Well, the people have spoken. Last week, I put up a poll to decide what my next army painting project would be. With only two possibilities allowed by Facebook, Ironjaws crushed Beastclaw Raiders in popularity, and so my fate has been sealed. My next army will be the ironclad orruks with a severe anger management issue. I'm going to use this to push myself from a painting perspective, especially in regards to free hand painting; something I have always avoided if possible. With the abundance of flat plates of armour, as well as a banner or two, there are plenty of opportunities to stretch my hobby legs and try out some techniques I haven't committed a whole lot of time to.
For all you who voted for Beastclaw Raiders, fear not. I'm sure I'll be tackling them soon enough*.
*subject to awesome new releases and a brutally short attention span
I've settled on a list (in the voting poll post on Facebook) which I'm really happy with, as it gives me a huge variety of units and characters; well, at least in terms of Ironjawz, who are not known for having a whole lot of diversity in units. I'm very much looking forward to painting the Maw-Crusha, as well as the Warboss with the Waaagh Banner, as I think this will almost be the secondary centrepiece model in the army after the General.
But, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Before I kick into them, I have a rat-tag handful of models that need to be painted to finish off my Pestilens. I cannot wait to close the painting door on that army and enjoy painting something other than robed rats.
But, speaking of robed rats, I'll be taking my Pestilens on their first tournament outing of 2018 this coming weekend, at the Festering of February. This is a one-day 2000pt matched play tournament hosted by Warhammer Capalaba, and while there's only a small player pool, it's shaping up to be a fantastic day. I was lucky enough to jag one of the tickets, and as it's not large enough to earn points for the Aus Matched Play Rankings, I figured I'd use this event to fine-tune my list for some of the bigger events later in the year. The core is very similar to what I've used at several events last year.
Allegiance: Pestilens
Verminlord Corruptor (General, Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicus)
Plague Priest w/Plague Censer
Plague Priest w/Plague Censer
40 Monks (Battleline)
40 Monks (Battleline)
20 Monks (Battleline)
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion
This left me with 300 points still to spend, with none of my Allies pool used. From there, I began to scour the Skaven warscrolls looking for that perfect element to my army. I toyed with using a Warpseer, or even squeezing in a Deceiver, but what my army lacked was the ability to put mortal wounds out at considerable range from relative safety (as skaven as it gets...). While the Warpseer offers that with his Orb, and comes with a fantastic spell, he kind of has to put himself in serious danger to get the opportunity to fling grenades at people.
No-no, I needed something a little more... distanced.
Two options floated to the surface. The first was a big unit of six Jezzails, who (with help from any Mystical Terrain) were quite capable of punching holes through the head of just about any character on the board. The second was (and I can feel the shudder down your spine, my dear reader, but I'm playing Skaven at the event, and make no excuses!) an Arch-Warlock perched atop a Balewind Vortex. In the end, I leant toward the Warlock, as a friend pointed out just how prone Jezzails were to failing Battleshock, and how reliable a Warlock was at putting out mortal wounds at an extremely long range. With a bonus to cast, and a 2+ save atop the Vortex, I feel like he poses far more of a threat, and has far more utility within the army than the snipers do.
So, I'd spent 240 for the Warlock and the Balewind, which had given me the reach that I needed. This left me with 60 points in change. My knee jerk reaction was to just purchase five Plague Censer Bearers, and be done with it, but upon further thought, I decided to sneak in (literally) a unit of five Gutter Runners. These ninja rats give me that tactical element to let me contest or claim unprotected objectives, assassinate a squishy support character, or tie up a unit and prevent it from being where it needs to be to shift the tide of battle toward my opponent. With these stealthy operatives purchased, my list was rounded out to a neat 2000 points on the dot. Fantastic!
The pool of players is actually a surprising mix of new and experienced players, as well as a couple of Youngbloods testing their mettle. I don't know what all of the armies will be on the day, but I'm expecting three good games. I think a lot of the experienced players are approaching it with the same mindset as myself, more focused on refining their own lists rather than going for the throat with a hectic list. I'm very much looking forward to taking the Pestilens for a run again, and finding my groove before some of the larger events up in Queensland.
The event is next Sunday, so there'll be no blog post Sunday night. But fear not, as I'll be publishing all three battle reports in the following week! See you then.
Thanks as always for reading,
Gabe
Sunday 18 February 2018
Sunday 11 February 2018
#120: Legions of Nagash Review
Evening, everybody!
Well, if you hadn't already guessed, this is going to be a pretty lengthy one. There is plenty of meat on these bones (pun completely intended), and we've got a lot to get through, so pull up a chair, get your snacks and cold beverage ready and let's dive in!
Legions of Nagash has been a long time coming, and I can say with complete confidence that it was worth the wait! This battetome is the business. So, before we go too deep on the different legions and all the flavour elements, let's start at the base level and assess the updated war scrolls.
War Scrolls
There's been a lot of small changes to the War Scrolls, in many ways just making them more relevant, more versatile and more streamlined to the army. Easily the biggest and most notable change comes in the form of Deathly Invocations. This special rule is new, and has been bestowed upon every Death Hero in the Battletome. While it's range (between 6" and battlefield-wide) and number of targeted friendly units (between two and five) vary between each Hero depending on their influence and power within the army, it allows you to automatically heal wounded models, or replenish a number of wounds worth of models to a battle-damaged unit (rounding down to whole models; you cant bring a Black Knight back on a single wound, as it goes by Wound Characteristic, which never changes). This is an absolutely huge change, and follows in the same veins as Maggotkin of Nurgle, by turning off the beaten path and away from the traditional summoning methods we've been used to. All 'Summon X unit' sections have been stripped from the scrolls in place of Deathly Invocation.
