Doom

Please tell me where has the fun gone? 

I’ve already had a chance to play test a game using the new rules and it was like chewing on cardboard. Yeah there was some excitement as I employed the new rule system and made a list using the crazy new point values. That excitement aside I felt literal grief for our faction as for the first time I played a game and had, honestly, no fun.

Here’s a rundown of what I see to be the main problem areas. 

Asphyxious is our main man! The general, the veritable poster child for Cryx. He has been caster with whom I’ve had the most fun. My question to you is this. Why does the magic using faction’s poster child only have five spells? He’s a seven focus caster and only has FIVE spells. His epic version has only six! SIX and his best spells have been reduced to uselessness. 

Gaspy has lost the ability to shunt damage by consuming a soul token. Hellbound no longer protects him from aoe damage. Don’t even get me started on excarnate. I can’t believe it’s still an upkeep spell. Some of the most fun I’ve had playing gaspy has been finding new and interesting targets for excarnate. That’s gone now. 

Honestly, I won’t play either version of Gaspy as he is not competitive. Any element he once had is gone and he won’t hit the table again. (he’s who I played tonight.)

Goreshade is also getting put back in the box. While his prime version still resembles his former self the epic incarnation (and his most competitive) is not playable. Under no circumstance would I EVER consider running epic Goreshade. I hate to sound like a broken record but once again a really fun fig is boring and vanilla. Nothing special about Goreshade, just boring. 

Moretenebra has quickly become one of my favorite casters. She’s unique and I love to run her with our character jacks. Pre MKII we were playing in an infantry machine world. I can forsee that coming to and end which will drastically reduce the fun level of Mortenebra. I can see why deathrace was nerffed to only being cast once per turn. I’m a little sketchy as to why it was renamed. Anyone else notice that there is an obvious aversion to any words that deal with death and carnage? I think I read a model being “killed” referred to as being “boxed.” Anyway, back on topic.

Mortey gets an average playability rating because I know I’ll get to play against Hordes eventually and she’ll be a boon. I’d wished to have seen her with more jack points, but I’ll wait a week before I make my final statement. 

The Coven are HORRIBLE! These ladies were so much fun to play. Getting in a perfect conjunction, imprisoning anything and everything and popping heads with stygian abyss were so much fun. Stealth offered by the Egregore was hugely helpful and I feel that by losing it has really crutched the coven to the point that they are more effective as a paper weight than a warcaster. 

Terminus was hard for me to buy into pre MKII, now that he’s been so utterly demoted to craptastic I don’t feel any urge to play him. I could see how fun he would have been in a casual game with his ability to throw whatever whenever. The fact that he could rage in combat then burn face with his dragon breath was really cool. Where did ravager go? That was his most awesome spell and made seethers insane. The few times Terminus took command of my cryx army the most fun I could have had was with that spell. 

Deneghra & Skarre are both pretty much the same though eDenny is much much worse. Why no command debuffs? eDenny c-hax lists were like a barrel of monkeys. Fun for everyone, except the guy who had to clean up the mess afterward. I’m sad to see it go. eDenny won’t see any play but pDenny will and so will pSkarre. 

Sick of sac strike yet? You ain’t seen nothing yet. With so many of my favorite casters damned to the box thanks to their epic lack of fun my meta will see so much sac strike they’ll have to ask me to please stop playing her. 

Units?

I spent almost $150 on a full unit of Bloodgorgers with Slaughterborn. I’ve run them almost exclusively for a month straight and had so much fun. Their blood marks were the reason for the season man. They were the smoke in my pipe, the Christ in my Christmas. I now have no wish to play them again. I’m physically sick to my stomach because of what MKII has done to them. They went from being a spicy helping of unique Cryx goodness, now they are just more vanilla. I almost called Privateer HQ to voice my nerd rage but I had a feeling they’d just hang up on me. (sigh)
Slaughterborn is pretty good still. I love the big lug. Where did his blood marks go? He’s still playable and a lot of fun. Too bad the gorgers couldn’t tag along on the fun-train.

Can anyone tell me what the hell happened to the Deathjack? No necrovent? That was quintessential cryxian coolness. That’s his fluff man, that’s his coup de gras. Again, our most flavor full figs getting the vanilla downgrade. Not that I’ll play him any less. The DJ is still amazing and will be the bane of all that is not Cryx.

Most everything else I’m just too tired to spew about. I’m stoked that the necrosurgeon is good now, finally. Mechanithralls are the same, the revenant crew are still terrible and black bane and his pirate crew are even worse. There was little chance I’d run them before, it’s nigh inevitable now. Necrotechs have repair woot! The Satyxix raiders with their witch attachment will finally see some play thanks to AD and stealth. They’re still bad but now that the Gorgers are back in the box I gotta look somewhere.

BK’s and Thralls are still good and will see use. Thralls still less than others simply because the Bastard is no fun to play and I only really ran them with him. 

Our jacks are nothing special still. I’m amazed that the slayer now has a combo strike at p+s 22! Crazy. Helldiver? What happened to you? Where did the aoe go and boosted attacks? It was interesting to play, no longer. That brings me to my favorite piece and one of the most tragic figures in our tale.

The Cankerworm. Why? Why of all the things that was done to diminish the fun of my faction did you have to pick on the cankerworm? No scuttle? No meat grinder? Only one attack with armor piercing? The worm doesn’t even get focus for killing a living model. As of now the only thing the worm is good for is as a scavenger. Nothing it takes though will be any good. 

The Cankerworm, or the “Cankermissle” as I like to call it was, next to eGaspy and the Bloodgorgers, my most favorite piece in the game. Soooo much fun, soooo much win. It has gone from auto include to “not on my list.” Please privateer press, give me a bone here. Give me back my Bloodgorgers, epic Asphyxious and please, I beg, give me back my cankerworm. 

-Cheers-