Theme - Scourge of the Broken Coast
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Theme - Scourge of the Broken Coast Cryx Theme Force |
 This mk3 Theme Force is somewhat similar to the mk4 Legacy Army "Black Fleet". If you're planning on starting a mk4 Black Fleet 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. |
Borne on a black tide to bring death and suffering to the mainland, the pirates of Cryx instill terror in the hearts of those who live on the Broken Coast. Comprised of swift Satyxis and merciless Black Ogrun, raiding parties join Cryx's warcasters and their battlegroups in executing their bloody assaults.
Contents
Theme Rules
- For the core rules on how Theme Forces work, see this article.
Theme Restrictions
An army made use the Scourge of the Broken Coast theme force can include only the following Cryx and Mercenary models:
- Cryx warcasters
- Non-character warjacks
- Barathrum
- Kharybdis
- Living Cryx models/units
- Devil's Shadows Mutineers
- Death Archon solos
- Misery Cage solos
- 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 !
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Full model list
This list was last updated: 2021.02 (Edit)
Warcasters
- All Cryx warcasters
Warjacks
- All non-character Cryx warjacks
- Barathrum
- Kharybdis
- Other character warjacks can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.
Units
- Black Ogrun Boarding Party
- Black Ogrun Ironmongers
- Black Ogrun Smog Belchers
- Bloodgorgers
- Blighted Trollkin Marauders
- Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (★)
- Cephalyx Overlords (★)
- Satyxis Gunslingers
- Satyxis Blood Witches
- Satyxis Raiders
- Scharde Dirge Seers
- Scharde Pirates
- The Devil's Shadow Mutineers (★)
Solos
- Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius ("Junior Warcaster")
- Axiara Wraithblade
- Darragh Wrathe
- Death Archon (★)
- Doctor Stygius (Warcaster Attachment) (★)
- General Gerlak Slaughterborn
- Misery Cage
- Satyxis Blood Priestess (Warcaster Attachment)
- Satyxis Raider Captain
- Severa Blacktide
- Warwitch Initiate Deneghra ("Junior Warcaster")
- Warwitch Siren
Mercenaries
- Up to one solo
- Up to one unit
(★) Because these models are specifically allowed in this theme, they don't use up your "Up to one Mercenary" slot.
Requisition Points
You can spend each Requisition Point on either:
- One Scharde Dirge Seer unit
- One Cryx CA
- Three Misery Cage solos
- One other small- or medium-based Cryx solo with a point cost of 5 or less
Theme Bonuses
- Cryx warjacks in this army gain Gang Fighter.
- Gang Fighter - When making a melee attack targeting an enemy model in the melee range of another friendly Faction warrior model, this model gains +2 to melee attack and melee damage rolls.
- Up to one Satyxis Blood Witch unit in this army gains Ambush.
- Ambush - You can choose not to deploy this unit at the start of the game. If it is not deployed normally, you can put it into play at the end of any of your Control Phases after your first turn. When you do, choose any table edge except the back of your opponent's deployment zone. Place all models in the unit in formation completely within 3" of the chosen table edge.
Thoughts on Scourge of the Broken Coast
Scourge in a nutshell
This is a fully fledged sub-faction; the theme provides both melee and ranged options for your core units; it has both light, medium, and heavy-ish infantry; and one of the theme benefits affects warjacks. There are many possible army builds within this theme force, and I don't expect it to be "solved" anywhere in the near future.
Scourge is an amazing theme and it's very caster-independent, that is to say a lot of the units are essentially self-sufficient so you can take any caster you like (as opposed to needing one to shore uo the theme's weaknesses). However while every caster can be good in Scourge, they're not all good with the same things. Some want to make use of the Gang Fighter benefit, some want to make use of all the good guns, some want to focus on the melee troops, and some want hybrid builds.
Unit Recap
This is a quick summary - for more details refer to each model/unit's actual article.
