Ok, it took me a long, long time to get around to this, but here's a write-up of my first tournament outing with Cephalyx. I ended up running the usual Drudge spam Thexus build, with no second list:
Thexus
-Wrecker
-Wrecker
Max Mind Benders
Max Mind Benders
Max Mind Benders
Max Mind Slavers
Max Mind Slavers
Max Mind Slavers
Overlord (free)
Overlord (free)
Agitator
Agitator
I had wanted to run a slight variation on the above, with the Wreckers and one Agitator replaced with two Subduers and a Warden, but unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on the second Subduer. Now that I have, I've been making that substitution instead of the Wreckers ever since and I much prefer it as a build.
This was my first time ever playing this list, so most of the tournament was spent trying to wrap my head around it and concentrating on not losing by clock.
Round 1 - Recon II
I was facing off against a Cryx player running Skarre1 (Infernal Machine) and Asphyxious2 (Dark Host). He opted to drop Skarre, since I didn't have much that could deal with the Wraith Engines. His list was:
Skarre
-Stalker
-Stalker
-Seether
-Skarlock Thrall
Min Mechanithralls
-Brute Thrall
-Brute Thrall
-Brute Thrall
Aiakos
-Stalker
-Stalker
Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren
Soul Trapper
Soul Trapper
Wraith Engine
Wraith Engine
Deployment
I had picked Armoury for my objective. I went first and deployed with Thexus and battlegroup in the centre, Overlord units on either side, Slaver units on either side of them, and Mind Benders spread out to the flanks and behind the unit. He had his mechanithrall unit ambush, I did the same with one Slaver unit. Deployed everything pretty central.
Cephalyx Turn 1
Thexus sunk three Focus into each Wrecker. Everything ran. I stupidly didn't run either Wrecker to within 4" of the Armoury, allowing him to place his Wraith Engines with impunity.
Cryx Turn 1
He ran his Wraith Engines to either side of the house to make a bunker he could hide his Stalkers behind. The rest of the army ran up behind it. The Skarlock used Ritual Sacrifice on a Scrap Thrall for three Focus.
Cephalyx Turn 2
Thexus hit each Wraith Engine with a TK to push them back and turn them around. I Adrenal Flooded three Drudges on the left Slaver unit, but could only actually get one into combat. On the plus side, it rolled a 15 for damage and one-shot the Stalker it was gunning for. On the right the Wrecker smashed its Stalker with help from the Agitator. I ambushed my Slaver unit onto the board this turn, which was probably a mistake. It was only able to destroy a single Soul Trapper, I couldn't quite get to the Warwitch there.
Cryx Turn 2
Skarre fuelled up her battlegroup, cast Dark Guidance, and Feated on herself, Aiakos, all five Warjacks, and both Wraith Engines. The Mechanithralls ambushed in and were able to kill a whole chunk of the ambushing Slaver unit and the leader of the Mind Bender unit on the far right. The surviving right-hand Stalker removed two Cephalyx Overlords and an Agitator. The other Stalker and Wraith Engine cleared the left zone of most of a Mind Slaver unit and the Wrecker. With the left-hand zone cleared, my opponent went to 1 CP.
Cephalyx Turn 3
I smashed the Stalker on the left with two Adrenal Flooded Mind Slavers and an Agitator (finishing it off once the Movement was crippled). I did the same with a couple of Drudges on the right to the last Stalker there. I did TK the left Wraith Engine to prevent it from having an assassination run on Thexus. Out on the far right my Drudges slowly chewed through the Mechanithralls and Brute Thralls.
Cryx Turn 3
My opponent cleared the right flag so that a Wraith Engine-spawned Machine Wraith could seize it. The Warwitches went to town with some Venoms, clearing their way through Drudges on both flanks. I was starting to run out of models pretty fast at this point. My opponent gets a Soul Trapper onto his flag and goes to 3 CP.
Cephalyx Turn 4
I need to get rid of the Wraith Engines in a hurry, they're the only real problem models left on the table. Unfortunately, I can't quite manage it, nor contest the flags. The one on the left is left on two boxes. On the right I destroy the Seether and leave the Wraith Engine on six or seven boxes. I'm unable to contest his flag, so he goes to 4 CP.
Cryx Turn 4
My opponent has already won on scenario. He just mops up a bit on the right to score another CP and get his army points up before going to 6 CP.
Round 2 - Outlast
I ran into a Trollblood player. I don't think I got a look at his list (not much point when you're mono-listing), but he dropped Jarl into me. I was a little puzzled, since his Feat didn't seem like it would do much, but the reason became apparent as the game went on.
