Nulahmia Seductress themed Legion of Blood

[themortalgod]

Currently working on building/painting a themed list based on the concept of a Nulahmia themed army of seductress vampires. Naturally, the list will be Legion of Blood led by Nef herself. My plan is to use Raging Heroes elves as my other vampires. The Vestal Riders will make perfect Blood Knights while some of the Elf heroes will be perfect as Lahmian Vampires. 

Here is the list:

1	Neferata	General, Soul Harvest	400
1	Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon	Orb of Enchantment, Amaranthine Orb	440
1	Blood Seeker Palanquin	Blades of Shyish, Amulet of Screams	320
1	Vampire Lord	Vile Transference, Wings	140
1	Necromancer	Overwhelming Dread	110
5	Dire Wolves		60
5	Dire Wolves		60
5	Dire Wolves		60
1	Tomb Banshee		80
5	Blood Knights		260

+  Court of Nulahmia (70pts)

Comes to an even 2000pts

 

The list won't be super competitive but I feel it will be pretty fun and still be able to hold its own and a casual meta.

- Overwhelming dread + Nef command ability can make for some pretty good defence.

- Love the Orb of Enchantment for goeing toe to toe with other super powerful enemy monsters. Plus it feels like it fits the theme perfect that the enemy is seduced into doing nothing.

- The bravery debuffs this army makes are pretty strong so with the last 80pts I tossed in the tomb banshee. An enemy unit near the blood knights with Overwhelming dread will be at -3 bravery.

- The Dire wolves feel more versatile than infantry, though will largely play the role of speedbumps 

- Warscroll Battalion makes the army surprisingly fast and keeps the drop count pretty low. 70pts for the warscroll battalion seems like a steal.

- Not 100% sold on Amulet of Screams. Situationally super useful, but more just not a fan of any of the other legion of blood items. 

 

I'd love any feedback,  I love how low the model count (and more importantly lots of fun stuff to paint with very little repetitive painting of rank and file) as it means I actually may get it all painted sometime this century. I have every model in the list accounted for except the Necromancer. Anyone got any ideas? I'd like to keep with the female theme but don't want the Necromancer to be "sexy" like the vampires. Perhaps some sort of old crone type model? 

 

If you are curious about the models I'm planning to use:

- Normal Nef model.

- Old goblin wolf rider wolves as Dire Wolves (since I already have a bunch and prefer them to the current dire wolves, I always preferred dire wolves as jet black creatures of the night instead of zombie wolves)

- GW Banshee

- Necro TBD.

- Arkiish on the Creature Caster Zombie Dragon as Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/arkiish-de-f
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0229/8431/products/zom2_1100x.jpg?v=1484278001

- Shiveryah on the GW Mortis Engine Model as the Blood Seeker

https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/shiveryah-de-f

- Kashala as the Vampire Lord on Foot with Wings (probably use some chaos fury wings that I have in my bits box)

https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/lady-kashala-de-f

- Vestal Riders as Blood Knights (no idea what I will do with the other infantry girls in the set but they don't sell the riders seperately)

https://www.ragingheroes.com/products/crimsonraiders-de-f

 

[Tidings]

Love it man. I've been planning on getting a bunch of ragingheroes models as well! Didn't even know about those two characters, they look amazing. I'm planning on using Hordes Archangel instead of the creature caster dragon though. I just love the pose so much. Can't wait to see the progress once you start painting! 

Can't speak to the list yet - store sold my reserved book to someone else.

[themortalgod]

5 minutes ago, Tidings said:

Love it man. I've been planning on getting a bunch of ragingheroes models as well! Didn't even know about those two characters, they look amazing. I'm planning on using Hordes Archangel instead of the creature caster dragon though. I just love the pose so much. Can't wait to see the progress once you start painting! 

Can't speak to the list yet - store sold my reserved book to someone else.

Nice, yeah, that dragon is pretty nice too. There are so many great dragons out there, the reason I went with creature caster is because they have a howdah instead of a saddle so I don't have to model the rider to have her legs around the dragon's neck. (though I wish the wings were spread on it, but thats a minor gripe)  Its a bummer GW doesn't have a better one though. I really like their model but I feel like it looks way better as a Terrorgheist, I've never felt it looks like a dragon. (Will probably get one at some point for maybe a variation of this list designed to really abuse the bravery debuffing)

Bummer about the book, I buy all ebooks now personally to avoid that issue. (And having to store them all)  

[Tidings]

The howdah is awesome, and it includes a back piece slot in case you want to play it as a dragon without a rider. I have the Creature Caster treewomen models and they are amazing quality and design! I would love the dragon more if the wings were spread too though. Sort of agree about the GW dragon; I actually love the model, but I feel like the rider looks a little silly on its back. Also a friend pointed out it looks like it's having a coughing fit and I haven't been able to look at it the same way since then. 

