Expanding the Battlebox - A Beginner's Guide to Cryx Troops

[juckto]

Whether or not you started with the battlebox this thread should be all you need to know for buying your first batch of Troops. I am going to cover Troops only, because the battlebox comes with 4 jacks and that’s quite enough for a starting force.

Cryx offers lots of options for troops:

• Undead:
  
  • Bane Knights: Elite skeletal warriors able to pass through terrain with ease.
  • Bane Thralls: Elite skeletal warriors cloaked in shadows and armed with terrible axes.
  • Bile Thralls: Horribly bloated creatures full of pus, able to explode on the enemy in a shower of gore.
  • Mechanithralls: Steam powered zombies with powerful gauntlets and able to regenerate quickly when teamed with a Necrosurgeon.
  • Revenant Crew: Zombie pirates able to increase their numbers every time they kill an enemy.
  • Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders: A character unit, effectively a souped up version of the Revenants.
• Living:
  
  • Bloodgorgers: Mutated trolls with a blood frenzy.
  • Satyxis Blood Witches: Fast female warriors who can use their magic to splatter living models.
  • Satyxis Raiders: Very fast living female warriors with a nasty whips.

To support these great troops options there are plenty of solos:

• Bloat thrall: Big brother to Bile Thralls, this guy is able to launch corrosive gobs over models, acting as a mini-artillery piece.
• Machine Wraith: A cheap Incorporeal model, capable of possessing enemy jacks if you’re lucky.
• Necrotech: Repairs your jacks, and turns dead jacks into walking bombs.
• Skarlock thrall: A very useful model, capable of casting spells from your warcaster’s playing card.
• Warwitch Siren: A versatile model, with a range of different abilities from powering your jacks to confusing the enemy.
• Captain Rengrave: Useful if you’re taking Revenant models.
• Bane Lord Tartarus: Very useful if you’re taking banes of any flavour.
• General Slaughterborn: Very useful if you’re taking Bloodgorgers.

Please note that there are several options I will not cover in this thread, because they are too “niche”, too “newbie-unfriendly”, or simply too hard to fit in with the battlebox contents at 25 points.

• Cephalyx
• Revenant Cannon Crew
• Soulhunters
• Black Ogrun
• Darragh Wrathe
• Withershadow Combine
• Pistol Wraith

[juckto]

A few house-keeping notes before we start (feel free to skip reading this post).

First, this thread is based on expanding the battlebox (14 points) to a small skirmish (25 points). Everything in green is recommended purchases for the 11 points.

Second, this was written in mid-2011, prices are subject to change. Before buying anything you should always review current prices, find out if new sculpts are being released soon, proxy the models to see if you like them in your army, and most importantly choose the models you like.

Third, due to Intellectual Property rights I can’t discuss statlines directly. Instead I will use the following adjectives to describe MAT, RAT, and DEF:

• Pathetic
• Terrible – for instance, Deneghra’s RAT.
• Poor – for instance, the Deathripper’s RAT.
• Average – for instance, the Deathripper’s MAT or the Slayer’s DEF.
• Good – for instance, the Slayer’s MAT.
• Excellent – for instance, the Deathripper’s DEF.
• Superb

Fourth, most infantry only have one wound so their ARM value isn’t as important for them as it is for jacks. Due to this I’ll simply describe it as Low, Average, High.

[juckto]

The Undead

Cryx is synonymous with the Undead, so it’s only fitting we begin with them. Our undead come in many shapes and sizes, from skeletons to zombies to wraiths. All of them have one thing in common – they never flee.

Bane Knights
Bane Knights have the highest ARM of Cryx's basic troops, but don’t let that fool you - they’re still going to die to average dice rolls. And with a poor DEF your opponent will find it easy to hit them.

To keep them alive you will need to use terrain to your advantage, either hiding in it for Concealment bonus or behind it to block LoS. Don’t worry about the terrain slowing you down, as Knights have Ghostly so they can move through terrain freely. They can even pass through solid walls to surprise your opponent.

