I play a table top war game called Warmachine and Hordes or Warmahaordes to some. In the past six or seven months that my wife and I have been playing it, I have discovered one faction in particular that suits me fairly well. Now, I am by no means an expert at this game. Just like any other game that involves some type of competition against another human I have had to learn what other types of factions there are and how they play along with the play styles of different opponents.
This type of game can be very fun but it can also be very frustrating at times. To give you an example, the first tournament I ever went to (mistake number 1) I was paired up with a rather friendly gentleman (mistake number 2 which beat the crap out of mistake number 1.) I then found out at the beginning of our match that this young man was a veteran player who had attended many qualifying matches to try and get into some of the more hardcore tournaments that are more than likely nationwide. Needless to say I was shaking in my boots a little bit. Thankfully this man was not a jerk about it. He was very humble and rather informative. We started our match and three rounds later he had wiped all of my army out (I was using trolls at the time) and I had only taken out two of his models. It was frustrating at first since I was playing with the more adamantly hardcore players but a very good learning experience for me as to how some of the cream of the crop play the game.
Now I started to think that my Trollbloods weren't really my type of play style. They are more of a support group and generally I do play supportive. I have learned in this game that there is a rule called "Page 5" and I have taken it to heart and I use it more now than I do logic sometimes. "Play like you have a pair" is the rule. It didn't feel to me as though I could play this way with trolls.
The event officer of the league that I play in wanted to get a match in with me and I agreed. He set up his army of the Cryx battlebox with the Warcaster Deneghra. I had my trolls and never faced Cryx before. He pretty much mopped the floor with me and I soon started to think about picking this group up instead and my event officer told me how fun they were to play. I caved and I soon discovered how fun it was watching most of my league teammates sigh when they had to fight me as Cryx have a bunch of glass cannon and annoying little units to work with.
My first Warcaster was of course War Witch Deneghra and she is rightfully feared and respected. Did I say respected? I meant resented. Though I did not win and have not one a lot of matches or tournaments with her and my skill, she is just super fun to play with and figure out all of the little tricks that can really shut down your opponents next big plan and have them change up their strategy on the fly. I have learned that if you can get her to the right place, you can make the opponent bend to your plan of attack. Here are just a few reasons why I think Deneghra is awesome.
1. She is not the best thing to send into melee but if for some reason she does get within melee range of an enemy unit, she has the unique ability of moving out of combat without taking a free strike, that is, if she survives an all out onslaught.
2. Along the lines of melee, if the enemy attacking her does not have a weapon with reach on it, then she can move just out of melee range, ignoring a free strike and then strike back at the opponent. As my league officer would put it, "Dirty dirty Cryx."
3. Another nice thing about her is that Deneghra has an ability that makes it so ranged attacks cannot hit her from a certain distance, making her even more difficult to hit from a ranged attack. A con of this is that a ranged attack with an AoE on it can deviate and still hit her. If this attack can be boosted to hit and damage which most people would on a caster, this AoE attack can and will one shot this caster if you are not careful with her.
4. Deneghra's spell list is suited for a plethora of shenanigans in almost any situation. Crippling grasp comes to mind as it will slow down heavy jacks or beasts from charging to you and debilitate units to the point of not being able to cut through butter. If you can have this spell hit the opposing caster, your opponent is going to have a rough match and more than likely will be cursing you most of the game.
5. Another spell that comes to mind is Scourge. A very powerful spell that can have very good damage potential against annoying solos or even lesser armored casters but this is not why I like it. Anything that is hit by this move is knocked down and vulnerable to melee attacks always hitting until they get back up. I have won a match this way by actually using this move on one of my own light warjacks. The spell hit the light, a heavy jack of mine along with the opposing caster. The light warjack was knocked down, the enemy caster was knocked down but my heavy was not. My heavy was the Desecrator. A flexible heavy crabjack that has an ability that makes him immune to knockdowns. I then had my Desecrator politely walk up to the enemy caster, beat the crap out of her (Sorscha) and managed to turn a losing battle into a win.
6. The one thing everyone who has ever played against Deneghra is her once per match feat. The Withering. This ability pretty much shuts every enemy down that is foolish enough to get close to her as it implies a hefty penalty to nearly every attribute of nearly every enemy model along with a few other special rules for one round. Most people know that this is going to happen and it cannot be avoided. What I have seen in recent games in many people would rush up and try to fake me out into using it too quickly so that I would be on more of the defensive than offensive sides. This has worked to both mine and their advantages since my dice are actively trying to kill me at times.
All in all, I really liked her as my first caster in the Cryx faction. I have purchased more and I will cover some of them later but if you ever decide to pick up the Cryx faction, I would suggest getting the battle box and start with that because it will give you a much needed heavy for some added protection as Deneghra is very squishy, along with three light warjacks that are just fun to play around with. Cryx are all about shenanigans and making your opponent curse you under their teeth so have fun and let loose with the undead swarms of the Cryx.
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