Kryssa, Conviction of Everblight

Kryssa's found herself in the service of Talys, one of the dragon’s warlocks. Talys had been a talented sorceress under the tutelage of Vayl and had just recently been elevated by receiving a shard of Everblight’s athanc. However Talys was slain by the dragon Scaefang while passing through the wilds of Rhul during the Great Hunt, when all of Everblight’s kin organized against him. Feeling a powerful impulse to prevent its consumption, Kryssa hastened to Talys’ charred remains and recovered her athanc shard even as Scaefang descended to claim the shard as his prize. Kryssa thrust the shard into her own heart and rushed away, evading the dragon, all the while thinking only of preserving Everblight’s inextinguishable essence. Guided by Everblight's will she made it safely back to his Legion. She knelt before Thagrosh and offered the stone to him, though its removal would kill her, so he could find someone worthy. But instead Everblight found her worthy to carry the heartstone and christened her the Conviction of Everblight

Basic Info

This model is a Warlock.

Warlock Rules A warlock is an Independent Model. a Leader model. a Battlegroup Controller controls warbeasts. Warlocks use Fury Manipulation Uses ARC to determine how many fury points it gains each turn. Begins the game with a number of fury points equal to its ARC. Cannot exceed its ARC stat in fury points as a result of leeching. Can spend fury points only during its activation (unless a special rule states otherwise) for the following: Buy additional attacks Boost attack rolls Boost damage rolls Shake some effects Can leach fury points from warbeasts in its battlegroup in its control range. Spirit Bond allows the warlock to gain a fury for each of its dead battlegroup warbeasts. Reaving allows the warlock to pull fury points from a warbeast in its battlegroup when it dies.

Feat - Rage of the Dragon

While in Kryssa's Template:CTRL range, friendly Faction models gain +3 STR and their melee weapons gain the Fire continuous effect. Rage of the Dragon lasts for one turn.

Abilities

• Template:Set Defense
• Template:Total Obedience

Weapons

Spear
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				6				13
Template:Magical Damage Template:Sustained Attack

Spells

{{Category: Template:Cloak of AshTemplate:EnergizerTemplate:Howling FlamesTemplate:Ignite

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Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon. She gains Tactician [Blighted] in this theme.
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation. In this theme she can start the game with friendly upkeeps in play. Also, enemy models that end their activation within 2" of her suffer continuous corrosion.
• Template:Primal Terrors
• Template:Ravens of War

Thoughts on Kryssa, Conviction of Everblight

File:Kryssa.png

2016 Battlebox sculpt

Kryssa, Conviction of Everblight in a nutshell

Kryssa is the Mk3 "battlebox caster" for Legion. As such she is designed to be relatively simple to learn and straightforward to use. If you're learning the game, it is best to use her vs one of the other battlebox casters because they're all designed to have roughly the same power level. None of them are top tier casters, as they lack the flexibility or strength to be top contenders... the preceding comments where made before her CID debut if you have purchased a box set and it includes her physical cards you may notice some significant differences between what is written here and what you have in front of you - make sure to use the Warmachine Card Database for her up to date rules as she has now become one of the stronger battlebox casters with a kit that is now richer and deeper when you expand into infantry options.

Her toolbox offers a decent defensive buff 2 offensive buffs (one tied to the feat) and two mobility enhancements; one for her Battlegroup , and one for her army. Her personal manoeuvrability and offensive potential are bolstered via Energizer and Howling Flames. Set Defense is her only personal defensive tech, which won't come much into play in the battlebox fights, but can be bolstered further in later games.

Kryssa isn't an active caster unless an enemy puts an especially tempting assassination option out into her impressive personal threat range. Normally she prefers to hang back and keep buffs cycling where necessary, since her personal defensive stats are mediocre. She also has Sustained attack on her spear, which is nice to have, but not something you should build your strategy on. By making friendly warriors Tough and with 3 unit wide buffs she can cycle as the situation requires she is primarily an infantry focused warlock who can support a slightly larger Battlegroup than most.