Knights also bring Vengeance to the table, which allows them to make a extra 3” move and attack if one of them died last turn. This can give you an extra spurt of speed when you need it most, or rearrange the unit in preparation for a charge.

Lastly they have Reach and Weapon Master on their lances. So they can attack further and do more damage. They’re great against low DEF high ARM targets, but they have an average MAT so struggle to hit high DEF opponents such as Circle.

They have an awesome synergy with Bane Lord Tartarus who makes them faster, more accurate, and creates more of them (see below).

I think that your best purchase would be two boxes of Knights and Bane Lord Tartarus (total cost: US$116.97). Not only will this give you enough models for one full unit or two small units, it will also give you a few spare models for when Tartarus summons more banes.

Bane Thralls
Bane Thralls are similar, but completely different to, Bane Knights. They have similar stat lines (only difference is Bane Thralls have 1 point less ARM) but very different special rules. For starters, Bane Thralls have Stealth so your opponent will struggle to shoot them. This allows you to advance in the open terrain with relative safety, which is good because they’re pretty slow at SPD 5 and terrain will really bog them down (of course you could always use Denegrha to cast Ghost Walk on them, if terrain is a problem).

Secondly they have Dark Shroud which lowers the ARM of any enemy in their melee range. Not only does this mean they do a bit more damage, but non-bane models attacking the same target can benefit as well.

As with the Knights, they have Weapon Master so they’re great against high ARM targets, but have an average MAT so they struggle to hit high DEF enemies.

They have an excellent UA: Officer and Standard Bearer. The Officer is a bit better at killing, with slightly better MAT and CMD, 5 hit points, and carrying dual axes. He also grants Dead Rise allowing your Banes to stand up during your maintenance phase if they were knocked down last turn. A very useful ability.

The Standard bearer grants Tough to the whole unit, one of the better abilities in the game. Between Stealth, Tough, and Dead Rise you’ve got a very durable unit that doesn’t stay down.

Once again, they have an awesome synergy with Bane Lord Tartarus who makes them faster, more accurate, and creates more of them (see below).

I think that your best purchase would be one box of Bane Thralls (comes in a box of 10) and Bane Lord Tartarus (total cost: US$96.98). That way you can use your 11 points to either field a full unit and have 3 points to spend on solos, or field a minimum unit + Bane Lord Tartarus + 2 points of solos, and have the extra banes on hand for when Tartarus summons them.

I recommend you also grab the UA and a blister of ‘classic’ Bane Thralls (total cost: US$44.98). They won't quite fit into 11 points but if you're going down the Bane Thrall route with your army you will eventually want these items. And in the meantime, you can mix and match min/max units, Tartarus, or UA and see how each performs.

Bane Lord Tartarus
Bane Lord is an unholy killing machine who turns Banes from a good choice to field into a great choice. For starters he has a good SPD 6 and Ghostly so he can pretty much ignore terrain and free strikes. He has good DEF and excellent ARM (in fact they’re as good as your Slayer!) with 8 damage boxes. He has Stealth to avoid being shot, Terror to scare living models off the table, and Dark Shroud to inflict -2 ARM on everyone in his melee range.

He can catch a lot of enemies with Dark Shroud because he has Reach. Better yet he has Special Attack: Thresher so he can make one attack against everyone in range. He has good MAT 7 to hit things and Weapon Master to really damage them when he does.

He makes other Banes awesome for two reasons – first is Curse, which is a RNG CMD ability that can be used at any time. Once you've cursed an enemy model/unit any Bane charging that enemy gains +2” movement (so that’s great for offsetting Banes slow SPD) and they also gain +2 to attack rolls (so that offsets their poor MAT). Note that you don’t need to use the curse on what Tartarus is attacking, although in a pinch he might need it.

