Forces of Warmachine: Cryx

Well, I got my Forces of Warmachine: Cryx book last week, and I've spent the week looking at it, and getting really excited to play some darn games with all this stuff. There's plenty of great in-depth reviews online, so I'll just post a few thoughts.

The story, I thought, was very well done. You get a great feel for the dynamics between some of the Lich Lords, as well as the chance to see two in action that I don't remember being in the previous stories- and one is even playable: Lich Lord Venethrax, the Cryx master of Draconic Lore. More on him in a second.

There is a few pages on the history of the Cryxian Empire, as well as some bits and pieces about the organization of their army, and the roles of the twelves Lich Lords. Again, very well written stuff, but I'm not sure if there's anything totally earth-shattering here.

The Tier Lists are again here, and some of them actually seem VERY strong.

Both Asphyxious Lists are very flexible in their allowed choices, the basic version allowing you to take 5-point Slayers (which is fantastic!), but with a few more restrictions. The Epic's theme list is even less restrictive, letting you take most of the models you would want to take in his lists anyway, but needing to put a few Cephalyx (who I've never used, so don't know how good they are) units to get all the way to Tier 4.

War Witch Deneghra's List doesn't seem too great, but running a bunch of Warwitch Siren solos could be pretty effective against some armies. Epic Deneghra's theme list focuses on incorporeal models, with Bane Knights and stealthy solos thrown in, so should be a HUGE headache for some armies to face.

Regular Goreshade's theme force revolves around Stalkers and Bane Thralls (and gives the Bane Thralls a free move at Tier 2), which would be interesting. A very in-your-face melee army with a lot of Stealth from Goreshade's Shadowmancer spell would be a lot of fun to run. Epic Goreshade has Bane Thralls and the Withershadow Combine. That's a strong start for any Cryx list.

The rest of the theme lists seem fun, but I'm not that experienced with any of the other casters, so I don't know how well they'd perform, or even how well they'd synergize with their components. As I get some of that experience I'll make sure to post about them individually.

As with all the new army books, this one includes several new inclusions (although many have been previewed in No Quarter.

Our new caster, as mentioned, is Lich Lord Venethrax. He has rules and abilities to make him extra effective against warbeasts, as well as a feat that should be moderately useful against Legion (I think they're the only ones with a lot of Eyeless Sight?). Not sure of his effectiveness as a general caster, but he'll definitely see some use.

A new bonejack: the Ripjaw, a 5-point arcnode with an Armor Piercing melee attack. 5 points to give me a way to deal some melee damage to heavy armor? Why not. I bet this thing will be pretty fun to use, but I'm not sure how much I need more melee ability in my Cryx armies.

Our new heavy is the Corruptor, who has a 12" range, Pow 14 gun with interesting abilities (including the ability to turn a living casualty from the gun into an arc-node for a turn!). It's interesting, and has some VERY cool potential, but I don't know if I'll get much use out of it either.

Our Bane Thralls got a FANTASTIC unit attachment. Tough + a free standup at the beginning of the turn for 3 points? Heck yes. Makes my favorite unit harder to kill, with none of the penalties. Will absolutely be giving this some play time.

We get a new unit in the Satyxis Blood Witches (and their unit attachment, the Blood Hag), but I think they are fairly mediocre. Decent at going after infantry, and capable of doing a lot of damage to said infantry for just a few points. The Blood Hag makes them better, but not good.

The Satyxis Raider Captain is new. She's a solo with a bunch of abilities to support and enhance Satyxis Raiders, but she's pretty soft, so I don't know if she'll have much of a role either.

The Warwitch Siren, however, is freaking cool. She's like a 2-pt mini-Deneghra. Seduction and Venom, along with stealth, is going to be incredibly useful in a bunch of situations. I can see myself taking 2 for a few games, just because I think they're going to be really handy.

Overall, with the changes made to the Cryx models I'm used to as a result of Mark II, these new additions and the new book just give me plenty more reasons to be excited playing them. I can't wait to get more games in!