Legions of Nagash: The Legion of Sacrament

[RuneBrush]

And here's Arkhan's preview!

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Death armies have long been renowned for their magic in the lore of Warhammer Age of Sigmar and the world-that-was. There’s something particularly stirring about the thought of covens of Necromancers releasing howling gales of amethyst magic on the battlefield and armoured Vampire Lords dispatching foes with amaranthine lightning. In Battletome: Legions of Nagash, the aforementioned forces of Death more than ‘live’ up to their reputation, with two new lores, a powerful new magical ability to combine them with, and a whole Legion designed to harness them to their full potential!

Magic In Legions of Nagash

Legions of Nagash provides Death players with a wider range of magical spells than ever before, thanks to two new spell lores. Don’t worry – your favourite spells are still in the game and, rest assured, Arkhan can still unleash the horrifying Curse of Years upon his foes. Instead, the new Lores of the Dead add to your toolbox of spells and open up new options for your army. Deathmages from your army – such as the humble Necromancer – will be able to sap the vigour of your foes with the Lore of the Deathmages, while Vampire Lords will be able to unleash magical wrath with the Lore of the Vampires. Meanwhile, Deathlords Wizards will be able to choose from both!

Whichever Lore of the Dead you’re using, you’ll benefit from the Locus of Shyish. Cast any spell from any lore on an unmodified 9+, and you get to resolve the effect twice – easy enough for Nagash with his +3 bonus to casting, or a nearby Mortis Engine and Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier boosting your other Wizards’ abilities. One particularly nasty spell to try is - particularly used for spells such as Soul Harvest, a spell that draws the life of nearby foes towards the caster:

Whether you resolve this once or twice, you’ll be able to deal horrific damage to the foe while keeping a more valuable caster (like a Mortarch!) alive for longer.

Vampire Wizards, on the other hand, will find Amaranthine Orb a risky but powerful way to blast a hole through enemy battle-lines.

The Legion of Sacrament

If you’re looking to take full advantage of the new spells in Legions of Nagash, you’ll want to use the Legion of Sacrament, the army of Arkhan the Black. The Legion of Sacrament are notorious for their mastery of Death magic, and many mages in the Mortal Realms make the long pilgrimage to Shyish to learn from Arkhan himself.

On the tabletop, the Legion of Sacrament gains additional bonuses to cast – a small but welcome ability that increases yourthe chances of activating the Locus of Shyish getting these powerful new spells to work when you need them:

Meanwhile, your gravesites will be even deadlier thanks to The Master’s Teachings, an ability that can turn dead enemy units into fresh reinforcements for your army:

In this way, armies serving under Arkhan will benefit from both the endless regeneration provided by Deathly Invocation and their gravesites, as well as sudden spikes in the later game when you begin to wipe out enemy units. We’d recommend fielding your army as a castle based around the gravesites in your territory, battering the enemy with a hail of magical spells. Should anyone get close – well, that’s when you can unleash the Black Gem:

The Black Gem is a high-risk artefact, but one that’s well worth taking for the moments when it works – just be careful not to leave your friendly units too close!

If you’re looking to play more defensively, the Wristbands of Black Gold are a great choice, helping to shield your more valuable characters from getting shot down – ideal for a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon:

If you’re looking to truly master the magic of Death, you’ll want to take the Lords of Sacrament warscroll battalion, a formation centred around Arkhan, a Mortis Engine and a coven of Necromancers. Each unit in the battalion is shielded from attacks by the Mortis Engine, while they’ll also benefit from being able to cast an additional spell every turn! While this formation might consume a good number of points, it’ll be sure to catch your opponents off guard and is a great way to pay tribute to Nagash’s greatest pupil.

Fancy destroying your opponent by more direct means? The Legion of Sacrament represents just one way to play your army with the new battletome – check back tomorrow when we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the vampire elite of the Legion of Blood.

 

[RuneBrush]

So quite a bit more information on the Spell Lores - Lore of the Deathmages and Lore of the Vampires with Deathlords Wizards being able to pick from both.  We also get Locus of Shyish - if you cast a spell from any Lore on a 9+ you resolve the effect twice

One spell is an arcane bolt but for each wound taken by the opponent there's a 5+ chance of healing a wound back.  Another is to inflict D6 mortal wounds on a 4+ between a point within 12" and the caster.  Bit of an odd ball as there's a 50/50 chance of doing no damage, but get a row of characters and it could be lethal.

In comparison to the Grand Host, Legion of Sacrament feels a bit lack lustre from the preview (which may well not have everything in).  Wizards gain +1 to cast, and if an enemy unit is destroyed if the last model removed is within 6" of a gravesite on a 4+ you can bring a summonable unit that has been destroyed back at that gravesite.  Unless there's a special rule, this will be subject to your summoning pool so I'm not entirely sure how useful this will be in matched play (though exceptionally thematic).  If there is a special rule then this is actually amazing or at least until your opponent realises they pick the models to remove (it won't be too difficult to keep that last model more than 6" away from a gravesite).

We also get a preview at a couple of Artefacts the first has a 3" AoE, rolling a D6 for each unit and on a 6+ slays a model.  Potentially very powerful if you're facing up against characters, but it's still only a 1 in 6 chance.  The second artefact is a 4+ ignore wound roll against attacks made in the shooting phase, could be a good backup for a Necromancer who's failed to pass a shooting attack onto a nearby unit.