Secondly is Death Toll, which allows you to turn every living model that Tartarus kills into a brand new Bane that may be added to an existing unit. Between SPD 6, Reach, and Thresher you can slam Tartarus into a unit of models and generate 3-5 new Banes. Then you curse a different unit, activate the Banes (with their new 3-5 members) and charge them at the cursed unit.

All this comes at a cost though, Tartarus is one of the most expensive solos in the game at 4 points. It’s worth it though, and if you’re using Banes without Tartarus you are really missing out.

If you’re going to field Bane Knights or Bane Thralls, you should definitely pick up Tartarus to go with them. See above for my recommended purchases.

Bile Thralls
Bile Thralls are Cryx’s “Spray” unit. They’ve got a nice SP 8 gun which has a low POW 12, but it does inflict continuous corrosion. That means that if you hit you’ve got a 2 in 3 chance of doing a point of damage when your opponent’s turn starts – which is enough to kill single wound infantry.

Unfortunately they suck at shooting because of their pathetic RAT. Add onto that their slow SPD 5, pathetic DEF, average ARM, and they have no melee weapon. They sound terrible but all these negatives are completely offset by their special attack Purge. Basically, they explode and everything in front of them within 6” and not hiding behind terrain gets hit automatically. It’s great for damaging high DEF enemies that you otherwise can’t hit, and even if you don’t kill them in the purge they all suffer continuous corrosion and will probably die next turn.

Fielding a full unit is not effective, because if your opponent decides to kill them before you Purge all over him, he will find it just as easy to kill a full unit of 10 as he would a minimum unit of 6.

I think that your best purchase would be a single box of bile thralls (total cost: US$29.99). At the 25 point level, that’s probably all you need.
At the 25 point level, one unit is probably all you need to take care of all your enemy’s troops. In any case, a single 6-man unit will cost you 5 points and leave you 7 to spend on another unit and/or solos.

[juckto]

Mechanithralls
Mechanithralls are mindless zombies and with poor DEF and ARM, they die like flies. They are great if you want to field a horde of undead, because their high mortality means they have a very low point cost. But they’re not shambling undead – at SPD 6 these guys are fast. Normally, their purpose is to run straight into the nastiest enemy model and keep it busy while the rest of your army deals to the less nasty stuff.

In terms of combat, they suck. They have poor MAT and struggle to hit even low DEF enemies without help. On the plus side, they have Combo Strike which you should be familiar with from your Slayer. So against high DEF low ARM targets (such as infantry) you can make two attacks and hope one hits, and against low DEF high ARM targets (such as jacks) you can make a single powerful attack and do a bit of damage.

Mechanithralls have the option to include WA: Brute Thrall, who is a bit of a “big brother”. The brute has better ARM, more hit points, a little bit better MAT and a higher P+S. On the table they either soak up a few bullets for the little guys, or they make it into combat and do some damage. Best of all, they come on a medium-sized base so they can stand between enemy jacks and the little guys to prevent the whole lot being trampled.

Mechanithralls have an awesome synergy with the Necrosurgeon (see below), who turns them from an annoying horde of zombies into a veritable swarm that your opponent will struggle to escape from.

Necrosurgeon
The Necrosurgeon runs behind the mechanithralls, picking up dead bodies with Body Snatcher and using them to create up to 3 mechanithralls per turn with Necrosurgery. This wouldn’t be so great, except that Body Snatcher works on mechanithrall corpses, which means you can collect the zombies your opponent just killed and bring them straight back to “life”. If you manage to snatch some bodies from living models you’ve got a good chance of getting a unit of mechanithralls larger than what you started with! Altogether the zombies becomes a giant tarpit that can tie up enemy units for a long time.

The surgeon has a good DEF, but a poor ARM. She’ll be hiding in the back ranks most of the time, and if she does get hit she has Sacrificial Pawn to allow her to pass hits onto nearby zombies and stitch thralls. Stitch thralls are her little pets that help her collect dead bodies, so she doesn’t need to risk her neck on the front line.