While Deathly Invocation sounds very strong, it does have an asterisk or two. Firstly, it only affects units with the Summonable keyword. This keyword encompasses everything you might imagine; Zombies, Skeletons, Dire Wolves, Spirit Hosts, Black Knights, Hexwraiths, Fell Bats and Bat Swarms. This is a really important limitation, as it cannot affect Heroes, Morghasts, Corpse Carts, Zombie Dragons and so on. I'm in complete support of this, as it keeps the theme of the powerful beings holding together and reanimating a shambling horde, without unintentionally creating a system that allows you to heal elite sledgehammer units with limitless impunity.
The second big (and I mean... BIG) change is that Standard Bearers no longer replenish their units. Instead, the Standard Bearers (the banner models themselves, not their unit) emit a 6" -1 Bravery Aura. What this means is, to keep your hordes sustained, you're going to need several heroes in range to keep that reanimation going! Blocks of Death infantry are still going to be raising as fast as your opponent can kill them, but it's no longer just a built in mechanic. You need to think about which units you need to sustain in order to control the battlefield.
Wight Kings gained Deathly Invocations, but lost the ability to carry a banner. He lost the wound prevention, but gained a cure, so to speak. The Wight King with a shield now just comes with a flat 3+ save (nothing to sniff at), while the Wight King with the Black Axe dons the Barrow Armour, offering him a handy little element of wound mitigation.
Something we all kind of knew was coming (thanks to news around the Knight of Shrouds) was the change to the Ethereal rule for Nighthaunt. Saves could never be made worse (through Rend, etc), but now they can't be made better either. It doesn't matter if your Spirit Hosts are hiding in terrain with a Mystic Shield; they will always have a 4+ save. Modifiers, both positive and negative, are irrelevant to them. While we're on the topic of Nighthaunt, it's worth noting that you can no longer summon Cairn Wraiths and Banshees for cheeky shenanigans.
The Coven Throne deserves a special mention, too! This is probably one of the least used Heroes that Death has ever had, but the slightest of tweaks has made it amazing. That tweak? The Coven Throne's command ability is no longer a tie-breaker for Priority rolls (situational at best, downright irrelevant at worst). Now (and hold onto your shorts), the Tactical Insight command ability lets you pick a friendly unit within 12". That unit can re-roll 1's for Hit, Wound and Save rolls until your next Hero Phase! Amazing!
There are a few more units that have a new lease on life (OK, OK, I'll stop...) but I don't to spoil ALL the surprises.
Cough*Corpse Carts with Unholy Lodestones*cough.
Ok, now I'm done.
Magic
Speaking of Corpse Carts with Unholy Lodestones (but seriously, 80 points!), Death gets two swanky new Lores of Magic with which to tighten their cold grip upon the realms. These are split into two tables; the Lore of Deathmages and the Lore of Vampires. Only Necromancers and Deathlord Wizards can use the Lore of Deathmages, which is lucky for everyone who's not a Death player, because that Lore is STRONG! The whole (well, almost whole...) lore is based around dishing out negative modifiers, stripping the damage profile on Hero's weapons, debilitating movement or flat out crippling the ability to charge. A 3" charge might sound easy, but on one dice, all of a sudden, it looks pretty sketchy. The only spell that veers away from the concept of crippling your opponent's dice is Soul Harvest, which allows you to dish out mortal wounds to enemies within 3" and heal yourself. I can't see this being of any use to Necromancers, as it's cast in the Hero Phase, which means you need to be in combat from the previous turn AND survive to even cast it. Seems very situational, and a little counter-intuitive for what is essentially a support caster. Even if it allowed you to dish out mortal wounds to nearby friendly units, it'd have it's use for keeping him alive, but with five other incredible spells, I don't see Necromancers using this one a whole lot.
Deathlords on the other hand, can (and predictably will) get a huge amount of mileage out of Soul Harvest. I can just see Mannfred launching into combat, going on a bloody rampage, then sucking the souls out of his foes before continuing on his path of slaughter. In the context of Deathlords, I see this as having huge potential.
The Lore of Vampires (also accessible for Deathlord wizards) is going to see a lot of use (with its far larger list of canditates for use), and is a little more utility/multi-purpose. Whether you want to materialise wings, siphon the life force out of enemies and into friends or just lob an Unholy Hand Grenade into battle, there's a spell here for you!
The Locus of Shyish is gifted to all wizards as well. You might have already heard about this one on Warhammer Community, but a natural (unmodified) casting roll of a nine or more (that isn't unbound) allows you to resolve the effects of the spell twice. It's nothing to depend on, and you can't do anything to increase your chances, but I don't look forward to being on the receiving end of ANY of these spells twice in a turn! It's important to remember, however, that the Locus of Shyish only affects spells from the Lores of Vampires and Deathmages, so spells found in the War Scrolls are not privy to its benefits.
Legions
The next natural step is looking at the four Legions. Each legion may include any of the units from the Battletome, with the exception of Nagash and the three Mortarchs. Nagash can lead a Grand Host of Nagash, must be the general and can have Mortarchs join him, but the three specific legions can't have Nagash, and can only include their specific Mortarch, who must then be the General. This is hardly a hindrance, and really opens up the Death Grand Alliance for time on the tabletop. Now, units that were previously trapped behind an allegiance barrier are sharing the table in all of their unrestricted, macabre glory!
All four allegiances return with old favourites like Deathless Minions, while also bringing new elements to the game in the form of Gravesites. You can place up to four points (not restricted to terrain pieces or anything like that), and units placed in the Graves before the game starts can be summoned from one of these four points by a nearby hero; no dice rolls, no casting attempts. It's very much in line with how Maggotkin summon units onto the board. Gravesites also emit a replenishing, healing aura in the same manner as Deathly Invocations, making their chosen locations of utmost importance when planning out your path to victory.
The Legions also gain an additional command ability that let's them summon a unit that's been destroyed previously in the battle. As always, this costs points as it should, but it remains to be seen whether it's going to be of use or not. With much more limited conventional summoning, leaving points in reinforcements specifically for this ability may be a double edged sword, as you're depending on your units getting wiped out to even be able to bring new units on.