Feat thoughts

Kryssa wants a lot of melee models for her feat turn, as the STR bonus won't buff a gun (unless it's a spear in the hands of the Ogrun Warspears, whom she likes very much for this reason). The feat is best served with an alpha strike, but if that opportunity doesn't present itself, it can make a counterattack very potent. The continuous fire portion of the feat is decent, but whatever stays alive after a proper brawl, will rarely be affected by some flame on top of it. Mainly in the battlebox games, the feat can also be saved if you plan on playing strictly for the Kryssa "directly to the forehead" assassination, as she'll need it to reliably threaten most casters in the game.

Don't forget, it is an "aura" feat, not a "pulse" effect, so you must be within Kryssa's CTRL area by the time you strike to reap the benefits. It has many similarities with Maddox' feat, but this is an exclusive STR bonus - it applies to Throw and Slam distances too (something that will not come into play too much in the battlegroup fights, since only the Nephilim can slam, and the Neraph can throw, and power attacking with them is not the favoured way of their use).

Spell thoughts

• Cloak of Ash - Best applied to a model you want to make obnoxious to remove, or a unit that needs a little help arriving at the front lines. Stacks well with Prowl.
• Howling Flames - Your only offensive spell, but with great range and since sprays ignore most of the defensive penalties (concealment, cover, stealth, target in melee), they can be really useful for your average FURY pool.
• Energizer - Improves Kryssa’s own personal assassination threat and helps her Battlegroup engage on their terms. Ranged models such as Azrael find it easier to aim after Energizer.
• Tactical Supremacy - This spell is good on a slow moving unit to get them to the fight quicker, or to a unit that wants to clump for attacks but be spread out afterwards. It can also go on a single model if desired.
• Ignite allows for a +5 damage swing on feat turn and is generally a great damage buff.

Battlebox Fights

When playing the battlebox fights, you'll soon experience the faction's defining traits; namely that it has excellent mobility, but it is not designed for protracted combat.

• Use Cloak of Ash to deliver your models into charging distance
• Cast Tactical Supremacy on your Nephilim to juggle with threat ranges.
• Use Energizer to get into a proper position to attack.
• Use Ignite to trade up (to have lower value models like the Neraph hurt high armour targets like a Titan Gladiator)

Once in range, feat, and use your models to either grind down the enemy models, or deliver a deathblow personally with Kryssa. Her threat range is an impressive 13 inches (2" from Energizer, 6 SPD, 3" charge, 2" melee reach), which is semi-non linear. You should do this only under your feat, as using the full extent of your assassination run will leave you with only 4 fury, which can often be too few to end a caster or warlock.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Below-average defensive stats. Her solemn personal defensive trick works only on charges.
• Three upkeeps and expensive utility spells leaves little for transfers. Succubus strongly recommended.
• She does nothing to help you hit, although when you do hit you can do a lot of damage.

Tricks & Tips

Since she is a battlebox caster, and will often be selected by new players, here are some tricks with her that will serve you well throughout the later gaming too:

• Tactical Supremacy can be spell cycled to affect two units in a turn. You do this by putting it on a unit the turn before, upkeeping the spell and using that unit/beast first, before activating Kryssa, and then putting the spell on a different unit/beast.
• Want to deliver a SPD 5 warbeast to 11" without feat or charge? Cast Tactical Supremacy on it, then Trample forward (5+3"). It will not end your activation, and allows you to use the 3" reposition. This trick will get your best 1" farther than running.
• If you managed to trigger sustained attack, it continues to apply as long as you hit that target on which it was triggered. As soon as you start to hit another models, it ceases, and you cannot "return" later to buy auto-hits on that target.
• Thanks to Energizer she threats 13 inches and hits every attack automatically after the first. This makes her assassination run actually pretty scary. Use it to keep your opponent on their toes.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Beyond the battlebox fights described above, bigger games will open up more possibilities to her army but less to her personal assassination, as enemy casters and lock will muster plenty of tools to deter you from such runs. Still, with your buffs you can (and should) plan on winning the attrition game.

