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Post by tiberius on Nov 13, 2017 13:24:10 GMT
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Infernal Machines
This theme has a lot of good builds for Deneghra as you have access to both anti-infantry and armor cracking options, recursion, and fast screening units that can keep up. I went with more of a recursion screen and a gun boat for assassination with his list, but there are a lot of ways to build this theme. I like to utilize Mortality and scourge for a pop and drop assassination and with enough warjack guns and pistol wraiths, you get the job done.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - The Withershadow Combine - Sepulcher - Nightwretch x 2 Pistol Wraith x 2 Soul Trapper x 2 Hellslinger Phantom Mechanithralls (max) + 2 Brutes Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls Bile Thralls (min) + Skarlock Commander
Just because the mechanithralls can ambush doesn't mean you have to. You may be better off keeping them as a recursion screen in front of the sepulcher and mixed in with the necrosurgeon to keep pumping 3-6 of them back out every round, as long as you are not facing remove from play tech.
The game plan would be to get a nightwretch within about 3" of a warcaster and arc mortality and scourge onto them. Then shoot them to death with your Sepulcher and/or army of pistol wraiths and the hellslinger phantom. If they cant be knocked down like Madrak 1 or any protectorate army with the book, then mortality will still help a pistol wraith trigger stationary on the target, and you can still shoot them to death or even charge them with some ghostly mechanithralls or a ghostly deneghra. The way I play her is all about the assassination, but she can play a mean attrition game with this theme.
The withershadow combine provides a free upkeep of Grave Wind on Deneghra - where you should have it most games. The +2 DEF makes it difficult to hit her and the poltergeist ensures that an unlucky strike will save her from further punishment. There are ways to guard against the poltergeist and a good opponent will stagger his guys to ensure a push wont put the attack out of melee. But that is using his guys as a stopper and not using them to attack so it does its job there too. DEF 17 is probably a miss to anything except boostable or buffed attacks. The combine also provides re-rolls to help get that assassination shot you need. Either on Deneghra to ensure the mortality or scourge hits, or on a pistol wraith to get the chain attack or the sepulcher fishing for the crit paralysis.
I chose a pair of nightwretches because their Doomspitter cannons can get some work done as AOE 3 POW 14 boostable damage shots. Against a knocked down target or a stationary target, they are almost guaranteed to hit and can get some work done.
Soul Trappes can follow around behind one of your units, probably the bile thralls that advance deploy and collect the souls of anything they purge on, to then pass them to Deneghra to keep that soul train going. The biles are also great at unjamming things like your sepulcher.
The brute thralls double as shield guards if you need them to protect deneghra or your colossal. Though on a charge againt a knocked down target and the ability to ignore free strikes and terrain thanks to ghost walk, the mechanithrall unit can do a lot of work and Deneghra fixes their biggest weakness, accuracy.
So overall, this is a good theme for Deneghra as it brings a lot of tools for her assassination game and a lot of support she wants. And her tool kit makes everything in the list perform better.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 13, 2017 17:40:08 GMT
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Dark Host
As with most of our warcasters, the dark host of banes works very well with Deneghra. She doesn't increase their threat range or increase their survivability, but she does help them hit more accurately and hit harder through Mortality and Scourge. In fact, if you can swing it, scourging a key piece and charging it with ghostly weapon masters with dark shroud is usually game over.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Leviathan - Nightwretch x 2 - Stalker x 2 - Scavenger x 2 Bane Lord Tartarus Soul Trapper x 2 Gorman Di Wulfe (now in sheeps clothing!) Bane Knights Bane Warriors + CA
So I really like having a fleet of light warjacks with Deneghra as it goes with a tactic I call threat saturation. You have so many threats to their key pieces coming from so many angles that they cannot deal with them all and something gets through and gets the job done or opens it up for the rest of the list to capitalize. All you need is a single flying or leaping bone jack to ghostly its way into the warcaster and head butt it down. Then the leviathan can shoot it up, or you can have bane knights clear the way as the bane warriors charge in. Or vice versa.
Charging Bane knights do surprising amounts of damage for being the "defensive focused" unit with the +2 damage on charge damage rolls. Effectively P+S 14 and then any debuffs you can give the targets. With their reach and ghostly, they can get into some tight places and reach around to kill what they need to.
Gorman Di Wulfe (we got our mini-crate special, I think its hilarious!) is a tool box for assassination. He can clear paths of jamming guys with his acid bomb (POW 12 corrosion damage and corrosion continuous effect to everyone under the 3" AOE...no blast damage. Or black oil, -4 DEF to your target and bad stuff for their activation if they are still alive on their turn. Or rust bomb for heavier warjack targets for an additional -2 ARM. Very good against colossals.
The stalkers and scavengers typically don't need a path cleared and will have little problem getting behind the enemy lines and wrecking face to any mortalitied targets. Especially if they tag team, sending in the stalkers first and then the scavengers will get finisher on their activation.
The only problem this list has is protecting Deneghra herself so you are either wanting to camp some focus, or keep a screen in front of her, or invest in an inflictor for a shield guard. Maybe even a bokur, but the warjack can keep up easier.
Overall, Dark Host runs itself as usual and it really appreciates the game Deneghra wants to play. Go for the kill.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 13, 2017 18:30:05 GMT
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Black Industries
Deneghra has the tools to run a large battlegroup, but if she is doing that, it may cut into her debuff and spell casting capabilities. And she really likes having some sort of screening unit because as a huge base, it is impossible to block line of sight to her, so body blocking and shield guarding are as good as you can get.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - The Withershadow Combine - Deathjack - Nightmare - Nightwretch x 2 - Shrike x 2 - Stalker x 2 Soul Trapper Necrotech Cephalyx Overlords
I am not really happy with the list, because like I said before, I feel a bit naked without some sort of screening unit so dropping nightmare for the drudges and another bone jack may be what is called for here. The necrotech is not needed for the list either so can be dropped for something else.
