Cryx Dread Armada starting army list – Aiakos' Doom
Wondering how to get started with Cryx Dread Armada?
Where better to begin than with the warcaster from the Reaver Cutthroats Command Set, Aiakos (who we’ve dubbed, “the Warmachine personification of the Jaws soundtrack” among the dev team), expanded to lead a full 100-point force?
Let’s take a look at such an army list, cooked up by the captain of Dread Armada development himself, Fraser:
Now, let me break down how this particular list comes together.
To start with, I put the Reaver Cutthroats in the list (I know, big shock).
Even if I wasn't taking this approach to list building, Kharybdis would absolutely still be making an appearance with his best bud, thanks to his faction-defining shallow water summoning ability.
Also, you’ll rarely find a list without at least one or two Storm Witches.
For Aiakos’ battlegroup, I’ve taken a few different warjack builds, each for very different purposes.
Our Tidecaller/Spiker Deepstalker fills the support role well. Tidecall is something you’ll typically want access to. On top of that, the range 13 Spiker is great for both applying doom tokens to enemies, and getting Aiakos’ Warpath spell to proc.
The other Deepstalker is our missile. Combining the Mariner speed buff, the Helldriver’s 2” melee range, and a warpath proc, this thing threatens a loooong 15” across the table.
After that, we have two Dredgers, which both more or less act as a budget version of our respective Deepstalkers.
Seeing as I’ve already got the Mutineers, I wanted some living models to support their unique recursion gameplay.
So, I added a healthy package of Satyxis models, which can also act as an independent module thanks to Gnara’s potent support.
And that’s the list, but will I play it?
Aiakos is, at his core, a control caster.
By laying the various ranged defense tools available — Submerge on Aiakos himself; dreadtides, amphibious, force barrier etc for the rest of the army — this list can quite happily push up the table.
This lets you aggressively force Aiakos’ Storm Waters spell up the table, slowing the enemy down in Kharybdis’ shallow water and protecting your models from enemy melee.
Aiakos and his battlegroup can capitalise on this by taking multiple turns of building up doom tokens on the enemy. The longer the enemy lets this happen, the worse it gets for them. This puts the pressure on them to fight their way across the treacherous waters and engage you.
Fancy dipping your toes into the Dread Armada? You’ll find the Reaver Cutthroat Command Set in the Starter Crew Tier (and Collection Tier) is the ideal place to start.
Not got a 3D printer? Shop here instead
