Bane Witch Agathia
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Bane Witch Agathia |
Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Dark Host. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules. |
Once regarded as both prisoner and oracle, Bane Witch Agathia is one of the more unusual weapons in Cryx’s arsenal. In life she was valued for her insight into the occult, and the tragic circumstances of her death only increased her worth to the dark lords of the Nightmare Empire. Though presently more pawn than queen, Agathia has begun to assert her will, and she may yet find a way to choose her own fate.
Basic Info
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Warcaster - All warcasters come with a stack of standard special rules - most notably being awesome. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.
Feat: Shadowfall
- Friendly Faction models/units currently in Agathia's control range are affected by Ghost Walk (refer to her spells).
- While in Agathia's control range, friendly Faction models gain Stealth.
- When a model in Agathia's battlegroup ends its activation in her control range, you can immediately place that model anywhere completely within 3" of its location.
- Shadowfall lasts for one round.
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Tip !
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Abilities
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Undead
- Apparition - During your Control Phase, place this model anywhere completely within 2" of its current location.
- Death Shroud - While within this model's command range, enemy models suffer -2 STR.
- Ghostly - This model can advance through terrain and obstacles without penalty and can advance through obstructions if it has enough movement to move completely past them. It cannot be targeted by free strikes.
- Henchmen [ Small-based Bane ] - Choose one friendly small-based Bane unit at the beginning of the game to be Henchmen. The chosen unit gains +2 DEF and MAT and Apparition.
- Irregulars [ Bane Knights ] - Bane Knights can be included in any army that also contains this model.
- Soul Taker: Cull Soul - This model can gain soul tokens. When a living enemy model is destroyed within 2" of this model, this model gains the destroyed model's soul token. After this model replenishes its focus during your next Control Phase, replace each soul token with 1 focus point.
Weapons
- Death Kiss - 2" reach, P+S 12 melee weapon
Spells
COST | RNG | AOE | POW | DUR | OFF | ||
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Ghost Walk
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2 | 6 | - | - | Turn | No | |
Target friendly Faction model/unit gains Ghostly for one turn.
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Hellfire
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3 | 10 | - | 14 | - | Yes | |
Models disabled by Hellfire cannot make a Tough roll. Models boxed by Hellfire are removed from play. | |||||||
Hellwrought
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
Target warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup gains +2 ARM and Retaliation.
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Parasite
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3 | 8 | - | - | Upkeep | Yes | |
Target model/unit suffers -3 ARM and the spellcaster gains +1 ARM. | |||||||
Vanish
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1 | SELF | - | - | - | No | |
Place the spellcaster anywhere completely within 3" of its current location. Vanish can only be cast once per activation. |
Theme Forces
- Black Industries
- Dark Host. Agathia gains Prowl in this theme.
- The Ghost Fleet
- Scourge of the Broken Coast
Thoughts on Bane Witch Agathia
Bane Witch Agathia in a nutshell
Bane Witch Agathia is the Cryx Battlebox caster. Like all Battlebox casters, she is built to be relatively simple to use while still providing a meaningful introduction to the faction. As such she exemplifies many of the powers (ignore terrain & debuff the enemy) and weaknesses of Cryx (easy to kill). If you're learning the game, it is best to use her vs one of the other battlebox casters because they're all designed to have roughly the same power level. None of them are top tier casters, as they lack the flexibility or strength to be top contenders.
Her tool box hits many of the hallmarks of Cryx including a debuff, soul mechanics, mobility improvements, above average focus, a decent ARM buff, and a strong offensive spell. On the down side, her protective abilities will be short lived and she is not that hard to kill.
Leveraging her strengths primarily means using her spells rather than her personal combat ability. It's best to keep her safe with distance and clever use of a combination of Apparition, Vanish, and her feat.
Henchmen
If you take Agathia in the Dark Host theme you can choose whether to use Bane Knights or Bane Warriors for Henchmen. In all other themes Henchmen can only be used on Bane Knights.
Applying Henchmen to the Knights makes them a very durable, manueverable unit:
- In terms of durability they start out as DEF 12 (plus Set Defense) and ARM 16 (plus Wall of Steel). Add the Henchmen DEF and Agathia's Death Shroud and you're looking at
- DEF 16 ARM 20 vs models that charge them, DEF 14 ARM 20 in melee generally. Also they have a Defensive Strike mini-feat to make them even harder to attack in melee.
- DEF 14 ARM 18 vs ranged and spells (given that Death Shroud is unlikely to apply). But you can easily bump DEF up with concealment or cover.
- In terms of manueverability they start with 2" reach and Reposition [3]. Add the Apparitition to that for even better movement options. In fact, in Scourge of the Broken Coast they are better at applying Gang Fighter than the fast Satyxis models.
Applying Henchmen to the Warriors mostly just fixes some of their natural weaknesses:
- They hit hard, but are a bit inaccurate. The +2 MAT fixes that.
- They're a bit slow, and Apparaition fixes that.
- In terms of durability they're also DEF 12 but with no other natural DEF buffs, the +2 DEF from Henchmen becomes "nice" rather than "awesome".
