Last night was a night of many spoilers.

We saw Retribution’s A+ caster in her blinding glory, Goreshade3 in his head scratching something-something-maybe-good-but-probably-not-top-three-ness, and…

And we saw Deneghra2’s new theme force. There’s a couple of vital details still sketchy, but here’s what we’ve got so far:

Edit: Detailed Clarified Below, original rambling/speculation preserved.

Models Allowed:

Warjacks: Non-Character jacks, Deathjack and Nightmare.

Units: Bile Thralls, Cephalyx units, Mechanithrall units, Necrosurgeon and stitch thralls.

Solos: Necrotech, Iron Lich Overseers, Ragman, Warwitch Siren, Skarlock Thralls



Tier 1: Take only models listed above; Increase FA of Cephalyx Units by 1, Reduce point cost of Cephalyx units by 1



Tier 2: 1 or more units of Drudges; Drudges gain Advanced Deployment

Tier 3: 1 or more Cephalyx Overlords Units; +1 on starting roll for the game

Tier 4: 3 or more solos with Magic Ability; Enemy non warcaster/warlock models/units can begin the game affected by Denegrah’s upkeeps. Must be declared before setup Must be targetable to be declared. She does not pay focus to upkeep these first turn.

The two things that are currently unclear (I’d love some clarification if someone has the NQ. Please?):

1) Does the Tier 1 bonus apply to both Drudges and Overlords?

and

2) Is the FA boost “+1” or “FA:U”

Worst case scenario, the Tier 1 bonus only applies to Drudges. But that’s still something worth paying attention to, because of the Tier 2 benefit.

The points reduction puts Drudges at 3/5, on a par with Mechanithralls in terms of points. For those 5 points, you get 9 tough, advance deploying troops with high pow attacks. And a Mind Slaver, who will be hiding at the back real hard.

An FA boost of +1 gives you 30 advance deploying tough troops. Which is some serious scenario business. Add in the Tier 3 bonus of a +1 to starting roll, and your odds of going first get good. You’ll have tough meaty jam (chutney?) all the way up the board.

But wait, there’s more.

Deathjack is allowed in the theme, which enables one of epic Deneghra’s best schticks: 2 Hellmouths per turn. And it’s some more AD.

Nightmare is also allowed, which is cool. Stealth Heavies are Good In Scenarios.

But wait.

Oh yeah.

There’s more.

Look at that Tier 4 benefit again. Take a deep breath. Find your happy place.

She gets to put out her upkeeps at the start of the game.

One unit gets Marked for Death. (The Stealth loss is good just for helping Hellmouth target selection. And -2 Def is never, ever bad). One unit is Curse of Shadow’d, allowing you to rush right through them, or just making them that much easier to kill. And one unit gets Pursuit on it. It’s a spell you rarely cast under normal circumstances, but for free? It enables some serious feat shenanigans (in some matchups, use with caution), but more often it’ll involve movement silliness with DJ and Nightmare fleeing from attackers or moving into position late in a turn to do something unexpected. I would suggest targetting a model/unit that will be moving at the end of the turn with Pursuit, so the opponent has little to react with when you use the movement (or has to mess up his activation order).

So, here’s the list, assuming the Tier 1 benefit applies only to Drudges:

Deneghra (-6)

– Nightwretch (4)

– Nightwretch (4)

– Deathjack (12)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Overlords (4)

Min. Mechanithralls (3) + Brute Thrall (1)

Min. Mechanithralls (3)

Necrosurgeon (2)

Necrosurgeon (2)

Warwitch Siren (2)

Warwitch Siren (2)

Ragman (2)

Did I mention that Drudges are living models? So into the Mechanithrall Factory they go!

It’s a lot of models to chew through, given a tough first wave and a recurring second wave. It’s 100% speedbump designed to buy you time to scenario out, but it’s a hell of a speedbump except against the highest possible volume of pow 10s. And a lot of tough in the first wave can go a ways against that too.

Also, side cool thing: They have Eyeless Sight, and access to Ghost Walk. So that’s situationally good too. Just a small cool interaction to note that opponents may miss.

The “worst case scenario” permutation seems pretty good to me.

But in my dark blighted hard, there is a Better Case Scenario.

And that’s the one where Overlords gets the points reduction and a points bump.

The one where I get to play Runes of War in Cryx.

I think it’d look a little something like:

Deneghra (-6)

– Nightwretch (4)

– Nightwretch (4)

– Deathjack (12)

– Nighmare (10)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Warwitch Siren (2)

Warwitch Siren (2)

Ragman (2)

Okay, it should probably have a second unit of Drudges instead of More Overlords, since they have a hard time surviving without a good few sac pawns and/or good jam to deliver them.

But who can resist an army with 17 magical sprays plus Double Hellmouth?

I always liked Overlords, but couldn’t justify them against Biles for 1pt more. But for 3pts? They’re an amazing unit at that cost. And even more amazing with an FA bump. (We haven’t talked about the middle ground where both units get +1 FA and -1 cost, which is pretty damn sweet too. I’d take 2 units of them very very happily in the jam list.) Eyeless Sight, RAT 7, Magical Pow 12 sprays? That’s just fantastic, no arguing with that.

Maybe this theme will do for Overlords what RoW did for Runeshapers – not only will you see them in the theme force, but people will start putting them in regular lists at 4 points more.

I know I couldn’t.

EDIT: It’s now been confirmed that the points reduction applies to all Cephalyx Units, as does a +1 to FA. I’ll leave the wild speculating above intact, but here’s what I reckon the list looks like with that information:

Deneghra (-6)

– Nightwretch (4)

– Nightwretch (4)

– Deathjack (12)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Drudges and Mind Slaver (5)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Cephalyx Overlords (3)

Max Mechanithralls (5)

Necrosurgeon (2)

Necrosurgeon (2)

Warwitch Siren (2)

Warwitch Siren (2)

Ragman (2)

Know Yourself, and Go In Swinging,

I_Avian

P.S. I would be super happy for any extra detail on this theme force. Though I will enjoy the probably not true wishful thinking that I might want to buy five units of Cephalyx Overlords.

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