She can’t create new mechanithrall units, only add to existing ones, so she is a bit less useful if every zombie is wiped out. Not completely useless, because she has Surgery, which can be used to heal D6 hitpoints on any friendly faction warrior model – which includes your warcaster.

I think that your best purchase would be two boxes of mechanithralls, two brute thralls, and the necrosurgeon (total cost: US$103.97). Hell, they’re so cheap to field you could even pick up a third box (total cost: US$131.94).
Anyway, assuming you got two boxes, that’s enough to field a full unit and have two spare bodies. You can add in the 2 brutes and the necrosurgeon and you’ve got a whopping 16 models on the table for only 9 points! Leaving you two points for a solo – or you could drop one brute thrall and add a 2nd, minimum sized unit (using that third box I mentioned).

Revenant Crew of the Artramentous
The Revenants are Cryx’s other flavour of zombie, and play quite differently to Mechanithralls. Once again they die very easily with a average DEF and poor ARM, and kinda suck in combat with a poor MAT. However they have Gang to make up for that, which gives them +2 to attack and damage in melee if they work with at least one other trooper.

These guys come with an average pistol, giving them some ranged ability (assuming you’re not running or charging already), and a weak cutlass. Best of all they have Point Blank which allows them to make melee attacks with the pistols. Unlike Gunfighter, point blank allows you treat the pistol as if it were a melee weapon – giving these guys two attacks when in melee. Plus any boosts you have to melee attack or damage affects the Point Blank attacks.

Their zombie-rific ability comes from Deathbound, which allows all the dead Revenants to be respawned at the start of your turn - as long as the leader survives the round. Keep him alive and the unit is golden, lose him and all the currently dead Revenants vanish permanently.

They have a WA: Rifleman, who I know nothing about having not read the Wrath expansion yet.

Lastly, they have a good synergy with Captain Rengrave who can make them hit more accurately and also increase the size of the unit (see below).

I think that your best purchase would be two boxes of Revenants and Captain Rengrave (total cost: US$70.97). This will give you enough models to field a full unit, the Captain, have two spare models for summoning, and fits in exactly to 11 points.

Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders
The Ghost Raiders are ghostly undead pirates, and they’re on fire. They are a Character Unit, so you can only have one unit. They are fast at SPD 7 and are Incorporeal so terrain won’t slow them down and they will laugh at non-magical enemies. They have a single weak melee weapon, but it does Magical Continuous Fire Damage so all you have to do is hit and they’re set on fire. And with a good MAT, that’s not too hard.

They die easily once they become Corporeal (or when your opponent brings magic weapons), with an average DEF and a low ARM. Their real ability comes from Blackbane’s Reanimation, which allows you to add one grunt to the unit every time you kill a living enemy with a melee attack. Unfortunately this ability only works while Blackbane is “alive”, and the unit loses potency if he is killed off.

They have a small synergy with Captain Rengrave who can make them hit more accurately (see below).

I think that your best purchase would be a box of Ghost Raiders, and 4 blisters of Ghost Raiders, and Captain Rengrave (total cost: US$80.94). This will allow you field the full unit with 4 extra models for Reanimation , and field Captain Rengrave and still have 1 point left for a solo.
In this case there is no point getting a second box because you would end up with an extra Blackbane model which would be difficult to convert, and more importantly it is no cheaper to buy the models in the box.

Captain Rengrave
Rengrave is a good support solo for the Revenant Crew due to Death Toll, which allows him to add a grunt every time he kills a living enemy model. He also gives Veteran Leader which grants any Revenant (which includes Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders) +2 to hit if they have him in their LoS.

Combat-wise he is alright, with a sword and long range pistol which are both Magical, good MAT and average RAT. He has Point Blank so he can use his pistol and sword in melee, and Terror to scare living models with any luck.

Despite having good DEF and ARM, he’s a bit fragile considering that he will be a prime target for your opponent. Luckily he has Sacrificial Pawn so he can fob off any ranged hits on nearby Revenants, and Ghost Shot on his pistol so you have the option of keeping him back and simply pot-shotting enemies.

