cryx

[ToMaZ]

hehe I played two games against cryx yesterday. 1 win and 1 loss.

First game was Skarre vs Irusk. My opponent played with that themed list. So there were a lot of MCthralls and Bile Thralls, 2 Brute thralls, 4 of those cavalry thingies, 1 deathripper, a skarlock, necrosurgeon and a bloat thrall (might have forgotten one or 2 things)

I was fielding 2 mortars, unit of winterguard + attachment and kovnik Jozef. Widowmakers, Eiryss, Kell Bailoch, greylords and to fill up the rest of the points a took a minimum unit of Iron fangs.


FIRST TURN

My opponent goes first and runs his cavalry 16" forward through the center between 2 houses and ends his activation in front of my unit of winterguard (ready to charge the next turn) He ran forward with his biles and 1 unit of MCthralls + brute in the center behind the cavarly. The other unit of MCthralls and brute advanced on my right flank behind cover of a house and forest followed by a running bloat thrall. Skarlock sacrifices a thrall and my opponent rolls a 6 for focus (so that's skarre with 12 focus the next turn) Skarre tries to cast something on my widowmakers through the deathripper that had ran forward but is out of reach.



In my turn The 2 mortar bombarded the group of bile and MCthralls behind the cavalry and took out a couple of biles and 1 thrall.

My widowmakers + Kell take out one of the cavalry models and damage the leader (leader was out of reach of 3 widowmakers)
I use my lieutenant's order 'bob and weave' to give my unit of winterguard +2 DEF while advancing. A couldn't get a decent combined ranged attack on the cavalry so I didn't bother trying The Kovnik follows the winterguard and uses 'for the motherland' with the cavalry in front of them (giving each model an attack if it should be destroyed)

Iron fangs advance towrds the thralls on my flank using shield wall and Eiryss advanced behind the unit of winterguard.
Greylords throw blizzards where necesarry

Irusk advanced to get in range of the widowmakers for Iron Flesh, giving the widowmakers DEF 17 and in the mean time staying clear of Skarre's control area for the skarre bomb. I used Inhospitable ground to keep my winterguard from being charged.



SECOND TURN


This was hell for my opponent. He couldn't charge any of my units because of inhospitable ground and if he attacked the winterguard he could get mangled by the attacks of dying winterguard. So he retreated his cavalry to my left flank to threathen the widowmakers.
And then he made the biggest mistake of the game. He advanced both the MCthralls and bilethralls towards my winterguard. The two units packed tightly together in the center of the board.

The deathchicken moved closer to the widowmakers and the thralls on my right flank ran from behind the cover of the house to threathen my Iron Fangs. The bloatthrall advanced and took a shot at my IFP and rolled a double six on the to hit roll The template covered all my IFP but one. The model that was directly hit was dead. All the others survived because of shieldwall (close call)

Skarre has a lot of focus and uses that to channel some sort of area of effect spell on my widowmakers. First boosted attack roll misses. Then he tried again, he hits the widowmakers, killing 2 of them, and catching Kell in the effect. Boosted damage roll on Kell leaves him dead too. Panic check easily made by the widowmakers.

Skarlock then sacrifices another thrall for focus and my opponent rolls a 5. So that's 5 extra focus the next turn for skarre.



In my turn the mortars take out a couple of Bilethralls again. I had payed the upkeep for iron flesh on the widowmakers and I moved them to the left to shoot at the cavalry leader. Leaving him with one wound *sigh* I needed the widowmaker to tangle up the cavalry on the left or they would have come out in the back of my army. I hoped my opponent would take the bait

I advanced Irusk, took a shot at an unlucky bilethrall that stood in the way of the winterguard and killed him. Then I popped his feat and camped on the rest of focus because I was getting closer to Skarre

Then came the winterguard's moment of glory. I used the standards special action to advance 6" perform a combat action and advance again.
So I advanced 6" positioning my winterguard as good as possible to get as many shots as I could on all those thralls.
Then came the spray attacks. Getting the +2 on the attack rolls because of Irusk his feat. Needless to say that the low DEF thralls got ripped apart. Leaving one bile (the leader) 2 MCthralls and a severly damaged brute. So that's 2 units as good as gone. Only that lonely bilethrall was scaring me
Anyway, they advanced again. Placing a couple of winterguard in melee while staying in formation. The last two winterguard manage to block skarre's advancing route a bit. The Kovnik advanced towards the winterguard again. Shouting for the motherland again and took a shot at the brute but missed.