Black Ogrun are medium-based, multi-wound troops. They have low DEF, medium ARM, and Tough. They're the best option Cryx has for "heavy infantry", though they are nowhere near the likes of Man-O-War, Cataphracts, etc.
- Black Ogrun Boarding Party - Decent melee, bad-to-ok gun, and the cheapest unit of multi-wound troops in the game. Their preferred targets are heavy infantry and light 'jacks, but really they're in your list to be ablative armour.
- Black Ogrun Ironmongers - Support unit that repair warjacks
- Black Ogrun Smog Belchers - Decent melee, good gun. They have cannons that create smoke clouds. Good against a variety of things.
Blighted Trollkin have a similar statline to Black Ogrun, except they have only a single hitpoint and cost about half as much points per model.
- Bloodgorgers - Melee unit that mulches enemy infantry
- Marauders - Ranged unit, good against a variety of things.
- Jussika is a character command attachment that can attach to either type of Trollkin unit.
- Gerlak is a character solo that buffs Trollkin.
Satyxis are small-based, single-wound infantry. They have high SPD, high DEF, and low ARM. They're light skirmishers.
- Raiders - Melee unit with good threat range. They can "pray" for a different buff each turn.
- Blood Witches - Melee unit with a shorter range, but special weapon effects vs living models.
- Gunslingers are a trio of pistol wielding girls.
- Blood Priestess, Axiara, and Severa are solos that support your warcaster, support your army, and shoot enemies respectively.
- See also the #Satyxis Force section below.
Scharde are small-based, single-wound infantry. They have bad-to-average stats.
- Scharde Dirge Seers - Support unit with magic abilities.
- Scharde Pirates - Cannon fodder unit.
Other. There is a medley of other units and solos that fall under the "living Cryx" heading, which fulfill a variety of specialist roles. See the #Full model list section, above.
Warjack thoughts
Gang Fighter shouldn't be underestimated, especially on the cheaper warjacks. It is relatively easy to get a warrior in position before the warjack activates, and a simple +2/+2 buff can make Cryx jacks very devastating.
- Barathrum and Kharybdis are both excellent warjacks for their points cost, and will be your go-to options first and foremost.
- 7 point Scavenger - If you can trigger Gang and Finisher, it's effectively a MAT 9, P+S 13 weapon master
- 8 point Stalker - MAT 9, P+S 14 with two Blessed attacks. And Jump.
- 10 point Slayer - MAT 9, with two attacks at P+S 18 and one at P+S 14. It's not too shabby for 10 points.
Sure on paper DEF 13, ARM 17 looks terrible becauae lol dietoguns, but on the table your opponent will be distracted by your infantry. If you spam 2 to 4 Slayers you've got a serious threat. - A Kraken can be screened by all the medium bases and reach over them with it's 4" noodle arms.
Theme Weaknesses
Troops have Low Power
The majority of your attacks sit in the P+S 10 to 12 range, which means you'll struggle vs ARM 18+ targets.
You'll want to bring a caster with ARM debuffs and/or use your Mercenary slot to bring an ARM-fixer (Ragman, Void Archon, Asphyxious4, etc).
You may also want to put some heavy hitters in your battlegroup, as opposed to utility 'jacks.
Satyxis - Low Resilience
While Satyxis are hard to hit, especially vs ranged attacks, their ARM is terrible so anything that does hit them will shred them.
Watch out for auto-hitting attacks such as Electro-Leap and Eruption of Spines. Also, Satyxis can be bullied by hazard templates such as Covering Fire and Scather.
Terrain Mitigation
There are only two units that can get Pathfinder - Bloodgorgers when they charge, and Raiders if they pray for it. No one has Pathfinder natively.
You'll want to bring a caster with Ghost Walk and/or Saxon
List Building Tips & Early Purchases
General
List building in this theme is so diverse, you could start almost anywhere. What you'll probably want is:
- A combat unit (plus that unit's associated solo, if applicable).
- Blighted Trollkin Marauders with their CAS and Gerlak Slaughterborn is one solid option.
