Goreshade List Analysis

Hey guys just a simple update. My laptop has had its rights changes and I can no longer play on vassal so I haven't gotten any games in as of late. I have my personal laptop coming in tomorrow and will hopefully get a game in soon. I've been thinking about my goreshade list and have been paranoid that it isn't very competitive. I decided that it was in my best interest to create an in depth analysis of the list and see if I can find any obvious weaknesses. Overall I was pleased with all of my thoughts and decided to flourish this list into a detailed instruction manual to help me keep my mind on track and learn how to use my models more efficiently.  (WARNING: I have not made this as reader friendly as normal, be warned that the thought process is very sporadic.)

Goreshade list 35

+6   1 Goreshade

12pt 1 DJ

7pts 1 reaper

5pts 3 withershadow

3pts 6 mechs

2pts 2 Brute

2pts 1 surgeon

5pts 6 banes

4pts 1 BLT

1pts 1 tech 1 Scrap

5pts 6 banes (feat)

Goreshade- He can fight most anything especially with DW assist. He shines at using shadowmancer to advance up the field followed by mageblight to screw over a magic heavy army or spell slinging caster. Use shadowmancer explicitly if vs. a shooting army with little magic, mage blight for an opponent with a powerful feat/ or powerful spell list. Hex blast exists to eliminate upkeeps as well as targets of opportunity on infantry. Bleed exists as a method of healing and killing at the same time, such as killing UA/WA/Solos this is rarely needed but can be useful if thought through especially with the DJ charging, murdering the crap out of what he charges and then follows up with murdering the UA which he can get los to quite easily due to large base! Soul gate is used primarily as a defensive maneuver but in rare instances can be used to set up a crucial charge on the following turn.

Common Spell combinations within a turn:

Mageblight + 2 focus to jacks

Shadow +1 focus to jack + Soulgate

Shadow +1 focus to jack + Hex blast

2 Hexblast + 1 focus to jack

Shadow +4 focus to jacks

Shadow + goreshade charging and using focus (If feating be sure not to shadowmance  for the -2 arm and just have a bane face the charge target instead!)

Feat: 6 Banes within 3in only the lips need to be in 3in

The best way to maximize the distance is goreshade charging an expendable model feating the models up another 3in followed by BLT cursing the target and watching the banes charge 10in this provides a 22in threat range

Uses for feat:

Goreshade charges something big puts a huge dent in it and then banes finish the job.

Goreshade is in the thick of things and needs to be surround to prevent tramples + keeping non reach models out of combat with Goreshade.

Goreshade slingshots the banes up into combat with a shooting unit to prevent shooting while the rest of the army advances.

Deathwalker:

She can be within 3 in of goreshade and cause him to heal 1 point

She can be used to block a charge lane if needed.

-2 Def/STR on all living models within 5in of DW

By using both skills she can threaten things within 8 in of goreshade

She benefits from shadowmancer and can be used as soul gate fodder if needed

Only downside of her is she must stay within 7in of goreshade! So max threat of breathtaker is about 13-14 in

Deathjack

Deathjack should be used to kill as many large targets as physically possible! He causes huge amounts of dmg and can really wreck face!

He can heal when gathering souls or turn them into focus. Typically its best to let other models gain souls for him or if he tramples and then wrecks a heavy with focus. He can have up to 5 focus! This means with 3 focus from goreshade he can cast a fully boosted Hexblast on a target or  even a fully boosted bleed and charge a heavy. This enables DJ to beat up his heavy as normal but also help the army by killing pesky solos and UA's

The DJ can charge out boldly then be soulgated away into safety ( Research if the DJ can cast while in combat may be a valid way to extend the range of a hexblast without having to  make the DJ waste time casting spells

Reaper

The reaper can be used in 2 ways. The Reaper can shoot his harpoon into a target and pull it into combat, he gets a free swing and then can spend focus on buying more attacks. Its important to realize he typically will need to boost on the harpoon to be reasonably reliable if it can be afforded giving him 3 focus makes a reasonable distance pull very hard to fail as on average dice he will hit def 14 and wound arm 21 which may then be followed by 2 helldiver hits. Typically then goreshade can soulgate him out of harm and leave the target crippled or  allow other models to charge and wreck it.

Withershadow Combine

Maelovus- Leader Cmd 9 allows the group to spread out huge distances. Mael grants stealth as well as dark industries to make more jacks. Mael should be throwing a darkfire around every round possible since he has no other abilities to actively use.

Admonia- She should keep reasonably close to important models and units so to remove any debuffs as well as stay close to the action as if she dies the only loss is the upkeep removal. She like mael should be casting dark fire every round possible unless an upkeep nearby needs to be removed.

