More shelf cleaning...

As I mentioned before, I'm selling off my Cryx collection... which is a TON of painted stuff with a few non-painted units in the mix as well. The ebay auction can be found here! Just as with the last one, everything is being handled by the LGS, the posting, shipping, the whole bit! (So any questions or concerns regarding the auctions need to go to him through ebay)

That said, thanks to all those that placed bids on the previous auctions. All those proceeds helped me get a decent start on my Gator army! With the store credit I get from the Cryx stuff I plan to turn around and start either an all Steelhead Magnus/Damiano merc army or possibly a Menoth army as Feora as well as the new warcaster and character jack has kind of caught my eye.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I can get enough of my Gator models completed and some pics shot!

-EBC-

Pix of Cryx: Warcasters

In the coming weeks, I plan on systematically taking some pics of my Cryx collection. I’m choosing to kick things off with the models that set the overall pace and tone for any given army, the Warcasters.



Coreshade the Cursed, or eGoreshade was one of the 1st Cryx models I picked up as I just loved the model! Despite Goreshade being one of my favorite Cryx characters both model wise and fluff wise, I have actually never used him in a game. Maybe as soon as I get my units of Bane Thralls finished I can give him some time on the tabletop.



It is no secret, Terminus is my homeboy! While I picked eGoreshade up for the model/fluff, Terminus was the Warcaster I have been playing from the start! My 35 pt tourney list for this guy remains undefeated, and much hated by the rest of the guys at LGS. The original Terminus model came with a set of huge mechanical/ruined wings that I really struggled with during assembly. I couldn’t find a suitable way to really pin or stabilize the wings to a point that I was comfortable that they wouldn’t break off. My solution was the wings you see on him now, taken from an old D&D mini, which has the added bonus of making his overall profile a little bit smaller for transporting.



Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast, or eSkarre. I have never been a fan of the Satyxis horns, so I left them off, which gives her a kind of “Dark Elf” look. She has been mainly my caster for smaller games, (and MM/T&C) where her feat can be abused… err most useful. My armies for her tend to build around feedback & backlash, so they are very ani-warmachine in that case.




Finally, Iron Lich Asphyxious… better known as Gaspy! I’ve been playing him the most lately, and I think I’m starting to get a bit of a feel for him. I recently developed a list fro I posted on here, which seems pretty interesting, but I need to get in more games vs different casters to see what it is capable of.

So, those are my 4 casters I currently have painted up. I recently picked up the regular Goreshade model, but I’m just not a big fan of it. Maybe I will get lucky and there will be an alternate sculpt done for him in the future. I also wouldn’t mind picking up Mortenebra, but her numerous thin arms scare me from a modeling standpoint. I also wouldn’t mind picking up Venethrax, which would give me an interesting counter to my eSkarre list. It could be interesting to go to a tourney with an anti-WM list with eSkarre, countered with an anti-Hordes list from venethrax… not to mention, the model is pretty sweet too! But, there you have it, those are my current warcasters! Next time I do a “Pix of Cryx” post it will be of the Warjacks in my collection.

- EBC -

Bane Thrall UA - Hot off the painting desk

Well, I recently picked up 2x Bane Thrall units and 2x UAs, mostly for a future Goreshade list, and while I'm still working on the unit itself, I did finish up the UA for the 1st unit. These guys served as my "Test minis" for the unit, and give a good idea of how the paint scheme will look for the whole unit. Overall, I'd say I'm pretty happy with their outcome!




... I also just realized that despite having 90% of my Cryx collection fully painted (only have the Banes & Bloodgorgers left) I do not have pics of them posted up. Guess I'm gonna have to fix that in the coming weeks!

- EBC -

Who needs a heavy? pGaspy sure doesn't!

The latest list I have been running with a bit of success is another pGaspy one. I think it is better than my previous one, but I need to get in some more games to determine just how competitive it may be. The list is as follows:



I should note that the scrap thralls are just filler for the final point and could easily be swapped for a necrotech or machine wraith. Another possibility would be dropping the 1 point filler and 1 bone jack to add in a rip jaw for the extra AP attack if you feel the need. You could even swap Gorman and the 1 point filler for a pistol wraith if need be. Needless to say, these are all tings I may be playing around with in the future.

