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.

Pondering: Goreshade the Cursed

Or, 'NEED MORE BANE THRALLS!' I've recently stripped my Bane Thralls (didn't like the bloody back-spikes; they just got twisted) and repainted them. i finally hit a break-through on what to paint my Epic Goreshade up as (I mean, he's kinda the master of Bane Thralls, right?) and have been painting them in tandem. Mmm, red. I do my Cryx with a red glow, and decided to reflect that with my jolly little stealth weaponmasters.

Of course, now that I'm painting up Goreshade the Cursed, I'm going to have to use him. So, I'll break out my favorite rubric of judgment for warcasters.

Initial Questions

1) What's my vulnerability to assassinations?

Well, Goreshade may have a nice DEF15 base, but ARM16 is so-so. 17 boxes isn't bad, but the biggest issue you've got with the guy is the medium base; he's more difficult to hide. If you're worried about ranged assassination, though, you can always use Occultation on the man himself; it's Stealth for a focus a turn.

Ultimately, the biggest thing here is the medium base. You'll want things like Occultation, clouds (IE: Gorman di Wulf) or medium-based infantry to block LOS.

2) What's Goreshade's personal threat value?

MAT 7, PS15 and a sword with reach, stationary, and the ability to inflict Stationary is pretty sick for offensive talent. I suppose you could use this as a setup, but if you do you're going to want to camp focus and/or finish things off in a hurry; you've got no way to extricate yourself from the situation other than killing all the threats around you or ending the game.

Technically you also have a POW13 AoE 3 spell, but that's more of a backup weapon/sidearm than a primary. At least it can drop upkeeps/animi, right?

3) Spells/Utility

Now we're getting to the fun part. He's got a pair of special rules that help him play attrition and discourage spellcasting.

Elite Cadre: Bane Thralls. When a Bane Thrall kills a warrior, you get a new grunt for the Bane Thrall's unit. Huzzah! Join us. Buy a few more blisters of Banes, while you're at it. It's nice against living enemies, but bear in mind it is semi situational.

Arcane Consumption. Use magic near him, and eat a point of damage. Situational, but a nice way to make someone pay for using one-wound guys with magic ability.

Goreshade has a well-rounded spell list. You've got a nice ARM debuff; Curse of Shadows is only -2ARM but it does let you move around/through the target unit by denying them freestrikes and letting you literally walk the hell on through them.

Occultation is a nice ability for your non-stealth stuff; you're probably using Bane Thralls, so you might as well make sure another nice target doesn't eat all the gunfire. Or, use it on Goreshade himself.

Phantom Hunter is for ranged jacks, which probably means the Leviathan.

Sudden Death is an interesting little spell. I've seen free-countercharge stuff for jacks, but this is an upkeep for a warrior model. It lets an unengaged trooper model charge a model that comes within 6" and make a normal attack. Honestly, given that you'll probably have Bane Thralls (and the ability to replace them) I see it as softening up a warjack or heavy-hitter that comes in to do some damage, and if you lose the grunt in the process (by running out of formation) you can get 'him back. (Her? It? Do Banes in general have a gender)

4) Feat

Goreshade's feat is...interesting. You can remove warrior models to return non-character warrior models to play, so long as their unit still stands. Why is this interesting? Think about certain officers or unit attachments that you may want alive. Got any in mind? (Hint: Bane Thrall Officer/UA). Bring some Scrap Thralls or other cheapo expendables, and you can get them back. This might also let you do fun things like bring back Brute Thralls or Necrosurgeons, y'know...

Round 2

5) What Kind of Game does Goreshade Play?

Honestly, Goreshade doesn't have an overt sucker-punch open to him like some guys; his feat doesn't auto-kill the other dude on the spot or deny them some fun. It can bring back some important models for you, though.

Goreshade's more on the attrition side of things. Play the scenario, but don't rule out killing the other guy. Just realize you may need to chop up more of his army first.

You can deny the enemy chances to kill your important stuff, bring some of it back, and get the odd out-of-activation hit in with Sudden Death. You've got a nice ARM debuff that can help get you through harder targets, or kill lighter ones that much faster. At the end of the day, Goreshade feels like a utility kind of guy with a variety of tools (sadly, you won't use them all on any given Sunday, which can make you feel like you're wasting something). Remember that with Dark Shroud AND Curse of Shadows, Bane Thralls hit something at ARM -4. Friggin' Ouch.