I think that your best purchase would be two boxes of Revenants and Captain Rengrave (total cost: US$70.97). This will give you enough models to field a full unit, the Captain, have two spare models for summoning, and fits in exactly to 11 points.

[juckto]

The Living

Cryx isn’t all about the undead though, sometimes we like to bring something fresh to the table. On the down side living models have to worry about things like Terror and Command Checks. On the plus side they have Souls which many other Cryx models can use to boost their abilities.

Bloodgorgers
Bloodgorgers are trolls and so of course come with Tough. They’re mounted on a medium base which can be useful for blocking LOS to other models (which becomes very important when you get a caster on a medium base). They are a bit slow at SPD 5, but have Blood Thirst which gives them +2” when they charge a living model to make up for it.

In terms of combat ability they have two hand weapons with a lowly P+S of 11. With two attacks they’re going to make mincemeat of most infantry, but they’re a bit weak to do much damage to high ARM targets. They have average MAT but they come with Gang for +2 to MAT and Damage if at least two of them engage the same target.

Unlike many of Cryx’s troops they are living models, but they have Fearless so you don’t need to worry about them running. Even better they have Terror so they can scare the enemy off if you’re lucky.

Lastly, they have an excellent synergy with General Slaughterborn (see below).

I think your best purchase would be two boxes and General Slaughterborn (total cost: US$124.97). Sure it’s slightly cheaper to buy one box and two blisters, but if you do that you won’t have the option of using two units.
In any case, a full unit plus the general is exactly 11 points, or two minimum units is 10 points, or one minimum unit plus the general is 8 points. With the last two options you have got some room for solos.

General Gerlak Slaughterborn
Gerlak is a great solo to take with Bloodgorgers. Under his leadership they gain Overtake which allows them to advance up to 1” every time you kill an enemy warrior. That’s great if you’ve killed everything in range, or useful to move the Bloodgorgers out of the way of the rest of your army. He also gives them No Sleeping on the Job which means they can’t be knocked down – great for when you pass those Tough rolls.

As to Gerlak himself, he has Tough (being a Troll), Terror, Fearless, excellent MAT and high ARM. As with the Bloodgorgers he has Blood Thirst to make it easier to get into combat, and Reach on his weapon to extend his threat range. Once he is in combat he has Finisher which grants him an additional die versus models that are already damaged, and his best ability Killing Spree. Every time he kills an enemy model he can move 1” and make another attack. With a bit of lucky dice rolling he can rip through an entire enemy army.

I think your best purchase would be two boxes and General Slaughterborn (total cost: US$124.97). Sure it’s slightly cheaper to buy one box and two blisters, but if you do that you won’t have the option of using two units.
In any case, a full unit plus the general is exactly 11 points, or two minimum units is 10 points, or one minimum unit plus the general is 8 points. With the last two options you have got some room for solos.

Satyxis Blood Witches
Blood Witches are a light infantry, surgical strike team. They’re pretty cheap to field but don’t let that fool you, you don’t want to throw them away like you do Mechanithralls. The main reason for taking them is to get their UA, who is one of the best “solos” in the game.

But first let’s talk about the unit. They’re very fast at SPD 7, fragile with average DEF & ARM, and average MAT. Though they have Gang to give them +2 to attack and damage if two engage the same target, and two very weak melee attacks (horns and razor).

However the fun starts with their Blood Razor. It’s a Magical Weapon so you can hurt those pesky Incorporeal models without wasting focus slinging spells. And if you kill a living model you get to choose between Death Strike which allows you to use the dead body as a weapon against any model within 4”; or Blood Mist which explodes them into a cloud effect, giving you shelter for next turn. It doesn’t even have to be an enemy model – Witches have a fine tradition of stabbing each other in the back just to shelter in the clouds.