Black Industries usually needs help in the anti-infantry department so I brought along a pair of shrikes and the cephalyx overlords. The shrikes are trample machines that can do so without any focus or investment from Deneghra, can clear out a good chunk of infantry and are immune to free strikes while trampling. They are accurate and good at what they do, and they serve a good anti-infantry roll for the list. The overlords bring 3 fairly accurate sprays that do not need line of sight, so can do so through obstructions, buildings, forests, etc. Again, great at infantry clearing or roughing up a light warbeast.
Your game plan is the same though, get an arc node close enough to arc mortality and/or scourge onto something. Then bring in your flying or leaping jacks or trample in the deathjack or nightmare. If one of the character jacks gets ahold of your target, they will more than likely be dead. Each one deals P+S 17 to P+S 18 + bonuses on their initial attacks or any bought attacks, and for the death jack, that could be 4 autohitting attacks after a trample. The Deathjack can cast scourge itself if necessary because necromancy is not limited to 3 cost or less spells.
Your warjacks are survivable against ranged attacks thanks to the theme, giving your heavy warjacks carapace. That means your shield guard is ARM 23 against the ranged attacks you shunt to it. Unfortunately you can only shield guard once per turn.
So overall, this list can do the job that Deneghra wants as can the theme. I just think Infernal Machines does it better.
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Grimolf
Junior Strategist
Posts: 246
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Post by Grimolf on Nov 14, 2017 2:07:14 GMT
Why isn’t this thread sticked yet? You’re doing the Lord Dragonfather’s work here, Tiberius!
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Post by tiberius on Nov 14, 2017 11:56:45 GMT
Thanks, it is a bit more work than I intended to do, but it is kind of fun to break down the lists and the themes. If anyone knows how to do forum coding and can make a table of contents and keep that up, or show me how and I can put it in the first post, for people to find the warcaster they want to read about. The thing I overlooked here was usability of this thread. I should have made a different thread for each caster.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 14, 2017 13:47:02 GMT
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Scourge of the Broken Coast
So I heard that the satyxis theme has lost its pathfinder benefit and now provides satyxis raiders with the ability to choose a remove from play option on their attacks. The sea witch already had true path which gave pathfinder so it makes sense to either remove it from the theme benefit, which was an exceptionally powerful theme-force-wide benefit, or just change the sea witch's ability to something that is not redundant since you will only ever be playing them in theme. Another new change is changing the cost of the gunslingers back down to 7. But like any theme, Deneghra supports infantry and jacks equally as well with her Mortality debuff, helping the satyxis hit harder. They didn't need much help in accuracy, but armor cracking, even for a gang unit with chain weapons, can be a problem. So I recommend bringing a few warjacks that can pick up the slack.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Leviathan - Nightwretch x 2 - Nightmare - Stalker - Shrike Satyxis Raider Captain Satyxis Blood Witches + Hag Satyxis Gun Slingers Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Your armor cracking is handled by Nightmare who has some nice defensive tech with steath and ghostly to take advantage of terrain. His prey ability gives him +2 to hit and damage against his prey target making him hit at MAT 10 and P+S 19 on the claws. It also has chain attach smash and grab if it connects with both of its initial attacks and fails to kill its target, so you could throw your target or head butt it, effectively knocking it down, or launching a sizable missile at something else and possible taking out some support or key solo. There are lots of applications for this and they are all dependent on the board state and what your opponent has. Ideally, you charge into a heavy warjack, trigger the chain attack after crippling something on your target, two handed throw it into a warcaster or something hiding behind, opening it up for ranged or charging assassination from the rest of your list.
The leviathan can take advantage of the knockdown tech that this list brings from either Nightmare, Deneghra's scourge spell, or the satyxis. The raider captain has auto-knockdown on all her melee attacks and now they are giving her sprint in place of reposition, so if she does kill something, she gets a full advance. I think I liked reposition better for an assassination. But either one can be useful. The satyxis raiders have critical knockdown on their weapons. Or the stalker can leap in and head butt. A lot of chances to get the job done.
One thing this list didn't need was a shrike. They are great anti-infantry, but the entire list is anti-infantry. You might be better off with a deathripper or something for list utility.
The satyxis are fast and provide a lot of good board control, are hard to kill on the approach, have the option of ignoring terrain and can make themselves very resistant to shooting and immune to blast damage. You can play a good scenario game with them, but assassination should probably be your plan A.
Overall, this theme does not bring anything for Deneghra with respect to support. She likes that free upkeep that this list does not have (until new releases hit with the new warcaster attachment, then she gets sucker too!) Deneghra can run the jacks and she can help the infantry. The theme loves her. She doesn't care about the theme.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 14, 2017 17:56:33 GMT
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
This theme has strong warjack assassination potential if you can trigger gang fighter on your target with your jack. The flying bone jacks and the stalkers have the easiest time, or a trampling heavy like nightmare will be able to trigger it easiest, but you can only trigger it if you can get a warrior model into melee with your target as well. Deneghra is not a warrior model because she is considered a battle engine. Though she typically has little trouble getting where she wants to go either. Your game plan is pretty much the same, knock it down and kill it.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Nightwretch x 2 - Stalker x 2 - Nightmare - Inflictor - Scavenger General Gerlak Slaughterborn Black Ogrun Boarding Party Bloodgorgers The Devils Shadow Mutineers
So your infantry is great at clearing lanes and removing jammers or killing other infantry or solos. With mortality added to the mix, any of them can put out some legitimate damage. Even the blood gorgers who are typically limited in both accuracy and damage, +2 to each helps a lot. They also gain overtake and berserk to help eat through entire units. Their advantage and disadvantage is their medium base as it is hard to maneuver properly and fit a lot of them in to make maximum use of the debuff with the entire unit, but in reality you only need a few of them plug Gerlak to eat a unit.
