Warhammer Age of Sigmar Warcry Guide - Khainite Shadowstalkers

 The Khainite Shadowstalkers are the elite assassins of the Shadow Queen, sent on the most dangerous and import of missions.

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Khainite Shadowstalkers Fighter Types

Their fighter options are:

• Shroud Queen - The Shadowstalkers leader stands out, even amongst a group of elite killers. The Queen has a range 4, 3 dice attack, and move 6, which gives her a fantastic threat range. If the enemy closes the distance, then she has a 4 dice, 4 strength crit 5 attack to deal with them. The real powerhouse is the Ensnaring Darkness quad, which allows her to allocate damage equal to the quad spent to fighters within 3 inches, or she can take 3 damage herself, and deal damage equal to the quad to all visible enemies within 6 inches. 
• Slaughtershade with Shadow Whip - The Slaughtershades come with 2 armament options. Both have the same stats and abilities. Cursed Darts is a range 9, 2 dice attack that does 2 damage on a 4+, which for a double, is great. But they also have access to the Instruments of Kaine double, which gives them a bonus move or attack action if they take a fighter out. The shadow whip is a range 4, 3 dice attack, which is the better option, just for attack threat on the board.
• Slaughtershade with Umbral Spears - The Umbral Spears is a range 2 attack, that has an extra dice in attack, but drops a damage against the Shadow Whip. Having half the range, for an extra dice doesn't feel worth it. 
• Darkflame Warlock with Repeater Crossbows - Both Darkflames have the same stats and abilities. Move 5, but toughness 3 and 8 wounds. The Repeater Crossbows variant has a range 8 attack, which goes a long way to keeping them alive, which is difficult with their stats if you have to close the distance.  Harness Shadow is a triple that drops an attack dice against on attacks against all friendly fighters within 3 inches, so keeping them near the Queen, allows them to overlap fire, and support with protection.
• Darkflame Warlock with Doomfire Ring - The Doomfire Ring has a 3 to 7 range attack, and a range 1 attack. With 3 health and 8 wounds, the range 1 attack is almost pointless, and the range 3 to 7 attack too restrictive. For the same points, take the Repeater Crossbows variant every time.
• Shroudblades with Cursed Swords - The Shroudblades are expensive for basic fighters, with both coming in at 90 points. They have move 5, 3 toughness, and 8 wounds, so keeping them alive is difficult, but you need them to pin down enemy fighters so that the Queen and Slaughtershades can work. The Cursed Swords armament is a range 1, 4 dice strength 3 attack. Getting in close enough to use the attack usually means they won't survive a return attack, so positioning and making sure you take out the target first is essential.
• Shroudblades with Umbral Spear - The Umbral Spear variant is a range 2, 3 dice strength 4 attack, which looks like the better option, but actually losing a dice in attack lessens the chances of taking an enemy out, so gaining the extra range isn't always beneficial. Having a selection of both armament options does give you choices to keep some back and lock up weaker fighters, or simply sacrifice them to tie up enemy champions for a round.

How to build out of the box

The Khainite Shadowstalkers are only currently available in the Warcry Catacombs boxed set, which is available to purchase from Firestorm Games here.

The Khainite Shadowstalkers have 4 fighters types, with armament options for 3 of them. Some choices will have to be made when building.

The sprues let you build.

Set miniatures

• 1x Shroudblade with Cursed Swords

Optional Armaments

• 1x Shroud Queen or 1x Shroudblade with Umbral Spear
• 1x Slaughtershade with Shadow Whip or 1x Slaughtershade with Umbral Spears
• 1x Darkflame with Repeater Crossbows or 1x Darkflame with Doomfire Ring
• 1x Darkflame with Repeater Crossbows or 1x Darkflame with Doomfire Ring
• 1x Shroudblade with Cursed Swords or 1x Shroudbalde with Umbral Spear
• 1x Shroudblade with Cursed Swords or 1x Shroudbalde with Umbral Spear
• 1x Shroudblade with Cursed Swords or 1x Shroudbalde with Umbral Spear
• 1x Shroudblade with Cursed Swords or 1x Shroudbalde with Umbral Spear

If building out of the box, the points values for the set miniatures are 990 (if building the Shroud Queen) as all the points costs for the 3 armament variations are the same.  The option for building another Shroudblade gives you further options if running a second box of Shadowstalkers.

If only building using 1 box, then taking the Slaughtershade with Shadow Whip, both Darkflames with Repeater Crossbows and a mix of Shroudblades gives you the best threat range across your units.

Khainite Shadowstalkers General Tactics

The Khainite Shadowstalkers out of the box are quite an effective warband. They are the definition of glass cannons, in that they can get in extremely quickly, and take out an enemy, but fall easily when attacked back. Finding the optimum range, and taking out the biggest enemy threats first is essential. Don't be afraid to lose the cheaper units to protect the expensive ones and sometimes they will have to be sacrificed to tie up the enemy, as leaving them free to pick which of your fighters they attack is a quick way to lose your valuable assets.

Khainite Shadowstalkers Deployment Tactics

For this section, we're only looking at the balanced options for each of the decks. Using all the cards is harder to predict and plan for, but great for open friendly games.

Using only the balanced deployment cards, Shield is deployed 15 times out of 18 on the table. The Shadowstalkers are fast and have a great threat range, but they fall easily, so taking your best fighters in early can sometimes be dangerous, as it gives your opponent a chance to focus on taking your key fighters out. But The Shroud Queen is great at taking out enemies if backed up, and having her on the board early can really threaten your opponent's plans. If you're going up against tough opponents, hold the Queen back, but against weaker, swarm enemies, take the Queen in Shield and hope you roll a quad early.

Hammer appears in Round 2 onwards 10 out of 18 times and Dagger 8 out of 18 times. You can fill out Hammer and Dagger with the Queen and some protection if you didn't take her in Shield, otherwise, it's going to be the Darkflames baked up by Shroudblades.

Khainite Shadowstalkers Mission Tactics

Out of the 18 balanced missions, 6 are combat based, requiring removing either the leader or different deployment groups. 9 are objective-based and 3 are mixed, movement/survival-based.  

The Khainite Shadowstalkers are perfect for eliminating select enemies. Groups of enemies not so much, and holding objectives against a determined attack can be a struggle. If fighting against tougher opponents, use the rage and mobility of the Shadowstalkers to wear them down, resisting the urge to go for objectives early.

The copy of the Warcry Catacombs used to produce this article was provided by Warhammer Community.