Let's Chat: Nighthaunt

[Maxo Bug]

Ok, It's been a while since I been lurking in this forum for I've always loved the nighthaunts. Since I'm on a budget, and in a continent that doesn't have a single GW store, my options were always limited. Besides loving all things ghostly, the elite part of the NH was appealing for me. In fact, I was quite happy to have the options kinda limited. I grabed a Tormented Spirit's box, a Mourngul, a bunch of heroes and was ready to go Vanguard. This was my list so far:

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
Cairn Wraith (60)
- General
- Trait: Terrifying Entity 
- Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvent Moon 
Cairn Wraith (60)
Tomb Banshee (80)
Vampire Lord (140)
- Allies
5 x Hexwraiths (160)
3 x Spirit Hosts (120)
Mourngul (350)

Total: 970 / 1000
Allies: 140 / 200

Although I have to admit that those models look AMAZING, and I can't wait for them and the BattleTome. I'm so happy to see the boys getting some love, yet I'm quite nervous about what I already have.
Do you think this launch will be an overhaul or addition to what we already have?

[grungolah]

9 hours ago, Josh said:

haha ^ its like 2 weeks away, GW will drop all the important stuff on the build up like every other release

this release has really messed up my project plan haha

Gotta play that bingo card early!  If they had just stocked dire wolves in the past 3 months or so,  I would be too busy playing to read the news. 

[Scourn1]

15 hours ago, Maxo Bug said:

Ok, It's been a while since I been lurking in this forum for I've always loved the nighthaunts. Since I'm on a budget, and in a continent that doesn't have a single GW store, my options were always limited. Besides loving all things ghostly, the elite part of the NH was appealing for me. In fact, I was quite happy to have the options kinda limited. I grabed a Tormented Spirit's box, a Mourngul, a bunch of heroes and was ready to go Vanguard. This was my list so far:

Allegiance: Nighthaunt
Cairn Wraith (60)
- General
- Trait: Terrifying Entity 
- Artefact: Lightshard of the Harvent Moon 
Cairn Wraith (60)
Tomb Banshee (80)
Vampire Lord (140)
- Allies
5 x Hexwraiths (160)
3 x Spirit Hosts (120)
Mourngul (350)

Total: 970 / 1000
Allies: 140 / 200

Although I have to admit that those models look AMAZING, and I can't wait for them and the BattleTome. I'm so happy to see the boys getting some love, yet I'm quite nervous about what I already have.
Do you think this launch will be an overhaul or addition to what we already have?

Your list - Youd want a knight of shrouds. Tomb banshee and Vamp lord of very meh and I wouldn't use them. With all that's coming out, good chance you don't need allies.

Its going to be a bit of both. they wont be changing the current stuff at all as it was just printed in Nagash book. the things we will get is new stuff and mods to faction rules/traits/abilities/artifacts/ etc.

[Inqy]

Yes on including a Knight of Shrouds. The KoS Command Ability is a huge buff to your spirit hosts.  In low point games it will have a much bigger impact than a Vampire Lords magic/healing.

The Tomb Banshee I think depends on what your fighting. If you're going up against a low bravery horde army they're great troop clearers. If you're fighting a bravery 10 army like Demons or another Death army then they'll be mostly useless.

 

[Josh]

After playing Nighthaunt since ghb17 i personally have got so much more milage from wriaths vs banshees 

i would 100% pick a wraith everytime, with the new fightful touch they are so good for 60 points  as well as more death save that will be close to the units they need to be close by

[Fitts]

Seconded... The wraiths with their additional save and the potential to do 2 mortal wounds with frightful touch is scary enough that either the opponent had to do something about them or you get a nice little hero wandering about free reign for 60 pts.

[ZaelART]

Long time lurker - never committed.

With the new faction release I've decided to take the plunge and buy my first miniatures.

A Tormented Spirits box and a Knight of Shrouds.

Looking forward to actually painting and playing.

[Rid]

Yep wraiths are silly good for 60pts!

[Josh]

i should name my wraiths with how much stuff they have killed haha

[bsharitt]

12 hours ago, Josh said:

After playing Nighthaunt since ghb17 i personally have got so much more milage from wriaths vs banshees 

i would 100% pick a wraith everytime, with the new fightful touch they are so good for 60 points  as well as more death save that will be close to the units they need to be close by

For 60 points, cairwraiths are almost already worth it just as deathless minions beacons. Their damage potential is just a bonus. I wouldn't be surprised to see them bumped up to 80 points in the battletome. I'll probably still run 3 of them.

[Sception]

The only problem with leaning on frightful touch is that '-1 to hit with melee attacks' is a relatively common debuff in the game, and completely shuts down frightful touch as an ability.  Spells and abilities that apply the debuff to individual units are bad enough, but several factions also have access to this as an aura that can effect entire combats.

[Maxo Bug]

Thank you guys! Yeah, the Knight of Shrouds has been on my wishlist for a long time now. But I think I'll wait until the NH release to see how can I complete the army. I'll surely discard the idea of the vampire lord. Even now, as you guys pointed out, is not that good, so after we get this release I'd be able to go full Nighthaunt.

The Banshee was there to have a hero(or someone) with some kind of range, but still had a 3rd Cairn Wraith to swap with. 
Man, I can't wait for these release... I want everything. My wallet is already wailing. ?