With the broader, universal bonuses covered, let's take a look at each legion, and pick out some highlights.
I can see the Grand Host of Nagash being really practical for running those skeleton horde armies. From the bonus attacks from the Lord of Nagashizzar trait, to the damage mitigation for Deathrattle units the Ossific Diadem and (you guessed it...) ANOTHER healing/replenishing mechanic from Legions Innumerable, it's no surprise that massive Deathrattle units can find the emotional support they need to march ever onward in the ranks of the Grand Host.
There's also a cheeky, and frankly pretty scary buff to Morghasts that makes them just a nightmare to get punched in the head by. I wouldn't say it has the most flavour, but vanilla is a flavour too, you know... It is by far the most flexible in regards to list building, as you can take your pick of Mortarchs, but it certainly favours those boots on the ground infantry lists that will surely pose huge problems to players who can't burn through large units fast.
Also, if you have the Battletome handy, have a look at the Grave-sand Timeglass... It's truly is a thing of beauty.
The Legion of Sacrament, war host of Arkhan the Black is all about that Magic! With +1 to cast on all of their wizards, traits to make people wizards or learn more spells, raising freshly slaughtered foes or simply summoning from the graves with an increased range, the Legion of Sacrament know what it's about. Between the bonuses to cast, the chance to double-tap spells with Locus of Shyish and the sheer number of magic users, you can fit into a list, the army is truly terrifying. It doesn't sugar coat or hide behind a thinly veiled guise. If you want to unleash a dark arsenal of magic, this is your legion!
They also get some pretty incredible defensive Artefacts in the form of Wristbands of Black Gold, Azyrbane Standard and Shroud of Darkness. The Black Gem is also a pretty terrifying prospect, having the potential to shatter and instakill multiple models with a single blow! If you face a Death General using the Black Gem, kill it, kill it with fire and do it from outside of eleven inches!
The Legion of Sacrament also gets a pretty nifty Warscroll Battalion based around Arkhan and a Mortis Engine, which further empowers the magical potency of your army! It's nice and cheap too, at only seventy points (a huge drop in what we've seen in recent battletomes), but it won't be for every Sacrament army. It will all come down to your specific build.
The Legion of Blood is definitely more focused on Vampires and Bravery bombing your opponent! Neferata's minions follow down the Soulblight path (without actually being Soulblight), with every vampire in your army getting an extra attack for each of their weapons as a static buff, as well as a -1 Bravery aura for every unit from the Legion of Blood (units with banners are walking around with -2!!). With traits like Soul Crushing Contempt, and units like Banshees and Terrorgheists, I could totally see some terrifying combos involving dropping bravery through the floor and then nuking a unit with screams and howls.
There are also some very handy artefacts for mitigating opposing magic in the form of the Amulet of Screams and the Oubliette Arcana, both capable of crippling opposing wizards, either with a flat out shutdown, or mind-wiping an opposing wizard of their knowledge of spells! The Orb of Enchantment is probably my pick, however. Once per game, you can reveal the Orb to an enemy hero within 3', and that hero will see visions of enrapturing possibilities. you can effectively turn the hero off for a turn. No piling in, no attacking and no abilities can be used. That is crazy! There are no dice involved, there is no chance or luck. It could be a Stardrake or even Archaon himself; it doesn't matter. If you can get the bearer of the Orb into combat with them, they're going to derp out and stand dumb-founded while the battle rages around them.
The Command Traits also offer a tough choice, because there is a wealth of great traits to choose from, between the mobility bonus from Sanguine Blur to the defensive mechanic of the Aura of Dark Majesty. Walking Death is also an extremely, EXTREMELY scary ability that will make your opponent think twice about trying to slay your general in combat!
There's also a cheeky Battalion for the Legion of Blood, which contains Neferata and her coven of Vampires. Again, I don't think it well see much play in a competitive environment, as you're very much pushed toward a certain build that may not be optimal, but it's definitely nailed that 'Rule of Cool'.
Lastly, we have the Legion of Night; Mannfred's own host of undead minions, and this legion is focused on board control. Deathrattle units in your own territory (not always to be confused with your deployment zone) gain a flat +1 to their save as they form a bulwark upon which your opponent's army can shatter, which is incredibly cool, because this still allows terrain and Mystic shield to benefit them! With The Bait, unit placement and movement is very important, because the rules are very clear that your unit must be wholly within your territory to gain the bonus, so make sure there are no stragglers or overly ambitious skeletons making a dash out of the 'green zone'.
But you don't take the Legion of Night for The Bait, regardless of how practical it is. You're taking it for Ageless Cunning, which allows you to place up to three units in reserve to be set up on a table edge at the end of any of your movement phases, giving you another huge tactical tool in your arsenal. This is really useful, as there are no limitations on what units can or can't be put in reserves. It could be sixty Zombies to mob an unguarded objective, or a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon to blend his (or her) way through anything close enough to poke holes in.
I think, in regards to Traits and Artefacts, there are some great options, but I just can't seem to look past Morbheg's Claw. This fantastic little talon lets the bearer scribble some stick men and sketches on the ground. If the bearer doesn't move, charge or attack in that turn, you can add 2 to casting rolls for all friendly wizards within 12" of the bearer! That's huge! Looking at other units in the army, the Mortis Engine and Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (there it is again!) can layer another two auras for a whopping +4 to cast for your little council of Necromancers.
What? Legion of Sacrament is the magic heavy Legion? Mannfred would disagree.
Skeletons
Deathrattle plays a huge role in the new book, and appears to be the building blocks of the army in every way. They got their own Warscroll Battalion (actually, it's the third rendition of this Battalion with one on the app and one in the Death Grand Alliance book), and it's really solid. It gives you (say it with me now!) yet another way to bring back infantry and cavalry models back to the fold. You can automatically return a single model to every unit from the Battalion that's near the Wight King, but that's not all. The Wight King also gives nearby units a 4" move in the hero phase, giving them some much needed speed! This is your plug and play Skeletal Horde.
