Theme - Dark Host
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Theme - Dark Host Cryx Theme Force |
 This mk3 Theme Force is somewhat similar to the mk4 Legacy Army. If you're planning on starting a mk4 Dark Host army you may get some use out of this article, espcially the In a Nutshell, the Theme Weaknesses, and maybe even the List-Building Tips sections. |
Torn from the horrors of the void and given new forms in the bodies of the dead, banes are dark, sinister warriors in the service of Cryx. Far from mindless, they possess a military cunning mixed with an utter malevolence to life. Supported by potent necromancers, armies of horrifying banes beset the enemy like a tide of darkness and death.
Theme Rules
- For the core rules on how Theme Forces work, see this article.
Theme Restrictions
An army made use the Dark Host theme force can include only the following Cryx and Mercenary models:
- Cryx warcasters
- Deathjack
- Non-character warjacks
- Bane models/units
- Darragh Wrathe
- Machine Wraith solos
- Necrotech solos
- Scrap Thrall solos
- Skarlock Thrall solos
- Soul Trapper solos
- Void Archon solos
- Wraith Engine battle engines
- This army can also include one Mercenary solo and one Mercenary unit that will work for Cryx.
- These models/units can be included even if they have the Partisan [Cryx] rule.
- Mercenary units can have non-Ranking Officer attachments
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Tip ! |
Full model list
This list was last updated: 2021.10 (Edit)
Warcasters
- All Cryx warcasters
Warjacks
- All non-character Cryx warjacks
- Deathjack
- Other character warjacks can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.
Units
Solos
- Bane Lord Tartarus
- Darragh Wrathe
- Machine Wraith
- Master Gurglepox
- Necrotech
- Scrap Thralls
- Skarlock Thrall
(Warcaster Attachment) - Soul Trapper
Battle Engines
Mercenaries
- Void Archon (★)
- Up to one solo
- Up to one unit
(★) Void Archons don't count against your "Up to one Mercenary" slot
Requisition Points
You can spend each Requisition Point on either:
- One Cryx CA
- Three Machine Wraith solos
- Three Necrotech solos
- One other small- or medium-based Cryx solo with a point cost of 5 or less
Theme Bonuses
- Bane models gain Prowl.
- Prowl - While a model with Prowl has concealment, it gains stealth.
- Before models are deployed at the start of the game, you can place two 4" AOE dense fog terrain features completely within 20" of the rear table edge of your deployment zone.
Thoughts on the Dark Host
Dark Host in a nutshell
Banes are the elite undead of Cryx, and this allows you to field an entire force of them.
Banes hit like a ton of bricks, are relatively durable, but perhaps most importantly they all come with Ghostly which lets them ignore terrain and free strikes while moving. This gives you an upper hand in terrain mitigation and/or walking away from combats you don't want to fight. It also lets you easily zip into concealment to trigger the Prowl benefit.
Thoughts on the Dense Fog
Carefully read the different versions of stuff that ignores clouds / concealment / stealth. Often you'll be able to keep at least one of bonuses. For example:
- Eyeless Sight ignores everything.
- True Sight ignores the clouds for LOS and ignores Stealth, but doesn't ignore the +2 DEF you get from being in concealment.
- Ghost Shot ignores LOS and concealment, but you still have concealment which is enough to trigger Prowl & Stealth ... which Ghost Shot does not ignore.
Thanks to Prowl, running Banes into the clouds on Turn 1 is great protection vs shooting, whether it is Bottom-of-One shooting from advanced deployed stuff, or Top-of-Two shooting from stuff that ran into position last turn. But after Turn 1, your Banes should be advancing forwards as quick as possible and leave the clouds behind for your support and caster to hide in.
If you get choice of table edge, carefully review the terrain.
- If there is good terrain within 20", you can form a LOS-blocking bunker for your caster to hide in all game.
- If there is concealment-providing terrain at about 30", you can set-up a 'Leap Frog' strategy where your Banes run into the clouds round 1, then into terrain on round 2, for two rounds of Stealth.
- Or, considering that you have so much Ghostly, you may prefer to choose the table edge that makes the opposite side worst for your opponent.
Theme weaknesses
Low MAT
You're going to struggle vs high-DEF opponents.
