Iron Lich Asphyxious
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Iron Lich Asphyxious |
Mixed How usable this model is in Mk IV depends on the Faction:
You can view the Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. |
For sixteen centuries he has gathered lore, mastered war and the arcane arts, and become as formidable a creature as has ever walked the face of Caen. He looks to orchestrate the will of Toruk, see the Dragon's empire encompass the mainland, drown its cities in blood, and release a never-ending tide of souls from which he can drink and draw power. Asphyxious leaves behind ashen fields of lifeless grasses and withered trees. Blackened corpses and bubbling pools of gore are all that remain of his victims. The demands of his iron body create a ravenous thirst for fresh souls. The powerful iron carapace grants great physical strength, and his iron talons wield the ensorcelled Soulsplitter—a twin-pronged spear bathed in raw entropy.
Basic Info
Asphyxious1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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: Consuming Blight
- Enemy models currently in Asphyxious' control range suffer an unboostable POW 7 damage roll. Consuming Blight damage rolls are simultaneous.
- Asphyxious then gains up to 7 focus points. He cannot have more focus points than his current FOCUS as a result of Consuming Blight.
Abilities
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Undead
- 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
- Soulsplitter - 2" reach, P+S 15 melee weapon.
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Damage Type: Magical
- 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.
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Spells
COST | RNG | AOE | POW | DUR | OFF | ||
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Breath of Corruption
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3 | 8 | 3 | 12 (Corrosion) | Round | Yes | |
Models hit suffer a POW 12 corrosion damage roll. The AOE is a cloud and a hazard which stays in play for one round, and does 1 point of corrosion damage to models entering or ending their activations in it. | |||||||
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. | |||||||
Parasite
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3 | 8 | - | - | Upkeep | Yes | |
Target model/unit suffers -3 ARM and the spellcaster gains +1 ARM. | |||||||
Scything Touch
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
Target friendly Faction model gains Dark Shroud.
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Spectral Leech
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2 | 10 | - | - | - | Yes | |
Remove d3 focus or fury points from the target model hit by Spectral Leech. | |||||||
Teleport
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2 | SELF | - | - | - | No | |
Place the spellcaster anywhere completely within 6" of its current location, then its activation ends. |
Theme Forces
Thoughts on Asphyxious1
Asphyxious1 in a nutshell
Asphyxious is flexible, tough, and powerful. Broadly, he supports three different play styles quite well: melee, spell-slinging, and support. His support is all about armor cracking.
He has decent enough DEF and ARM that he can risk getting up close and personal in melee, but not so great that he'll be invulnerable. Although his MAT is somewhat average, Sustained Attack more than makes up for that. Lastly, if things do go badly, he can use Teleport to get out of danger.
In spell-slinging mode he flicks out as many Breath of Corruption spells (BoC) and Hellfires as he can. Either to clear the field of nasty targets, or when going for the assassination. BoC can be used against high DEF low ARM models (as it does full damage as long as the AOE doesn't scatter too far) and Hellfire can be used against low DEF high ARM models.
In support mode, he focuses on shifting Parasite and Scything Touch where his army needs it, allowing them to destroy the opposing army piece-meal. Having these two spells in his list gear Asphyxious to be an armor cracking specialist.
A player will be best off using multiple 'modes' for Gaspy in a single game. Open with Support arming your troops with the tools needed to crack any armor they find. When the lines come closer, fire off shots to weaken the enemy in 'spell-slinging' mode. Finally, when the front line becomes safe enough for Asphyxious, get him close enough to get his hands dirty in 'melee' mode. Depending on the make up and composition of the opponent you might have to forgo one or more of these. With low enough armor, you might not need his support modes to kill the enemies. With anti-magic capabilities you might not have any significant target to hit. If your enemy has got absolutely nuclear close combat, you might want to stay away from melee altogether.
Feat thoughts
- There are many ways to use his feat, and learning to get the most out of it opens many different playstyles for him. You can give away all his initial focus to his warjacks, then pop the feat to "refuel" and start casting spells. Or you can spend all your initial focus on spells, then "refuel" and do it again. You can focus these spells at a single target for a very strong assassination run with it, or you can throw spells all over the battlefield that turn. You can also use it defensively and heal over half his health or boost his power field for the next turn.
- Generally the damage roll will only be a threat to the lightest of infantry (about a 83% chance of killing even ARM 11 single-wound models) however you can use Parasite, Scything Touch and Dark Shroud to bring models down to ARM 11 and increase casualties but do not overextend your forces.
- Can be used to assassinate enemy from strange angles with an arc-node. Set this up with Parasite for maximum effect.
- If push comes to shove, use that focus and Asphyxious' natural high P+S to destroy the hardest targets (colossals are easily dealt with this way if properly debuffed), but leave yourself enough to teleport away afterwards.
Spell thoughts
Generally, if Asphyxious wants to kill something via spells, you're better off with Breath of Corruption rather than Hellfire due to BoC having extra splash damage, increased chance of hitting, and a cloud effect, but be careful, a bad deviation can block your own line of sight.
- Parasite is good to stack with other buffs (such as Scything Touch), and can be useful when combined with the POW hit from Asphyxious' feat.
- Scything Touch applies Dark Shroud to one model. Satyxis who hit accurately but not particularly hard will get great use from this buff.
- Ideally, use Teleport as part of a hit-and-run attack. Charge in, fire off a number of attacks (melee or magic), save your last focus to cast this spell and get clear of any retaliation.
- Breath of Corruption
- This is a good spell - Full damage (not halved blast damage), cloud, and damage to models working around. It's the whole package.
- A good spell to assassinate high DEF targets by casting it within 4" of the target (so that deviation will always hit, even when you miss).
- Under Asphyxious' feat, it can be cast 4 times and boosted twice on DMG.