His list was:
Jarl
-Bomber
-Mauler
-Axer
-Pyre Troll
-Runebearer
Max Sluggers
Max Bushwackers
-UA
Fire Eaters
Thumper Crew
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Deployment
I won the roll-off. He took the table side with trenches and hill in the zone, denying me the best ranged defence. I opted to spread out again, covering the table and at least threatening to ambush on both sides, even if the right flank's forest basically made that a no-go.
Cephalyx Turn 1
I ran everything up. Deceleration went up.
Trollbloods Turn 1
Here's where I realised why my opponent dropped Jarl. The Runebearer and Jarl gave Magic Bullets to the Pygmies. They made some CRAs and dropped the unit leaders from both the Mind Bender unit and the Mind Slaver unit on the left. The rest of his army ran up.
Cephalyx Turn 2
I ambushed in on the left and charged his Mauler. Using a mixture of Feat and TK I was able to pull his Fire Eaters and Bomber forward, as well as clumping up the Bushwackers for sprays. The Wrecker on the left almost killed the Bomber, but I couldn't finish it off. About half the Bushwackers died on the left, and I was able to kill all the Fire Eaters. The rest of the Drudges on the right piled into the zone. I moved an Agitator onto the flag to score if he failed to contest.
Trollbloods Turn 2
His Dire Trolls cleared some Drudges and the Wrecker on the left. Bushwackers continued to do work, and the Sluggers mostly aimed and opened up on the oncoming wave of Drudges. It was amazing. Almost all of them rolled up three shots, and they just mowed down Drudges like they were protagonists in a zombie movie. Jarl Feated too, placing the clouds to force penalties to hit if I made it into melee. A Magic Bullet sniped out my second Mind Bender on the far right. We both went to 1 CP.
Cephalyx Turn 3
I cleared both Dire Trolls from the left zone, securing it. My Overlords got close enough to contest his flag. On the right I managed to kill the only slugger actually in the zone through a mixture of sprays, Influence, and a charging Mind Slaver. I went to 3 CP.
My apologies for the blurring on these photos. Clock was becoming an issue.
Trollbloods Turn 3
My opponent cleared the contesting Overlords, sent the Pyre into the Wrecker, didn't really do that much damage (the Bushwackers added a CRA as well from memory) My opponent killed all the remaining Drudges and Overlords on the right, leaving only the Mind Slaver unit leader in the zone. We both scored this turn.
Cephalyx Turn 4
I cleared the left zone. Killed the only Slugger contesting on the right with the Mind Slaver unit leader. Ran Thexus to claim the zone. Went up to 5 CP.
Ouch. For a list my opponent put together purely because he wanted to run Sluggers for giggles, that was a really hard game.
Round 3 - Breakdown
I drew a Cygnar player running a Haley1 gunline (Heavy Metal I think) and something else that I didn't even really look at because it was so obvious he was going to drop Haley1. And sure enough, he did. His list had the following:
Haley
-Hurricane
-Charger
-Squire
Jakes
-Charger
Journeyman
-Firefly
Arlan Strangeways
Storm Strider
Storm Strider
Deployment
My opponent won the dice roll and took first turn. Crap. I took the table side that would allow me to hide behind a forest more effectively. My opponent put a lot of pressure on the right-hand side of the table. I deployed the same way I did in my previous games, maximising board coverage and ensuring I had an option to Adrenal Flood my ambushing units no matter where they came in from, with my two heavies leaning a bit to the right to help deal with the Hurricane.
Cygnar Turn 1
Everything ran forward. Arcane Shield went on the right-hand Storm Strider and the Hurricane.
Cephalyx Turn 1
There was really no way to avoid getting absolutely hammered next turn. If I tried to avoid his walk and shoot ranges I'd be basically backing up into my deployment zone. I cast Deceleration, placed both Wreckers in Sac Pawn range for Thexus, and ran full speed into the oncoming firestorm.
Cygnar Turn 2
Haley 1 Feated. I think the below picture (compared to the one above) kind of speaks for itself.
In a nutshell, there were something like eight Lightning Generator attacks, six Charger shots, and the Hurricane's shots. I lost every Slaver Drudge on the table bar one knocked down on the right (both officers survived) and a smattering of other models, so about 20ish models all up. Arm 17 kept two or three Drudges alive and I made a solid number of Tough rolls all up.
Cephalyx Turn 2
Ok, my third unit of Slavers Ambush in on the left and I need to kill both Storm Striders. I Hex Blast the far right one (couldn't go for the Hurricane, Haley was close enough to use Arcane Vortex) to strip Arcane Shield. On the left the three Adrenal Flooded Drudges roll like the blazes and drop the Storm Strider to 1 health. I move a unit of Overlords up to go for a few sprays, figuring that a unit of three should get at least one 9 for damage to kill it, and get it on the first one. The rest do some chip damage to the lights. I manage to destroy the Firefly's gun with a charging Mind Slaver unit leader.