Summary
I think this is a really solid Batlletome. It feels like a dark, spooky twin brother to Nurgle. Life and Death jokes notwithstanding, while they have similarities in being able to interact heavily with the table itself and being pretty sturdy, they are both very different. Where Nurgle is a tough-as-nails, low model count army, Legions of Nagash is an implacable horde of infantry supported by lots of characters (but seriously... lots of characters) and ever-replenishing magics keeping the army sustained in its perpetual hunger.
I think that the Legions are very well balanced, as there's not one that's just blatantly better than the others. I'm leaning toward Legion of Night as my favourite, but each build will benefit from a different Legion.
Deathly Invocations is a great change, and I think it adds a great deal to the army. You have to think about it more than Banners required, but you can also stack a significant amount of healing on multiple units with Heroes that were gonna be in your army anyway.
And I think that, once again, the strength of the Battletome is going to be in its combos and it's players. A savvy and cunning Death general will be a truly ominous foe. It's less about 'auto-includes' and more aimed at designed a well oiled machine of war. In short, I love the Battletome. The artwork is beautiful, there's a great portion of the book dedicated to the other two ways to play, and all of the Warscrolls have had lots of time and attention lavished upon them. I would have loved to see a few new kits (Oh, for a Zombie Giant!), but at the same time, I think there is so much to explore in the army now that it probably doesn't NEED new kits to be beautiful and current.
Well... Zombies aside.
So there you have it. Hopefully, this was an enjoyable read for you. While I'm by no means a Death expert, I'd love to see what your plans are if you're planning on taking your shambling hordes to battle! Favourite Legion? Go-to general? Must have combo? I haven't scrupulously covered absolutely everything (every trait, artefact, spell and allegiance shenanigans) because, well, half the fun is reading through all the cool new stuff for your army. But I hope that this post has piqued your interest, and I can't wait to see your Legions in action; slow, shambling action, but action nonetheless.
It will be interesting to see each Death player's take on the book and watch certain combos rise to the top. I'd love to know your thoughts!
Cheers for reading,
Gabe
Well, if you hadn't already guessed, this is going to be a pretty lengthy one. There is plenty of meat on these bones (pun completely intended), and we've got a lot to get through, so pull up a chair, get your snacks and cold beverage ready and let's dive in!
Legions of Nagash has been a long time coming, and I can say with complete confidence that it was worth the wait! This battetome is the business. So, before we go too deep on the different legions and all the flavour elements, let's start at the base level and assess the updated war scrolls.
War Scrolls
There's been a lot of small changes to the War Scrolls, in many ways just making them more relevant, more versatile and more streamlined to the army. Easily the biggest and most notable change comes in the form of Deathly Invocations. This special rule is new, and has been bestowed upon every Death Hero in the Battletome. While it's range (between 6" and battlefield-wide) and number of targeted friendly units (between two and five) vary between each Hero depending on their influence and power within the army, it allows you to automatically heal wounded models, or replenish a number of wounds worth of models to a battle-damaged unit (rounding down to whole models; you cant bring a Black Knight back on a single wound, as it goes by Wound Characteristic, which never changes). This is an absolutely huge change, and follows in the same veins as Maggotkin of Nurgle, by turning off the beaten path and away from the traditional summoning methods we've been used to. All 'Summon X unit' sections have been stripped from the scrolls in place of Deathly Invocation.
While Deathly Invocation sounds very strong, it does have an asterisk or two. Firstly, it only affects units with the Summonable keyword. This keyword encompasses everything you might imagine; Zombies, Skeletons, Dire Wolves, Spirit Hosts, Black Knights, Hexwraiths, Fell Bats and Bat Swarms. This is a really important limitation, as it cannot affect Heroes, Morghasts, Corpse Carts, Zombie Dragons and so on. I'm in complete support of this, as it keeps the theme of the powerful beings holding together and reanimating a shambling horde, without unintentionally creating a system that allows you to heal elite sledgehammer units with limitless impunity.
The second big (and I mean... BIG) change is that Standard Bearers no longer replenish their units. Instead, the Standard Bearers (the banner models themselves, not their unit) emit a 6" -1 Bravery Aura. What this means is, to keep your hordes sustained, you're going to need several heroes in range to keep that reanimation going! Blocks of Death infantry are still going to be raising as fast as your opponent can kill them, but it's no longer just a built in mechanic. You need to think about which units you need to sustain in order to control the battlefield.
Wight Kings gained Deathly Invocations, but lost the ability to carry a banner. He lost the wound prevention, but gained a cure, so to speak. The Wight King with a shield now just comes with a flat 3+ save (nothing to sniff at), while the Wight King with the Black Axe dons the Barrow Armour, offering him a handy little element of wound mitigation.
Something we all kind of knew was coming (thanks to news around the Knight of Shrouds) was the change to the Ethereal rule for Nighthaunt. Saves could never be made worse (through Rend, etc), but now they can't be made better either. It doesn't matter if your Spirit Hosts are hiding in terrain with a Mystic Shield; they will always have a 4+ save. Modifiers, both positive and negative, are irrelevant to them. While we're on the topic of Nighthaunt, it's worth noting that you can no longer summon Cairn Wraiths and Banshees for cheeky shenanigans.
The Coven Throne deserves a special mention, too! This is probably one of the least used Heroes that Death has ever had, but the slightest of tweaks has made it amazing. That tweak? The Coven Throne's command ability is no longer a tie-breaker for Priority rolls (situational at best, downright irrelevant at worst). Now (and hold onto your shorts), the Tactical Insight command ability lets you pick a friendly unit within 12". That unit can re-roll 1's for Hit, Wound and Save rolls until your next Hero Phase! Amazing!
