Victor's Scientific Tournament Method: Apply More Goreclaws
- The Gamebreakers
- Jul 7
- 4 min read
Hi guys, Daniel here. If you've played against my Umbral Veil before, you've probably noticed a pattern.
I usually don't try to table my opponent. Instead, I play a very aggressive scenario game, forcing awkward decisions, contesting objectives early, and trying to close the game by round three. If the game goes long, the battle of attrition usually swings against me.
So naturally, I decided to ignore all of that.
For the upcoming Summer Major tournament at the Vienna Spielefest, I'm bringing something I've wanted to test for a long time: an Umbral Veil list that asks a simple question: "What if everything just hits you ... again and again and again?
Step One: Inspire the Minions
In the Umbral Veil Lord Victor Benedicte is certainly the best Essence weaver for this approch.
His active Essence ability Grand Speech somehow convinces grotesque laboratory creations that they are elite soldiers, granting them Accurate and Brutal Strike (+1). Meanwhile, Goad encourages them to sprint enthusiastically towards anything that still has a pulse and do their very best to make sure it doesn't for much longer.
Together, those two abilities massively increase both the damage output and threat range of the army's melee units.
Victor also quietly fixes one of Umbral Veil's biggest limitations by generating plenty of Grey Essence. More Grey Essence means more rerolls, and more rerolls mean your carefully assembled murder machine is much more likely to behave as intended.
And if all else fails ... there's always the alchemical grenade.
This masterpiece remains one of the nastiest ranged weapons in Shroudfall. Clumped-up infantry hate it. Heavy armour hates it. Honestly, everyone besides Victor hates it.
Step Two: Add Unethical Amounts of Muscle
Every good scientific experiment needs a catalyst.
In this case, it's the Transmuted Fleshcrafters.
Their reactive Essence ability, Primal Surge, is what pushes the Goreclaws from "annoying" to "why is this only 22 points?"
A Goreclaw unit in this army has quite reliable acess to:
+1 or +2 to Hit
+1 or +2 to Damage
Accurate Strike (+1)
Brutal Strike (+1)
Yellow-infused Hit rolls
Yellow-infused Damage rolls
For something that mostly looks like it escaped the laboratory five minutes ago, that's an alarming amount of offensive potential.
The First Mistake
Your opponent's first instinct will probably be to deal with the three Goreclaw units charging across the table.
Which is understandable.
Three buffed up Goreclaw units are not exactly something you can politely ignore.
The problem is ... that's only the first wave.
Waiting behind them are the Spinebreaker Brute and Victor's favourite assistant, Hans.
By the time the Goreclaws have forced your opponent to spend resources, these two are ready to arrive and ask whether everyone is still having a nice game.
Usually, the answer is no.
The Interns With Guns
The Deathspitters are the odd ones out.
They aren't the centrepiece of the strategy, but they do an important job.
Victor can use Goad to increase their movement, giving them a surprisingly respectable threat range. They don't need to dominate the battlefield, they simply need to exist in places your opponent would rather avoid.
Sometimes the threat of getting shot is just as valuable as actually pulling the trigger.
What About the Scenario?
Normally, my lists are built around scoring. This one is built around hitting things until the scenario becomes a secondary concern.
That said, we still have to pick scenarios we'd actually like to play.
Dreaded Dragon's Domain rewards armies that can dish out serious melee damage. Fortunately, that's exactly what this list was built for.
Ruthless Rampaging Raiders is a fairly slow scenario. If I can collapse one flank, it usually snowballs in my favour.
Watchful Well Wardens gives both players a little more time to develop. That's perfectly fine, I only need a few turns before Victor's motivational speeches really start paying off.
The Army
The Chief Experimenter
Lord Victor Benedicte
The Muscle (aka units)
Transmuted Fleshcrafters
Transmuted Poisoncrafters
Goreclaws
Goreclaws
Goreclaws
Deathspitters
Hans
Spinebreaker Brute
The inanimate stuff that keeps it from hitting animate stuff (aka terrain)
Granite Enclave
Swampland
Small Rocky Outcrop
The stuff that we would like to ignore, but can't (aka scenario)
Dreaded Dragon's Domain
Ruthless Rampaging Raiders
Watchful Well Wardens
199 / 200 points
Final Hypothesis
On paper, this might be one of the hardest-hitting Umbral Veil lists I've ever built.
Whether it wins games is an entirely different question.
It gives up a lot of the scenario pressure I normally rely on in exchange for overwhelming melee damage and stacked synergies. Maybe it'll smash through everything standing in front of it.
Maybe it'll explode spectacularly.
Either way, Victor will undoubtedly declare the experiment a complete success, write down absolutely nothing that went wrong, and immediately request funding for an even bigger Goreclaw.
We'll find out at the Summer Major.