A fully loaded Wrecker goes in on the right and Threshers to hit the Charger, Hurricane, and Storm Strider (charging the Hurricane to get LOS to all three). It misses the Hurricane with the charge attack, but carves out a good chunk of the Charger and Storm Strider's health. Gets pushed away from the Strider and whales ineffectually at the Hurricane for a bit, largely just doing chip damage. I finish off the Strider by using the red unit of Mind Benders to buff up the blue unit and sending them in for the kill.
If I'd removed the lagging Mind Bender on the left I'd at least have been able to score a CP, but sadly I did not.
Cygnar Turn 3
The Hurricane kills the Wrecker. The Firefly is out of the Journeyman's Control and can't do anything of importance. Jakes kills a couple of Drudges. Haley tosses out a Chain Lightning to try and help remove some of the infantry on the far right.
Cephalyx Turn 3
Both Jakes and the Journeyman Warcaster die to a few incidental Overlord sprays. The last Wrecker kills the Hurricane. I score three CP.
Cygnar Turn 4
My opponent runs Haley to the back of the board to deny an assassination and doesn't contest, sending me to five.
Round 4 - Spread the Net
I drew up against a Legion player I'm really familiar with. He had a Thags and an Abby2 list, so he dropped Thagrosh because his Abby2 'beast list didn't have the infantry removal. This was the main game where I really wished I had Subduers instead of Wreckers. Thanks to Thags, they would have actually hit harder as well as having the added utility. His list was:
Thagrosh (Children of the Dragon)
-Typhon
-Azrael
-Zuriel
-Succubus
Max Swordsmen
-UA
Max Swordsmen
Nyss Warlord
Nyss Warlord
Spell Martyr
Deployment
My opponent won the roll off and took first. I grabbed the side with the hill, since it was the only relevant terrain. He put his battlegroup on the left, infantry on the right. I did the usual spread out.
Legion Turn 1
Stuff ran up the board. Draconic Blessing went on Azrael. Fog of War was caster.
Cephalyx Turn 1
I cast Deceleration and rushed up the board. I gave him a bit of room on the left, trying not to lose too much to the sprays.
Legion Turn 2
I took a bit of shooting from Azrael, which got my Wrecker a little bit further up. Zuriel and Typhon put up their animii.
Cephalyx Turn 2
I got really greedy with my Feat this turn. Ambushed on the right with the Slavers. Pulled a ton of Swordsmen into neat straight lines for sprays. Put his three heavies in a clump. Then sent in the Wrecker for a Thresher, before making the remaining attacks on Typhon. Didn't kill him. Mostly contented myself to jam on the left after that to block off an assassination run. On the right the Overlord sprays minced the Swordsmen and I made a bucketload of new Drudges. Out of 20-odd Swordsmen I think there were four or five left afterwards, and I had every Slaver model on the table and had added three or four extra Mind Benders to the far right unit.
Legion Turn 3
My opponent weighed up going for an assassination run, but ultimately decided that it was a little bit too hard to arrange. Instead he went for a scenario play. The objective was to clear the circle zone and score with Thags, score on the rectangular zone with Azrael, and have the Spell Martyr take his flag. It almost, almost went to plan. One Tough roll was made near his flag, which meant he didn't have the attacks to clear it completely. Azrael killed the Wrecker, Typhon and Zuriel wiped out swathes of infantry. He went to 2 CP.
Cephalyx Turn 3
I sent my Wrecker into Typhon, rolled like the pits, couldn't kill him. I did drop Zuriel with a bunch of Drudges. The last Swordsmen on the right were killed. I ran Thexus to take that zone. An Agitator moved up to score on my flag. I contested his rectangular zone and drew level on CP.
Legion Turn 4
My opponent killed the last Wrecker between Thagrosh and Typhon, Feated Zuriel back into play, and cleared his rectangular zone. He went up to 1 CP.
Cephalyx Turn 4
I think Thags was camping two Fury at this point, so I decided to go for the assassination. He had Typhon's animus up for his free animus, so Thexus went first, used TK to pull him most of the way through the Eruption of Ash he'd made out of the Wrecker so that I could get Drudges into melee with him, and finished up spiking high on a boosted Hex Blast damage roll. With one transfer gone along with the animus, I sent in the Drudges and dropped him down to about ten health. I then lined up all the Overlords and Mind Benders and hit him (and a lot of my own models) with several waves of Psychic Assault until he died.
Forgot to take a picture at the end though.
So... yeah, that list made a positive first impression. Even with no second list to force hard list decisions from my opponents, it still chewed through everything at a pretty admirable pace. Even the Skarre1 match-up felt winnable, I just don't think I played it very well. I think I went very much on tilt over the time it took me to deploy...