Kryssa does nothing for accuracy so she prefers troops with naturally high MAT/RAT, of which there are an abundance in legion. Beyond that total obedience lets her run any infantry fairly well and Incubi can really hold zones in scenario play.

Theme thoughts

As stated above, an army with a large volume of attacks serves Kryssa well. Bring at least one target that will benefit from Ashen Veil well, and another that can use Tactical Supremacy in more way that one if possible. This list has the best of the Blighted Nyss at your disposal, and the three character beasts, Azrael, Zuriel and Typhon serve as the core of her list building.

• Azrael - He gains Unyielding here, making him that much more scary of a beast. For a more detailed analysis see under "Battlegroup"
• Blight Archon - A supreme buffing and fury management tool. Dragon's Blood is a fail safe on her against would be assassination attempts and means she can play a bit more forward. Meanwhile one Archon can run Zuriel as a work horse and another can run all those support beasts like the McShredder, Nagas or Bloodseers for her.
• Swordsmen - Cloak of Ash stacked with Blade Shield gives them DEF 18 against shooting, and effective DEF 16 in melee, meaning they only need to blast damage or accurate sprays going in. And Kryssa's feat and Ignite on Swordsmen will go a long way to blowing everything off the map.
• Blighted Nyss Legionnaires with their Command Attachment they are pretty much her best choice for infantry. Her feat and Ignite makes them hit that much harder, bringing their damage number to respectable levels if also affected by Battle Driven. Hold Ranks, Total Obedience and Vengeance make for a nice no-knock-down-tough-vengeance combo that helps deliver them on top of Battle Driven.
• Raptors - Ashen Veil puts their DEF up to 16, which is problematic even for elite ranged troops, but their mounts won't benefit from the feat and they will probably not be in her tough bubble either. BUT - Ignite on Raptors affects both its weapon master attack AND impact attack from the mount as it adds +2 to all melee damage rolls.
• Hex Hunters - Under the feat their blows are more telling, providing you with bigger chance to trigger Battle Wizard.
• Blackfrost Shard - Your feat won't solve everything on its own - sometimes a bit of additional buffing is all you need. The Ice Cage also helps with accuracy issues.
• Ice Witches - The provide MAT fixing in two ways; Ice Cage and Puppet Master, which is very important for her as she fixes damage like nothing else but does nothing for your odds of hitting. Puppet Master can also make you land that crucial first hit on the enemy caster for sustained attack. Her assassination is thus very scary.
• Incubi - Kryssa's infantry (that is Legionaries or Swordsmen, or both) are usually very hard to take down due to their own good stats plus Total Obedience as well as Ashen Veil on them. Nothing will be more frustrating for your opponent than finally killing a trooper, then realising they just made another tough models spawn.
• Typhon - Damage buffs stack really well on models with multiple attacks and Typhon has 3 initials so long as his heads are all alive and Energizer extends his threat range.
• Virtue Champion - Just a great combat solo with two initials and a boosting mechanic to make excellent use of her feat.
• Zuriel under the care of a Blight Archon is an extremely potent piece thanks to Sprint which only gets scarier under her feat. Ashen Veil + Unyielding is also amazing for his defensive profile and makes him nigh impossible to dislodge. It can actually be safer for him to sprint into the melee range of something rather than away from it, due to the +2 ARM and DEF while engaged.

Free upkeeps in the first turn, teleporting stealthy Hex Hunters - that sounds cool. Usually a beast-heavy list, which delivers a punishing blow under the feat, but Kryssa's support can be put to good use here too.

