Has anyone tried setting up wraiths with a focus of running panic tests? Seems like they could help generate a fair amount of tokens:

Wraiths [24] 3x1
Unhallowed Wind [4]
Faces of the Fallen [2]
Bloodied Tatters [2]
Total Unit Cost: 32

You have to build it up, but you could be running a three (or four if you exhaust winds)panic test everytime you attack.

Still not sure it's worth the points or the ramp up time, probably three activations with attacks before your full potential?

Uthick have shown that constant panic tests can devestate your army in unexpected ways. Reports on the forum talk about disappointment with wraiths, but perhaps constant panic test could make them worth?

I've thought about it. I'm not sure I'm convinced yet. First note, for those who aren't aware, the above build requires Ardus Ix'Erebus' Host of Crows ability. Without that, you have to go to a 2x2 in order to have access to the heraldry slot. That said, a 3x1 with just Faces of the Fallen and Unhallowed Wind could be decent:

Wraiths 3x1 [24]
- Faces of the Fallen [2]
- Unhallowed Wind [4]
TOTAL: 30

Faces of the Fallen is still a bit tricky, because I don't think Wraiths have enough offense to destroy a unit and trigger that unique upgrade. They need to wait in the wings for the rest of your army to destroy an enemy unit then rush in with that added morale test.

Similarly, I go back and forth about the heraldry upgrade Bloodied Tatters. I think Bloodied Tatters makes more sense on the more survivable Reanimates, but I'm tempted to equip Wraiths with this upgrade because it starts working after just one activation at initiative 6 with the double melee...if you roll well enough. If you do put it on the 3x1 with Ardus in your army, you have higher threat, which helps. If you put it on the 2x2 you have rerolls, which helps, and you have more health to stick around and use it. Once your back rank is gone, you don't care so much about rerolls because your primary objective is dealing morale tests.

Wraiths 2x2 [30]
- Faces of the Fallen [2]
- Unhallowed Wind [4]
- Bloodied Tatters [2]
TOTAL: 38

Now for a look at on-the-field tactics. @QuickWhit gave a great demonstration of the power of Wraiths with Trumpets and Raven Tabards at a 3x1, thanks to Ardus' Host of Crows. The key feature is wheeling wide, then reforming to set up a flank. I think this is necessary for Wraiths because it denies the opponent rerolls, enhancing their ability to reroll dice when they defend. While the 3x1 can pass through units on the wheel maneuver quite easily, I think there may still be value for the 2x2 outlined above. You don't have the luxury of early intiatives, but the dial is decent enough, and you can still wheel to the side and then reform to threaten the flank. I don't know; I'll have to try that one out. I don't think it will be capable of surprises like the 3x1, but for 4 more wound threshold and rerolls, it might be worth exploring.

The 3x1 with Trumpets and Raven Tabards is very maneuverable. I was able to hug the edge and still get a flank on a 3x2 spearman unit, while making sure to stay in a position that they could not charge me.

I like Ardus letting me run

2 trays, metered march. At 19 points they are cheap, and I plan on using them to sweep up objectives and avoid combat early, only jumping in late when I've got a flank lined up, and/or a healthy stream of blight tokens raining down on the target.

I’ve played 6 games with wraiths. 1 game with 2X 2x1s, 4 Games with 1 2x1, and 1 with a 3x1. All of them ran Faces of the Fallen and I had bloodied tatters on the 3x1.

The results have been mixed. I faced Latari in every single one of those games and Derpwoods force wraiths to go far wider than they would want. Offensive rerolls are Death for wraiths.

Also, they seem to have value as perception of threat. At that regionals, both Kaffis and MarineGrunt expended their Ambush Predator on the wraiths instead of waiting for a bigger target.

The last game where I had a 3x1 was different because I brought Lrofane Banner Bearer. Jukey was forced to fire at my Reanimates, which bought the time needed for wraiths to get some work done. The wraiths 1-shot a 2 tray Darnati from a flank charge, then reformed and double melded the 2 tray Leonx that charged them. The auto severity-2 morale tests got me a reform on the Leonx for bonus dice on the next shot. A 22 point 3x1 killed 45 points.

Also, fun note: If you can get three green runes in confluence of magic, armoring up Reanimates makes them aggravatingly durable as they are healing 6-7 Damage a turn.

2 hours ago, Church14 said:

Also, fun note: If you can get three green runes in clonfkuencenof magic, armoring up Reanimates makes them aggravatingly durable as they are healing 6-7 Damage a turn.

Why 6-7?

I currently run wraiths at 2x2 with :

Unhallowed Wind

Bull Pennon (Although Bloodied Tatters now seems like another good option, probably even better).

Face of the Fallen

If you're gonna play the morale game with the wraiths, you gotta play the 2x2's surely? To be able to stick around long enough to reap the rewards of the mounting panic.

You also want those rerolls to try and force those morale symbols, with a unit designed to spread panic, you wanna make sure its doing its job and so not having a back rank I feel is extremely risky.

I have found it a lot harder to do tricky movements with the 2x2, its much harder to use terrain to your advantage and also doing the hard turns (which are super reliable in a 2x1 or 3x1) can fall just a tad shorter than you expected them to. Perhaps just need more practice pulling off those types of moves with the bigger unit.

My Wraiths held up a 3x2 spearman unit for pretty much the whole game with their reroll ability and the mounting panic was doing all sorts of crazy things, which was nice.

33 minutes ago, Glucose98 said:

Why 6-7?

2 armor each. Three resurrected. So 6 from there. Possibly 1 Damage bounced. So the 7th isn’t really so mch healed as ignored. I should have just listed 6