With the CID, gerlak is getting weapon master which will make his damage output a lot more consistent instead of finisher. And if you are lucky, you can crowd surf right up to your target you want to trigger gang fighter on with the stalker. Overtake is only 1" movement but every little bit helps. There is a change to unyielding in the works as well that makes it any time you are in melee you get the bonus of +2 ARM, not just while you are engaging your target. It is a more consistent and simple way of doing it and makes the blood gorgers and gerlak a little more hard to kill.
If you want to make a drag shenanigan list to help clear lanes, the inflictor can be replaced with a reaper and combined with the black ogrun boarding party can clear paths fairly competently. The reaper handles large base while the black ogrun can handle smaller.
After arcing mortality and scourge onto your target, getting into melee with a blood gorger or melee Devils Shadow Mutineer member, you can leap in a stalker or fly in the scavenger to deal some significant damage. If that still isn't enough, you have Zira with two ranged weapon master attacks to finish it off.
Overall, a strong assassination list with a lot of good tools to make it happen if you are willing to clear your path, set up your turn and get your order of operations straight. The theme doesn't bring a lot of support for Deneghra but she brings a strong assassination tool kit.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 14, 2017 18:47:57 GMT
Goreshade the Bastard - Ghost Fleet
So all the best Cryx stories in the fluff revolve around one or two guys. Foremost is Goreshade, who after delving into forbidden lore to save his elven people from their soulless fates, which he blames the elven gods, he did some shock show and tell by football spiking a soulless elven baby in front of the elven council. As you can imagine this didn't go well and he escaped, became an Eldrich (elven vampire) pursuing the forbidden knowledge to save his people and joined up with Cryx to have access to their resources. Basically he has no real loyalty to Cryx, but does as he is told as long as he gets to pursue his own agenda too. Of course, the story takes him full circle when he goes to kill Scyrah and she forgives him and kind of brings him back into the elves as his fourth incarnation.
So why the "bastard"? My theory is that he kills guys and makes them into undead women. That is a pretty bastard thing to do. Goreshade has the typical iron lich statline of above average stats across the board. SPD 6, MAT 7, DEF 15, ARM 16, Focus 7. He has a 2" reach P+S 14 melee weapon called Blood cleaver, and as mentioned above, when he kills something with it, if the deathwalker is not in play, he removes the target from play and replaces it with the deathwalker. The Deathwalker and Goreshade are a unit, so when he creates a new one, she cannot activate because it has no weapons and he already moved. It has no actions left to take.
The Deathwalker has an aura of 5" (its command range) that gives -2 STR and DEF to any living enemy models in the aura. Also, if Goreshade is disabled while within 5" of the deathwalker, the deathwalker is destroyed and goreshade has 1 damage point removed (stopped by grievous wounds FYI). She is also ghostly so doesn't have any trouble keeping up with Goreshade. She is SPD 6, DEF 14 and ARM 10 with 1 damage box.
Goreshade's spell list is pretty good, too bad he can't do everything he wants in a round. He has two attack spells that you will rarely use unless you need to remove an upkeep. Bleed is a single target attack with POW 10 and removes D3 damage from goreshade if you manage to kill a living enemy model with it. Hexblast is a 3" AOE POW 13 spell that upon a direct hit, immediately expires any enemy upkeep and animi on the model/unit.
His single upkeep spell is Lamentation. This is a control area spell that doubles the casting cost of any spell cast in his control area by enemy models. This of course has not effect on things that are free like magic ability solos or units. It also doubles the upkeep cost of any enemy spells being upkept in his control range. You will probably cast this turn 1 and upkeep it all game. It really shuts down certain warcaster's games (butcher 3 for example).
His signature spell and the reason most people find Goreshade two dimensional to play is Shadowmancer. While in his command range (7") models in his battlegroup gain stealth and darkshroud. This includes himself and the deathwalker. You will probably cast this every round as it is great protection and great armor cracking potential allowing goreshade to do a lot of work himself, the deathwalker just being a mobile debuff aura, though she doesn't have a melee weapon so she doesn't get the dark shroud, but stealth still protects her.
His fun spell that allows you to do jack yo-yo shenanigans (suck it Kaya!) is Soul Gate. Its another 3 cost control area spell where you remove a friendly trooper model in the spellcaster's control range from play and replace it with a target warjack in Goreshade's battlegroup in his control range. The warjack cannot activate after being soulgated. This can be a massive change in board sides, massive movement boost to a warjack to get it to another zone or somewhere to lane block or engage something. It can also protect a key warjack by teleporting it back behind your front lines. There is a lot of uses for it, unfortunately, after casting shadowmancer and upkeeping lamentation, you only have 3 focus left. So you have to weight the danger of leaving yourself with out focus.
Goreshade's feat summons a min unit of Bane Warriors. And they can activate this turn, because it doesn't say they cant. So yes, 1" reach ghostly, dark shrouded weapon masters with MAT 6 appear completely within 3" of goreshade and can then charge or run or block or whatever. If you can knock down your target and get a line open by moving goreshade around, popping his feat = dead guy.
