Cryx Battle-box Rant
I had a miniature games meet yesterday afternoon with most of the usual group (sans one who is currently on holidays in the Philippines) but with the addition of my sister's boyfriend. I didn't even know he played, but stumbled across him in the facebook page of the districts (semi?)official facebook page. He bought a Cygnar battle-box purely because he liked the look of the steam-punk models. This meant he was new to actually playing the game, so I gathered up Denegrah and her cronies for a battle-box game to teach him the rules...
DENEGRAH DOES NOT HELP ANYONE LEARN THE GAME
Don't get me wrong - I love playing with her, but how the hell did she make it to the battle-box? BB games should give players an introduction to rules - Where Denny excels at stopping opponents from doing anything.
Ok, so I have line-of-sight to your Deathripper yeah? So I can charge which lets me move speed+3?
Nope. Sorry. Denny cast crippling grasp on your unit which prevents him from charging. Also it lowers your speed by 2, so you can't reach me by standard movement either.
Ok, so you're Deathripper is hitting me with Power+Strength 13, I have 18 armor so that's dice minus 5?
Nope. Sorry again. I had popped my feat (-2), upkept crippling grasp (-2) and cast parasite (-3). That brings your armor to...
At this point, my opponent went insane, smashing aside the models, stripping off and running around smearing feces on the walls. Not really, but this is what Denegrah does - debuffs and frustrates the enemy into painting with poo.
My poorly-painted Denegrah points and laughs as yet another opponent opts for a turd-based color scheme for the living room.
She also seems vastly overpowered in the small battle-box games. Against most teams is just a case of cast crippling grasp on the opposing heavy and gang-up on the remaining light models. I think Khador players would suffer the most, as with one spell I can neutralize half of his entire army (they only have two heavies in the battle-box).
I still enjoy playing battle-box games with Denegrah and the (mostly) easy wins she seems to bring, but I think she should be replaced with Asphyxious or even Skarre so that other new battle-box players aren't forced to give up the game through sheer frustration.
Steve-O