Yggdrasil Trembles
We have just over two weeks until the rules for the 3rd edition of Warmachine officially drop at Lock and Load, and I’m excited that I am going to be there to try and get some games in on Sunday with the new rules, but I am also excited to play the last few tournaments with MK II before I roll into the new game full bore.
I’ve talked a bit about what I am going to play when I get there, and I have had some significant experience playing with the casters I am going to work with, until recently when the 3rd edition announcement made me giddy to get some games in with casters I’ll never see again. Fortunately, I’ll get some serious playtime at Lock and load both with the new rules and with the old, so I don’t really worry that I’ve not used my chosen pairing recently.
What about Cryx, though, in 3rd edition?
Who knows!
I’m not going to lie: I have seen the leaked card decks for most of the factions, and have poured and poured over the Cryx deck. I don’t know that I should have, but greed and the excitement of a new edition and new stuff really overcame me.
So, I expect, your going to ask what is in the deck and what is coming, and can I share it with you, or someone else. The answer, sadly, is that I’m not going to share anything beyond the base concepts and thoughts that seem to have percolated into my brain. I respect PP enough not to continue to spread the leaks around and keep pushing out information that could, quite possibly, be wrong. Its on the internet, I’m sure you can find it without my assistance.
Running through the deck, greedily gobbling in all the information, I noticed there are a number of issues that let me believe that there is something perhaps a little off with it. Little bits here and there that I know for sure should be there, but aren’t. For example, Asphyxious 3 does not have the undead Icon. That seems strange, unless his story line involves him coming back in time to retcon a past version of himself into a living being? No, I’m going to assume its a legit either error or tracking/tracing device and take everything in the deck with a grain of salt. That holds true for all of the factions and all of the cards. it is not the complete picture.
Flavors of Undeath
Third edition is going to change the landscape of PP games for a long time, and every faction and model is going to feel it. Cryx is no different. There were sweeping changes to many of the models and units in the faction. Every card was changed, at the very least because there were new point costs written on the cards. Some things were toned back in the name of design space and other models or units have been repurposed for roles to make them distinct.
What Cryx has that other factions don’t is a massive catalog of 10 man units, each a flavor on destroying the opponent. Many overlapped with slight differences each possessing their own strengths and weaknesses, but doing the same job. The goal of PP in 3rd seems to make sure everything has a job and a place.
unlike most other factions, Cryx has a preponderance of 10 man infantry units, counting the current total at 11
- Bane Warriors
- Bane Knights
- Bile Thralls
- Mechanithralls
- Carrion Thralls
- Blackbanes
- Revenent Crew
- Bloodgorgers
- Mind Slavers
- Satyxis Blood Witches
- Satyxis Raiders
each of these, according to the new philosophy, would need to fill their own spot in a roster and hopefully not overlap each other.
Bane Warriors, from the information on the insider, provide the heavy lifting, able to take down ‘jacks. Tartarus Curse, no longer granting speed, helps them take down troops when needed.
Bile thralls are spray infantry removal and zone clearing, Revenent Crew are self contained recursion, ect. Each of these units seems to be dialed back a touch in ways that make them overlap with each other and are now more focused on what they do, even if sometimes they have incentives to try and cover more ground.
I have heard that others don’t like the changes to some of the infantry, and that the changes to the Satyxis Raiders, specifically, were a bit over the top. I’m not sure.
I really feel confident that PP is trying to slow the game down by about half to a full turn. Jamming units onto your opponents side of the board on the top or even bottom of 1 created a strange and, in my mind, unhealthy meta that had to have specific and bothersome ways of unjamming themselves if they ever were in the position. Pulling the Satyxis raiders back a touch both allows them to change how other factions deal with Jam and solidify the Satryxis raiders job a bit more than run in and die. This can allow slower units, ones with speed 5 or speed 6 with .5″ reach, to make it into combat with more surety.
That leads me to the unit I am looking forward to playing the most: Bloodgorgers. Their shift in design is something I like, and think that we will use over and over again in the coming years. I don’t believe, by any stretch, that infantry is dead. People are still going to be jamming every point possible of units and solos into the game, its just going to be less of them. This gives Bloodgorgers a surety of purpose like they have not had in MK II, and I think is a vast improvement. Does it come with a cost? Of course, but few things in this world are free.
Jacks, too, are in a position where each one of them, even though most are a variant of some sort on the Two-claws slayer, has a pretty solid role to play, depending on what you need.
Slayers are cheap beaters
Reapers are reach heavies with movement
Corrupter is a dependable toolbox fire platform.
the list continues throughout the deck.
More than anything, I am looking forward to playing model combinations I’ve left behind and searching out some synergies that aren’t already hashed out from 6 years of play. Models I never had the capacity to try and play are back into the ring, finally, and I the chance to put them on the table and see how they work in this new, 3rd edition era.
What am I most looking forward too? what do I think you should look at first?
For Heavy Warjacks, the ones that I was drawn to first were Erebus, who is especially cool, the Harrower, and, of all jacks, the Corrupter. Thankfully each jack seems to have a specific use that defines why and how you take them, as intended.
Light warjacks are a staple of the faction, and outside of the standard arc nodes, I really gravitated towards the Shrike and the Stalker. I think both will see some legitimate table time.
Solos are a tricky one, because there are so many reason to have them, and they perform so many different functions for the faction. The only one really sticking out in my mind is Gerlak. The Pistol Wraith, too, seems to have earned at least a second look
Units, as I talked through above, are Bloodgorgers, but I also very much look forward to taking the new Revenant Boat. A unit of Crew, Rengrave and a Pair of cannons look to be a considerable force. Maybe not tournament caliber, but strong.
Finally, my favorite part – Waracasters. While many have seen overhauls, favorites, like Deneghra, still exist in pretty much their ages old form with just a few tweaks. The ones I want to play thought? Scaverous and the Coven. The Coven is the warcaster that got me playing Cryx because they were so cool, and I really hope that they are able to perform admirably in this new world. Scaverous, after the changes they made to him, looks very appealing, especially given my predilection to my favorite part of the Cryxian game – Souls.
Well! I hope I’ve given you a brief glimpse into what I am looking forward to in Seattle and beyond. Let me know what your looking to play!