- Satyxis Raiders with their CA and a Satyxis Raider Captain solo is another commmon option.
- Satyxis Blood Witches with their CA will let you take advantage of the Ambush benefit.
- Some of the excellent support solos. You'll probably want to get all of these, eventually.
- Axiara Wraithblade is great and should be your first free card. Her Tactician ability is invaluable, especially if you're running multiple medium-based units.
- Severa Blacktide is an excellent use of your second free card, and should be included even if you don't have any other Gunslingers.
- A Satyxis Raider Captain is a great way to get the Gang Fighter bonus where you need it, even if you don't have other Satyxis for her to buff.
- Satyxis Blood Priestess and a Misery Cage are great support pieces.
- Warjacks
Starter Set
Unlike most themes, Scourge has a starter set (note that the box is labelled Slaughter Fleet Raiders becauae it predates the themes merging). It's a decent purchase as you save about 8% over buying the contents individually. The contents are:
- A 10-man unit of Bloodgorgers plus their character command attachment, Jussika Bloodtongue.
- A 3-man unit of Scharde Dirge Seers
- A 3-man unit of Black Ogrun Iron Mongers
- Gerlak Slaughterborn, a character solo
- A Misery Cage solo
- This adds up to 34 points, plus Gerlak who you'll take as your first free card.
You'll notice that there is no warcaster or warjacks included. It goes very well with the mk3 Cryx starter box, the one with Bane Witch Agathia. She fixes a lot of the weaknesses that Bloodgorgers (and Scourge in general) have.
Merc Options
Generally the Merc you pick will be to cover some weakness that isn't already covered by your caster.
- Asphyxious4 is a very powerful merc unit, he's practically an auto-include in every Cryx list. With reference to the Scourge theme, he brings an ARM debuff to help your troops, some interesting Merc warjack options to stack with Gang Fighter, and respawns models for the Blood Priestess to use as Sucker targets.
- Void Archon is a powerful merc solo. This is the only Cryx theme full of living models that he get souls from. He also brings a ARM debuff which is great.
- Orin Midwinter provides protection from enemy spells.
- Ragman is another ARM-fixer. If you're going Troll/Ogre heavy, he benefits from the mass of medium bases blocking LOS to him and the plentiful access to Sac Pawns with Tough for when the enemy does get a bead on him.
- Saxon Orrik is Pathfinder on a stick.
- Wrong Eye & Snapjaw with Satyxis can be fun, stacking Star Crossed on high DEF models works wonderfully. Snapjaw is also a good, hard hitting heavy.
25 point list (Brawlmachine)
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.
- Asphyxious1: [+28 WJP]
- 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
25 point list & Expanding it (Satyxis)
In 2019.02 juckto wrote this expansion guide. It's relatively newbie friendly.
Step 1
For Step 1 I recommend getting the Cryx battlebox and adding the Raiders, the Gunslingers, and a Misery Cage
- Agathia1: [+29 WJP]
- Deathripper: [6 pts]
- Slayer: [10 pts]
- Reaper: [13 pts]
- Misery Cage: [2 pts]
- Satyxis Gunslingers: [7 pts]
- Satyxis Raiders (Max unit): [16 pts]
- Command Attachment: [Free] (4)
- 25 points total (58 points worth of models)
Step 2
For Step 2 we're going to swap out to another caster who can really dial the Satyxis' damage level to 11, and fill up on the rest of the Satyxis options.
