Which to take Malic or Reaper?

This has been quit a heated discussion on the Cryx forms (http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?80265-Why-should-I-take-Reaper-if-I-have-Malice) when a new players to the undead army asked “Which is better Malice or Reaper?” I would say it was not long after those words left the keyboard and traveled into cyber space to only start a spark of a revolution amongst the cryx players like a feeding frenzy with sharks and a bloody bascket of tuna.

But this dose beg the question dose it not? Which IS better? Well on the outside you think there the same jack one being more points but pushing a higher RAT / POW on harpoon being Malice and the other one only getting reach as the trade off…

That is the great thing about Mathew Wilson, Chief Creative Officer at Privateer Press, who purposely generate tones of models but no two are the same. Sure due to blaring weaknesses and things you know that other people will bring across the board there are obviously models that are better choices but that is not to say you can promise that the guy across the board is going to DO exactly what you think or want him to do. The answer is neither folks and I am going to tell you why.

So lets start with Malice:

This bad boy came out with the Wrath expansion but do to some lacked information on the Cryx forms this model all ready gained popularity way before the release of Wrath. Cryx loves board control in so many ways weather its them not letting you move some ware or forcing there enemy out of some one ellses hidy hole. Here is the break down folks.

Armor

The armor of Malice goes up as the more sole he stacks allowing you to push up to a chance of 20 ARM. This is the awesome threshold for us to get to and something that Kahdor take for granite way to much. If you don’t know what I am talking about try taking a Slayer up agents something and see what happens to your poor model. Sense you start with one soul you are putting yourself to ARM 18.

Higher chance to pull the drag

Malice brings the two thing that Reaper is lacking in there biggest trick and that is drag. With drag your threat range goes from a possible 9’ (Malice: Charge + SPD 6) or 11’ (Reaper: Charge + Reach + SPD6) to 14” which even gives Cygnar a run for there money. Higher RAT also helps as we are now at 7 instead of the low brand of 5. You know what they say “Rat 5 is just enough to hit the broad side of a kahdor Jack.” The last thing that helps seal the deal with the drag trick is a POW of 14 instead of 12. This really helps to make sure your going to get the drag off. The reaper is only RAT 5 and POW 12… You are supposed to boost once on the hit or damage but with the reaper I find I am doing both ALL.THE.TIME. to pull off the darn drag =(

Possession

Aww the glory of Possession and the BEST part is that you start with a soul right off the bat. The only problem you will find is that first you need to hit your target but go go MAT 7 right? And then you have to spend said soul effectively going back to ARM 17 and need to be ok with that. The good thing is that you can move the model with its back turned to your waiting Wither Shadow Combine. This is known as the dark industry trick.

Step 1) Find juicy target 14” away from Malice that is a jack with a working cortex

Step 2) Drag said jack also boost damage if you can any bit you hurt the jack easier the combine kill will work.

Step 3) Hit jack and posses it once again you may want to boost this one to put some more damage on it

Step 4) Have jack advance and spin its back to Wither Shadow Combine say hello to FREE seethe with 3 “weapon master” guys coming in on your target with affective MAT 8…

The downfall of this guy is you’re spending 9 pnts. Also you will notice the possession will only work on a JACK not a WARBEAST so you are not faction limited in your effectiveness though this is definitely more of a meta downfall. But if you’re going into tournaments be aware of what your getting your self into. So if you cannot afford sports car of the drag jacks then this guy is not for you any way you slice it…

The Reaper

This model was the vary first drag jack we had and was loved by many for a long time. What this guy brings that Malic does not is a few things to take into affect.

Reach + Sustained Attack + Tusks Attack

This guys is definitely more of a melee option jack opposed to Malice being a one trick pony. I won games thanks to this guys reach alone with Sustained attack. And if I can get close enough I will take another P/S 12 attack please =) In a Malice theme list your putting a 6 pnt jack on the table with a threat range of 13” ( SPD 6 + 3 charge + 2 Terminal Velocity + 2 Reach) and until you have that range or say you take two you can “drag” out of the way anything that is in the way of your killer. And even when you get the range all you need to do is “hit” the target and POOF you get sustained attack off. Now you may ask why would I ever bother to go melee instead of Drags 14” range. Well that is simple, have you seen my RAT 5… ya… RAT 5 that’s why and when Terminal Velocity is pushing 3d6 to hit on melee attacks and all I need to land is one to trigger sustained attacks just makes me smile =)

The bad is that your sitting at RAT 5 and POW 12… This means that it’s a lot harder to get the drag off as your tend to boost both your shot and your damage to even try the 14” drag off. Sure it can be done but the deck is stacked agenst you.

