Hey, thought this would be of more use here than in the comments.

I've been trying your mod and I found the idea of a Shade faction that relies heavily on ambushes and fast skirmishes interesting. But I also found several problems, and wanted to give my opinion in case you were looking for some feedback!

1) The faction would really benefit from more unique mechanics. Horde and ambush attack stances are fine, but remember: it's a minor faction, meaning they don't get all buildings major ones do. This means it can feel a bit lackluster, as it has no special buildings or anything to compensate, and the horde buildings are too simple (and only one of the lords can use them). I read you just started modding (and it's a pretty good start! you did a pretty damn good job with the mod for a starter), so maybe you still don't know how to change these things, but new buildings, technologies and talents would really bring your mod up a lot. One mechanic that would definetly enhance the shade feeling of the mod is the Silent Sanctums mechanic from Oxyotl. I've seen other mods that add that mechanic to other races (theres one for dwarves, with unique buildings and everything), so it's more than possible! If you could make these Sanctums limited (so you can't just put one per turn, as that's super OP) they would totally help the faction get a overall better feeling while also balancing the lack of Black Arks (which is a BIG handicap for the faction).

2) Economy wise, the faction has no Black arks, which provide huge boosts to the faction, and they have nothing to replace it. Although this setback is manageable, it adds to the difference between this and other major factions.

3) Rooster needs a buff. The faction provides mediocre-to-decent buffs to shades, but not enough to compensate -20 leadership on all darkshards,bleakswords and dreadspears, and no way to get corsairs. That's a huge handicap for the faction, as most garrisons consist of these troops. DE have mediocre garrisons already, and -20 leadership is INSANE. It also makes armies super reliant on shades, and the faction doesn't buff them enough to justify the handicaps. Melee shades versions are very lackluster and can't replace tankier units needed to hold lines. They can't compete with high tier units from other factions neither and are pretty weak for the price. I found myself only using ranged shades, as melee shades aren't good at all at holding the line, they are clearly flankers and dmg dealers. Using dreadspears or bleakswords isn't viable neither, as they will flee super fast. Corsairs would mitigate these huge handicaps, as they have decent MR and leadership, but the faction can't recruit those.

4) Volilosh really needs more shade related talents, or even more buffs to dark riders, as it would fit the faction. +20% range and fear for shades is decent, but range isn't really the best stat, as theres no point of shooting 1-2 volleys more if they lack dmg and lines to hold enemies. Fear is pretty useless as melee shades die insanely quickly (specially to other ranged units). But that's all Volilosh does for shades. Red talents do little for melee shades, volilosh should really provide a faction buff to these melee shades in order for them to be more viable. Snipe is a good buff, but only Volilosh can benefit from it and doesn't do much to compensate for the lack of viable lines. Take Morathi for example: she provides some of the best factionwide buffs in the game and still buffs shades in terms of melee mroe than Volilosh :P

Those were my thoughts after trying her in a campaign (Vortex, haven't tried her in ME still). Hope you found some useful :)