The Iron fangs got the charge on the unit of MCthralls on my right side and managed to put them all in melee. They killed a couple of them and slightly hurted the brute.
With their reach they also managed to put the bloatthrall in melee. (hurrah)
Again my greylords where there to blizzard stuff.

I ended my turn and prepared for rolling some dice to save my winterguard (Irusk his feat saving a killed warrior model on a 4-6)


THIRD TURN

My opponent army at this point was about 33% of the original army while I only had suffered 4 casualties. My opponent ran his cavalry into my widowmakers and 1 mortar (he took the bait) Then he advanced his Bilethrall to splurt on my winterguard. At that point I warned him that he would hit his brute, remaining MCthralls and necrosurgeon too. So I let him move away his thralls and then splurt (friendly game huh) the splurt hitted about 6 winterguard but killed only 3. They did include my standard bearer though . I managed to save the lieutenant, but with corrosion and one wound I didn't had any hopes for her surviving the next turn. But because of 'for the motherland' each time a winterguard died I could shoot something. So the remaining MCthralls were gone and so was the necrosurgeon only the brute was left of those 2 units.

Skarre engaged the two winterguard blocking her. She knocked one down, but he survived because of Irusk's feat again. And so did the second. Then he noticed that Irusk was in her control area and wanted to do the bomb on him. I pointed out that he should have done that first before he had attacked the winterguard with his normal attacks, since it's a special action. (I couldn't let him redo skarre's whole activation, it was a friendly game, but I'm not THAT friendly ) SO he took out his anger on those two winterguard, killing one and the other one was saved again and again.

The second unit of MCthralls attacked the IFP, killing one, and the brute killed one too. THe others were saved by the feat. The bloat thrall wanted to retreat out of combat to shoot, so I got a free strike... and I rolled a critical knockdown so no shooting for you mister bloat and only one damage point left (again, close call or I would have had another Area of effect on my pikemen)



My turn again: widowmakers tried to hit the cavalry but failed miserably (still they were holding their ground with DEF 17)
Irusk activated, and casted battle lust on the kovnik and took a shot at skarre (failing to hit)
The greylords advanced and tried to icecage Skarre. Only one managed to hit.
Then I used Eiryss who has been very silent this game to disrupt skarre taking away all her focus.
The kovnik used his 'strenght of the bear' to give him an additional +2 MAT and Strenght and charged towards Skarre.
He managed to leave skarre with only 5 wounds remaining (insane damage rolls ) and the winterguard piled on skarre and killed her.


Both my opponent and I agreed it was a very very cool game
I will type out the second game as soon as I get the feeling in my fingers back

[Demi_morgana]

I might add a Bloat Thrall to your collection. He's only RAT 3, but he drops a 5" blast and takes out troops nicely. The new Brute Thrall seems like he'd be a good addition too. You've already grown fond of the McThralls. Why not super-size one?

last week I participated in 2 topics about bloat thrals on PP forum:
how could I be SOOOOO F**ING BLIND??? I have no idea how could I underestimate this unit: not mentioning the awesome look of the model (too bad there's only one vesrion though...) that unit is a solution for my problems with no AOE weapons in the goreshade's army arsenal! should work well against greylords hidden behing warjacks and soon - against alexia and her deaders!

about brute thrall - I also read lots about that unit: I really like the idea and model but medium base is sth I really don't like... otoh such eye-catching model should perfectly distract opponents attention from solos and sneaking units - maybe that's the brute thralls' proper role?


@ToMaZ: sounds like nails-hard game for the cryx! good to know You lost second battle

[ToMaZ]

whoops I totally forgot about the second battle report

The second battle was Goreshade vs the old witch.