- Bane Lord Tartarus can help fix this, but you may want a caster that can help out too.
Slow SPD
You're going to be peppered with ranged attacks on the way in. You'll probably be charged, rather than getting to charge.
- SPD 7 on Bane Riders and Wraith Engines is still pretty good.
- Making good use of terrain for maximum Prowl can help.
- You'll want a caster that can help deliver the Banes, whether by buffing their durability (like Terminus), preventing the enemy attacking them (like Coven), or speeding them up (like Skarre3).
No ranged attacks
If you want to snipe out annoying enemy solos, you'll need either Darragh, a Skarlock/Dr Stygius, some arc nodes, or some Mercenaries.
Alternatively, Machine Wraiths can also make decent "missiles" vs squishier support pieces.
Limited Magical Weapons
Incorporeal solos (here's looking at you Gremlin Swarm) are a problem for the list. Your only source of magical damage is your warcaster, Darragh Wrathe, or Mercenaries.
List Building
- Bane Lord Tartarus should always be your first Requisition.
- Wraith Engine(s) are popular for their ability to protect your Banes on the way in.
- It'll push Bane Warriors to ARM 17, which makes them decently durable vs the typical anti-infantry gun (that has POW 10), and almost immune to blast damage (typically POW 6 to 8).
- It'll push Bane Knights to a very respectable ARM 20 while in Wall of Steel, which is great vs everything except auto-one-wound attacks (such as Sniper).
- It'll also put Bane Riders to ARM 20 which bis very respectable.
- Darragh Wrathe is popular.
- He can speed up your army with Death Ride and provide some much-needed magic offense.
- Mortal Fear makes your Banes hardier in melee, meaning you don't "lose" the ARM buff the Wraith Engine supplies once the enemy is no longer shooting at you.
- But at 9 points that can't be taken for free he can be hard to justify sometimes.
- A Desecrator is a solid choice for your heavy warjack, as it gets bonus focus while it is near Bane models.
- Void Archons are great in any theme that allows them in pairs already has something going for it. However, Banes do not have souls, so you'll have to rely on the enemy suppling you with them (they will most likely do not) or take a merc unit as a soul battery for them, which limits list building and caster choice.
- Croe's Cutthroats are probably your best options for this, being strong at range and in melee, a 10 man unit (aka 10 souls) and synergising with the many ARM debuff spells across Cryx Warcaster cards.
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.
- Goreshade1: [+29 WJP]
- Deathwalker: [Free]
- Desecrator: [12 pts]
- Reaper: [11 pts]
- Stalker: [8 pts]
- Bane Lord Tartarus: [Free] (5 pts)
- Machine Wraith: [2 pts]
- Scrap Thralls: [2 pts]
- Bane Warriors (Max unit): [14 pts]
- Command Attachment: [5 pts]
For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List
Expanding the two player battlebox
Step 0
Buy the 2 player battlebox and sell the Cygnar models. Alternatively, buy the 1 player Cryx starter box and add a unit of Banes.
- Agathia1 [+29 WJP]
- Reaper: [13 pts]
- Slayer: [10 pts]
- Deathripper: [6 pts]
- Bane Warriors (Max unit): [16 pts]
- 16 points total (45 points worth of models)
Step 1 (25 points)
Expand the 2 player box to 25 points with a mere three new models, only one of which (BLT) is locked into Dark Host. Note that we have swapped to Skarre1 to take advantage of her Dark Guidance spell, which vastly increases the Banes' accuracy.
- Bane Lord Tartarus: [Free] (6 points)
- Bane Warriors (Max unit): [16 pts]
- 25 points total (59 points worth of models)
Step 2 (50 points)
Before going to Step 2 you need to decide whether you like the way Banes play and will double down on your Bane purchases, or whether to cut your losses and move to a different theme.
Assuming you want to stick with Dark Host, we're going to move to 50 by picking up some support pieces for Skarre1, upgrade the Warriors by adding their CA, and get the Knights + CA as a second core unit.
