Thursday 10 November 2016

Dojo - Goreshade the Attritionator

So I have a SR coming up this weekend and I have a list I'm pretty excited to try out. I'll get right to it, here's the list:

Goreshade2 +28
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Deathripper 6
-Deathripper 6
10 Satyxis Raiders w/UA 19
10 Satyxis Raiders w/UA 19
10 Bane Warriors 17
6 Mechanithralls 6
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls 4
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls 4
Scrap Thralls 2
Scrap Thralls 2
Scrap Thralls 2
75

So it's a pretty simple idea. It's a tonne of models that come back. I'd be interested to see how many Mk3 lists can really put down probably 70+ models over the course of a game. I feel like a lot of builds are just eeking out the bare minimum of infantry clearance, things like double Sentry Stones or one unit of Rifle Corps and then all heavy killing, or 3 Stormlances then warjacks. This list aims to punish that behaviour. Obviously it has some weaknesses. Shatter Storm is pretty scary. We don't have a great solution to the low MAT on the Mechanithralls and the Bane Warriors, pretty much exclusively relying on Abyssal Gate there. I'd like to get Gorman in to help with that issue but I have no clue where I'd find the points for him. I also feel like it would dilute from the brute force that is this list.

Looking forward to trying it out on Saturday.

Wednesday 9 November 2016

Meta Discussion - Plus Three Minus Three

AKA: 3 Things I'd nerf and 3 things I'd buff from every faction. Simple enough, but I was talking about this today and decided to actually make up a list:

Cygnar:
Buff: Nemo2, Gun Mage Officer, Triumph.
Nerf: Thorn, Haley2, Haley3 (Honourable mention to Storm Lances and Caine2, stupid Cygnar)

Khador:
Buff: Butcher2, M-O-W Bombardiers, Kossite Woodsmen
Nerf: Karchev, Winter Guard Rocketeers, Juggernaut

Protectorate of Menoth:
Buff: Deliverers, Knight Exemplar Errant Officer, Bastions. (Shoutout to Cinerators too)
Nerf: High Reclaimer, Dervish,

Cryx:
Buff: Deneghra2, Asphyxious2, Mortenebra.
Nerf: pDenny, Stalker, Machine Wraith

Retribution:
Buff: Destors, Ellowyer Swordsmen, Garryth
Nerf: Issyria, Ossyan, Discordia

Mercs:
Buff: Ogrun Assault Corps, Highshields, Ashlynn
Nerf: Kingmaker, Grundback Gunner, Ragman

Convergence:
Buff: Perforators, Aurora, Monitor
Nerf: Assimilator, Maybe the TEP. I wouldn't nerf much in Convergence.

Trolls:
Buff: Sluggers, Champions, Madrak1.
Nerf: Madrak2, Fire Eaters, Fire Eaters again.

Circle:
Buff: Mohsar, Tharn Ravager, Satyrs.
Nerf: Wurmwood, Sentry Stones, Scarsfell Griffons.

Legion:
Buff: Kryssa, Scythean, Legionnaires.
Nerf: Hellmouth, Deathstalkers, Vayl2.

Skorne:
Buff: Skorne
Nerf: Makeda2, Rasheth, Reivers

Minions:
Buff: Gatorman Possé, Farrow Commandos, Brun & Lug. (Honourable mention to Sturm and Drang)
Nerf: Lesser Warlocks (Except Brun), Lanyssa Ryssyl, Rask

All my opinion of course, but this'd be cool.

Dojo - Agathia

So I played a game with this weird Warcaster, and I was honest to god rather impressed. Her toolkit isn't especially deep, but she certainly has some moves. I'll show the list and explain my choices.

Bane Witch Agathia +29
-The Withershadow Combine 9
-Desecrator 14
-Desecrator 14
-Desecrator 14
-Deathripper 6
10 Satyxis Raiders w/CA 19
10 Satyxis Raiders w/CA 19
Bane Lord Tartarus 8
Soul Trapper 1
75

Alright, sort of a weird list. What've we got here? Well, the central idea was that we'd take a core Cryx shell (22 Raiders & Arm shenanigans) and put something unique that only Agathia could do. Alright, well, she doesn't have a particularly unique toolkit, so what could that possibly be? Her feat is done better in 99% of situations by the Coven, so we look to her jack support options. I think the most interesting of these by far is her ability to give the Desecrator a free point of focus just by standing around. With that she actually kind of gets to live the Cryx dream of fuelling a warjack and also casting Parasite. Speaking of which, she casts that at effective FOC9 with BLT's help, which is kind of cute. Don't get me wrong, most of the time you don't need any help hitting models you want to cast Parasite at, but it's nice. 

