Cryx's Kraken - Initial Thoughts

So, I laid hands on the Colossals book and the Kraken up at Lock 'n' Load, and I gotta say I'm looking forward to painting and fielding the thing.  After I finish up the Extreme Carnivean and Throne and futz around with them for a bit, I'm gonna dive back into the Cryx.

I'm going to devote at least two posts to the Kraken; first off I'm going to evaluate it on its own here and see what it can do, and scratch the surface of what it can do with some casters.  After some practice and/or more thinking, I'll start discussing it in the context of an actual list.

Kraken Basics
First off, it's a colossal. (Yarrgh! I be Captain Obvious!)  This has a few implications.  First off, you deploy this thing first off; it MUST be pre-deployed.  Second, the enemy can't control or disrupt it, or move it.  The only time it's going anywhere is during its activation.  Also, pathfinder.  Which is fun.

Third, it's bloody big and durable and hard to hide.  Like battle engines, it's never gonna hide behind anything or get ANY defensive buffs, and being in melee is no refuge from combined ranged attacks. It's also got 54 boxes on ARM19, so it can absorb some abuse.

Kraken on the Offense
Shooting
This thing brings a pair of guns - the Hellblaster and the Flayer. Both guns can fire through the entire front arc. They're tied to an average RAT5, and the Flayer is spec'ed out as an anti-infantry gun whereas the Hellblaster is a sizeable high-powered blast weapon.  The Flayer's good for d3+1 POW12s out to 12 inches, and Rapid Fire means it can spray those from one end to the other of its range.  The Hellblaster is a POW14, RNG16 AOE4 gun that can go up to POW17 with a full load of corpse tokens (and due to the wording of Doom Driver, the blast damage can get up to an effective POW10).

Also of note is the new rule 'Killshot', which allows you to make a single ranged attack ignoring ROF if you take out something in melee.  Note that colossals can make their ranged attacks while in melee.

Melee
This thing starts with a pair of PS18 'Harvesters', which are Chain Weapons with Chain Strike on 'em, so you can reach out and punch enemies out to 4" away.  With SPD5, you have a base charge range of 12", and you end up 4" away from the target without engaging it at the end of your activation (at least, in theory and in a vacuum).

This model has Collector and Meat-Fueled, which are some of its 'flavor' rules.  If it KO's a living model in melee, corpse token.  +1STR for corpse tokens, to a max of 3.  ALSO, you can remove corpse tokens to give it focus at a cost of one per focus.  It lets you trade off hitting power for self-sufficiency.

Also, note colossals have a few extra power attacks, like the no-move slam and perhaps more amusingly, the 'sweep', which tags everything in 2" of one melee weapon.  Hilarity can ensue, as a good sweep will KO infantry, help with meat-fueled, AND activate killshot.

What Would the Kraken Like?
I can think offhand of two things the Kraken would like:
1) help hitting
2) help not dying

As we're Cryx, we have access to DEF debuffs.  The 'not dying' is very often up to the player to provide by not doing dumb stuff, and also by bringing Necrotechs for repair.  There's nothing quite as obnoxious as the enemy dog-piling the thing and failing to kill it, only for a pair of necrotechs to bring it back up turn after turn.

What Casters Can Offer What Benefits?
Asphyxious1
ARM debuff, damage buff...not bad, but a to-hit buff would be nice.

Asphyxious2
Much the same as Gaspy1, but with more desire for infantry.  'eh'.

Asphyxious3
Hey, we have a to-hit buff and a damage buff.  This guy could make it work.

pDeneghra
Debuff queen to the rescue.  Also, a good feat turn with Scourge and parasite?  Yeah, the Kraken can basically auto-hit with 2-4 POW12s and a POW14+, while the enemy's at -5 ARM.  That will probably do the trick.

eDeneghra
You have a DEF and/or ARM debuff, and a feat for more DEF debuff/positioning fun.  Sadly, Pursuit doesn't work on the Colossal.

pGoreshade
You have a DEF debuff against the living via the Deathwalker, and you can grant it Dark Shroud via Shadowmancer.  Sadly, Soul Gate is unlikely to be much use hwere, and you probably won't cast Mage Blight either.

eGoreshade
You get an ARM debuff, and in a pinch Curse of Shadows can help you disengage.  Perhaps more amusing is Phantom Hunter; now you can't HIDE from the big damn guns.  There's potential here, one supposes.

