The Pirate Queen Skarre has always been one of the warcasters that makes me consider Cryx from time to time. Finances and sanity actually prevent me from going through with it, but the thought comes up from time to time. Plus, she's just brutal to go against in general: once her feat goes off, I always leave myself thinking, “She just obliterated half of my army. I can't kill hers,” usually followed by that mental expletive. Generally though, when you see her on the field, she's typically pretty troop heavy. Soulhunters, Mechanithralls, and Satyxis are in plentiful supply when she's around because they have multiple attacks and get amazing buffs from Dark Guidance and Blood Magic. But can she run a 'jack heavy list effectively?
Skarre gets a lot of focus unless something has gone horribly wrong. Anywhere between 7 and 12, most commonly 9 or 10. Sure, 4 of these are going to be spent on Dark Guidance. But that leaves you with 3-9 focus to play with. You can camp some for armor. Or you can spell-sling. Or you can hand it to 'jacks. I intend to experiment with the latter one, and she's got quite a few toys to work with in that department. Looking to make a quick 35-point list, I looked at warjacks that don't mind getting that huge melee boost from her feat. Lots of these are bonejacks. Seeing the look on an opponent's face as their massive heavy is maimed or even boxed by a lowly bonejack because of Skarre's feat has to be satisfying. Of course, Cryx has heavies, too. And nothing spells overkill like a helljack on steroids.
I had quite a few choices, but I was leaning towards things like multiple attacks available and the ability to hit hard. 'Jacks that seemed to fit that bill included Ripjaws, Stalkers, Cankerworm, Slayers, Seethers, Nightmare, and Harrowers. That's a lot to narrow down from. For this list I ultimately decided on 2 Stalkers, a Ripjaw, a Deathripper (for points; could be a third Stalker), and Nightmare. The Stalkers can be the long flank and are deadly once they get back within Skarre's actual 12, buffed to the max and ignoring a lot of buffs. Ripjaw has an armor piercing attack that's a brutal P+S 15 on the feat, plus it's got an arc node. So does the Deathripper, and while sustained hurts the purpose of Dark Guidance a bit, there's nothing like a sustained P+S 18 on [insert target here]. Nightmare on Skarre's feat is just pure overkill. The claws (with Reach) get buffed up to P+S 23 individually (Or a whopping pow 29 combo strike!) with the prey bonus, which will rarely miss with the effective MAT 10 – even high-DEF 'casters like Caine are hit on average dice. These 'jacks, once buffed by her feat, become menaces, and she's going to have focus to spread around.
I threw a few troops into the mix to balance out the list: 10 Mechanithralls, 6 Blood Witches, the obligatory Skarlock, and a Pistol Wraith. The McThralls are cheap, hit hard (especially with Skarre's feat), and are easy fodder for Ritual Sacrifice. The Blood Witches are cheaper than the Raiders, and though they lack reach they can throw around some interesting effects, as well as cloud things up to cover the advance of your troops. The Pistol Wraith is ranged support, as he can pick off some easy targets or slow a bigger one for a turn while you advance.
At some point I'm going to want to try this out. I have a friend who plays Cryx that occasionally says he wants to try Khador... maybe I'll run this one by him. In theory, it could be devastating. In practice? We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?
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