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Hi all,

I want you oppinions on an unconventional 35 point pskarre list. Here is the list:

pSkarre
- Stalker
- Helldiver
- Slayer
- Skarlock (ýou did not think skarre would cast Ritual Sacrifice did you??)
Mechanithralls (max)
necrosurgeon and stitchthralls (keep skarre healthy or recycle thralls in a turn)
Revenant cannon (sac pawn target)
Revenant crew (min) (cool thematic unit)
Rengrave (cool mini, goood enough solohunter)
Satyxis raider captain (anti knockdown and solo hunting)

Plan is simply to deliver the stalker, helldver or slayer to caster's/lock's face after feating for 5 damage and casting dark guidance preferably this will happen on turn 3. Stalker will take a flank and benefits from stealth and extended controll to get where he needs. helldiver will go on another flank or through the middle. Slayer will keep skarre safe and act as counter to a charge on the thralls crew.

The rest runs interference and look cool doing it

Really big problems will be high def targets and the usual really tough targets (I keep hitting the #$%^-trollbricks and they keep on standing after getting hit with almost everything I have. )

So, can this non optimised list work or are there some really bad matchups? What can I do then to improve my odds of winning (say by changing 5 or 6 points to something else?)

thanx for the input

One thing to check is the wording on the Revenant Crew and Skarre's Sacrificial abilities.

I know it works on the cannon, because the Damnation rule brings new models into the
unit, but I'm not sure if saccing the crew will allow them to return as sacrificial abilities tend
to remove models from play.

edit: by crew I mean your minimum unit there, not the cannon crew

As far as I can tell you are right (also from memory )

The point of the cannon is getting a shot of once in a while and getting a crewman back, and use 1 crew for ritual sacrifice (removing it from play).

The revenant crew (unit) is purely for the interference as it is IMHO a unit capable of tipping the scales if you can keep the captain alive...

I think as long as Skarre has a pool of stuff to sacrifice she's good to go.

I played my first game with her the other day and a good roll on Ritual Sacrifice turns her into a focus laden monster.

Couple this with her Feat round and her ability to cut herself for an extra damage die and she can pretty much murderize anything around her in one turn.

well the entire idea is that all problems can be solved with enough str15 to 20 hits around I know this is limited to 1 round only, but that one round can make it worth it. even if the caster does not get killed I should have most of his army sedated now...

'Sedated' and her stuff is sitting on an ARM buff due to her feat as well.

Make sure to have a Captain in the list... KD is something every caster hates, esp. the higher DEF ones.

the captain is in as second solohunter already
I think the main consensus is that the list will work

Only switch I can think of would be banethralls for the revenant crew, but that would take some of the theme away. Maybe replace the mechanitralls.... What would yyou guys think of that??

It's pretty hard for any melee list to not "work" with Dark Guidance and her feat, but its easy for the list to not make the most of it.

The only thing I don't like is the low body count. Once the Mechthralls go down, there isn't much left. Also, it's fun to imagine assassinating with light jacks, but they're too easy to damage or cripple even with things that don't specialize in melee.

Dropping the slayer for more warm bodies seems like a better play.

Mastershake wrote:
Dropping the slayer for more warm bodies seems like a better play.

Warm bodies? How about some cold dead thralls?

As long as she can kill them herself for fun and profit I really don't think she cares if they're warm or dead.

She's crazy like that.

well the slayer was one of the bigger threats, so I do not know if that is something I can do. I do play against trolls regularly and the slayer can kill trolls any turn, hile the rest will have trouble wounding outside of featturn...

I gues the thralls can get past that a bit by also heaving good pow and weaponmaster... mmm

I will have to think about this...

1) I think 1 or 2 sets of scrap thralls does the job better for cheaper in terms of ritual sacrifice.
2) I think you could have a lot of fun with two Helldivers.
3) Satyxis + UA will give really good results with her, especially if you have the captain.
4) Have you considered a Seether over a Slayer for a little autonomy?

