Goreshade, Lord of Ruin

Template:Cryxbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Unquestionably the most influential Iosan ever to have lived, the eldritch and would-be god slayer Goreshade, Lord of Ruin seeks nothing less than the salvation, restoration, and liberation of his people from the gods themselves. After turning the machinations of the Nightmare Empire to his own ends, Goreshade has come closer than ever to achieving his mission. But what Goreshade sees as the path to salvation, Iosans see as a path to damnation.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat - Winter's Grasp

Center 3" AOEs on any number of friendly Faction non-warcaster warrior models currently in Goreshade's Template:CTRL range. Enemy models within an AOE become stationary for one round unless they have Immunity:Cold, then the models the AOEs are centered on are destroyed.

Abilities

• Template:Cavalry
• Template:Undead
• Template:Cold Immunity
• Template:Spell Vortex
• Template:Reposition 3

Weapons

• Voass - 2" reach, P+S 15 melee attack. (Still) Stolen from the Iosan god Nyssor!
  • Template:Freeze
  • Template:Magical Weapon
• Mount - 0.5" reach, POW 12 mount attack

Spells

{{Category: Template:Infernal MachineTemplate:Mockery of LifeTemplate:OccultationTemplate:Scything TouchTemplate:Siphon Bolt }}[[Category: Template:Infernal MachineTemplate:Mockery of LifeTemplate:OccultationTemplate:Scything TouchTemplate:Siphon Bolt ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Black Industries
• Template:Dark Host
• Template:The Ghost Fleet
• Template:Scourge of the Broken Coast

Thoughts on Goreshade3

Goreshade3 in a Nutshell

He is a highly versatile generalist caster, with a decent statline that lets him mix it up in melee, Spell Vortex to increase his casting, and some useful spells. Unfortunately he is a bit all over the place in terms of army design, such as Mockery of Life encourages you to take powerful undead warriors (such as Bane Riders), but his feat wanting cheap expendable troops (like Mechanithralls). The way theme forces work in Mk3 has exacerbated the problem, with the troops he wants now split apart.

Feat thoughts

His feat is a great solution to high DEF infantry spam, or it can simply be used to reduce the enemy warcaster to DEF 5 before wailing on them with attacks.

It is best to use something expendable (like Mechanithralls) to create the AOEs, but don't overlook the benefit of having an Incorporeal model run through the enemy before triggering the cloud in the opponent's backlines. In this respect, Blackbanes Ghost Raiders are a good choice.

Spell thoughts

• You can stack Mockery of Life with Cryx's other recursive Add to Play abilities. For instance, kill your own thralls and use the Necrosurgeon to build new ones from their corpses at the same time Goreshade brings them back.
  • Note that it can't stack with recursive Return to Play abilities, because you can't return the same model twice.
• Using Mockery of Life before your feat essentially allows you to put stationary wherever you need it.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• A large base is easy to shoot. Depending on your opponent's available firepower, he may be need to put Occultation on himself just to stay alive.
• He doesn't have great DEF for a caster.
• If he pushes forward for combat or to trigger Spell Vortex, he won't have enough focus to camp focus for safety and still cast all the spells he wants.
• With only one offensive spell, he might have a bad match-up vs Incorporeal spam.

Tricks & Tips

• Combine his feat with a Harrower's Quick Work ability. Since stationary models can't engage the Harrower it can punch and trigger Quick Work as many times as it has focus - which is much better than the Harrower's thresher.

List Building Advice

Strategy

His main method of winning is attrition; Mockery of Life brings stuff back, and Infernal Machine and Scything Bolt weight things in his favour. His feat is also excellent for shutting down infantry lists that have bunched up at all, and can be used to set up an assassination as no caster likes being brought down to DEF 5.

Theme thoughts

Mockery of Life, and wanting access to cheap troops for his feat (and preferably incorporeal troops) pushes Goreshade towards the Undead themes; Black Industries, Ghost Fleet, or Dark Host.

• Carrion Thralls - The main reason to play this theme for him. With SPD 7 and Flight can can get into inconvenient spaces and be used as feat nodes. Keep one bird back and recur the unit with Necrosurgeon's afterwards.
• Mechanithralls can reliably hit foes that have been made stationary, and with Combo-Strike plus Scything Touch they hit pretty hard, the Brute Thralls especially so.
• Soulhunters - They are a strong flanking unit able to get deep into the enemy lines with their impact attacks and their ability to become incorporeal. This may open a gap to the enemy caster for potshots or an assassination run. You can also return them to play with Mockery.
• The Withershadow Combine - With three upkeep spells, Admonia's free upkeep is very important. When attempting to charge in then reposition to safety with Goreshade, you can secure the stationary from your first attack using Puppet Master. Beyond that, they will be a gunline for you occasionally tearing focus off of the enemy with spell slave.
• Infernal Machine on either Barathrum or Kharybdis is a very good use of the spell.
• Deneghra0 - Soulhunters do pretty well with Curse of Shadows and it is also a crucial damage buff for Shade's army, who, unlike most cryx casters, has none bar Scything Touch.
• Scrap Thrall - They blow up if they are disabled, so you can ignite them yourself with the feat.
• Necrotech - Cheap point fillers who create even more Scrap Thralls for you.
• Infernal Machine on a Sepulcher is a theoretically good use of the spell and in this theme it will have McThralls to recur. Practically, the Sepulcher is still a terrible model and IM does nothing to solve this.

• Blackbane's Ghost Raiders - This is a high-speed incorporeal unit, making them singularly effective to walk through the enemy line so that Goreshade can use his feat on models that would otherwise be unreachable.
• The Misery Cage is available in this theme, helping his focus efficiency.

• Bane Riders - Being powerful well armored and very expensive troops, they make some of the best candidates for use of the Mockery of life spell. Place half the unit behind a forest, charge the other half in so they get killed in retaliation. On the next turn Vengeance the remaining members through the forest, revive the 3 fallen members with Mockery repeat the cycle for as long as the opponent lets you. Also, Cavalry tends to attract a great deal of firepower for their ability to cross the field so easily, this makes Occultation a highly valuable spell for this unit.
• You'll want to include some Machine Wraiths as feat targets.

Battlegroup

• Kraken - One of the most grateful recipients of the Infernal Machine spell, this model is nearly guaranteed to make good use of the speed buff as well as the murderous so it can collect those corpses. Once you have stationary targets, enemies in the range of its considerable firepower will have something to worry about.
• Harrower - If you can't find the room for a Kraken, then a Harrower is not a bad substitute. With Pathfinder and Reach, the only thing holding it back is its lackluster speed. Once it receives its buff from Infernal Machine, its murderous thresher will murder thresh.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Vengeance (2014)
• Goreshade 3 is one of the few models to keep the exact same weapon between multiple incarnations. Maybe it's frozen to his hand (like when your tongue gets stuck to an icy pole)?

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.10 Feat Fetish, vs Locke1
• Template:VBR