35 pt List out of current Models

[Kamina]

I am trying to build a decent list out of these models. I'm new (Just started friday night) and want a decent army to learn the game with.
Denny
Iron Lich Asphyxious
Leviathan
Machine Wraith
Seether
Slayer
Pistol Wraith x2
Skarlock (on special order for thursday)
Defiler
Deathripper
Tarturus

[theWestWinds]

That's a lot of models for starting 5 days ago :)

[Kamina]

I also bought my girlfriend some legion stuff for her birthday. But I wanna build a decent army outta this list can ya help?

[theWestWinds]

Casters
Denny is a caster that is going to take a back seat on the field and cast spells through arc nodes. She also has a decent focus on de-buffing your opponent through spells and her feat. You use her spells to weaken the opponent?s stats and then use her spells or Jacks to finish the job. While Gaspy (a.k.a. Asphyxious) has the stats and spells to get up a bit closer into the melee. This means you need less arc-nodes with him. This also means he is a bit more forgiving if you leave yourself open since he can handle himself better. This also makes him a bit better at getting souls too, since he can get a bit closer than Denny normally can. Not to mention he can fly away (teleport spell) if you are In a sticky spot. His spells are well rounded. His feat is used to shoot double hellfire (or whatever his POW 14 spell is called), pop his feat, and shoot 2 more of them. That should be able to assassinate a caster or anything you NEED to get rid of to win the game. Also, if your opponent has infantry, make sure they are in his control area when you use his feat, as it won?t damage anything other than poorly armored infantry.

In the end, I feel that even though Denny is quite beardy when used well, it takes some time to figure out all her tricks and combos. To start out and learn the game, Gaspy is far more forgiving and still very powerful, all the while giving you a good taste of how to play a Cryx caster.

Arc-nodes
Unfortunately, you have the two arc-nodes I like the least. Deathripper is the right price (4 points) but it only has melee, something you will use very infrequently. And the Defiler has a nice ranged attack, but it costs 5. Remember, the primary purpose of these arc-nodes is to cast spells through them. DO NOT just throw them into combat. If you are using Gaspy, just take one and keep him close until you are ready to go for a spell kill on something, preferably on his feat turn. Then run that little bastard up to whoever you plan to spell-ssassinate, and use him for all his little arc-node is worth. If you have the extra point, I would take the Defiler, as you may actually use his weapon. But if you don't, it?s not a huge deal. Just take the deathripper. Remember, they are arc-nodes, not fighters. Oh, one last thing, when you go for a spell-ssassination with him, make sure you remember to use his ranged attack if you didn?t run. Often newer players are so excited about pulling off the arc-noded spell, they forget he has an attack himself. That is, if he doesn?t run. You only need 1 or 2 arc-nodes with Gaspy. He can often sling his own spells. With Denny, you need more. Remember, that is her primary means of delivering spells.

Jacks
I prefer the Slayer and Seether to the leviathan. The slayer is cheap and he can lay down some hurt with the point cost reduction and stat bump in MKII. And the Seether is like a slightly improved (or greatly as some see it) Slayer for more points. The Seether and Slayer are fast, efficient, and hard hitting. They are for getting in there and throwing down. The Leviathan is slower and has mixed ranged and melee. It?s not my style. Remember, the advantages of Cryx is its speed and high defense, neither of which the Leviathan has. And while the Seether and Slayer both have open fists and 3 melee attacks, the Leviathan has one melee and one ranged attack. If you take him, once melee combat starts, you will wish you took the Seether and/or Slayer.

Solos
The pistol wraiths can serve 1 of 3 main purposes in your army. You can run them around the outside and swing them in behind the opponent caster to force the caster to move up and watch his back. Using them to heard the sheep, as it were, is useful if you are planning and able ot capitalize on your opponents lack of mobility. Next, you can use them to take out troops. If your opponent has infantry, these guys can mow them down, and gain some soul tokens all the while. Save those tokens for trying to pick off your opponents caster. Lastly, they can be used to stop a heavy jack. Really heavy jacks from Khador and Menoth will hit hard. You do not want them hitting your Slayer or Seether first. So, use the Pistol Wraith and shoot them, delivering their special combo strike, and taking away half of that Jack?s activation next turn. Then, it can only move or attack. Giving you a great opportunity to engage it first and rip it to pieces. They can also be used against a jack to separate it from the heard. Often players will move their Jacks up in brick formation, all together. If you use the PWs one of them the turn before they plan to charge you, only one can charge in and attack, the other can either just stand there, or move in and not attack. Jack control is my favorite use for these guys. Cryx is about controlling your opponent. And that is what they do best. If their Jack has high defense, go shoot some infantry first to get a few souls, then go back to Jack control. And, if you do plan to go for a caster spell-ssassination, they should be joining in the fun that turn as well and helping take a few more points off of that caster. It often makes the difference between winning and losing. So, I guess I'm saying you should try and include both as often as possible.

