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View Full Version : I inherited a huge Cryx army. What do I do with it?!



mountaincycle661
06-29-2010, 03:15 PM
As the title mentions, I just recently was given a huge cryx army. I have never played Warmachine before, but hell...with a free army I cant afford NOT to try it.

So, to reiterate: I know next to nothing about the game. And heres what I got:

33 Bane Knights (appearently, from what i hear, thats ridiculous)
9 Bane Thralls
19 Bile Thralls
4 nightwretches
1 Death Jack

Now, theres hardly ANY WM players in my area, but I would feel just awful selling all this stuff off. So Id like to keep it. I love the models and what little I do know about the Cryx I like. But, theres nobody here to really show me the ropes and give me advice as to where to go from here. So I throw myself at the mercy of the WM community.

If you got all this stuff for free, what would you do?

lobster-overlord
06-29-2010, 03:42 PM
Sell it!

Actually, I had a former roommate whom I booted because of him missing back rent, so as he departed he gave me his Cryx (a TV, some Warhammer and some other stuff...) so I sold them. If you have no intention of playing, no need to hold on to it.

IF, however, you don' tneed the money, sounds like a sweet lot to start with. I'd certainly try the game again if I came across another Khador army in a similar manner.

John M>

Antenor
06-29-2010, 05:36 PM
I'd keep it and use it to try and tempt other players into warmachine, thats how I got started in it. As for the models it looks like you could use some casters and propably tartrus given how many bane knights you have (would have to check the tier lists to see if you could use that many in one list).

lordbubonicus
06-29-2010, 05:52 PM
Yeah, 33 Bane Knights is ridiculous. It sounds like you got given an army that someone built for Mark 1 rules. Under Mark 2 it's unlikely that you'll be fielding all of them.

Well, first things first. If you're intending to play, then you will need a few things. If I were in your position, I would pick up Warmachine Prime Mark 2 (the core rulebook), and the Cryx 2010 faction deck (make sure it's the 2010 deck, NOT the MK2 deck). That will give you the basic rules for the game, and the rules for all of the models in your faction, with the exception of the latest releases. You could also pick up the Forces of Warmachine: Cryx book for the background material and additional model rules, but Prime and the faction deck are all that you really need to play.

You will also need a warcaster to play with. Which you go with depends on your style of play. So I would suggest proxying a few using the rules from the faction deck and Prime to see which you like. If you're looking for one to fit thematically with what you've got, either version of Goreshade would work.

Those are the essentials. But you might also look into the Cryx battlebox. Again it's not essential, but it would give you some additional warjacks and a decent warcaster in Deneghra. The battleboxes are about to be rereleased though, so I'd maybe hold off on that for a bit

I would then start off with some small games. 15pts, warcaster and battlegroup only. That way you'll be able to learn the basics of the game, such as the turn sequence, that play very differently to 40K of Fantasy. This will also get you familiar with the crucial focus mechanic. I can't recommend this enough, start small. I've seen many people try to play big games straight away; it doesn't work out well in general, particularly coming from GW games, as Warmachine is so different that it takes a while to get your head around how it works, without worrying about large armies. Try out different warjacks using proxies to see what you like before you plonk down the cash.

Once you've got some experience under your belt, start using your troops as well. A quick word of warning here; with the numbers that you currently have, you can field the following:

2x max unit of bane knights(2x10) + 2x min unit of bane knights(2x6)
max unit of bile thralls(10)+min unit of bile thralls(6) OR 3x min unit of bane thralls(3x6)
min unit of bane thralls(6)

Unfortunately there's no option for midsize units, so you'll have 1 spare bane knight, either 3 or 1 spare bile thrall, and 3 spare bane thralls. So I'd look at picking up a blister of banethralls to give you the option for a max unit. You'd end up with a spare, as they come in blisters of 2, but that's better than 3 eh? Antenor's suggestion of Bane Lord Tartarus is a good one for starting to expand your force. He's a solo that fits thematcially with the models you listed, and also interacts with bane thralls and bane knights to unleash some nasty combinations.

Welcome to Warmachine. I hope you have fun! Feel free to ask questions as you try it out, we're here to help. There's also Privateer Press' official forums, which have rules forums and faction specific forums, so you might like to check those out as well (just don't get put off by some of the, well, passionate, posting there!)

Sorry for the wall of text!

mountaincycle661
06-29-2010, 06:50 PM
HOLY CRAP! thats a lot of great advice! Seriously, you guys have helped a lot and i didnt expect that much quality advice.

Goreshade will probably be my first choice, as everyone says hes perfect for a bane heavy army. 2 Units of bane knights at full strength sounds like a lot of fun. Id like to sell off the minimum amount of models, so i might sell of a ten man unit of bane knights (as much as that sucks) because from what I can tell, nobody in thier right mind can field 30 of them. But i might be wrong.

Ill also pick up the books and cards. Thanks for distiguishing between the different card sets! i would have screwed myself there...

is there a difference between battlegroup and troops? for example, is a battle group a caster and jacks only? What exactly IS a battlegroup? how do troops fit into the overall style of play of warmachine? I know its mostly about the big freakin' machines, so how do things like bile thralls and bane knights fit in here?

Ill pick up the rule book and give it a whirl with a friend of mine. We're going to try breaking my models down in half (into two forces) and fight each other to see how it goes. Any recommendations?

