Tour de Cryx – The Denny 3 Soul Shop – Midpoint

Two games in, and I’ve played two versions of the list, neither of which were the ones I originally started out with the intent to play. I made changes to make them feel more right. Still not sure though.

These two games were extremely different. One into Rhan, and one into Heretic. Both had some points go tragically wrong, and both had learning experiences. They both provided new insights, though, and that makes them both valuable to learning the caster, and invaluable to learning the faction as a whole.

First Impressions

 At the outset of the trip into Denny 3, I heard that a lot of people brought Soulhunters with her. I’d not included them in my mix of options because when I tried them in MKII, they’d had a number of pretty terrible vulnerabilities . Denny 3 has no way to protect them on the approach, and her Soul Weaver ability only lets her pull from a single model within her CMD range. Its a whole bunch of hoops to jump through for the potential of 1-3 souls that rely on a number of dice rolls and positioning to work out right. Even in MKII, they were hard to really get in position and at that time she could pull from any number of models any number of times. 

the big things I was weighing were: 

Wraith engine or no engine?
Soul hunters or not?
Deathjack or Leviathans. 

To be honest, It was decided randomly, and I went into my first game like this: 

Cryx Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Infernal Machines

Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]
– Deathjack [23]
– Stalker [8]
– Skarlock Thrall [4]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Wraith Engine [15]

I’d decided to take the Wraith Engine for a number of reasons. +2 ARM is awesome on Denny, turning her up to 17/18, and that same armor bonus on Brute’s seems amazing. Dark Shroud is something I like to have on tap in as many lists as I can fit, and a giant monster that holds scenario well is pretty good. The other reason I made sure to include him was because he was randomly part of the list that my opponent help me choose blindly.

Overall, the list performed well. I was prevented from casting spells for two turns in a row, while stacked up on Souls (Turn 2 3 and 4 were, respectively, 10/14/14 focus.), thanks to brain damage from Discordia and Silence from Narn, I was still able to attempt Mortality and get Ghost Walk out there thanks to the Skarlock and the Deathjack. It felt really, really good. The rest of the list performed well, too. The Mechanithralls did great every time I landed mortality, and kinda failed me when I didn’t. I got away with living for a turn when he failed 2 back-arc 6’s to finish me off with 5 health, but then I was able to swing around wide with Ghost Walk and then Scourge and Mortality the caster into the dirt. Once I got the bead on him, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do. 

Beyond all that, though, I took away that the soul trappers in that list are almost impossible to take out. Brute thralls litter the field, and I can often keep my Soul Trapper within 3″ of two of them at all times. Taking 3 shots to kill a trapper, who is at best worth 1pt, is really hard to justify, yet when I can load my caster with 5+ souls a turn due to them, it gets out of hand. The biggest portion of making the trappers work is judging where models are going to be dying, and how many, so that you can get almost all the souls onto the trappers. From there comes the critical judgement: How many soul trappers can I fill up before they activate so they can walk over and give Deneghra their souls. With a collection range of 10″, its not really a terrible prospect. Finally, you want to make a mental note of one that you can fill up, move so that they can empty into Denny, and then be in a position to full up again so Deneghra can grab then on her turn with Soul Weaver. This is unnecessary if you have pistol wraiths in positions, too, so make sure to take stock of them.  Being aware that you can only pluck souls off of one model can really make the difference in how you approach soul gathering. You can also run a fully loaded Trapper somewhere safe if you’re really worried about it. 

Between the 9 Brute Thrall Shield Guards and the Brute Thralls ambushing, I was really pleased at how all my important things were kept alive. I am worried about sprays, because I can’t Shield Guard them, even though I want to so much, but not terribly so. Another important thing incidentally kept alive in the list was Deathjack. Casting Mortality and Ghost walk makes him a very strong support piece, even hanging around in the back lines, where he waits for his time to leap out and eat people. Or blow them up with a well placed and timed Scourge. He was right capital. 

So, that was the first game, where I played the list above. The second game, that I didn’t get to finish, I played the Leviathan, no Wraith engine version. 

Cryx Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Infernal Machines

Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]
– Deathripper [6]
– Leviathan [16]
– Leviathan [16]
– Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (max) [9]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
– Skarlock Commander [3]
Mechanithralls (max) [9]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
– Skarlock Commander [3]

I really liked this version, even though there wasn’t a lot of targets for me to pick from, and a single heavy for me to harass. What I found here was that the board presence, with the AD’ing thralls, the Ambushing Thralls, and two heavies, really pushed foward into the ’17 scenarios. The Strenght of that list comes from chewing through a million bodies while I slowly take apart, with some pretty solid attacks, Infantry, heavies and lights. Its a multi-purpose list that seems to flex into whatever is needed. Even Leviathans can get 4 P+S 19 attacks, effectively, in the right instances. This list gummed me up a bit, blocking my own lanes to certain parts of the board because Denny is so fast she gets in front of the list turn 1. When you move a bunch of the models to AD, it really makes her much more flexible. What I do need to do, though, is stop tossing crap behind her so she can’t reposition backwards after moving a slight bit forward. Its really irritating to do to myself. 

Tweaks and Twists. 

I think I like the DJ list better because I can often get, with no focus from the caster, a mortality on the board and ghost walk from the Skarlock.  Its a strong way to start a turn, and helps relieve a lot of the order of activation pressure normally associated with casters, helping to mitigate their risks. Moving Deathjack within 10″ of the caster and failing to tag him with scourge enables a pretty easy aborted Assassination run, to be honest. The best part, though, might be that with Grave Wind, Deathjack can be a really big pain in the ass to kill. Finally, being able to give him 5 focus for the cost of only a single soul is extrordinary. I don’t know I want to leave home without her. 

All of that said, there are a few changes I want to make to the list. 

Looking and playing the list, it feels that all my infantry, the mechanithrall trash, die to easy, and I want to try and not invest so heavily in them. I am considering a list something to this nature in order to threaten a better portion of the board with better models. 

https://conflictchamber.com/#c4201b_-0weZ1w192A2t2tf0f0f0f0i01Ki01Ki01Ki11K26

Cryx Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Infernal Machines

(Deneghra 3) Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]
– Deathjack [23]
– Deathripper [6]
– Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Mechanithralls (max) [9]
– Brute Thrall (3) [6]
Soulhunters (max) [18]

 

The Soul Hunters give me a massive speed advantage, capitalizing on Ambush, Skarlock and Soul Hunters to threaten Left, Right and Center, respectively. I think its got some teeth, but I’m not sure. Gonna have to toss a few games down. Either way, she’s easily become one of my favorite casters and Recommend anyone take her to a local event. Just a blast.

As always – if your looking for more, I’m on Twitter, Instagram, and facebook, though they all aren’t equally active.