Asphyxious the Hellbringer

Of all the new casters coming out Asphyxious3 is looking pretty awesome to me. So I figure over the next few days I'll go over the new third tier casters and the uses they might have.

"More than one thousand years of preparation has brought Asphyxious closer than ever to his goal of rising above the other lich lords to stand as Toruk’s most invaluable general. He alone holds the key to unleashing the terrible might of the Nightmare Empire. To aid him in his great work, Asphyxious has applied his impressive mastery of thrall runes to craft Vociferon, a skarlock perfectly equipped to serve as a conduit for souls. Vociferon’s battle standard of death and discord resonates with unholy intent, for it was made to collect the essences of all who perish within its reach and fuel Asphyxious’ fell sorceries."

Stat wise his looks the same as his other forms 15 DEF/17 ARM/F 7/ P+S16/ . Daimonon has a new ability Blood Boon, for those of you who haven't played Vlad recently this gives Asphyxious the ability after killing living enemy to cast a spell of three or less for free. So kill a dude spell, kill a dude spell so forth and so on. A nice touch.

Speical abilities are pretty much standard fare.  Cull soul, living models killed he gains a soul token, Terror, he's scary (sort of) and da...da...da..dah! Undead yeah I know you never expected that one.

Spells are where Asphyxious3 is going to shine. Lets start with the Menoth favorite Ashen Veil that's right people Cryx is getting a higher defense! hahahahaha...  Ashen Veil gives a friendly model concealment, and living enemy models suffer -2 to hit while within 2" of affected model.

Bone Shaker a nice spell 2 F offensive ranged when boxes a living enemy you get to advance with model ignoring free strikes make a melee attack then the model is removed from the game.

Good Ole Carnage 3 F making it even easier to hit living enemy models +2 to hit while while within this model's CNTRL.  Hey why not make it easier for Bane Lord Tartarus shall make many a bane with his MAT 11 Curse + Carnage +4 to attack.  Banes then become MAT 10. Hell even Satyxis raiders on power swell no need to CMA that's a lot of feedback.

Hex Blast is a nice spell to debuff a caster sitting on Iron Flesh or Arcane Shield or drop it on a trooper and eliminate a nasty spell on your troopers. Hex Blast model hit looses spell effects.

Mobility is a cheap method to give his battlegroup, including himself +2 SPD and pathfinder.  So now Asphyxious has a huge threat range even longer if you take Darragh in your list.  Plus pathfinder on your jacks won't hurt too bad.

Scything Touch an Asphyxious spell makes Satyxis raiders and blood witches something to fear.  Scything Touch gives a friendly faction model +2 to damage rolls and crit corrosion. That gives blood witches a P+S 12 and a P+S 10 with gang so those become 14 and 12 respectively not too shabby on a SPD 7 unit. I've wreaked jacks with the unit on a charge. Give it to the raiders and power swell 

His Feat isn't anything to scoff at either.  Whenever a model is forced, a spell is cast, focus, or fury is spent in his CNTRL area Asphyxious heals d3 and gains a soul token.  This looks disgusting on paper but I am looking forward to trying it out in play.

Vociferon, Asphyxious' attachment 13 DEF/ 17 ARM.  He's an Arc node, he even gets the commander ability, nice twist allows Asphyxious to allocate focus to a warjack in Vociferon's CMD range so you can extend you CNTRL zone by a good amount.  He picks up soul tokens for living enemy models killed within his CMD range these add to his ARM +1 for each and Death Harvest allows him to transfer them to Asphyxious during his maintenance phase. A nice addition in replace of our beloved skarlock.