Tremulus- Tremulus has the puppeteer spell that can be used to make sure something important definitely hits. This should be actively used when goreshade casts hex blast so that boosting isn't necessary. Once again tremulus should be trying to sling dark fire as often as possible or putting puppet on an important friendly model such as DJ, Reaper, BLT, Goreshade, Brute thrall,

Unit- They should be actively claiming souls so that they can be used for great effect in combat if needed ( 2 souls allows 2 attacks boosted due to charge and soul)

Mechanithralls- These guys are a cheap tarpit that can happily take bullets. These guys are capable of seriously threatening heavies, lights, and even infantry. When against a medium base typically charge and combo strike is the best option. If against a small base typically 2 swings will increase their chances of actually landing a hit. The mechs are hard to keep in cmd so its important to watch the leader closely. If the unit can not reach a target to charge it, they often do well to run multiple into combat and the rest wait to clean up the mess. The mechanithralls can work beautifully in attrition as when they die the necrosurgeon can always make more. Its important to leave a mech behind so not to be killed with the rest of the unit if things go poorly.

Brute thralls- These guys beg for the chance to charge a jack. When charging a large model its often best to combo strike for an impressive 19. When against a medium or small base typically 2 swings will cause more damage as well as offer more chances to hit. These guys are good for preventing tramples. These guys are good at being bullet magnets for the bullet magnets. They should be covered by a few mechanithralls so not to be charged. This way only shooting can affect them or long term attrition which of course mcthralls excel in.

Necrosurgeon- This model is what makes mechanithralls so good at their jobs. The bullet magnets go from cheap useless fodder to a potentially long lasting and maybe even a larger unit by the time they finish combat. Its important to keep this model alive as long as physically possible. She can't be targeted by ranged attack as she can pick up a mech to take the bullet instead. She can be singled out by spells which can be frustrating but helps keep enemy casters wasting focus or precious magic abilities busy. When positioning her attempt to keep her shielded by Brute thralls so that LOS can't be obtained and causing the Brute thralls to be shot down before the precious surgeon. When creating new thralls typically it is best to do it before the unit activates so that they may join the attack as well. Although it often is more attritionly beneficial to activate the mechs. Kill the unit they charged then add the new  mechs to fill in any important gaps as well as help protect the fragile surgeon. This allows the surgeon to keep up with the unit but prevents her from collecting the new kills preventing the unit to grow larger then it was.

Stitch Thralls - Not much to say on these guys they can be great for blocking charge lanes. They allow the surgeon to walk create thralls while these guys stay closer to the fray and collect more corpses for her. These guys can be used as sac pawn but often aren't the best choice due to the fact they have higher def so its better to make the enemy try to hit them than give them easy hits! When the surgeon dies these guys get to run around like headless chickens causing all kinds of pointless havoc, blocking charges, covering a target from trample or just being great cheap soul gate fodder.

Bane thralls- Stealth! These guys are exceptional against shooting armies. These guys can't be shot unless within 5in which means they will have a target to charge when they survive. The banes have weaponmaster as well as deathshroud. These guys excel at slaughtering heavies, lights, and medium bases. Typically banes do not wish to be in combat against an infantry unit but by no means are wasted if they do so. If against a unit be sure to allow BLT to curse the unit so that they swing at a respectable mat 8 rather than 6. These guys do well at keeping up with BLT. There largest weakness is spd5 which means they are very slow in rough terrain and can be nearly stopped cold in terrain pieces. When heading through the woods its best to keep a close formation so that the unit can emerge at the same time rather than trickling out.

Bane Lord Tartarus- The Bane lord is an infantry eating machine! BLT can charge and curse a unit. Causing him to be mat 9 making it very easy to hit infantry models as well as thresher letting everything in his LOS be massacred. I am struggling with where BLT is supposed to go within the unit and often get him killed as I line up charges poorly and get him killed with very little payback. When BLT kills infantry models they can be turned into banes so long as there is a unit formation nearby and within 3in of him.

Necrotech- This model should typically follow the reaper as the DJ can repair itself. The necrotech is medium base and can be used to block trample lanes. This model can be used to help protect the reaper after a failed attempt to pull in a jack or beast. This model should always keep an eye out for wreck markers as when he finds a marker he makes d3 or d6 scrap thralls who can be a whole lot of fun and make back their points in a hurry.

Scrap Thrall- This little guy can be dangerous as he can kill off my own side! This guy isn't too fast but can be devastating when he charges in and places a 4in aoe pow 16 on the guy he hits! Not much to write home about as this guy is worth a whopping 1/3 a point. 

Okay so overall it seems that the whole list covers everything I need. I think my biggest weakness as of right now is my lack of knowledge against other armies, repeating opponents with same list, and the poor lack of knowledge in the fundamentals of warmachine. All in all I think I just need to play more games and find myself a gaming community that is warmachine friendly... Well thats all folks thanks for reading!