This video analyzes On'shei, a unique T'au faction Warlord in Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, focusing on his hit-and-run playstyle, his signature squad's synergy, and his Armor Bane ability that bypasses enemy shields.
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hello viewers and welcome to yet another
Warhammer 4,000 Conquest video
production my name is Mitch and I am the
hive Tyrant today I'm pleased to present
the third of a series of videos in which
I'll be reviewing each Warlord of our
first cycle of War packs the warlord
cycle as well as their Associated
signature Squad all within the context
of the card pool available when those
cards relevant expansion was first
released considering that each warlord
has a unique play style which dictates
how their surrounding deck is built and
subsequently played by covering Warlords
and War packs separately hopefully all
of these videos will relevant and useful
to both new and veteran players alike
for as long as possible each new future
expansion should simply build upon and
complement the foundation laid out by
each previous publication and its
Associated cards however considering
that at the time of this recording we've
seen the release of our entire warlord
cycle and The Great Devourer Deluxe
expansion I will have the benefit of
some foresight when it comes to
assessing the utility and evolution of
each of these cards so in this specific
video I'll be taking a look at the
second TOA faction warlord on shei and
focusing on the strengths and weaknesses
of not only that warlord unit but also
each of the different cards which
constitute his signature Squad and soon
I'll analyze and assess all of the
non-signature faction specific C cards
introduced in the gift of the ethereals
war pack itself in doing so this should
result in a relatively short warlord
Centric video as well as a much longer
War pack encompassing production but
with that said on to today's warlord on
shei he is a unique warlord unit with a
starting hand size of seven seven
starting resource tokens an attack value
of two and a pool of seven hit points he
has the soldier and ethereal traits and
reads each tow faction unit you control
at this planet gains armor Bane forced
reaction after this warlord resolves its
attack move it to your HQ but once
bloodied Oni is instantly transformed
into an extraordinarily vulnerable one
attack value 5 HP unit with no ability or
or
reaction so on shei is a rather unique
warlord who offers a radically different
play style relative to Commander Shadow
Sun whereas our shasso warlord is all
about augmenting existing units with a
wide range of attachments Oni is instead
an extraordinarily lethal hit and run
style Skirmish unit so although Ani has
the potential to be an incredibly
dangerous warlord generally considered
by the community to be one of the best
when it comes to the ability to outright
assassinate or destroy the enemy warlord
he also has a significant number of
relatively unique
weaknesses but before assessing his
Global buff ability let's first stop to
consider Ani as a unit you commit him to
a planet during the command phase as you
would any other warlord but as soon as
his attack is resolved during combat
he's returned to your HQ so if you have
initiative at a planet and he's your
only present unit you have the
opportunity to attack will likely deal
some damage and then he immediately
moves to your HQ often taking no damage
in return because by the time your
opponent has an opportunity to take
their own combat turn he's no longer
present at that planet as an eligible
Target to be attacked so in some situ
situations that forced reaction seems
much better than having to spend an
actual combat turn of your own to
retreat because instead of just spending
an entire action to return your warlord
to HQ you're doing up to two damage in
the process and then doing so
automatically but considering that pool
of seven hit points and that each and
every one of Ani's attacks is itself
armor Bane you probably want Ani hanging
around for mult multiple combat rounds
especially if you have Shield cards so
you can prevent him from being bloodied
but with Oni you simply aren't afforded
any choice in the matter and further
that forced reaction seems even worse
when you stop to consider that if you
don't have any other units present at a
planet even if a battle took place there
you cannot actually capture that planet
and you cannot trigger its battle
ability so for inance if you send Ani to
Taurus and use him to kill an opponent's
Rogue traitor or void pirate the instant
you resolve your warlord's armor Bane
attack even if it destroys the only
present enemy unit he immediately
returns to your HQ and if neither player
has any units remaining at the end of a
battle then technically neither player
has won and therefore no one can trigger
