The Zombie Problem

As you probably know if you follow this blog (or not, who knows what you people read), I got back from Nationals a couple of weeks ago. Hell, you can go read my write up now if you want. I’ll save the personal development stuff I went through for another time, because today, I want to talk about Cryx and Khador’s relationship with Cryx. (I am so going to get raked across the coals by actual Cryx players on this one).

Khador, at the time of writing at least, feels like a faction that has pretty good game into almost every faction in the game. The exceptions to that currently are Cygnar and Cryx, and with the Haley 2 nerf coming up fast, I think even the Cygnar game is going to quickly become a fairer fight (I pretty much always see Haley 2 in the Cygnar match up currently, and the changes to her feat make her much weaker into large model count lists, which Khador can excel at). This just leaves Cryx as the Boogey man that keeps the good Khadoran children up at night.

To understand why is to look at the inherent character and basic strategies of both factions:

• Khador is a traditional Powerhouse faction, with modules that can function well on their own (e.g. winter guard and Joe, the pikemen boat, etc), a deep bench of somewhat straight forward casters that usually directly buff the things their army is doing and Jacks that are pretty great out of the box, with no particular need for support models to tune them up.
• Cryx is pretty much the opposite of this, being a tricksy Subversive faction. Most of their units and jacks are cheap, have crappy stats (revenant crew are rat 4!) and rely on inherent abilities to survive and achieve what they are trying to acheive (recursion, stealth, blast immunity, dark shroud). Cryx also relies heavily on leveraging the power of their warcasters to crank up the power of their armies, with arc nodes being cheap, and de-buff spells common.

This is not to say that either faction can’t play in the others swimming pool, I’ve seen decent subversive lists in Khador (usually with the likes of Sorscha 1 or Zerkova 1/2) and decent Powerhouse lists in Cryx (the likes of Terminus or Gaspy 3). Its just that the core identity of either faction is what it is.

All of this is a long winded way of saying that Khador excels at fighting a “fair game”, where Cryx excels at fighting an “unfair game”, putting the 2 factions at opposite ends of the spectrum.

The reason that Khador can struggle with Cryx, then, is that the typical Khador list lacks the tech that one needs to deal with inherent abilities and questions that Cryx poses. For example, most of the other factions tend to have a source of magical weapons just present in their lists (Arlan in Cygnar, Wraith bane in Circle and Legion, the Stone removing incorporeal, etc), which allows them something of an out against Incorporeal. In a lot of the better Khador lists, the only magic weapon present is usually the Warcaster (e.g. Vlad rockets, Harkevich, etc). Same thing with RFP, which is a useful tool into Dark Host, and somewhat crucial into Ghost Fleet, with only 2 of our casters having access to it, and none of our native models having access to it. Couple this with Cryxs ability to crack armour (debuffs, dark shroud, Banes, etc), and even our Jack skews tend to suffer into Cryx.

So what do we do about those damn zombies? I wanted to pose a couple of Cryx answers I’ve been looking at and go into a bit of detail of their strengths and weaknesses in the match up.

First of all, a couple of disclaimers:

1. I don’t get a lot of chance to actually play into Cryx out side of tournaments, so a lot of this is theory.
2. What I’m generally looking for in list building, as a general rule, is not an advantaged match up, but rather an even match up. Even more so with Cryx than others, I feel like trying to skew too hard to deal with a particular lists tactics means leaving your list vulnerable to other problems (i.e. a list teched hard to deal with Ghost Fleet, often doesn’t deal well with Dark Host, etc). This has an additional advantage in that you don’t end up so teched that one couldn’t play these lists into other factions.
3. Some of the lists I’m looking at aren’t released in their final form yet, so some assumptions are made.
4. Building specifically for Cryx can mean leaving yourself short in other areas, I fully believe that it is a necessary thing in the current meta, with many of our lists being almost an auto loss into skews such as Ghost Fleet, and is soothed by some of our better lists (Vlad Rockets, Butcher 3 WGK, Strak 2/Zerk 1 legion) being pretty ok into large portions of the meta.

.  Anyway, enough rambling, on to the lists.

Khador Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Wolves of Winter (Pre-release)

(Sorscha 1) Kommander Sorscha [+29]
– Destroyer [14]
– Destroyer [14]
– Marauder [10]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Greylord Outriders (max) [20]
Greylord Outriders (max) [20]

This is a list I’ve been toying with since the theme was announced by PP. It trades on Sorscha freezing shit, using Battle wizard and the mobility of the Outriders to threaten swathes of infantry (with the apparition move and appropriate charge targets, this can threaten 22 inchs with sprays) and the Doom Reavers to threaten Wraith Engines and Bane Riders, with the apparition causing them to threaten 13 inchs, the same as Death Rided riders. It feels somewhat stronger into Dark Host than Ghost Fleet, but has some good off the wall assassination potential (Denny 1, the most popular Ghost fleet caster is 16, 14, which dies to pow 12 sprays if frozen).  into the squishier casters and has the potential to kill a lot of infantry. Backing it all up is a couple of Destroyers, to aoe some infantry to death.

The main issues I see with this list, is Ghost Fleet. To actually mill through Ghost Fleet, this list is going to rely on getting a good alpha, hopefully before Denny feats, and then using Sorschas Freezing Grip spell to control problem areas of the board, meaning that Sorscha will end up exposed on key turns. Keeping Crippling grasp off of the ponies and keeping them alive in the early turns is also likely to be vital. No mean feat when the Hellslinger, Rengrave and the Riflemen exist. Into Dark Host, this list feels advantaged, being able to play a control game that keeps the Outriders out of danger. Overall, in need of some testing.

