For a multitude of reasons, I was immediately drawn to Cryx when I got into WARMACHINE. Who doesn’t want to lead their own necrotite-fueled army of robots to victory over all things good and true? The lich-house aesthetic, the wealth of intriguing female characters, and the cringe-inducing concept of “necrosurgery” were among the reasons I loved the Nightmare Empire instantly. The design behind every model in the Faction is so incredible; it left me undecided for a long time on what particular army I wanted to construct.

Now mind you, I am still pretty new to WARMACHINE. I’m trying to have as much fun as possible while learning the complexities of this game. I don’t know about you, but I can’t learn a game if the process feels like punishment. I’m also not a super-competitive gamer; I just want a fun and thematic army to play.

A while back I stumbled across the card for the Carrion Thralls unit before it was solicited. I knew instantly that I wanted to tailor an entire army around the Carrion Thralls. More seasoned players would probably ask themselves, “do I really want to create an entire army just to support this cheap unit of birds?” Really my only answer to that is, “dude, robot-crows.” I am slightly obsessed with corvids and other carrion birds. I was not going to be dissuaded from my goals of combining them with the aforementioned female, Cryxian badasses into an army. Lo and behold, it is absolutely possible to create a viable army consisting of witches, flying undead, and mechanical abominations. This army list is aggressive and prolific; I call it “Death from Above!”

Bane Witch Agathia – WJ: +29
– Slayer – PC: 10
– Slayer – PC: 10
– Shrike – PC: 6
– Scavenger – PC: 7
– Scavenger – PC: 7
– Reaper – PC: 13
– Deathripper – PC: 6

Warwitch Siren – PC: 4
Warwitch Siren – PC: 4

Carrion Thralls – Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
Carrion Thralls – Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
Satyxis Blood Witches – Leader & 9 Grunts: 13
– Satyxis Blood Hag – PC: 4

Let’s talk about threat saturation—this list has 41 models! Your opponents will face a barrage of models and will have to quickly figure out what they need to kill first. The threat increases with Agathia’s help; her feat works extremely well with all of the flying ’jacks. Stealth allows the army to advance up the field without the risk of falling easy prey to ranged attacks. Ghostwalk lets my models ignore free strikes, allowing them to fly over enemies and attack them from behind to prevent them from advancing.

Let’s talk about how sick the Shrike is in this list. Agathia can cast Parasite on a unit that the Shrike attacks to reduce its ARM, letting the Shrike do more damage on every attack. Smasher grants an extra die on trample attack rolls, and Bladerush allows the Shrike to ignore free strikes. Essentially, the Shrike can mow down rows of models unhindered. Beware the Shrike!

The Scavengers and the Carrion Thralls both have Finisher, which gives them an additional die on damage rolls against damaged models. Meanwhile, with Power up and Empower from the Warwitch Sirens, I can give almost all the focus I need to my ’jacks without investment from the ’caster. Basically, while my opponent’s army is being pecked to death by swarms of death birds, my helljacks come in and pick off models at their leisure.

But wait—there’s more witches! Satyxis Blood Witches have Stealth even without Agathia’s feat, which makes them less vulnerable to long-ranged attacks. These Cryxian Amazons are also extremely versatile fighters. They can do everything from triggering spells with the blood of their enemies, to eviscerating them into an explosion of red mist, turning into Incorporeal models, and using the strength of their enemies to strike down additional foes.

This list would not be complete without some heavy warjacks. The Slayers are there to provide the final punch against the biggest and most durable targets that have been weakened by the Carrion Thrall swarms. With its harpoon gun, the Reaper can haul an important target either out of the way of my waves of troops, or into the vicious swarm of bird-robots. Say goodbye to your eyeballs!

As amazing as all this sounds (to me, anyway) this army is far from indestructible. The army list consists largely of cheap, non-durable ’jacks. Right from the start of the game I will be sending multiple models to their death. Thankfully, this is totes Cryxian.

So there it is: my first full-sized, 75-point list. It allows me to play the types of models that I’m interested in, and have a lot of fun while doing it. Thematically, it hits all my nerd buttons, so I’m excited to see what this army can do! I’m also looking forward to getting more games under my belt, and tweaking my list to fine tune my witchy-crow-death army. CAW! Now to finish painting all of these birds . . .