The list lacks a little focus. I get that it's a theme list, but there's two directions you seem to want to go here, and I don't think they mesh.

On one hand, you have the Slayer. Mechanithralls and Revenant Crew, backed up by Dark Guidance and the feat. They want to get into combat, the sooner the better. The Mechanithralls don't have to be too choosy about targets since you can bring some back after they eat a counter-charge. While the Crew aren't killy, they want to get dug into combat and do a decent job of tying up a lot of units.

On the other, you have the Revenant Cannon, the Stalker and the Helldiver. The Stalker and the Helldiver can't be indiscriminate in their killing and are very focus-hungry; the Stalker will want to be boosting damage rolls and the Helldiver needs a full 3 on D-Day. Unboosted POW 12s won't panic anyone. Moreover, while the two complement Skarre's sacrificial strike on an assassination turn, they don't really support the rest of your army at all. Considering that everything else on your side of the board is somewhat fragile, it seems like you'd be better off boosting their numbers to shore up that weakness than introducing a less-than-ideal assassination path to the army.

Skarre will sometimes have insane amounts of FOCUS, and if you can take advantage of that, great. However, just as often she'll be FOCUS 7 and you'll be scraping by because Dark Guidance costs 4. Personally, I'd run a Seether over the Slayer for just that reason -- it's very focus efficient. On the turn you need it to go crazy, you can give it 2; however, the free focus, 3 initial attacks and Smash & Grab will often do whatever job you need. It's well worth the 3 extra points. For similar reasons, I'd be wary of the Helldiver and the Stalker. The Stalker gets a little bit of a pass because of Arcane Assassin, but the Helldiver demands 3 FOCUS -- it really can't operate on its charge turn without it.
Next, Skarre has to be close to the enemy to use her sac strike. The Revenant Cannon can't move and shoot in the same turn -- I think you'll find they're not the best fodder for her. I could be wrong, but I doubt you'll be getting many additional Cannon models for her to munch on. Mechanithralls are pretty good, though; they move with her and Necrosurgeons don't care about RFG.

While I'm a big fan of Satyxis Raiders, and think they're generally just better than Revenant Crew, I get that you're going for something of a theme here, so my suggestions would be:
- Helldiver (+3)
- Stalker (+4)
- Revenant Cannon (+3)

Slayer --> Seether (-3)

And that gives you 7 points to play with. You could use it to buy more Mechanithralls and a second Necrosurgeon, or a Slayer and a Necrotech. Those are the two options I like best, within your constraints.
You could also max out your Revenant Crew, making them much better at tying things up, leaving you with 4 points -- enough for your Stalker, or the on-theme Black Ogrun Raiding Party if you were so inclined. Off theme, there's Gorman di Wulfe (to help with your armor problem, mostly -- for once, not just a Black Oil vector!) plus a 2-point utility option.

well i also play cryx man and i am thinking all casters need an arc node but to more untilze her feat why dont you add some bane knights or bane thralls and maybe taken out the witch solo and puting in bane lord tartus this will help you hit stuff with here feat because i pop feat with my denny then use Crippling grasp on a skrone titan and took it out with the bane tralls as they are wepon masters 3 dice for damage rolls. I am also new to cryx but i can come up with cool ideals hope this helps a little

Do you know what pSkarre's feat does? It makes anything kill - Mechanithralls can combo-strike at pow20... And hitting generally isn't a problem because they'll be attacking with an additional die to hit from Dark Guidance.

In general, pSkarre doesn't need things like Banes to kill stuff, more bodies is typically the way to go with her.

ya well i am new to cryx also so i have read here feat much


Automatically Appended Next Post:
with her feat also you want to keep here safe so she can heal the damage that she takes or you will be introuble if a heavy jack or beat can get through to here or if you are playing agiants angry elves agiangts rahman with battle mages as with his feat he could pull your caster for an assination attepmt

IMHO Skarre can take some damage from takaryx and feat. When the enemy can hit her it is probably over anyway. Might as well get the most mileage out of it

I am seeing if I can reform the list. I would still like to have the helldiver and the stalker in there, but I don't know what else now. I know a node is unnescesary as her ranged spells are meh imho.

