On Friday at TempleCon, Privateer Press unveiled a new Mercenary Contract for Warmachine: Cephaylx. Here’s the skinny:
For the uninitiated, cephalyx are the Iron Kingdoms equivalent to illithids of D&D fame. They are a mysterious race that lives mostly underground with a talent for psychically enslaving others to do their bidding. Taller and frailer than humans, the cephalyx are known to kidnap, surgically alter, and mentally dominate others to create their enourmous armies, the product of such tortures being what is called a drudge. In battle, cephaylx command their drudges into battle while waging psychic assaults against their enemies.
A Cephalyx Mind Bender surrounded by several drudge slaves
Until now, cephaylx have existed in Warmachine as allies to Cryx, but their larger place in the setting has been rather limited. Their only units until this announcement have been the Cephaylx Mind Slaver & Drudges and the Cephaylx Overlords. Soon, this modest beginning will amount to a full-fledged Mercenary Contract with their own unique brand of warjacks called Monstrosities.
As seen above, monstrosities will function just like warjacks save for a few caveats. Since they are living models, they will be vulnerable to attacks and abilities that specifically affect living models, in that they will generate soul and corpse tokens in addition to countless other interactions. Likewise, they are not technically warjacks, so they won’t be vulnerable to abilities that specifically affect warjacks, like Dominate. As they do not have a cortex system, they won’t be affected by abilities like Cortex Damage. Instead, monstrosities will have a brain system that seems to function like a cortex in all other ways.
(left to right) Subduer, Wrecker, Warden
There are currently three monstrosities that have been revealed for the Cephalyx: the melee-oriented Wrecker with its paired chain weapons, the combined arms Subduer with its arm blade and net gun, and the defensive Warden with its steam clamps, buckler, and an implication of Counter Slam as described in the preview video.
Warden
David “DC” Carl and Will Schick describe the monstrosities as having low defensive stats while also having full 36-box damage grids with aggressively-low price points of 7 or below. While none of the monstrosities have incredible native damage stats, they’ll be able to rely on the presence of the Cephalyx Agitator solo to increase their accuracy and hitting power, an ability also extending to all Cephaylx models.
Exulon Thexis
The first warcaster for Cephaylx will be Exulon Thexis. Described as being a fragile warcaster, he boasts an impressive FOC stat of 8 in addition to having a host of thematic spells and abilities, like Telekinesis, a feat that will mess with the positioning of enemy models, and multiple mind control abilities.
In terms of his ability to interact with monstrosities, Thexis can channel through any of his monstrosities as if they had arc nodes and has an ability to allow him to heal them.
Wrecker
Other previewed and teased releases include the Dominator, a unit attachment that allows the Cephalyx to field non-Cephalyx mercenary units like Boomhowler & Co., Alexia, or Horgenhold Forge Guard. However, if the Dominator is destroyed, there is an implication that the unit will flee the battlefield, so you’ll want to keep the Dominator protected at all times.
Cephalyx Mind Bender
The last previewed unit is the Cephalyx Mind Bender and Drudges. The Mind Bender is apparently a spellcaster of sorts that uses the ocular ports of its drudge slaves as arc nodes for his spells. Unfortunately, the effort consumes the slave and kills it.
That’s it for the Cephalyx previews. Look for a full unveiling of the Cephalyx at Lock & Load in just a few months. Ohh, those monstrosities are going to fly off shelves.
Relasine is a veteran tabletop wargamer with over 10 years of experience. His specialty is Privateer Press' Warmachine & Hordes gamesystem. He began writing for BoLS in 2010.
