User:Juckto/Sandbox/Slayer2

''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.''

Weapons and Attacks

 * Death Claw (2x) - Very good P+S melee attacks.
 * Open Fist - text description
 * Combo Strike - text description
 * Tusks - A decent P+S melee weapon.
 * Hard Head - text description

Special Abilities

 * Warjack - text description

Comparison to Mk2
The Slayer got slightly cheaper, and its tusks gained Hard Head. Otherwise it's completely unchanged, and it fulfils the same role as it did in Mk2.

In Mk2 it was a decent jack but slightly unpopular since it was susceptible to having its arms shot off before it reached combat, and other in-faction jacks or infantry were nearly always a better investment for the points cost. It remains to be seen whether this is still the case in Mk3.

The Slayer in a nutshell
The Slayer is Simplicity incarnate - aim at the enemy, beat face. The Slayer is a cheap helljack to field, costing as much as other faction's light warjacks. The Slayer 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, you have a warljack that: That's an incredible deal for the points cost!
 * has three initial attacks,
 * can hit most models with average rolls,
 * can kill infantry even if it rolls snake eyes,
 * 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.

The Death Claws are Open Fists, meaning the Slayer can make every possible power attack in the game (barring Colossal-only ones).

Combos & Synergies
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Drawbacks & Downsides
The Slayer is not a bad warjack as such, but it is a cheap warjack. As always when going with the cheap option you've got to sacrifice some performance, and in the case of the Slayer it's:
 * Low durability. Although the Slayer hits hard 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.

Tricks & Tactics
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Trivia

 * Originally released in Warmachine: Prime (2003)
 * Updated for Mk II in Forces of Warmachine: Cryx (June 2010)
 * Sculptor: John Winter

Theme Forces this is a member of
WIP

Rules Clarifications
WIP