Warwitch Initiate Deneghra

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Warwitch Initiate Deneghra Cryx Character Solo - ("Junior Warcaster")

No other individual in Cryx has been so deliberately molded into a mystical weapon from childhood as has Deneghra. Identified by prophecy and then seized by satyxis at the age of five to be delivered to Asphyxious, Deneghra's entire upbringing was engineered to exploit her warcaster talents for the Nightmare Empire. The iron lich mentored her directly to prepare her for her early induction into the warwitch tradition, the direct inheritors of Orgoth magics. Deneghra embraced these practices, showing an aptitude for cruelty and shadow that would have horrified her forgotten parents.

Basic Info

Deneghra0
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 7 STR 5 MAT 5 RAT N/A M.A. N/A DEF 15 ARM 14 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS 4 FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA C UNIT SIZE N/A COST 4 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Parry
• Stealth
• Battlegroup Controller - (1) This model is not a warcaster but has the following warcaster special rules: Battlegroup Commander, Focus Manipulation, Power Field, and Spellcaster. (2) This model must have at least one warjack in its battlegroup at the start of the game.
• 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

Shadowblade (x2)
		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				4				9
Damage Type: Magical Shadow Bind - A model hit by this weapon/attack suffers -3 DEF, and for one round when it advances it cannot move except to change facing. Shadow Bind can be shaken.

Spells

	COST	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
Curse of Shadows	3	8	-	-	Upkeep	Yes
Target model/unit suffers -2 ARM and cannot make free strikes. A model can advance through an affected model if it has enough movement to move completely past its base.
Venom	2	8" spray	-	10 (Corrosion)	-	Yes
Venom deals Corrosion Damage. Models hit suffer the Continuous corrosion effect.
Witch Bond	2	6	-	-	Upkeep	-
When target warjack in this model's battlegroup destroys a living enemy model with an attack, the spellcaster gains the destroyed model’s soul token regardless of the proximity of other models. Additionally, when checking to see if the affected warjack is in its controller's control range, double the range.

Theme Forces

• Cryx
  • Black Industries
  • Scourge of the Broken Coast

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Mortenebra is leading the army.

Thoughts on Deneghra0

Deneghra0 in a nutshell

She's a support solo. The most important rule on her card is Curse of Shadows which provides your army with a -2 ARM debuff, and some potential movement shenanigans.

Secondly there is Witch Bond that lets her run a combat jack more easily with a pseudo-Extended Control range - but it takes more planning both in your army list design, your choice of which type of opponent you use the list against, and your actual in-game strategy. As such, Witch Bond often gets ignored by players that just want to use her as a simple point-and-click debuff solo.

The third spell is Venom which, due to her low focus, will only be useful vs low-DEF single wound infantry.

Lastly she has above-average melee output, if you're willing to risk getting her in melee, and the Shadow Bind on her blades can be a key component of an assassination run.

Combos - Her battlegroup

Nightmare is Deneghra's pet warjack

There's three ways to run Deneghra0:

1. As a focus battery for a combat jack, leveraging Witch Bond to fuel the jack.
2. As an ARM debuff support solo, with an arc node.
3. A combined battlegroup, taking both an arc node & a combat ‘jack. The arc node applies Curse, which the combat ‘jack then uses to kill the Cursed target.

Arc Node

• If you just want to cast Curse of Shadows then the Deathripper is your cheapest option. But if you want to try putting Witch Bond on the node then...
• You need to be smarter about node placement. Instead of aggressively running into position to channel a spell, you want it to walk it to a spot where Denny can channel her spell, and where it has a target it has a reasonable chance of killing (keep in mind it'll have one focus to boost)
• Nightwretch has a 3" AOE which can potentially net you a lot of souls. It’s also powerful, going up to Pow 16 with Curse on a direct hit (you still get the full -2 from the splash damage as well, making them effectively Pow 9s).
• Defiler while expensive, has an 8" spray that can net a lot of souls. It has an accuracy problem similar to Denny, but if you're taking them with a caster that can fix that then you're gravy. Has the longest range threat of the arc node options.
• Ripjaw - There is little point to the Ripjaw since the other available options synergise better with Denny0’s kit.

Combat jacks

• Leviathan appreciates a focus battery, and is a good target for Witch Bond.
• Nightmare can be taken by Deneghra0. He is however considered somewhat overpriced for what he does, and the non-character options are going to perform just as well.
• A single Seether could be quite nice with psuedo-Extended Control Range and it's good at collecting souls.
• A Stalker has proper Extended Control Range and it does stack with Witch Bond, letting it run around 32" away from Deneghra0.
• A Slayer is always solid, especially when run in Black Industries where it gains Carapace.