What does goreshade want from a theme? Focus efficient jacks, support, even a spell slave for that hex blast if he can get one. Goreshade can help fix accuracy and damage so he doesn't really care what is in the force as long as they can get him a line to the opposing caster or key pieces. Like a lot of Cryx casters, he can be the super solo and can do a lot of heavy lifting himself, looking for the opportunity to stick it in the opposing warcaster all the while improving the girl to boy ratio of the field.
Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - Stalker x 2 - Seether - Harrower - Reaper Captain Rengrave Hellslinger Phantom Pistol Wraith Blackbane's Ghost Raiders Revenant Crew (min) + 2 riflemen Revenant Crew (min)
The revenant crew is pretty fast and accurate with gang, and can jam pretty well. They can also clear out infantry without much problem unassisted even with the loss of point blank. They make a poor ranged unit but can do in a pinch against a knocked down target. Goreshade doesn't bring any knock down tech aside from his warjacks, but can decrease the defense of targets within 5" of the deathwalker. He can also hexblast off upkeeps and animi buffs from a target to help out with hitting and damage.
Goreshades jacks can hit really hard when they within 7" of him. I don't recommend putting him that close to the front until you are ready to get your hands dirty. The seether can hit hard enough on its own, countercharges, is naturally accurate with MAT 8 and the stealth is very useful to it. It also berserks to if placed well, can do more work than the focus you assign to it would suggest.
The harrower is great with darkshroud and with thresher and 2" reach, can really hurt a lot of things in its arc. It can also collect souls and feed itself focus on later turns or use one of the souls for a mortifier shot to fully boost attack and damage on its AOE quick work shot.
The stalkers do not mix well with Goreshade's command range limitation on his shadowmancer spell as they tend to range wide and flank. They are innately stealthy but really wish they could benefit from dark shroud. If you come in with one of them to knock down the target however, it is almost guaranteed that the charging weapon masters from his feat will finish the job.
Rengrave, the hellslinger and the pistol wraith bring a lot of accurate infantry removal or in the case of the pistol wraith, some board control for heavy warjacks/beasts with the chain attack: stationary. With a -2 DEF, the pistol wraith should not have much problems double tapping a target while aiming. Effective RAT 11.
The blackbanes make a great target to move a warjack via soul gate because of their method of recursion. They kill something and add a grunt to their unit to replace who you sacrifice to move the warjack. And as incorporeal models, they can run through anything without a magical weapon to get where you need them. Teleport the harrower next to a warcaster for next round and see if they can deal with it? Probably not good for the harrower but its pretty funny.
Overall, Goreshade wants some support that ghost fleet just isn't giving to him. He can come up with a game plan and make it work because he is the man and is the only model he needs in the list. But there are definitely better themes for him.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 16, 2017 14:00:43 GMT
Goreshade the Bastard - Infernal Machines
This theme makes you ask the question, to put it in Goreshade's battlegroup, or not put it in Goreshade's battlegroup? It gives access to the Iron Lich Overseer and Aiakos as focus efficient means of running warjacks but have the disadvantage that they will not be impacted by any effects that only affect warjacks in Goreshade's battlegroup, like shadowmancer. In the case of the Iron Lich Overseer, that doesn't matter because between its drive and its special action, it duplicates the effects. And it has the advantage of being able to leave Goreshade's command range of 7". Shadowmancer is pretty much a trap for a large group of jacks unless you are attempting to run a brick of some sort, and Cryx doesn't do the brick well with warjacks. You can probably brick with Terminus and a group of banes or something like that, or have a caster make a single warjack pretty hard to hurt, but doing a troll or khador armor brick just isn't in our cards.
Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - The withershadow Combine - Deathjack - Shrike Aiakos Scourge of Meredius - Stalker - Stalker Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Mechanithralls + 2 Brutes Soulhunters
This list has three nice mobile modules that are very self reliant. Goreshade's group has the Deathjack which can cast either of his attack spells and hits at P+S 20 with its claws under Darkshroud. Or P+S 18 while giving -2 ARM, however you like to do your maths. You can keep they two of these guys and the withershadow combine and Deathwalker close, and you have a nice group of hard hitting dudes with a lot of utility and a nice array of debuffs. The Deathwalker will protect the group from reprisal as anything living and enemy within 5" of her swings at -2 STR and has -2 DEF, making it easier for your group to hit them. Shadowmancer gives goreshade and the deathjack dark shroud so they can spread around that debuff a bit and allow the withershadow combine to hit a little harder in melee if they want.
The withershadow combine allows you to upkeep lamentation the entire game for free. They also provide a re-roll and magic weapons to a group if you need it. They bring a bit of ranged support with spell slave and their standard darkfire spell that gives them the soul of the target they kill with it.
The shrike is a nice focus efficient anti-infantry jack, but will not benefit from shadowmancer except with stealth on the approach. While trampling, the dark shroud will have no effect on the trample targets because you do the attacks after you have passed through them. Only any target in your melee range after you stop and buy additional attacks will grant the dark shroud debuff.
Aiakos and the pair of stalkers are a fast, mobile stealth flanking force trying to get behind enemy lines or get to a prime target to either knock it down or gank it from fairly accurate boosted POW 12's with grievous wounds. They will not benefit from dark shroud unless their target is near goreshade and he is applying it himself. Aiakos makes the group faster with escort.
Mechanithralls are your soul gate target if you need to pop the Deathjack around to safety or get it in the face of something across the board. Remember, it cannot activate after it is soul gated that turn.