Mortenebra
She can provide boosted attack rolls vs the living AND +2ARM.  Bring in focus-efficient lights to take advantage of the free slams/charges, and add a unit or two...there's potential here, I think.  And Morty's Repair[10] is solid as well, and in a pinch you can burn through her focus via Interface.

pSkarre
Dark Guidance and the feat are neat, but I think pSkarre still gets more mileage out of melee troopers.  Not saying she couldn't run the Kraken, but I don't think it's optimal, and you're kinda hoping for good Ritual Sacrifice roles to make the most out of it.

eSkarre
At first glance, there are a handful of things that just don't work with the Colossal - Admonition and Perdition are out-of-activation movement that it can't use, and it cannot be directly protected by the feat.  On the OTHER hand, Black Spot can let you rack up a HIDEOUS number of attacks and help them hit, while Seas of Fate helps you make the most out of the focus invested in the Kraken.  Finally, Death Ward gets it up to ARM21 and can help preserve important systems.

Terminus
He can hide behind it and give it Berserk.  Downside is it's expensive, but can make good use of focus Terminus gives it, and let's face it - you have this thing called 'Sacrifical Pawn' AND a CD-sized base to hide behind.  Do you need to camp focus if you'll never get shot?  Plus, berserk on a 4" melee range is hilarious.

Lich Lord Venethrax
Um.  Yeah.  Moving along...all Venethrax likes is hiding behind it, I guess.

Witch Coven
Going up to MAT8 SPD7 is nothing short of hilarious.  Veil of mists can help with traffic control, curse of shadows can debuff ARM, and Nightfall can even protect this thing.  The Coven can also generally feed it AND cycle Infernal Machine with their 9 focus.  There's potential here.

Scaverous
ARM buff?  Check.  ARM debuff?  Check.  DEF debuff?  Check.  You have just about everything you'd want to support the Kraken, it's just a matter of using it at the right time and fueling the colossal.

Overall
On paper, I like the Kraken.  I've played against a couple of colossals and don't find them broken; they're not THAT tough and melee heavies can still sort them out.  Keep repair support near them, and keep away units of weaponmaster infantry.

I plan on trying the Kraken with eSkarre first up, and going from there.  I'm pretty sure the Dennys will be fine, and so will Scaverous.  The Goreshades seem marginal, and Venethrax and Gaspy are just kinda 'eh' for me.

Thoughts on playing against eGaspy

You only have to go to page 5 to pick up on the fact that Privateer Press wants you to go for the throat.

Look at it this way: most anti-infantry stuff has something like MAT/RAT 6, DEF 12-13, and ARM 15 tops with a low end of POW 10.

That means they generally need a 6-7 to hit, and a 6+ to kill you, and that's average power. What's that mean? You probably want to shoot first and, y'know, cripple the other guy.

Now, some folks CAN play attrition; Lich Lord Asphxious is one example. He can swell the ranks of his undead troopers by killing yours, AND bring back a chunk of them for one last charge via his feat, which usually kills you or takes out a large chunk of your stuff.

Bottom line? He's happy to trade troopers with you, since he can always get more. Worst case scenario, he trades a unit of Bane Knights (mmm, weapon masters with reach and Vengeance for when the other guy kills some...) for something, then fires them at your caster via his feat.

The Situation

Since I occasionally suffer from a critical lack of reading comprehension skills (...I thought the league point value had changed; we're doing an escalation league with gradually increasing points levels and I thought we were at 45...) the matchup was thus:

Me:

Mortenebra/Deryliss

Deathjack

Harrower

Leviathan

3 Slayers

Necrotech/Scrap Thrall

3 Scrap Thralls

2 Warwitch Sirens

Him:

eGaspy

10 Bane Thralls + UA

10 Bane Knights

2 Deathrippers

Deathjack

Bane Lord Tartarus

Gorman di Wulfe

2 Warwitch Sirens

Scenario: Mosh Pit

End Result: turn 3 Caster Kill for me

Casualties: 4 Bane Knights on his side, 4 Scrap Thralls on mine

What's the Lesson Here?

