Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Phantom Rift

HeroScape has 2 ghastly squads, the first one being the Shades of Bleakewoode and the second being the Phantom Knights. Most players look at the Phantom Knights as being overall a much better unit than the Shades, but its still worth considering the Shades for play every now and then. Let's take a look at their card, shall we?



There is a major difference in cost (a whopping 30 points!), and both squads have fairly similar base stats. The Shades get a move of 7, while the Phantoms get an attack rating of 3. The Shades are Devourers, so they would get the attack bonus from the Dumetef Guard. The Phantoms, being Knights get Concan's attack bonus and increase Sir Dupuis's attack rating if they're near him. Also, both squads are naturally mobile, in large part thanks to Stealth Flying. So then, they biggest difference between the two squads is their first power and their cost per figure.

Soul Devour: An offensive minded power where the Shades no doubt get much of their cost from. Like Kee-Mo-Shi and Ne-Gok-Sa, their power isn't the easiest to get to work, but because it can be used multiple times, you can increase the potential of the of the Devour. With any luck, you can devour at least one of your opponent's heroes during the game (not only damaging their forces, but reinforcing your own).

Insubstantial 3: A defensive power that makes the Shades really tough to kill from afar. Sure it only works on Normal Attacks, but the natural defense that the Phantom Knights have can protect them from the special attacks easily enough.

I happen to prefer playing the Shades, but that might just because I embrace the suck (or so the phrase has been coined). In game I like the idea of engaging both a hero and a squad figure with the same Shade (it shouldn't be too hard to get to because of their 7 movement). This lets me attack the squad figure, and try to Soul Devour on the next turn. With the chance to have 2 weaker "attacks" in the same turn, the Shades are "stronger" than the Phantoms. But that's not the general consensus. The biggest reasoning that makes the Phantoms much stronger than the Shades is the difference in cost. You can have 10 squads of Phantoms, but only 7 squads of Shades for 700 points.

What helps the Shades out though, is their incredibly high speed.They can get to their targets quickly, perhaps so fast that they don't have to even worry about ranged units? This is certainly huge in HeroScape, as range is very powerful. So powerful that if the Phantoms didn't have Insubstantial 3, they would likely be considered extremely weak.

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing the 2 Ghost units being compared to each other! 'Scape On.

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