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I ordered the Cryx battlegroup earlier today and this is my first real dip into the Warmachine universe (other than a small game to see how it worked) and the first thing that came to mind was what theme i wanted to do, as the way i see it you can realy go three ways with Cryx.

Pirates: an army of raiders lead by the queen of the broken coast
Witches: using either Deneghra or a witch cult and the infantry being War Witches and blood witches
Undead: using various thrals and lead by Goreshade

I would realy like to know how i could expand on these ideas or possibly make a definative decision on which army to bulid, any input will be of much help.

Thank you in advance.

The themes blend together very well, so don't feel tied to just one segment of the army. My advice is usually to pick up a second caster to vary your playstyles and a few things to get you to 15 or 25 points.
Cryx has a plethora of strong choices but they don't always work with every caster. Most of the time you'll be safe but if you try to run a swarm of infantry with mortenebra for instance, you won't get the most out of your spells. Some safe choices are deathjack, bane thralls, withershadow combine, skarlock (unless you play mortenebra, she comes with one for free), and warwitch siren to name a few.

Asphixious1 and Skarre1 would be good places to start for a second caster IMHO.

I went the pirate route, running the battlebox, with a sea witch, raider captain, and saytixs raiders.

Ashton

I do idealy want to keep with a theme because i dont want the army to end up all disjointed and weird like most of my other armies have gotten. Also i realy dont care about winning i mainly bought the box to get some games against people in my local club and also to paint some pretty models that are totaly differant to what i usualy paint. I usualy collect 40k Blood Angels and Fantasy Empire and have dabbled a little in heavy gear getting the staarter box and a few cheeetas.

I was drawn to the Cryx because of thier divercity and unique style compared to my other armies but one thing thats bad about divercity is that you can never make up your mind.

KillerSkivil wrote:I do idealy want to keep with a theme because i dont want the army to end up all disjointed and weird like most of my other armies have gotten. Also i realy dont care about winning i mainly bought the box to get some games against people in my local club and also to paint some pretty models that are totaly differant to what i usualy paint. I usualy collect 40k Blood Angels and Fantasy Empire and have dabbled a little in heavy gear getting the staarter box and a few cheeetas.

I was drawn to the Cryx because of thier divercity and unique style compared to my other armies but one thing thats bad about divercity is that you can never make up your mind.

I've messed around with running theme lists (NOT theme lists from the book, just theme(d) lists) like you listed above, and they've all done very well. I tried out the all pirate list and it performed excellently better than I expected.

Most of my lists are "undead" lists so there's not really a theme there, that is to say not specifically. However, I do consider my incorporeal and ghostly units as themed, so those always do well because bane knights are awesome, pistol wraiths are awesome, and the ghost raiders are pretty decent for what they do.

I've not had a chance to run a witches list yet, but I imagine it will destroy as bad as I think it will.

I think you'll be good with whatever decision you make, they all have their pro's and con's. Like, undead lists will be very easy to hit due to largely low def and armor, but many of them have the means to just come back (obviously). The witches lists are fast moving and have some great abilities, but individually they're kinda weak BUT the feedback ability and chain attack ability more than make up for that.

i did do a little bit of reading on the units and jacks available and i do realy like the bane thrals and ripjaws. i have also been looking at the wichcult i realy like the fact that the wich cult gives me 9 focus to share or use for spells

Also note that the giant Terminus is a pirate, complete with puffy shirt.

KillerSkivil wrote:i did do a little bit of reading on the units and jacks available and i do realy like the bane thrals and ripjaws. i have also been looking at the wichcult i realy like the fact that the wich cult gives me 9 focus to share or use for spells

Bane * are your go-to units. Your opponents will learn quickly to hate them, if they don't already. Thralls are so much better with the UA as well, but that makes them considerably more expensive, when compared to bane knights. Knights have their bonuses and personally I'm preferable to them over thralls. Ignore terrain, reach, weapon master, AND vengeance? Couple them with bane lord tartarus and they can pretty much win you the game if played right.

bane knights are pretty awesome too i seriously should get a set

I would like to point out that all of the satyxis units and solos are all technically pirates. In the story they have a well established culture of sailing, raiding, and piracy; and their leader, Skarre, is the admiral of one of cryx's fleets. Cryx tends to divide their living and undead pirate fleets but they do work together often.

I don't normally advise new players to start with theme forces but that seems to be just the thing your looking for.

i do always try to collect to a theme (the important word is try) but we all know what happnes (trys to collect empire knightly orders veers off to collect a gunline). I do realy like the satyxis models and im not a huge fan of the undead pirates after reading up on the rules for them it does seem that i am going to have to get some bane knights and a corruptor at some point.

I warn you now, the Corroptor is one of the most looked down upon 'Jacks in the game by the masses and Cryx players. I however do like mine that I use with Epic Goreshade (henceforth refered to as eBastard) due to it loving Phantom Hunter and eBastard loving that it runs well on one Focus a turn. Some games it does Really mean things for me, other games not so much.

