With a successful Kickstarter for the Iron Kingdoms RPG already completed, another coming soon for the new P3 paint range, and Warmachine product finally being widely available in stores the world over, the Steamforged Games (SFG) takeover of the Iron Kingdoms is in full swing!
Where I have seen the most effort though, is in the revamp of the Warmachine product line. New (and returning) players now have a clear path to building an army that gives you exactly what you need to start enjoying the game, while spreading out the cost so that you can expand at your own pace.
Is your FLGS starting a Journeyman League (newbie boot camp for the uninitiated)? Great, just grab the Command box for the faction of your choice and you are ready to go. Want to expand that into a skirmish force? Great, just grab the Battlegroup Box for your faction. Are you really happy with skirmish battles and don’t want to play full size games? That’s okay too…since you didn’t buy the Core Expansion box yet, you didn’t waste money on miniatures you aren’t going to use. Do you want all the things? Well, you know what to do in that case.
While the model range of the existing factions had to be reorganized into these new box sets which resulted in some shipping delays for the initial wave of orders, the Cryx Necrofactorium army is the first force to get this new treatment from the ground up. In fact, the first two boxes are up for preorder right now on the SFG web store!
SFG was kind enough to send me a review copy of these boxes (many thanks!), and I have spent the last week diving into the contents of these sets…and I am thoroughly impressed. If you would like to see the unboxing/build of the kits, you can check out these videos below:
So, since the videos already cover how great the models are…lets talk about what you can do with what you get in these two boxes.
Warcasters
Wraithbinder Nekane from the Command Starter is a spell slinging assassin. With Banishing Ward, three spell rack slots to customize your preferred necromancy package, and the ability to trade damage points for free casts on her feat turn, Nekane can bring the pain. She is only CTRL 12 though, so consider bringing a Raptor with an arc node…or better yet, a Malefactor with a vexing cannon to turn enemy models into friendly arc nodes.
She has a pretty good set of defensive kit too. With base DEF 16 and a way to turn incorporeal every turn, she can really be a thorn in your opponent’s side. She passively buffs friendly incorporeal models with +3 ARM which pairs well with The Furies that also come in the Command Starter. Also remember, this affects Nekane as well if you get Blood Shadow to trigger and takes her up to ARM 18. She also has movement shenanigans, which can help salvage a poorly executed assassination run.
On the other hand, Discerptor Eviscerus from the Battlegroup Box is all about letting the warjacks have their day in the sun. His spell selection is crazy strong…Redline and Carrion feast will definitely let your warjacks put in some work. Deacceleration will help your force stay healthy until they get stuck in. Someone will probably prove me wrong, but I don’t see any reason to not take Calamity (-2 DEF/ARM) and Carnage (+2 MAT) for his spell rack slots for those turns when you really need your ‘jacks to kill something.
He also grants Retaliatory Strike to his whole battlegroup…so free attacks!
Since the combined contents of the boxes are very warjack heavy, I personally recommend running Eviscerus as your warcaster until we get more releases for the faction. You can absolutely build a list around Nekane if you prefer, but Eviscerus has very strong synergy with the other models available from these two sets.
Warjacks
Ah Hades…
So the first thing to know about Hades is it collects souls when living models die within 10″. And then it does really nasty things with said souls. What can it do with the souls you ask? Well, it can turn incorporeal for a turn (+3 ARM if Nekane is around), trade souls for focus, teleport, or ignore LOS and boost its RNG 12 Soul Cannon. It also has MAT 8 with a POW 17 +2 ARM fist/shield combo weapon. Hades can be tanky and deadly. It’s almost as if Cryx combined a Khador ‘jack with a Cygnar ‘jack, and then taught it necromancy. The only real downside is that it is a character, so you can only ever have one.
So, I could write a whole post on the Malefactor, which I am not going to do today (but probably will in the future). Way back in the yesteryear of pre-MK4 Warmachine, every faction had a billion different non-character warjacks that were functionally the same warjack, just with different weapons. All of these warjacks had different names and everyone was confused about which warjacks were actually on the table.
Now, it seems that every army gets one heavy non-character warjack and one light non-character warjack, and they come with a choice of four heads, four right arms, and four left arms. With that said, you still have a dizzying array of choices in how you can outfit your non-character ‘jacks. For the Necrofactorium, that is the Malefactor.
To sum this ‘jack up, you are looking at good MAT, poor RAT, poor DEF, and above average ARM. While you might look at that last sentence and say, “well, I will skip all the guns”, consider that DEF debuffs exist in the Necrofactorium arsenal. The loadout I am most excited to try is Dark Shroud head (-2 ARM within 2″), Harpoon (a POW 14 Scorpion style “GET OVER HERE” gun that is also a melee weapon), and Spiked Shield (POW 14 fist that grants +2 ARM).
Similarly, the Raptor light warjacks have an equally plentiful list of configurations. Stats wise, we are looking at poor RAT/ MAT/ARM, great SPD, and solid DEF. As with the Malefactor, remember that you have access to DEF debuffs here that will let you punch above your weight class when you consider your weapon options. It is also worth mentioning that these are the only source of arc nodes within the faction at the time of writing.
The loadout I am going to try first is what I like to call “The Necromancy IED”. We start with the Beaked Maw head for a POW 10 melee attack with Life Drinker for some healing, and add the Necrovent on the back for Acid Blast (AOE 2 POW 12 corrosion damage when the Raptor dies) and Acidic Mist (concealment and -2 attack roll debuff within 2″). Simply point your Cryxian improvised explosive at the nearest unsupported enemy ranged unit to pretty much take them out of the game while your undead robo-chicken gnaws on their ankles.
Now, if you are the kind of mad scientist that prefers to kill your prey instead of trolling them, you have options here that should suit your needs as well. Just be careful where you send it; choosing the right targets will help you get the most out of your Raptors before they die.
Solo
Chatterbane saw Eviscerus’ tech priest cosplay, said “bet”, and went full Arch Magos.
Chatterbane’s main role is warjack support. We get a choice of three warjack buff actions (Ancillary Attack, Enliven, and Repair) and a passive 3″ concealment bubble every time he advances. That said, he is actually pretty handy in a fight with a corrosive volume fire pistol and a POW 13 critical shred melee attack. Great for clearing chaff out of the way of your warjacks.
Character Unit
The Furies are going to be one of the main reasons why non-Cryx players hate Cryx…
So, the basics. They are undead incorporeal models, which means they are immune to most types of damage and effects. Whenever they kill a model (which they will do consistently), they get to cast a spell (per model in the unit that killed a model). All the spells are good, but the one that will probably get abused the most is Stygian Abyss (RNG 10, POW 12, inflicts -4 MAT/DEF).
If that wasn’t strong enough for you, they also each project a 5″ bubble of no spell casting or channeling for enemy models.
Not much more to say about them…they are really good. They will absolutely win games for Cryx players the world over.
Well, that’s all for this post. Stay tuned over on YouTube as I will be posting Warmachine painting videos very soon! First up will be my first 50 points of Cryx, and if you made it all the way to the end of this post, you won’t want to miss it!
JTSWargaming 
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