Combos - Black Industries

In the Black Industries theme force you take her when you need a caster-independent damage buff or a ranged damage buff.

• Skarre3 with double Leviathans
• Scaverous can buff her accuracy with his feat, and/or help her reroll a missed casting (which can be game-changing).
• Mortenebra1, Venethrax, & Asphyxious3 all love having access to CoS in some/all of their builds and can easily "lend" her one of their free light jacks.
• Aiakos2 can bullet a heavy through a screening unit.

• Mechanithralls combo-striking under CoS hit at effective P+S 15. That’s close to Bane-level hitting power at a much lower cost, with much better recursion. That sounds great with many of our Casters that don’t actually have any armor fixing, or who’s only armor fixing was Dark Shroud.
  • The casters I’ve been looking at for zombie-spam with her are Goreshade3, Terminus, & Skarre2.

Goreshade3

Goreshade3 wants to play in one of the 3 undead themes because his big draw is Mockery of Life. Until now he’s largely been played only in Ghost Fleet or Dark Host, because IM hits only slightly harder than GF but with significantly worse recursion, and Dark Host hits much harder. Now that he can take Deneghra0 though, BI starts to look more interesting than DH. You hit as hard with Bane Warriors (being effective P+S 13 Weapon Masters) vs McThrall’s effective P+S 17 (Combo Strike, Scything Touch, CoS), but you’ve got much better recursion (especially since you can do the double up trick where you kill a guy, give its corpse to a Necrosurgeon to make a new one, and bring it back with Mockery). Also moving to Black Industries gets you access to Carrion Thralls which are some of the best models in the faction for Goreshade3’s feat, especially when you factor in the Synergy with Curse of Shadows taking away a model/unit’s ability to free strike them.

Terminus

Terminus in IM is very similar to Goreshade3. You want an undead theme to make use of Sac Pawn. Until now people tended to go with are GF & DH, because Ghost Fleet offers Terminus the best personal protection with Rengrave extending his effective Sac Pawn bubble to insane degrees along with the lists sheer recursive element, and Dark Host can do the most work without needing Terminus to do all the heavy lifting himself. With access to Deneghra0 though, IM is now able to reach similar levels of damage output to Dark Host, while also using Necrosurgeons to extend Terminus’s Sac Pawn bubble the same way Rengrave does in Ghost Fleet, only IM gets a significantly larger bubble because it can take two Surgeons where GF only gets one Rengrave. While your recursion isn’t as good as Ghost Fleet’s, the models you recur in IM are significantly stronger than Revenants (once they get access to Curse of Shadows).

Skarre2

I mention Skarre2 in IM largely because one of my favorite Cryx models I never play anymore (because they’re only in IM) are Bloat Thralls. Range 12, AOE 4s with auto-corrosion & Arcing Fire are fantastic. Add in Black Spot and these guys rain acidic death on infantry-based lists. The issue is that Skarre2 is on the short list of "Cryx casters that bring absolutely zero damage fixing, but exist in a faction where the troops are balanced around Casters with insane damage swing potential". This frequently results in her having a massive list of matchups she wants to dodge because she can’t reliably kill the enemy battlegroup (when she’s not in either Dark Host or Slaughter Fleet). Deneghra0 helps fix this issue. Deneghra0 lets Skarre2 have the armor debuff she’s always wanted while also playing Bloat Thralls.

Drawbacks & Downsides

Chance to hit with FOCUS 4 (Rounded)
DEF	Unboosted	Boosted
10	70%	95%
11	60%	90%
12	40%	85%
13	30%	75%
14	20%	60%

• She is inaccurate with her offensive spells since she is only FOCUS 4. Unboosted, anything at DEF 12 or higher is a crapshoot. I don't know about you, but I don't like spending 3 focus to cast CoS and it being pretty much a 50/50 coin toss as to whether an important debuff lands - so I'm always going to be boosting it.
  • Her inaccuracy can be offset by a reroll from Scaverous or the Withershadow Combine.
• Venom is a trap spell due to her low accuracy. Even with a well placed spray that covers lots of models, all that will happen is you waste time rolling dice that miss.
• If you've upkept Witch Bond but haven't got souls yet, you don't have spare focus to boost CoS.
• She'll be camping zero focus most turns in most games. Her statline and Stealth is an okay, but not great, defense.
• Witch Bond is interesting, but probably a trap because you’ll end up putting combat Warjacks on Deneghra & then when you run into a matchup where you can’t get souls that jack becomes super mopy.