I will get back to you I if I get a good idea of what to do...

1 Arc for an earlly backlash comboed with raiders adds one more option for assassination.
There are some casters with only 14 boxes and rely on arc nodes.... only 7 points of damage from raiders will kill... or help alot.

well I am not planning right now to bring satyxis, so the feedback is not going to work that well. Besides I play against a lot of hordes. Can't use the trick then...

It's an option, and options are nice .
Planning for local meta is cool, but the arcing Hellfire and Blood Rain is useful for taking down solos when needed.

I am considering dropping the helldiver now and adding a second stalker. Pricewise the list would be:

pSkarre +6
- stalker -4
- stalker -4
- slayer -6
skarlock -2
-------------- = -10
10 mechthralls -5
6 banethralls -5
6 revenant crew -6
1 revenant cannon crew -3
--------------- = -19
bloat thrall -2
captain rengrave -2
satyxis raider captain -2
---------------- = -6

Total is -35 or 35 points.

This gives me some units, 1 with extra staying power in the form of the revenants. The banethralls give me some stealthy units and most importantly heavy hitters. The mechanithralls play their usuall double roll and can be used as sacrificial targets if needed. The cannon gives me some ranged punch, as does the bloat.

The raider captain makes a nice solohunter and prevents knockdown on skarre.Rengrave buffs revenant crew and cannon.

For the battlegroup the stalkers can take the flanks and the slayer can help in the middle. This easily gives me a tripple threat list. The skarlock gives me the option to not have to cast the ritual sacrifice again.

The list also has some nice alternatives for the jacks as main heavy hitters. The thralls (both kinds) can really break a jack down fast on feat turn. Skarre can also pull her weight in combat if need be, as she does not have to worry about knockdown (biggest weakness in het defense)if I position right.

so is this better??

The skarlock shouldl be in charge of the Focus Factory, it will be rare for pSkarre to need to do it herself.

Bloat Thrall is interesting if a bit of an oddball choice for the list.

If the Captain is keeping Skarre up, then she is unlikely to be solo hunting, remember she has no parry, so sprint is not always a good option.

I like the Stalkers for a run at the enemy War-noun, esp. with Dark Guidance, Feat, and some focus. Though due note, they are quite squishy when someone can connect with it.
Slayer is ... meh, nothing wrong with it, if a bit Focus hungry, while pSkarre can have alot of focus to play with, it is still variable and her spell list is balanced for her having above normal focus.

Rengrave, Rev Crew... I'm quite iffy on. With McThralls on the board, I don't think the Rev Crew adds too much to the list overall... IMO, some raiders and another Captain would do heaps more, esp. shutting down shooty armies early to have more stuff 'get there' esp. since pSkarre is played pretty aggressively because her feat is a pulse rather than an aura IIRC.

Bane Thralls are cool, but there is no way to mitigate terrain, which could suck alot. I personally like Knights alot more. They mitigate terrain better, are able to screen pSkarre at odd times, and able to hit the front line and move deeper into enemy lines without fear of freestrikes.

You already have to worry about McThralls and the Rev crew getting difficult terrain-less paths, more infantry to avoid terrain can bunch you up even closer than their CMD values allow.

McThralls are good, but no Necrosurgeon, but it's not too bad if th Rev there for raw numbers.

The Cannon for Focus is a nifty idea, my only problem is that a 'kill' is not guarenteed with it and so it's quite a fickle sacrificial target.

I'm just noting down some thoughts and things to watch out for, this list could do quite well in your hands as there is nothing 'wrong' with it. I think there is a healthy mix of Jacks, infantry, and solos