- Also they're ARM 15 plus Tough rather than 16 plus Wall of Steel, so stacking Agathia's Death Shroud bonus on them does less than it does for Knights.
- One advantage they do have over Knights is that their mini-feat brings back destroyed models. Do you love having Henchmen? How does getting an extra d3+1 during the game sound?
Feat thoughts
Agathia's feat provides several different bonuses to your army including faction wide stealth, faction wide ghostly, and battlegroup teleport at the end of activation. Each one of these buffs can be powerful in turn and should be leveraged if possible.
Against a gunline with limited anti-stealth tech, it may be worth using this feat for this buff alone. You can rush your army into position to threaten objectives forcing enemy gunlines to move forward or lose on scenario.
Faction wide ghostly is a huge buff. In anticipation of using this feat, take advantage of the terrain. Cover from walls, blocking LOS obstruction, and patches of rough terrain to restrict enemy movement.
The last element of the feat is a short teleport, don't underestimate the utility of this. It can be used to dive into protective terrain like a forest's concealment or cover from a wall or trench. After charging an enemy, you can teleport out of the way so another one of your units can move in and continue the attack if the enemy survived. Without this, you might be hard pressed to to fit more than one heavy warjack around some targets.
Spell thoughts
- Ghost Walk is an awesome mobility spell, allowing the model/unit to benefit from a combination of Parry and Pathfinder+. A great tool for positioning and making the most of the terrain on the table. It's often worth bringing a Skarlock Thrall or The Withershadow Combine along just to cast this exactly where needed without depleting Agathia's focus or restricting her movement.
- Hellfire The standard high-power "laser" of cryx. It's kind of long range, prevents tough and removes the victim from play once boxed. A great spell for spot removal of pesky solos.
- Hellwrought is a spell with unexpected utility, as not only does it make Deathjack an arm 21 snacking terror, the vengeance move it provides can allow drag jacks threat extension and shooting crab jacks the ability to aim. Because of its synergy with Shield Guard, an Inflictor is also a great target for this spell. Helljacks like the arm buff, but even at arm 19 they are easy to kill or cripple in one round, limiting the value of the vengeance.
- Parasite is a fantastic debuff that gives Agathia a small ARM buff at the same time. Use it to weaken opposing heavy ARM targets to shred them with the rest of your forces.
- Vanish allows flexibility with positioning. While 3" isn't very far, being able to place yourself anywhere within that range can make getting to advantageous terrain easier. Also a Get Out of Melee free card if your opponent managed to get something Agathia can't deal with close but failed to finish her off.
Battlebox Fights
In a battlebox fight, two players who bought nothing but their Faction's starter set use everything in that box to play a game.
As a Cryx caster, Agathia is going to win through denying your opponent's strengths, superior mobility, and debuffs. Ghostwalk and her feat will let the most dangerous element of your army reach the enemies most valuable. Superior mobility on your arcnode will allow Agathia a sizeable board presence and to arc your most potent spells from a safe distance. Parasite takes the cake on your spell list. Not only it will help you to remove heavily armored targets, with Dark Shroud it can often lead to excellent piece trades and assassination victories. Just don't forget to keep Agathia safe from retaliation. See Tips and Tricks.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- She relies heavily on her Bane Knight Henchmen. Anything that is good vs single wound infantry is going to give her a hard time.
- Agathia does not have any form of DEF debuffs so she has a hard time dealing with high DEF targets. On the other hand her Henchmen are quite accurate, and/or you can take naturally accurate troops such as the Satyxis.
- True Sight casters (such as Issyria1 or Kara Sloan) are a hard counter to the Stealth portion of Agathia's feat.
Tricks & Tips
- Using her feat, a warjack with the Drag ability can walk through LOS-blocking terrain, drag an enemy heavy towards your line, then teleport away. Leaving either the enemy heavy stranded somewhere useless or perhaps just standing in front of your army ready for a pummeling. And if your Dragging warjack misses, the teleport can help save its bacon.
- When it comes to her feat putting Ghost Walk on a unit, only one model from the unit needs to be in her control range for the entire unit to benefit.
- Her Death Shroud ability can be used to significantly increase the survivability of your warjacks in melee, combine it with Hellwrought to effectively give them +4 ARM. This works especially well with Cryx’s colossal warjacks as it is easier to hide Agathia behind a huge base. With + 4 ARM and a ton of hitpoints, the enemy will need to use a lot more resources to take out your colossal.
List Building Advice
Strategy
Her army list starts with one full unit of Bane Knights + UA; the Henchmen buffs make them an auto-include for her in every theme except maybe Dark Host.
She doesn't want a large battlegroup, despite her feat and Hellwrought spell - she'd rather spend her focus casting spells than fuelling jacks. So she normally takes one arc node and two heavies, saving the rest of her points for troops.
When considering infantry, look for units that are most likely to need Ghostwalk and/or Parasite. Also she generally wants models that can hit accurately, as she has no to-hit buff.