[kenshin620]

You know though, too bad there aren't any nautical themed nighthaunt (yet). I'd love to see some that are enemies of the deepkin (silly soul stealers!)

 

I guess I could proxy with blackbanes ghost raiders from warmachine as the grunts.

[Nevar]

10 hours ago, Sception said:

The only problem with leaning on frightful touch is that '-1 to hit with melee attacks' is a relatively common debuff in the game, and completely shuts down frightful touch as an ability.  Spells and abilities that apply the debuff to individual units are bad enough, but several factions also have access to this as an aura that can effect entire combats.

Luckily we have the Knight of Shrouds to counter those.

As you mentioned in the other thread, the new support geist warscroll they showed will be slightly underwhelming if there are no rule changes in AoS 2.0 to assist.  I expect there to be some way to protect hero models going forward.  They are removing shooting out of melee for instance, and the inability to protect heroes and the lax shooting rules have been the biggest complaints I have seen in my local community.  I imagine that is mirrored elsewhere as well.

Automatic 6 Mortal Wounds from beast claw raiders on a 2+ instantly removes heroes right now, something to add more tactics to unit placements will be a huge boon if they go through with it.

[Nactigal]

What are all of your hopes for the Nighthaunt battletome? Would you like to keep the existing abilities / artefacts / traits, or get completely new ones?

What about faction themes? We have ethereal, which isn't likely to go away.

We also have frightful touch, though the new scrolls (KoS and Spirit Torment) don't.

The spirit torment warscroll does have the healing mechanic that triggers in the battle shock phase. Perhaps we'll get more abilities like that.

Thoughts?

[Ashtyn]

I'd like to see frightful touch become a battle trait, saves space on warscrolls. It makes sense that every nighthaunt should have the ability. 

 

[Josh]

i feel like the army is going to be very much not a beginners army & unforgiving (out of position units & an elite army), lots of abilities like wholly within will make it super interesting to play.

It makes sense if the whole army has ethereal but FT on the whole army imo doesnt make sense, not all the spirits are going to be angry killing machines, i feel like some would be sad units that realise they help the army in different ways

super interested to hear more info as it comes out ?  

[Maxo Bug]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

i feel like the army is going to be very much not a beginners army & unforgiving (out of position units & an elite army), lots of abilities like wholly within will make it super interesting to play.

It makes sense if the whole army has ethereal but FT on the whole army imo doesnt make sense, not all the spirits are going to be angry killing machines, i feel like some would be sad units that realise they help the army in different ways

super interested to hear more info as it comes out ?  

Totally agree with you.

I'll start to save money for that battletome NOW. I'll totally buy a Stormcasts vs Nighthaunts starter set too.

[Richelieu]

3 hours ago, Josh said:

i feel like the army is going to be very much not a beginners army & unforgiving (out of position units & an elite army), lots of abilities like wholly within will make it super interesting to play.

It makes sense if the whole army has ethereal but FT on the whole army imo doesnt make sense, not all the spirits are going to be angry killing machines, i feel like some would be sad units that realise they help the army in different ways

super interested to hear more info as it comes out ?  

I agree.  A giant scythe just cuts you in half, it doesn't pass effortlessly through your body, chilling you to the bone and stopping your heart like the touch of a ghost.

[AverageBoss]

43 minutes ago, Richelieu said:

I agree.  A giant scythe just cuts you in half, it doesn't pass effortlessly through your body, chilling you to the bone and stopping your heart like the touch of a ghost.

Unless its a ghost scythe!

But also, you have cases like the Cairn Wraith whose Frightful Touch is different (does 2 mortal wounds).

[KoalaSnok]

2 hours ago, AverageBoss said:

Unless its a ghost scythe!

But also, you have cases like the Cairn Wraith whose Frightful Touch is different (does 2 mortal wounds).

Its not really different though, they all just cause their weapons normal damage as mw. Should be easy to make a battle trait IF they want all the ghosts to have it ONLY in nighthaunt allegiance. 

[Elmir]

I'm hoping for movement tricks (underworld walking) to be refined to be more than just "3+ to deepstrike". A spell lore that allows the ghosts to relocate. 

If I really get what I want, a rule that allows the ghosts to retreat and still charge in the same phase (to max hexwraiths) and to set up neat assassination runs. It would make the army quite unique and feels quite "ghosty" to just move through enemy formations to hit the targets you want. 

But I do realise this would make it an insanely hard army to play against. Then again, if the army profile lacks super hard (orruk like) punches (which is kind of does right now), hitting "softer" targets could balance out. 

Pure wishlisting though. But it's how I would design an army of spectres. 

[Dracothjay]

I do hope that the new NH army still makes you feel that spirit host and hexwraiths are still of great value. Maybe the spirit host will be our anchors then use the newer units to smash the enemy with. Will definately max out on the chainrasp infantry though!!!

[Sception]

spirit host vs. chainwrasp will be the big comparison concern, I think.  Hexwraiths vs. the new cav will probably be different enough to both work, especially if hexwraiths can be made a battleline unit, allowing for a potential, if admittedly narrow in unit selection, all cav ghost army.

Then again, model wise, the new cav might blow the hexwraiths out of the water to such a degree that you don't want to field them regardless.  Which is kind of shocking to me, because I though hexwraiths were still great models until I saw the new ghost cav in the announcement video.

[Dracothjay]

I worry for the mornghoul. I’m afraid it will written out of NH all together.