6) Win Condition

No built-in win condition. As I mentioned previously, look into attrition, especially if the other guy has lots of living models. There's nothing as fun as just screwing over the other guy with 20-30 bane thralls. If you can kill a lot of their warriors with Bane Thralls, you can get a numerical advantage with weaponmasters. The problem is, of course, in OWNING that many Banes.

This part is also subject to change, assuming more practice with him than I currently have.

7) Army Composition

I'll start with three points for the army composition.

I) Elite Cadre

II) Feat

III) Spell List.

The Elite Cadre means I want to look into Bane Thralls. A full unit with UA is a nice 11 points, Bane Lord Tartarus is another 4. That gives me a solid anti-armor starting point.

I'll probably throw in Scrap Thralls; it's 1 point fo Feat Fodder. They stay in the back until needed, then do something fun like turn into Bane Thralls or whatnot.

The spell list tells me two things: first, I want an arc node to sling debuffs through. Figure on four points for a cheap node. Then, look at Phantom Hunter. This ability is just short of Eyeless Sight (doesn't ignore Stealth). It goes great on a ranged jack. Cryx doesn't have a lot of ranged jacks. You can try the Corrupter (and hope it can pull Arc Node Grabbing duty as well, but there are issues with that*), the Reaper (which is shorter-ranged), or the Leviathan. (technically the Harrower has a long-ranged gun and can be reasonably self-sufficient, but it ALSO more or less has Phantom Hunter on the gun).

I favor the Leviathan. Why? You have a solid range (13") and solid POW that only improves against larger targets (POW13 is plenty vs small bases; POW14 is nice on medium and POW15 on large means stuff gets hurt). Phantom Hunter helps negate the RAT5 by ignoring concealment/cover, and with the range you can always look for the aiming bonus as well. As a side bonus, it's immune to knockdown so it could always screen for Goreshade.

So, with Goreshade's 5 jack points, I'm looking at:

Goreshade (-5)

-Nightwretch 4

-Leviathan 9

10 Bane Thralls 8

-Officer/Standard 3

Bane Lord Tarturs 4

3 Scrap Thralls 1

Total: 24 points

Not a bad start for a basic kit. From here, thoughts:

Occultation + UA for Satyxis Raiders does several things.

a) Unless they ignore stealth, you're GOING to get there in melee. You are immune to blast damage, and with Stealth you're immune to direct-fire weaponry for the most part

b) You have Combined Melee Attack, for killing higher-def targets

c) You can always bring back the sea witch

d) If you take the Captain solo, you can use them as a first wave to tie up the other guy, and get your Banes into position.

Occultation + Bile Thralls can help with infantry; who needs to hit high DEF when a POW12 and corrosion probably kill?

Black Ogrun Boarding Party: hey, medium bases for screening, right?

Bloodgorgers: good for hunting down living models, as they have a 10" charge, MAT6, gang, and a pair of hand weapons.

Satyxis Blood Witches + UA: gang and MAT6 help them clear out infantry; if you throw Occultation on them along with the UA's mini-feat, well, it's hard to kill a bunch of incorporeal stealth models at range...

Soul Hunters would love Stealth, and give you an early element of disruption. Probably means you'll take Darragh Wrathe, too.

Withershadow Combine: you're gonna have 1-3 upkeeps out, and they're generally solid anyway. Too bad the feat can't help them.

Skarlock: probably not necessary; while you COULD use the guy as a means of getting a free upkeep, you don't exactly have a buff spell you'd want to cycle out of activation unless you're trying to roll TWO bloody heavies.

Warwitch Siren: useful for a Magic Ability 7 spray to kill troopers, AND fueling your warjacks for a run. Probably not a bad idea.

Ogrun Bokur: for when you're just not screened enough and you worry about an Eiryss shot to the face.

Gorman di Wulf: as above, but also for lowering the DEF of some targets.

Cylena Raefyl and the Nyss Hunters: worth a mention as they CAN do combine ranged attacks, and with Hunter, they're roughly comparable in roles to that Phantom-Seeker'ed Leviathan. You sit behind a forest and dare a non-Everblight guy to come near.

Saxon Orrick: you have Bane Thralls. They are not pathfinders. Pathfinder is their buddy.

So, I would probably consider rocking this in 35:

Goreshade (-5)
-Nightwretch 4
-Leviathan 9
10 Bane Thralls 8
-Officer/Standard 3

10 Nyss Hunters 10
Bane Lord Tartarus 4
Saxon Orrick 2

This gives you a decent ranged firebase, a melee compliment, and a fair amount of mobility; Saxon can hand out Pathfinder and that really leaves you with either Goreshade or Banes that aren't hoofing it through whatever.