- Asphyxious1: [+28 WJP]
- Deathripper: [6 pts]
- Reaper: [13 pts]
- Slayer: [10 pts]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess: [4 pts]
- Axiara Wraithblade: [Free] (6)
- Severa Blacktide: [Free] (6)
- Satyxis Raider Captain: [4 pts]
- Misery Cage: [2 pts]
- Satyxis Blood Witches (Min unit): [8 pts]
- Command Attachment: [4 pts]
- Satyxis Gunslingers: [7 pts]
- Satyxis Raiders (Max unit): [16 pts]
- Command Attachment: [4 pts]
- 50 points total (90 points worth of models)
Step 3
To expand to 75 points, it really comes down to what you like the look of, what's available, and what you need to beat your local opponents. Asphyxious probably wants to change his battlegroup - he really wants two arc nodes, for starters. 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 34127 ($40) Cryx battlebox
- PIP 34147 ($20) Misery Cage ×2 (I suggest you sell one to another Cryx player)
- PIP 34132 ($25) Satyxis Gunslingers
- PIP 34142 ($60) Satyxis Raiders plus CA (this PIP comes with the CA, older sets have them seperate though).
- Step 2:
- PIP 34076 ($17) Asphyxious1 (Iron Lich Asphyxious)
- PIP 34143 ($12) Satyxis Blood Priestess
- PIP 34074 ($10) Satyxis Raider Captain
- PIP 34141 ($13) Axiara Wraithblade
- PIP 34148 ($13) Severa Blacktide
- PIP 34072 ($50) Satyxis Blood Witches
- PIP 34073 ($10) Blood Witch CA (Blood Hag)
Starting a 25 point list & Expanding it (Trolls)
If you want to try this theme but are still stuck for ideas, try this. It's relatively newbie friendly.
Step 1
I recommend you get the Cryx battlebox, the Slaughter Fleet theme box, and a Blood Priestess. You'll end up with more models than you can use at 25 points, but the logistics of list design is easier.
- Agathia1: [+29 WJP]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess: [4 pts]
- Deathripper: [6 pts]
- Slayer: [10 pts]
- Reaper: [13 pts]
- Gerlak Slaughterborn: [Free] (6)
- Bloodgorgers (Max unit): [15 pts]
- Command Attachment: [5 pts]
- 24 points total (59 points worth of models)
- Leftover models from the boxsets: Dirge Seers, Misery Cage, Ironmongers
Step 2
For Step 2 I recommend picking up Axiara, Barathrum, and the other type of Trolls.
- Agathia1: [+29 WJP]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess: [4 pts]
- Deathripper: [6 pts]
- Barathrum: [15 pts]
- Reaper: [13 pts]
- Gerlak Slaughterborn: [Free] (6)
- Axiara Wraithblade: [Free] (6)
- Bloodgorgers: [15 pts]
- Command Attachment]]: [5 pts]
- Blighted Trollkin Marauders: [15 pts]
- Black Ogrun Ironmongers: [6 pts]
- 50 points total (91 points worth of models)
- Leftover models from the boxed sets: Dirge Seers, Slayer, Misery Cage
Step 3
To expand to 75 points, it really comes down to what you like the look of, what's available, and what you need to beat your local opponents. 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 34127 ($40) Cryx battlebox
- PIP 34139 ($175) Slaughter Fleet Raider box
- PIP 34143 ($12) Satyxis Blood Priestess
- Step 2:
- PIP 34151 ($90) Blighted Trollkin Marauders
- PIP 34115 ($60) Barathrum
- PIP 34141 ($13) Axiara Wraithblade
Satyxis Force
- The Satyxis get a section all to themselves because, prior to the 2019.07 theme remix, they were a stand-alone force. There was a lot of good content in this article about a pure Satyxis army, and it was easier to keep it under a seperate heading than try to merge it.
General
Satyxis are the vicious lady pirates of Cryx, with a dollop of blood sacrifice magic thrown in. Satyxis troops are high speed, high accuracy, low power, high defense, and low armor. Altogether, Satyxis are a light skirmishing army, able to close the gap and engage very well, but lack the hitting power or staying power to win a slugfest.
The core of a Scourge army are the Satyxis Raiders (normally 2 units) and the Satyxis Blood Witches (normally 1 unit in ambush). The Satyxis Gunslingers are a quasi-core unit; they have a small unit size, but provide quite a few attacks. In a good matchup they'll pump out attacks and be MVP, in other matchups they'll be stuck using Black Penny to free up your main units, or taking near-hopeless potshots at enemy solos that are too high DEF and/or ARM.
