Deathripper

Deathripper Cryx Light Warjack

Prime This model is available in two Prime Armies, Dark Host and Black Fleet. 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.

The quintessential Cryxian bonejack, the Deathripper is a terrifying weapon of surprising speed and bestial ferocity that charges forward to tear apart its enemies while serving as a magical conduit for the horrifying spells of its master. In a blur of billowing smoke, screaming metal, and bleeding hydraulics, just a few Deathrippers can strip a light warjack down to its components within minutes.

Basic Info

Deathripper
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Medium SPD 7 STR 7 MAT 5 RAT N/A M.A. N/A DEF 14 ARM 14 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 20 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA U UNIT SIZE N/A COST 5 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Warjack - All warjacks share the same set of special rules. Most notably being big and stompy. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.

Abilities

• Construct
• Arc Node

Weapons

Mandible
		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		0.5				5				12				Head
Sustained Attack - During this model's activation, when it makes an attack with this weapon against the last model hit by the weapon this activation, the attack automatically hits.

Theme Forces

• Cryx
  • Black Industries
  • Dark Host
  • The Ghost Fleet
  • Scourge of the Broken Coast. Deathripper gains Gang Fighter in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Mortenebra is leading the army. It gains Accumulator [Soulless] in this theme.
  • Mercenary and Convergence players can use it by either:
    • putting it under the control of Asphyxious4 in various themes,
    • putting it under the control of Mortenebra in Strange Bedfellows.

Thoughts on Deathripper

Deathripper in a nutshell

Cryx is a faction which is rather short on ranged weaponry. Arc Nodes represent the firepower of your caster's focus pool, which can be very significant in several cases. Given how fragile casters can be relative to their importance, arc nodes are absolutely vital parts of most armies.

Deathripper as an arc node

The Arc Node is one of the most useful abilities a model can have, and with Cryx you can field them very cheaply. An arc node allows your warcaster to cast spells using the arc node as the point of origin. The obvious benefit is casting spells on the frontline while staying safely in the backline. You can also use it to launch surprise attacks from unexpected angles, by running an arc node right across the board into a good position before activating your warcaster. For this reason it pays to keep at least one arc node on the outskirts of the conflict, waiting for an opportunity.

Deathripper as a combat jack

You can't channel while engaged by an enemy, so be sure you actually want to get stuck in before committing yourself.

The Mandibles are a decent weapon but far from devastating. To get the most out of Sustained Attack you'll want to give the jack a bunch of focus and then skip boosting damage in favour of getting more auto-hitting attacks. So you won't do much damage vs high ARM targets but mid-to-low ARM targets don't tend to have enough hitboxes to survive your first attack. However, all things considered they are not totally hopeless in melee and if you happen to lose the arc node system to an unlucky damage roll then go ahead and get stuck into melee.

Combos & Synergies

• If you want to use it in melee, try Empowering it with a Warwitch Siren first. With 2 focus it has a better chance of killing whatever it attacks and thus getting itself un-engaged and free to arc spells again.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Its damage grid has just enough boxes to allow the bonejack to take a good hit and keep going, but a second one will likely leave it crippled if not totally destroyed. This sets the tone for Cryx bonejacks being fast and hard to hit, but easily damaged if they are struck.
• Catch 22 scenario: a melee-only jack needs to stay out of melee so it can arc spells.
• To get the most out of Sustained Attack, you need to feed it a lot of focus to buy attacks with ... and there is probably better ways to use that focus.
• If you are in range to cast arc a spell, in all likelihood, your arcnode is range to be attacked. Arcnodes rarely survive the enemies attention.

Tricks & Tips

• Slam a target to cause damage and leave it knocked down. This has the added benefit of leaving the Deathripper out of combat afterwards so its arc node may still be used.

Other

Trivia

• Released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)
• Sculptor: John Winter
• At one point in Mk I the Deathripper was the cheapest warjack in the game, and formed the core of many Cryx armies.
  • In Mk III we see a return to this greatness!

Other Cryx models

Cryx Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Agathia - Aiakos2 - Asphyxious1 - Asphyxious2 - Asphyxious3 - Coven - Deathjack2 - Deneghra1 - Deneghra2 - Deneghra3 - Goreshade1 - Goreshade2 - Goreshade3 - Mortenebra1 - Mortenebra2 - Rahera - Scaverous - Skarre1 - Skarre2 - Skarre3 - Sturgis2 - Terminus - Venethrax
Warcaster attachments	The Withershadow Combine - Satyxis Blood Priestess - Skarlock Thrall - Doctor Stygius (Partisan) - Madelyn Corbeau (Mercenary)
Other Warjack Controllers	Jack Marshals: Iron Lich Overseer       "Junior Warcasters": Aiakos1 - Asphyxious4 - Deneghra0
Light	Cankerworm - Deathripper - Defiler - Helldiver - Nightwretch - Ripjaw - Scavenger - Shrike - Stalker
Heavy	Barathrum - Corruptor - Deathjack1 - Desecrator - Erebus - Harrower - Kharybdis - Inflictor - Leviathan - Malice - Nightmare - Reaper - Seether - Slayer
Colossal	Kraken - Sepulcher
Units, Solos, Battle Engines, & Structures
Units	Asphyxious4 - Bane Knights - Bane Riders - Bane Warriors - Bile Thralls - BO Boarding Party - BO Ironmongers - BO Smog Belchers - Blackbane's Ghost Raiders - Bloodgorgers - Marauders - Carrion Thralls - Cephalyx Drudges - Cephalyx Overlords - Mechanithralls - Necrosurgeon - Revenant Cannon - Revenant Crew - Satyxis Gunslingers - Satyxis Blood Witches - Satyxis Raiders - Scharde Dirge Seers - Scharde Pirates - Soulhunters - The Devil's Shadow Mutineers - The Withershadow Combine
Solos	Aiakos1 - Agrimony - Axiara - Bane Lord Tartarus - Bloat Thrall - BTO Mobius - Captain Rengrave - Darragh Wrathe - Doctor Stygius - Deneghra0 - Gerlak - Hellslinger - Iron Lich Overseer - Machine Wraith - Master Gurglepox - Misery Cage - Necrotech - Ol' Grim - Pistol Wraith - Satyxis Blood Priestess - Satyxis Raider Captain - Scrap Thrall - Skarlock Thrall - Severa Blacktide - Soul Trapper - Warwitch Siren
Battle Engines & Structures	Wraith Engine
Theme Forces
Black Industries - Dark Host - The Ghost Fleet - Scourge of the Broken Coast
Mercenaries
Refer to Who Works for Whom and/or Category: Cryx Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.11

