Cryx Necrofactorium and ranged attacks

Am I the only Cryx fan dismayed by the near complete lack of ranged attacks on the Necrofactorium units? In early days of MkI, we had Bile Thralls and access to Boomhowler. Revenant Crew was out the next year. So while Cryx never really excelled at being a ranged monster, there were options to work with.

So far, the only unit with any ranged on it at all is The Furies, with our Sludge Thralls to come down the road eventually. And given the limited scope of the MkIV army, I think the melee focus is going to be a bit too severe.

I say this in light of the fact that every existing army has multiple standard units (standard meaning non-character, point cost ~6-8, 30mm base, 5 models) with melee and ranged combined.

Honestly, compared to the units in the core box for literally every other army, Necrofactorium is feeling extremely lack-luster and disappointing (in terms of stats/mechanics). Every other army has at least one 6-point, FA:4+, 5-model unit that feels superior to the Mechanithralls (due to a better stat line, weapon options, etc).

I was honestly hoping that the rules for Cryx would get me more excited for returning to the game, especially given the lore and artwork in recent weeks and months. Is it just me? Am I being too negative?

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We haven’t seen all the models yet. :slightly_smiling_face:

And anyway, Cryx has historically been a melee-heavy and ranged-light army. Spells are your guns. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I think you’re probably being a little negative considering we haven’t seen even half of the rules yet. We don’t know what sort of support options they’ll be getting, what the rest of the units and solos will do, or what their 80mm solo is.

It certainly seems likely given the art we’ve seen that Necrofactorium will be the most melee-centric Mk4 Army yet but there are a lot of ways that they could potentially mitigate that with spells and abilities. I’d say wait and see the rest of the rules before you get too down on the Army :slight_smile: .

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Sure they start out at pow 10 but they have two initials with gang and loooots of access to +2 damage buffs and -2 armor debuffs. Their damage scales up pretty fast and I rather like them.

Oh, I like them too. The Mechanithrall Swarm unit is good in and of itself. Giving Mechanithralls Tough in MkIV definitely helps the feeling of the marching, implacable undead swarm as well. I hope the Brutes maintain that as well.

I mean, they’re still no Marauder Crew from Brinebloods (who honestly should probably cost a good bit more than they do, but that’s a completely different topic), but they definitely feel competitive with the cheap melee-only units in similar niches for other armies.

As others have said, it’s pretty premature to feel Faction envy when there’s still a lot more coming. We already know there’ll be a ranged unit coming.

The ranged options Cryx jacks have may be limited, but powerful. And there are spellcasters, access to ridiculously cheap arc nodes, etc.

I know you could play a Cryxian gunline in earlier editions (within a very limited theme), but that has never been their main focus. From what we’ve seen so far, new Cryx looks very much like old Cryx, so once we see it on the battlefield, I think we’ll learn to like it. As long as it’s on our side of the table.

There is an specific ranged unit (the Sludge Thralls), in the auxiliary expansion.

That said, it looks like MKIV Cryx will be more melee/swarm focused, and will need to rely on warjacks for powerful shots, and chickenjacks for a combo of light cannons, cheap arc nodes, sprays, mobility…

Spells and magic attacks will be important, I guess.

Maybe they gain some Mercs that help in the ranged output, beyond Magnus and Big Pig.