Medium Infantry, Yes or No?

I picked up the Warpborn Skinwalkers recently on a bit of a whim. Medium Infantry are something I haven't used much and I don't know how effective they really are, except for Trolls. I want to have some options instead of my Tharn as I really don't see how I can get them to work! These little warpwolves to me look like they can act as a good tarpit especially with eBaldur. Their armour goes up to 21 on the feat turn meaning a damage roll of 29 to destroy one of them completely. That would seem to be an effective tarpit to me!

The more I think about my Tharn the more annoyed I get. They really don't cut the mustard and from what I remember in MKI they didn't do it there either. I don't know if it is something genreally inherent in the fact that they are medium infantry. The Ravagers can charge forward and with their charging buffs definitely kill a single target. This rewards them with a corpse token they can use to boost an attack or damage roll or buy another attack. With a standard maximum unit being six models they have to spread out fairly far. Even with reach I struggle to effectively maximise their initial attacks against other regiments. Small based units are often, in my meta, clustered in lines. Maybe three or four are spread across the short frontage blocking access to models behind. Against something like this the Tharn can charge forward and between those that can reach generally kill the front line. Then they are effectively sitting ducks for some retaliation. The corpse token allows for a second attack which can sometimes prove useful if their targets really are packed together. I often find that I am left with a lot of the tokens and then my Tharn get ravaged.

Stacking a Shaman onto the unit supposedly helps with anti-infantry duty. However I find that the Shaman can't assault as my medium based infantry have to be packed close together, much more closely than their small based targets. The Electro Leap hits the nearest model, generally mine in most cases and so I endanger one of my own models. That is the only ability he offers and it is sub par in every situation I have so far used him in. The problem may be that I have quickly dropped him using the two points on much more effective models. Therefore I don't have much experience.

A Chieftain would seem to be the answer to this units problem. He boosts their damage output giving them a POW that threatens other medium based models. Instantly I thought that this would solve some of the problems allowing me to effectively threaten a larger range of targets. He also provides Advance Deployment pushing me further up the field and allowing me a more responsive deployment as it comes after my opponents main deployment. I have come to find however that this is a trap.

Aadvance Depoloyment offers the chance to get aggressive really early with the Ravagers. That to me has always meant they get killed quickly. I often try to get them up into a forest to threaten a zone. This then results in a hail of fire that smashes this glass hammer to bits. I am coming to the understanding that the Tharn are best used as a second wave to respond after the enemy have committed. A light screen in front might be what is needed to absorb a charge and then bring in the Tharn afterwards?