Little Boxes, Little Boxes (How would you classify Cryx Casters?)

[Puchembo]

Over on the Trollblood forums a thread was started to highlight what each of the current casters bring to the table (reference link). Since I am a new Cryx player this kind of information would be wicked helpful to me. I realize that most Cryx casters are quite versatile, so this is just to snag the highlights.

I present to you wise and knowledgeable Cryxian players the following template: (pGaspy is filled in as a style reference)

pGaspy:Provides: Buffing, Debuffing, Board Control Excels Vs.: Melee Heavy Lists (although not exclusively) Struggles Vs.: Note: Highly Versatile, Multipurpose Feat

eGaspy:Provides: Excels Vs.: Struggles Vs.: Note:

pDenny:Provides: Debuffing, Board Control Excels Vs.: With the right tools, everything Struggles Vs.: Note: Very Versatile

eDenny:Provides: Excels Vs.: Struggles Vs.: Note:

pGoreshade:Provides: Denial, Attrition, Infantry Support Excels Vs.: High Def Struggles Vs.: Vulnerable to anti stealth, chain effects, gunlines Note: Solid Tier 4 Theme Force, Excels in Low Point Games and Mangled Metal

eGoreshade:Provides: Excels Vs.: Struggles Vs.: Note:

Mortenebra:Provides: All things 'jack related, Exceptional Tier List Excels Vs.: Hordes, Infantrymachine Struggles Vs.: Note: Provides no troop support outside of feat

Scaverous:Provides: Excels Vs.: Struggles Vs.: Note:

pSkarre:Provides: High Speed, Buffing, Infantry Support Excels Vs.: High Def, Armies that struggle against swarms, Jack Heavy ListsStruggles Vs.: Chain Effects Note: Provides spotty Jack Buffing (Ritual Sacrifice)

eSkarre:Provides: Jack Support, Damage/Assassination Avoidance, Solid Feat, Focus Efficiency Excels Vs.: Elite Infantry, Jack Heavy forces, Lynch pin models Struggles Vs.: Infantry swarms, Cloud effects, Created Terrain Note: High speed Tier 4 theme force, Small based (easy to screen), Satyxis Raider Captains 'No Sleeping on the Job' makes her immune to knockdown

Terminus:Provides: Excels Vs.: Struggles Vs.: Note:

Venethrax:Provides: Difficult to Assassinate Excels Vs.: Hordes, Any army with Living Troops Struggles Vs.: Vulnerable to Eriyss (etc.), Note: Can be played from the back as a spell slinger with enough souls

Coven:Provides: Lots of Focus, 3 caster activations, strong defensive feat, 'jack buffing Excels Vs.: Armies that relie on terrain/screening, Gunlines, High Defense Infantry Struggles Vs.: Infantry Swarms, Anti-Stealth, Warbeast Heavy Hordes lists, Boosted blast damage Note: Steep learning curve, Flexibility for placement outside of 'Perfect Conjunction'

Please note I will maintain the OP with the general consensus of results so other newbies can profit from a quick referral table.

[Decade]

Mortenebra:
Provides:

• Excellent support for Cryxian jacks of all flavors.
• The ability to run multiple bone- and helljacks very effectively.
• Many unexpected assassination vectors thanks to her spells and feat.
• One of the best Tier lists in the game.
• Good focus efficiency thanks to her free upgraded Skarlock thrall (Deryliss).
• Little in the way of support for infantry outside her feat.
• Quite possibly the most difficult model to put together in the game, even with pinning.

Excels Vs.:

• Most hordes armies, thanks to her signature spell, Terminal Velocity, being very good against living models.
• Many warmachine armies that use lots of infantry and few jacks, for the same reason as above.

Note:

• Will not be camping focus due to using her spells nearly every turn.
• Is on a medium base, and therefore difficult to screen.
• Cannot fight well if your enemy reaches her. Keep her back and safe.
• Really needs jacks, and lots of them, to work effectively. Can run some infantry, but does not support them outside her feat.
• Terminal velocity is a pulse, meaning that when you cast it, the jack's affected can leave her control area and still benefit from the spell. Conversely, her feat is an aura, and only provides its benefit so long as the model in question is within her control area.
• Her Tier list is amazing, but not absolutely required.

