Need advice on the Pirates of Cryx. Not the living ones though...the deader ones

[i_like_tool]

So the title kinda says it all. Before I plop down my money I need some advice. Mainly are the Revenant Crew viable, with Captain Rengrave, and the Blackbane's Ghost Raiders. I am really wanting a more theme, not a tier list though, army that can hopefully be somewhat viable. Just off the top of my head

pDenny
-Reaper
-Deathripper 2x
Revenant Crew(Min)
Blackbane's Ghost(min)
Cap Rengrave
1floating point if 25pts

I am REALLY lacking a solid heavy hitter so my Debuffs + Reaper will have to deal with the opposing heavy. But this just seems. Blah?

I'd like to start at 25pts and build up to 35/50. Honestly the caster doesn't matter too much. Just someone who can help the Pirates shine. I know I will need the Deathjack at 35pts and above for sure but would Malice do in 25pts?

Also how important is a full unit size with those units?

[Kuwanger23]

In 25 points I personally would go with full revenant with rengrave and not put the black banes in yet.

pDeneghra (5)
1 night wretch (4) 0
1 night wretch (4) 3
1 reaper 7
10 revenant 9
2 revenant gunners 2
1 rengrave 2
1 siren/skarlock 2

then in 35 points you can worry about what else to add in. I think black banes work well as min as they get there full a lot of the time. And then make a few more before they die. I play revenant with pAsphyxios and give them scything touch and they destroy things with that and gang.

Casters I think they work well with are:

pAsphyxious
pDeneghra
eDeneghra
pskarre
eSkarre
Terminus
Coven

Anyone who has buffs and or debuffs for them.

[i_like_tool]

Anyone else use the revenant regularly and have any advice on them? Tactics they use commonly or just general thoughts on them?
Would I be better off just grabbing Banes and calling it a day?

edit: Although thanks for the advice and List Kuwanger. I'm going to try it out in Vassal hopefully a good 5-7 times before purchasing anything to make sure it "fits" my style of play and/or it "clicks" with me. Hopefully won't need any tweaks but if so, i'll have time

[sepher32]

Pack a Bokur and/or Gorman to protect the quartermaster.

They're good with Deneghra. Having the random gun shots is always nice.

[Kuwanger23]

I constantly take down arm 19 jacks with them if they have scything touch up. Takes about three to four of them to get the job done or leave it severely crippled without having to worry about retaliation. Also under eSkarre's feat you can target the quartermaster so your unit is pretty much invulnerable except from AoE's which can be easily avoided. That's two rounds of being unstoppable. The gunners make their unit even bigger. When they do die they come back facing the direction you need them to so that activation they do what you need them to do.

Are they as good as banes and satyxis? no they are not. Under a skilled players control they are solid and annoying to deal with. But banes and satyxis are just the bees knees.

I find with Terminus the gunners can usually grab a soul or three for him at long range which is nice. Also the cannon achieves this result.

Speaking of the cannon, it is good with pSkarre because the skarlock can sac a crewman to cast rit sac and the gunner comes back if you kill something that round.

[fn_quick]

I always just go with banes lol, never under estimate those BAFM...
Ive wanted to try the incorp pirates recently. Seems with the wrath eng rules they could be fun, not bane fun mind you, but still fun.

[Bronze]

I am a regular user of each one of the Cryx pirates of all flavors.

Revenant Crew of Atrementous - The quartermaster is indeed your only concern, so he should always be in the back of your ongoing assault with the squad. Typically you should have your quartermaster as far back in the line as you can while still keeping your unit in command range. Secondly, it is also good to have another pirate in a full squad near your quatermaster in case someone does manage to get him picked off. This gives you an opportunity to promote while not choosing the next quartermaster's location up on the front lines. Screening works well and as mentioned, someone like Gorman or the Bokur can add some survivability to them.
While it might seem fruitless to do so, start off their attacks with their ranged weapons instead of charging. Will they kill much? No. But the reasoning is that you might kill "something" and this has kept your quartermaster in the back edge of threat for the targets that will be aiming for him next turn. Then the following turn you receive the charge from them? Oh nos, you lost some models that will come back next turn and then charge them back. That is a typical strategy of mine when using them. The riflemen are usually good for a kill or two this turn at least anyway.