There are a few more units that have a new lease on life (OK, OK, I'll stop...) but I don't to spoil ALL the surprises.
Cough*Corpse Carts with Unholy Lodestones*cough.
Ok, now I'm done.
Magic
Speaking of Corpse Carts with Unholy Lodestones (but seriously, 80 points!), Death gets two swanky new Lores of Magic with which to tighten their cold grip upon the realms. These are split into two tables; the Lore of Deathmages and the Lore of Vampires. Only Necromancers and Deathlord Wizards can use the Lore of Deathmages, which is lucky for everyone who's not a Death player, because that Lore is STRONG! The whole (well, almost whole...) lore is based around dishing out negative modifiers, stripping the damage profile on Hero's weapons, debilitating movement or flat out crippling the ability to charge. A 3" charge might sound easy, but on one dice, all of a sudden, it looks pretty sketchy. The only spell that veers away from the concept of crippling your opponent's dice is Soul Harvest, which allows you to dish out mortal wounds to enemies within 3" and heal yourself. I can't see this being of any use to Necromancers, as it's cast in the Hero Phase, which means you need to be in combat from the previous turn AND survive to even cast it. Seems very situational, and a little counter-intuitive for what is essentially a support caster. Even if it allowed you to dish out mortal wounds to nearby friendly units, it'd have it's use for keeping him alive, but with five other incredible spells, I don't see Necromancers using this one a whole lot.
Deathlords on the other hand, can (and predictably will) get a huge amount of mileage out of Soul Harvest. I can just see Mannfred launching into combat, going on a bloody rampage, then sucking the souls out of his foes before continuing on his path of slaughter. In the context of Deathlords, I see this as having huge potential.
The Lore of Vampires (also accessible for Deathlord wizards) is going to see a lot of use (with its far larger list of canditates for use), and is a little more utility/multi-purpose. Whether you want to materialise wings, siphon the life force out of enemies and into friends or just lob an Unholy Hand Grenade into battle, there's a spell here for you!
The Locus of Shyish is gifted to all wizards as well. You might have already heard about this one on Warhammer Community, but a natural (unmodified) casting roll of a nine or more (that isn't unbound) allows you to resolve the effects of the spell twice. It's nothing to depend on, and you can't do anything to increase your chances, but I don't look forward to being on the receiving end of ANY of these spells twice in a turn! It's important to remember, however, that the Locus of Shyish only affects spells from the Lores of Vampires and Deathmages, so spells found in the War Scrolls are not privy to its benefits.
Legions
The next natural step is looking at the four Legions. Each legion may include any of the units from the Battletome, with the exception of Nagash and the three Mortarchs. Nagash can lead a Grand Host of Nagash, must be the general and can have Mortarchs join him, but the three specific legions can't have Nagash, and can only include their specific Mortarch, who must then be the General. This is hardly a hindrance, and really opens up the Death Grand Alliance for time on the tabletop. Now, units that were previously trapped behind an allegiance barrier are sharing the table in all of their unrestricted, macabre glory!
All four allegiances return with old favourites like Deathless Minions, while also bringing new elements to the game in the form of Gravesites. You can place up to four points (not restricted to terrain pieces or anything like that), and units placed in the Graves before the game starts can be summoned from one of these four points by a nearby hero; no dice rolls, no casting attempts. It's very much in line with how Maggotkin summon units onto the board. Gravesites also emit a replenishing, healing aura in the same manner as Deathly Invocations, making their chosen locations of utmost importance when planning out your path to victory.
The Legions also gain an additional command ability that let's them summon a unit that's been destroyed previously in the battle. As always, this costs points as it should, but it remains to be seen whether it's going to be of use or not. With much more limited conventional summoning, leaving points in reinforcements specifically for this ability may be a double edged sword, as you're depending on your units getting wiped out to even be able to bring new units on.
With the broader, universal bonuses covered, let's take a look at each legion, and pick out some highlights.
I can see the Grand Host of Nagash being really practical for running those skeleton horde armies. From the bonus attacks from the Lord of Nagashizzar trait, to the damage mitigation for Deathrattle units the Ossific Diadem and (you guessed it...) ANOTHER healing/replenishing mechanic from Legions Innumerable, it's no surprise that massive Deathrattle units can find the emotional support they need to march ever onward in the ranks of the Grand Host.
There's also a cheeky, and frankly pretty scary buff to Morghasts that makes them just a nightmare to get punched in the head by. I wouldn't say it has the most flavour, but vanilla is a flavour too, you know... It is by far the most flexible in regards to list building, as you can take your pick of Mortarchs, but it certainly favours those boots on the ground infantry lists that will surely pose huge problems to players who can't burn through large units fast.
Also, if you have the Battletome handy, have a look at the Grave-sand Timeglass... It's truly is a thing of beauty.
The Legion of Sacrament, war host of Arkhan the Black is all about that Magic! With +1 to cast on all of their wizards, traits to make people wizards or learn more spells, raising freshly slaughtered foes or simply summoning from the graves with an increased range, the Legion of Sacrament know what it's about. Between the bonuses to cast, the chance to double-tap spells with Locus of Shyish and the sheer number of magic users, you can fit into a list, the army is truly terrifying. It doesn't sugar coat or hide behind a thinly veiled guise. If you want to unleash a dark arsenal of magic, this is your legion!
They also get some pretty incredible defensive Artefacts in the form of Wristbands of Black Gold, Azyrbane Standard and Shroud of Darkness. The Black Gem is also a pretty terrifying prospect, having the potential to shatter and instakill multiple models with a single blow! If you face a Death General using the Black Gem, kill it, kill it with fire and do it from outside of eleven inches!
The Legion of Sacrament also gets a pretty nifty Warscroll Battalion based around Arkhan and a Mortis Engine, which further empowers the magical potency of your army! It's nice and cheap too, at only seventy points (a huge drop in what we've seen in recent battletomes), but it won't be for every Sacrament army. It will all come down to your specific build.