[themortalgod]

25 minutes ago, Tidings said:

The howdah is awesome, and it includes a back piece slot in case you want to play it as a dragon without a rider. I have the Creature Caster treewomen models and they are amazing quality and design! I would love the dragon more if the wings were spread too though. Sort of agree about the GW dragon; I actually love the model, but I feel like the rider looks a little silly on its back. Also a friend pointed out it looks like it's having a coughing fit and I haven't been able to look at it the same way since then. 

Thats awesome, I have some of Jeremy's models from when he was "Ultraforge Miniatures" including the original tree-woman but I haven't bought anything since he started Creature Caster. I want so many of those sculpts but the price would put me in the poor house.

And that hilarious! Love it.  Dragon with strep throat  

[Vasshpit]

15 hours ago, themortalgod said:

 Old goblin wolf rider wolves as Dire Wolves (since I already have a bunch and prefer them to the current dire wolves, I always preferred dire wolves as jet black creatures of the night instead of zombie wolves)

 

Totally agree. Have you considered Fenrisian Wolves from 40k? They're much more dynamic sculpt and look great done up as you mentioned. 

[Tidings]

Yeah that's one of the treewomen I have! I second the Fenrisian Wolves suggestion. I use them for my Wood Elves themed army and they are fantastic.

[xspire]

I also came up with a list like this from the new book - I have about 10 lists theory crafted on paper that I want to try out. If you get any games in with it please let me know how you do. I love the theme of the CoN battalion - it feels awesome, but I've got a feeling it would just be better to upgrade the winged VL to a VLoZD and drop the Palaquin so that Nef and 2 x VLoZD are free to split up if needed.

I already started to rebuild my army from scratch in a Nulahmia theme before the battalion was leaked so I do want to try and get it to work but you don't have enough points left to properly build the army out with enough tarpits I feel. In my head I have these boxes that I'm trying to tick all at once:

2-3 banners for bravery debuff

2-3 tarpits to allow hammers optimal charges/combats

1-2 Necromancers to supplement both of the above

It's a tricky puzzle to put together, lots of play testing to be done!

[themortalgod]

8 hours ago, xspire said:

I also came up with a list like this from the new book - I have about 10 lists theory crafted on paper that I want to try out. If you get any games in with it please let me know how you do. I love the theme of the CoN battalion - it feels awesome, but I've got a feeling it would just be better to upgrade the winged VL to a VLoZD and drop the Palaquin so that Nef and 2 x VLoZD are free to split up if needed.

I already started to rebuild my army from scratch in a Nulahmia theme before the battalion was leaked so I do want to try and get it to work but you don't have enough points left to properly build the army out with enough tarpits I feel. In my head I have these boxes that I'm trying to tick all at once:

2-3 banners for bravery debuff

2-3 tarpits to allow hammers optimal charges/combats

1-2 Necromancers to supplement both of the above

It's a tricky puzzle to put together, lots of play testing to be done!

Certainly, my list definitely won't be the tarpit type of undead, it's all shock and awe, hit hard and faster.  I did play a full on mega tarpit style game tonight with my old undead army running as sacrament tonight, it went pretty well, though the game really drags out when your gameplan is all about locking enemy units down and keeping them stuck in combat with debuffs on them. I think the Legion of Blood lists will be more fun for both players than the more tarpit focused forces. 

[xspire]

On 2/19/2018 at 6:07 AM, themortalgod said:

Certainly, my list definitely won't be the tarpit type of undead, it's all shock and awe, hit hard and faster.  I did play a full on mega tarpit style game tonight with my old undead army running as sacrament tonight, it went pretty well, though the game really drags out when your gameplan is all about locking enemy units down and keeping them stuck in combat with debuffs on them. I think the Legion of Blood lists will be more fun for both players than the more tarpit focused forces. 

Yeah I totally agree, I was just trying to make a balanced all-comers list and unfortunately since I gave away my old death army and started from scratch I don't think I can be bothered to paint a unit of 40 skeletons again anyway.

The list I'm working towards at the moment is:

Hero #1] Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

- General -  Aura of Dark Majesty - Vile Transference

Hero #2] Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

- Orb of Enchantment - Amethystine Pinions

Hero #3] Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

- Soulpike or Blades of Shyish

Hero #4] Necromancer

- Overwhelming Dread

Batteline #1] 5 Dire Wolves

 

That leaves me with 510 points to play around with, and I need 2 more battleline. I could just flood the points with dire wolves, I really like fell bats and bat swarms at the moment too. I've also been thinking of some Blood Knights - mostly for the conversions rather than the competitiveness, or a Winged/mounted vampire with an Amaranthine Orb. 2 units of 10 wolves and a unit of BKs takes me to 1990 which is pretty sweet. Or I could get 3 more units of wolves and a terrorgheist in, but I'd rather have more tarpit/screening options I think. Suggestions welcome!