- Hellfire - The standard high-power "laser" of cryx. It's kind of long range, prevent tough and remove the victim from play once boxed. A great spell for spot removal of pesky solos.
- Parasite - The best ARM debuff spell of the game. Use it on infantry before feat to remove an annoying unit and use it on harder targets to ensure the rest of your army can destroy them . If you have nothing better to do on your first turn, cast on a friendly disposable solo to benefit from the +1 ARM.
- Scything Touch - Better reserved on models with longer melee reach to affect more targets and, ideally, on a model that will survive your opponent's turn so you don't have to cast it again next round. Compounds with Parasite for a total of -5 ARM.
- Spectral Leach - For a low low price, remove the defensive layers from your enemy's warcaster/warlock. Also useful on beast in horde factions, vectors from Convergence of Cyriss, and Cephalyx's monstruosities, since those models keep their resources from turn to turn.
- Teleport - This classic getaway spell makes Asphyxious deceptively mobile. A classic use is to advance, feat, then cast teleport to return to safety.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- Asphyxious doesn't have a native way to increase hitting chances but happily, his feat can deal with a large number of low arm infantry.
- He relies, like almost all Cryx casters, heavily on spell-casting; everything that can't be targeted by spells, increases spell costs (Lamentation) or prevents arc-nodes from working is a bad match-up.
- Despite respectable defensive stats, his medium sized based can prove disadvantageous against enemy shooting.
- You can't use Asphyxious1 alongside Asphyxious4, and #4 is possibly one of the best models in the game currently (as of 2020.11).
Tricks & Tips
- Casting Scything Touch on a Machine Wraith is a good means to distribute -2 ARM, particularly if the opponent doesn't have an easy mean to destroy incorporeal targets. Also, SPD 7 and melee RNG 1 on a medium base is fast and can cover a large area.
- If you want to place your breath of corruptions in exactly the right place to make a cloudwall, run some cheap troops into position and then hit them in the back arc.
- Breath of Corruption cannot miss if the point of origin is 4" or less from the target (see 101 - AOE Attacks for a full explanation). Therefore, if you can run an arc node to within 4" of a high-DEF target, spamming BoC at them is a pretty good way to kill them. You can't possibly miss and, unlike most blast weapons, BoC does full damage on indirect hits as well as direct hits.
- Simply the threat of Gaspy doing this 4 times on his feat turn can make squishy casters hang back, which makes them interact less with the battlefield.
List Building Advice
Strategy
As mentioned previously, Asphyxious1 has a wide range of strategies. His general win condition is to save his feat until he can get an arc node within range of the enemy caster then cast spells at them until they die. Alternatively he can attrition quite well, as long as his army can hit.
The combination of Scything Touch and Parasite adds up to a -5 to ARM against about any model that can be targeted by a spell. As such, Asphyxious doesn't necessarily need a large investment in anti-ARM tech and benefit a lot from a higher number of attacks.
Do not forget that Asphyxious can only help you army against armor, but has no way to increase accuracy (or debuff DEF) or to deliver his army faster; choose models/units that can achieve this themselves.
Theme Thoughts
Asphyixous1 is possibly the best caster to lead a Scourge army. We have written a detailed segment on the Scourge article, click here to read it.
- Withershadow Combine - To help with focus efficiency. Also, because of the value of Sustained Attack, Gaspy himself makes an excellent candidate for Puppet Master.
- Warwitch Siren - To help with focus efficiency.
- Aiakos1 - Since Gaspy doesn't have any Battlegroup specific abilities, you can use his jack points on arcnodes and let Aiakos command jacks to increase their threat.
Mercs
- Saxon Orrik - A mercenary that can grant other models Pathfinder.
- Bokur is another way to get a Shield Guard in his list.
- Princess Delores Graciela - Gaspy loves knock down tech, becuase it allows him to stack Scythign Touch and Parasite for a -5 ARM swing without impeding the hit changes of his ranged troops due to shhoting into melee. Enter the Princess who brings a momentum gun, to set up this combo and a whole arsenal of guns to make use of it all in one. You will need to take Madelyn Corbeau as your attachment and merc slot to get her however, so no spellslaving Doctor Stygius, or free upkeeps and Sucker via the Satyxis Blood Priestess.
Battlegroup

- Cankerworm is Asphyxious' pet warjack that he can take in any theme.
- Arc nodes - To allow him to use Spell-slinging or Support mode without risking his neck.
- Inflictor to provide him a shield guard vs ranged attacks.
Starting a 25 point Brawl list
In 2020.10 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. It was then updated for the 2021.10 errata. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.
Theme - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Severa Blacktide: [Free] (5 pts)
- Satyxis Raider Captain: [3 pts]
- Warwitch Siren: [3 pts]
- Satyxis Raiders (Min unit): [9 pts]
- Command Attachment: [3 pts]
- Satyxis Gunslingers: [6 pts]
For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List
Other
Trivia
- One of the original warcasters, released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)
- Sculptor (2003): Chaz Elliot
- Sculptor (2010): Brian Dugas
- This model has a limited edition sculpt, released in 2019.04.
- Nickname: Gaspy (a joke playing on the meaning of "Asphyxiate").
- His backstory is possibly based on Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who threw himself into a volcano.
Video Battle Reports
- 2019.01 Tiny Men, vs Goreshade4
- 2018.07 Not Snakes Gaming, vs Butcher1
- See also Category: Video Battle Reports for more casters with videos.
Other Cryx models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Feat: Consuming Blight
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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: : Warcaster (Edit) | ||||
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Rules Clarification : Undead - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Sustained Attack (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Cull Soul - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Breath of Corruption (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Hellfire - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Parasite (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Scything Touch (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Spectral Leech - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Teleport - None yet. (Edit)