The Legion of Blood is definitely more focused on Vampires and Bravery bombing your opponent! Neferata's minions follow down the Soulblight path (without actually being Soulblight), with every vampire in your army getting an extra attack for each of their weapons as a static buff, as well as a -1 Bravery aura for every unit from the Legion of Blood (units with banners are walking around with -2!!). With traits like Soul Crushing Contempt, and units like Banshees and Terrorgheists, I could totally see some terrifying combos involving dropping bravery through the floor and then nuking a unit with screams and howls.
There are also some very handy artefacts for mitigating opposing magic in the form of the Amulet of Screams and the Oubliette Arcana, both capable of crippling opposing wizards, either with a flat out shutdown, or mind-wiping an opposing wizard of their knowledge of spells! The Orb of Enchantment is probably my pick, however. Once per game, you can reveal the Orb to an enemy hero within 3', and that hero will see visions of enrapturing possibilities. you can effectively turn the hero off for a turn. No piling in, no attacking and no abilities can be used. That is crazy! There are no dice involved, there is no chance or luck. It could be a Stardrake or even Archaon himself; it doesn't matter. If you can get the bearer of the Orb into combat with them, they're going to derp out and stand dumb-founded while the battle rages around them.
The Command Traits also offer a tough choice, because there is a wealth of great traits to choose from, between the mobility bonus from Sanguine Blur to the defensive mechanic of the Aura of Dark Majesty. Walking Death is also an extremely, EXTREMELY scary ability that will make your opponent think twice about trying to slay your general in combat!
There's also a cheeky Battalion for the Legion of Blood, which contains Neferata and her coven of Vampires. Again, I don't think it well see much play in a competitive environment, as you're very much pushed toward a certain build that may not be optimal, but it's definitely nailed that 'Rule of Cool'.
Lastly, we have the Legion of Night; Mannfred's own host of undead minions, and this legion is focused on board control. Deathrattle units in your own territory (not always to be confused with your deployment zone) gain a flat +1 to their save as they form a bulwark upon which your opponent's army can shatter, which is incredibly cool, because this still allows terrain and Mystic shield to benefit them! With The Bait, unit placement and movement is very important, because the rules are very clear that your unit must be wholly within your territory to gain the bonus, so make sure there are no stragglers or overly ambitious skeletons making a dash out of the 'green zone'.
But you don't take the Legion of Night for The Bait, regardless of how practical it is. You're taking it for Ageless Cunning, which allows you to place up to three units in reserve to be set up on a table edge at the end of any of your movement phases, giving you another huge tactical tool in your arsenal. This is really useful, as there are no limitations on what units can or can't be put in reserves. It could be sixty Zombies to mob an unguarded objective, or a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon to blend his (or her) way through anything close enough to poke holes in.
I think, in regards to Traits and Artefacts, there are some great options, but I just can't seem to look past Morbheg's Claw. This fantastic little talon lets the bearer scribble some stick men and sketches on the ground. If the bearer doesn't move, charge or attack in that turn, you can add 2 to casting rolls for all friendly wizards within 12" of the bearer! That's huge! Looking at other units in the army, the Mortis Engine and Corpse Cart with Unholy Lodestone (there it is again!) can layer another two auras for a whopping +4 to cast for your little council of Necromancers.
What? Legion of Sacrament is the magic heavy Legion? Mannfred would disagree.
Skeletons
Deathrattle plays a huge role in the new book, and appears to be the building blocks of the army in every way. They got their own Warscroll Battalion (actually, it's the third rendition of this Battalion with one on the app and one in the Death Grand Alliance book), and it's really solid. It gives you (say it with me now!) yet another way to bring back infantry and cavalry models back to the fold. You can automatically return a single model to every unit from the Battalion that's near the Wight King, but that's not all. The Wight King also gives nearby units a 4" move in the hero phase, giving them some much needed speed! This is your plug and play Skeletal Horde.
Summary
I think this is a really solid Batlletome. It feels like a dark, spooky twin brother to Nurgle. Life and Death jokes notwithstanding, while they have similarities in being able to interact heavily with the table itself and being pretty sturdy, they are both very different. Where Nurgle is a tough-as-nails, low model count army, Legions of Nagash is an implacable horde of infantry supported by lots of characters (but seriously... lots of characters) and ever-replenishing magics keeping the army sustained in its perpetual hunger.
I think that the Legions are very well balanced, as there's not one that's just blatantly better than the others. I'm leaning toward Legion of Night as my favourite, but each build will benefit from a different Legion.
Deathly Invocations is a great change, and I think it adds a great deal to the army. You have to think about it more than Banners required, but you can also stack a significant amount of healing on multiple units with Heroes that were gonna be in your army anyway.
And I think that, once again, the strength of the Battletome is going to be in its combos and it's players. A savvy and cunning Death general will be a truly ominous foe. It's less about 'auto-includes' and more aimed at designed a well oiled machine of war. In short, I love the Battletome. The artwork is beautiful, there's a great portion of the book dedicated to the other two ways to play, and all of the Warscrolls have had lots of time and attention lavished upon them. I would have loved to see a few new kits (Oh, for a Zombie Giant!), but at the same time, I think there is so much to explore in the army now that it probably doesn't NEED new kits to be beautiful and current.
Well... Zombies aside.
So there you have it. Hopefully, this was an enjoyable read for you. While I'm by no means a Death expert, I'd love to see what your plans are if you're planning on taking your shambling hordes to battle! Favourite Legion? Go-to general? Must have combo? I haven't scrupulously covered absolutely everything (every trait, artefact, spell and allegiance shenanigans) because, well, half the fun is reading through all the cool new stuff for your army. But I hope that this post has piqued your interest, and I can't wait to see your Legions in action; slow, shambling action, but action nonetheless.