[themortalgod]

6 minutes ago, xspire said:

Yeah I totally agree, I was just trying to make a balanced all-comers list and unfortunately since I gave away my old death army and started from scratch I don't think I can be bothered to paint a unit of 40 skeletons again anyway.

The list I'm working towards at the moment is:

Hero #1] Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

- General -  Aura of Dark Majesty - Vile Transference

Hero #2] Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

- Orb of Enchantment - Amethystine Pinions

Hero #3] Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon

- Soulpike or Blades of Shyish

Hero #4] Necromancer

- Overwhelming Dread

Batteline #1] 5 Dire Wolves

 

That leaves me with 510 points to play around with, and I need 2 more battleline. I could just flood the points with dire wolves, I really like fell bats and bat swarms at the moment too. I've also been thinking of some Blood Knights - mostly for the conversions rather than the competitiveness, or a Winged/mounted vampire with an Amaranthine Orb. 2 units of 10 wolves and a unit of BKs takes me to 1990 which is pretty sweet. Or I could get 3 more units of wolves and a terrorgheist in, but I'd rather have more tarpit/screening options I think. Suggestions welcome!

 

Nice, I'd say Amaranthine Orb is probably a stronger choice than Blades of Shyish in terms of damage potential. 

Bat swarms are ok but I rarely have found them useful in game since the aura is so short range. Doubly so now that they can't be summoned. 

Fel Bats I haven't used and am not sure about.  I've been toying with getting them instead of the Banshee, not sure which is a better 80pt spend. 

In  a recent game I ran Spirit Hosts and quite liked them though, Opponents seem terrified of the MWs they can do so over-invest in killing them. 

 

[xspire]

8 hours ago, themortalgod said:

 

Nice, I'd say Amaranthine Orb is probably a stronger choice than Blades of Shyish in terms of damage potential. 

Bat swarms are ok but I rarely have found them useful in game since the aura is so short range. Doubly so now that they can't be summoned. 

Fel Bats I haven't used and am not sure about.  I've been toying with getting them instead of the Banshee, not sure which is a better 80pt spend. 

In  a recent game I ran Spirit Hosts and quite liked them though, Opponents seem terrified of the MWs they can do so over-invest in killing them. 

 

Thanks for your input. I really like Fell bats they're just points inefficient compared to dire wolves, who can do the same job. As for the Banshee, I think it's one of the most fun units in terms of casual play and the modelling opportunities are endless.

I do also like spirit hosts but I'd be worried they couldn't keep up with the dragons, maybe I should try out the new hexwraiths now they're summonable. I also like Harbingers but every time I try to fit them into my list I'm 10 points over thanks to the awkward cost of the Necromancer.

[themortalgod]

3 hours ago, xspire said:

Thanks for your input. I really like Fell bats they're just points inefficient compared to dire wolves, who can do the same job. As for the Banshee, I think it's one of the most fun units in terms of casual play and the modelling opportunities are endless.

I do also like spirit hosts but I'd be worried they couldn't keep up with the dragons, maybe I should try out the new hexwraiths now they're summonable. I also like Harbingers but every time I try to fit them into my list I'm 10 points over thanks to the awkward cost of the Necromancer.

Yeah, though one thing that bats do that wolves can't is they can fly over things which I think does give them a minor advantage in certain situations. They also can hit way harder but are so much more vulnerable. 

Thats the main spirit host problem, though, I could see them playing the role of backline protection perhaps. I really strongly considered Hexwraiths but they just don't seem all that strong for their cost, even with the buffs. Imo 15 Dire wolves are more valuable than 5 Hexwraiths for similar cost. 

I really wish banshees were faster, thats really the thing keeping them casual. In a list that may commonly be debuffing bravery at -3 a Banshee can do strong MWs, but since she is so slow and can't run if she wants to shoot the target options are really limited. 
 

[Skorp]

I'm looking to do a Court of Nulahmia as well. I personally love the ability to use grave sites and am looking at something like this for my list. The ability to bring back a dead unit each turn with your General feels huge to me, but I guess you're giving up Neferata's -1 to hit ability for it. Two heroes + 2 grave sites near a unit means 4D3 skeletons returning which happens a lot. This was just huge in the game I was playing. I understand not wanting to go tarpit but it feels like you're wasting the deathly invocation ability on all the heroes. All the non-hero units in the list below are summonable so they will all be getting healed and they can all be called back from the grave after being killed. 