The fun continues with the UA: Blood Hag. She brings all the same abilities to the table, and some. First her Blood Razor has an additional ability Dispel which allows you to get rid of pesky upkeeps just by hitting the enemy. Secondly she has Entropic Force which prevents enemy models within her CMD from using Tough or healing itelf or healing others. Incredibly useful against many enemies, not just Trolls.

Last of all she has a “mini-feat” Blood Shadow. Once per game the whole unit can become Incorporeal at the end of their activation. This means they can charge in, attack, then go Incorporeal and be safe from repercussions. You could clear a line of enemy skirmishers, then turn Incorporeal to let your heavy jack charge straight through and make a mess. Or many other tactics – it all comes down to the timing of your surgical strike.

On the downside the Blood Hag is slower than the unit at SPD 5, but is also the unit commander so the Witches need to stay within 9” of her. Generally the Witches run ahead a little way, surgically strike some poor fool, then die horribly next turn. The Hag can then be treated as a “solo”, and with Stealth she has a good chance of surviving.

Also, you could take the Satyxis Raider Captain (see below) to prevent them from being knocked down, but generally the Raider Captain is better to take with actual Raiders.

I think that your best purchase would be one box of Witches and the Hag (total cost: US$59.98). The Witches are packaged in a box of 10, so this will allow you to field the full unit plus the hag and you will still have 3 points left for solos.

Satyxis Raiders
Satyxis Raiders are more straightforward than the Witches and more dangerous – but they cost more to field. They are very fast with SPD 7 and Advance Deployment. They have a good DEF but low ARM, which means they’re relatively hard to hit but die easily when they are. They are living models and have no way of regenerating like our zombies do, so normally you are best off fielding a full unit.

They’re great in melee. Their main weapon, the Lacerator, has Reach to allow you to hit targets from a long way away. In fact, between their high SPD and +3” from charging you can potentially get in melee with something 12” away! It has Chain Weapon to help vs models with shields, Critical Knockdown, and best of all Feedback which inflicts one damage point on a warcaster every time you hurt one of his warjacks.

Although their two weapons may appear weak at P+S of only 9 and 8 respectively, they have Combined Melee Attack to overcome this. In fact you can make two CMA by using both weapons – and don’t be afraid to mix and match in order to reach more enemy models!

They have an incredibly good UA: Raider Sea Witch. She brings a slightly different weapon loadout, with a long range, low strength handcannon and a spear which is slightly worse than the standard lacerator. She can work with the unit with Combined Melee Attack, and a higher MAT 7.

What makes her great is 3 things. She grants Force Barrier, which makes models in her unit immune to blast damage and gives them +2 DEF vs ranged attacks. She gives the Tactic Pathfinder to the whole unit. With those two combined your very fast melee unit is now harder to shoot and harder to slow down. Lastly, she has Power Swell, which is a mini-feat giving the whole unit extra damage once per game.

They have a good synergy with the Satyxis Raider Captain, who makes them even faster (see below).

I think that your best purchase would be two boxes of Satyxis, the Sea Witch, and the Raider Captain (total cost: US$80.96). Although you can’t quite fit it all into 11 points it gives you all the options, and having two boxeswill allow you to take two min-size units if you want (as opposed to one box plus blisters).

Satyxis Raider Captain
As the name implies, the Raider Captain synergises very well with Satyxis Raiders (see above). She is similar to the Raiders with the same horns, lacerator, and hand cannon, but much better stats with excellent MAT and average RAT. The Lacerator is the same as the Raiders, with the added quality Weapon Master, making her quite threatening to high ARM/hitpoint targets.

She is a very speedy model, with SPD 7, Advance Deployment, Pathfinder, and Sprint which allows you to make a full advance at the end of your activation if you killed an enemy in melee. Her best ability is Desperate Pace, a special action which makes other Raiders faster. You remember we discussed how fast Raiders were? With this Captain, they’re moving another 2” a turn.

