Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon

Template:Cryxbox2 This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

More than one thousand years of preparation has brought Asphyxious closer than ever to his goal of rising above the other lich lords to stand as Toruk’s most invaluable general. He alone holds the key to unleashing the terrible might of the Nightmare Empire. To aid him in his great work, Asphyxious has applied his impressive mastery of thrall runes to craft Vociferon, a skarlock perfectly equipped to serve as a conduit for souls. Vociferon’s battle standard of death and discord resonates with unholy intent, for it was made to collect the essences of all who perish within its reach and fuel Asphyxious’ fell sorceries.

Basic Info

Asphyxious

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat - Rites of Shadow

When an enemy model is forced, casts a spell, or spends 1 or more focus, fury, or essence points except to pay the tithe while in Asphyxious' Template:CTRL range, Asphyxious can remove d3 damage points and gains one soul token. If a model casts a spell by spending focus or fury, Rites of Shadow triggers only once. Rites of Shadow lasts for one round. Template:Tipbox

Abilities

• Template:Undead
• Template:Cull Soul
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]] (Template:Unyielding-alt)

Weapons

Daimonion
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				8				16
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Blood Boon

Spells

{{Category: Template:CalamityTemplate:Cloak of AshTemplate:HellfireTemplate:Hex BlastTemplate:Mobility }}[[Category: Template:CalamityTemplate:Cloak of AshTemplate:HellfireTemplate:Hex BlastTemplate:Mobility ]]

Vociferon

Abilities

• Template:Undead
• Template:Companion
• Template:Death Reaper
• Template:Magic Ability

Weapons

Claws
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				8

Spells

{{Category: Template:Spectral Leech AttackTemplate:Spell Slave }}[[Category: Template:Spectral Leech AttackTemplate:Spell Slave ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Black Industries
• Template:Dark Host
• Template:The Ghost Fleet
• Template:Scourge of the Broken Coast

Thoughts on Asphyxious3

Asphyxious3 in a Nutshell

Gaspy3 has two core abilities on his card - Mobility and Field Marshal: Unyielding. This makes all his warjacks faster moving and a lot harder to destroy in melee. Follow that up with support from Calamity and Cloak of Ash and feat to disrupt casters and that's Gaspy in a nutshell. Vociferon is a very efficient companion for Asphyxious3; he's basically a better Skarlock Thrall with a great soul collection ability.

Feat thoughts

His feat basically gives him a scary alpha turn and shuts down some forms of spellcasting. Essentially, the feat is a question to your opponent: are they willing to forgo spending resources on a critical turn in order to starve your caster of souls?

As such, the feat can also be used to intimidate or punish an opponent that wants to bring their strong alpha strike capabilities to bear on your army. It can sometimes be worth getting nothing from the feat in terms of souls if it means forcing your opponent into timid play, especially if you have a strong scenario presence.

To get the most mileage out of the feat, it is usually necessary to play Asphyxious far up the board so that he catches the enemy caster and their battlegroup, as well as any other spellcasting models. He will want a healthy camp on feat turn, possibly with Cloak of Ash on himself.

Spell thoughts

• Cloak of Ash is an excellent spell to protect high DEF models like Satyxis Raiders, who are already DEF 14 base, and DEF 16 against shooting with Force Barrier. Soul Hunters are another great target, and can maximize the spell's effect on enemy models due to their large base and ability to spread out via reposition and incorporeal. A special mention to Carrion Thralls, whose Prowl ability grants them Stealth under this spell.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Unlike most other casters that come with extra models, Gaspy3 is NOT a Warcaster unit, so Vociferon is a perma attachment (no Withershadow Combine for you!). That being said, with his automatic soul collection and Magic Ability [7] Spell Slave, Vociferon is a very good deal.
• He likes casting spells AND fueling jacks (well who doesn't), so he will often get short on focus, but he likes to play a bit forward (to use his good melee abilities and to activate Blood Boon). Be very aware of your opponent's assassination runs.
• You can't use Asphyxious3 alongside Asphyxious4, and #4 opens up a whole lot of army buildong shenanigans
• You really don't want a soul-laden Gaspy during your feat turn to be anywhere near a Thamarite Archon