I know all of you can tell me “But you can sac movement” Um I rarly run into times when I can just stay still as cryx and the jucy important targets are in the back.

The infanant Drag + kill loop

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For those of you who have never heard of this there is a trick with “Drag” models that I like to bring up. Look up Dark spot on eSkare list. Now see how it drops a targets DEF by 2? Now your Reaper is 7 and Malic is 8. Now you can not say that’s awesome alone :D now the next part man hold on to your hats. Lets say you hook shot a target… drag it in.. and kill it with your FREE melee attack. Guess what you get another attack… This means if you can keep pulling this off then poof as long as there is something with in 8” of your Reaper/Malice means you will keep killing. Welcome to the infinite kill loop with Reaper/Malice. The hard part is finding the right models to do this with. They need enough HP or armor to survive the harpoon then make sure they die on the face smash soon to follow.

Bane Thralls OR Bane Knights? Which it better?

 I see this questions show up a lot on forms and in person so I figured I give my 2 cents on the units and what there roles are in a army.

From my xp most opponent lists bring shooting of some kind weather its for softening up the targets while they come into range or generally there main strategy of winning you find it a lot.

That being said Banes offer a uniqe nitch in the Cryx unit arsenal as they can handle heavy armor targets which you will un doubtfully run agents weather its jacks or Iron fang pike men or even Templar nights. Lets face it we need to crack armor and that's what the banes do.

With that in mind your right we have two Bane units to pick from the "Bane Knights" and the "Bane Thralls" this is how I look at them personally:

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BANE THRALLS
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The Cost?
A full on Bane thrall unit will the necessary tools to survive is going to cost your around 15 pnts that's Full unit of Bane thralls (10) + UA + The BLT tax

What do you get in this package?
* POW 13 (dark shroud)
* threat range 10"
* 4d6 dice on charge models
* stealth to handle shooting
* ARM 15 to survive blast damage most the time
* tough
* free stand up on maintenance phase
* remove stationary for free

I have put kador jacks to bed with 4-5 of these guys on the charge and that's easily a 10pnt model scraped if I can get two groups on the charge I can scrap 20+ pnts in one round if there kador jacks. Talk about a return on your investment right?

Now what do they lack?
They can't handle rough terrain sadly and it gets tricky keeping them together with your officer in a safe place. Its easy to want to jump your officer and FB into the fray speciously sense there sporting weapons but DON'T. Its not worth the loss of tough and dead rising believe me. There biggest problem is not being able to ignore rough terrain sense there are a lot of player that will take advantage of said things.

There slow... With a natural SPD 5 your not ghosting through thick building and still getting a chance to attack this has caught me off guard many a times when I tried to reach a juicy target on the other side of a wall and found my self lacking the 1" I needed to do what I wanted to do. They are fast on the charge with BLT but that means you NEED to manuver BLT to get them to what you want.

DARK SHROUD!!!
Is dark shroud worth it? Well is +2 damage on any other model in your army worth it? This is not a spell btw so you can park a BT in melee range of a juicy target that is immune to spells and still get the benefit some times that 2 damage is all you need to win the game or tip the scales in your favor so I think it is fantastic As they say any little helps.

They need BLT to work past smashing heavy ARM targets. If your soaking so many pnts into a package deal then they need to be able to handle infantry as well which means you need to become good at maneuvering BLT on the field as well as them. This takes practices and time to learn. Also you will be tempted to bring BLT into the fight but only do this if you can shield him with new Bane Thralls after to go to town.



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BANE Knights
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The Cost?
A full on Bane Knights unit will the necessary tools to survive is going to cost your around 14 pnts that's Full unit of Bane Knights + the BLT tax

What do you get in this package?
* POW 11
* threat range 12"
* 4d6 dice on charge models
* Vengeance to close the distance on shooting + double the carnage when all ready in melee
* ARM 16 to survive blast damage most the time
* Ghostly to ignore free strike + go through terrain / obstetrical

Still have the power that thralls bring but with lacking Dark Shroud be ready to commit more to the effort of taking down a arm 20+ model. But the nice thing with reach you can fit a lot more of them around a target

Now what do they lack?
They are easy to shoot up across the board. When your pushing only ARM 16 and crap DEF of 12 so guess what your going to be hit. If there toting anything at POW 11+ there going to kill you on average dice rolls most the time.