The last thing she brings is No Sleeping on the Job, which prevents herself and any Satyxis models nearby from being knocked down. Note that this applies to Satyxis Blood Witches, too.

I think that your best purchase would be two boxes of Satyxis, the Sea Witch, and the Raider Captain (total cost: US$80.96). Although you can’t quite fit it all into 11 points it gives you all the options, and having two boxeswill allow you to take two min-size units if you want (as opposed to one box plus blisters).

[juckto]

The Solos

So that’s all the core troops that are available to Cryx, and the solos that synergise directly with them. Lots of choices, and plenty of combinations. Now let’s look at the remaining solos available and how they can fill in the last few points of your army.

Bloat Thrall
The bloat thrall is like a big brother to the bile thralls, except instead of a spray weapon he fires a massive AOE 5 with a respectable POW of 14. Unfortunately his weapon only has Damage: Corrosion – he is lacking that all important “continuous” word that lets you melt infantry 2 times out of 3. On the upside, he has a nice 12” range and Arcing Fire, which allows him to shoot over most models that would normally block LoS. All in all, he makes a very nice mini-artillery piece.

He has pathetic DEF and average ARM with 8 damage points. He has Steady so he can’t be knocked down, a melee weapon so he has a chance in combat, and the final icing on the cake is Death blast, so when he dies he explodes over everyone nearby with a POW 14 blast.

In 25 points, I think that you would only want one Bloat Thrall (total cost: US$21.99). They’re only Field Allowance: 2 so you’ll probably only ever want a max of 2. Anyway, he’s not a bad choice to fill up 2 points.

Machine Wraith
The Machine Wraith has a single, very specific purpose – to possess enemy warjacks via Machine Meld, and then try to avoid being exorcised. Unfortunately it doesn’t work against character warjacks or warbeasts, so the usefulness of the Machine Wraith depends heavily on what your enemy brings to the table. But the look on your opponent’s face when his own jack starts smashing apart his army is priceless, and you can bet that next game he will spend a lot of effort killing this model, or as I like to call it, “getting distracted by this model.”

Your opponent will have a hard time killing the Machine Wraith, as it is fast with SPD 7, hard to hit with good DEF, and Incorporeal. Incorporeal not only means you can use terrain to cover your approach, but makes it useful even against hordes or character jack players, as you can safely claim control zones or engage non-magical shooting units and prevent them shooting.

Costing only 1 point to field, I think the Machine Wraith is a solid investment - even if only for the potential hell it can wreak in your opponent’s battleplan. It’s Field Allowance: 3, but you probably only want one at most in smaller games (total cost: US$13.99). That will leave you 10 points to spend on troops and other solos.

Necrotech
As its name implies, the Necrotech has Repair which can “heal” d6 damage points on a friendly Cryx warjack. His other ability is to loot wreck markers and Create Scrap Thralls (see below). His main problem is his low SPD 5, which means he struggles to keep up with the faster Cryx warjacks (and you need to be in base-to-base to use Repair).

Combat wise, he really sucks with poor DEF, average ARM, and only 5 hitpoints. His only saving grace is Steady which prevents him being knocked down, and Reach on his melee weapon.

The Necrotech’s “companion” is the Scrap Thrall. For one point you get both a Necrotech and a Scrap Thrall, and you have a chance of making more Scrap Thralls from wreck markers via Create Scrap Thrall, which gives you d3 thralls from a light warjack wreck and d6 from a heavy. Note that although they come together, they are not a unit.

I think your best purchase would be one necrotech and 2 blisters of scrap thralls (total cost: US$34.97). Then simply field the single necrotech and scrap thrall, and keep the remaining six for when you loot a wreck. That will leave you 10 points to spend on troops and other solos.

Scrap Thrall
The Scrap Thrall is a walking talking (okay moaning) ticking bomb. With a terrible DEF and low ARM pretty much anything will set it off – including another scrap thrall going off nearby. Because when they die Thrall bomb happens – an AOE 4 POW 8 blast. All you have to do is roll a 5 and the next Scrap Thrall will die, potentially causing a massive chain reaction.

