Bane Warriors

Bane Thralls, cunning undead warriors inscribed with countless runes and sigils of their dark rebirth, are versatile and deadly soldiers among more mindless undead. Wickedly proficient at killing, they host a darkness that both permeates their being and seeps into the world of the living. Few know the means by which these potent creatures are created, and only the most depraved masters of necromancy can begin to understand the nature of the malignant power from whence they arise.
Rune-bound captains lead the blasphemous bane thralls onto the battlefield to slaughter for their own vicious pleasure. Only the most hateful and malevolent of spirits are chosen to lead the banes into battle.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Entire unit
  • Template:Undead
  • Template:Ghostly

• Officer only
  • He has a better statline
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Rise-alt)
  • Template:Void Bringer

• Standard only
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up
  • Template:Granted

Weapons

• Leader, Grunts, & Standard
  • War Axe - 1" reach & 11 P+S, but its abilities make up for that.
    • Template:Weapon Master
    • Template:Dark Shroud

• Officer
  • War Axe (x2) - As above, but double the fun.

Theme Forces

• Cryx
  • Template:Dark Host. Bane Warriors gain Prowl in this theme.
  • Special mention to Goreshade1 who can put them into any theme via his feat.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Mortenebra is leading the army.

Thoughts on Bane Warriors

File:Bane Warrior CA.png

Command Attachment

Bane Warriors in a nutshell

Bane Warriors are the undisputed ARM crackers of our infantry options and indeed they are some of the hardest hitting infantry in the game. With Ghostly these guys can get into interesting angles for backstrike and can threaten Jacks and Beasts thats are hiding behind a skirmish unit. They are also handy at delivering the Dark Shroud ARM debuff for the rest of your force.

What they struggle with is accuracy and their mediocre threat range sees them taking a charge more than giving it despite ghostly. If you are taking a caster to support them you need someone who mitigates 1 of these issues.

Thoughts on adding the CA

Totally worth it - if you're running Bane Warriors at all, you want them to have the CA. Tough from the flag is great, and everything the Officer brings is gravy. Just try not to get the Officer sniped before you get a chance to use his mini-feat.

5 pts is a tad more than most CA, but you get a fully armed standard bearer (unlike most CA).

Combos & Synergies

Banes pair well with anything that helps their average MAT or gets them across the board in one piece. Warcasters that can cast occultation, clouds, recursion effects or restrict enemy LoS will enjoy seeing a mostly full squad be delivered.

• Desecrators gain a free focus if they're near a Bane.
• Banes have slow speed and may struggle to reach the enemy, so having models in your army which bring the enemy closer can help.
  • For example the Reaper and Malice have harpoons; the Machine Wraith and Malice can possess enemy warjacks, the Sepulcher has a 4" pull, Deneghra2 has a 3" suction vortex, etc.
  • You can even double-tag a 'jack, using a Machine Wraith to posses an enemy jack and walk it close to Malice, then use Malice to possess it can walk it closer to the Banes.
• Bane Lord Tartarus loves to pal around with banes. Its his sole purpose in death.
• Goreshade1's feat puts a small unit of Banes into play, regardless of the game size or theme restrictions. It can be quite nice to get a unit of Banes in other themes.
• Goreshade2 has Tactician [Bane] making it easier to move them around.
• Scaverous - Excarnate lets you double up on the recursion of this unit.
• Agathia - She can make them her Henchmen. This ups their threat, defence and Mat. It’s just a shame that she does nothing for them beyond this as it means you will only ever really consider 1 full unit with all the trimmings for her.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Bane Warriors suffer from their short threat range. With no built-in defenses against ranged attacks, they will get shot off the board unassisted or left in the open.
• DEF 12 means they die to charges and get shot by incoming fire.
• ARM 15 will fend off blast damage but little more than that.

Tricks & Tips

• Watch for enemies sniping out the officer or standard,
• Run a Bane Warrior into melee with an enemy, then send the rest of your army in to benefit from Dark Shroud. A unit of Banes can spread out and cover several enemies.
• You can get backstrikes more often than you'd expect thanks to Ghostly letting them ignore free strikes. This is vital in fixing their average MAT.
• Get the Officer into position, then use his mini-feat, then the returned guys can sacrifice their Combat Action and move, spreading Dark Shroud out.
  • If you make any attacks with the unit before using the mini-feat, then the unit's movement has already finished and the returned Grunts cannot move.

Other

Trivia

• Bane Thralls (without CA) were released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)
• The UA was released in Forces of Warmachine: Cryx (June 2010)
• 2003 sculptor: Will Hannah