Warmachine: Primer - Khymaera - Reformatted Dragon Spawn

Biomechanical dragon spawn, born from the contact between the spawn of Everblight and the energies of Cyriss, the Khymaera are an army that favours precision strikes with their elite troops. Many of whom can fly and have various tricks to make them hard to pin down. A combination of buffs from spells and abilities turn their Warbeast attack some middle of the road power into devastating attacks.

Warlocks

Vallyx, Fate's Eclipse

Vallyx leads the Shard Nocturnes, and boasts a formidable profile for combat, making them more dangerous than the Warbeast that comes in the same box. Boasting a DEF of 15 and ARM of 17, and 18 health, coupled with the right spells, Vallyx is not the easiest to kill, which is made harder thanks to Flying High, which they grant to all Shard Nocturne fighters.

Thanks to their Dual Attack ability, Vallyx can happily drag their enemy into melee with their ranged attack, before making their melee attacks, and with Silence of Death and Curse of Shadows, deal a combo strike of an effective POW 20 attack.

Vallyx's attacks, and those of the Shard Nocturnes become even more potent with his Feat - Blood Moon - which makes all attacks count at Critical Hits, which for Vallyx unlocks Brutal Damage. While Vallyx is your Warlock, they are a potent fighter in close combat and should be used to even wipe out enemy Warbeasts.

Nyxyan, the Stygian Coil

If Vallyx is more of a combat caster, Nyxyan sits at the other end of the scale, as a magically focused Warlock. Boasting a middling ARM, that certainly should not be getting into combat, or shot at. But with an ARC of 8, they are more than capable of controlling multiple Warbeasts, while also throwing out multiple spells to enhance their Warbeasts. This spellcasting ability is further enhanced by their Revelations of the Outer Darkness ability, that allows them to cast a single spell for free when a friendly Faction warrior within 12 inches is destroyed.

Nyxyan combines the above with their Prey ability, which during their Feat, they extend to all friendly warrior models, and can retarget onto a different model or unit. In effect this makes Nyxyan a support Warlock who aims to have their warriors move into position for a alpha strike on a critical enemy or enemy leader.

Lylyth, the Raven Vengeance

Lylyth is a familiar name with a new guise, as the form Legion of Everblight warlock, and Nyss Elf, is now warped into the Khymaera form. She boasts a decent ranged attack ability, and 20 points of health, and the ability to fly, and of course Eyeless Sight that benefits her ranged attacks. What she lacks in DEF and ARM she makes up for with Warping Winds - in effect Flying High but where flying is not required, and it benefits models within 3 inches, and gives resistance to Blast.

Lylyth and her cohort all benefit from Run and Gun, letting them move if they destroy and enemy with a ranged attack - something she and her Warbeasts are more than capable of, using lightly armoured targets as a means to gain position on the enemy leader and objectives.

Speaking of her ranged weapon, its quite the multi-purpose tool. The basic shot is a decent POW 14 shot, that can be reloaded. Alternatively, the weapon can be fired at a lower strength, but as an armour piercing spray, which makes it useful for clearing out grunts, and threatening leaders hidden behind skirmish screens.

Working with her ranged attack game, Lylyth can opened up firing lanes with her Feat, which allows her to move enemies up to 2 inches if they are within her control range, while also removing flight from enemy units for a round, and reducing enemy ranged attack attributes by 2.

Lylyth's magic selection is weak, cementing her as a shooting warlock. With only 6 Focus, and a total of 3 spells (plus animi) she has few options. Deadeye makes her attacks almost guaranteed, while Slipstream helps move friendly models into position as a defensive measure.

Solos

Pythia

Pythia straight up should not be anywhere in danger of a fight if you can help it. But, her ability to automatically hit targets with her spear, and in the process remove enemy spells in play on that unit, makes her the perfect debuff against arcane defenses and armour.

Though not a fighter, Pythia makes up for it with her arcane support. Leaders get to upkeep a spell for free a turn, while also acting as a Channeler, making Pythia a useful choice for Warlocks lacking in Focus, or making those with a deep spell list even more dangerous.

Shard Incarnate Conjuror

A more aggressive arcane support solo, the Conjuror is a source of fire status effects, as it can ignite enemies in base to base contact. Furthermore, those models suffering the Fire continuous effect while in his control range suffer -2 to their attack rolls. Building upon this fire theme, the Conjuror has a number of spells that deal fire damage, or bestow fire damage. And like Pythia, the Conjuror can dispel Animi nearby.

