Cephalyx Dominator

No mind is safe from the dominators of the Cephalyx. Using their considerable psychic powers, dominators bend the will of sell-swords and soldiers, forcing them to fight and die for inscrutable reasons. The enslaved are impervious to pain and willingly sacrifice their own lives to save that of their tormentors.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Officer
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Stealth
• Template:Anatomical Precision
• Template:Granted
• Template:Linchpin
• Template:Magic Ability
• Template:Sacrificial Pawn

Weapons

• Prosthetic Blades - 1" reach, P+S 11 melee weapon.

Spells

{{Category: Template:Seduction Spell }}[[Category: Template:Seduction Spell ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Operating Theater

Thoughts on Cephalyx Dominator

Cephalyx Dominator in a nutshell

Most decisions in a Cephalyx army boil down to a player's preferred ratio of monstrosities to drudges but the Dominator is what allows the player to add that personal customization to their army to fit their own play style. The Dominator can essentially steal any small or medium based unit from the large list of mercenaries and while we still don't get access to solos; Cephalyx's caster's strong spell lists usually have something devious to push your average merc unit over the edge on top of the Dominator giving them tough and the ability to spread out more with its max command range.

Combos & Synergies

• Alexia Ciannor & the Risen : Let see...how can we make the game's cheapest source of recycling more annoying? Oh I know, let's give them all tough and surround them with living models in the form of drudges that are also tough. Remember: when you create a thrall it becomes a solo and therefore loses the Dominator's tough buff.
• Kayazy Eliminators: They offer 5 anatomical precision attacks among them and their Dominator. That's 5 focus for your monstrosities. Otherwise they do what Kayazy girls do best. Contest and threaten solos.
• Croe's Cutthroats: Most Mercenaries sure wish they had an easy way to make these guys tough and get easy backstrikes. Cephalyx have both in the form of the Dominator's tough and Thexus's Telekinesis.
• Lady Aiyana & Master Holt are ranged firepower and a damage buff you can fit in in ways the Cephalyx can't normally do.
• Thorn Gun Mages: An tool box unit with tools Cephlyx don't usually have access to: Black Penny to un-jam Monstrosities, Incendiary to light things on fire, and you can never have enough Thunderbolt to move your opponents models into unsavory spots while playing Cephalyx. They die to a stiff breeze though.
• Dannon Blythe & Bull: only Dannon gains tough but she gives prey to the dominator - helping him to land seduction and be mat8 vs the choice target. It’s also one of the cheapest units a dominator can attach to.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Lynchpin shuts down the entire unit for a turn.
• The Mercenary unit can't take their normal CA, and some Merc units only get decent when they get that CA. For instance, Precursor Knights and Idrian Skirmishers.
• The only order a Ranking Officer can issue is Press Forward (plus any on their own card, which is zero for the Dominator). This means Merc units can't use speciliased orders such as Shield Wall, at least not until the Dominator dies.
• Against ranged attacks, he has Sac Pawn to protect himself, but in melee he is an actual liability thanks to Lynchpin. Sac Pawn also steers him towards big 10 man units, because you don't exactly want to use Aiyana as your Sac Pawn target. Basically him packing up Sac pawn did nothing to address the fact that you want to kill this guy turn one before he turns into a a big problem to your game plan.

Tricks & Tips

• Kill the Dominator turn 1 - that way you get a merc unit into your Cephalyx force without the Achilles heel of Linchpin.
• In Warroom, it is found under "Units" instead of "Attachments" for some odd reason.

Other

Trivia

• Originally released in a digital-only faction book Forces of Warmachine - Cephalyx expansion (2014)
• Reprinted in the Warmachine: Reckoning expansion (2015)