Spotlight: The Seether

The Seether is based on the Slayer chassis. It’s possibly the most focus efficient non-character hell jack in Cryx. On a charge it has a potential of as many attacks as a fully loaded Death Jack and that says a lot. I prefer to call them “Mini Death Jacks”. Many Cryx players do not bring Seether’s to the table, but rather try to make them through Wither shadow’s dark industries ability. 

This was my conclusion until I found myself to be the owner of two of these fantastic jacks by a double order “accident”. Since then I have tried them out in my lists. They have performed admirably as Death Jack replacements. 

The Seether is a Slayer on stero… Souls I mean. It has one point more MAT than our humble Slayer.  It is the Seether’s abilities however that sets it apart from the rest of the slayer chassis jacks.

Terror: The Seether is a 12 foot 6,5 ton berserk soul driven robot. It is scary… This ability is easy to forget, but it can sometimes make all the difference. When a unit fails its CMD check it can be absolutely devastating for your opponent. Just remember to make him take those testes.

Aggressive: This jack Charges for free and runs for free, Brilliant! This means one more focus saved for your caster and one extra attack from a charging Seether. (Since you can use the focus to buy more attacks instead) This also means that the Seether can run and charge outside of your casters control area.

Soul Drive: The Seether “allocates” a free focus for it self. Know that this will not work if the Seether is disrupted; its cortex is crippled, if it is autonomous or outside of your casters control area. This ability makes the Seether a very focus efficient jack since it only needs two focus to be fully loaded.

Weapons: The Seether has tusks and two Death Claws (open fists), with the same P+S as the slayers tusks and Death Claws. It trades the slayers combo strike for the Chain attack: grab and smash.

Chain attack; Grab & Smash. If the Seether hits the same target with both of its initial Death Claw attacks. It can make an additional power attack. It can Head butt, Lock, Push and Throw. So in addition to charge for free it makes free power attacks. This means that you can charge something, hit it and then throw it, all without spending any focus.

Applications of the Seether

The Seether with all of its abilities are a heavy hitter who gets the job done with or without focus from your caster. You charge him in, he trashes the target and throws what’s left out of the way or onto another important model. Like the enemy caster.

There is some more finesse to it than that though. The true potential of the Seether lies in its Chain attack.  Since you get to charge and make a power attack. Note: If you have done your chain attack, but not your initial tusk attack you can still do it after the chain attack (ruling) If there is anything still within range that is.

Throws and Pushes: Send the Seether in, have him hit the target three times and then throw/push it out of the way to open up a charge lane. Without spending any of your casters focus. This is the most obvious tactic. You can also throw the target in range of the rest of your army. Bane unites love to have a knocked down heavy in charge range.  Your opponent dos not appreciate to get his jack thrown on his caster, but you will.

Head butt: And your target is Knock down. Great if you would like the Seether to finish the job. Or that you for some reason don’t want to throw your target.

Locks: This is the least used option, but it has a lot of potential if you can see the applications. It can be used defensively or offensively.

Defence: Your Seether charged that Juggernaut, but your three initials didn’t finish it (surprise). There is no place to throw it. Then lock its Ax and hope for the best.

Offense: You fully load your Seether (2x focus) and it charges the AVATAR. You hit it twice with your initials. Then you lock its shield arm and suddenly it is arm 19. Now apply 1 tusk attack and 3 more claws to his face.

Seether VS Character Hell jacks (Death Jack)

I Love the Death Jack. Mr. DJ is AWSOME, but he is 12 points, he is a giant target, my opponent thinks he is douche. I first tried the Seether in a list where I could not fit my go too heavy hitter Mr. DJ. I was very surprised with ho well the replacment worked out. I use Mr DJ as my single heavy hitter because he can put out so much damage with 5 focus

The Death jack has a potential of 7 attacks on the charge. Which is what you would expect from a 300 year old robot from hell?

The Seether has a potential of 7 attacks on the charge. This is not what you would expect from the cheap copy of the robot from hell. Granted those are not P+S 18, but it is the cheap copy.

