Wraith Engine

The Wraith Engine stalks the battlefields of western Immoren shrouded in the impenetrable shadow of death and pain. Ephemeral and elusive, it can become incorporeal at will or hide its presence in a cloud of ectoplasmic smoke. Like a great, necromechanikal specter, the Wraith Engine appears suddenly among its victims, slashing them to ribbons with its scything talons and drawing their souls into the glowing, green furnace of its innards.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Undead
• Template:Incorporeal
• Template:Rapid Strike
• Template:Dark Shroud
• Template:Inscrutable
• Template:Soul Bondage
• Template:Unhallowed

Weapons

• Scything Blade (x2) - 2" reach, POW 5, P+S 15 melee weapons. (Effectively P+S 17 with Dark Shroud)

Theme Forces

• Template:Black Industries
• Template:Dark Host
• Template:The Ghost Fleet

Thoughts on Wraith Engine

Wraith Engine in a Nutshell

The Wraith Engine is a support piece that you take for Unhallowed and Dark Shroud, the occasional Soul Bondage, and the occasional melee attack. It spends most turns running into the best board position to apply Unhallowed and/or Dark Shroud where you need it.

It'd be nice to get into combat more often and with MAT 7 and three P+S 17 attacks it's not bad at combat. The problem is that it is so fragile it depends on Incorporeal and/or keeping its distance to survive, and attacking means you lose that. Also it lacks any capability to boost attack or damage rolls or to buy extra attacks.

Combos & Synergies

• The normal caveat : stuff which makes the enemy easier to hit/damage makes this model perform better at combat.
• The Wraith Engine works well alongside any Undead swarm.
  • Weaker troops (any of the Thralls) will still die to direct hits, but get better at surviving blast damage.
  • Stronger troops (like the Banes) start shrugging off direct hits and laughing at blast damage.
  • Undead warcasters love extra ARM.
• Necrotechs and Necrosurgeons can repair the Wraith Engine.
• Darragh Wrathe can speed it up with Death Ride.
• Terminus can give it Tough with Shadow of Death.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Rather squishy - it has as many health boxes as a beefier light jack.
• Its main defensive measure is staying incorporeal - which means its combat abilities are almost irrelevant most of the time in most of your games.
• With its passive power it is a bit of a boring model, for what should be a centerpiece of your army.
• Your warjacks and that handful of non-undead units will not benefit from Unhallowed. Similarly, the Wraith Engine won't benefit from your battlegroup spells either.
• Cryx and the Grymkin (and Skorne to some extent) are the main factions where people expect incorporeal spams. They will rarely be completely helpless against your Wraith Engine.
  • Dispatch quickly models with Exorcist, and be vary of magic guns and blades.
  • The Vindicator at the Crucible Guard can take away Incorporeal, and the rest of their army (their Nebelwerfer, Gorman, etc) can de-buff you up to the point that even trivial damage will hurt a lot.
  • Protectorate Sanctifier also deprive you of Incorporeal in a large radius, combined with a huge base means none of that passive bonus applies to a large swathe of the board.

Tricks & Tips

• The Unhallowed bonus applies to itself.
• Stay away from Magical Weapons.
• You can trigger Soul Bondage even if the Wraith Engine runs, and it isn't too hard to get a model within 2" depending on how aggressive you are with the WE. Also it's hilarious to turn a repair solo into a Machine Wraith and then possess the jack that solo was supposed to repair.
• To get the full use out of your points investment, you need to strike a fine balance between committing the WE to combat to make a difference, vs hanging back to keep its buffs.
  • If you're using it on the flank, you can occasionally go after infantry that your opponent overextended.
  • If you're using it to anchor your midline, you should only go into combat vs a heavy that has to die this turn. Because you'll be dead next turn, so you want to make a big dent.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Wrath (2011)