New owner Steamforged Games has been building up the model catalogue for Warmachine since it acquired the game from Privateer Press, with the popular undead faction Cryx getting a whole new wave of models at the start of this month. And there’s more undead horror to come: Steamforged gave Wargamer an early look at two more releases for the Cryx Necrofactorium, a new Iron Liche solo and a brand new cavalry unit, the Night Terrors.
Cryx has always been one of the most iconic parts of the Warmachine setting, blending pirates, zombies, ghosts, and magical cyborg machinery into some truly original minis. In the miniature wargame they have always been big on powerful debuff magic, with infantry that hits hard and won’t stay dead, and cheap but aggressive Warjacks.
The Iron Liche Commander solo looks almost like an updated sculpt for the classic Cryx Warcaster Iron Liche Asphyxious. It can collect souls from living enemy models killed within its 10 inch command range. Those souls can be spent during its Combat Action to boost attack or damage rolls, or to reroll one attack or damage roll of a model made within its command range.
With two POW 13 magical melee attacks, it’s not a disaster if this guy ends up in melee – it has enough boxes and defensive stats to survive some light attention. But this is definitely a support solo, empowered by its menu of useful Magic Abilities:
- Hex blast – an AAT7, RNG 10, AOE 2, POW 13/8 magical attack that strips upkeep spells from a unit it hits;
- Invocations of Bitterest Night, a special action that gives both the Iron Liche and any models B2B with it stealth;
- Soul Transfer, which lets the Liche move souls on to another model, such as your Warcaster.
All told, this is a useful toolbox of abilities for just four points. But it gets a lot worse when played into an opponent without souls or with access to eyeless sight. If you’re building one of your lists specifically to answer Khymaera, the Cryx mirror, and/or Legion of Everblight, the Iron Liche can stay on the bench.
The Night Terrors, on the other hand, look downright nasty for just 10 points. Between being Incorporeal, Unstoppable, getting a 2” placement during your Command Phase thanks to Apparition, and having a 7” move, they can reach out and touch any target that isn’t surrounded by its own troops. Their ability to project threat is even scarier, as they can Reposition 3” at the end of a turn they didn’t fail a charge or run – this lets the unit spread out, creating three vectors from which it might attack next turn.
With two POW 12 magical melee attacks their combat potential doesn’t initially seem very impressive, but they have the Finisher ability, granting them an additional damage die on attacks against a target that’s already damaged. As Cavalry, they get an extra die to hit with their charge attack, and with MAT 7 that’s very unlikely to miss. If you can stick an armor debuff and one point of damage onto their target, and squeeze all three of their 50mm bases around it, they’ll be able to total a heavy Warjack in one round.
Incorporeal models that roll four damage dice on the charge? Oh Cryx, never change. Steamforged seems to be delivering on its promises with Privateer Press’ IP – check out what we thought when we tested the new formula of P3 paint.
Source: Wargamer