Even if they do make it into combat, their special attack is Death burst. It’s exactly the same as Thrall bomb, except if you somehow hit your target then it becomes the centre of the AOE and suffers a POW 16 damage roll.

As you’d expect from such a throwaway solo, it’s cheap to field. In fact, you get three of them for a single point. Despite this cheapness, I wouldn’t recommend trying to spam the enemy with them –fill up your army list with them and you’re more likely to blow holes in your own army than you are the enemy. Generally they only see the tabletop when a Necrotech loots a wreck marker to generate them (see above).

I think your best purchase would be one necrotech and 2 blisters of scrap thralls (total cost: US$34.97). Then simply field the single necrotech and scrap thrall, and keep the remaining six for when you loot a wreck. That will leave you 10 points to spend on troops and other solos.

Skarlock Thrall
The Skarlock Thrall is Cryx’s “Warcaster attachment,” and it provides an excellent synergy with almost every Cryx warcaster. The Skarlock has Spell Slave, a special action which allows it to cast a spell from its warcaster’s card that normally costs 3 FOC or less. A free spell every turn? Yes please!

However it can’t channel, can’t boost attacks unless it has stolen souls via Soul Taker, but if you’re close enough to steal souls chances are you’re going to die, as the Skarlock is a high priority target for your enemy. In other words it has a short range and can’t get too close to the enemy, so spends most of its time casting support spells on friendly units. For instance, with your warcaster Denegrha it’ll be casting Ghost Walk a lot.

At only 2 points, and effectively giving your warcaster +3 FOC (let alone the shenanigans you can get up to by activating them at different points in your turn), the Skarlock Thrall is a solid investment in any sized game.

I think that your best purchase would be one Skarlock Thrall (total cost: US$9.99). That will leave you 9 points to spend on troops and solos.

Warwitch Siren
The Siren is a mini-Denegrha. First off she can do one magical ability per turn: She can give a focus to a jack via Power Booster, which is one more focus for your caster. Or she can use Seduction, which allows you to move an enemy model and make an attack with it. Or she can use Venom and just melt some face with a spray template.

If none of the magic abilities appeal, she has a Magical melee weapon with Reach and Shadowbind, which prevents them moving and gives them -3 DEF. It’s great to use against a non-reach jack, as they can’t move towards you to get in range.

She is fast at SPD 7 and hard to pin down with excellent DEF, Stealth, and Parry letting her ignore free strikes. All in all, the Siren can be a real pain in your opponent’s butt and at a low cost of only 2 points.

I think your best purchase would be a single Siren (total cost: US$11.99), leaving you 9 points to spend on troops.
Unless you’re picking up Mortenbra as a second caster, in which case you should grab two so you can use Mortenbra’s theme force.

Iron Lich Overseer
Placeholder, because I haven’t read Wrath yet.

[juckto]

Placeholder for future units.

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The Mercenaries

Eventually I want to write a separate thread dealing with Mercs that’ll work for Cryx, but in the meantime here’s a taster:

Gorman DiWulf, Rogue Alchemist
By FeignLife

Gorman is not a faction model, but bears mentioning for being a cheap and versitile toolbox model that you will use frequently.

Gorman can use his Smoke Bombs star action to place a cloud effect to block line of sight to key models. If you can get him upfield, his Rust Bomb combined with our debuffs can make a mockery of even Khador jacks, his Acid Bomb has good crowd clearing potential, with a respectable POW under the entire template, as well as continuous corrosion, and his Black Oil causes one of the nastiest status effects in the game. It gives major negatives to key stats and forces models hit to give up several offensive options.

Gorman's defences are abyssmal, but somewhat offset by Stealth He has a low RAT, but the short range on his bombs mean they will rarely scatter from your intended target. He has the SPD to keep up with Cryx which lets him be an effective toolbox in any Cryx list.

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More placeholding