Skarlock is great with Denny, and still very useful with Gaspy. More spells is always better. Don't be afraid to move him up into threat range if him flinging that final spell would make the difference between killing and not killing a jack or beast or whatever. To me, he is expendable after a few turns of casting buff/debuff spells. But since you can?t boost his spells, make sure you are using him on something you can hit if you are going to put him in harms way.

The Machine Wraith is cool. Not NEEDED, but cool. If your opponent plays carelessly, and he gets a jack outside of its control area, use this guy to hop inside and take a ride. He cannot take back his jack if it?s not in his control area. So if he runs his jack up way to close to your caster for an assassination attempt, and fails, take it over. Depending on the situation, it might be better to just run him away so his caster can?t get it back. But other times, using it for one final blow is optimal. That is situational. But if you get him into the fight, chances are, his owner will get him back sooner or later.

Do not use Tarturus unless you have a unit of Bane Thralls of Knights to roll with him. His whole purpose is to make a unit of Bane Thralls or Knights worth it. Sure he can lay down some hurt, but I just don't see him as viable without the infantry.



I hope that helps. Enjoy Cryx. We are an army of undead pirates. What?s not to love?!

Just remember, Cryx is not a ?hearty? army. We cannot take a beating. The name of the game is hit first. Control the board and hit first. Use knock down spells and Pistol Wraiths and Machine Wraiths to force your opponent to make hard choices. Force them to use the jacks you want them to use in a specific fight. Pressure them from every side. You cannot just charge forward and engage and hope for the best. You will lose. Cryx is an army of subtlety and finesse. If you want to charge forward and just fight, play Khador or Trolls (no offense to any who play). You are a sneaky, undead, bastard. Play like one :)

[theWestWinds]

I also bought my girlfriend some legion stuff for her birthday. But I wanna build a decent army outta this list can ya help?
Heh. I play Cryx and my girlfriend plays Legion too... Cryx and Legion have a lot of similarities. Both hit hard. Both have the same strategy of "hit first". They are both fast and have high defense. The difference is, Cryx has more board control than Legion. Legion often has the strategy of hit first and swarm. While cryx has the strategy of hit first and control the board. Legion is tricky to control, in terms of board control, since there are just so many of them (my girlfriend loves to throw a half dozen shredders at me in even the lowest point cost games). So you have to use a lot of tricks to beat them.

If you find you are beating her a lot, I can only tell you to give her the advice I gave my GF (as GFs stop playing when GFs never win). Hordes players often worry about loosing all their beasts. They often send in a frontal wave, and keep a few back for security. With Legion on Cryx, if she just bellows forward with everything from a dozen different angles, she will out-number you, and she will be able to get past you, and she will be able to get to your caster. And no offense to women players, but at least in my gaming crew, thay play more cautiously. And That style just doesen't seem to work well with Legion.

Oh, and also remember, that it is a LOT harder ot assassinate a Hordes caster with out a Stalker Light Jack. Buy one. Or two. They are not great for everything. But for killing Hordes Warlocks and Troll anything, they are invaluable. With out one, you HAVE TO remember to check how much fury their caster has on her, as this is how many attacks that warlock can transfer that turn. Also look to see how full her beasts are on fury, since a beast full on fury can not be transferred to. Cryx assassination runs are just plain more difficult against Hordes. It is a burden we bear.

[Kamina]

Thanks for the help!

What about revenant crew? I've heard they're a unit worth picking up. And my FGS has a set of 8 for $20. Which is seeming like an attractive buy.