Theme Thoughts
Mercenaries / Partisans
- Asphyxious4 - Death Shroud, Ghostly, and Stealth on feat turn are all excellent buffs for delivering him. He also provides her army with easy access to Dark Shroud giving her army a -5 ARM swing if needed.
- Mercenary 'jacks are typically more durable than Cryx ones, but slightly less accurate. They can become even more durable in Black Industries with Carapace, or in Scourge they'll get Gang Fighter to fix up Mercs lower MAT.
- The durability of Merc jacks will be buffed by Death Shroud.
- Princess Delores Graciela - Unleashing her Bullet Hell on a Parasite target is a terrifying prospect for your opponent. Have Gaspy4 run a Toro to gain access to her.
- Steelhead Ironhead - If you employ the Princess and Death Archons in Scourge of the Broken Coast, this guy can increase their threat range by 2".
- Doctor Stygius - Your resident spellslave, who does it better than the Skallok Thrall.
This theme is full of infantry that hit accurately, but not very hard. They can also sometimes struggle with rough terrain. So they make excellent use of Agathia's Parasite debuff as well as Ghostwalk. The Trolls and Ogrun especially like the Ghost Walk and Stealth from her feat to help them cross the board somewhat unscathed.
- Her Bane knights will will be able to proc Gang Fighter for her jacks, and with 2" reach and Reposition 3" they will do this very, very well.
- Her jacks with Gang Fighter will be absurdly hard-hitting.
- Darragh Wrathe - You can stack Mortal Fear and Death Shroud for an effective +4 ARM where the bubbles overlap. He can also Death Ride for an extra 1" of threat range on her and her Banes.
- Death Archon - They contribute to the ARM skew with Mortal Fear (doesn't stack with Darragh though). And they are powerful models in and of themselves. They are Mercenary models, though, so will be the only non-stealthed things on your feat turn.
- Barathrum & Kharybdis - Two of the best jacks in the Cryx stable, they love her feat to be even more mobile.
- Warwitch Siren - They are extra focus on a stick and have a neat Shadow Bind sword. They can be your Gang Fighter trigger if your Bane Knights are otherwise busy.
- Satyxis Gunslingers or Black Ogrun Smog Belchers are able to make to most out of her Parasite spell with their shooting.
- Black Ogrun Ironmongers - If you want an enemy heavy gone from the table, apply Parasite and wrenches to face. With Dismantle they will leave large dents in any jack at minimum. They also Curse and Repair for your jacks, which is neat.
Oddly enough Agathia doesn't really do much for Bane models because they're already Ghostly and have Prowl. The main draw in this theme is having Bane Warriors as the Henchmen, and/or the buffs that can be applied to Agathia herself.
- First off, the theme gives her Prowl and fog to hide in, letting her have stealth all game.
- Secondly, she can benefit from Tartarus's Veteran Leader. It applies to her offensive spells as well as her melee attacks (although hopefully she stays out of melee).
- Darragh Wrathe is also in this theme.
- Stealth from her feat can all but guarantee the Banes get to combat unscathed (if you feat early).
- The Wraith Engine combined with Death Shroud helps the list to skew armour.
- The Withershadow Combine or Skarlock are good for putting Ghost Walk out.
- Carapace and Hellwrought make a jack really not worth shooting at. An Inflictor can perform it's Shield Guard duty extremely well under these buffs.
- Barathrum, Kharybdis, Asphyxious and Sirens are in this theme too.
Battlegroup
- A Desecrator can get a free focus from her just by activating within 3" of her.
- The Inflictor loves Hellwrought as it’s shield gives it a respectable armour and shield guard lets you trigger vengeance.
- A Kraken can reach an absurd statline in Scourge of the Broken Coast: +2/+2 to melee from Gang Fighter, +2 to hit for melee/ranged with Curse from Black Ogrun Iron Mongers, +3 damage from its own corpse rules, +2 damage with Dark Shroud from Asphyxious4, +6 ARM between Hellwrought, Mortal Fear and Death Shroud.
Other
Trivia
- Released in Prime Mk3 (2016.06) in the battlebox set
- Resculpted in 2021 as a standalone model.
Video Battle Reports
- 2019.05 Encounter Wargaming, vs Helynna1
- See also Category: Video Battle Reports for more casters with videos.
Other Cryx models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Agathia
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Rules Clarification: : Warcaster (Edit) | ||||
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Rules Clarification: : Magical Damage (Edit) |
* The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling)
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Rules Clarification : Undead - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Apparition (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Death Shroud - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Ghostly (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Henchmen - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Irregulars (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Cull Soul - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Ghost Walk (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Hellfire - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Hellwrought (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Parasite (Edit)
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- Bane
- Cryx
- Model
- Battlebox Caster
- Does have Mk4 rules
- Warcaster
- Ghostly Feat
- Stealth Feat
- Place Feat
- Undead
- Apparition
- Death Shroud
- Ghostly
- Henchmen
- Irregulars
- Soul Taker
- Cull Soul
- Magical Damage
- Ghost Walk
- Hellfire
- Hellwrought
- Parasite
- Vanish
- Black Industries
- Dark Host
- The Ghost Fleet
- Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Video Battle Reports