the battle ability so in some sense that
Skirmish style hit and run type of
attack can be beneficial but often it
can prove to be rather frustrating as
the player piloting on shei still as no
individual warlord wins games alone
let's consider what cards synergize well
with oni's reaction and start with
homing Beacon a one cost limited support
which happens to trigger when you move a
unit to your HQ so whenever Ani is
forced to exit a battle you can exhaust
cost that non-unique support to either
draw one card or Draw one resource and
considering that effect is a reaction
which will likely occur in the middle of
combat it's entirely possible that
thanks to that support you could
suddenly possess either the additional
resource needed to pay for some
beneficial card Effect or if you don't
already have what you need in hand you
could otherwise pull the card you want
from the top of your deck but more
important ly and in our most recently
examined War pack we saw caon strike a
one cost event which allows Ani and any
other extent ethereal trait units to
engage in a sudden deadly Precision
strike as a Combat Action you simply
move as many ethereals as you'd like
from any number of planets Andor your HQ
to a Target Planet so under ideal
circumstances you could have Ani fight
at a planet and even if he at some point
attacks and returns to your HQ so long
as you do have one or more units present
at that planet at the end of combat you
can trigger its battle ability then once
battle concludes you can play cowon
strike and likely take your opponent
entirely by surprise As you move on shei
and any number of other ethereals to any
Planet further down the line in doing so
you can force a Battle to take place
that your opponent perhaps wasn't
expecting and as a result you could have
the opportunity in one round to snipe
multiple command units or perhaps
otherwise assassinate powerful albeit
temporarily vulnerable Army units but
even better you may even have the
opportunity to bloody or outright kill
the enemy warlord especially if you can
use either initiative or rang keyword
units to ensure you're the first to
attack plus once the battle at that new
planet concludes if you're again left
with at least one unit at that planet
you could have the opportunity to
trigger another battle ability one which
your opponent may have been entirely
unexpecting and considering that you can
play multiple copies of kaon strike
during the very same game around each
and every additional unanticipated
battle you can elicit could potentially
spell out disaster and ruinous defeat
for your opponent allowing you the
opportunity to hit hard where the enemy
is at their utmost
vulnerable if based on where Warlords
were sent during the command phase your
opponent was perhaps expecting a battle
at Planet 1 and three for instance to
their surprise you could use caon strike
to trigger a battle at Planet number two
which could result in something like
your triggering the battle ability of
the planet Fen in order to Route their
most powerful unit at Planet 3 and by
engaging in such duplicitous Behavior
it's easy for Ani to alter the expected
trajectory of a game
significantly but before we move on to
address the second most Salient aspect
of ani I'll just mention that in the
fifth War pack of the warlord cycle he
receives the backup of a TOA support
that many players consider to be perhaps
the most unbalanced card in the game and
though I won't cover it in exhaustive
detail until a future video suffice it
to say that as a Combat Action it
exhausts to move a single ethereal unit
from your HQ to any Target planet and
then readies that unit so if you liked
caon strike and its multiple battle
triggering potential then you're going
to love what ani receives in the threat Beyond
Beyond
but with his forced reaction now
extensively covered onto his primary
appeal the fact that he gives each tow
unit present at his Planet the armor
Bane keyword himself
included so this affords him a rather
unique opportunity each time a to unit
at the same Planet as Ani attacks the
opponent is disallowed the choice of
discarding Shield cards except for
special circumstances enemy units simply
suffer exactly as much damage as you can
bring points of attack value to Bear
against them which serves to make midc
combat math and consideration of
probability extremely simple for on shei
for instance as you won't have to worry
about the possibility of your opponent
using a 1 two or three icon Shield card
if an enemy unit has only one hit point
remaining then you need only use a one
attack value tow unit in order to score
a successful kill do remember however
that any card Effect which outright
prevents an attack such as indomitable
will still do so and that any effect
which serves to prevent damage such as
the reaction of a ready blood angels
veterans also remains effective so