It will be interesting to see each Death player's take on the book and watch certain combos rise to the top. I'd love to know your thoughts!
Cheers for reading,
Gabe
Sunday 4 February 2018
#119: Unlocking your true Portent-ial (WARNING: Puns ahead)
What is even happening?
We're a month into the year, and already, we are on the brink of a global narrative campaign, we're about to have Legions of Nagash unleashed upon the game, and Daughters of Khaine are coming in hot after that.
So yeah... its going to be a big year for Age of Sigmar, and we're only a month in. Looking back to last year, where Stormcast, Tzeentch, Khorne and Overlords got a Battletome update, it feels like this year is going to be dedicated to either new armies, or revamping (eh? re-VAMP-ing? get it!) older, neglected factions that didn't receive the love they deserved in the General's Handbook.
Legions of Nagash was a little bit of a surprise to me. I mean, we all knew there was going to be a Death Battletome eventually, but I was fully expecting it to be an expansion upon Deathrattle into a filled out faction with perhaps some new kits, or even giving Deadwalkers some love (because we all know Zombie Giants would be amazing!). But instead, GW has essentially released a Battletome for the entire Grand Alliance, with the exception of Flesh Eater Courts, who fill the Allies role for LoN.
Legions is almost the best case scenario (almost, but more on that later) for Death Players. Let's be real; the majority of Death Players were playing Grand Alliance Death anyway. There are, of course, plenty of FEC players, and new life was breathed into certain factions (these puns are coming thick and fast today, and I make no apologies) with the GHB17, but competitively, mixed Death seemed to be the strongest and most viable. I'm personally not a Death player, so correct me if I'm wrong in any of this. The combining of the armies means that so many models have launched back into the category of viable! I see this as being fantastic, and very themed, as you can now build one of several legions with all of the flexibility you desire.
The reason that I say 'almost the best case scenario' is because of one thing. The Knight of Shrouds.
"But, Gabe," I hear you say. "How is a new, awesome model with awesome rules a bad thing?".
That's exactly it. He's the only one. That character model is the first Death model to be released for the entire Grand Alliance since the birth of AOS, and while I know Death got lots of new models during the End Times, it's still disproportionate to literally every other Grand Alliance! Even the Ironjawz release had a heap of new models.
Don't get me wrong... the model is amazing! Not only is he a total bad ass model, but he fills the gaping General-shaped hole in a Nighthaunt army. No longer is your army led by a low-wound character with no command ability. He synergizes perfectly with the army, and I'm expecting to see him in every Nighthaunt army at every points level. That said, I'm interested to see where those minor GHB17 factions lie in regards to the Legions. Will they just become redundant in the shadow of the new Battletome, or will they have a niche spot? Time will tell.
Speaking of new models, the four new characters coming out look amazing! The Knight of Shrouds is stunning, and suitably creepy! His ominous helm and ancient longsword give him an air of terror that perfectly suits the Death aesthetic.
The Lord-Ordinator is a bit of an unusual one. I think a lot of people were hoping it would be an elf or a dwarf (even a human) instead of a Stormcast hero, this is probably the least Stormcast-y SCE model we've seen yet. Instead of the traditional head-to-toe plate armour, he's bare-armed and bareheaded, and his role as an engineer is clear just by looking at him. He wears robes and is adorned with tools and instruments of his trade. The duel-weilded hammers are also very reminiscent of Warrior Priests of the wold that was. I personally love this new direction, as well as his synergy and support role with war machines. I do think it's interesting to see a character dedicated to 'War Machines' specifically. We've not seen a model with the War Machine keyword released since the dawn of AOS, but I hope it's a unit type that we see return to the game with new models, no matter what race it's for. There's something awesome about crewed war machines raining death from afar!
The Darkaoth Warqueen is absolutely amazing as a model! Her beauty is perfectly balanced with the raw aggression present in the pose and the armament of the model. I can see this model being the foundation for perhaps a Valkia conversion, or simply as a stand alone character. I'm hoping that she and the Darkoath Cheiftain are glimpses of a more fleshed out faction in the future, that encompasses the Marauder aspect of the Chaos faction, steering away from the "viking" look and more toward a barbarian aesthetic. A guy can dream, right?
Lastly, and by far the most exciting in my mind, is the Fungoid Cave Shaman. Moonclan Grots, while a much-beloved faction, have been scraping out a path to survival in the game since well before End Times. And while the range is fairly broad (when you include all of the Squigs and Forge World models), it was one of the surprise omissions from the GHB17. This came as quite a surprise to everyone, but hopefully this is a good thing. The Cave Shaman is very blatantly a Moonclan Grot, but the design is very different; hopefully a sign of things to come. While he's adorned in black robes, wields a sickle and has cresent moon icons like every other Shaman before him, there's no mistaking that he's decidedly higher-fantasy than his predecessors. from the weird brain-squig to the critter on his staff, the vials and pouches to the mushrooms growing on him, he looks far more "fantasy" than any other goblin released so far.
I'm hoping that these characters are heralds of future releases. I'd be totally OK with new Moonclan, Darkoath and Stormcast Engineers! Give me a Stormcast ballista... I'd be all over that!
And I haven't even mentioned the new Daughters of Khaine, yet! I did a full piece on looking at why no one was playing them in issue #108. And let's jsut say, judging by the hype, people are gonna be playing them left, right and centre! But that's a whole topic for another blog!
In summary, I can't wait to get my hands on the new books coming out on Saturday. Malign Portents is shaping up to be a huge story arc, and another big advancement in the Age of Sigmar. I think between this and Daughters, we're about to see a huge shake up of the game (again!), and I dunno about you but I can't wait. The game is always shifting and advancing, and it shows in everyone's face. We're all excited for every release, and Death has been coming a long way off! I hope it pleases the masses, as I think the book alone will give new life (you thought I was done with the puns, didn't you...) to an old, but beautiful range of models!