The Iron Lich Overseer has a special action that gives stealth to its warjack base to base with it (can make closing a bit slow as you are limited to 6" I think). Also, it has a drive that gives dark shroud. With the drive and the crush ability, the Seether is putting out a +4 damage swing that is more than the deathjack is doing. Though the deathjack pretty much gets 3 free focus with an option for two more every round, while the seether charges for free and has berserk. It all evens out in the end, especially since the Seether is 10 points cheaper. Quite the bargain.
Overall, Goreshade really likes this theme as it brings him a lot of support and makes his battlegroup manageable. It provides tools to really spread out his force and do work in multiple zones.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 17, 2017 12:09:59 GMT
Goreshade the Bastard - Dark Host
Thematically, Goreshade is our bane warcaster as his feat brings in a minimum unit of Bane Warriors. His next incarnation takes the bane support to a new level. This incarnation really doesn't do much for the banes other than what he does for literally anything in his list. Banes are fairly self reliant units that can kill both heavy warjacks and infantry. If the Deathwalker is following the group, the -2 DEF will help them hit. MAT 6 isn't great, but it is average and good enough to take down heavy targets.
Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - Skarlock Thrall - Stalker x 2 - Seether - Scavenger Bane Lord Tartarus Darragh Wrathe Machine Wraith Bane Knights (max) Bane Warriors (max) + CA Bane Riders
I included a skarlock thrall for some focus efficiency for a free hex blast. Upkeep removal is always helpful. Though for another point (downgrade the scavenger to a shrike) and replace the skarlock with Eilish Garrity for more intense upkeep removal and antimagic. Between that and lamentation, your opponent wont be doing much in the way of magic.
As I have mentioned before, the stalkers probably will not be benefiting from Shadowmancer like most of the battlegroup will because they tend to range wide and flank the opponent's forces. They don't need shadowmancer as they are naturally stealthy and can hit hard enough for their chosen prey, typically solos or the opponents caster. P+S 12 and grievous wounds on a fairly accurate chassis is pretty good.
Darragh Wrathe is here to provide threat extension for the Banes. His Deathride ability gives +1" of movement to friendly faction undead models activating in his command range (9"). He can also help protect your army from living enemy models by making them have a -2 to damage rolls. Combined with the Deathwalker, that is -4 to living enemy model damage in melee attacks (because her debuff is to STR). He can also cast Hellfire and can do any one of this by killing something in melee as a cavalry model (dragoon) with battlewizard. He is also very mobile with SPD 8 and reposition 3. He is fairly hard to kil with DEF 14, ARM 17 and 10 boxes while horsed, then they unhorse him and have to kill him on a small base with less stats and boxes.
The seether hits hard enough and accurate enough that it doesn't really need shadowmancer either, but it appreciates the stealth while closing.
The banes all gain prowl via theme benefit and you get 2 4" dense fog clouds to place at the start of the game. This helps give a significant number of banes stealth on the approach. In combination with using existing terrain, you should have no problems getting your force to your opponent for your mostly melee wrecking crew, now sped up by Darragh. And Jacks are protected by shadowmancer or natural stealth.
Bane Riders fill the role of anti-infantry and with their high natural ARM are resistant to most infantry reprisal short of weapon masters or boostable attacks. They are fast enough with a large enough threat range to get the alpha most times and are very accurate on the charge.
Overall, the theme works well with Goreshade but doesn't provide any special synergies that it doesn't give to any other caster. Banes do appreciate the deathwalker though, the -2 DEF is a great boost.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 17, 2017 12:47:25 GMT
Goreshade the Bastard - Black Industries
I would build this theme very similarly to the Infernal Machines theme list, the only differences come from the theme bonuses where instead of a free Iron Lich Overseer, you get free light warjacks, typically 2 of them if you build right. A pair of Scavengers can go a long way. Your heavy warjacks also gain Carapace, a very powerful ability that gives +4 ARM vs ranged attacks and free strikes. Black Industries gives access to a lot of battlegroup and warjack support as well as focus efficiency pieces.
Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - The Withershadow Combine - Deathjack - Scavenger x 2 - Shrike x 2 Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Aiakos Scourge of Meredius - Stalker x 2 Warwitch Siren x 2 Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges
Like I said, I built this very similarly to the Infernal Machines list in having the Iron Lich Overseer/Seether combo and the Aiakos with a pair of stalkers grouping. They perform the same roles here, as very independent modules that can flank in the case of Aiakos and get to the support or core of your opponents army.
The Iron Lich Overseer is a jack marshall that gives its warjack the drive: darkshroud, meaning it debuffs enemy armor by 2 while it is in melee of it. It also has a magic ability of 7 with cloak of darkness (gives stealth to itself and its warjack if it is base to base with it) and dark fire which is an attack spell that gives the spellcaster a soul regardless of proximity of other models. Short of the Testament of Menoth who denies you souls, you get the soul. The Overseer is a competent melee fighter in its own right at MAT 6, DEF 14, ARM 16 with 8 boxes and a 2" reach P+S 12 weapon. With the ability to boost through souls or buy additional attacks, it can really get some work done in a pinch. The Seether under it will be swinging at +4 damage thanks to dark shroud and the crush jack marshall command. It also gives the seether an additional attack and its berserk means it will most likely clear any non-heavy targets around it in a single activation. It is very accurate on its own at MAT 8.
The shrikes are your anti-infantry of the list and are very focus efficient trample bots who can trample with boosted attack rolls and ignore free strikes all without spending a focus. They don't really benefit from Shadowmancer except with stealth on the approach.
The scavengers however, do appreciate shadowmancer as they can really benefit from darkshroud. With finisher, they can really put out some damage onto an already damaged target.
The Deathjack can cast either of Goreshade's attack spells, probably hex blast if he cannot make it into melee. With Shadowmancer, it is stealthed and hits extra hard, effectively P+S 20 for its claws and the theme provides it with Carapace, protecting it further from ranged attacks while closing. There is little in the game that can withstand a fully loaded deathjack.