therefore it's critical to always bear
in mind that armor Bane has a rather
strict defined effect while a unit with
the armor Bane keyword is attacking
Shield cards cannot be used but just
like this keyword can on occasion seem
little different from a conventional
attack there are also several instances
in which this can be enormously
advantageous for example if an orc
opponent uses custom field generator to
prevent the damage from your armor Bane
attack any reassign find now indirect
damage dealt to other orc units they
control canot be mitigated by Shields
and also if a tow unit at on she's
Planet uses area effect that damage
albeit technically being dealt by a card
Effect is still being inflicted while
the unit with area effect is considered
to be attacking which means that area
effect damage is also entirely
unshield so it's precisely that ability
which makes cheap units so powerful
alongside Oni although any tow unit can
do essentially guaranteed damage ranged
keyword units such as the VR law
marksmen immediately serve to become
incredibly deadly because with those
units specifically they allow you to
attack with armor Bane during the ranged
Skirmish Round And if an attack value of
one is insufficient to kill whatever you
want to an ion rifle instantly
transforms that one cost tow Army into a
four attack ranged and armor Bane unit
or if you're instead fighting a swarm of
opponents consider a fixing a copy of
gun drones to any tow unit present
alongside on shei and if you do so to a
ranged units or if you simply possess
the initiative token you can potten
ually clear out an entire Army in only a
single volley and considering you can
attach multiple copies of gun drones to
the same unit which admittedly is a
calculated risk the devastation that Ani
could potentially bestow upon an
opponent is incredible and keep in mind
that you could also use Ambush platform
or even the odds to surprise your
opponent by altering the math of combat
significantly at the last possible
moment and any unexpected volley from
gun drones especially when armor Bane is
incredibly nasty indeed so long as you
happen to have even a single eligible
tow unit you could easily use any number
of devious means to lure your opponent
directly into a false sense of security
and trap for instance you could
opportunistically relocate the mobile
vasia Trailblazer to a planet where you
have initiative only to deploy and
subsequently trigger a gun drones
granted area effect two volley courtesy
of Ambush platform or you could simply
transform a zero attack one hit point
copy of Recon drones abruptly into an
entirely unexpected Menace possibly with
the potential of eliminating your
opponent's entire Army
outright I think another incredible
combo with on she is the Ethereal unit
on WE prelate for the not insignificant
cost of four you Ambush a four attack
unit into play Not only does every other
tow unit present at that planet gain
plus one attack until the end of the
phase in addition to the armor Bane
keyword conferred by on shei but if you
then use Ambush platform to equip the
pret with an ion rifle then in the space
of two actions you can go from having
what have been only your warlord at a
planet to suddenly possessing a seven
attack armor Bane unit and an attack
value of that magnitude is sufficiently
high as to threaten to outright bloody
or easily kill any warlord printed thus
far with scarcely few exceptions such as
a fully hail Ragnar black man wielding
an activated Frost Fang and plus
considering that the pelet bounces back
to your HQ after resolving its own
attack a consistent theme we see across
all existing ethereals it's yet another
unit that works fantastic in conjunction
with kaon strike and our aformentioned
upcoming support but despite the Allure
of an opponent being entirely unable to
Shield do stop to consider that by being
unable to discard Shield cards your
enemy will essentially be left with no
choice or other option but to deploy all
their attachments and use all of their
events for their intended effect because
for better or worse if you can't present
your opponent with the occasional
difficult decision that may well
necessitate they use something like a
drop pot of salt as a shield then rest
assured they'll be using each and every
copy of that and similar extraordinarily
powerful events and detachments instead
against you during the ideal opportunity
to do so so for all those reasons and
more Ani is a fascinating warlord he
struggles somewhat against units with
large pools of HP such as the enemy
warlord and in some situations can
flounder in regard to activating early
game battle abilities but with the right
combination of card effects behind him
he can prove to be enormously dangerous
and once he starts to procure some of
his requisite tools truly excels at
punishing opponents whom dare to leave