Khador Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Jaws of the Wolf

(Sorscha 2) Forward Kommander Sorscha [+27]
– Juggernaut [12]
– Juggernaut [12]
– Juggernaut [12]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
– Behemoth [25]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Widowmaker Marksman [4]
Kayazy Assassins (max) [15]
– Kayazy Assassin Underboss [4]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Widowmaker Scouts [8]

This was the list I took to Nationals and Irish Gauntlet. It’s theoretically good into Ghost Fleet (I’ve never actually had it in that match up, I keep getting Dark Host), as it brings long range accurate shooting combined with RFP and some good infantry clearing capabilities from behemoth and Shatter Storm widowmakers. The assasins are there mostly because of stealth and because, combined with the 3 Juggernauts, they present a scenario presence that requires an effort to get rid of. Into Dark Host, the high native defense of Kayazy combined with aforementioned widowmakers and the Eliminators harassing Riders, can make life difficult for a force with few ranged attacks.

The main issue here, is simply that the list is fairly low model count, and relies on a few pieces to scalpel out important models. Into Ghost fleet, Venom and Ghost shooting rifles becomes an issue. You’re likely to get a round of shooting out of the Widow makers, but will also lose them if not careful. Kayazy are somewhat resistant to the shooting in the list, but are only a crippling grasp away from being easy pickings for Blackbanes. Behemoth is also the only magical ranged weapon in the list (a pretty good one though), and into Ghost Fleet, can potentially be overwhelmed by targets or miss crucial dice rolls (picking the right marshal order at the right time is crucial). Dark Host presents different problems, with the list excelling attrition wise into a list that can’t shoot back, but perhaps struggling to hold scenario. Coven especially feels difficult for this list, as the combination of feat and fast Stalkers threatening pieces makes it harder to hold scenario presence. Overall, I’ve had some success with this list, and think that if it’s in your pairing you usually see Dark Host, as it has the bag of tricks needed to actually answer fleets tricks.

Khador Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Wolves of Winter (Pre-release)

(Zerkova 2) Obavnik Kommander Zerkova [+24]
– Conquest [37]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
– Greylord Escort [3]
Greylord Outriders (min) [12]
Greylord Outriders (max) [20]
Greylord Ternion [7]
Greylord Ternion [7]

This list is predicated on one concept, board clearing. It’s a somewhat similar list to the Sorscha 1 list I posed above with a couple of major differences. This list is looking primarily to leverage the feat and occult whispers to kill cast swathes of infantry in bursts, with a banishing ward conquest being difficult to remove at the end. It also brings a pretty hefty assassination threat into the anything short of Terminus. Between the speed of the Outriders, the vast weight of sprays, and the strategic use of Telgesh Mark allowing Zerkova to pick off the last couple of members of a unit, this list might actually have the weight of attacks to kill enough pirates in Ghost Fleet. This is coupled with Zerkova herself being somewhat resistant to the assassination due to Spell ward and the self sacrifice of her guards, meaning that you can worry a bit less about just dying in the early game. Into Host, things become a bit more difficult with the higher armour banes, as the list lacks a damage fixer. That said, it feels like this list can consistently threaten assassination on most Cryx casters, so long as the feat is intact.

The downside though, is in the reliance on 1 great turn of attrition and on the general fragility of the models involved. Outriders are not difficult to kill, with even a boosted Venom killing them on average dice. I can foresee this list becoming a positioning nightmare, though the outriders threaten ridiculously far, the rub will come on where exactly to place them so that they threaten the maximum amount (in a perfect world you want to be able to either walk or charge, spray, repo to a different position and then feat, that’s just not likely to come off every game). The list also lacks contesting pieces, as most of the fast bits are important to preserve. Finally, the list lacks a damage fixer, Outriders are not likely to kill a Wraith Engine, and with the announcement of the new Dark Industries theme, I predict a 3rd list in a tournament will end up being something of a jack spam, specifically to deal with lists like this, that bring a limited amount of armour cracking.

At the end of all this, I’ve spent a lot of time rambling about lists, that I don’t feel have a perfect game into any of the popular Cryx drops at the moment. What I do think though, is that lists like these (and there are other lists to be built, these are simply the lists I’m considering at the moment) are where we need to be heading in terms of dealing with Cryx. None of them are a silver bullet, but there is a game to be played there. In a meta where Cryx is stomping around at the top, and can be heavily advantaged into some list builds, I’ll take just getting as close to a 50 50 chance as I can.

At the moment, I see a lot of questions in Khador groups on how to deal with Cryx, how to dodge, how to get enough attacks, etc. The answer, to me at least, is the same as it was in Mk 2. Suck it up! Cryx was usually our hardest match up overall in Mk 2, and still is after a brief period where it wasn’t seen much. And things are easier now than they were then. Ghost Fleets recursion is annoying, but not nearly as bad as the universal McThrall recursion that most lists had in Mk 2. Dark Host is hard to deal with, but not as hard as Vengeance Weapon Master Bane Knights that hit hard and well with Skarre 1 (I still have the nightmares). They are still our hardest match up, and we can still build lists to beat them.

Do not be overcome by Cryx, but overcome Cryx with axes!