I unfortunately don't have a particularly large amount to talk about because well, she's pretty basic and I'm only a game deep. I'd love to get a WWS in this list but I don't have a clue what I'd drop, it would probably be Tartarus for Ragman & a WWS, but ideally I'd have BLT & a WWS for maximum focus efficiency. I'm also tempted to try her out with the Revcrew module instead of Satyxis. With her feat they should hopefully be able to all get there in one piece, and it would let me fit in a WWS if I took out the Trapper (-2 Raider Units, - Trapper, +3*6 Revcrew + Rengrave + WWS).

I'll keep testing her and get some more reports in. Colour me impressed for now. 

Saturday 5 November 2016

Dojo - Deneghra1 for Una

Alright, so as people who pay attention to this kind of thing (which I'd assume most of my blog readers are...?) you're probably well aware that the Unapocalypse is upon us. So, lets have a chat about what we're going to do about it, eh?

Here's the problems Una presents us as a Cryx player.

-Her entire list is mostly Stealthed. Between Griffons & Sentry Stones, Stealth is everywhere.
-Her list is really fast. Griffons are SPD7, Sentries AD, her Feat is +2SPD for all the Griffons.
-She has excellent personal survivability, due to her 28" Control Range, and Wind Wall.
-Her stuff hits HARD. For the cost there's basically nothing durable enough for Griffons.
-Her feat. Dear god that feat. It's Saeryn's feat all over again except with mental Control Ranges and such. It means that if your caster is within 12.5-14.5(Mirage) of a Griffon they're donezo. This is especially a problem in situations where she gets first and it's Killbox.

So, my initial thought was Deneghra pirates. There is a problem with that list though, Ghost Walk is no longer Friendly, now it's Faction. Means that Una running to engage the world with Griffons is actually pretty horrendous for us as now all our pirates are going to get free struck. So, I decided to go for things that make non melee attacks that don't care so much about being in melee. I think it's alright.

pDeneghra +28
-The Withershadow Combine 9
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Deathripper 6
-Deathripper 6
10 Nyss Hunters 19
Cephalyx Overlords 8
Cephalyx Overlords 8
The Devil's Shadow Mutineers 8
Satyxis Gunslingers 7
Satyxis Gunslingers 7
Orin Midwinter 5
Ragman 4
75

Testing to follow.

Thursday 3 November 2016

I Made A Diagram. You're Welcome, Internet.


Discussion - Infernal Clarifications

Borrowing this from Jason McLean on Facebook. Woke up this morning to discover 90% of my Revcrew dojo basically in the toilet, because now the unit gets wrecked by single instances of RFP. Grand. 

UPDATED
DarkLegacy dropped some errata and clarifications tonight.
1. Deathbound on the Revenant Crew has been clarified to specify the "Leader" instead of the "unit leader" which means if the Leader is RFP'd no field promotion occurs and Deathbound is lost for the rest of the game.

This is really stupid. I've been messing with this unit in a few lists and they're really, really close to good. Now they're incredibly vulnerable to random RFP meaning they lose their rule and it never comes back. Like, overnight this unit has gone from worth something to garbage. It's ridiculous. I think PP should reverse that dumb ruling about leaders not returning if they're RFP'd, because it's stupid and means you need to mark a unit "Commander" with a token for the rest of the game too, which is confusing. Well, I guess if PP doesn't want people to buy certain Cryx models this is a good way to go about it.

2. The Corruptor's Psycho Venom does not let you activate your meat node.

Sure. I think we all saw this coming.

3. The Corruptor's Distillation will heal one of the three Witches in the Coven. It doesn't divide up.

Sad, but somewhat sensible. 

4. Egregore will not lose a point of focus when hit by Energy Siphon. However, the model using Energy Siphon will gain a focus. (Yay for breaking focus conservation laws!)

Dumb and unintuitive, but kind of makes sense if you read Energy Siphon. It's like how you can "Drag" a colossal just for the melee attack. 

5. Aiakos can cast spells and use abilities before resolving his Assault ranged attack if his charge is successful. If it is not, no abilities or spells can be used.

Mostly useless. Needed the 2nd to be true, but makes sense. 

6. Aiakos can use abilities and spells before using Jump (the same is true for Bounding Leap).

Good, this helps a lot on turns you don't need to cast Carnage. 

7. Melee range is not coupled to front arc. You can charge past models and turn to face at the end of the movement. This is big for acrobatics as they can charge over models now so long as their base does not completely cover the charge target's base during the movement. This means Dark Shroud is 360 now.

Hnnng. This is a silly change in my opinion, and it's going to catch a lot of people out pretty seriously. I mean, it's pretty strictly a buff because Cryx is probably the purest melee faction and also has the tools to seriously abuse it (Ghostly). This is also a pretty sweet change for the Kraken, he's probably going to end up in some pretty snazzy places with this. Reaaaaaaally nice for Satyxis too, because this sure applies to gang. 

Additional good stuff:
Lightning Strike is retroactive but spells like Synergy are not. You cannot benefit from actions that would trigger the benefit before the spell is cast when the spells effects are not limited to a single activation.