[Mercy]

Puchembo good idea. Have you read any of overviews stickied on the forum?
Decade that's awesome. And very helpful for us that are just starting. Thank you!

[The Horror]

Venethrax:
Provides:
Soul Gathering
High ARM camp (27 with Darragh, Combine, and no souls)
Nothing to help support the rest of his army

Excels Vs:
Hordes. Gets an additional damage die against warbeasts and steals the fury off of any enemy he kills (this includes solos like forsaken, and enemies killed with his spells).
Living infantry hordes. Large hordes of living infantry means lots of potential souls.

Notes:
Incredibly vulnerable to Eiryss and needs a way to kill her fast.
The timing on his feat is very difficult to learn.
Like most of our casters he's a medium base and hard to screen.
Can play a spellslinging game against armies with lots of souls to harvest, but he needs to play back more and needs a node.
Likes infantry with multiple attacks which allows for more soul harvesting.
Having a Reaper/Malice in the list to drag warbeasts allows Venethrax to steal the fury off of beasts without overextending as far.

[Vaden Khale]

Goreshade the Cursed
Provides: An amazing attrition caster, upkeep removal, enemy spell control.
Excels Vs: Low defense armies, loves enemy infantry swarms with low defense, armies with little infantry counters
Notes: Has a decent tier list up to Tier 4. Struggles against armies with answers to stealth and/or chain lightning type of effects. Hard to screen against gunline armies.

[Puchembo]

Puchembo good idea. Have you read any of overviews stickied on the forum?

I have and the write ups are top notch. This is more over a highlights list, something to reference on the fly.

[The Horror]

pSkarre
Provides:
Massive infantry support.
Gives additional attack die to all faction models in control area.
Dark Guidance makes critical effects more reliable.
Feat is a massive strength buff.
No support for Mercenaries.
Speed 7

Excels Vs:
Armies that have trouble dealing with swarms of infantry.
Armies that rely on high DEF, Dark Guidance allowing MAT 5 troops to hit DEF 15 on average rolls
Jack heavy lists, Blood Magic allows even the weakest infantry to dent heavy jacks, and allows ARM cracking models to rip through heavies.

Notes:
Small based and easily hid behind her infantry wall.
Can support jacks, but due to the randomness of Ritual Sacrifice it's best to not run too many.
Her No Quarter tier list allows her to use certain Mercenary Jacks in her battle group.
Satyxis Raider Captains no sleeping on the job affects Skarre making her immune to knockdown.
The Skarlock thrall is Skarre's best friend as he can cast ritual sacrifice for her every turn.
The best Ritual Sacrifice targets are units that give lots of models for little points such as Scrap Thralls and Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls.

[Munindk]

How about adding "Struggles vs:" to the template?

[Gorgar]

pGoreshade : Note: best in low point games esp mangled metal

[Ikazuyr]

pDenny:Provides: debuffing, board control Excels Vs.: everything Note: very versatile, makes everything in her list better

[Puchembo]

How about adding "Struggles vs:" to the template?

Done.

My plan is to get as much into the template as possible then I will massage it for readability and consistently a little bit each night.

[max2323]

Did this get moved, or did it just die out?

[Sanctjud]

Did this get moved, or did it just die out?