My opponent fielded the same army as before only did he change the chicken and skarre for goreshade and added an extra bloat thrall in exchange for the skarlock.

I fielded the old witch, scrapjack, destroyer, 6 Iron fang pikemen + attachment. Greylords, widowmakers and gorman + 2 mortars.

The board was covered with terrain this time. a forest in my deployment zone. A forest on the right flank. A couple of houses directly in the center and some rocks etc spread out on the field. It would be difficult to get a good charge in this game

My opponent won the roll and deployed first. He had sooo many bodies that he had to use his complete deployment zone to field his army. His cavalry deployed on my far left, a unit of biles next to it. Then a bloat thrall and a unit of mechanithralls + brute. More bloat thralls in the center, goreshade, another bloat thrall and the second unit of mechanithralls with a brute.

I placed my troops mostly on the right side of my deployment zone. My mortars both together to cover the advancing route between the forest and the houses. Iron fangs directly in front of that opening.
Widowmakers are deployed close behind the forest in the center. Old witch was close to the forest on the left of my deployment. Destroyer was next to my IFP and behind the destroyer were the greylords. The scrapjack was placed slightly in front of the witch and gorman was placed a couple of inches to the old witch's right side.

First turn

My opponent starts by running his entire army straight forward. MCthralls were behind the the houses followed by the bilethralls more to my left and bilethralls in the opening between the forest and and houses. The second unit of MCthralls took cover behind the forest on my left. Goreshade just followed the rest and only casted cloak of shadows.
The bloat thralls advanced each on their flank and shot but both missed.

My turn. I was intimidated by the sheer numbers of this force. And while I'm used to seeing those bonejacks running 14" across the board, I was really surprised by the 16" of the soulreapers cavalry :pray: They were awfully close to my old witch. If I didn't get her out of there this game would be over in the second turn.

So I advanced my widowmakers and took out 3 of the bilethralls closest to them. One of the mortars got a solid hit on one of the biles and caught goreshade and 3 other biles in the blast. Naturally I couldn't get a scratch on goreshade, but I was confident that I could take out the biles.... NOPE!! besides the one that got directly hit I only managed to kill one. THe other mortar scattered into the MCthralls taking out 2.
The destroyer advanced and took a shot at the MCthralls behind the forest killing one in the blast.
Scrapjack advanced and stopped behind rough terrain to pose a threath for the cavalry if they should advance.

Iron fangs advanced towards the opening between forest and houses and used shield wall.

Then gorman used his full movement to this right and threw a smokebomb. I activated the old witch, cast slaughter, and walked her into the forest on her left. Then I used unseen path to teleport her to the smoke that gorman had provided for.

The greylords were out of reach of anthing hostile so I threw some blizzard around. 1 on the scrapjack, making him stealth. and 2 on the IFP to block the LOS to the units behind.


Second Turn

Turn 2 the soulreapers ran around those houses and around my scrapjack Ending their activation near the forest on my left (good thing I got my witch out of the way) Followed by the first unit of biles.

The thralls behind the houses ran in between a narrow space of the houses and surrounded my scrapjack (not in melee), cutting of my route to the cavalry.
The bilethralls behind the MCthralls couldn't reach my IFP and ran for cover of the house in the center. Not every thralls got cover btw.
the other thralls didn't dare to approach my IFP ran through the forest (with movement penalties) and put my widowmakers in melee...

Bloat thralls shot and missed both again

goreshade just followed again, using cloak of shadows and staying out of reach of anything.


my turn. I found myself cornered by ugly undead creatures and had to do something about it. I took some time to figure out in what order I should activate my units to get as many kills as possible. I upkept slaughter for free and gave my scrapjack 3 focus.

I activated the greylords, walked them forward, one of them cast a blizzard on the scrapjack, the other 2 used their sprays to take out a load of bilethralls. Only 3 were left inside the house and thus in cover.

then I activated the old witch. Moved her so that she had the forest on the right and the scrapjack in her control area. She teleported the scrap out of the MCthralls unit with Unseen Path. And placed him in the forest.
Scrapjack activated, walked out of the forest and killed the entire unit of MCthralls that were in melee with the widowmakers except for the brutethralls I couldn't reach him with the 1" of slaughter. And so I wasted 3 focus as I didn't need any of them to attack the MCthralls since I activated in their back arc.

