| “ | Puppets of Vangheist's cadaverous warship, driven by Dark Magic to inflict horror and damage in debilitating abundance. | „ |
Shadewraith Gunners (Deck Gunners) are a 
Vampire Coast Regiment of Renown missile infantry unit introduced in Total War: Warhammer II with Curse of the Vampire Coast.
Recruitment[]
Recruited with: Regiments of Renown Recruitment panel
Description[]
Clunky, cumbersome, and with bone-shattering recoil, it takes the heftiest of crewmen to operate the mounted swivel guns commonly seen mounted on the decks of warships and pirate ships of the world’s seas. In the field, they are seldom used by the armies of the living, since very few mortals possess the strength and bravery required to carry and use a firearm which for all its destructive advantages, is prone to explosive failure due to imperfect castings or poorly mixed black powder. For the zombies of the Undead pirate hordes, however, the prerequisites of bodily strength and bravery are no hindrance, since the reanimated possess supernatural motor functions and mindlessly carry out the will of their masters. So it is not uncommon to see Deck Gunners of zombie pirate crews haul their massive volley guns into a land confrontation in two-zombie teams, frenziedly firing directly into crowds of ill-fated victims.
Attributes[]
- Specialist Missile Infantry
- ▲ Cursed Ammunition: Imbued with the foulest proclamations of hate, these ethereal projectiles can tear through entire enemy columns.
- ▲ Armour-Piercing Missiles: The damage of armour-piercing weapons mostly ignores the armour of the target, making them the ideal choice against heavily-armoured enemies. They are often heavier and attack at a slower rate though, making them less efficient against poorly-armoured targets.
- ▲ Anti-Infantry: Anti-infantry units have an advantage against targets that are smaller than a horse. This advantage can be a damage bonus against small targets, superior weight used to smash through lighter enemies, or an explosive attack from range that effects a large area.
- ▲ Ethereal: Ethereal units ignore most damage done by non-magical weapons. As they have shed most of their physical form, they are not slowed by terrain-based movement penalties either.
Unit Abilities[]
Passive Abilities[]
Difference from Deck Gunners[]
- Ethereal
- New Attribute: Strider
- New Imbuement: Magical Attacks
- New Contact Effect for melee: Frostbite!
- New Contact Effect for ranged: Discouraged!
- Physical Resistance increased from 0% to 55%
- Leadership increased to 50
- Melee attack increased to 17
- Melee defence increased to 18
- Armour-Piercing Damage increased to 18
- Reload Time decreased to 9.02
- Removes Contact Effect for ranged: Shieldbreaker
- Armour decreased from 15 to 0
- Health decreased from 3888 to 3816
- Base Weapon Damage decreased to 0
- Missile Damage decreased to 40
- Base Missile Damage decreased to 6
- Armour-Piercing Missile Damage decreased to 30
- Cost increased from 700 to 1050 (SP & MP)
- Upkeep increased from 175 to 263
Strategy[]
Ethereal Gunners, they can absorb counter fire from missiles better than their standard counterparts. Notably, they do lose a decent amount of health so they remain quite squishy to melee combat. The gunners also apply Discouraged rather than Shieldbreaker (effect) meaning they will have an easier time routing units under fire. Finally, they have magic attacks which can be pertinent against any units with high physical resistance.
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