The Seether and the Wither shadow combine

The Seether has the honour of being the most ingame constructed Jack, through dark industry. Its focus efficiency makes it a obvious choice. Just remember that your caster has to make it part of his/her battle group before it starts making its own focus.

The Seether and our Casters

All of our casters like the Seether. It provides them with a heavy hitter and saves them focus for their spells. Let’s see what caster can do for the Seether instead.

Asphyxious: The Seether likes to hit hard. Scything touch and Parasite makes Seether hit with an effective MAT 10 and P+S 2.

           eAsphyxious: He has Parasite that’s about it.

Deneghra: Miss debuff can make the Seether an effective MAT 10 and P+S  23. But she also has ghost walk. The Seether loves to pass through walls and buildings to get to its target. Deneghra likes to use her focus to cast spells so the Seether is a perfect jack for her

eDeneghra:  She is one of our best casters (some say). The Seether likes her Ghost walk and Curse of shadows. Pursuit is also a good spell to get a Seether in position. The Seether does best as a heavy number two in her lists. Since Nightmare is probably the number one choice for her.

Goreshade: Shadowmancer gives the Seether stealth and Dark shroud this makes up for its two weaknesses: Vulnerability to shooting and high armour. Soul gate is another great spell for the Seether. You can charge something, throw it. Then teleport to safety. It could also bring your Seether into a flanking position behind your enemy. Run a machine wraith through your opponents lines and soul gate the Seether in. Sadly the Seether can’t activate after wards.  

eGoreshade: He has Occultation and Curse of shadows with the addition of Phantom hunter. The combination of Phantom hunter and Curse of shadows can make the Seether charge through your opponents lines. eGoreshade also likes to use his focus himself so a Seether is a perfect melee jack for him.

Mortenebra: She dos not like the Seether… Just kidding. The Seether is just a little redundant with her Terminal velocity spell, which makes all jacks into mini Seether’s. However in larger games she can benefit from having one or two since she would never have enough focus to run 7+ heavy jacks.

Skarre: She likes infantry, but she also likes the Seether for its focus efficiency. Outside of dark guidance she dos not offer much to the Seether though.

eSkarre: This gir… sorry: Queen loves heavy jacks, so she loves the Seether. I personally run two with here and they always perform. Perdition means you can get them in position on your turn and the charge a juice target in the same turn. Death ward means you can make them ARM 19, but I prefer to put that on my arcnode instead. eSkarre can run jacks very effectively with her Seas of fate ability, but she still dos not like to hand them focus. The Seether solves that problem.

Terminus: I have never used him. But I can say that he dos not offer much to the Seether. The Seether however offers focus efficiency to him. That’s about it.

Venethrax: He loves Seether’s, but they don’t love him. Same as with terminus they offer great focus efficiency, and they are in his theme force.

The Coven: This trio of witches loves Seether’s and the Seether’s love to have infernal machine on them, turning the Seether in to an SPD 8 MAT 10 god of destruction. The Seether likes to ghost walk, pass through models with Curse of shadows on them and be sheathed by Occultation. I personally run two Seether’s with the coven.    

Scaverous: Scaverous likes focus efficiency, so he likes the Seether if he can afford him. The Seether benefits the most from Telekinesis, Ghost walk, an Feast of worms.

The Seether’s weaknesses

It is a Slayer. An expensive Slayer, it dos best in 50+ lists since they can afford the 9 points it is. However it can replace the Death jack in small points list as the single heavy.

It is only ARM 17 and has 28 boxes, if it gets shoot in the face more than once it is usually out of the game. If it gets charged by anything with 12 or greater POW it is likely to go down, or take a big hit.

Conclusion

The Seether is great jack possibly our best non-character heavy jack. It free’s up all of our casters to do what they do best sling spells, camp or being the hero. The Seether can hit like a train and then throw the scraps on something or out of the way. They are the best jack to bring in case your Wither shadow gets off dark industries.

The Seether has its weakness, but if you can afford to bring it. It will not disappoint.