Anyway my plan had worked, I had freed my widowmakers from melee without losing one. They forfeited their movement for the aiming bonus and took out the 3 biles hiding in the house. (yes one unit less to worry about)

Now I had a dilemma, I could have ran to confront goreshade with my IFP but that would probably be the dead of my witch since I had the enemy cavalry on my left flank. so I turned my IFP. Walked them towards the soulreapers in a long line and shieldwalled them to block the entire left side of goreshades army and minimise the damage that would certainly come the next turn.

The destroyer turned and shot at the MCthralls. Killing one. The mortars only had a clear shot at the bloat thrall, that was very very close to most of the MCthralls and a couple of biles of the unit that was left. Since I had LOS because of it's medium base I took my shot. First one was a solid hit. Dealing 8 damage to the bloat and killing 2 MCthralls. Ok, I need this second shot to hit to let that thick walking balloon of pus explode. I rolled, and I missed... crap.... It scatters, and stays on the bloat. I first took out 1 more MCthrall and 1 bile. And then rolled damage for the bloat. POW8 + 8 on the dice... 2 damage on the bloat!!! And it's dead. A 5 inch template took out most of the MCthralls and only left 2 + a severely damaged brute.

I ended my turn and awaited the slaughter.



Turn three

The cavalry connected with the IFP and could reach only 3 because of the warjack standing in the way. 2 IFP got killed and my warjack got damaged pretty good, but no systems were taken out.

The bile thralls followed to take out the models left alive the next turn, no doubt.
the remaining 2 MCthralls walked into melee with the destroyer, but because of terrible rolls only managed to do 2 points of damage. The brute tried to kill a IFP but failed to hit.

The second brute attacked scrapjack, but only did a few points of damage.

goreshade tried for that damage spell he has, but failed to hit and camped on his focus.



In my turn the IFP piled in on the soulreapers. Killing 2. The destroyer had one focus and turned to engage the soulreaper, while staying in melee with the MCthralls. I boosted the attack roll, and hit. I left the leader with one point of damage because of a bad roll.

I activated the greylords and tried to take out the remaining MCthralls with a spray, but failed because they were in melee. I did manage to do one point of damage to the brute and hit my destroyer, but I didn't damage my jack

then I activated my witch. Moved her a bit out of the way and placed a murder of crows on the unit of biles behind the soulreapers. Then I popped my feat and got every cryx unit left in the game in the area of effect. Not any movement or special attacks for them unless they wanted a pow14 hit. the Bile thralls were dead anyway, because they would take damage if they move or not (murder of croes)

The scrapjack took out the brute, but afterwards this was the stupidest thing I could have done, it cleared the path for goreshade to my witch and scrapjack. I tried to close the gap with the widowmakers but at that point I knew I had lost the game.


Turn four

a very short turn. Goreshade charged into my widowmakers, killing one and created a deathwalker. Then he popped his feat, and swarmed my old witch with the freshly spawned bane thralls.

GAME OVER


Again a very cool and fun game. I took out most of his army, but didn't pay attention to goreshade and his feat for one stupid moment
Soon there will be a rematch

[ToMaZ]

that unit ic a solution for my problems with no AOE weapons in the goreshade's army arsenal! should work well against greylords hidden behing warjacks and soon - against alexia and her deaders!

Remember to target the warjack if the greylords are close behind it. It's much easier to hit and you can catche the greylords in the blast forcing a panic check if you don't manage to kill them.

about brute thrall - I also read lots about that unit: I really like the idea and model but medium base is sth I really don't like... otoh such eye-catching model should perfectly distract opponents attention from solos and sneaking units - maybe that's the brute thralls' proper role?

Brute thrall is there to add a bit of survivability. You can cover a couple of MCthralls behind him, as he has multiple damage points he would be killed awfully fast unless your opponent makes him a big target. He also adds that little bit of extra punch to the unit. Plus he's cheapo.

