Shyryss, the Flawless Dark, the Scout Warlock for the Shadowflame Shard, and my personal favorite Warlock within the faction. Why, you ask? Because she is a Dragon-Ninja, ready to sprint halfway across the table, leap through a forest, and then pepper her opponent with throwing knives until they die.
Put simply, she is incredibly fun to put onto the table, so please forgive that particular bias as I go over her.
Personal Stats, Skills, and Weapons
Rating: A
In terms of her general stats, Shyryss runs with a fairly standard statline. She has the 16/14 defensive ranking of a typical spellcaster or gunslinger War-noun. That first value is enough to usually make her hard to hit, while the latter means that any attacks that do strike home are going to hurt her rather badly.
Fortunately for Shyryss, while she may lack native stealth, she does have Prowl, which lets her lurk in and about forests and cloud effects with a degree of safety.
She has the ‘standard’ fury score of 6, with a similarity standard control range of 12. In truth these are her more limiting factors, as she badly wants to spend more fury than that nearly every round, and her merely average control range can somewhat limit her feat when the battle goes wide.
Her speed of 7, on the other hand, is exceptionally good, especially paired with her Jump and Reform abilities. This gives her outstanding mobility, with a full fifteen inches of non-linear movement to play with. Native Pathfinder and Breakthrough, combined with the Jump, continue to work with this theme.
The last rule, before we reach her weapons, is a Field Marshal – in her case, giving Prowl to her entire battlegroup. This is an outstanding ability to begin with, giving free stealth in certain terrain, and pairs excellently with her feat, which we will cover later.
For now, we focus on the reason Shyryss is a constant deadly threat on the table; her Venomed Blades.
With a high ranged attack score of 7, and a rate of fire of 3, the Blades are a decent weapon limited only by a range of 8 and a low base power of 10. They are magical, as most Leader weapons are, and she has pistol on them, along with gunfighter on herself, as she lacks any true melee weapons.
Where they truly come into their own, however, is in their rules. Each attack has Witch Mark, base, allowing Shyryss to automatically hit any target she marks with a blade with one of her spells. That alone would be extremely good, but they also have shot types.
Poison is the immediate standout; gaining an additional die against living targets makes her personal assassination threat a very credible one, forcing your opponent to always respect her 20″ threat with this attack type (Movement -> Jump -> Standard Range).
Her second option is more situational, but can be critical, in that it applies Shadow Bind to her target. While the effect itself can be shaken, it applies a significant defensive penalty in the interim, which can make all the difference when going for a caster kill, or trying to eliminate a high-defense target.
Snipe rounds out her trio of attacks, giving her a longer potential threat, though the low base power makes it a less useful option. Its greatest use is the ability to apply spells at longer ranges via Witch Mark, with Shyryss then able to reform back and keep a respectable distance.
Overall, Shyryss is a fragile, but hellishly fast ranged assassin of a Warlock, who will always be ready to leap through the enemy’s lines to kill an enemy Leader who did not camp enough.
Feat: The Dark Silence
Rating: A
In her feat, we see one of the stronger defensive feats in the game, and shadows of Retribution’s Kaelyssa. Strictly defensive in nature, her Feat grants three effects to all friendly models in her control range.
First; she grants all friendly models concealment. The synergy with her Field Marshal should be instantly apparent, with her feat effectively granting her entire battle group Stealth.
Second; she grants all friendly models Dodge. While not quite as useful, as many Khymaera models have lower defense than you might expect, it can still be critical, and force your opponent to take more care in their attacks than they otherwise would.
Third, and most importantly, no friendly model in her control range may be charged or targeted by a slam. This is where her Kaelyssa comparison truly comes into its own, as this feat allows you to deliver a melee army, or shelter a gunline from retaliation.
Sadly, the feat is not perfect. In an era of command cards, and Carver with his War Boar, Stealth is no assurance of safety, and the movement mechanics of infantry give them far greater walking threat ranges than they once had.
Still, in a faction filled with extremely fragile models, it is an excellent way to mitigate your opponents ability to hurt you, and I rate it very highly as a result.
Spell List
Rating: B–
Shyryss comes with two native spells. One of these is quite good, the other is extremely situational.
For the former, we have Hand of Destruction. This is an offensive upkeep, giving her entire battlegroup the old signs and portents effect against the model/unit it hits. Given her low arcane attack, it will likely always be applied via Witch Mark, saving her any need to boost to hit. A very useful spell in a faction with the lower attack and power stats on our warbeasts, and also a great boon to her own assassination threat.
Her second spell, Banishing Ward, isn’t nearly as good. In those situations where it is important, needing to shield a Wyvern from Crippling Grasp for example, it be critical, but you can also end up having zero use whatsoever for it. Further, as a defensive upkeep, it saps at Shyryss’ limited fury, which is something she is not a fan of.
Boosting her rating in this category is her option to take 3 spells from the Shadowflame’s Rack, several of which work very well with her playstyle.
- Strongly Recommended: Exarcation of Blackest Night. A flat -2 to enemy attack rolls within ten inches of Shyryss pairs extremely well with her feat, giving you much better odds of triggering dodge.
- General Recommendation: Host of Shadows. Giving Shyryss and her battlegroup Ghostly massively broadens her ability to assassinate or scalpel out specific targets.
Recommended Warbeasts, Units, and Animi
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first; you will take a Vipex with Hunter’s Mark with Shyryss. With her snipe attack option, she can apply it to any target within 23″ of herself, which is a staggering threat range. It is not impossible for her to mark more than one target from very long range, then use reform and her feat to stay safe, which can completely change how your opponent has to play the game.
The other Vipex options for attack spells are more cute than good, in my opinion. Unless you play in a meta where Chasten is incredibly important, I would stick with Hunter’s Mark.
The second elephant in the room is the good ol’ Wyvern, If you’re playing at 100 points, it should probably be the first beast you take within this army. Her feat keeps it very safe from melee threats, just watch out for heavy guns, and her ability to apply Hunter’s Mark combines with its Flight to give it truly absurd threat ranges. Hand of Destruction also helps ensure each attack hits, and bumps up its lower base pow to make sure it finishes off whatever it’s going after.
Finally, we have the humble Hydrix. While it’s not the greatest heavy around, with Shyryss, it definitely has a place as a gun platform to aid in her assassination efforts. Shadow Bind and Hand of Destruction both offset it’s naturally low RAT, while the latter also helps the lower base pow. Personally I have become fond of the Diviner-double-Venom-Spitter setup, for long range and True Sight, but feel free to mix and match.
Just remember it should be focused on its ranged attacks, especially with Shyryss; leave the melee to your Wyverns and Vipexes.
Command Cards
As a primarily ranged Warlock, Spotters isn’t a bad call for a Shyryss list, assuming you can find the points to fit it in. Most of the other costed cards don’t do overly much for her, leaving you with the usually Blessing and Power Swell at a minimum, with your remaining cards being whatever is best for your meta.
it should be noted here, and moving forward, the Sentry Duty is almost always a trap in this Shard; you have Shadowmancers that can give out Eyeless Sight as one of their effects. Don’t spend more points on a redundant card.
Conclusion
Shyryss’s greatest asset is her mobility, and thus her capability to threaten a broad swathe of the board very early in the game. She is always able to looking for that assassination option, and if your opponent does not oblige, can instead spam out her effects and spells to eliminate critical targets while she bides her time.
Just take care not to be too aggressive with her; beyond her tricks, she remains fragile, and often very low on fury. Always be on alert for enemies that can ignore stealth, or otherwise reach her or her army even through her feat.
Overall Rating: A
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Zach Watson - Author 