If you want to run themes, Theme Forces I would check out are eBastard"s "you have How many Banes!?" theme, which I tend to run at Tier Two for the two units of Tough thralls. Also epic Skarre's "no dyx Cryx" which is all Satyr Chicks and spider jacks. Scaverous', the Coven's and Mortenebra's Theme Forces are all decent as well.

i have the box right infront of me now *yay* now i just want to know what to put on thier bases *squee*

HI

welcome to cryx. how may i take your order? would you like your opponent's jacks or infantry busted first? your opponent not being able to shoot at you for most of the game? Caster assassinated?

joke aside, i would suggest a skarlock for saving focus and then anything. i have yet to find a single "Bad" unit in cryx. take what you like and a caster to support that and you will do fine.

Best of luck

I do like the idea of assasination........

KillerSkivil wrote:I do like the idea of assasination........

great

now just choose how you want to do it.

summon a unit back from death and send them charging at your opponent?
Hog focus and then fly over and become a killing machine?
move your opponent out of the way and then send a terrifying jack to rip the caster to shreds?

and these are just the tip of the ice berg. There are just so many ways to do it ....lol

not to mention if you kill the opponents caster you win

I would idealy like to pop out of nowhere yell "geronimo" and remove the caster from the game.

Oh, get the withershadow combine. Just...ya. They are an awesome support unit.

Also, what didn't you like about the undead pirates, if I may ask?

If you're looking at just their stats, keep in mind they have point blank shot so they get 2 melee attacks. If you take rengrave then they're effectively rat 6. I believe they have gang attack as well, and there was something else...I remember in one game I effectively got them up to like rat 9 without the aiming bonus.

i just dont like the idea of another undead army in my life because i already have a failed TK force, i just dont like normal undead armies

KillerSkivil wrote:i just dont like the idea of another undead army in my life because i already have a failed TK force, i just dont like normal undead armies

Ah, ok. Well, that's kind of a bummer but I get it. I'll never pick up the bloodgorgers or whatever they're called for a similar reason. Same with cephalyx. Just doesn't fit what I like about cryx.

I love me some undead goodness though. Cryx, Necron, just started Legion (not really undead, but mostly soulless). All I'm missing is tomb kings, but I just haven't warmed up to WHFB ever. I like the sculpts though, from the pics I've seen anyway.

i would much rather stray away from the skeleton undead things, im realy tempted to get a wich cult and a unit of bane knights in the coming weeks

KillerSkivil wrote:i would much rather stray away from the skeleton undead things, im realy tempted to get a wich cult and a unit of bane knights in the coming weeks

Sounds good. Seriously though, I'd strongly suggest withershadow combine and skarlock thrall at the least, even though you're shying away from the undead stuff. Other than that, you should be able to build a formidable force with satyxis [anything] and appropriate UA's and Solo's. The satyxis have some really good combinations you can do. They're pretty squishy but if memory serves they have a decent defense, even better with the UA (for the raiders at least).

Personally I only have the raiders, a captain and the sea witch attachment. I haven't picked up the blood witches yet.

i was looking at the raiders and i like the fact that they ignore shields and all that but i did figure out that for me to feel comfortable plating them they would need the capitain

The raiders are a brilliant unit but I would always be taking the Sea Witch with them. Makes them a 7/10 cost unit but the extra DEF vs ranged and ignoring blast damage means that the enemy has to put in a whole load of resources to kill them. The raider captain is an option for me. If Skarre is my warcaster then the captain is in there for the anti-knockdown. Other casters it'll be rare that the captain is in the list. It's that she'll be competing for the 2 point slot with Warwitch Sirens, Gorman, Skarlock Thrall, Necrosurgeon, Dougal MacNaile, Madelyn Corbeasu, Orin Midwinter and Saxon Orrik.

To be fair i will probably just buy whats pretty until i get to the stage where i want to win and then i will break out the cheese (i highly doubt i will ever try to win) im loving what ive seen of the game so far

I haven't found anything that could be called cheese in this game. But I totally agree with your attitude. Have fun, very important that bit.

It is only a game so fun is the important part

I agree, having fun is the most important bit. And they weren't suggestions so that you can auto-win, they just take away some of the limitations inherent to warmachine. Namely, getting to cast spells for free and a free upkeep.

But ya, have fun definitely! I look forward to hearing your experiences with cryx.

Both of the Satyr Chick units are Vastly improved by their UAs. If you get Raiders, get the Sea Witch. If you get Blood Witches, get the Hag. The Captain goes great with Raiders as well. 18" engagement to their shooters when you run, and then those girls can be a pain in the arse to dislodge if you don't ha e the right tools. Blood Witches are more shenaniganry toolboxes, especially with the Hag, a d I need to pick up a unit of those myself eventually.