Satyxis have great "board presence", since one of the two main combat units, the Raiders, have SPD 7 and 2" reach; and the other main combat unit, the Witches, have Ambush. This is amplified against warmachine armies, where opposing jacks will hang back to avoid Feedback damage. This can translate to serious power in a scenario game or even an assasination.
Casters for Satyxis
The best Scourge Casters are IMO Asphyxious1 (or arguably Deneghra1), Coven, a large gap of empty space, Agathia, and Scaverous in that order.
A lot of other casters can run Scourge just fine, but I don’t think they do anything different enough from the top 4, or do better into problem matchups, to justify bringing them over the top 4.
- Most of the content in this section was originally posted by Deller on Lormahordes. Deller graciously gave me permission to incorporate it into this article.
- Asphyxious1 (+28 WJP)
- (Free) Satyxis Blood Priestess
- (14) 2x Nightwretch
- (14) Corruptor
- (8) 2x Satyxis Raider Captain
- (Free) Axiara Wraithblade
- (Free) Severa Blacktide
- (40) 2x Max Satyxis Raiders with CA
- (12) 1x Min Satyxis Blood Witches with CA
- (14) 2x Satyxis Gunslingers
Asphyxious1 is probably the best Scourge caster. He doesn't fix resilience or terrain mitigation, but he fixes the Girl's damage output in spades with a -5 ARM debuff he can put out every turn, meaning the Girls can threaten just about anything.
He is great at clearing infantry by himself with his Breath of Corruption (BoC) spell and/or using the POW 5 damage from his feat to clear particularly low-ARM troops from the board. This can free up more of the Girls to focus on taking down the more important targets.
Lastly he brings a terrifying spell assassination, especially if he hasn't feated yet, that synergises with all the Feedback damage in the list. You could be playing for attrition, and halfway through your turn realize you've dropped the enemy caster to a third of his health with Feedback damage alone. Instead of continuing for attrition, just run some Girls near their caster and BoC the Girls in the butt to kill the caster.
Thoughts on his Army Build
Raider Captains are your Scything Touch (ST) vectors. They're solos which gives you freedom with order-of-activation, they're fast to get where you want the debuff, they have 2" reach to apply it to multiple targets, and they have auto-knockdown on their attacks. Once the target is knocked down Asphyxious can easily Parasite it (if he hasn't already) and more importantly the Gunslingers can shoot it without needing Black Penny, they can stick to Heart Seeker.
For battlegroup:
- Asphyxious wants two arc nodes. In this case, we're using Nightwretches.
- The Corruptor is a great utility 'jack. With the debuffs in play it can be an effective POW 19 gun, or clear out living infantry with a pie-plate (freeing up the Girls to do other stuff), or even create an arc node if your Nightwretches got toasted.
- I tried Cankerworm & Barathrum, I just didn’t feel like I ever needed them. Barathrum is great and all, but I don’t really need a dedicated heavy hitter when I can get Satyxis Raiders swinging at effective P+S 16, and Cankerworm is kinda the same.
For Mercenaries:
- Saxon - I never found I needed him. Yes it sucks having to pray for Pathfinder and not Force Barrier, but if I’m praying for Pathfinder it’s so I can charge something. If I really need the extra survivability that Force Barrier normally gives Axiara can give the unit Repo 3 so they can make sure they end the turn engaged.
- Eilish - I know some people prefer him over the Blood Priestess, but I prefer the free upkeep, Sucker, and dispel-via-stabbings versus Puppet Master, and dispel-via-action. It’s probably a meta call, if you’re expecting to drop Asphyxious1 Scourge into Casters with brutal offensive upkeeps like Rebuke go Eilish, if you’re planning to drop him into lists with extreme Ranged assassinations go Priestess. Personally the only Rebuke caster I see regularly is Krueger2, and I don’t drop Asphyxious1 into him anyway, and I see a lot of Ranged focused lists in my meta.