Are you jumping aboard the Death train or will you wait for the angriest ladies in all the realms?
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
We're a month into the year, and already, we are on the brink of a global narrative campaign, we're about to have Legions of Nagash unleashed upon the game, and Daughters of Khaine are coming in hot after that.
So yeah... its going to be a big year for Age of Sigmar, and we're only a month in. Looking back to last year, where Stormcast, Tzeentch, Khorne and Overlords got a Battletome update, it feels like this year is going to be dedicated to either new armies, or revamping (eh? re-VAMP-ing? get it!) older, neglected factions that didn't receive the love they deserved in the General's Handbook.
Legions of Nagash was a little bit of a surprise to me. I mean, we all knew there was going to be a Death Battletome eventually, but I was fully expecting it to be an expansion upon Deathrattle into a filled out faction with perhaps some new kits, or even giving Deadwalkers some love (because we all know Zombie Giants would be amazing!). But instead, GW has essentially released a Battletome for the entire Grand Alliance, with the exception of Flesh Eater Courts, who fill the Allies role for LoN.
Legions is almost the best case scenario (almost, but more on that later) for Death Players. Let's be real; the majority of Death Players were playing Grand Alliance Death anyway. There are, of course, plenty of FEC players, and new life was breathed into certain factions (these puns are coming thick and fast today, and I make no apologies) with the GHB17, but competitively, mixed Death seemed to be the strongest and most viable. I'm personally not a Death player, so correct me if I'm wrong in any of this. The combining of the armies means that so many models have launched back into the category of viable! I see this as being fantastic, and very themed, as you can now build one of several legions with all of the flexibility you desire.
The reason that I say 'almost the best case scenario' is because of one thing. The Knight of Shrouds.
"But, Gabe," I hear you say. "How is a new, awesome model with awesome rules a bad thing?".
That's exactly it. He's the only one. That character model is the first Death model to be released for the entire Grand Alliance since the birth of AOS, and while I know Death got lots of new models during the End Times, it's still disproportionate to literally every other Grand Alliance! Even the Ironjawz release had a heap of new models.
Don't get me wrong... the model is amazing! Not only is he a total bad ass model, but he fills the gaping General-shaped hole in a Nighthaunt army. No longer is your army led by a low-wound character with no command ability. He synergizes perfectly with the army, and I'm expecting to see him in every Nighthaunt army at every points level. That said, I'm interested to see where those minor GHB17 factions lie in regards to the Legions. Will they just become redundant in the shadow of the new Battletome, or will they have a niche spot? Time will tell.
Speaking of new models, the four new characters coming out look amazing! The Knight of Shrouds is stunning, and suitably creepy! His ominous helm and ancient longsword give him an air of terror that perfectly suits the Death aesthetic.
The Lord-Ordinator is a bit of an unusual one. I think a lot of people were hoping it would be an elf or a dwarf (even a human) instead of a Stormcast hero, this is probably the least Stormcast-y SCE model we've seen yet. Instead of the traditional head-to-toe plate armour, he's bare-armed and bareheaded, and his role as an engineer is clear just by looking at him. He wears robes and is adorned with tools and instruments of his trade. The duel-weilded hammers are also very reminiscent of Warrior Priests of the wold that was. I personally love this new direction, as well as his synergy and support role with war machines. I do think it's interesting to see a character dedicated to 'War Machines' specifically. We've not seen a model with the War Machine keyword released since the dawn of AOS, but I hope it's a unit type that we see return to the game with new models, no matter what race it's for. There's something awesome about crewed war machines raining death from afar!
The Darkaoth Warqueen is absolutely amazing as a model! Her beauty is perfectly balanced with the raw aggression present in the pose and the armament of the model. I can see this model being the foundation for perhaps a Valkia conversion, or simply as a stand alone character. I'm hoping that she and the Darkoath Cheiftain are glimpses of a more fleshed out faction in the future, that encompasses the Marauder aspect of the Chaos faction, steering away from the "viking" look and more toward a barbarian aesthetic. A guy can dream, right?
Lastly, and by far the most exciting in my mind, is the Fungoid Cave Shaman. Moonclan Grots, while a much-beloved faction, have been scraping out a path to survival in the game since well before End Times. And while the range is fairly broad (when you include all of the Squigs and Forge World models), it was one of the surprise omissions from the GHB17. This came as quite a surprise to everyone, but hopefully this is a good thing. The Cave Shaman is very blatantly a Moonclan Grot, but the design is very different; hopefully a sign of things to come. While he's adorned in black robes, wields a sickle and has cresent moon icons like every other Shaman before him, there's no mistaking that he's decidedly higher-fantasy than his predecessors. from the weird brain-squig to the critter on his staff, the vials and pouches to the mushrooms growing on him, he looks far more "fantasy" than any other goblin released so far.
I'm hoping that these characters are heralds of future releases. I'd be totally OK with new Moonclan, Darkoath and Stormcast Engineers! Give me a Stormcast ballista... I'd be all over that!
And I haven't even mentioned the new Daughters of Khaine, yet! I did a full piece on looking at why no one was playing them in issue #108. And let's jsut say, judging by the hype, people are gonna be playing them left, right and centre! But that's a whole topic for another blog!
In summary, I can't wait to get my hands on the new books coming out on Saturday. Malign Portents is shaping up to be a huge story arc, and another big advancement in the Age of Sigmar. I think between this and Daughters, we're about to see a huge shake up of the game (again!), and I dunno about you but I can't wait. The game is always shifting and advancing, and it shows in everyone's face. We're all excited for every release, and Death has been coming a long way off! I hope it pleases the masses, as I think the book alone will give new life (you thought I was done with the puns, didn't you...) to an old, but beautiful range of models!
Are you jumping aboard the Death train or will you wait for the angriest ladies in all the realms?
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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