themselves at all
exposed but after talking all topics on
shei let's finally move on to his
signature Squad and first up we see the
Ethereal Envoy a one cost army unit with
one command icon an attack value of one
and a pool of three hit points it has
the soldier and ethereal traits and the
familiar forced reaction after this unit
resolves its attack move it to your AG Q
so for the cost of one this is an
incredibly resilient unit 3 HP means
it's extremely unlikely to be sniped by
an enemy warlord when sitting at a
planet alone to win you command but by
disappearing to your HQ after its attack
it's subject to all the same mixed
blessings as Ani
himself sometimes that could be
frustrating if you'd like them to stick
around for a prolonged combat but
perhaps if you've affixed a valuable
attachment to them they can fire their
ion rifle or unleash a gun drone's area
effect to assault and then once they've
managed to wreak havoc on your enemy
they immediately move to your HQ prior
to your opponent's opportunity to
destroy them in return and if you'd like
if you want to take advantage of that
same attachment again once it's time for
your combat turn you could use an even
the odds to shift their attachment onto
a unit not in your HQ and fully ready in
order to launch yet another armor Bane
attack and as on she unlike Commander
Shadow Sun can not recur attachments
this unit provides a potentially
invaluable opportunity to preserve some
of your most valuable assets so while
towel players are by no means of a dir
of appealing one command 1 HP units like
the ranged VOR law mark and the
attachment retrieving Earth cast
technician the Ethereal Envoy certainly
has its own appeal plus it's yet another
ethereal unit which means it can be
relocated by caon strike and potentially
trigger homing Beacon so there's
certainly a lot to like about this unit
and at that price even if not involved
in combat whether through its lowcost
curve or simply its readily affordable
command icons the ethereal envoy can
easily help establish an impeccable Oni
economy still with our signature army
unit now out of the way next on to oni's
attachment the honor blade for a cost of
one it has three Shield icons as well as
the War gear and weapon traits it reads
attached to an ethereal unit attached
unit gains each other tow unit you
control at this planet gets plus one
attack so although this could
theoretically be a fixed to any ethereal
it seems almost absurd to adhere it to
any but Ani for no more than a single
resource token this allows Oni to confer
armor Bane and plus one attack to every
tow unit present at his Planet so the
more tow units you run in your deck the
better because neither neutral nor
Allied faction units benefit from either
ability Frank
I can't think of much more than the
obvious to say about this attachment
because as a planet-wide effect it can
buff and unlimited number of units the
only downside is that once the attached
ethereal itself attacks it returns to HQ
and you immediately lose the benefit of
this attachment but thanks to our AFF
forementioned caon strike or our
upcoming the threat Beyond support it's
entirely possible that even if you are
forced to remove the attached ethereal
from Battle you could either return to
that same planet or else show up at
another planets armor Bane makes your
math easy and your opponent's math
enormously complicated and as this adds
significant value to every one of your
units it seems almost inexcusable to use
as Shields a Recon drones can suddenly
deal damage and units like the one cost
Earth cast technician immediately
threaten an armor Bane 2 and speaking of
our affir mention technician this is
certainly an attachment worth digging
for and considering it's eligible to be
deployed via Ambush platform the honor
blade is definitely something which
could alter combat significantly just
remember that it only affects tow units
other than the attached but next we have
our signature support in on she sanctum
for a cost of two it has the location
trait and action exhaust this support to
ready a Target unit at a planet with one
or more ethereal units you
control so with one small restriction
this affordable support essentially
allows you to ready a Target unit each
and every turn it just has to be at the
same Planet as your warlord or any other
ethereal unit but considering that once
Oni attacks he has to leave the planet
and therefore then no longer confers
armor Bane to all present tow units you
generally want to attack with as many
other units as possible prior to that
happening and if you can ready an
exhausted unit only to attack with it
again then you can potentially get the
benefit of armor Bane during that
additional attack prior to Ani vacating
the planet near the end of the first
combat round also worth considering is
that this support can ready any unit
