banes to move through enemy formations, but they could already do that to an extent.
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Post by tiberius on Feb 1, 2018 14:54:44 GMT
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Black Industries
This theme promotes using a large battlegroup but it also provides the tools to run a large battle group or a lot of warjacks as it has access to things like the withershadow combine, war witch sirens, deathjack, and aiakos. Deneghra really appreciates most if not all of those choices. The theme also gives any heavy warjack the carapace ability, which is +4 ARM vs ranged and free strike damage rolls. Very powerful, especially if you consider something like the inflictor shield guarding at ARM 23. The theme provides a free bone jack of cost 7 or less for ever 30 pts you spend on warjacks and it gives +2" to your deployment zone. Free arc nodes and gets you up the field faster.
Wraith Witch Deneghra - Withershadow Combine - Deathjack - Nightmare - Nightwretch x 2 (free) - Inflictor - Slayer Warwitch Siren x 2 Machine Wraith Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges Cephalyx Overlords
This is hands down the best theme you can take the deathjack in, especially since Deneghra lacks any type of protective buffs to deliver it. Giving it carapace means it is ARM 23 on the approach and its self healing thanks to snacking after it gets there. It advance deploys and with the already extended deployment zone, you can really get far down the field or get into a zone really fast. Or just move up and hit some advanced deployed enemy units with a hellmouth. That will typically ruin their day.
Deathjack and Nightmare are great armor crackers, Nightmare hitting a little harder at its chosen prey target at P+S 17 + 2, and you can get that up even further with curse of shadows. They are both very accurate at elite level MAT of 8 and Prey gives another +2 and breath stealer and shadow bind can increase that another 5, effectively. Nightmare can deliver itself even without theme benefits but it definitely appreciates carapace if you are facing something that can ignore stealth.
I took the inflictor as a shield guard because like it or not, incorporeal or not, Deneghra is a weak link. She doesn't need to play close to the front but having a heavy warjack body guard discourages a lot of shenanigans and allows you to clear almost any threat that comes in range.
The slayer is our 10 pt discount heavy. For the cost of a light warjack/warbeast in other factions you get three initial attacks, spd 6, potentially really big damage but it is a focus hog to run effectively. That is why the warwitch sirens are around to alleviate the focus burden from Deneghra so she can focus on debuffing and messing with your opponents positioning rather than feeding warjacks apart from powerup.
Units available in this theme are the Cephalyx. They are more heavily armored version of mechanithralls, cheap and disposable and have tough, though they do have a unique ability to replentish their own number with the prep for surgery ability and can circumvent their own low MAT with combined melee attacks. At most you will likely get 2-3 on a target but Going to MAT 7 is significant. Deneghra of course can help with DEF debuffing.
The overlords are a three man unit that can wipe out infantry with their no line of sight required 8" POW 12 sprays, or use influence to mess with your opponents toys. Really solid three man group that can deliver themselves and can really take out most low armored targets.
Overall, this is not a bad theme for Deneghra as she really helps it with her debuffs and positioning, and ability to get things through the enemy. It really does have all the support she wants to bring to a fight too.
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