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Night Haunt Q's


bonzai

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Hey guys!

 
My Wife has decided that Night Haunts are going to be her 2nd army. I think I have an idea about what to do for her at a thousand points.
 
Banshee
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
3 spirit hosts
3 spirit hosts
5 Hex Wraiths
Mourngul
Total: 1,000
 
I have some questions, and am not sure what to do for the jump to 1,500 and 2,000 points. So here are some questions.
 
First, with the spirit hosts are battle line as long as she declares her night haunt allegiance. However if she does so she loses access to the death artifacts and command traits, correct?
 
Second question, MSU or larger groups? There are no rule benefits to having larger unit, so is their any incentive for not taking minimum sized units? Since there are no matched play formations, she will probably always have more drops than her opponent so no harm in adding a few more. 
 
Black coaches? I have seen them used as generals before, mainly because they have extra wounds. The funny thing is that with no command traits, artifacts, or command abilities other than inspiring presence it probably doesn't matter at all. Especially with leadership 10 and small unit sizes inspiring presence won't be needed much. Is it worth the costs of 2 Cairn Wraiths or a unit of Spirit Hosts?
 
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First, with the spirit hosts are battle line as long as she declares her night haunt allegiance. However if she does so she loses access to the death artifacts and command traits, correct?
 
- she still has access to the genetic death traits. 
 
Second question, MSU or larger groups? There are no rule benefits to having larger unit, so is their any incentive for not taking minimum sized units? Since there are no matched play formations, she will probably always have more drops than her opponent so no harm in adding a few more. 
 
- I like to have at least one 6 man unit for road blocking and survivability. 
 
Black coaches? I have seen them used as generals before, mainly because they have extra wounds. The funny thing is that with no command traits, artifacts, or command abilities other than inspiring presence it probably doesn't matter at all. Especially with leadership 10 and small unit sizes inspiring presence won't be needed much. Is it worth the costs of 2 Cairn Wraiths or a unit of Spirit Hosts?
 
- agree with this and if it's only the extra wounds forcing the black coach in you would be as well making a spirit host your general as it will last longer. Plus the upgrades on the coach won't be happening without wizards. 
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@Countmoore has is right about still having access to the  generic death traits — it's clarified in the General's Handbook Official FAQs and errata, found on the GW website:

Quote

Page 106 – Pitched Battles, Picking Your Army

Change the last paragraph to read:

‘Once you have picked your army, record the details of it on a piece of paper (your army roster). The roster must include the units in your army, details of the upgrades they have, the army’s allegiance, and must say which model in the army will be the army general.

If your army includes any units that are given keywords when they are set up, such as units with a Mark of Chaos, then these must be chosen and written down when the unit is added to the roster. You must record the allegiance abilities for your army when the battle begins, before setting up your first unit. You can choose to take either the allegiance abilities for the allegiance your army belongs to, or the allegiance abilities for the Grand Alliance your army belongs to.

See page 153 for an army roster you can photocopy.’

I wouldn't bother with a Black Coach — sadly, it's massively over-pointed at present (and not that great, even at a lower points cost).

As for MSU vs larger groups:

A larger group means you can attack with all of them as a single activation, potentially allowing you to kill more enemies before they get to strike back. You are also more resilient to spells that effect 'each enemy unit within X"'. When charging, you guarantee that either all of them will move, or none of them will, so you don't risk fighting the enemy piecemeal. When you take casualties, you get more choice over where to remove them from.

Smaller groups means you can split them up to deal with different threats. They are more resistant to spells & effects that target all models in one unit (especially things that give -1 to hit, etc.) It's easier to get some of them in cover, boosting their save. You can more reliably have some of them successfully charge, since you get multiple attempts at it. They are (slightly) harder to kill, since excess wounds on one unit won't carry over to the other.

On balance, I'd consider MSU to be more effective, since you don't really have any command abilities or spells that boost a single large unit.

For the jump up to 1500, your options will be very restricted if you go pure nighthaunt — basically it's just more of the same. I'd consider branching out to a more generic "death" army, getting some zombies to fill up your battleline, and then looking for other stuff to support my existing units. You can still have a heavy nighthaunt "theme". But that's a matter of personal taste.

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I appreciate the feedback guys. Great to know that she can use the death allegiance abilities and still have her spirit hostbattle line units. 

Artifact wise I think the sword would be the clear winner for some moderate healing capability since everything is multi wound.

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