So, there are 20 Weaponmasters across the table, and he can probably trade most of them for most of my jacks, and then promptly pop his feat and assassinate Morty, since her Tier 4 list does not bring infantry units (so, no easy screening...)

Frankly, I lucked out a bit because he wasn't aware of the power of Overrun (I put the spell on a jack; it kills something and another jack gets a free full advance outside of its normal movement) combined with a Leviathan and Mortenebra's interface.

Basically, Deryliss slaps it on Deathjack, DJ crushes a couple of Banes after the Warwitches and Slayers clear some space. The Leviathan Overruns up, Morty pops her feat and moves into base with it. The Leviathan then uses its access to re-rolls, an aim bonus for RAT 7, and and Morty's 7 focus to blow Gaspy to hell (again) with a pair of fully-boosted POW 14's and one boosted to-hit POW 14 in reserve.

So, what's my point?

For me, this is kind of the 'Aha!' moment, the proof-of-concept that sometimes, assassination really IS the way, and some kind of crazy balls-out aggression really IS the way to go. Frankly, if that had failed, it would've been game. Then again, I'd rather play the odds* early and go for the win than try to fight attrition, since I saw a shot while I still had my ranged assassination guy intact.

Bottom Line

Sometimes, crazy plans, "Where did that come from?!" tricks and catching your opponent off-guard will get you the win. However, I don't think it'll work a second time. On the other hand, it's always good to have that tool in your arsenal.

*On the odds: Leviathan's RAT 7 vs Gaspy's DEF 15 means an 8 to hit on 3d6. The average of 3d6 is 10.5; so I was probably shooting at a 60-70% chance before a re-roll, so I could reasonably assume two hits. He had 1 Focus on him, so that's ARM 17, so it's 3d6-3 damage. That's an average of 8 damage. Given re-rolls, again, it's a fairly reasonable assumption I could take him. It could've backfired, but again, at the time, I didn't see really great options for me in this matchup.

A glance at Lich Lord Asphyxious

Also known as 'eGaspy', or 'That Freaking Thing Across the Table' or any number of epitephs. I've recently had the joy of playing against him, and I believe he's reasonably strong despite the fact that his Feat can no longer be used in conjunction with Soul Hunters.

There are two traits about eGaspy that come out to me: first, his ability to stay the hell out of danger, and second, his ability to play a mean game of attrition.

We'll start this look at eGaspy by analyzing his stats, spells, and Feat. Then, I'll launch into what thoughts I do have about his army list.

Stats/Gear

He's reasonably durable with DEF 15 and ARM 16 on top of 18 health boxes. He's only got one weapon, Daemortus. It's a fairly standard-issue caster weapon; P+S 15 with Reach and Magical weapon. Hey, gotta be able to smack those annoying Incorporeal models in the face with something, right? Speed 6 is also pretty decent for casters as well, and 7 focus is typical for Cryx.

Now, if you're coming to eGaspy from the non-epic form, you're going to miss Sustained Attack. You can't just boost the first stab and then buy damage rolls from there. You lost entropy on a stick for a Lich Lord on a stick: Daemortus' special action gives up your melee range & melee attack in order to place a 5" AOE completely within your 14" control area, and you can reap the souls in it (subject to normal restrictions like who's closer, etc.). Combine that with the standard-issue cull soul rule, and you can rack up some focus.

The Defensive Side

DEF 15 is nice, but it's nothing a good MAT/RAT plus a boost can KO. You've got three spells that make you much rougher to get to, though:

Hellbound

3 Focus, Upkeep, and you cannot be charged while it's up. Enemies count 5" within eGaspy as rough terrain. Translation? The enemy needs Pathfinder or Reach to have a chance of just walking up to you and punching you in the face. Or, y'know, they can just SHOOT you. Beware enemies that can do the previous or have ways of dropping Upkeep spells.