Like there Bane thrall cousins there still slow... The kick back through is with Vengeance you get a free +3" if any of them get taken out which makes the rest of the unit seem "Faster" the nice thing is even in the thick of things you benefit from this. Its one of those models that your damned if you don't and damned if you do


Ooooo Ghostly! how dose that affect there game play?
As I said Banethralls fail at being able to be vary mobile thanks to not being able to handle rough terrain or Obstetrical in there way. This make them highly predictable to control on the board. But where they lack the Bane knights ex sell. There easy to shoot but they can come from any ware and with Ghostly + Vengeance + reach weapon together you can "Side step" things in front of them and kill things behind them like a juicy UA or important solo.

Why should I care about Vengeance?
Vengeance is the chance to get up the field, re organize your ranks, and sweep through ranks to better targets thanks to having ghostly also. A known tactic is to put one out on its own in front of the other ones to tempt players into trying and killing it. If a player did not read about "vengeance" then there going to kill it and suddenly scream out hax when all your stuff moves closer at the begin of your next turn I love this so much!

They still need BLT look above for the reason why...



So which sould I take? BANE THRALLS or BANE KNIGHTS?!

The answer is simple. You should take the unit that best compliments your caster. I try and run it this way my friend:

Dose my caster have access to ghostly? If yes, then I take the Bane thralls hands down. If no, I take the bane Knights.

It is as simple as that with some few exceptions thanks to caster tactics and that's this with eLich thanks to causing mist and reach lets you park your Bane Knight right out of the edge and lolz as there unit in the mist will die if they stay in the mist or get a free strike and die if they try to leave the mist. Plus with his feat anything with a super long threat range is awesome.

Another caster I bring them with a lot is with Venethrax thanks to there ability to effectively get two hits in with vengeance helps with corpse harvesting for Venethrax spell "Soul Harvest". Pluss he falls into my rule above of not having a way of giving out Ghostly to his units.

I know you can argu just take Saxon Oric to give out pathfinder to the Bane Thralls but I could also put those 2pnts into a solo that can spray / shadow bind / power boost aka war which sooooo ya no thanks.

Cryx Mercenary and Minions Contracts guid

Hired Guns & Paying Blades

Cryx Mercenary and Minions Contracts

What is this guide about?

This is a guide I have put together after being tiered of running into the same questions 1-2 times a week on the Cryx forms “So what are good Mercenary/Minions for Cryx?” And as you read through the posts I see lots of people ask “Hey what is Saxon Oric I don’t see it in my Cryx cards / Forces of wars book??” So let’s dive in weather you are new to the game or a vet maybe you will find something new. If you have more information you like to add to this guid PLEASE email me on my blog or send me a PM. This is constantly evolving and I like to make it a one stop shop for these kinds of questions.

Not everything in this guide is 100 play tested by me I have either researched it and/or play tested it. I may of even gotten tips by other players which if I do I will site the reference. Please, Please, AND PLEASE play tests any model you are recommended on VASSAL before spending money on the model. Your time and your cash is paresis so don’t waist it. I don’t want to be flooded with hate mail of “You said blah blah rocks with blah blah I want my money back.”

Guide Key:

Minion model, Mercenary model

Snapjaw & Wrong Eye

Price = 9pnts

Wrong Eye at a glance

Snapjaw is only pushing a speed 5 meaning you’re not going to be moving fast up the board. Sense you’re not pushing a 6 or 7 means you’re not getting up the board fast and with no pathfinder you’re going to get bogged down in rough terrain. His only advantage sadly is only fear less which is kind of silly when not many things have abomination / terror and his CMD is 9… When the average roll of 2d6 is 7 who cares when your CMD is 9. His fury stat of 4 is nice though letting you suck all of your Snapjaws fury and allows you to run hot all night/day long =)

Sadly his def is at the 12 threshold so hes going to get hit by anyone but his ARM are just above the damage threshold being 17 so AOE damage won’t hurt on blast and ppl need to be pushing above P/S 10 to finally matter.

               

His weapons are nothing impressive having two is nice and one is reach (Swamp Hook) but past that I would say it’s at best there to help kill off pesky low ARM targets your just stuck boosting at Mat 6 is not going to hit most solos / high def targets.