The list is sneaky as it may seem weak on the table top at first due to its lack of a heavy, which may fool other players into rushing their heavies into your lines. However neither of the 2 main units are slouches in combat, and a heavy may quickly find themselves scrapped! The idea is to stack several effects like Scything Touch, ParasiteDark Shroud, Rust (vs WM), and gang on the bloodgorgers. I'll go through and explain, starting with the Bane Thralls.

Bane Thralls naturally have a P+S 11 w/ weapon master, and their dark shroud lowers a target's armor by -2. Scything Touch add +2 to the damage roll, Parasite reduces armor by -3, and Gorman's Rust causes -2 armor to jacks. So, stacking all those benefits, plus charging will yield some nasty results... especially vs jacks. Vs Jacks it would look like P+S 11 + 2 dmg with 4 dice on the charge, and the target jack could potentially have -7 armor! (-2 Rust, -3 Parasite, -1 Shroud) Even vs a Warbeast, it would still have -5 armor. There are not a lot of things that could stand up to effectively what would be multiple P+S 18/20 attacks with 4 dice each.

The Bloodgorgers, while not as nasty as the above example, can still surprise people. You'll be stacking the same effects mentioned above, even dark shroud if you manage to get a Bane Thrall into the Target's range. The Bloodgorgers get +2 dmg when in melee with a model in Melee range of another bloodgorger. While they lack weapon master, they do have 2x attacks each at P+S 11. So, Combat with these guys would look like: P+S 11, +2 gang, +2 scything touch (P+S 15 in total) with same -7 armor provided its vs a jack and you can manage to get a Thrall in range... effectively P+S 22/20/18 depending on what debuffs you can stack, and on 3 dice for the initial charge attack.

With effective stats like that, do you even need a heavy? Not to mention, both units effectively have a "no-Knockdown-tough roll", and the ability to create new Bane Thralls.

Scything Touch and Parasite is key, and getting them to go off on the multiple targets in a single round is pretty easy and just requires a little set up to pull it off to its fullest extent. You will have Gaspy casting 1 spell, and your Skarlock casting the other... the plan is to abuse the upkeep of a spell on 1 target, activating that unit 1st, then activating Gaspy/Skarlock and recasting the same spell(s) on a different unit. For example: Gaspy activates turn 1 and casts Scything Touch on the Thralls and Parasite on the potential charge target. Turn 2, Gaspy upkeeps Scything touch on Thralls and Parasite on the Target, you Activate the Thralls 1st Charge in, and do their stuff. Next you activate Gaspy, cast Scything Touch on the Bloodgorgers (removing it from the Thralls) and the Skarlock casts Parasite on the Gorger's charge target before the Gorgers in turn activate and charge in. Thus 2 uses of Scy-Touch/Parasite in a single round... easy stuff!

Jack wise, it's all about the Arcnodes to make the above 2 key spells easier to cast while keeping Gaspy out of range/in 2 places at once. Honestly, the Cankerworm is in there just for fun, and could easily be swapped out for another arcnode. It should also be mentioned that Gaspy is no slouch in combat on his own, and often I find my Banes/Gorgers simply open up a hole for Gaspy to rush in and finish off the opposing Caster/Lock with relative ease!

So, there you have it! Like I said, I'm not sure this list has been fully optimized just yet, as I have a handful of minute options I would like to try swapping around. But hey, I think its off to a decent start!

-EBC-

OMG, Cryx is so OP!

I'm joking, I'm joking... but it definitely seems after last night's games that several of the guys up at the LGS are starting to think so! Below is my pGaspy list I was using last night...



The screenshot by the way, was taken from Forward Kommander.com, which is a perfect (and FREE!) site that lets you build your Warmachine & Hordes lists! As you can see, the list is FAR from an optimized "hard" list (imo), but it still managed to ruffle some feathers and give my opponents the fritz. The 1st game was against Menoth... a Reznik list with Errants, Bastions, an Avatar, and an Reckoner. My general strat was simple: cast "Scything Touch" on my Mechanithralls for +2 damage and crit corrosion, block LoS and Charges with "Breath of Corruption", then get into melee with Gaspy where I let sustained attack coupled with the focus replishing side of my feat to just beat face!

Basically, I went 1st and set up my mechanithralls and Pistol wraiths to the right side, and everything else mid to left. I ran the thralls up towards the errants and his jacks, cast "Scything touch" on them, and pretty much advanced with everything else. My opponent basically advanced with everything, took a few potshots at the mechanithralls with errants but only managed to kill 1 or 2.