- With the intro over, let's talk about which match ups he is going to find tough but playable, vs which ones he wants to dodge entirely; and what you'll want to pair with.
Tough Matchups - How to Deliver the Girls
By 'Deliver' we don't just mean 'run and jam', we mean 'get a significant number of attacks into the enemy'. There’s a few options you have, and it depends on what you’re playing against. The first thing to remember is that BoC isn’t just a POW 12 to everything under the AOE, it also leaves behind a cloud. While it’s not as easy to block off LOS with BoC clouds as it is with Asphyxious2's Caustic Mist clouds, you can block off quite a bit when you factor in the central LOS-blocking terrain feature. Even if it means you have to shoot some of your own Girls in the butt to get the clouds exactly where you want them, it can be worth it if it gets the rest of them to the enemy intact.
The other factor that’s important for delivery is considering what you’re going up against, and how you’re going to kill it. For example when playing against someone like Haley3 the answer to "How does Asphyxious deliver Satyxis" is: you don’t. The Girls are going to be killing very little in that matchup, and dying in droves. But you want them to die in the right place; their job is to run screaming across the table and set the line of engagement on the opponent’s side of the table. They’re there to run, jam, and make themselves difficult to remove while keeping your opponent away from scenario elements. Asphyxious1 does the killing himself with the POW 5 from his Feat, and drifting tons of BoCs all over the Trenchers. Some games, the only attacks your Satyxis Raiders will make all game are Free Strikes vs models that try to run past them to contest scenario.
Versus a more armor-focused brick list (like Primal Terrors, Armored Korps, or Band of Heroes) you don’t really need delivery since those lists are heavily melee focused - they're going to come to you. The armor brick lists don’t typically have great methods of clearing Satyxis Raiders at range, so you tend to either get the alpha strike, or they alpha you with melee which you can mitigate the damage from with proper spacing. Just run 2-3 Girls per Raider unit ahead of everyone else so that if your opponent tries to charge in he can only get a max of 3 Girls. Even if they can charge far enough to reach your second line, most people won’t risk free strikes from the front Satyxis because of the Crit Knockdown. Into Bricks you rely on chain Weapon + Scything Touch + Parasite to bypass as much of the armor as possible.
Versus auto-hitting effects it very much depends on what the effect is, and if there’s a way to play around it. Some of them, like the Conquest’s Creeping Barrage we can just ignore because it’s blast damage. Other effects like the Covering Fire on Suppression Tankers, Manticores, & Trencher Chain Guns (nobody plays the Cyclone) we need to move around. Now in the case of the Trencher Chain Gun & Manticore this isn’t a big deal since the game plan into Ret & Gravediggers is usually “Run the Raiders” and have Asphyxious1 do the work; in those cases Covering Fire is just a mild annoyance. The Suppression Tanker is a little trickier since we do need our raiders to make charge attacks to crack ARM vs Armored Korp.
- Now the first important thing to remember is Covering Fire is a (★ Action) so the Korps will only ever have 2 Covering Fires. Two Wall Templates of death are not going to protect an entire Armored Korp list, especially when every Satyxis Raider & Bloodwitch is potentially lethal. Ambush is also your friend here. It’s very hard to Wall off Ambushing Bloodwitches with Covering Fire.
- The second thing to remember is Covering Fire is an ability that’s tied to the gun, so if the model is engaged it can’t use Covering Fire. Only the Strike Tanker got Duel Attack, the Suppression Tanker didn’t. Forcing the Tanker to Bulldoze Girls away from it & protect itself with Covering Fire means it’s not protecting everything else.
The auto-hitting effects you really need to worry about are the ones like BoC, Electro Leap, or AOE attacks that apply continuous fire or corrosion.
