Hey all. We finally got some juicy spoilers for the post-Oblivion Cryx themes, so I thought now might be a good time to write a post about it.
For those that don’t know, basically Privateer Press is revamping the way themes work. Instead of gaining 1 free of slot for taking X points of Y, you will get 1 Requisition point per 25 points of game size, which can then be spent on taking free options. This means that, when playing a 75-point game, you will get 3 of these Requisition points, which would be like most people are building lists now.
The difference is that we’re no longer limited to taking X of Y, but can freely mix and match whatever we feel works best in any given list and still get some free stuff out of it.
Ghost Fleet
The first one got revealed in the Developer Hangout of July 17 and is as follows:
At first glance, this theme doesn’t appear to be wildly different. Having Barathrum available is kind of cool and also makes thematic sense as he is Terminus’s jack and Terminus oversees the ghost pirates.
All the other options are the same as they are now, though the requisition options do look interesting as they give us plenty of 6-pointers. This basically means the theme will always have 19 free points in the Hellslinger Phantom and 2 of the other options, most likely at least two sets of Riflemen, but Misery Cages and Machines Wraiths are also an option.
Like Jeff said on the stream, one of the major benefits to this theme is the removal of the restrictions on what you can take. It will now be possible to play Barathrum and/or double Wraith Engines without cutting into your free solos. You will no longer be required to take the Ghost Raiders if you don’t want to, etc.
If you liked playing it before, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t still like it, as the “standard” build easily wins 2 points by taking 6 Riflemen for free instead of the 2 Pistol Wraiths or Cannon Crews. Those 2 points could go towards a Misery Cage which many of our casters really enjoy.
That being said, I’m not sure if this is enough to bring the theme back to the forefront, as its main shtick is still relying on victim stat infantry, albeit with good recursion, that have weak guns that happen to have a some cool rules here and there.
It could be a new home for making the Wraith Engine work, but honestly, other themes are probably better for that. More on that below.
Black Industries
The moment we had all been waiting for: full spoilers on the merger of Black Industries and Infernal Machines on last week’s Fully Boosted who had the privilege to get Jeff Olson to do the honors on the show.
Wow, this combines literally everything that Infernal Machines had with everything Black Industries had and then some!
First things to note is that we lost access to free bone jacks, but in return we gained access to every character warjack that exists in Cryx. Yup, this theme specifically doesn’t include the “non-character” differentiator that is found in other themes, which is actually great, because we have a lot of cool ‘jacks to choose from.
Next to that, the “non-character” clause was also dropped from the free solos you could take in Infernal Machines and it is now the standard “small- or medium-based”, which means we can finally take the Hellslinger Phantom, Deneghra 0, Mobius and others for free.
The theme also kept the option for free Necrosurgeons and command attachments, which is only the Skarlock Commander currently. It’s unlikely that you won’t just pay for these when given the chance, but having the option is still nice.
On top of that, we also gain access to taking a “Brute squad” for free, which will be nice on your ambushing Mechanithralls, as well as three Necrotechs. It’s a bit sad that we can’t take free Iron Mongers, but we still have the option for three independent mechanics that randomly make Scrap Thralls, so I won’t complain.
I really don’t know where to begin with this. Unless the Thrall models see some changes, I don’t see myself reaching for this often as an infantry theme, but it really opens up our warjack and combined-arms builds.
We will no longer be able to play pure ‘jack builds as we will “be forced” to take a couple of non-jack requisition options, but adding an aforementioned Brute squad, 3 Necrotechs and the Hellslinger Phantom to your list quickly fills up your slots anyway.
What I’m most excited about is being able to take the Wraith Engine as a pseudo-jack to add some extra support, not to mention getting access to Darragh to make our jacks a bit more durable. I think Asphyxious 3, Deneghra 2 and Venethrax will like them both. This also means that a Skarre 1 double Battle Engine build could now go in here instead of being restricted to Dark Host.
While I really like my current Skarre 1 in Dark Host, I might tinker a bit with the idea of merging my old Black Industries build with Dark Host by simply adding 2 Wraith Engines.
The fact that all restrictions on character ‘jacks were thrown out the window opens up this theme for a lot of casters that like having a mid-sized battle group, but never really found a home. They were usually ok in Slaughter Fleet because of Gang Fighter, but I think many will be happier here. Things like putting Erebus on Skarre 2 or Venethrax, Cankerworm with Aiakos 1/2 or Kharybdis on Mortenebra all make me pretty excited.