With Goreshade's feat, you don't even really need to worry about casting shadowmancer after lines are drawn because you can charge your banes into key places to spread around the debuff and darkshroud does not stack with itself, even from multiple sources.
Overall, this is a greath theme for Goreshade, though infernal machines probably does it better unless you are really digging the extra light jacks or the carapace rule.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 17, 2017 13:27:45 GMT
Goreshade the Bastard - Scourge of the Broken Coast
This theme is still in flux so I will treat it as though it is still what is in war room. Though my understanding is that the satyxis will lose pathfinder as a theme-wide benefit. That's a big loss but admittedly a bit too powerful for the entire army to benefit from. Satyxis bring a level of infantry removal and caster threat through knock down and feedback that is pretty unmatched in Cryx. Banes bring a different level of threat with being able to kill heavies, but satyxis are a defensive skew, resistant to ranged attacks and between gang and debuffs, can do damage to almost anything on a charge.
Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - Kraken - Seether - Reaper Satyxis Raider Captain Satyxis Blood Witches + hag Satyxis Gun Slingers Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
The kraken does not benefit from stealth from shadowmancer because colossals cannot be stealthed. However, having a 2"-4" dark shroud application from a huge base is very useful and makes it hit very hard. P+S 21 with chain weapon ignoring shields. On top of that, goreshade can hexblast your target and remove any pesky upkeeps that may protect it from being beat down. The kraken has a really nice long range cannon that gets stronger as you collect corpses, as does its melee weapon. It also has kill shot for when you kill something in melee, you get a free shot with one of its ranged weapons.
The Kraken will be hard to get to and damage with a swarm of satyxis jamming your opponent and the satyxis gun slingers excel at removing jam from the kraken with black penny shots. The deathwalker being nearby will make this even easier with a -2 DEF debuff and the -2 STR debuff will protect the kraken from harm.
I added a seether and a reaper into the list. The reaper was up in the air to be replaced by a pair of flying bone jacks to facilitate getting to the opponent's caster and doing a knock down and ranged assassination. Though with the current list, scenario and attrition should work pretty well as the satyxis are fast enough to jam certain armies out of the zones and the kraken is hard to remove. Both of these jacks benefit from shadowmancer and can get a lot of work done with their arms in tact and dealing two extra damage.
Overall, this theme doesn't really bring anything that goreshade needs and he doesn't have any special synergies with it over any other theme. That doesn't mean it wont do well because the satyxis really are that good.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 17, 2017 14:57:58 GMT
Goreshade the Bastard - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Slaughter fleet raiders gives a 2" deployment zone bonus to your forces, gang fighter to your warjacks and a free solo for every 25 pts of units you take. Goreshade doesn't have any way of increasing threat ranges for the normally slow bloodgorgers so it is a huge boon, making them effectively SPD 6 for the first round (SPD 5 running + 2 = 12").
Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - Seether - Reaper - Harrower - Shrike Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius - Stalker x 2 General Gerlak Slaughterborn Black Ogrun Boarding Party The Bloodgorgers The Devil's Shadow Mutineers
As mentioned above, with the 2" deployment zone increase, your bloodgorgers can get up the field faster to contest or block zones. They are a medium based tough unit with unyielding and while no single wound infantry can take a real beating, they are annoying to remove thanks to tough and cannot be trampled through. With the Deathwalker following behind them, they will have an easier time hitting in the 5" bubble around the Deathwalker thanks to the breathstealer debuff. The -2 STR debuff probably wont help them too much, but Cryx doesn't care about resiliency, they want offense and with improved accuracy, berserk and overtake, they should be able to get some work done.
The Seether, Reaper and Harrower are all good warjacks and all benefit from shadowmancer. Each one can benefit from soul gate too. The bloodgorgers make a good target for this, though they are more than likely up front blocking. Realistically, unless you need to pull the seether back to protect it and give it a second alpha strike the following turn, you probably wont be using soul gate with this theme.
Getting gang fighter triggered is easy with Aiakos and the pair of stalkers. They all leap and can give the stalkers +2 to hit and damage while attacking anything in melee range of a friendly faction warrior model. That will probably be Aiakos because he leaps too. There isn't much that can stop them from getting to where they want to go short of death.
The reaper and harrower are both 2" reach warjacks and can trigger the gang fighter pretty easily too as a second wave to the bloodgorgers and gerlak. The harrower can be focus efficient once it starts getting souls. In the right matchup, it can feed itself most turns, converting souls to focus, or bombard the enemy with its mortifier by getting completely boosted attack and damage and LOS ignoring shot with a soul expenditure. It has quick work too, so with gang fighter, it can clear an area with thresher (probably killing your own guy too) and then quickwork shot into the opponents support.
The reaper and the black ogrun both can do the drag special ability. This is useful in moving enemy models out of zones or increasing the threat range of your army by moving the enemy closer. The black ogrun are limited to medium and smaller bases. Even Aiakos can drag a small base and can boost to ensure he hits and damages. The ogrun have combined range attack instead of boosting.
Overall, this list has both assassination and scenario aspects thanks to the theme bonuses. Goreshade brings some debuffs the units like and Goreshade likes bringing Aiakos along. Not a bad theme for him.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 17, 2017 18:09:11 GMT
Goreshade the Cursed - Ghost Fleet
So goreshade ditched his undead girl entourage, found the elven god of snow, Nyssor, stole his sword and tried to kill him with it, failed, escaped with the sword and a curse mark on him from the elven god. So this version of goreshade is a premier unit supporter and melee assassin with some anti-magic tech thrown in. At the beginning of MKIII, he was widely considered one of our weakest casters because the meta just didn't like bane units, which is what he is all about running. That isn't to say he can't run other units well, he just had an ability or two that only work for Banes.