Bad Matchup #1 : Hard spell denial
When it comes to spell denial I’m not talking about things like Doom Reavers, Rasheth, or the Choir of Menoth. Those are examples of 'Soft' spell denial and you can play around them relatively easily by killing off the Choir boys before going after Protectorate jacks, walking within 8” of a Turtle to debuff it then Teleporting to safety, or drifting BoCs into Doom Reavers by targeting non spell immune models.
'Hard' denial is stuff like a Woldwrath that you need to debuff to kill but it's always immune to spells, Kromac1’s anti-spell spell Bestial (try saying that 10 times fast), or Goreshade4 post-CID version fielding high-armored models protected by his ridiculous number of Arcane Vortexes. There’s no way to play around this level of hard spell denial, you simply won't be casting much of anything in these games. The only way Asphyxious1 is going to win is assassination, and if the caster shuts down spell assassination (like Goreshade4 or Kromac1 do), good luck.
The good news is you might never need to worry about this type of hard spell denial, because stuff like Kromac1 & Woldwrath aren’t very popular. On the other hand, Goreshade4 is likely going to see a major surge in popularity once the CID changes hit.
Bad Matchup #2 : Auto-hitting attacks plus tough targets
The other kinds of list you need to dodge with Asphyxious1 Scourge are ones where you need the Raiders to survive and do work, but your opponent can kill swathes of low armored infantry easily. Examples are Krueger2 Bones or Nemo3 with double Storm Striders. If you did play into that match up, Asphyxious1’s path to victory is Assassination-Or-Bust, because he’s not going to kill Striders or Wolds himself.
Whether you can drop Asphyxious1 Scourge into lists that have these elements is heavily dependent on who needs to do the work, Asphyxious1 or the Girls, and how much auto-hitting does the opponent actually have. For example a list like Rasheth double Turtle has BoC, but it’s not that big of a deal since he can only ever throw out two BoCs a turn. With proper spacing you can avoid taking too many casualties, and the Girls kill Turtles easily when they’re -5 ARM. Into a matchup like the Asphyxious1 mirror it’s also not a big deal. Even though the enemy Asphyxious1 can put out 4 BoCs on his feat turn he’s likely playing in Ghost Fleet or Scourge himself meaning you can get just as much work done with your Asphyxious1, and it doesn’t really matter that your Girls are dropping like flies.
Krueger2 can put out two Lightning Storms a turn (which are just as effective as BoC at killing Satyxis since it’s not blast damage), and leave behind no-go zones that basically auto-kill any Girls that enter. Additionally Krueger will probably have at least two sources of Geomancy for an additional two Lightning Storms a turn, so he can kill a lot of Girls, and deny a lot of board space. Bones is also a matchup where you need the Girls to do the work, since Asphyxious1 can’t spell an army of Wolds to death by himself.
List Pairing
With the bad matchups given above, I would avoid pairing Asphyxious1 Scourge with Ghost Fleet, zombie-heavy Black Industries, or a second Scourge list. Any list that can chew through Asphyxious1’s Satyxis can probably chew through Revenants, Thralls, or Satyxis under another caster with equal ease. Secondly it’s best not to pair Asphyxious1 with another spellslinging caster like a Deneghra or Scaverous, because you leave yourself open to the same hard spell denial weakness.
As a result I would look towards pairing it with Black Industries or Dark Host since the models in those themes have a combination of higher armor & more boxes so they won’t completely fold to the same mass anti-infantry that Satyxis fold to. Casters that are primarily buff-focused and play well in those themes include Skarre1, Skarre3, Asphyxious3, Venethrax, Terminus, Goreshade1, Goreshade3, Mortenebra2, or Aiakos2.
If there was a perfect list-pairing for Asphyxious1 Scourge, which I’m not 100% sold there is, it would probably be Asphyxious3 with 9 Slayers. I’m just not 100% sure because I don’t play the 9 Slayer list (as I find it boring as dirt to play).
There is an argument to be made that Deneghra debuffs ARM better than Asphyxious1. Although she can't get to -5ARM except on her feat turn, she can affect more of the board on a turn-by-turn basis.