Again, you've been super helpful. Ive gotten a lot of positive feedback from the WM community. Im surprised honestly. Most wargamers are "psssh, whatever noob. go ask somebody else"

So, thanks. ;-)

mazgier
06-29-2010, 09:05 PM
Don't forget that Tartarus can add more Bane Knights & Thralls to a unit even if it's max sized so having some spare models may be not a bad idea.

azekio
06-30-2010, 05:25 AM
your battle group is your warcaster and the jacks he/she/they/it controls. for a seasoned 40k player warmachine can seem a bit upside down at times, but it makes alot of sense after a while. you don't actually HAVE to have any troops, but they are real useful for screening, holding stuff, generating soul tokens etc. plus many have cool buffs fir themselves/ other stuff. all your units will feel alot more connected to each other. i'd go get prime, the deck and the starter box and goreshde, if you sell some stuff and use ebay, or even a swap forum this could cost you as little as nothing!

lordbubonicus
06-30-2010, 07:19 AM
No problem. It's always great to see new people coming into any game. I've never understood people who don't try to help new players. After all, we were all new once, and it's how the hobby grows.

To address some of your points:


... nobody in thier right mind can field 30 of them. But i might be wrong.
I'm pretty sure that Band Knights are field allowance (FA) 2. That means that you can field two units of them for every warcaster in your army. Since it's only possible to have 2 warcasters in BIG games, it's likely that you'll only ever field 2 units. But as pointed out, it might be useful to have some spares for Tartarus creating more.


Ill also pick up the books and cards. Thanks for distiguishing between the different card sets! i would have screwed myself there...
It's a common mistake that I've seen a lot of people make. It's a historical thing; the original MK2 cards were a colour update of the original black and white card decks. They also added all of the units that had been released since the original decks, and accounted for errata. Of course that caused problems when the MK2 rules rolled around, so the newest decks are clearly labelled 2010. People still buy the worng ones though, mostly when getting them second hand or from ebay.


Ill pick up the rule book and give it a whirl with a friend of mine. We're going to try breaking my models down in half (into two forces) and fight each other to see how it goes. Any recommendations?
My one recommendation would be to avoid giving either player the Deathjack if you do that. Or give one player the deathjack, and the other player more troops. But I'd lean towards the first idea; the Deathjack is a incredibly powerful warjack that would probably make it unfair if you're both new to the game. It's also a comparatively complex warjack, so again one to avoid if you're just starting out. I would use it to proxy a slayer or a reaper if you want to try using heavy warjacks. Again though, my advice would be to start with battlegroup only games until you get used to the very different way that the system works.

mountaincycle661
06-30-2010, 08:35 PM
Thanks lordbubonicus, its been a great help.

Funny, after all this time (and posting on several forums) everyones told me to sell of some bane knights but nobody mentioned (until now) that tartarus can add members to the unit. So yes, it might actually be good to hold on to an odd few knights, just in case.

Yeah...about that deathjack. I hear hes one mean mutha. So yes, keeping him seperate while learning the game is probably a good idea. I think ive decided on selling off about 10 bane knights, and using that money to get the battle box.

Denegrha sounds ok...but to be honest i dont really see what all the fuss is about. Ive always liked playing with the models i find to be the coolest looking. And denegra is far from the coolest in the caster range. That new dude venethrax...Now THERES a bastid for ya. :cool: Whats his deal, anyway?

lordbubonicus
07-01-2010, 06:34 AM
Denegrha sounds ok...but to be honest i dont really see what all the fuss is about. Ive always liked playing with the models i find to be the coolest looking. And denegra is far from the coolest in the caster range. Thatnew dude venethrax...Now THERES a bastid for ya. :cool: Whats his deal, anyway?

Deneghra's always a pretty powerful warcaster. She's got a very good spell list, and her feat is very powerful. But I agree, she doesn't have the greatest model ever:p Even the resculpt that they released wasn't amazing, though it was an improvement on the original. But I think that the new 'plastic' sculpt in the new battlebox looks pretty good actually.

I think there's a nostalgia factor as well. She's the battlebox warcaster, so she's the warcaster that a lot of Cryx players started with (and still do, although it's no longer considered the best way to start the game). The same goes for Stryker for Cygnar, Kreoss for Menoth, and Sorscha for Khador.

Venethrax is rather cool. I've not played with him, but I've heard good things. He's the Cryxian Lich Lord in charge of Draconic Lore. Now that one of the dragons (Everblight) has become very, very active, he's moved out of the library and onto the battlefield to beat it down.

FastEd
07-01-2010, 09:48 PM
I just stumbled upon this thread, and was going to help, but after reading the posts it seems Lordbubonicus has got it MORE then covered. Good looking out.

So, instead of repeating what LB said, I'll just welcome you to the game! Have fun!


P.S. One thing I just thought of, actually, is to expand on the unit size topic. It was that in the MK 1 rules that most units started at 6 memebers and could add up to 4 additional. In MK2 it has been simplified to give two options when purchasing a unit, a minimum unit (again, usually 6) or a maximum sized unit (usually 10). To add to this, Unit Attachments (UAs) are not included in this number. So, if you can maybe find an additional Bane Thrall and Bile Thrall to finish out those units, though 20 bile thralls seems to be a bit overboard from personal experience, so maybe the plan of getting rid of 9 or so may be the best way to go, which would give you the money to even out some of the other numbers.

There are a few ways to go about that very plan, but your best bets are either the store on the Privateer Press website that lets you pick up parts individually (quite useful), finding individual models on eBay, or registering on Barter Town (http://www.bartertown.com/trading/index.php) to find a few trades. When figuring out exactly the numbers you need keep in mind that you should ideally have the unit leader model for each unit, so you won't have to try to keep track of which one you have designated the unit leader. Generally the unit leader is called Lieutenant (Lt.) or something of the sort, though sometimes it is just "leader" or some specific title (i.e. Quartermaster).

Sorry about being long-winded. Hope that helped, though.