Slayer
An eerie glow pulsates from the Slayer's furnace, a frightful light illuminating even its eye sockets, suggesting some greater intelligence. After decades of Cryxian terror along the coasts, any greenish lights - like those found floating in the bogs and fens of Immoren - are often called "Cryxlights" by superstitious travelers.
Basic Info
Abilities
Weapons
| Death Claw (x2) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Sword icon.jpg | RNG | POW | P+S | LOCATION | |||||||||||
| 1 | 6 | 16 | 1 each side | ||||||||||||
| Tusks | |||||||||||||||
| File:Sword icon.jpg | RNG | POW | P+S | LOCATION | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 12 | Head | ||||||||||||
Theme Forces
- Cryx
- Template:Black Industries. Slayer gains Carapace in this theme.
- Template:Dark Host
- Template:Scourge of the Broken Coast. Slayer gains Gang Fighter in this theme.
- Template:The Ghost Fleet
- Other Factions
- Infernal players can use this model in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Mortenebra is leading the army. It gains Accumulator [Soulless] in this theme.
- Mercenary and Convergence players can use it by either:
- putting it under the control of Asphyxious4 in various themes,
- putting it under the control of Mortenebra in Template:Strange Bedfellows.
Thoughts on the Slayer
The Slayer in a Nutshell
The Slayer is Simplicity incarnate - aim at the enemy, beat face.
The Slayer is a cheap heavy warjack to field (it costs as little as other Faction's light warjacks). It is capable of sneaky tricks and dirty tactics when combined with various casters, but it will always be known as a straight-up melee fighter when simple, honest brutality is called for. And when isn't brutality needed?
Consider that, just by itself, with no extra focus other than power up, you have a warjack that:
- has three initial attacks,
- can hit most models with average rolls,
- smash moderate-to-high ARM targets with two solid hits, or
- swap the 3 initials to smash very high ARM targets with a Combo-Strike.
That's an incredible deal for the points cost!
Lastly it has Open Fists, meaning the ever-useful Throw Power Attacks are available.
Combos & Synergies
Non-casters
- Carapace from Black Industries fixes one of its major weaknesses, which is losing its arm systems from a few moderate POW shots.
- A Warwitch Siren can Power Boost it for one focus, giving it enough to charge into combat.
- A Necrotech can repair the Slayer's crippled systems. No more skill check.
- Black Ogrun Ironmongers - curse (mat9) is fantastic and healing is useful
Casters
- Asphyxious3 makes him shine with Mobility and his Field Marshal[Unyielding].
- Mortenebra makes this 'jack hell on wheels against living models,
- while Deneghra1's spells like Crippling Grasp and Parasite make it lethal to even the toughest warjacks. Subtle spells like Ghost Walk allow it to freely maneuver around the battlefield.
- Infernal Machine from the The Witch Coven of Garlghast will make a Slayer both speedier and more accurate in melee.
- Goreshade1's Shadowmancer spell will increase its damage output while protecting it from ranged attacks.
Drawbacks & Downsides
The Slayer is not a bad warjack as such, but it is a cheap warjack. The cheapness always comes with a sacrifice to performance, and in the case of the Slayer those sacrifices are:
- Low durability. The Slayer hits hard, but it cannot take a hit back.
- The Slayer embodies the Cryx "Glass Blade" approach to warjacks; either they hit hard and take out their target, or get hit first and are destroyed with ease.
- A Slayer can't take a charge on the chin and still be there next turn; nor multiple ranged attacks to the face, it will die or at very least be crippled.
- Easily crippled. The combination of low durability and poor damage grid layout makes it very easy for at least one of its arms to be shot off before it gets into combat.
- Note that this means you lose the ability to do Combo Strikes, as well as losing the effectiveness of one of your initial attacks. Losing one arm can more than halve your damage output.
- Somewhat pillow-fisted. In comparison to other faction's heavy warjacks, the P+S on the Deathclaws is a bit mediocre.
Another minor downside is the disparity in P+S between the Tusks and the Claws. If you go against a heavy target the Tusks will barely scratch the paint job, but if you go against a lighter target that the Tusks can damage then the Claws will be complete overkill. Although: the tusks aren't really intended to enhance it's raw damage potential, and should be seen as a nice (little) boost to slams, 'butts and anti-light power.
Tricks & Tips
- The Slayer is great as either a piece trade (tempting an enemy heavy to charge and wreck it, but be left open for your army to kill it next turn) or to be held back until the late game, when fewer models are alive still capable of tearing apart a warjack.
- If you're charging single-wound infantry with ARM around 18-20, you're better to use the Tusks as the charge attack. Assuming average dice:
- Tusks (charge) = 12 + 3d6 = 20.5 on average
- Claws = 16 + 2d6 = 22 damage on average
- If you did it the other way, it'd be
- Claw (charge) = 16 + 3d6 = 24.5 on average (complete overkill)
- Tusks = 12 + 2d6 = 19 on average (probably no kill)
- When going up against a heavy target, try to position yourself so that you have at least one infantry in range, and use your Tusk attack against that model.
- One of the big advantages of combo strike is that is can significantly speed up your turn. If you are playing on a clock, this is an effective way to save a great deal of time, even if you end up losing some damage. This is particularly good to do if you are strapped for focus.
- Material type
Other
Trivia
- Released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)
- Sculptor: John Winter
Other Cryx models
Rules Clarifications
Template:RC Open Fist Template:RC Combo Strike Template:RC Hard Head Template:RC Warjack Template:RC Construct