This is a report of a battle I played with my Cryx starter box against my fellow Press Ganger Rich's Khador starter faction. We didn't think to take pictures with a digital camera so I'll just have to provide some cartoons. I'll try to throw in some tactics and tips along with the report to help new players become acquainted with the game. Tactics advice and tips can be found in green.

Setup: The table was a bit long and thin. We were probably separated by 5 feet at the beginning and the table was about 3 feet wide. We had all of the Cryx terrain you can see in my terrain gallery set up, along with an extra hill to make things more interesting.

Early movement: I got to go first and spent a couple of turns spreading out. I moved my Deathrippers up the left flank and my Slayer up the right. I knew from banter before the battle that Rich feared my Defiler, so he boldly marched forward in the middle to draw fire. Deneghra cowered in the back within control range (bless arc nodes). The Khador Destroyer took a post on a hill where he could see well to use his bombard and the Juggernaut lumbered towards my Slayer. Sorscha walked between her boys.

Arc nodes are a Cryx Warcaster's best friend. Deneghra has a lot of spells that can cripple opponents if not outright damage them, so use your bonejacks aggressively. You don't really care if one of them gets killed. You have two more! Khador's biggest strength is their ARM and you're going to have a tough time punching through it, so try to cast Parasite on one enemy Warjack and Crippling Grasp on the other.

Having several arc nodes within range of the Destroyer I cast Parasite on it and proceeded to pummel it mercilessly with Scourge and Venom for a couple of rounds while I moved one of my Deathrippers up into charge range. Rather than charge the Deathripper and slam him into a rock face he was arrogantly standing near, the Destroyer fired its bombard at my Defiler, missing every time.

Combat Begins: Sorscha cast several spells on my Defiler so that he was more or less kept out of the battle and my Deathrippers had the Destroyer occupied. The Juggernaut tried to charge my slayer but he was out of range. Lucky break #1 for me! Using my Defiler's arc node I cast Crippling Grasp on the Juggy and shredded it with my Slayer's Combo Strike. Ouch that hurt! About this time I charged the Destroyer with one of my Deathrippers, but kept the other out of the fight because I saw Sorscha getting close to it and my Defiler.

Slayers are a little lighter than every other faction's heavy warjacks but they are faster and have the Combo Strike. Remember, Privateer Press has clarified the rules for Special Attacks and any attack with a star on the card (Combo Strike for us) does not cost a focus to use, it simply replaces your free melee attack. You should use Combo Strike whenever possible against heavy Warjacks like Khador's because its STR+POW+POW is enough to punch through their ARM alone. Whatever you roll on your dice (BOOST!) is pure damage. If you have reduced the Warjack's ARM with one of Deneghra's spells, this will be even worse news for it. Always remember: A slayer's Combo Strike can be used on a Charge. Do this if you can (I was unable) because it will automatically boost your damage to 3D6. Also, remember that the Combo is done with your Claws so a critical hit still causes Corrosion. You may want to boost your hit roll just to increase your chances of a critical.

The battle between the severely hampered Destroyer (thanks to Deneghra's spells) and the Deathripper resulted in the Destroyer losing its Movement system and Bombard and the Deathripper losing its head! My little ripper had no weapons left but the Destroyer could only move 1" a turn, so I knew it was too far from Sorscha to aid her. I let it continue to play with the Deathripper.

The Slayer and the Juggernaut fought a horrid battle that ultimately saw the Slayer destroyed. Shortly after it finished my Slayer, the Juggernaut was dispatched by a well timed squirt of the Sludge Cannon on my Defiler.

Remember that the Defiler's Sludge Cannon automatically causes Corrosion if it hits. It doesn't need to do damage. The POW of the Sludge Cannon hit is modest at best so if you want to damage with it instead of just causing corrosion, you'll probably need to boost.

The End: Well, here was the deciding battle. I charged my remaining Deathripper into Sorscha and lined up my defiler, while moving Deneghra closer for a poke with Sliver. I used my feat to assist the round and had Sorscha on the ropes (several blocks of damage). Seeing her situation was dire, Sorscha used her feat to buy a round of healing. She didn't manage to destroy the Deathripper thankfully though! Lucky break #2 for me! Things were looking bad for her.

Deneghra's feat doesn't look super useful, but it is. The effects on ARM stack with any spell effects already in play so you can completely remove the Khador ARM advantage. Also, never forget that Deneghra's feat will reduce the opposing Warcaster's focus by 2 for a turn. This is huge!

I got Deneghra in and hit Sorscha with Sliver. I should have cast Scourge on her to knock her down, but didn't. My plan was with Sorscha immobile, Deneghra would leave the next round (Witch Barbs would block the free strike) and the Deatheripper, Defiler, and Deneghra's spells could finish off the helpless Khadorian. Luck was not on my side as Rich got the last lucky break of the day. Deneghra was still engaged with Sorscha so she got one round of attacks in and made them count. Her first attack got in a Critical Freeze on Deneghra and then Rich just pumped extra attacks boosted with focus until she was dead.

Sliver's immobilize ability is pretty nasty but risky to try and use, especially against Warcasters. You are going to expose Deneghra to a round of attacks against anything with a reach weapon. Sliver is the most useful against opponents without reach because they will not get to attack you back if you hit successfully. Good trick: Get a heavy Warjack near Deneghra. On your turn move within 2" but more than 1/2" so you can use Sliver. Boost the Attack roll just to make sure you hit and now the heavy is frozen. You are free to walk away and ignore it because the model is effectively out of the fight as long as Deneghra doesn't attack anyone else in Melee.

Conclusions: Although the result was a slim victory for Khador the battle was a blast! I'll have to get my revenge. The key for Cryx, as far as I'm concerned is NEVER get Deneghra bogged down in melee combat unless you have to. Her spells plus arc nodes are death for Khador! Also, never underestimate your arc nodes. This is very important and can really win the day. Thanks to its node, my little Deathripper neutralized a Destroyer! One last bit of strategy advice is cast Death Rage on Deneghra if you're going to get into combat with her. This gives you one extra round to try and neutralize the opposing Warcaster if she dies, thus earning a draw. I wish I had thought of that before the battle was over!

Hope you enjoyed reading this, and anyone who gets to play against Khador make sure to destroy them for me!