I played the following against old(/current) Harbinger Faithful Masses and it was actually a lot of fun. Counter Charging Erebus is hilarious, the Wraith Engine adds a threat that can’t be ignored (but can be Counter Charged through) while also making Venethrax more durable and providing a source of Dark Shroud. Darragh can make our fragile Cryx ‘jacks a bit more tanky or speed up the undead models, which is always nice.
The Mechanithralls did nothing of note, but Ambushing them when you’re ready to commit, did feel good.
[Venethrax 1] Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
– Deathripper [6]
– Desecrator [14]
– Erebus [16]
– Harrower [16]
– Slayer [10]
The Withershadow Combine [9]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]
Every Cryx player I’ve talked to is super excited about the whole new world this theme opens up for us, so we’ll see what we’ll come up with in the coming months.
Dark Host
The final theme we have information on so far just sort of showed up on Facebook over the weekend and I don’t actually know where it came from. Warmachine University maybe?
There’s not much new with this theme, but that was to be expected. We kept both theme benefits and the Void Archon was added to the Army Composition, which means we can potentially take 2 of them and won’t be using up our Mercenary solo for them, so that’s nice.
In addition we got the option to add 3 Necrotechs or 3 Machine Wraiths as a free option. I’m not sure about the former, but the latter does seem moderately interesting. I suspect though, that you will often still want the list to primarily rely on Banes and will probably use the requisition options on Tartarus and 2 command attachments as before. Though again, having the option is always nice.
This theme was already one of our more functional ones, so it’s no surprise that it saw little change.
I don’t see the current builds for this list changing much, except that, as it is no longer the natural home of builds that focus on the Wraith Engine, some casters might choose to migrate away from it to either Ghost Fleet or Black Industries. E.g. Skarre 1, as mentioned above.
Black Fleet Scourge of the Broken Coast
That means all that we are currently waiting for is the living pirate theme(s). They both went through CID, at the same time, so I don’t expect a lot of changes, but in my opinion one is definitely better than the other, both choice wise, as well as theme bonus wise.
The reason I said “theme(s)” is that there has been rumors that they would be combined. I think this would make some sense, but I’m a bit on the fence on if this would be a good thing.
Before the CID, I thought it was going to be one theme and I was pretty excited about that, because it would give us a cool mix of many different model types. I was initially disappointed when it turned out to be 2 separate themes, but during the CID it kind of grew on me. Both themes had enough options that they could stand on their own and they each had a defined niche.
So when the rumor first surfaced, I was kind of disappointed again, because I felt you would choose one (more durable Tough infantry) over the other (hard to hit, but fragile infantry) anyway.
But then I got to thinking that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it would allow us to get out from under the “Trollkin tax”, by which I mean that, whenever you start taking Blighted Trollkin, you feel kind of obligated to spend 11 points, or 2 Requisition options, on both Gerlak and Jussika. Both are good characters in their own right, but I probably wouldn’t take them without the models that they support.
So some casters might actually prefer a more diversified build and, assuming Gang Fighter, Ambushing Blood Witches, and Barathrum and Kharybdis will stay, I definitely wouldn’t be mad about actually playing Skarre 2 with Satyxis again.
Time will tell. I will try to update this post when we have more info on that, which is hopefully soon.
It’s here!
So, at first glance, everything is as expected and there’s not much more I can write about this. But wait, is that “Living Cryx models/units”? That means Darragh Wrathe, Deneghra 0, Aiakos 1, Warwitch Sirens and even Cephalyx * are allowed. These inclusions really make it a great contender as a jack theme. In fact, it shares the Ambush benefit with the new Black Industries, which is… interesting.
*Hungerford confirmed on the Dev Hangout of July 24 that Partisan only becomes Cryx after you add them to the army, so Cephalyx still count as Mercenaries here.
All in all, I’m excited to change up my Skarre 3 list to include some ambushing Blood Witches and possibly Severa instead of the third unit of Trollkin, that were often too far away from Jussika and/or Deceleration anyway.
As mentioned above, I can also see Skarre 2 leading 2 of our best character warjacks supported by some powerful solos and skirmishing infantry.
The sky is the limit and exciting times are on the horizon for Cryx.
I’m really interested to see how this will shake up the meta and now I have no idea what to bring to the WTC…
Smeerlapperij 