Wraithwing Paragon

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Paragon is a fighter with high ARM on a par with a Warbeast, and with Cleave and a POW 15 attack, can carve through units of troops with ease. With Warping Winds, and a strong melee game, the Paragon then is a Warbeast support model, also able to perform hit and run attacks thanks to Sprint.

Units

The Shades

This character unit are not the toughest in the game, but make up for it with Stealth, while also coupling with Vallyx and this Flying High, making them a challenge to get into range with shooting attacks. Adding to their flying movement, the unit boasts Ambush and Advanced Deployment to make them objective threats, while Reposition and Unpredictable Movement makes it a challenge to hit many of them with as they can easily spread out while contesting objectives.

Adding to their threat range, their ranged attacks, while not strong, benefit from Ricochet, allowing them to easily strike multiple targets in squads, or pesky solos and leaders hiding behind skirmish screens. This all gets amped up thanks to Fortune Hunter providing an extra die on attack and damage rolls against named models, and their Critical Heart Seeker makes this even more dangerous on a Vallyx Feat turn. These are very much glass flechette rounds!

Quick Fang Stalkers

Less costly than the Shades, and even easier to kill, the Stalkers come in a unit of 5, and despite not flying, they are still able to Ambush, Advance Deploy, have Stealth, and thanks to Acrobatics, can move past other models.

Each grunt has two POW 9 attacks, with Anatomical Precision, which makes them more suited for clearing skirmish screen units, or bullying solos. But their command attachment provides some versatility - still poorly suited for attacks on high ARM targets, but their Blight Bomb can soften up a warjack, which Black Oil can annoy a Warbeast's next turn.

Incarnate Knights

At the complete other end of the spectrum, these heavy ARM, and high health units are cavalry that need to get stuck into a fight as they get buffed by Battle-Driven when injured. This means that can hit with a charge attack with boosted attack rolls, a boosted melee attack, which could be POW 16 if the enemy damages one or more in the last turn. Combined with Vallyx, this unit acts are a steamroller, ensuring enemies are knocked down, ready for the Warbeasts to more in and to finish up the target.

Warbeasts

Aklyss

Aklyss, despite being a heavy warbeast, is not heavy on ARM, health, or melee potential. Aklyss is instead an annoyance that is hard to shift. Aklyss can fly which makes it more nimble, but its attacks are all under powered.

Where Aklyss comes into it's own is it's arcane support. By being Forced, it can cause an ARM debuff aura, -2 ARM to all models within 5 inches, which can be used in conjuction with it's weak POW attacks. Aklyss can aso place a Corrosive cloud template in play with its animi, which further hampers enemies seeking to get into Stealth and Flying High range. However, Akylss is best paired with Vallyx, as Aklyss boasts plenty of critical effects.

Drakyon

Heavy in ARM, though not that much more health, the Drakyon sacrifices mobility for marginally better melee attacks, but they still lack punch for a heavy warbeast. Fortunately, it has an ARM buffing animus (which is excellent for Warlocks), and where the model makes up for weak POW attacks is when they fight in conjunction with a unit like the Incarnate Knights, as its Claws get an extra damage die against knocked down targets.

Hydrix

The Hydrix, as a true heavy warbeast in the army, boasts 30 health and 18 ARM, which is still low for such a heavy. However, what it lacks in health and ARM, it makes up for in being able to regenerate.

The Hydrix offers a wide range of options. The Toothy Maw is a valuable option, enhancing the MAT of the beast, while also providing a decent POW 18 attack and the animi Ravening Hunger to make this beast regenerate even better, while also providing Sustained Attack with this heavy-hitting attack.

The Hydrix then has 2 more head options, each being of lesser power compared to the main head. The Horned Piercer provides POW 16 with Critical Armour-Piercing, while the Flame Sprayer head offers a SP10 POW 13 fire attack. Further movement abilities are supplied by the back options, including flight, making the Hydrix an adaptable weapons platform for the army.

Summary

The Khymaera is not the hardest-hitting army, nor the toughest. But they are adaptable, nimble, and have a host of spells to buff and debuff with. But what they lack in punch, they make up for in a death of a thousand cuts, critical effects, and movement that enables them to set up alpha strikes on targets before slinking away again.