So Goreshade's stats are much like his previous incarnation, SPD 6, MAT 7, DEF 15, ARM 16, with a single melee attack that has a 2" reach only now it is P+S 15 and auto-stationary to a model hit unless they have immunity to cold. And Goreshade also has immunity to cold and is still FOC 7.
Goreshade also has two innate abilities. The first one is really good called arcane consumption. If an enemy model declares it is casting a spell while in his command range, it suffers d3 damage and goreshade removes d3 damage. If this kills the enemy model, the spell does not take effect.
His other innate ability is Tactician: Banes. While in Goreshade's command range, friendly bane models can ignore other friendly bane models when determining LOS and can advance through each other as long as they are in Goreshade's command range too. Pretty awesome to be able to draw line of sight and charge through your own front line.
Goreshade has two attack spells and both are useful and interesting. The first is called Abyssal Gate. Its basically a damaging offensive telekinesis where you do a COST 3 RNG 8 POW 12 to a single target enemy non-warcaster non-warlock model and if it damages the target, you can place it anywhere completely within 3" of its current location. You can only target something with this once per turn. Great for threat extension, but really the only thing you really want to hit with it are hard targets and you will need to boost to damage them so that is 4 focus for a 3" threat extension to just that target. Can be handy for corner cases.
His other attack spell is hexblast which is a classic remove upkeep AOE spell. You have to directly hit a target and then that model/unit has its upkeeps and animi removed before damage is resolved.
Goreshade also has three upkeep spells. Curse of Shadows is his armor debuff that also makes target model/unit unable to make free strikes and your models can pass through the target if they have enough movement to do so.
Another upkeep is Mirage. Target friendly faction model/unit gains apparition. Basically during your control phase, place a model with apparition anywhere completely within 2" of its current location. Between this and Abyssal gate, that is a lot of threat extension you often do not see from a Cryx caster.
His last spell is occultation that gives stealth to a model or unit. Great against ranged heavy opponents or protecting Goreshade, a key unit or a warjack on the approach. It is an upkeep so you cannot spam it.
His feat is called Re-animator. Basically it allows you to remove one or more friendly faction warrior models currently in Goreshade's control range from play. For each model removed, return one destroyed non-character friendly faction warrior model to play completely within Goreshade's control area. Return trooper models in formation with their original units. Returned models have to forfeit their combat actions the turn they are returned to play. But they can still move if their unit has not moved yet. Solos of course can still move regardless.
This has a lot of applications if you think about it, the most obvious is a repositioning feat for what is still in play. Removing a bunch of guys that have already charged and place them all back, ready for another charge. You could also reposition to contest zones or block charge lanes. You could sacrifice lesser things to bring back unit attachments, weapon attachments, expensive solos, dopey unit guys for hard hitting elite unit guys. As long as they were destroyed and not removed from play, you are good to go with a one for one exchange. The limitation is non-character. Sacrifice scrap thralls for bane warriors. Yes please. You cannot bring back a member of a unit if that unit has already been completely eradicated.
So what does Goreshade want? He has three upkeep spells so anything to lighten the burden of upkeeping spells is great. Also, anything that lightens his focus load with respect to feeding warjacks is great. He doesn't care if something is in his battlegroup or not and aside from his warjack points doesn't care if he has one more point of warjacks than what he has to take. He wants some units and solos to fuel his feat and would prefer access to both elite and cheaper options so he can sac the cheaper to return the elite as necessary. Goreshade, again is a super solo, though this version can do more of a support role. If something can deliver him to the opposing warcaster, and they are susceptible to stationary, it is pretty much game over.
Goreshade the Cursed - Ripjaw x 2 - Leviathan Wraith Engine Captain Rengrave Pistol Wraith x 2 Hellslinger Phantom Eilish Garrity the Occultist Machine Wraith Blackbane's Ghost Raiders Revenant Cannon Crew Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (max) + 2 Riflemen
Despite it not having a proper name, the hellslinger phantom is a character solo so is not able to be brought back by Goreshade's feat, however, either or both pistol wraiths are. The hellslinger phantom and the pistol wraiths are accurate ranged support and great anti-infantry solos with 2 pistols each with a RNG 10 POW 12. The hellslinger phantom is RAT 8, DEF 15 and ARM 13 with gunfighter, swift hunter, collects souls for boosting, can spend souls to reload each pistol once per turn, and has three gun mage shot options for each pistol: Critical Grievous wounds, Ghost shot and Incendiary shot. Lighting something on fire or hitting it with grievous wounds or using ghost shot to ignore LOS are all niche-fully useful.
The pistol wraiths have similar guns but none of the special shots. They are RAT 7, DEF 14 and ARM 12, and have a chain attack if they hit the same target twice that causes stationary. Great board control or for setting up an assassination. They can also spend souls to boost their to hit or damage of their guns.
Once you manage to stationary up something with a pistol wraith or goreshade's melee prowess, the leviathan should have no problems finishing it off with its RNG 13 POW 13 gun that deals more damage the larger the base is (+1 dmg for medium, +2 dmg for large and huge) for POW 15 against heavy warjacks. It gets D3 initial shots and each shot can be boosted if you have enough focus. It is only RAT 5 so aiming or shooting at a stationary target is highly recommended. Its also fairly competent in melee. With the threat range extension goreshade can bring, it can move your normally slow gun boat jack into charge range of something after a good Abyssal Gate spell resolution.