The Good

Snapjaw has two great spells to note at one being Influence and the other one is Voodoo Doll but remember your FOC is 4 so it’s going to be hard to hit anything with them. In the end don’t rely on them as a tool box spells without some set up. I love Voodoo Doll to make a beast useless thanks to removing a aspect lets you rly mess around with the field.

You got Amphibious so now you can move in water be it deep or shallow with no problem. I love going into deep water and just sitting there so that I don’t block LOS. You also can not be target by range attacks be it normal or magic means thanks. So find a puddle and sit in it.

Bite attack lets you heal your own model which helps with survivability but hey if your in melee be warned ppl will be gunning for you sense if they remove you then they remove the problem of your beast.

The Bad

 His low DEF means your going to get hit with RAT 5 enjoy being a easy kill. Sense Snap jaw likes to run hot your not going to be holding much to transfer damage also sadly. Being a lesser warlock you still are stuck with a vary small CTL range meaning your going to be in the tough spots being in near the front line. You got only 8 HP, easy to hit, and last only  a moderate arm of 17…. If someone wants to kill you they will do it without a problem.

The Bottom Line

So after going over the pros and cons of this model the bottom line is that he’s still relatively resilient and if your smart about placement then you can affectively screen the guy with models or sit him 8” back. But don’t get to cocky or if you NEED to bring him in melee harm range don’t run Snapjaw hot at least keep one fury on the guy to transfer damage you don’t have a lot to play with. If they don’t one shot you then you can pick up with Bite and self healing then get out of there! Over all a great model with some decent tool box spells but his low speed is rly the spot he suffers the most to be honest sense his DEF is only 12…

Snapjaw at a glance

He pretty much sits at the same SPD of Wrong Eye which is nice to be honest. Also he pushing the same DEF as his master but at least he’s got a ARM 18 putting him at the Crabjack lvl. His HP pool is pushing a High Body count of 14 at a total of 27 HP means your doing pretty good but not in the lvl of a Kador jack of 30+. He can take a beating but he will die like anything ells. A fury of 4 is amazing as it lets you pretty much crash anything you want =)

His weapons are a tail with reach, critical knock down, and pushing P/S 14 which is awesome! And his other weapon is Bite at p/s 17 which is your money damage attack but no reach so it’s not the threat range you have with the other weapons choice.

The Good

Animus of Submerge is where the money is at man! For only the low low cost of 2 focus you can make your model not block LOS, not be target by range, and not target by magic attacks! I love this part of him if you have not figure that out =) Now Blood thirst is amazing sense you can now charge living models with +2” of movement meaning you will get the alpha strike most the time on living targets. He is sporting also Amphibious and Man-eater lets you charge living warrior models with out being forced.

The bond is really nice sense every time Snapjaw boxes a model you get to heal him or Wrong Eye which is how you’re going to keep him and your caster alive. By all means this is what makes the pair survive so well to be honest.

The Bad

Were Snapjaw really lack is his movement just like his counterpart sadly. It’s not hard to see your not getting up the field fast as both of them lack pathfinder and for this matter obstacles like forest can really force your hands on where your going. This will put you at a disadvantage and make you predictable. And when your predictable you all ready got one foot in the grave my friend. The reach is nice for threat range but it sucks that its on the lower end weapon in the P/S department : (

Tactics Tips

Wrong eye and Snapjaw have a slow movement witch means your army flank or center now has a slow movement. But you also now have a model pair that wont be easy to pick off with all the shooting on the board thanks to Submerge. I love having a heavy hitter sit on my flank that the other guy cant reach or shoot. That is there true power to be honest you get to engage on your terms which means now you have a heavy hitter that will wreck anything it can touch. And tell me how many casters you face that are “alive” =) now you see the picture my friend.

There a pair that will also not drain on your mana. Like most Cryx casters we hate giving up are focus and for this matter we like things that are self contained. Well it does not get more self contained when you need a heavy then a minor warlock. Not only are you not tapping your casters pool your also got a pair that can hold a flank on their own thanks to not being stuck in your casters control range. This is why I prefer wrong eye and snap jaw vs say a Seether. There the same points but you don’t get the same board control options or tool box spells. If your meta is Hords heavy they are going to learn to HATE your Wrong eye and Snapjaw rather fast!

Up next is Rorsh and Brine