Tour de Cryx – Goreshade 1 Overview

While I normally post on Tuesdays (D&D) and Thursdays (Warmachine) I’ll be posting some of my Tour de Cryx information randomly as I get time and capacity, as well as my standard Thursday fare, which this one is.  

I have just finished up using my Goreshade 1 list, one that originated with Will Pagani back in MKI as a Hordes and Circle drop.  While he ultimately abandoned it I found that it clicked with me, in the meta I play the list is very, very good. I played it a few times some years back, liked it, but wanted to wait for the Inflictor to release before pulling it again. Fast forward to now, the edition has changed, Goreshade 1 has changed, and the Inflictor has finally released. I built the list as soon as the new edition dropped, and though there were a few changes made as I brainstormed with fellow Cryxians (feel free to drop me a line on facebook if you want to chat about lists! I’ll always be up for it!), this was the final list we came up with. 

Goreshade The Bastard and Deathwalker
-Inflictor
-Inflictor
-Nightmare
-Slayer
Wrong Eye and SnapJaw
Darragh Wrathe
Orin Midwinter
Satyxis Blood Witches x10
-Blood Hag

The parts seem self-explanatory to me having used it a number of times, but it’s a layer cake of amazing flavors so it gets quite complicated to learn. I’d love to get more games in with it especially against Circle and Una 2 as they are a persistent threat in our meta. 

Layer 1 – Lamentation. Saving Orin (see below) for the debuff that counts matters a whole lot, and Lamentation means that the opponent has to pay double before I even consider Orin. Many powerful control area affects are less than 14″, and if you want to reach out and get Goreshade, it’s going to cost you.

Layer 2 – Darragh Wrathe’s Mortal Fear.  This makes the jacks at least arm 19 (Slayer) with 20 (Nightmare) and 21 (Inflictors) also hanging out nearby. Goreshade goes up to 18, which is especially nice. Darragh Himself is a 19. With a 9″ bubble, it’s extremely easy to get out over a large portion of the army. 

Layer 3 – Star Crossed. This makes the jacks, in addition to being a tough armor, finally, much more difficult to hit. Starcrossed 13’s, against even most 7’s, is a tricky subject. Darragh Wrathe and Goresahde become even harder to touch at that point, and the Deathwalker, at defense 14 as well, becomes a pain. Even at Def 12, with all the rest of the layers, Wrongeye himself becomes a bit hard to take down, 

Layer 4 – Shadowmancer. While the spell only works within his meager command (7), it does provide some serious benefits. Stealth is great, especially when you’re bunkering up, and Dark Shroud is an amazing buff to have on the whole battlegroup. This enables almost his whole bunker to walk up the board fairly tightly and still remain safe. 

Layer 5 – Breath Stealer. This one seems to be the trickiest to keep around. The Deathwalker is extremely fragile, and I don’t really know how to keep her alive very long. Even with those limitations, she still puts out a great debuff, enabling the army to hit higher than it should and shrug off more attacks. Combined with Darragh, it can create a pretty solid bunker. Inflictors hit arm 24, Nightmare 23, and Darragh wrath 21.  

Layer 6 – Arcane Vortex. Orin Midwinters protection is extremely useful here, as the brick of doom needs to not be picked apart, and some spells – Stranglehold, I look at you are critical to some game plans. Debuffs are pretty prevalent and a strong way to take down heavy models, and Orin, for a time, at least, can prevent that.  

With these layers all in place, it becomes a pretty nasty cake to try and break up. Each piece can be taken apart, and each of them have their own weakness to overcome in making the list work. Darragh Wrathe is the only model able to be shot, Orin Midwinter has a limited supply of power tokens, Wrongeye get taken out, and it removes Snapjaw and Starcrossed, Shadowmancer is 3 focus, and the Breathstealer is fragile. Keeping them safe requires a lot of practice and knowing when to sacrifice them even more. 

The Inflictors are chosen pretty specifically for their high armor, but they also come with a pretty solid bonus in Critical Poison, because the lists favored opponents will be living targets, with lowered defenses. I’ve yet to have it crit often, or for great effect, but I can see where the potential exists. 

Nightmare and the Slayer, however, are both fairly filler points. Nightmare is ghostly and hits like a ton of bricks against his prey target, but the slayer is simply the only model I can get for the points. I would love to have another pair of jacks for the exact same 28 points that can perform a similar function, but I just can’t seem to find P+S 19 anywhere else for that price. 

The final portion of the list, the Blood Witches, I don’t really have a feeling for one way or another. I think that they are a strong infantry choice with their blessed weapons and stealth, but there might be something else here I could do better. 17 points is pretty stiff competition, though. Most often it’s the stealth that really goes to work, making is so that the majority of the army isn’t able to be shot. I’m afraid that if I play this list without the unit having stealth that they would be shot of the board fairly quickly as they are the only targets other than Wrathe to shoot at. It’s what happens to my Bane Thralls every time I feat them in. 

So, what do you think? Is there something missing from the list that you prefer? Do you have a way you like to run him? Would you want to run this list?

Next up for me is Scaverous, who I put up on Friday. Once I start playing him I’m going to put out a poll  and see who I should play after that.