Banes for the Bane God!

It has been a hard year for Cryx players. The best caster in the game, Asphyxious II, has been justifiably nerfed twice. Though its needed, it does not sting any less. Adding on top o that, we’ve not seen a new release in probably 12 months. I know: Hard is relative. However, we are starting to get some cool information coming through about what we will be in Vengance. Its been a trickle, but I’ll take it, and its hopefully going to come faster as Vengeance nears.

The first tidbit we were fed was the Scarlock Commander. We have no solid information on him in terms of his rules, but it really looks like he is going to be an attachment to mechanithralls and bile thralls that will allow them to use the souls of models they kill for some small benefit. He also may have a spell to cast that’s boostable with those very same tormented souls, but that could just be reaching for the sales blurb of: “souls used as fuel to power the commander’s dark magic” to make sense. His model’s been revealed, but his release date has been extremely vague, with him appearing on December, then vanishing. Here is hoping for early 2014. Its moderately disappointing, but I can wait.

The newer stuff has just come out in the last few days, though.
I give you, The back of NQ51!

It’s a really cool image, and has a whole pile of models from Vengeance. I’d expect it to be the front cover, but I could be wrong, as it definitely has the composition of one of Adrea Uderzo’s cover pieces.

As you can see, it has Goreshade, Lord of Ruin and Reznik, Wrath of Ages, facing off in the middle. On top we have what looks to be Eiryss 3 and a single mage hunter buddy, while in the center we have a 4 way combat between some sort of mystery Protectorate ‘jack with the guardian chassy, bane cavalry, a lone bastion seneschal, and some bane thralls. The mystery ‘jack looks pretty bad ass, with a great looking sword and a shield. The bane cavalry at the bottom are pretty cool looking, but they are pretty much just foreground fodder and its hard to make out any good details.

Goreshade, however.

The Image gives us a couple really cool clues. The runes around his hands spell out “Siphon Bolt,” which is likely one of his spells. The early speculation is that it’ll work like Kaelyssa’s Siphon shot, which would make sense as his original incarnation could siphon focus from friendly casters. Being able to take that theme and push it into a spell to affect enemies would be a natural evolution. He’s also got Voass, the enormous sword of the Elven god of winter Nyssor. On Goreshade 2 it was an auto-freeze reach P+S 15 weapon. I had used it more times than not to end games, as it can really make a high defense caster wiggle. This Cryxian is just giddy with the thought of a speed 8 caster with reach and auto-freeze on the weapon and mat 9 on the charge at P+S 15!

Reznick has runes as well reading “The Flesh is Weak” around his weapon. What that does, no one has any idea, but I assume its his feat or some other awful thing that that battle engine caster can do.

The best one so far, though, has been Matt Wilsons Upside-down tweeted pic of the bane thrall cavalry models.

While it doesn’t tell us anything, It does let us know that the bane cavalry is, most definitely, in existence.. It has at least masters that have been cast, assembled and painted. They have pretty cool swords, they have unique Horses, and they will cost all the money in my wallet because of it.

This is the best I can get at the stat line:

Spd: 8
Str: 7
Mat: 6
RAT: 4
Def: 12
Arm: 17
CMD: 8

Undead

Bane Sword: Pow 4, P+S 11, Weaponmaster, Reach.
Mount: Pow 10

I think they will end up with one more creative rule, but not much more. With ghostly and vengeance on one, and stealth and dark shroud on the other, it is solidly possible that it will be two rules. I can’t even begin to contemplate what they’d have. I think brutal or powerful charge is completely off the plate. I’d expect something completely different from stealth, dark shroud, or ghostly. I could see it being a pow 12 weaponmaster, as opposed to pw 11, but it seems far fetched to me. Tartarus really holds them back. With +2 speed and +2 to hit against a cursed unit, we are looking at a 15″ threat range at an effective MAT 10. That is powerful stuff. A P+S 12 weaponmaster, the ability to drop pow 28+ (4d6 + 12, -3 enemy armor for parasite/-2 for curse of shadows, -2 for dark shroud, ect.) onto somethings noggin from 13 inches away is already pretty legitimate. I look forward to discovering what else they get!