which includes your warlord and as we
eventually see a tow event which
requires you to exhaust your warlord as
part of its cost using this support to
enable one or more copies of that event
with or without attacking beforehand or
after with your warlord that future use
for that event is certainly worth
keeping in the back of your mind but as
with any free readying effect you always
want to maximize the value gained by unexhausted
unexhausted
a unit so naturally units with
attachments are often the most desirable
targets and I think the utmost appealing
Target for Oni sanctum is likely a
ranged unit for instance earlier in this
video I made certain to sing the vorla
marksman's Praises but if it can attack
with an ion rifle twice or fire a gun
drone's eded area effect volley two
times in a row all during the range
Skirmish round that only serves to make
that unit all the better because if your
opponent doesn't possess any ranged
keyword units of their own then you can
keep attacking during the range Skirmish
round until you do eventually run out of
ready eligible to attack ranged units
and considering your ranged attackers
are hopefully always going to be doing
so with armor Bane by the time it's your
opponent's turn to attack hopefully they
won't have any units left with which to
do so so a very predictable effect
intrinsic to this support but again
thanks to Ambush platform it could
nevertheless end up surprising your
opponent still with the advantage of
surprise or not in any case certainly an
enormously powerful card still last of
our signature Squad we see an event
ethereal wisdom which for a cost of zero
has one Shield icon the tactic trait and
action until the end of the phase a
Target tow unit you control get plus one
attack and gains the Ethereal trait so
this unit is a bit of a combo enabler it
can be used as a rather straightforward
attack boost which combined with Ani's
armor Bane Andor the honor blades bonus
could make all the difference you need
during a pivotal attack but I think this
event much better serves when used in
conjunction with other effects any unit
which gains ethereal even if only
temporarily is suddenly eligible for
being relocated through cowon strike or
our upcoming the threat Beyond support
serving is yet another means of taking
your opponent by surprise and catching
them entirely off guard if you have a
potentially very powerful unit sitting
at a planet you can simply transform it
into an ethereal and then relocate it
wherever you'd like it could be
something you opt to do simply to save
one of your own units lives perhaps if
your opponent has initiative
and is trying to snipe one of your own
units or perhaps more ideally that combo
could instead be Unleashed when it's
your turn to swing during combat you
simply play this event bestow the
Ethereal trait to a Target unit move it
to the desirable Planet at the opportune
moment and then proceed to wreck your
opponent you could move something along
the lines of a boron recruit which
thanks to this event attack bonus could
swing for five so long as a warlord is
present or you could simply move a unit
with a powerful attachment ideally you'd
want to move a currently ready unit but
once Soni sees his upcoming support that
card's effect not only relocates an
ethereal albeit necessarily one
initially located at your HQ but also
readies it making Oni the absolute
master of eliciting multiple battles
during any one given round with that
upcoming support you could simply push
the first planet aggressively in the
battle with one or more units in your HQ
and then turn one of them into an
ethereal and teleport them now ready
back into combat wherever and whenever
you'd like plus if the situation happens
to call for it you can also try to pull
off clever effects like turning a
piranha Hunter into an ethereal and then
using cion strike to move it to a Target
planet which of course triggers its
reaction and allows you to draw a card
still whether used in a straightforward
manner or with the utmost of cunning I'm
definitely a tremendous fan of the
trickery enabled by this event but now
that we've covered the third of our
warlord cycle Warlords that brings this
video to a close so I'll just end by
saying thank you very much for watching
and I very much hope you enjoyed this
assessment and Analysis of our warlord
from gift of the ethereals please leave
a comment sharing your own thoughts
opinions and play experiences with our
second to faction warlord as your input
on these videos helps benefit any future
player who may One Day end up joining
our community but with that said thank
you once again for watching and if you
enjoyed this video be sure to hit that
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watching and as ever be sure to check
back in again soon for ever more
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