• Throne of Everblight - The Throne has few direct synergy outside her feat (and occasionally, Tactical Supremacy), but the P+S 19 attacks help you to make the most out of Necrophage.
• Thagrosh0 - He brings an important control element to her list in Blight Burst and with Fog of War and Ashen Veil you can give a decnet part of her army Concealment. He notably runs any kind of beast very well and supplys you with free animi, so he does wonders for her focus efficiency. Notably, he can run a Raek which will do lots of work on her feat turn and use its abilities and speed to knock down models with a headbutt, which Thags can then Blight Burst, so it cannot shake knock down. Also you get the synergy with Hex Hunters here, who gain Shadow Bind from their CA, which can normally also be shaken, but not under Blight Burst.
• Blackfrost Shard, Hex Hunters, Virtue Host, Incubi and Ice Witches, mentioned above, are in this theme too.
• Proteus is an awesome Warbeast, who loves Energizer for threat extension and provides Drag and Crawling Chaos.

Kryssa has near perfect synergy with this theme. Among tough Hellmouths and the swing in melee power from Ignite and the feat, it will be a hard hitting and hard to remove list. Gorag and Rottwings mean the list fixes its own MAT, which is excellent given Kryssa does nothing for that. The main downside is the limited fury management, which amounts to Forsaken and Mekanoshredders.

• Warspears enjoy both the reposition, and Ashen Veil too. The former will probably be more useful to get some breathing space after an attack, but a DEF14 vs shooting and charges (DEF16 vs living models' charge) is not bad either. With Prey from their UA and the feat they'll hit with an effective POW 18, that will surely leave a mark. If you want to go crazy - cast Ignite on them on a feat turn and enjoy POW 18 assault shot followed by effective P+S 20 (P+S 13 + feat + Prey + Ignite) melee attack. Full unit with UA can wipe out even the toughest Skorne/Khador heavy or two.
• Blighted Ogrun Warmongers - Warmongers are dogged by their low-ish DEF and Cloak of Ash can offer remedy. Also, even a single model hitting home with P+S 17 under your feat can cause quite a lot of carnage among infantry with Berserk.
  • Gorag an essential model for Kryssa, as he provides a -2 DEF to enemy models.
• Chosen of Everblight - The brickiest of the Ogrun. Ignite also works on Impact Attacks, while the feat does not. On a feat turn with Ignite on them you can crank it up to POW 16 impact attack followed by effective P+S 20 cavalry charge attack. They are excellent with her!
• Hellmouths - Most players are already not excited having to remove Hellmouths from the field. Now add tough to that. Yeah, you are not going to make friends with this list.
• Blighted Rotwings - can be a great screen with Total Obedience and offer a bit of hit fixing. With +3 STR and Finisher they hit surprisingly hard, too.
• Golab - The second best warbeast in the faction, he massively appreciates the STR buff from the feat and Ashen Veil for a 15/17 statline.
• Thagrosh0 is also in this theme.

Template:Header Kryssa runs Ravens just fine. There are probably caster who get more out of it, but among Golab, Raptors and Rotwings (see above) she can run a decent and of course hard hitting list. Notable are also the free Nyss Sorceresses who can give Azrael a free charge and double up on anti shooting tech.

• Grotesque Raiders - They also hit decently hard under feat and Ignite thanks to Gang.
• Grotesque Banshees - With Ashen Veil and Force Barrier they become night unshootable.
• Strider Scouts provide a nice bit of fury efficiency and really appreciate Tactical Supremacy, with Ashen Veil they can be far forward and jam and be a nuicance to get rid of.

• Succubus - She provides a free upkeep and can hand out crucial clouds to block LOS on you.
• Forsaken - Fury Management on a stick and a melee combat solo with a boosting mechanic to boot! On feat turn it has two P+S 15 claws with potentially 5 fury for buys or boosts.
• Spell Martyr - An arc node to get some very nice howling flames angles are always good, especially if they are so cheap.
• Blighted Nyss Shepherd - Just a very nice and cheap solo to take over some of your warcaster duties and an extension of her already sizeable CTRL are.

