Over the weekend, along with 7th edition being released Privateer Press released its latest issue of No Quarter and it held quite a few previews, including all the initial model releases for the latest Mercenary sub-faction, the Cephalyx. Originally an ally entry in the Cryx book, it has finally entered the Mercenary book after a long wait. And how unique they are, with their primary engines of destruction being called Monstrosities. Much like last year’s Convergence Vectors, they have their own ruleset that makes them the most unique yet for Warmachine. These Monstrosities are giant, fleshy, tough to kill humanoid monsters incapable of thinking for themselves and dominated by their Overlords.

Monstrosities are another hybrid of Warjack and Warbeasts, but unlike the Vectors who are closer to Fury-efficiency, Monstrosities hold a near equal functionality level to Warbeasts than Warjacks. Warcasters are allowed to spend Focus to heal these Monstrosities to near full function much like Warlocks and their Warbeasts. The disconnect that doesn’t hold equal level is that Warcasters can’t allocate in the Control Phase to Monstrosities with a Crippled Brain, thereby rendering them the same problem as Warjacks with a Crippled Cortex, even when repaired later. Convergence is the only one who gets around this fully with their Interface Nodes. Their weapon and movement systems though are on par with Warbeasts, and a Cephalyx Warcasters will recover it to full function in no time during the turn. Before continuing, Monstrosities have a new system a Brain instead of a Cortex. Normally you’d think they’d have similar mind functions as Warjacks, but the Cephalyx have all but wiped clean their test subjects, rendering Bonds being unable to be formed. And just like with Convergence’s Interface Node, a Brain is not a Cortex. These monsters are obviously living, but have Grids like Warjacks. They can do everything that a Warjack can do otherwise with full access to the same Power Attacks, and are rendered Inert when a Warcaster is killed. Currently the initial lineup is 3 Heavies: Subduer, Warden, and Wrecker.

All 3 Heavies share the following: they’re cheap, their MAT and RAT sucks, they have Eyeless Sight, they have a full Grid of 36 boxes(!), and finally have a Base ARM of 17. They’re closest to the Woldwarden for durability, trading a point of ARM for a Health Box. If you can kill that Circle Heavy, you can take these guys out. Beyond that, each one of them fulfills a unique role in the army.

First, the Subduer. He has an AOE gun that does no damage and all his special abilities with said weapon require a direct hit. Quake: Direct hit everyone is KD, Catch: Direct hit the model gets dragged directly towards you. He then starts putting a hurt on you with little effort. And if he doesn’t do the job, he’ll have a few buddies nearby to finish you off.

Next up is the Warden, and he is the cheapest of the lot….by a point. Better ARM too with that big head of his, and its a battering ram too. And Shield Guard. With Two Arms. Seriously if it wasn’t for the fact his PS is the lowest of the bunch and he didn’t have counter slam he’d probably be taken more times than anyone would care to count for the future offensively. Defensively is another matter, as not only does he have Shield Guard, but their most critical pieces have Sacrifical Pawn Monstrosity. A better ARM on a cheaper chassis makes all the difference for this overgrown guard dog. Instead that honor is more than likely going to go to the final one.

The basic summary on the Wrecker is they combined a Scythean and a Templar. Beat Back + Chain Weapon + Chain Attack: Blood Bath = Not good times. Fortunately compared to both they’ll resist more damage but with all the Telekinetic and Pushes the Cephalyx have going for them, the Wrecker may line up a Heavy to hit and take down with him a whole group of infantry for the ride. This one is the definition of pain and not in a good way.

All of them though suffer from similar problems, and that’s how low their ARM is. Being able to heal them does help a lot, but concentrated effort will ruin their day like nothing else. There is an extra caveat about their horrendous MAT and RAT. Of special note is the Cephalyx Agitator, a solo with 3 spells: Influence, Instigate, and Psychic Assault. The first spell is the same Cost 1 spell on a number of warcasters, Cephalyx included, while the third is their standard attack seen on previous Cephalyx models. Instigate however creates a 5″ bubble around the solo where he can increase +2 to hit and damage rolls for Monstrosities and the Drudges, mindless slaves of the Cephalyx. That makes these 3 previously mentioned models being more dangerous than first looks are led to believe. And with Sacrifical Pawn Monstrosity, you’ll need a bit of a trick to kill them before these big guys hit hard. That’s all for now, expect these guys to start dropping in after Lock and Load in June, more than likely July or August.