Privateer Press at Templecon: Part 1 - Warmachine

On Friday, Privateer Press held a keynote presentation at the Templecon convention. It was quite the show and if you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it here: http://www.twitch.tv/privateerpress/b/501465395.

They revealed quite a bit about the future of the Warmachine/Hordes universe.

WARMACHINE NEW MERC FACTION: CEPHALYX

No longer just helping Cryx, Cephalyx steps out on their own.

The big reveal for Warmachine was a new sub-faction for within the Mercenaries; the Cephalyx. These are a race of people who live beneath the surface of Caen, who have mental powers that rival Charles Xavier. The Cephalyx is about controlling those who they see beneath them (who just happen to be above them, physically). Those that they do control, they alter, swapping out hands for weapons. They control them through various in-game abilites, either through joining units or models within a radius, increasing stats or damage. These slaves lose their individuality and seem to lack the ability to feel pain. Prior to this release, the Cephalyx only had a minor role in the Cryx faction. 

One of Cephalyx' big, nasty monstrosities.

The faction also introduces a new type of model: monstrosities. These model function as the Cephalyx' version of warjacks. They differ, however, in a number of ways. Firstly, they don't count as "constructs" like jacks do. These models are living. Thus, what spells and abilities affect warjacks, don't affect monstrosities. But, spells and abilities that affect living models, affect monstrosities. This will make fight against certain Hordes factions interesting. Secondly, because they are not warjacks, they do not have a cortex system. So, while they work with the Focus system, like warjacks do, they cannot be affected by things that damage the cortex. Third, and the big one, because of these differences, they are not warjacks. 

The small-base units, known as drudges, are all made of up people who have been taken in by the Cephalyx mind control. To make things worse, as the drudge slaves, all the Cephalyx have some form of "sacrificial pawn" ability, which destroys the drudge for some bonus. The Cephalyx use both the drudges and the monstrosities as fodder, keeping themselves safely behind. 

Exulon Thexus and company.

The other interesting part of the Cephalyx is that they are a sub-faction of Mercenaries. This means that they can take other mercenary units and models to manage weaknesses within the army. However, it looks like they have to take a Cephalyx UA, the Dominator, that makes they count as "slaves." They gain buffs through this UA, but if it dies, the unit flees.

All these come together for a truly unique theme. They seem to be a rather varied in that their monstrosities, based on the stat cards shown in the video, seem to be strong in melee. Though, the Cephalyx themselves, would rather stay back. The warcaster they showed, Exulon Thexus, has a whopping 8 Focus and allows his monstrosities to act as arc nodes and healing them. His feat "manipulates enemy model positions," and his spells appear to affect enemy models to his advantage.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this army play on the table. Not only do they have some very cool looking models, but the concept, ruleswise, seems very interesting. Very strong monstrosities that smash everything, with units that, from the look of it, act as meat-shields for the Cephalyx themselves. I want to see more from this faction as we approach their release, which looks to be Lock & Load this year.

"Dance for me, puppet."

EXCLUSIVE TEMPLECON MODEL

Lastly, Privateer Press released an exclusive model at Templecon. An alternate version of Goreshade the Bastard, this one is "rolling the bones" with a large die in his hand and ghostly dice in its wake. This model is not just available at the event, however. It is also available through the Privateer Press store.

What did you think of what Privateer Press revealed for Warmachine? Are any of you thinking of starting Cephalyx?

In our next post, we'll take a look at what Privateer Press revealed about Hordes and it's upcoming book: Exigence.

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