Caustic Mist

Or can they? 2 Focus puts a 3" AOE cloud effect into play fully in your control area. You can upkeep a spell and throw out three clouds, which SHOULD generally hide stuff you want to hide. If the enemy enters or ends its activation in the cloud, it eats a point of damage. Single-wound infantry are more or less sad freakin' pandas, but Jacks, Beasts, and heftier units CAN just walk through it and not care, but it cuts out the charge range.

If you can't fully surround a unit with multiple damage boxes, you can drop a cloud on it for a +2 DEF vs. ranged and immunity from non-reach single-wound infantry. It's an option to consider.

Teleport

2 Focus, place yourself completely within 8" of your current location, and end your activation. It's a 'I'm gonna charge this turn' card, or a mobility card, or anything else your feverish mind can conjure up card. Just remember it ends your activation.

The Attrition Side

He's hard to kill, and there's a decent chance he can outlast you if you have plenty of living units. Failing that, his feat means he's actually fine with trading a unit for a unit if he can open up a hole to your caster and fire it off.

Spectral Legion

The feat is fairly simple: bring back up to 10 friendly destroyed not-large-base warriors. They're incorporeal solos that must charge in their activation, and go away at the end of the turn. You can use this to clean up a heap of beat-up stuff, or you can use it as an assassination tool.

If you're going for the kill, you're probably hoping to combine Bane Lord Tartarus' bane curse with a bunch of effective MAT 8 weaponmasters on the charge. The standby is Bane Knights for their Reach, though Bane Thralls may have some merit when it comes to army composition. Past that, since you're all solos, you want to be able to HIT the target without a combined melee attack.

The other part that makes you want to play attrition is that every time the enemy kills a warrior model, they're just loading up your feat. It's a wonderful psychological weapon.

Excarnate

So, you lost that POW 14 hellfire. Ok, it went down to POW 13, and if it takes down a living enemy model, you get an undead model for a nearby unit. This helps to dictate your troop selection.

Caustic Mist

Are you a gunline? If you don't have Eyeless Sight, your melee troops ARE probably gonna get into the contest. You can avoid losses on the way in, and then still afford to lose troops.

Other Spells

Parasite

Typical cryx armor debuff. -3 to a target's armor, +1 ARM for you. It does sort of pay for itself in that you get the upkeep AND the benefit of camping the focus.

Death Knell

This is a spell answer for shield-wall infantry, or anyone else that wants to group hug on the field. It's a 4-inch AOE that's POW10, but adds +1 to the damage roll for each enemy caught in the AOE. Direct hit on four guys in a shield wall? The guy you hit eats a POW 14, and his buddies eat POW 9s. Not shabby, BUT it does cost four focus and likely a fifth for the boost.

If you're rolling with Deathjack then you can use its Necromancy and allocate it a couple focus to get the spell off, but past that it's not going to be a mainstay.

Army Composition

Warjacks

For starters, you have +6 'jack points, which is pretty solid for Cryx. Parasite and Excarnate are prime candidates for arcing. Consider a couple of Arc Nodes, though preferably ones that don't need so much Focus, as you're playing a spell-slinger.

Consider Canerkworm as well. It's 5 points, reasonably durable, and can hit bloody hard with Armor Piercing. A charge off Cankerworm is doing 11+3d6 against half the other guy's armor value, which is going to do a serious number against jacks. For extra hilarity, you can use the Imprint to repair AND steal a nice weapon. The Affinity for Asphyxious is that you get a free full advance at the end of its activation, so long as it ends the activation in Gaspy's control area. Combine this with Parry (immunity to free strikes) and it charges someone, rips a great chunk out, and then darts off pointing and laughing.

If you're going to take heavy jacks, look into the ones that aren't focus hogs. This means Deathjack and Seethers. Honestly, these provide alternative assassination vectors as well, so it's worth considering them for that angle too. Just don't take focus hogs or ones that need to-hit boosts, which more or less kills the ranged jacks we have.

Infantry

Excarnate suggests going for undead infantry. Consider Banes of one form or another. Bane Knights have superior range on the feat charge and you can make up for their lack of stealth by hiding behind Caustic Mist.