While is first incarnation has no use for arc nodes, this version wants two. I like the ripjaws personally for powerful attack and the gamble of hitting that sweet critical armor piercing. But any two will do, it allows him to swap his upkeeps and get his attack spells around the board.
Blackbanes ghost raiders already have apparition and the revenant crew are pretty fast (spd 6) on their own, so a good target for the spell mirage may be the cannon crew to get them up the field a bit faster, or even the leviathan would benefit from it. Blackbanes are an all incorporeal unit that are SPD 6 and cause auto-fire continuous effect with their P+S 10 attacks. While Blackbane is in play, they have granted: reanimation. Where if they kill a living enemy warrior model, they can remove it from play and add a grunt to the blackbane unit in formation and 3" of the attacking model. The placed grunt cannot activate the turn it is placed. Goreshade's feat cannot return Blackbane himself as he is a character model.
Eilish Garrity is a great anti-magic support piece. He has no weapons, but his magic ability of 6 gives him Bleed and Puppet Master as spells. He also can cast unbinding. Bleed isn't usually very impressive but Garrity also has Mental Force, that allows him to hurt himself d3 damage and fully boost a magic attack and damage roll. Then bleed heals him D3. So if you are lucky, you will heal more than you hurt. He also has a 5" teleport ability and something called arcane void, where any enemy casting at a target within his command range immediately suffers D3 damage.
Overall, Ghost Fleet brings some nice assassination tools to help goreshade get in the caster kill. He brings threat extension that any unit or model likes and brings a lot of anti-magic shenanigans that will hamper your opponents game. He could do better with some focus support, but he could definitely do worse.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 20, 2017 13:05:28 GMT
Goreshade the Cursed - Infernal Machines
As always, this versatile theme gives a lot of options. Goreshade likes to have lots of units, and you can build a really big swarm of cheap thralls if you want, or you can go with a lot of alternate battlegroup runners with lots of warjacks, or a mix of the two. This theme gives a mechanithrall unit ambush and gives Cryx warjacks hyperaggressive - if they take damage from an enemy attack, they get a full advance toward what damaged them after the attack is resolved.
With Goreshade, ambushing is okay, but not necessarily needed because he can give the unit apparition and get them up the field faster. Bile thralls are also a good target for this because not only does it increase their speed, but it also gives them a get out of jam free card, because the two ways to stop a bile thrall from purging are to engage it, or kill it. Mirage allows them to get out of engagement with a 2" placement. Carrion thralls are also a good target for Mirage as they are already fast, ignore terrain and are great jammers. What you have to watch is giving yourself too many units to move in a timed environment. You can clock yourself if you go too crazy with your options.
Goreshade the Cursed - The withershadow Combine - Deathjack - Ripjaw Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius - Stalker x 2 Iron Lich Overseer (free) - Seether Scrap Thralls(1 set of 3) Bile Thralls (min) - Skarlock Commander Necrosurgeon Mechanithralls + 2 Brutes
I took some scrap thralls to use as fuel for Goreshades feat. Or just as fun bomb thralls to charge into a group of stuff and explode. If they hit, they do a deathburst and hits the target for a POW 16 damage roll and anything else in the 4" AOE takes POW 8 blast damage. If you miss, you still lay the 4" AOE out but everything under the template takes POW 8 blast damage. Still fun against high DEF single wound infantry. They do not explode when you remove them for the feat. You can bring back Brute thralls, the skarlock commander, mechanithralls, bile thralls that have not purged (as that removes from play as well), the necrosurgeon, or even the Iron Lich Overseer. Any warrior model that is not a character, so no Aiakos or the withershadow combine.
Goreshade the Cursed has a bunch of upkeeps and having the withershadow combine along greatly helps with the focus burden with a free upkeep, a reroll and some magic attack support. Goreshade doesn't use souls himself so there is no conflict there as well.
Deathjack and the Seether under the Iron Lich Overseer bring some really good armor cracking. With curse of shadows available, the rest of your army can contribute meaningfully against hard targets as well. A purging bile thrall, if you can get a good line up, can kill a lot of single or even multiwound infantry under curse of shadows, assuming you get a decent roll for the latter. If not, the corrosion continuous effect will be useful for what is left.
Occultation is useful for the biles as well so you have to choose to improve threat range on them or protect them from ranged attacks because they are very susceptible to POW 10 shooting and anti-infantry. It is match up dependent and might be beneficial to keep stealth on them first, then move to the mirage placement tool to keep them out of melee. Again, its matchup dependent if you opponent brings a lot of ranged models or not.
Aiakos and the pair of stalkers make a great flanking module. They can all leap and Aiakos makes them faster with escort. It is difficult for an opponent to keep them from getting where they are going short of killing them and they take a lot of resources to put down because the module has innate stealth and all have a decently high defense. The stalkers especially will most likely require a boost to hit for some sort of buff to hit them.
Because I went jack heavy in this list, you need to decide if you actually want to ambush the mechanithralls or keep them as a screening unit. With the necrosurgeon, you can keep the group going as long as the entire unit is not wiped out with remove from play. Goreshade's feat can even replenish the unit if they get down too far removing the scrap thralls to bring back brutes if necessary.
A better scenario build would be to drop one of the alternate jack modules and put in another cheap unit or two. A unit of carrion thralls with mirage will go a long way to jamming your opponent out of zones for a round or two and DEF 13 is annoying to hit for most infantry. Typically a 50% shot.
Overall, this is a theme that Goreshade likes as it can play to his strengths and gives him the support he really wants. Self sufficient jacks and modules, and some good cheap units that can get some work done.
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