My turn 2, saw me charging his errants with my mechanithralls, and killed all but 3 or 4. I also used 1 pistol wraith to "death chill" the incoming avatar, I used the 2nd one to "death chill" one of the errant-like solos. Nothing major happened on turn 2 for the menoth player. The Reckoner nailed my bonejack, but my opponent's dice whiffed on him and he was only able to take out another 1 or 2 mechanithralls.

My turn 3. I was now set up to have Gaspy charge Reznik, but 1st I had to get a lone errant out of the charge path. I moved my pistol wraith into range, my 1st kill shot got transfered/martyed/or whatnot to a different errant, but my 2nd one scored the kill and cleared the way for the charge. Gaspy charged, boosted to hit with his 1st attack to trigger sustained attack and the rest was history!

My 2nd game was against a Khador player using the old witch. I honestly didnt expect to win this one as I have had a lot of issues getting through the behemoth AND catching the old witch thanks to her teleporting ability. But, I went into it with the same gusto as my last game. same plan, same strategy.

I started off getting really lucky with my 1st "Breath of Corruptions" deviating onto some doom reavers. My 2nd turn saw more lucky deviations onto the reavers, and with them taken care of I started to focus on his man-o-wars, with my Deathjack circling around the right side, it started to seem like I had Old witch pinned down between my stuff in the middle and the deathjack on the flanks. It all started to fall apart for the khador player on his next turn. He attempted to hit the deatnhjack via the scrapjack with gallows, but despite only needing a 6 or a 7, he couldnt pull it off. In his frustration he cast it again, and failed again before porting off. Those 2 failed dice rolls, the loss of his reavers via deviating aoes, and handful of other failed attempts to hit a few of my other def 14 guys were enough to ruin the khador player's mood for the rest of the night! The Behemoth did manager to whittle down my Mechanithrall unit to 3 models, which were later that turn killed off so I couldn't bring them back with the necrosurgeon. My next turnsaw me trampling with the deathjack through some mechanics that the Khador put in the way to block my charge, ending me just outside of melee range of the old witch and right behind (but just out of melee range) of the behemoth. My pistol wraiths who had been shooting and "death chilling" the behemoth all game long, did so yet again. The remainder of my stuff advanced towards the old witch and behemoth. The Khador player did pull out somethiing interesting to kill off my deathjack. From Behemoth's rear arc, the old witch used "gallows" to send the behemoth into melee range of my death jack. The behemoth, then turned the deathjack to scrap despite missing once or twice. On my next turn I charged the witch with gaspy, easily shrugged off some free strikes, and 2 attacks later the old witch was no more. the Khador player was not too happy about that loss and proceeded to have a heated discussion about how he felt Khador has the worst casters in all of Warmachine and hordes. *rolls eyes*

I'm with Terminus!

So, the latest league has come and gone, so this post is a bit overdue. I ended up playing my Cryx in the Blasted Heath, and played Terminus exclusively to great success at 15 pt, 25 pt, and 35 pt levels. My standard 35 pt list was:

Lich Lord Terminus +4
Stalker -4

Mechanithralls (full)-5
3 Brute Thrall -3
Mechanithralls (full)-5
2 Brute Thrall -2
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls -2
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls -2
The Withershadow Combine -5
Madelyn Corbeau -2
Pistol Wraith -3
Pistol Wraith -3*
3 Scrap Thrall -1*
Warwitch Siren -2

* at 1st, I ran Darragh Wrathe but swapped him for another pistol wraith with the scrap thralls as filler due to the local jack/beast heavy meta.

I think for the most part the list just caught people unaware. It only took 1 game of having an infantry unit wiped out to give Terminus 30+ armor before people stopped bringing infantry all together, and only brought jacks/beasts! Don't get me wrong, there are tons of bad match ups for Terminus and the above list can surely be tweaked to an even greater level... I think part of the appeal for me is that he seemed to just threw a wrench into the gameplay typically seen at my LGS. Needless to say, thanks to all the success I had with him in the league, Terminus is now officially my homeboy! He is also probably the most hated Warcaster at my LGS now as well! *evil grin* If you have not already done so, give him a try!

-EBC-