Bane Thralls OR Bane Knights? Which it better?

 I see this questions show up a lot on forms and in person so I figured I give my 2 cents on the units and what there roles are in a army.

From my xp most opponent lists bring shooting of some kind weather its for softening up the targets while they come into range or generally there main strategy of winning you find it a lot.

That being said Banes offer a uniqe nitch in the Cryx unit arsenal as they can handle heavy armor targets which you will un doubtfully run agents weather its jacks or Iron fang pike men or even Templar nights. Lets face it we need to crack armor and that's what the banes do.

With that in mind your right we have two Bane units to pick from the "Bane Knights" and the "Bane Thralls" this is how I look at them personally:

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BANE THRALLS
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The Cost?
A full on Bane thrall unit will the necessary tools to survive is going to cost your around 15 pnts that's Full unit of Bane thralls (10) + UA + The BLT tax

What do you get in this package?
* POW 13 (dark shroud)
* threat range 10"
* 4d6 dice on charge models
* stealth to handle shooting
* ARM 15 to survive blast damage most the time
* tough
* free stand up on maintenance phase
* remove stationary for free

I have put kador jacks to bed with 4-5 of these guys on the charge and that's easily a 10pnt model scraped if I can get two groups on the charge I can scrap 20+ pnts in one round if there kador jacks. Talk about a return on your investment right?

Now what do they lack?
They can't handle rough terrain sadly and it gets tricky keeping them together with your officer in a safe place. Its easy to want to jump your officer and FB into the fray speciously sense there sporting weapons but DON'T. Its not worth the loss of tough and dead rising believe me. There biggest problem is not being able to ignore rough terrain sense there are a lot of player that will take advantage of said things.

There slow... With a natural SPD 5 your not ghosting through thick building and still getting a chance to attack this has caught me off guard many a times when I tried to reach a juicy target on the other side of a wall and found my self lacking the 1" I needed to do what I wanted to do. They are fast on the charge with BLT but that means you NEED to manuver BLT to get them to what you want.

DARK SHROUD!!!
Is dark shroud worth it? Well is +2 damage on any other model in your army worth it? This is not a spell btw so you can park a BT in melee range of a juicy target that is immune to spells and still get the benefit some times that 2 damage is all you need to win the game or tip the scales in your favor so I think it is fantastic As they say any little helps.

They need BLT to work past smashing heavy ARM targets. If your soaking so many pnts into a package deal then they need to be able to handle infantry as well which means you need to become good at maneuvering BLT on the field as well as them. This takes practices and time to learn. Also you will be tempted to bring BLT into the fight but only do this if you can shield him with new Bane Thralls after to go to town.



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BANE Knights
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The Cost?
A full on Bane Knights unit will the necessary tools to survive is going to cost your around 14 pnts that's Full unit of Bane Knights + the BLT tax

What do you get in this package?
* POW 11
* threat range 12"
* 4d6 dice on charge models
* Vengeance to close the distance on shooting + double the carnage when all ready in melee
* ARM 16 to survive blast damage most the time
* Ghostly to ignore free strike + go through terrain / obstetrical

Still have the power that thralls bring but with lacking Dark Shroud be ready to commit more to the effort of taking down a arm 20+ model. But the nice thing with reach you can fit a lot more of them around a target

Now what do they lack?
They are easy to shoot up across the board. When your pushing only ARM 16 and crap DEF of 12 so guess what your going to be hit. If there toting anything at POW 11+ there going to kill you on average dice rolls most the time.

Like there Bane thrall cousins there still slow... The kick back through is with Vengeance you get a free +3" if any of them get taken out which makes the rest of the unit seem "Faster" the nice thing is even in the thick of things you benefit from this. Its one of those models that your damned if you don't and damned if you do


Ooooo Ghostly! how dose that affect there game play?
As I said Banethralls fail at being able to be vary mobile thanks to not being able to handle rough terrain or Obstetrical in there way. This make them highly predictable to control on the board. But where they lack the Bane knights ex sell. There easy to shoot but they can come from any ware and with Ghostly + Vengeance + reach weapon together you can "Side step" things in front of them and kill things behind them like a juicy UA or important solo.

Why should I care about Vengeance?
Vengeance is the chance to get up the field, re organize your ranks, and sweep through ranks to better targets thanks to having ghostly also. A known tactic is to put one out on its own in front of the other ones to tempt players into trying and killing it. If a player did not read about "vengeance" then there going to kill it and suddenly scream out hax when all your stuff moves closer at the begin of your next turn I love this so much!

They still need BLT look above for the reason why...



So which sould I take? BANE THRALLS or BANE KNIGHTS?!

The answer is simple. You should take the unit that best compliments your caster. I try and run it this way my friend:

Dose my caster have access to ghostly? If yes, then I take the Bane thralls hands down. If no, I take the bane Knights.

It is as simple as that with some few exceptions thanks to caster tactics and that's this with eLich thanks to causing mist and reach lets you park your Bane Knight right out of the edge and lolz as there unit in the mist will die if they stay in the mist or get a free strike and die if they try to leave the mist. Plus with his feat anything with a super long threat range is awesome.

Another caster I bring them with a lot is with Venethrax thanks to there ability to effectively get two hits in with vengeance helps with corpse harvesting for Venethrax spell "Soul Harvest". Pluss he falls into my rule above of not having a way of giving out Ghostly to his units.

I know you can argu just take Saxon Oric to give out pathfinder to the Bane Thralls but I could also put those 2pnts into a solo that can spray / shadow bind / power boost aka war which sooooo ya no thanks.