Warmachine: Primer - Cephalyx - Mind Stealers

Free to download from My Mini Factory, the Cephalyx are the latest command cadre for the Cryx army. As living fighters, the Cephalyx offer different opportunities for painting and provide a Cryx army with some souls to collect, which is particularly useful when facing armies like the Khymaera and Infernals, which are devoid of souls.

Warcasters

Exulon Khythos

Khythos can include both Monstrocities and Cryx warjacks in his battlegroup, which in the long term allows for some interesting combinations, especially when we consider how Monstrocities gain Focus, meaning Khythos can run a large battlegroup. Thanks to his Long Shadows ability, he has a pseudo Soul Claiming, meaning Kythos can top up with Fury either by blasting living models himself with arcane attacks or taking advantage of the Furies, Xiphus, Akulon, and models like the Iron Lich and Skarloch Lieutenant, also zapping enemies.

Khythos is predominantly a magic and ranged attack caster, and boasts a middling defence that is improved against ranged attacks. Friendly living models within 10 inches gain Annoyance, which is limited to other Cephalyx models that make up this cadre.

Prefering to fight from the backline, Khythos has a ranged attack, POW 12, with Thunderbolt and Reload, which makes it a valuable weapon to break up shield lines and to move models off objectives. But, if Khythos does get entangled in close combat, he has two attacks at POW 14, with the chain benefit, and Grievous Wounds.

Khythos spells are where their strength lies. Psycho Surgery is particularly powerful, as each model - living or construct - is healed d3+1 damage. Revive can be used multiple times, on living or undead units to return models into play. These two spells together make Khythos even better at healing units/models, even when compared to Eviscerus.

Finally, Mass Delusion is a great Feat to hamper the opponent from shifting your army off objectives. An effective +3 DEF, and a 3-inch move, is a perfect way to negate a warjack/warbeast charge when missed. This means Khythos's army can exert on a Feat turn objective pressure - a +3 DEF is quite the incentive to get up on your opponent's side of the board.

Monstrosities

Malfessor

Though a Monstrosity, Malfessor can be included in any Cryx Warcaster battlegroup - opening up a new source of a soul. It's also an easy unit to heal at range compared to warjacks. As a Monstrosity, it can also generate its own Focus. Every time it takes damage it gets a Focus point. This is instead of Power Up like Warjacks. This makes it an easy unit to run with Warjacks, as it can get Focus for free if rammed into the enemy lines.

As a living unit, it benefits from Annoyance when in the control range of Kythos, giving it an effective DEF of 12. And if it is hit and damaged, the Malfessor gets a free advance forward, making this model particularly threatening as it can easily move into enemy lines. For enemy Warcasters and Warlocks, having such a model too close starts to cause problems too, as spells cost one more, and the range on spells is reduced by 3 inches. Finally, playing into this threat potential, the Malfessor has Telemetry, so that enemies within 8 inches of it are effectively -2 DEF against arcane attacks - again playing well with units like the Furies, solos like the Iron Lich Commander, and of course Warcasters like Nekane, who is on an assassination run.

The Malfessor has a few ways to make attacking enemies much easier than normal. The Psychic Trembler is a spray attack that, on crits, reduces DEF to 5, while the Net Launcher can also knock down and drag enemies. With the enemies knocked down, this opens an opportunity for the Flail to hit easily, dealing POW 18 hits, but if engaged with mobs, the Flail has a Thresher attack.

Units

The Criterions

This character squad, like the rest of the command cadre, is living, and so it is a useful source of souls for Cryx Soul Claiming units.

Though Tough, the Criterions also benefit from Rapid Healing, meaning they can sustain far more damage, and even heal more damage if they are only losing a point or two of damage from attacks. Also, in response to damage, they gain +2 ARM, +2 to their damage rolls and Pathfinder for a round, meaning like the Malfessor, they want to be in combat quickly. And at POW 14, their melee weapons are akin to those of the Brute Thralls (just without Combo Strike)

Solos

Akulon Thaemestra

Akulon is an attached model to the cohort leader, and as a result is a member of the cohort and so benefits from Psycho Surgery. As an arcane support, this model is not the best in close combat, but does come with some useful tools. It allows a Warcaster to upkeep a spell for free (Calamity is a good choice), and has several spell attacks and actions, including Spell Slave, which would allow Calamity to be cast for free.

Silexus Xiphus

Another arcane support unit, Xiphus provides yet another means to heal living models, making Malfessor even more challenging to kill, and sustaining the Criterions. Along with a middle-of-the-road arcane attack spray, Xiphus has Befuddle, which can cause a non-Leader model move 3 inches. A helpful tool to push enemies off objectives or draw them into threat range.

Maybe more importantly, Xiphus enhances Drudge models nearby, giving them +1 to attack rolls. Hopefully, we will see more Drudges that will join the Criterions. Needless to say, Xiphus is not the best in combat and should be present to support units of troops.

Summary

The Cephalyx command cadre is very much designed for objective control - it has staying power with multiple sources of healing both living and constructs, and when mixed in with the Hades, Iron Lich Commander, and Dekathus, these units become a useful source of souls to trigger abilities - essentially an excuse to play aggressively with them!