Battlegroup

Kryssa prefers warbeasts with a strong melee game as she is a giant force multiplier with her feat and Ignite and at FURY 7 she is pretty adept at running her beasts effectively. However, outsourcing beasts to Blight Archons is not a bad idea since most melee-centric beasts will prefer Sprint to Energizer and can receive Ignite and the feat regardless of whether they are part of her battlegroup or not. Many players will even go so far as to put their support beasts (Naga, Bloodseer, McShredder) and Azriel, who actually prefer Energizer to Sprint, on her and put the work piece heavies on Blarchons. Keep this in mind when looking through the below list.

• Heavy
  • Angelius - With the feat and Ignite that is a POW 19 Armor Piercing tail strike, which is certainly something. Angelius and Azrael fill her WBPs exactly, so it's a nice budget option.
  • Azrael - Azrael is her pet warbeast she can take in any theme, and chances are she should. With Ashen Veil and either Dragon's Blood from an archon or TacSup from herself he becomes very difficult to take down and on feat turn he can throw two P+S 20 bolts at people. Since Kryssa is predisposed to play in the Children theme, he will gain Unyielding there as well.
  • Neraph - Your "heavy hitter", not even in the faction's, but in the battlebox' context. It is fast, accurate, and sports outstanding DEF for a heavy, but compared to the brawlers of the other factions, hits with a much lower strength. Its mobility from Sprint won't come up too often in the battlegroup fights, but will serve you well, if there are more squishier models to hunt. With Ignite it can be quite impressive even outside of the feat turn. Use it as a finisher piece to deliver the deathblow for weakened enemies, and shelter it with terrain and Ashen Veil until then.
  • Seraph - She lacks tools to fix RAT/MAT for her army, so the flare is always nice. And extra movement from Slipstream can be gold with Energizer and Tactical Supremacy.
  • Scythean - Murderous makes MAT 6 sting less and on a feat turn POW 20 (POW 22 with Ignite) Thresher's are a thing of beauty. A source of Grievous Wounds is also a good thing in any list. She tremendously improves its low-ish SPD as you can cast Tactical Supremacy on him and abuse Trample (as it doesn't end you activation) to make it move 5 + 3 + 3" to get 1" further than running. Add Energizer on top and it can move up to 13" non-linear to get into convenient position to go for an assassination the next turn.

• Light
  • Nephilim Bloodseer - Effective FURY 9 Howling Flames are a very potent tool. On feat turn it also randomly hits way above it's weight class
  • Naga Nightlurker - The enemy will likely do everything to buff his DEF/ARM on critical units with spells, when he meets your feat. A Naga will make all those attempts futile. Ashen Veil on it will trigger Prowl and keep it safe from ranged attacks.
  • Nephilim Protector - Her DEF is low, and a Protector can go a long way towards keeping Kryssa not dead. With Ashen Veil and Guard Dog you are protected by a whooping DEF 20 against charges from living models without Chain Strike, plus the protector's animus protects against knocked down or stationary as well.

• Lesser
  • Mechanoshredder honestly as you will mostly be forcing for attack rolls with Kryssa as your warlock the option for free charges and a warbeast that can’t frenzy is very useful.
  • Shredders - She is nowhere near as adept at running these as Absyslonia2, but + 3 STR and Flank can make these hit very hard for 3 pts pieces. You probably should not buy them when list building but are a great option for your spawning vessel to create. And if for some reason you play her in Ravens of War they can help your ranged models due to Mark Target they get in that theme.

Starting a 25 point Brawl list

In 2021.01 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.

Theme - Children of the Dragon

Kryssa, Conviction of Everblight: [+31 WBP]

• Azrael: [19 pts]
• Nephilim Bloodseer: [8 pts]
• Mekanoshredder: [4 pts]

Craelix, Fang of Everblight: [Free] Template:Grey

Blighted Nyss Shepherd: [1 pt]

Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Max unit): [13 pts]

• Command Attachment: [4 pts]

Ice Witches: [7 pts]

Total RRP: USD $239 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.05)

Other

Trivia

• Released in 2016.06 in the battlebox set
• Resculpted in 2021 as a standalone model.