On the flip side, Bane Thralls don't NEED the caustic mist, so you can keep more of your force safe from shooting. Additionally, for one more point that a full ten Bane Knights you can get the same number of Bane Thralls, along with the officer and standard bearer. What's more fun than a unit full of Tough, auto-standing-up weapon masters? A unit full of Tough, auto-standing-up weapon masters that GROWS! Between Bane Lord Tartarus and Excarnate, the enemy has to etiher NOT have living units, or pretty much level your Banes in a go.

Past that, Mechanithralls can bulk up your numbers, but MAT 5 isn't so hot on feat turn unless you're using them to try to combo-strike heavy jacks. You don't have any way to buff their MAT, either. Still, it's 5 freakin' points for 10 guys, and you can ALSO bring back the Brute Thralls. They do work nicely with Caustic Mist shields, but I'd prioritize Banes of one sort or another before adding Mechanithralls.

You can always use the Mist to deliver Bile Thralls as well. No one likes the Purge, especially when most of the unit gets through to DO it.

Soul Hunters don't benefit from the Feat, but they're still worth considering at higher point levels as a distraction. Bear in mind, though, that they'll be the center of attention if the rest of the army is stealth/behind a cloud.

The Withershadow Combine gets a nod because of the free upkeep and they're about the only way for Cryx to undo debilatory upkeeps. I'd consider them at higher point levels (IE: 35) because they're great utility, but not THAT offensive.

Solos

Warwitch Sirens are EXCELLENT for getting your Arc Nodes moving. Free focus for a jack? A Spray on top of that? I'll take it! Certainly worth considering for the army. Hell, they're just all-around utility solos. Every Cryx player should own a couple.

Gerlak Slaughterborn is excellent for clearing out infantry, which he can ALSO do on the feat if you need to clear up lanes. He also gets boosted attacks against wounded enemies, so he's effectively ANOTHER MAT 8 weaponmaster.

Oh, since you're bringing Banes, get Bane Lord Tartarus. The ability to occasionally hit that high defense is necessary. Even with Bane Curse, I almost had eSkarre survive a run of Bane Thralls because of her DEF 16. You have to HIT to roll 11+4d6 against thier ARM -2.

I'm not sure a Skarlock is absolutely necessary, since you don't have buffs for it to hand out. I'd not be surprised to see it get off either a single Excarnate or Parasite before the enemy decides it should die. Thing is, those are the ONLY two spells you can cast; Death Knell is too expensive and the rest of your spells are range 'Self' or 'Control.'

Darragh Wrathe is solid if you're bringing Soul Hunters, and even if not he can help advance your army with Death Ride (since you brought mostly Undead, right?) or help your attrition game with Beyond Death (living models with -2 to damage rolls in your area, combined with high-ARM infantry? Think I can make that work...).

Sample 25-point eGaspy Army

Battlegroup

Lich Lord Asphyxious +6 WJ

Deathripper [4]

Deathripper [4]

Cankerworm [5]

Units

10 Bane Thralls [8]

Unit Attachment: Officer & Standard [3]

Solos

Warwitch Siren [2]

Bane Lord Tartarus [4]

3 Scrap Thralls [1]

Logic:

We have a couple of Arc Nodes, we have a hefty infantry unit with support solo, and then we have a Warwitch for focus support and 3 scrap thralls for filler. If we wanted to, we could probably drop down to a minimal unit of Bane Thralls, freeing up 3 points. Since our Deathrippers are 4, we could try to scrounge points for a Seether, but that means dropping our Warwitch Siren. It's a thought, and we could perhaps get away with it at 25. Depends on how many living models are out there waiting to be recycled to the glory of Bane Thrall-dom.

When it comes to assassination, we have a few venues:

1) The feat + heap of dead Banes + BLT

2) Spell Assassination via Arc Node, boosted Excarnates and a good round of harvesting from Daemortus

3) I suppose we could always try to abuse Parasite + Sustained Attack off of the Deathrippers; 3 focus means a boosted to-hit for the charge, an effective PS16+3d6 and a PS16+2d6, which has a decent shot of taking care of a caster.

A Final Note

Note: I don't have a hell of a lot of experience with Lich Lord Asphyxious. This is mostly what I see as his playstyle, and have seen of it. He DOES look versatile and forgiving, and I'd hate to have shooting that can't get through stealth/clouds.