However where she differs, and why Deller considers her the worse choice for Scourge, is her personal output - especially into high-DEF skews. Whereas Asphyxious1 can just drift BoCs or use his feat to annihilate high-DEF low-ARM troops, Deneghra is stuck either trying to hit with Venoms, or trying to hit with Crippling Grasp so that the Girls have a better chance when they try to hit. That's a lot of "trying to hit" (which is exactly how your high-DEF opponent wants you to play).
That said, Deneghra1 is a strong Scourge caster and will play well into a lot of opponents, but what she does for Scourge is too similar to Asphyxious1 and she doesn't outperform him (in Deller's opinion). She will certainly outperform Scaverous or Agathia in Scourge (see below) most of the time, but those two at least offer some interesting tech that Asphyxious1 or the Coven can’t, so they get to be in the Top 4 and Denny doesn't.
They don't crank up the damage nearly as well as Asphyxious1, but Coven crank up the survivability with Occultation, Veil of Mists, & the Feat. They also offer unparalleled mobility with Veil, Ghost Walk, and Curse of Shadows.
Satyxis are very easy to murder, and accurate shooting is everywhere these days. The Coven's feat makes it extremely difficult to remove Satyxis on the approach and this, combined with their speed, means they’ll likely be able to make it to melee completely untouched.
So as a caster she’s basically just a hybrid of Deneghra1 & Coven that isn’t better than either of them. Her delivery isn’t as great as the Coven’s, her mobility is worse than the Coven’s, and her ARM swing is worse than Asphyxious1’s.
The reason I list her though, and not Deneghra1, is because I think Deneghra1 is just a worse version of Asphyxious1 whereas Agathia has one trick that’s available to her because she is a Bane - she triggers the Accumulator of the Desecrator, allowing it to make a fully boosted shot with no focus investment.
The Desecrator’s Void Field brings an interesting element of board denial to an already extremely fast and strong scenario list. It also interacts hilariously with Severa since anything pulled into a Void Field AOE by Severa's Vortex Blast will take an auto point of damage. Take the fully boosted shot at an enemy heavy or objective then Vortex Blast it with Severa to auto kill any single wound models within 2”.
Scaverous’s niche in Scourge is asking the question “What happens when I stack Wrong-Eye’s Star-Crossed, Axiara’s Dodge plan, and Scav's Knowledge of the Damned rerolls on a unit of Satyxis Raiders and jam my opponent with them?”
If your opponent can’t deal with them you just win, if they can you’re on a worse version of the Asphyxious1 assassination plan.
But what about Skarre?
While Skarre is a Satyxis caster and she works okay in Scourge, the casters listed above are considered stronger Scourge casters. Skarre herself is normally seen in different themes, that said in Scourge she can:
Skarre1
- She can stack Backlash on top of Feedback. Sure it's only useful against warmachine armies, but it's a well known combo for a reason.
- Dark Guidance will make those crit knockdowns come up more often.
- However, Skarre1 really misses having a Skarlock Thrall to cast Dark Ritual for her, and cheap fodder troops to use for the Ritual itself.
Skarre2
- She also has Backlash
- Black Spot combined with either the Blood Witches' Side Step or the Raider's Overtake will make those Satyxis pseudo-Gerlaks. It can also potentially let the Gunslingers pump out 12 shots per unit per turn.
Skarre3
- Do you like SPD 7 Raiders? Try having SPD 8!
- She has a melee damage buff, can reinforce units, and makes everyone slightly more resilient with Deceleration (although +2 ARM on such low-ARM troops is unlikely to make a difference).
- She also supports a ranged battlegroup, opening up your strategy a bit.
Other
Trivia
- Released in the themeopaclyse (2017.09)
- Updated almost immediately in the Black Fleet CID (2017.11)
- Merged with Slaughter Fleet Raiders in the Remix (2019.07)
Other Cryx themes/models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Gang and/or Gang Fighter and/or Tag Team and/or Team Effort (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Ambush (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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