Because you resurrected this thread, I'm guessing it died.
And for good reason, little boxes just don't help

[TheSanityAssassin]

eSkarre
Provides:
Fantastic passive Battlegroup buff in Seas of Fate
Ability to speed up warjacks considerably (perdition)
Damage/Assassination avoidance (admonition)
Speed 7
Amazing feat can shut down a whole enemy turn
Theme force is extremely fast
Surprising Focus efficiency
Ability to butcher infantry (black spot)

Excels Vs:
Forces with a few powerful models
'Jack heavy forces
Anything relying on long charges for assassination
Elite infantry forces

Struggles Vs:
Huge infantry hordes
Loads of cloud effects
Anything that bypasses targeting restrictions
Debuffing armies
Created terrain effects

Notes:
Small based and easily hid behind her infantry wall.
Can support many more warjacks than her 7 focus would suggest. Seas of Fate makes her arguably the most efficient battlegroup commander in Warmachine
Her Tier 4 list is very limited but EXTREMELY fast, and should get the drop on nearly any force. It works well at 35 points, and possibly 50, but anything beyond that stretches her choices too thin.
Her feat is very devastating, particularly against enemies that rely on getting powerful models such as Mulg or Typhon into place. It is very often worth it to charge and kill one of your own models in order to draw powerful enemies into her control range.
Be very wary of anything that can boost sprays or blast damage during Skarre's feat turn, as she'll be wounded and often without focus...a couple of boosted blasts can spell her doom!
Satyxis Raider Captains no sleeping on the job affects Skarre making her immune to knockdown.

[TheSanityAssassin]

Witch Coven
Provides:
Second largest starting FOCUS pool in the game
3 'Caster activations per turn, allowing widespread buffing
Amazing amounts of movement shenanigans
A situational but crippling critical effect on the damage spell
A strong defensive feat, something rare for a Cryx army
An excellent 'Jack buffing spell

Excels Vs:
Any player who has not faced them repeatedly
Armies who seek to use terrain/screening to hide important models
Gunlines, if played properly
Players who cannot think outside the box
High Defense infantry forces (see notes below)


Struggles Vs:
Huge infantry hordes
Anti-Stealth
Highly experienced players
Warbeast heavy Hordes forces
Boosted blast damage of any sort

Notes:
Very tricky to figure out initially, but once you know them, it is very easy to use their unique style to your advantage
9 focus means you can effectively hit high defense infantry with Curse of Shadows to lower defense and let you run through them.
An effective tactic is to Curse a high DEF/low ARM target, run Scrap thralls in amongst them and then detonate the chain with a Pistol Wraith or Raider Captain.
Perfect Conjunction is very handy for lowering your spell costs, but don't be afraid to move the ball forward to advance the control area. It's ARM is even high enough that it is sometimes worth slamming it with your own 'jacks to advance your control area for the feat.
Remember that enemy models must be inside the control area to be affected by the feat...they can still shoot you from outside of it.

[Puchembo]

The SanityAssassin I have added your input to the original post.

[zeezok]

I am of the opinion that this should be stickied with the rest of our nifty guides and tips, anybody else?

[Warmistress.Ravyn]

I am of the opinion that this should be stickied with the rest of our nifty guides and tips, anybody else?

Seconded!!!

[Puchembo]

I would feel dirty if I gave this a third, since I started the thread. As an aside looking forward to building in the comments vs Colossals etc.

[Rhonx79]

Third! get this stickied i want more.

[Lamoron]

Terminus:

- Provides: Difficult to Assassinate, Undead Infantry Support, and a Great assassination game.
- Excels Vs.: Massed living infantry or lists that cannot crack ARM 24 reliably.
- Struggles Vs.: Things that can stop or negate charges.
- Note: Requires a lot of characters to work well which is hard with character restrictions.

Quotes: Trying to take down Terminus with living infantry is like trying to kill a fat kid by throwing cookies at him: There's no way you'll have enough cookies.

[Zato]

eGoreshade:

Provides:Attrition, Upkeep Removal, ARM Debuff, minor enemy Spell Controll, hands out Stealth.
Excels Vs.:Low DEF living infantry.
Struggles Vs.:Anti-Infantry Casters, High DEF models, lots of Shooting that ignores Stealth.
Note: Medium Base so a little difficult to screen. Actually really dangerous in Melee between Curse of Shadows and Voass, but it's not what you're aiming for. Oh, and sexiest model in the game.

[Island]

I'd just like to note for the Coven that Curse lowers ARM, not DEF.