Tricks & Tips

• Witch Bond applies to all types of attacks, even a Deathjack casting Venom.
• It's not too hard to convert Deneghra1 (or a Warwitch Siren) into Deneghra0, and if you know any older Cryx players there is a good chance they have a spare Deneghra1 model that they'll sell to you cheaply.

Other

Trivia

• Released in 2018.10
• Released to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Warmachine, alongside Caine0, Severius0, and Sorscha0.

Other Cryx models

Cryx Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Agathia - Aiakos2 - Asphyxious1 - Asphyxious2 - Asphyxious3 - Coven - 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 - Deathjack - 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 - 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: 2020.12

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification:  : Magical Damage      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

* 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) All spells have "Damage Type: Magical" (refer errata). This is inherited by "immediate" secondary damage (such as Eruption of Spines). (Infernal Ruling) and might be inherited by "lingering" secondary damage (see below). If a spell leaves a template in play that does damage to models that walk around in it, then: if it is not described as a hazard it will do magical damage to models that walk around in it. (Example: Razor Wall) if it is a hazard then it will not do magical damage to models that walk around in it. Instead, it does whatever damage type is specified by the spell description. (Example: Breath of Corruption). (Infernal Ruling) If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it will still damage Incorporeal models. Incorporeal models are not affected by the rule "if an attack does multiple types of damage and a model is immune to at least one it is immune to the entire attack." The phrase "immune to non-magical damage" should be interpreted as "immune to damage that doesn't include Damage Type: Magical" (not interpreted as "has immunity to Corrosion and Electricity and Cold and etc.")

Rules Clarification : Shadow Bind , Force Hold, Force Lock, Quagmire, and/or Crawling Chaos     (Edit) Models affected by this ability may still advance 0" and thus abilities that trigger on "ends their movement within ..." or "after this model advances ..." will still trigger (for example Slipstream, Countercharge, etc). Models may still be placed, so abilities like Apparition will still work. The restriction applies to all advances: normal activation, bonus in-activation (like Overtake), and out-of-activation (like Energiser). Shadow Bind only If you manage to free strike a charging model and Shadow Bind it, their charge movement ends because they can no longer advance. At that point, you check whether their charge movement was successful or not.

Rules Clarification : Stealth      (Edit) Stealth models are not invisible and you can target them - you'll just auto-miss most of the time. You can target them with a charge. You can target them with an AOE, have it auto-miss and scatter, luckily land on top of them anyway, and that will hit them.

Rules Clarification : Parry - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Cull Soul - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Battlegroup Controller      (Edit) This model has a completely separate battlegroup to your main warcaster. Your main warcaster cannot allocate focus to warjacks under this model's control (and vice versa). Any spells/effects that apply to your main warcaster's battlegroup (such as Energizer) do not apply to warjacks under this model's control (and vice versa). This model is not a warcaster It is affected by stuff which specifies "non-warcaster models" (such as Seduction). It is not affected by stuff which specifies "warcasters" (such as Black Arts). Even if it has "Warcaster" in its name (such as the Journeyman Warcaster or Trencher Warcaster Lieutenant) it is still not a warcaster, and won't benefit from warcaster-only stuff (like free upkeeps in Sons of the Tempest). (Infernal Ruling) Warjacks this solo controls can still benefit from Power Up exactly as if it were a warcaster. (Closed thread) When this solo dies, any warjacks they are controlling go inert exactly as if it was a warcaster. (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 : Curse of Shadows      (Edit) There is no distinction in the spell between friendly and enemy; neither in the targeting restrictions or in the 'who can move through them' effect. You can't move through affected models during involuntary movement (pushes & slams) because that's not an advance. Charging through models (Edit) You can't charge all the way through your charge target, with the intention to turn around and face them once you're on the other side. Because you aren't able to satisfy the "must keep the charge target in melee range" clause at the point after you are through the model but before you turn to directly face. At that point the target is behind you, not in your front arc, and thus not in your melee range. Your melee range only extends to your front arc. Refer to the latest errata. You can still "skim" through the edge of their base, if you're careful and smart with your positioning.

Rules Clarification : Venom      (Edit) Damage Type (Edit) This spell does elemental damage in addition to magical damage, not instead of magical damage. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Witch Bond      (Edit) "Regardless of proximity" soul takers (Edit) The model which ignores distance doesn't always get the soul. Abilities which say you "can't" collect souls (such as Soul Ward) trump it, due to the general rule that "can't trumps can". If there are multiple models that all have the "regardless of proximity" clause, then you randomise who the soul goes to. (Infernal Ruling)