Warmachine: Goreshade Lord of Ruin
You want to know how to bring ruin with 3shade? Come on in Cryx fans!
Goreshade, Lord of Ruin
Let’s skip the foreplay and hop right into it. I shall start with what I consider to be his absolute worst aspect: His tier list, Chill of Death. No, just no. Maybe tier2, but after that the ‘advantages’ come nowhere near balancing the drawbacks. Just… no.
The man (man, elf, undead elf, Delf?) himself however, is what you would expect from a Cryx warcaster. Badass. Just being a high speed ghostly cavalry warcaster with reach already says alot, like 13″ stabbing range without any Cryx tryx. And yes, he still has his freezing sword and comes with the standard other abilities: Undead, Terror, Reach, magic Weapon, but to get the most out of what he can do, you’ll definitely want to read up on the cavalry rules, especially ride-by-attack and impact attacks. Camping all of his focus, without outside support, he is sitting at ARM24, if you really want to play that game, but you’ll be missing out on his rather nifty spell list! Now, if your opponent is kind enough to fire off a spell in Goreshade’s control area, then you get a freebie with Spell Vortex. What one should you pick? That is a tactical decision you have to make yourself, as they all cost a mere two focus.
Speaking of which…
Infernal machine! This is one of my favorites because it can turn our humble arcnodes into superb death machines. This also says Goreshade would like at least one beatstick in his army please!
Mockery of Life New spell, always fun times with one of those. It’s no Revive to be sure, but let’s be honest, Cryx could never have that spell. Mockery is pretty damn good as is. It is true, the grunt you bring back can’t do much but move. This why i’d suggest using it after your intended unit has done their thing (and hopefully gotten into a good position).
Occultation and Scything Touch are nothing new for Cryx. The former gives stealth, the latter more melee damage and crit corrosion. Both are upkeeps and neither care about faction, just friendly. Also says Goreshade would like at least a couple units in his list. Standard Cryx stuff.
Siphon Bolt This is a fun one. Aside from being a POW12, you strip a focus/fury from your target and gain a focus. Without skarlock/deathjack/spell vortex, he can fire off six of these with enough focus/fury out there. This is useful for stripping ARM, transfers, our just emptying warbeasts to deny warlocks their fury. This spell makes a good argument to have an arcnode in your list somewhere.
Winter’s Grasp Then there is this Feat. This is a fanatastic control feat, even if it takes slightly more setup than Cryx’s other feats. When this feat is used correctly, it can be more devastating than Deneghra 2’s Web of Shadow. If you have a problem sacrificing your own models to win the game, then obviously Cryx is not the faction for you anyway. It’s not like you have to sacrifice your precious Cryx models anyway, mercs work just fine. This is why you will see Blackbane’s on the table with Goreshade 3. Being able to park an entire unit’s worth of guys where you want them to lock down the enemy’s army is quite the advantage. Keep in mind Stationary can still be shaken off. When setting up an assassination, yes, I will gladly run a pistol wraith in to make your warcaster/warlock stationary.
EZMode list building!
Everyone has their own way of playing the game, but if you want to maximize Goreshade’s potential, this is what I feel he wants. You are going to want an in-faction beatstick (sorry Snapjaw) for Infernal machine. Many people will choose a Kraken for this, which is a good choice. Deathjack also, if you want more Siphon Bolt fun, I prefer Nightmare because… Nightmare with Infernal Machine is a thing, and I enjoy the idea of a list of mostly ghostly/incorp. You’ll also want a unit or two. Blackbane’s ghost raiders are an obvious choice, benefitting from stealth and scything touch and being great feat targets. But do not underestimate our out of faction choices. A unit of Press Gangers for an early feat turn is a very viable option. While Goreshade does nothing to turn on Bane Riders specifically, they do benefit from everything he has to offer and make for some very valuable mockery of life targets. I am not really a huge fan of the Withershadow Combine with him, despite his three upkeeps. This is mostly due to them being needed in another list, and i won’t be upkeeping more than one a turn anyway, but that’s my methods.
Random babbling
Overall, you can pick how you want to play Goreshade, Lord of Ruin. He has a damn good control game, but he can also attrition and assassinate quite well. He’s a caster you can easily play how you want. I love sacrificing mercs for the greater good, but that’s just me. This is a great warcaster who fits in with our already superb choices for warcasters easily.
~…and his model is pretty damn badass as well. This is always a bonus.