[theWestWinds]

Well, let me be the first to say that the idea and theme of the Rev Crew is awesome. I love undead pirates! And undead pirates that spring back to life, well that's just golden! But in terms of playability, they are lacking. The cost a bunch of points to field, and if they jut kept coming back, they might be worth it. but all too often your unit leader gets picked off along with half the grunts, and there goes half the unit. Even back when the leader had tough, this unit was a bit better, but not a ton. and Their solo is really what gave them some cool stuff like invulnerability for a full round, but that's gone too :(

In the end, if you really want some awesome undead pirates, go for it. But a smart opponent can deal with them quickly. A lot of people use them with Terminus though, as they can take ranged attacks for him and protect him and then come back the next turn.

If you are talking infantry, the first thing to look at is MechanicaThralls (aka McThralls). They are cheaper point wise than the crew, and just as cheap money wise as the crew. They can hit hard enough with their combo strike to damage Jacks and Beasts better than the crew. And, with a Necrosurgeon Unit Attachment, they can respawn almost as quick as the crew. And the Surgeon has an ability where if something hits her, she can have a thrall die instead. This is what separates her from the Rev Crew leader. She is much harder to kill. And she can heal up your caster or solos if the need arises.

So, ya, I would go with the McThralls (full unit if possible) as your first infantry. And get the pirates if you like the idea and want to paint them, but just understand that they are not the BEST choice for what they do.

After that, I would go with some Bile Thralls if you find your opponents play infantry heavy. Their purge attack is golden against infantry. If you don't need the infantry killing power, go with some Bane Thralls or Bane Nights. You can then get some use out of Tartarus. Bane Thralls are harder to hit form a distance due to stealth, while Bane Knights are sneakier as they can pass through objects and terrain. The thralls can be nice and easy ot march up to your opponent since they cant be shot at, while the knights can be very sneaky and good as assassination if you really learn to use them. I am a HUGE fan of using ghostly on jacks and using these guys to surprise the crap out of my opponent and often get a caster kill. Its all about misdirection. Make them think you are going for one target, and then use ghostly and other sneaky things to get to your real target. It also helps to play on a board with solid walled terrain, since that is what ghostly works great against. NOT FORESTS! for gods sake, if you are playing against legion, avoid forests! I'm getting off topic. I digress.

in the end, if you want more infantry, I love me some Ghost Raiders. Incorporeal infantry that grow in numbers as they kill living models! and their swords do continuous fire! holy crap! But remember, a lot more models in the game can handle incorporeal models now in MKII, so they are not invincible, but they are certainly a favorite of mine.

I would pick from the following in terms of infantry, that is, if you are buying...

McThralls (full unit or 2 full units + surgeon)
Bile Thralls (6 is usually fine)
Bane Thralls (full unit)
Bane Knights (full unit)
Ghost Raiders (full unit)

[Kamina]

I found out about forests against Circle... Thanks for the help. I'm gonna construct a list and try it out.

[Kamina]

I got my hands on a Goreshade the Bastard and a Bloat Thrall this evening.

[Ptemplarcrish]

remember...the necrosurgeon and her stitch thralls are a seperate unit, not a unit attachement, and FA2....if you're gonna load up on McThralls, might as will bring 2 sets for only 2 pts per set....

[Kamina]

Thanks Crish. I'm really loving how helpful the entire community has been to this point.

[adantz]

First of welcome to this wonderful hobby. I play cryx and legion myself, although Im fairly new to the cryx side, I have a bit of experience with Asphyxious. And you got my vote to use him as your first caster.

Westwind pretty much covered how he plays. But I just want to point out again, that he can really lay down the hurt in melee. Its not hard to have him hit at p+s 20 (scything+parasite), add sustained attack, reach and access to 7 extra fury from feat, very nasty.

One downside with him though, is that he does not have a way to lower def. That can really hurt if you are facing high def models.
In my experience playing him he often has ways to use his focus by himself. So I would not recommend going to jack heavy. I really like the seether with him, it hits reliably and is very focus efficient.

As been stated, you should probably really look into getting a unit or two.
I have been using bane knights and Mech thralls with him to great success.
bane knights are a good starting unit, as they will be more flexible as they can move more or less freely around the table being ghostly, reach and weapon master makes makes them super solid. You also already own tartarus, who really makes them shine. It is also my opinion that bane knights, seem to find a with most of the cryx casters, making them a solid buy. I would also recommend checking out cankerworm if you decide to use Asphyxious.

With those additions you could make this list at (35)
pgaspy
skarlock
cankerworm
Seether
defiler
deathripper
bane knights (6)
tartarus
2x pistol wraiths