Okay.

Frenzy is always resolved with the highest POW melee weapon that has range to the target. Never a ranged weapon. Ranged weapons are pretty much always higher POW than melee weapons so warbeasts with ranged weapons that could be used on a charge would have to have been used during a frenzy.

Okay.

Eruption of Faith (Protectorate battle engine) is unboostable.

Still the best battle engine by far.


In summary, don't buy Revcrew anymore guys. PP fucked them up good n' proper. I guess they just want everyone to always play double Satyxis. :^) 

Monday 31 October 2016

Dojo - Something Old, Something New.

Alright, so I have some dojo I would like to talk about, and it encompasses a few warcasters I've been looking at. I'm super happy with Coven, and I'd like to keep tweaking away at their list until I'm super happy with it. I'd also like to have a look at some lists for Venethrax, who I managed to grab at the Scottish Masters raffle.

So, first up the Coven. Here's the list I've been playing (read: proxying / playing on Vassal) for a while:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast +26
-The Withershadow Combine 9
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Deathripper 6
-Deathripper 6
10 Satyxis Raiders w/UA 19
10 Satyxis Raiders w/UA 19
Aikos 4
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
Ragman 4
Machine Wraith 2
75

I really like this list, it's 20pts different to the list I took to the Scottish Masters (due to lack of Stalkers >:) where I played Soulhunters instead. The issues I have with this list (and my SM one) is the lack of hitting power, enter Poland. Konrad Sosnowski played a very interesting Coven list at the WTC this year:

Witch Coven [Fuel Cache]

Alright, so what have we here. To start with, it has Fuel Cache which is an objective I found of limited use with the Coven, because by and large if a model can ignore Stealth then it can also see through a cloud. Otherwise he has Barathrum (a generally considered strong model) and 2 Seethers (generally considered rubbish because 12/17) as his Battlegroup. Now, it was often said in mk2 that if you wanted to play Seethers you should play them with the Coven or with Goreshade1 because they are the only casters in Cryx that can deliver them, and I imagine this is still true. Also, Counter Charge seems incredibly valuable considering the Coven's suite of abilities (particularly their Feat & Veil of Mists) so I don't hate it. Otherwise we have Cankerworm, who is fine, Soulhunters who are also fine and then Blackbane's which are a little controversial in that they're either really good or really bad, such is Incorporeal. Now, I think that the Soulhunters & Blackbane's could easily be Satyxis if need be, I imagine which unit is better out of these 3 options (and I think Rev Crew also deserve consideration for this position) will probably differ depending on matchup. It is my opinion that Blackbane's are too much of a liability because of what they do in games against Caine2, and I'd be very interested to hear Konrad's take on this but at present all I can do is speculate. I also think having heavies is something of a liability against Haley2 because Domination & Telekinesis are stupid, and Thorn's bond allows him to get around the Coven Feat & Counter Charge Conundrum. Still, a cool list that I'm going to test and perhaps try and incorporate elements of.

Now for something new: Venethrax. This is a caster I hated on principle for what he did to my poor Mortenebra, but since I got his model I've been putting some thought into him. He has Eruption of Ash, which is a rule Fraser Mc taught me to really respect on pThagrosh, and he has a pretty phenomenal spell list in Terminal Velocity, Mortality, Lamentation & Deadweight AND he has Field Marshal: Counter Charge. His feat is a little mopey, but hey, we can't have it all. In fact, I think Mortality, Deadweight and Blood Rain perhaps makes him the best caster for Spell Slave models in Cryx as those are three phenomenally strong spells. So, I spent some time trying to build a Venethrax list that abused cloud walls using Gunslingers because well, Counter Charge & cloud walls seem legit, but I couldn't find a way that really gelled. So instead I have a pair of lists that I think are pretty strong.

Lich Lord Venethrax +26
-The Withershadow Combine 9
-Deathjack 23
-Desecrator 14
-Desecrator 14
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
Darragh Wrathe 9
Bane Lord Tartarus 8
Warwitch Siren 4
Warwitch Siren 4
75

This one is fairly simple. It has a strong control game with Deadweight being able to be cast multiple times a turn (and Seduction scores bonus points for setting it up) on top of decent infantry clearing from multiple castings of Blood Rain and Scathers from Desecrators combined with Eruption of Ash mean there's serious potential to wall off infantry. Sweet list, looking forward to trying it. The other one is a fair bit sillier.

Lich Lord Venethrax +26
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Stalker 8
-Deathripper 6
Warwitch Siren 4
Machine Wraith 2
Wrongeye and Snapjaw 17
75

Yep. Stealth is obnoxious with Counter Charge and this list still has the setup for Deadweight. Idea is to slaughter everything that's not a heavy with Stalkers whilst controlling the damage heavies can cause with Deadweight and the Feat. Sillier, but I'm not convinced it's terrible.