Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have read a few guides and the such about Warmachine. Flicked through the quick start rules. Found out what I need to start. Yet I have a few questions.

Where do you get the rulebook, I have heard that they only sell the paperback MKII one now. Does it come in the plastic battle boxes? Or is that just the quick start rules/a few cards?

Should I get a battlebox? Or should I start from scratch? PP of course being more unbiased customer friendly than GW, I would think they would be pretty reliable.

Could somebody give me a run through on what Cryx are about? From what I have gathered they are a lightly armoured, fast, slicing army? Also employing trickster magic to control and fool the foe?

Also roughly how many points does the box contain? 10-15?

Nice to meet another convert Switched from that other game about 3 months back, went with Cryx, and I'm just now finishing up painting up my BB and a few extra mini's.

Cryx are faster than many, harder hitting and more fragile as well. But mostly they're about confusing, rule bending dirty tricks. If you want to have your oponents confused and scratching their heads going- "How do you have more zombies than you started with?" "What do you mean he can teleport?" and my personal fave "Did your giant robot just turn into a ghost, walk right through my shielding wall of infantry, and then start punching my caster in the face?"

If you want a blitzkrieg army look at Legion of Everblight, if you want to win via dirty tricks then look into the Cryx.

I'm personally getting good mileage out of the BB myself btw, but YMMV. It has 14 points of models, which is more than any other BB, the caster Dhenegra is a debuff machine from hell, the slayer is cheap but hard hitting- a good choice for low point games (from what I've been told anyway my experience is hardly expansive) and the bonejacks/arc nodes will find use in most army builds.

Echoing Corvid.

Thing about warmachine is any faction can play differently to it's "type". When I say warmachine, I should say warmahordes, they are two sides of the same coin. If you want to hit the enemy hard and fast, you might want to look into hordes, they are all about the "Alpha kill" going batgak crazy in the first couple of turns and trashing everything infront of them. Cryx can play elite infantry with Banes and the deathjack, and skorne can play speedy sneaky with archdomina and their character beast. It's WAY more flexible than what you are used to.

But if you are set on Warmachine, that is my field of expertise so here we go. I find they best way to get the feel of warmachines is to play mangled metal. Especially against someone who is experienced but kind, for example my LGS had a load of guys play me (using the cryx box) and their faction Battlegroups. They would then show me tricks they would use in my position, what they would do, introduce feating etc etc. In a way, as I always say, WM/H is much like chess, in the way things are set up for a caster/lock kill, and the way there are little tactics that everyone knows, the strategy is setting them up without the opponent realising you are going to telekinesis your helljack out of combat and charge his caster straight in the face ignoring all those freestrikes he had been counting on.

Cryx is fun. They are tricksie, but many people are aware of their tricks, which means you still have to be as creative as any other faction. And be ready for dirty looks when you put pDenny on the table once you are a solid player, but I find the WM/H community is very mature, and they like the challenge of pDenny, and are happy to let you use her as "stablisers", and even later in a tournament setting.

DON'T use cryx if you are a sore winner, or don't like people bringing some serious A game and power lists on you.

DO use cryx if you like zombies, cackling maniacally, and generally being devious as your paper warriors cut their steel titans to pieces, and tear chunks out of his prize beast.

The cryx battlebox is 14 points.

Thanks for feedback.

But where do I get the rulebook? I'm guessing the one you can download is the quick start one, so is the one in the BB. Can I survive with just the quickstart rules.

Buy it at a game store or an online retailer?

I can't find it on the PP store, I looked before I created this thread.

Aha, good old Darksphere. Free postage if I ship to the store!

As always, thanks for feedback.

zilegil wrote:I can't find it on the PP store, I looked before I created this thread.

Yep, PP doesn't sell completed stuff directly to the customer. They seem to want to support the local gaming stores which is a good thing.

Interesting, very, er, non GW.

Cryx is generally a 'glass cannon' faction. One aspect of thier general game plan that hasnt been mentioned is debuffs. I dont think any other faction, Warmachine OR hordes lays down the piles of debuffs that Cryx can.

For the Cryx battlebox, its good for games against other battleboxes. But once you start growing into bigger games most players let the little bonejacks fall to the side in favor of Cryx infantry and Helljacks.

I'd suggest finding a caster you like, whether its looks, rules or fluff, and build up around them. The PP Cryx forums have a wealth of info, as does BattleCollege. Once you get some ideas forming in your head, freindly smaller forums like this one can provide useful feedback

Mistress of minis wrote:Cryx is generally a But once you start growing into bigger games most players let the little bonejacks fall to the side in favor of Cryx infantry and Helljacks.

Umm.... every bit of advice I've recieved has told me that the bonejack arc nodes are critical to keeping your casters safe (as they can hang back and let the arc nodes get close enough to cast spells from), and providing additional threat vectors for those nasty debuffs you mentioned to come from.

The only problem with the Cryx Battlebox is that the Bone Turkeys it comes with are not the ones Most people prefer to use. It's got Deathrippers, which I would rather run a Nightwretch (not yet out in plastic) at 4pts, and a Defiler, which I would rather run a Ripjaw at 5pts. Slayers are OK, I've found I generally prefer Seethers though, and rebuilt my plastic Slayers into Seethers. Denny is a solid caster, but Very fragile and can be trickier to master her use.

Oh, and I would say Cryx as a whole is a lot of Glass, but not much Cannon. Most factions Light Warjacks are as durable, if not more so, than our Heavy Helljacks, but the Helljacks themselves don't really hit any harder. The dedicated melee Helljacks won't have the high strength attacks of other factions, but will benefit from having more base attacks and lots of Open Fists. The non-melee dedicated ones then tend to function on shenanigans with Drag and Ghost Shot and such.

What Cryx does that makes them so unforgettably mean are game swinging changes, like turning one of their jacks into one of your jacks, or a handful of their dudes into your dudes. Plus it's a lot easier to remember the enemy debuff that cost you the game than the friendly buff that won it, and as said we're the debuff faction.

Most cryx casters need at least 1-2 arc nodes to adequately function at a tactical level. Certain casters like Deneghra prefer more. Depending on what caster the person is using once they move away from the battlebox, they can easily drop 1 of the bonejacks and use the leftover points for other things (like upgrading the slayer to a seether).