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Sustained Attack      (Edit) Translation for newbies : Once you hit your target, your next attack(s) with the same weapon will auto-hit. If your target becomes out of range in between attacks (somehow), then Sustained Attack will not let you auto-hit. Refer Step 3 vs Step 4 of the Attack Sequence (Apdx A). If you have sustained attack on a weapon that makes simultaneous attacks (e.g. Prime Axiom making a Sweep attack), then all the models you hit are "the last model hit" and whichever one you choose to attack next is the one you get the auto-hit bonus vs. (Infernal Ruling) This only applies to the first attack after a simultaneous one - once you make that next attack, it's all reset back to being "just one" last model hit. Example : you Sweep and hit models A, B, C. Then you buy an attack vs model C. It is auto-hit because it was (one of) the last model(s) hit. Then you buy another attack, now you can only auto-hit C because it is the last model hit.

Rules Clarification : Warjack      (Edit) The Cortex/Induction core rule means a warjack cannot have more than 3 focus at any time (maybe 4 if they're really special). Many abilities give out focus and don't state an upper limit (such as Convection and Empower). Despite not stating an upper limit, they are always "hard-limited" by the core rule. A warjack can have more than 3 focus during a turn, though. For instance, a knocked down warjack can Power Up and be Allocated 2 focus, then spend 1 to shake knockdown, then another model could Empower it back up to 3. Warjacks cannot spend focus outside of their activation. For instance, they can't boost free strikes or trigger Powerful Attack on Broadsides. (Infernal Ruling) Inert warjacks Abilities that say they cannot be used if the model is stationary (such as Shield Guard) cannot be used while a warjack is inert, either. Refer "Warcaster Destruction", page 59 of the core rulebook.

Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Channeler  and/or Arc Node     (Edit) General It is possible to channel a spell with a range of CTRL. The control range is still measured from the caster though, so channeling it has zero effect ... unless you've got something like Empowered Arc Node or Reaction Drive. Stuff like that can trigger. (Infernal Ruling) Channeling in melee A channeler that is engaged by an enemy model can not channel. A channeler that is engaging an enemy model can channel. (For example, the channeler is standing in the enemy's back arc.) Channeler - LOS You use the channeler's abilities when determining LOS (such as whether you can see your target through a forest). If the channeler has an ability to ignore LOS or DEF bonuses (such as Eyeless Sight), then you only apply that "ignorance" to LOS (but not to the DEF bonus). Caster - Attack roll You use the caster's abilities when determining attack roll modifiers (such as whether a target standing in a forest gets +2 DEF or not). If the caster has an ability to ignore LOS or DEF bonuses (such as Eyeless Sight), then you only apply that "ignorance" to the dice roll (but not to the LOS). Stealth - It affects both LOS and the attack roll Since Stealth has both a LOS modifier (stealth models more than 5" away aren't intervening models) and an attack roll modifier (stealth models more than 5" away are auto-missed) things get a little complicated. If only the channeler ignores stealth, then all stealth models count as intervening models and block LOS, but the caster will auto-miss models more than 5" from the channeler. If only the caster ignores stealth, then only models within 5" of the channeler block LOS, but the caster won't auto-miss no matter what you target. If both channeler and caster ignore Stealth, it works as you'd expect. Stealth Examples     [Show/Hide] Caster has Eyeless Sight, channeler does not. Stealth model is within 5" of channeler LOS - The model counts as an intervening model, as per the normal Stealth rules Attack roll - If you attack it then you don't auto-miss, as per the normal Stealth rules Stealth model is more than 5" away from channeler LOS - The model does not count as an intervening model, as per the normal Stealth rules. Attack roll - If you attack it then you don't auto-miss, as the attacking model has Eyeless Sight. Stealth model is more than 5" away from channeler, and you want to target a model behind it. LOS - The front model doesn't block LOS Attack roll - Doesn't auto-miss   Caster hasn't got Eyeless Sight, channeler does. Stealth model is within 5" of channeler LOS - The model counts as an intervening model, as per the normal Stealth rules Attack roll - If you attack it then you don't auto-miss, as per the normal Stealth rules Stealth model is more than 5" away from channeler LOS - The model counts as an intervening model, because the model drawing LOS ignores Stealth. Attack roll - If you attack it then you will auto-miss, as the attacker doesn't ignore Stealth. Stealth model is more than 5" away from channeler, and you want to target a model behind it. LOS - The front model blocks LOS, so you can't target the rear model. Attack roll - N/A