The Real Whimsical Shady
The Shades are coming to Tauber and with them they bring rock-hard resilience, swarms of psychopomps and some deadly arcane attacks!
Fans of Boris the Bunny Summoner and the Mortician in particular may feel at home with the Shades, their hordes of thrall-esque models, and reliance on the Reanimate ability. When it comes to sub-factions the Shades are loosely divided into Risen (beings kept 'alive' by Chernitt’s magic who have been dug up) and Spirits (denizens of the Deadlands who have once again returned to the Livelands).
Resilience
As mentioned, the Shades are tough, although with their lack of conventional healing they might not look it at first. To make up for only a few healers, healing only X wounds at most, the Shades boast multiple excellent characters with ‘Reanimate’. Because of this, Shades are in an unusual position where badly wounded models are not worth healing. Instead, it is common for the Shades to finish them off, then bring them back with Reanimate.
In terms of toughness, the Risen take a very traditional approach to resilience as most of them boast some armour or other form of damage reduction. They also have some small boosts to make the most of the aforementioned Reanimate; such as the Gravedigger’s ability to heal additional Wds on the Risen after they've been reanimated.
Marley’s Card (note that cards are not final and subject to change).
Spirits meanwhile are slightly more evasive in their nature. In melee they can fall back on their signatures, which are usually defensive in nature: reducing damage to ∅, pushing enemies away or moving themselves away. More unique is the way they defend themselves from arcane abilities. As seen already with Snag, several Shade Spirits have abilities to weaponise and increase the size of their resist hands!
Even with this defensive tech Shades will inevitably get slain, but when they are a lot of their comrades get stronger! Many abilities are buffed by the recent slaying of a friendly model by going from a good effect to a far more powerful effect, such as granting energy in addition to the original ability’s effect. Other such effects have already been seen on Snag and can also be seen on the upcoming Serif, who is granted an immediate out-of-activation shot for free should one of his comrades be slain.
Serif’s Card (note that cards are not final and subject to change).
Speaking of, how will these two sub-factions tend to deal damage? The Risen achieve this by bullying wounded models, gaining bonuses to Melee and Arcane for attacking wounded enemies. Meanwhile, the Spirits prefer to play the long game, cursing their enemies and watching them slowly wither over the course of the game. In terms of similarities, both these sub-factions share an affinity for dealing damage with Arcane abilities, although some more specialised models can still pack a punch in melee too!
Summoning
Another similarity between the two sub-factions is their access and use of Psychopomps! Like Boris' Murder Bunnies, Psychopomps can be summoned and act as a model the summoner can control whilst active. As well as getting in the way and being a 2 wound nuisance, they often boast a couple of situational abilities to help them buff friends or hamper enemies. Finally, they can serve as excellent models to throw into danger and get killed, triggering your buffs for friendly models being slain without losing one of your more important starting characters!
The Forgotten King’s Card (Cards are not final and subject to change)
If you're looking for a slightly more dangerous model to summon though, look no further than the Forgotten King himself! Well, it’s just an echo of his true self, but still a very deadly adversary to face. Unlike the Psychopomps The Forgotten King is a model in his own right and can be taken in your starting troupe, but also summoned by others like his faithful servant Igor. When on the board the King’s echo will cause maximum destruction and chaos before fading away after his work is done. With enough of his loyal comrades and servants around him, he can prolong his stay with additional healing and extend his tenure of terror on the board.
The Shades represent a completely new playstyle, where models can jump in and out of play, giving their friends buffs for doing so. Alongside this, a tide of tiny terrors will swarm over the enemies of the Shades tying them up whilst the rest of the Shades harvest stones or jump into the melee too. The Risen will put the boot in for wounded enemies, whilst the Spirits maliciously curse and float around. Finally, the Forgotten King may make an appearance causing mayhem and destruction and disposing of anyone who dares to get in the way of him and the Shades!