Tricks & Tips

• Asphyxious3 is a fairly tanky caster with decent melee abilities. Don't commit him too early (he will still die quickly, especially if he is Knocked Down), but after that he's fairly capable to deal with things himself.
• Hexblast removes enemy upkeeps and animi only, not general buffs
• If you are going after a particularly hard target (looking at you colossals) with an armour buff, hit them with Calamity first and then your Hexblast as the damage from the Hexblast will be effectively POW15.
• When using Vociferon to collect souls vs other Soul Takers, Asphyxious needs to be the closest eligible model. Vociferon doesn't actually collect souls, he just extends the area Asphyxious can collect from.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Asphyxious3's main win condition is attrition, but he has decent magic assassination potential if you brought a node and your opponent went too hot during your feat turn. Remember that Vociferon has a way to remove Focus/Fury camp from range (even though his spell needs to hit).

Theme thoughts

What makes Slayer spam so strong with Gaspy3 is his combination of Unyielding, Carapace, and Mobility. Your Slayers are ARM 21 vs shooting and ARM 19 vs melee. They're so fast they can rocket up the board and prevent the enemy getting to the scenario, and position themselves to avoid getting charged. During 2017-2018 Gaspy3 was played almost exclusively in Black Industries with a whopping 9 Slayers, which used up 90 points of his 99 point allotment. However the 9-Slayer list fell from favour around 2019, partially due to the core theme rules getting updated in 2019.08 which removed the free arc nodes, but also opponents were learning how to play against it by sheer repetition.

That said, Slayer-spam is still a decent list that poses questions that some opponents may be hard-pressed to answer. These days most players run it with only 7 Slayers to free up the points now needed to get arc nodes and/or some of the other suggestions shown below.

• Mechanithralls with Brutes to serve as speed bumps and shield guards
• Warwitch Siren for extra focus.
• Warjacks:
  • Barathrum is a point-efficient warjack that benefits a lot from Mobility and Unyielding. Being able to Drag Below 8" back under Mobility can be hard to deal with for your opponents.
  • Deathjack - With Mobility and Unyielding, Deathjack is a scary killing machine under Asphyxious3. Hex Blast and Hellfire are the only spells DJ can utilize, but they are decent spells to cast with him.
  • Malice - can also achieve high levels of ARM via ghost shield.
  • See also the non-character warjack suggestions in #Battlegroup

• Barathrum, mentioned above, can also go in this theme.
• Satyxis Raiders are great under Cloak of Ash as they will go up to DEF18 against shooting that does not ignore dissimulation. Even DEF16 in melee is hard to deal with for many armies.

• Banes with Cloak of Ash to auto-trigger Stealth will cause trouble to your opponent.
• Bane Knights with Cloak of Ash become DEF 16 vs charges from living models, and ARM 18 while in B2B
• Darragh Wrathe is good support for the Banes, and can indirectly increase the ARM of your jacks vs living armies.

• Wrongeye & Snapjaw can also be used to enhance the brick even harder, as DEF13 jacks under Star Crossed are really hard to deal with for MAT6 or 7 heavies.

Battlegroup

File:Cankerworm.jpg

Cankerworm is Asphyxious' pet warjack that he can take in any theme.

• Cankerworm is Asphyxious' pet warjack that he can take in any theme. While Cankerworm has a harder time using Unyielding, he's still a very focus-efficient and annoying jack to deal with, especially with Reposition 5" from the bond coupled to Parry. But Cankerworm can also become surprisingly tanky under cloak of ash, with an effective 16/18 statline in melee to go with his 24 boxes.
• Inflictor - the shield-jack that pairs well with Unyielding for a good melee ARM.
• Kraken - Mobility raises the Kraken's threat range to 14", which is quite impressive, and Unyielding fixes his somewhat low armour of 19 (for a colossal). Asphyxious3 is only missing a way to easily fix his poor MAT6 (even if Calamity can work at some point).
• Slayer - Cheap heavy for more use out of Unyielding and Mobility
• Deathripper - Just a single arc node is enough to threaten any opponent of magic assassination if they give Asphyxious too much focus during his feat turn. It also allows Asphyxious to put Calamity on a juicy target without having to commit himself.

Other

Trivia

• Released in the Warmachine: Colossals expansion (2012)
• Nickname: Gaspy (a joke playing on the meaning of "Asphyxiate").

Video Battle Reports

• 2018.11 MBMeanMachine 75 points vs Abyslonia1
• Template:VBR