- Skarre1 [+28 WJP]
- Reaper: [13 pts]
- Slayer: [10 pts]
- Deathripper: [6 pts]
- Stalker: [8 pts]
- Doctor Stygius: [4 pts]
- Bane Lord Tartarus: [Free] (6 points)
- Scrap Thrall x3 (2) (★)
- Bane Warriors (Max unit): [16 pts]
- Command Attachment: [Free] (5 points)
- Bane Knights (Max unit): [15 pts]
- Command Attachment: [4 pts]
- 50 points total (89 points worth of models)
(★) Note, if you don't like or don't have Skarre1, you don't want to get the Scrap Thralls because they are only in the list for Skarre1's unique Ritual Sacrifice spell. Other Cryx warcasters would do better to spend those 2 points on a Machine Wraith instead.
Step 3 (75 points)
I'm not going to tell you what to buy for 75 points - it really comes down to what you like the look of, what's available at your store, and what you need to beat your local opponents. You can look at the List Building Advice section for thoughts on what else is worthwhile to pick up.
Order Codes
- All prices are Recommended Retail Price from PP's website (as of 2019.09) and are in $USD.
- Step 1:
- PIP 25002 ($90) Two player battlebox
- or
- PIP 34127 ($40) Cryx battlebox
- PIP 34110 ($50) Bane Warriors
- Step 2:
- PIP 34068 ($12) Skarre1
- PIP 34028 ($12) Stalker
- PIP 34042 ($17) Bane Lord Tartarus
- Step 3:
- PIP 63019 ($18) Doctor Stygius
- PIP 34003 ($11) Scrap Thrall x3
- PIP 34071 ($28) Bane Warrior Command Attachment
- PIP 34101 ($85) Bane Knights
- PIP 34152 ($17) Bane Knight Command Attachment
Caster Thoughts
Skarre1's feat will push Banes hitting-power and ARM to absurd levels. Skarre1 has the best hit-buff in Cryx, Dark Guidance, and Banes love it. The 4" clouds can do a lot to keep her safe after feating.
Her typical DH list is filled with Stalkers, Wraith Engines, Darragh Wrathe, and Bane Riders.
Her Dash spell bumps your Banes SPD up, especially if you combine it with Darragh, and her Deceleration spell can stack ARM to very good levels.
She'll lose out on a Reinforcement target, unless you spend your Merc unit slot on Cephalyx.
Spending one of your Requisition Points on three Necrotechs to follow her around and repair her could be worth it, especially if you haven't taken small-based units and thus can’t get free CAs.
Guns got you down? The Coven is the best delivery system in Cryx. Enemies will find themselves helpless when caught inside of Nightfall. They face a hard decision: allow Banes to charge first, or retreat their models and lose scenario presence.
Scaverous will go in DH to get himself some double Void Archons. To keep them topped up with souls he'll normally take Croes. By the time he's grabbed all these, plus another Merc solo, he only has 35-40 points left to spend on actual Banes.
In terms of Banes, he has Excarnate to recur small-bases banes, which can stack nicely with Tartatus. Alternatively, putting Death Ward on Bane Riders is very strong when combined with the Wraith engine and/or Wrathe
Agathia is in a weird place relative to this theme.
- On one hand, she is a Bane model so will gain Prowl and can stand in the clouds all game in relative safety. Also she appreciates Veteran Leader from Bane Lord Tartarus giving her +1 to hit with spells and, if necessary, +1 to hit in melee too. And of course she can make one small based Bane unit her Henchmen and supplies Death Shroud, meaning she can crank the stats of her Banes to very good levels.
- On the other hand, she can bring Bane Knights into other themes already, and most of her spell list and feat don't really help Banes at all.
So the main draw for her in Dark Host is being able to make Bane Warriors her henchmen (instead of Knights), which is ... not really an upside, arguably.
Other
Trivia
- Released 2017.07
Other Cryx models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Prowl and/or Just a Tree? (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: Theme Forces (Edit) Themes that change a model's Faction [Show/Hide]
Rerolling the starting roll [Show/Hide]
Warjacks/Warbeasts with bonds [Show/Hide]
Including Mercenaries [Show/Hide]
Number of Mercenaries
Mercenaries and Ranking Officers
Other
Including Partisan Mercenaries [Show/Hide]
Partisans & Theme Forces (Edit)
Requisition Points [Show/Hide]
Free models and Specialists (ADR) [Show/Hide]
Unit Attachments [Show/Hide]
When to apply theme benefits [Show/Hide]
See also these Theme-Specific Rulings [Show/Hide]
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