@ToMaZ: sounds like nails-hard game for the cryx! good to know You lost second battle

I play most of my games against cryx. So I kinda learned how to give them a hard time

[Demi_morgana]

hehe, I really like to finish the battles with popping gorey's feat, although against some casters 6 charging bane thralls may appear useless: wind rushed sorsha for example (darn! I hate that b!tch! can't wait to see her officially de-buffed in prime remix! :bad: )

Remember to target the warjack if the greylords are close behind it. It's much easier to hit and you can catche the greylords in the blast forcing a panic check if you don't manage to kill them.

I know, I know: during last week I've browsed thru almost all possible examples of using bloat thrall including using it as hand grenade!

I play most of my games against cryx. So I kinda learned how to give them a hard time

well, I can say exactly the came about khador, moreover: I play only against that fraction...

[ToMaZ]

hehe, I really like to finish the battles with popping gorey's feat, although against some casters 6 charging bane thralls may appear useless: wind rushed sorsha for example (darn! I hate that b!tch! can't wait to see her officially de-buffed in prime remix! :bad: )

Only sorscha's feat gets revisited from every model in the control area to every model that has LOS. Wind rush is still the same (they've revisited it before) so she'll still be near impossible to hit.

and the spawning another unit tactic is sucky. What makes it really annoying is that they can activate the turn they are spawned.

[Demi_morgana]

and the spawning another unit tactic is sucky. What makes it really annoying is that they can activate the turn they are spawned.

sucky is trying to terrify opponent with gorey's feat!
but seriously I know goreshade's combo is pure hardcore but until now, even as newbie gamer I've seen several much more nasty things in khador and menoth arsenal than "dark summons"

[ToMaZ]

but seriously I know goreshade's combo is pure hardcore but until now, even as newbie gamer I've seen several much more nasty things in khador and menoth arsenal than "dark summons"

Like what??

Anyway; especially a well constructed and played menoth army can be terrifying to face. All of their casters have good offensive and supportive magic and a couple of units that can become really hard as soon as you get some damage dealt to them.
I do think it's the hardest faction to master because of all those little special rules that you have to remember.

It's also the faction I hate facing the most. But maybe because I don't know the units of menoth THAT well

[Demi_morgana]

Like what??

for example grey lords' ice cage - thing I asked You about some time ago...

I do think it's the hardest faction to master because of all those little special rules that you have to remember.

It's also the faction I hate facing the most. But maybe because I don't know the units of menoth THAT well

the only thing I remember from facing menoth is the darn choir and continous fire effect YUCK!

[Demi_morgana]

today morning I took freshly varnished gorey for 450 pts engagement against evil (fixed) sorsha and her walking cans
after 2 hours filled with adrenaline, blood lust and extatic screams I managed to put sorsha to her right place: 6 feet under!!!
so several thoughts after the battle:
- gorman: I'll NEVER EVER go for a battle without him! once again he saved the battle by throwing black oil on sorsha, what made hitting her possible
- goreshade + deathripper: not a bad idea... although I wasn't in need of casting spells on longer distance, this little beast slammed and knocked down khador juggernaut just when it was requested these little pest can really pi$$ opponent off by blocking LOS or charge so I think next time I'll probably take 2 of them
- devastator: today I saw what bulldoze rule can do: this walking building moved my warcaster 2" and therefore moved my mage blighted zone I also did a critical mistake - I let this monstrosity get into my melee zone and risked loosing gorman and goreshade when I decided to break off combat! fortunatelly lord toruk supported me and next turn the battle was over
- machine wraith: I must say I underestimated that unit until today: I managed to possess destroyed and ehen shot once!
- scrap thrall is waste of 5 points...
- necrotech is waste of another 9 points!
- stalker and bile thralls: I'd say fielding them was stupid idea: biles didn't manage to get into purge range, stalker didn't manage to hit sorsha even a single time is there any one interested in purchasing painted bile thralls squad?

today it was rather unusual battle: I didn't field any helljack, but fielded lots of infantry; I enjoyed commanding such horde and I'd lie claiming that heavy jacks are more reliable, so I guess next time I'll try to practise using infantry once again