With a blob of 40 skeletons your opponent can either ignore it, keep it at bay tying up a lot of their army, or destroy it and see it come back again. It's fun when your opponent is afraid of you losing too many skeletons to battle shock. 

Neferata
Bloodseeker Palanquin
Vampire Lord with Wings
Vampire Lord on Steed

10 Grave Guard with Wight Blades
10 Skeletons with Sword/Shield
40 Skeletons with Spear/Shield
2 Bat Swarms
6 Spirit Hosts
5 Dire Wolves

Court of Nulahmia Battalion

Total: 1970

[themortalgod]

47 minutes ago, Skorp said:

I'm looking to do a Court of Nulahmia as well. I personally love the ability to use grave sites and am looking at something like this for my list. The ability to bring back a dead unit each turn with your General feels huge to me, but I guess you're giving up Neferata's -1 to hit ability for it. Two heroes + 2 grave sites near a unit means 4D3 skeletons returning which happens a lot. This was just huge in the game I was playing. I understand not wanting to go tarpit but it feels like you're wasting the deathly invocation ability on all the heroes. All the non-hero units in the list below are summonable so they will all be getting healed and they can all be called back from the grave after being killed. 

With a blob of 40 skeletons your opponent can either ignore it, keep it at bay tying up a lot of their army, or destroy it and see it come back again. It's fun when your opponent is afraid of you losing too many skeletons to battle shock. 

Neferata
Bloodseeker Palanquin
Vampire Lord with Wings
Vampire Lord on Steed

10 Grave Guard with Wight Blades
10 Skeletons with Sword/Shield
40 Skeletons with Spear/Shield
2 Bat Swarms
6 Spirit Hosts
5 Dire Wolves

Court of Nulahmia Battalion

Total: 1970

I feel like you lose so much when dropping the VLoZD, she/he is just such a key aspect of the list. 

I certainly agree that the skeleton blob is pretty powerful, especially with the new rules but really, the above army as Sacrament would be straight up stronger. In order for blood to be worthwhile you really need to make use of the +1 attack to vampire lords and blood knights or the allegiance ability doesn't really offer much.   I have a full foot soldier themed sacrament list already that is all about maximizing models returning to life, though I don't find it particularly fun since its so slow and invincible. 

My plan for my gravesites will be to dump them where my wolves are likely to go so that they can help keep the wolves alive so they aren't totally wasted. 

 

[Skorp]

Don't have a VLoZD so perhaps I'm not understanding the raw power. So many points go toward neferata, VLoZD, and the palanquin, plus nulahmia, was having too much fun with my skeletons finally working the way I dreamed they would to leave them out of the list. FEC SC is definitely my next purchase. 

I wanted a vampire theme so I haven't really looked at the legion of sacrament much, I'd also already built neferata and didn't think I could do legion of sacrament with her. Will look into it more. I did make her magnetizable. 

But outside of the blood knights in your list, its mostly the vamp lord that is taking advantage of the legion of blood, compared to my list, that Vamp Lord must be no joke. 

[themortalgod]

2 hours ago, Skorp said:

Don't have a VLoZD so perhaps I'm not understanding the raw power. So many points go toward neferata, VLoZD, and the palanquin, plus nulahmia, was having too much fun with my skeletons finally working the way I dreamed they would to leave them out of the list. FEC SC is definitely my next purchase. 

I wanted a vampire theme so I haven't really looked at the legion of sacrament much, I'd also already built neferata and didn't think I could do legion of sacrament with her. Will look into it more. I did make her magnetizable. 

But outside of the blood knights in your list, its mostly the vamp lord that is taking advantage of the legion of blood, compared to my list, that Vamp Lord must be no joke. 

6

The VLoZD just has more raw offense and defense compared to the other two that it is simply much more efficient of a pts investment. On average he will do about 20% more damage than Nef and also has an average of 6.5 more wounds if you consider chalice of blood. He also has a better save and a reasonably threatening shooting attack. Add in the Orb of Enchantment and the VloZD is far better at going toe to toe with other massive monsters and is a superior option as a hammer. Personally, if I had to choose 2 of 3 between Nef, Palanquin, and VLoZD, the Palanquin would be an easy choice to drop since it is actually pretty inefficient. I'm only including it in my list for cool factor. 

In my list about 840pts of models are making use of the allegiance ability +1 attack buff. In yours only 280pts are.  (Though, I think it is ridiculous that Nef didn't get the "vampire lord"  keyword. Arkhan benefits from the Sacrament allegiance ability, Manfred can benefit from the Night allegiance ability, but Nef is specifically excluded from benefiting from her allegiance ability. Which is especially ironic since she uses the Sacrament and Night abilities if she is included in those respective allegiances. I'm hoping its an oversight that will be FAQed.