On paper he looks like one hell of a caster I can not wait to get some play testing underway.  Unfortunately I have to wait until the beginning of August to get my hands on him. shucky darn.  His tier list is ok:

• Warjacks: Non-character warjacks, Cankerworm, Malice
• Units: Bile Thralls, Mech Thralls, Necrosurgeons, Soulhunters, Withershadow Combine
• Solos: Warwitch Sirens, non-character undead Cryx solos
• Battle Engines: Wrath Engines

Tier 1: Army gains one free Necrotech for each Helljack in your army

Tier 2: (Includes Pistol Wraith) Pistol Wraith's gain AD

Tier 3: (3 or more units) Models that can gain a corpse or soul token begin the game with one.

Tier 4: (Includes the Kraken) Deployment Zone Extended 2"

Asphyxious the Hellbringer looks to become a staple Cryx caster in heavy rotation of my Cryx army pAsphyxious and eAsphyxious are casters that I love to run and their big brother looks to continue the tradition.

Colossals, Gargantuans and WarRoom

I'd like to hit on a few topics that are coming up quick.  Colossals and the War Room App.

Colossals bring a lot to the table and now after reading some battle-reports and now that the Stormwall is out and Conquest will be out later this month.  I have to disagree with some of my fellow players I think this is an amazing move by Privateer press.  I think that Colossals aren't invincible that can easily be taken down by a good stratagy or if the player doesn't know the full potential of his colossal.  This element gives large scale games an interesting start since before with PP large scale games took tons and tons of models now with adding a colossal (..or two) you reduce the number of models you need to field and you get an interesting large scale game.

I have yet to get a game in against one as no one up here in the great north has purchased one.  I am debating on getting a conquest for my Kahdor but not sure if my small force needs that sort of help yet I am leaning toward it.  And the Kraken doesn't come out for a few more months.

Gargantuans I personally think take the cake if the three I've seen so far hold true.  The Mountain King for trolls looks like Mulg on roids, then there's Circle's Woldwrath the Gorilla Wold, the Archangel Legion's SUPER Angelious, and no name of the Skorne Gigantic Titan with multi-cannon strapped to his back.

Lastly I'd like to hit on the War Room App coming soon to a device near you.  Having only seen the demo video at Temple-con and watching it online it looks pretty amazing like I may have to say goodbye to my good and faithful iBodger.  They just announced that it was off to be approved by Apple, Google, and ...AMAZON! Wha..wha..WHAT!? say that again Amazon for the Kindle Fire... my kindle fire... I don't have to squint to see it on my iPhone?! I think I might faint...  Wait let me back up a few steps take some deep breathing exercises and then lets try that one more time.  

Yes the new War Room app will be available on Kindle fire so in order to get the most out of the app you don't need to own a 650$ iPad just my lil Kindle Fire.  So now comes the hard part it's done with yet I have to wait! That's just rude.  The ability to mark off damage and build lists will probably put the last nail in the coffin of iBodger which has been a good and faithful friend low these many years. You will... probably not be missed.

Can't keep my word

So I got a new position at work and I've been busy I know excuses excuses.  But I haven't been painting much as of late.. for shame.  so here we are 2012 the end of the world months away and I have tons of models unpainted.  

So lets see what's happened since I last wrote... I started Trollbloods again. :-) this time with a focus on their ranged threat.  That right watch out for my bushwhackers and burrowers, my Impalers, and Grimm. It's coming together.  I got the new Warpack with the plastic models I really do like the new sculpts for the Axers, and Impalers, They look like jacked up trolls now they used to be too tall and lanky in my humble opinion.

The last league we had my Legion of Everblight won.  I do like the synergy you get with casters, beasts, solos, and troops they flow for the most part.  Bethayne and Belphegor is the one caster that stands out to me I don;t know if any of you have tried her but she seems very specialized I have won with her but not typically because of her.  And eVayl is a powerhouse I've had a lot of luck with her she brings quite a bit to the table. Although her cloak kept breaking off luckily Karl from my game-store had some idy bidy pins and he helped drill it out and pin it and she hasn't broke since.

My goal is to stay on top of this hopefully I'll get some stuff painted and I'll show you some of the progress I've been making.