Having a hard time deciding

Tomorrow we hit Silkeborg again. It will be 50 point games, and I've committed enough hubris to guarantee a humiliating defeat in every game by now. I've got two potential grudge matches, and after last time I guess a few people will have tweaked a list to take on Terminus. Still, I'll be going in with the intention of fielding Terminus in every game.

Lich Lord Terminus
- Leviathan
- Leviathan
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Bane Thrall Officer & Standard
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Darragh Wrathe
Madelyn Corbeau

A standard Dark Swarm Gunslinger list. I would have liked to bring a Skarlock, but since I can't afford to loose anything in the list, I'll have to avoid sending in Terminus to clean up. This really irks me, but sending him forward with only ARM 22 is putting him in danger. I remember from my last tournament that this came into play twice in four games, but only once was this not on my feat turn.

I'll have to get back to you on this setup though, and see how much I miss the Skarlock tomorrow. I really hope it's not to much, since I really cant see a way of getting him in there (ideas are welcome!). Add to this, that I cant seem to settle on a secondary list as well, and that I need to do so today, and it becomes a wee bit frustrating. My second list is there to handle eIrusk, so it has to include Blood Witches with a Hag, but other than that... well I might as well get some Blackbane's in there, in order to tie up a WG Deathstar. Maybe I'll just stick to what I know.

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We live in interesting times!

A little dream of mine came a step closer to reality today, as Bell of Lost Souls announced the arrival of an Iron Lich solo. I've had this dream of running a full lich army since I discovered this game, but a solid core would do as a beginning. Now I have a non-cheese version of Lich Lord Asphyxious, the Withershadow Combine, and the new Iron Lich solo.

Iron Lich Overseer

Soul Matrix - While in this model's command range during their activation, warjacks controlled by this model can spend soul tokens on this model to gain additional attacks or to boost attack or damage rolls at one token per attack or boost.

So, that could be a Jack Marshall (which would suck), or a Journeyman Warcaster type (which would be fantastic) or something we've never seen before (I hope not). After the Wraith Engine I don't have a lot of faith in things we've never seen before, but a Journeyman Warcaster would fit very well into a lot of the builds I've been playing around with.
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Lich Lord Asphyxious takes a well deserved hit.

The new Errata is out, and Cryx had two changes worth mentioning.

We received a boost to the Stalker, and I can see a great future for the little guy now. Replace the text of Extended Control Range with: "When checking to see if this model is in its controller’s control area, double the area". Now instead of just assigning Focus within double the normal area, you get a select few feat effects, abilities, spells, and other great things. For most casters this changes exactly nothing, but there are some casters out there that will have to reconsider the Stalker.

• Mortenebra; Overrun, Terminal Velocity, and Recalibration. At 28" inches from Mortenebra, the Stalker becomes a monster, which means that suddenly Mortenebra has the option of staying somewhat safe.
• pSkarre; Blood Magic and Dark Guidance. ... ... you called, and the Errata answered. The Stalker was already fine with pSkarre, but with the capacity to operate at extreme range with zero loss of power, this becomes almost certain death to anything but mint condition heavies. Five PS17 attacks that ignore Spell effects, Focus, Transfers, Tough, and nearly always hits... just... ouch.
• eSkarre; Fate Weaver & Seas of Fate. Run anywhere, and be nigh invulnerable, then apply Focus where needed and kill things. Not as game breaking as pSkarre, but worth considering.

Then Lich Lord Asphyxious was finally nerfed, and this was a long time coming. I quivered at the thought, because rarely does anything that receives so much hate, remain even remotely playable after a nerf. To everyone's great surprise, Privateer Press applied the one solution that "might" make everyone a little bit happier. Replace the text of Spectral Legion with the following: "Return up to ten friendly destroyed non-warcaster small- or medium-based Faction warrior models to play, placing them within 3˝ of Asphyxious. Returned models gain Undead and Ghostly, become solos, and cannot be attacked or damaged for one turn. Returned models must charge during their activations and leave play at the end of this turn. (A model with  Ghostly can advance through terrain and obstacles without penalty and can advance through obstructions if it has enough movement to move completely past them. A model with Ghostly cannot be targeted by free strikes.)"

It's a great solution. No more ignoring the enemy army and just smacking around their caster, as we now have to clear the lanes first. It's not a huge nerf, as the feat is still awesome and eGaspy is still a top tier caster, but now we have to work a bit for it. So far I've seen no complaints about this nerf, and almost everyone on the Cryx forums agree it is not only fair, but actually benefits us (because we feel less dirty when we run people over with him). It changes absolutely nothing about list building, eGaspy remains top-tier, but now people can mount a defense against him if they play well. Thumbs up again PP.
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