Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi, everyone! First time posting a list here. Need some advice as this list will determine what I buy next. It's going to be a large order and I want to make sure I get it right. I'm going to test it out tomorrow so I want to see what people think before then. Thanks for any advice in advance.

System: Warmachine
Faction: Cryx
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
Goreshade the Cursed (*5pts)
* Nightmare (10pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag (2pts)
The Withershadow Combine (5pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
Darragh Wrathe (4pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)

My plan pretty much is to form a wall of infantry that is stealthed. The skarlock will stealth the BK's and they'll flank one side. Bane thralls upfront with Tartarus so he can curse appropriate targets. The Withershadow providing their benefits to Goreshade as usual. Wrathe is in there to make the army faster with Death Ride and once he's in combat he can cast his Beyond Death spell to support the Banes. Nightmare can become ghostly and Goreshade can cast Phantom Hunter so Nightmare can assassinate his Prey. The Blood Witches along with their UA are actually replacing Pistol Wraiths since I need a way to handle Tough opponents. And to provide cloud cover when possible. Orrik is there to give them Pathfinder and provide some more flexibility vs Hordes armies.

Now onto Goreshade. I'll have to play him a bit more aggressively since the list lacks an Arc Node (ran out of points) but the Skarlock can mitigate that somewhat. I find it funny when people say he's not a very good caster but man his spell list is very good. And that feat works in two different ways IMO. One is as a direct feat in which you sacrifice most of one unit and just bring them back for a next turn comeback. But the one I'm going for is as a backup which is why I only have 3 Scrap Thralls. With his Elite Cadre rule and the Bane Lord, I feel like my Bane units can reliably stay on the field.

As for his spells, I already mentioned why I like Phantom Hunter and the other one is Sudden Death. Casting it on the Bane Lord is a great of getting around that nasty out of formation drawback. The other spells are self explanatory. So I think the list is solid but I won't know till I test it out. Once again any crit is welcome. One thing though, I was planning on using the Ragman to give the Bane Knights dark shroud. I think that while that is nice, the Witches will benefit more from Pathfinder. And the Knights will hit hard anyway. I can always use Goreshade's Curse of Shadows. But the Witches won't be using Pathfinder all game so Orrik will just sit out most of the time afterwards. The Ragman can just hang back and support the Knights all game long. What do you guys think?

You've got a very good list there. I would personally have a Leviathan instead of Nightmare. If you are using phantom hunter on Nightmare then he's going to need to go Ghostly and a Nightmare with 2 focus isn't killing a heavy. With the leviathan you can keep it back and force your enemy to come to you or suffer more shots.

I would keep Orrik in the list as the Bane Thralls or Goreshade himself could need the pathfinder.

Good call on the Thralls and Goreshade benefiting from Pathfinder as well. I'll definitely keep Orrik for that then.

Are you considering Nightmare's Prey ability? Hitting at an effective MAT 10 and having PS 18 attacks is no joke. Also I can use the Curse of Shadows to supplement that. I do see what you mean with keeping the Leviathan back and pulling the enemy in. But with my army already moving forward and engaging in melee that seems detrimental to the low RAT Leviathan.

Thanks for the advice.