Paradigm Shift

When I said that I was bored of playing my Cryx army I meant it.

So in order to revitalize the game some players in my group decided to take me up on my "King of the Hill: random army" game.

We decided that due to certain time constraints we should limit the game to 350 "anything goes." Lists were created by their respective faction oweners then thrown into a hat, the only rule being that you couldn't play your own list.

I draw Menoth
John = Cryx
Dallas = Cryx
Shaun = Trolls

Here's what I had to work with:

Reznik: Possibly my least favorite caster from PoM, yeah he's good in combat but.... But honestly if your caster is in combat it has sure as hell better be the last turn of the game with your side about to win. Yes, this is my opinion, but warcasters do not belong in the fray, unless they are like Asphyxious and can open a can of whoop-ass then teleport away.

-Castigator: A nice jack if you ask me, Menoths' only two-handed jack and fairly interesting to play. Nothing special really about this jack, but it does have pretty good armor and a huge damage grid.

-Blessing Of Vengeance: I'm a fan of this little arc node, I so wish that our Cryxian nechrotechs would figure out the bennefit of a shield and halberd. Why are all my nodes just giant chickens? Would it really be so hard to, I dunno, strap a node to a reaper? That'd make me buy him in a second. Back on topic.

Hierophant: He's a nice little warcaster attachment. I've seen better, I've seen worse.

Eiyriss: Overrated, though I must admit I was somewhat pleased to be able to use her, even though she died turn one. Ah well.

Reclaimer: Waste of points, especially at 350. It gains soul tokens for every FRIENDLY Mennite which dies within 7". That's great except the only living models I have at present are my choir boys and I'd much rather have them protecting the battle group from spells and ranged attacks than feeding the Reclaimer. The Reclaimer did kill a Pistol Wraith though, that should count for something.

Choir Boys: Running jacks? Yup. Next purchase, choir boys. Pretty much a vanilla staple.

While fun to play I'm sure, it lacked on many levels.

1. In a multiplayer game the ability to stay alive is a big deal. Damage prevention, resurrection, healing and tough to name a few. This army had none of the above.
   
2. Mass infantry. For pete's sake there were going to be two cryx armies, right away the need to take care of mass infantry should have forced at least a unit of zealots or a redeemer into the list. (sigh)


3. The oh so famous "Oh Shit" factor. I see the Testament of Menoth, the Deathjack, Bile thralls, I make the usual explative. I always try to add as much "Oh Poo" to every list I can. Where was my poo? No poo, at least not in the pants of my opponents. Well, maybe Eyriss caused a little pebble.

Here's the bonnie list I provided:

Gaspy: Amplifies the destructiveness of the Bloodgorgers
Deathripper: Every good general needs an arc node.
Skarlock: Free spell? Yes thank you.
The General: He's big, he's bad and has great armor with a ton of wounds and tough to boot.
Bloodgorgers: Multiple attacks, great MAT and damaged when ganging up on something plus tough on 4+ after only killing a few two living models. Talk about survivability.
Bile Thralls: Infantry? What infantry?

In all I felt this a solid list. I'm on a Bloodgorger kick though and have them in every list I've made so far. Imagine this though, parasite on the BG's target and scything touch on the BG. Whatever they swing at vay-poo-rizes.

On to the game.

King of the hill. Cryx on both my left and right with a fierce looking group of troll warbeasts accross from me. This is not going to be a good day for menoth.

The Legos were a nice touch I thought. The crotch on the left is John the Mennite and Trem Shaun is across the table.

Notice the 3" AoE in the middle of the table. That's the mark. The toy tambourine in front of my Mennites is a regular hill. The little Legos next to the mark is a simple wall. The other Lego structures are hills and i think the big brown circle was a hill too.

Dallas (to my left) won initiative and went first. He ran forward, blasted Eyriss and killed her outright. I cheered that the Iosian bitch was frizzle fried until I remembered that she was actually on my side for once. Doh!

My turn next. Moved forward, beat up an arc node, cast a spell. Not much else to do. EoT.

John: Moved Deathjack (DJ) onto the mark. Took a shot at Reznik with his pistol wraith. Advanced the bloat thrall and skarlock. EoT. One VP for controlling the "hill."

Shaun: Moves forward, shoots some stuff, Earthborn dire troll charges the DJ and tears an arm off and beats the DJ with it. Not a good day to be the DJ.

Turn 2: Dallas charges the EBDT with the BG's and inflicts a ton of hurt. Too bad for him he forgot to take a look at Asphyxious' spell list and failed to 1) Parasite the EBDT and 2) cast Scything touch on the BG's. Oh well.

Moves the bile thralls forward and purges with one or two of them killing my choir boys and corroding Reznik, the reclaimer and both my jacks. Relaimer gets a fist full of souls. Yay.

My turn. Castigator throws the deathripper and nails slaughterborn knocking him down and totalling the node. The BoV takes out a few bile thralls, the reclaimer blasts a pistol wraith and Reznik holds pretty.

John's turn: Bloat thrall drops a bomb on the big group of trolls battling it out in the middle of the board killing a few blighted trollkin. Runs the Deathripper onto the hill and the Skarlock does something.

Shaun's turn: EBDT unloads on the BG's but not before his impaler frenzy's due to a failed threshold check. The EBDT snacks on the blighted bodies of its twisted cousins. Eww. Grim shoots some stuff and the axer charges killing a few more BG's.

Last turn


Dallas purges and fails to do more than a few pips of damaged to my node. Gaspy charges the BoV and ruins it then shadow wings away. Slaughterborn stands up and the BG's finish off the EBDT.


My turn: Castigator advances towards the bloat thrall, picks it up then throws it at the nearst troll. The durn thrall doesn't die. Reznik climbs the tamborine, i mean hill and then zaps the thrall with a spell blowing it to smitherines. Yay.

John's turn. Gaspy charges and kills some stuff, wins another point then due to time contraints wins by VP. I dunno, it all adds up somehow. Either way it was a lot of fun and really helped me to appreciate the awesomness that is Cryx.


Here's how it looked at the end. Now that I look at the picture I'm sure I missed a turn. Basically on one of my turns Reznik charged the last BG, killed it, wracked it, put the wrack next to Slaughterborn and with his last attack blew up the wrack killing slaughterborn who failed his tough roll.

GOOD GAME GUYS! Until next time. Back to Cryx and teh winz!