Captain Rengrave - It can be tough to keep him in line of sight of your troops and it can be tough to decide when to put him up near the front for bonuses. Typically I don't use him that way. I use Rengrave for the occassionl bonus to attack rolls. He might be off on the side near the group but somewhere in the back. Facing is important. Pay attention to it whenever you are firing or swinging a weapon. Everytime you move a revenant ask yourself, is it worth me facing him awkwardly so I can see Rengrave and then make that decision. What I do really like about Rengrave in the back is about his Ghost Shot capabilities at taking out other solos that think they are safe, and then adding more pirates to your cavalry. Another reason to keep Rengrave safe is for cannons...of which I have always gotten their points worth back in a battle. They always seem to be underexpected support when I use them. Usually 'Ghost Shot' gets me so many unexpected opportunities.

Revenant Cannon Crew - I've even used 2 of these on occassion, when I'd rather play the game where I wait for the enemy to come to me moreso than I am moving forward towards them, with some crab-jacks and revenant muck crew holding advances in the front-lines. Typically one always runs these first turn, and preferably if the area on the table allows you to do so, run them righ behind a building, a forest, or some other form of obstruction. They dont' need line-of-sight afterall. Then even if you're out of range for one turn and might not be advancing that much fire an aoe and hope for a drift on their starting infantry lines. No matter where Rengrave is on the battlefield (Infernal clarified), you will get the bonus of Rengrave's to hit on the 'Ghost Shot' attack due to the fact that when you fire with that weapon you are ignoring all line-of-sight throughout that attack, and now you have a very nice Rat 8 cannon shot that doesn't need line-of-sight to oncoming threats. And better yet, they can't see you to charge you back giving you usually 2 full chances at least to fire on whatever you'd like.

While I tend to use nearly all our choices, cause I like variety and playing with different models game-to-game, these are the typical tactics that I take to heart when I use them on the field. And hopefully at least they will give you an idea or two as to how to at least start using them to some effectiveness, having not used them before.

[PG_Samalefic]

What bronze said... I'll add some Black banes info...

First of all, keep BB himself as safe as possible... this is even more important than keeping the QM safe in the Rev crew. Once he's gone you can't replace losses, and he's an officer to boot.

The most important thing it to match them up against something that can't hit them back, then run to engage. It's lose/lose for that unit, they either take Mat 8 free strikes or stand there waiting for you to activate the next turn. It's worked nicely against Stormblades and the WGI deathstar for me.

Obvious things to avoid like the plague are the B13th, Aiyanna and Holt and the Menoth merc attachment. Mage storm will utterly gut the unit and probably off BB himself into the bargin.

Don't forget the either, it's probably worth suicide charging a caster with one or two of them if you can, just to drop the effect on them.

Don't forget that they also have magic weapons, so they can deal with enemy incorp stuff too.

Casters/other models they work nicely with include:

pGaspy (scything touch and parasite to make some jacks very easy for them to cripple, esp with the jack suffering )
eSkarre (feat protecting BB himself, backlashing a jack they can tickle and then damage with the )
Terminus (tough, and they grant a pretty nice bonus to hs tier list, plus a sac pawn model you can replace later)
Witch Coven (with occultation, you should REALLY be able to get them where you want them)
Rengrave (for the hit roll bonus)
Wraith Engine (the incorp bonus)

Mortey and the Goreshades don't seem to have much to offer them

Edit: Kuwanger, nice tip on the rit sacing the cannon crew, hadn't thought of that.

[BigK42]

I use revenant crew all the time. You really have to abuse cover/ terrain as much as possible with them, preferably keeping the QM behind something solid. I take a min unit with the riflemen, and they're awesome. If you can find cover close to the enemy, it's great to charge with the crew, run the QM behind cover, and then charge again after your opponent clears the crew on their turn. Beware of taking on jacks with the crew. It's possible, but you have to watch your opponent's trample angles, and try to plug any holes near your QM. The last thing you need is for a jack to trample over your crew, then buy an extra attack to off your QM.

If you have to run the crew out in the open, try to pair them with a jack or large base model that it can hide behind.