Finally there's a battalion that consists of Arkhan, a Mortis Engine and a coven of Necromancers (which I would guess is another battalion), which gives then all an additional cast each turn and a shield from the Mortis Engine.

Tomorrow we'll have a preview of Neferata's Legion of Blood which looks like it'll be focused on Vampires.

[TheWilddog]

Love the double magic cast on a 9+, this just screams for a lists built around it.  Looking forward to playing around with this!!!!!!!   

[Mjolnertf]

By any chance, has anything been known or leaked about whether Flesh-Eater Courts will have rules in this book? thank you very much

[Elmir]

Indeed... Corpse cart,  mortis engine, +1 army trait and Arkhan's +2 to cast AND his extended range could be very fun.  If that batallion warscroll that offers the heroes protection in that setup is any good, it might just become our prime hero sniping build...

Too bad it probably won't cause double effects on curse of years.

 

[Jgregs]

I think flesh eater courts are treated as a separate entity form this new Nagash battle tome. So nothing new for them.

I remember reading somewhere you will be able to take crypt ghouls in the new battle tome but I could be wrong.

[Sharrankar]

Yeah, here's the question - if you roll 9+ (or whatever is needed with the modifiers) on, let's say, Hand of Dust, do you pick two different models/resolve it until it kills someone and then pick another model/it doesn't work on such a spell? 
Because if it does affect spells like this, Nagash and all the wizards with decent spells (Arkhan and his Curse) will become really powerful - I'm very interested in this alliance, as it does seem like real fun! 

Also, can someone enligthen me again how exactly does spellcasting work here? Let's say, I have Arkhan - he can cast two spells. I decide to cast Curse of Years and another spell - it can be any spell from either of the Death Lores? Or how does it work actually? lol
40k player here, I've yet to play my first AoS game 'cause Death is my 3rd army, on which I started focusing just recently, and yet have to collect a big force before being able to play properly

[Jgregs]

All of this sounds insanely good, those wristbands of black gold are what people have been dreaming about.

[Sception]

Honestly, I kind of have mixed feelings about this one.  The previewed spells in particular I find underwhelming, being mostly 'arcane bolt', but at a shorter or much shorter range for the chance of maybe hitting more than one unit.  Locus of Shyish helps.  I was just hoping for more utility and less direct damage.  A spell to lower leadership that stacks with banners/morghasts.  Buff spells.  Healing spells that can target non-summonable models.  Movement spells.  That sort of thing.  There may still be some of that in the lores, but that wasn't what they chose to preview.

I will say that both of the previewed damage spells get a lot better under the effect of Arkhan's command ability.  In the past, while I frequently used him, I never actually made him my general.  That might change going forward.

As for the Legion of Sacrament, it's a real mixed bag here.  The casting boost is great, especially with locus of shyish.  Knowing an extra spell for each wizard is amazing, but it's not clear from the preview what that comes from - is it automatic?  A command trait?  What?  The black gem I'm far less impressed by.  Am I really going to burn a rare artefact drop on a 1/6 chance of nuking a character or monster outright?  In most games it'll do nothing, and in the games where it actually happens it'll feel cheep and unfair.  The bracers on the other hand are exactly the kind of character protection we need - good on a necromancer, downright unfair on a dragon lord.

And the formation with arkhan, the mortis engines, and some necromancers (how many are required?  one?  three?) sounds fantastic, though the slow slow speed of the necromancers - which no longer have mounted options -  may end up acting as a ball and chain slowing down arkhan and the mortis engine.

 

The main thing that sours me out of the preview is the Master's Teachings.  It's a cool idea, one that, if it actually worked, would force opponents to think twice about trying to camp our gravesites.  But in practice it's completely worthless due to the reserve point issue.  You're not going to leave a bunch of your armies points unused in reserve on the hope that maybe you'll get to bring a unit back in game, IF it dies before an enemy unit AND an enemy unit later dies near a gravesite AND you get lucky enough to roll a 4+ AND there weren't any other enemy units near that same gravesite.  If it were free, it would be a cool thing that might maybe happen sometime, but since in practice it means playing a unit down in every game for the possibility of maybe bringing a unit back maybe once every, what, six?  ten games?  I would have felt better about this preview if everything had been the same, but that simply hadn't been there.  A conceptually cool ability that just cannot be used is more frustrating than not having an ability at all.

But looking at the better stuff, and trying to put the gravesite thing out of my mind, I'm going to have a hard time choosing between the Legion of Nagash and the Legion of Sacrament for my initial force out of this book.

[Sception]

5 minutes ago, Sharrankar said:

Hand of Dust

Can't say for sure, since we don't have the actual wording of Locus of Shyish, but from the description it works on "any spell from any lore".  Hand of Dust is one of Nagash's signature spells, it isn't from either of these new lores nor is it from any lore at all, so most likely Locus of Shyish simply does not apply to it.  Same with Arkhan's Curse of Years, or the Necromancer's Danse Macabre

[Envyus]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

The main thing that sours me out of the preview is the Master's Teachings.  It's a cool idea, one that, if it actually worked, would force opponents to think twice about trying to camp our gravesites.  But in practice it's completely worthless due to the reserve point issue.  You're not going to leave a bunch of your armies points unused in reserve on the hope that maybe you'll get to bring a unit back in game, IF it dies before an enemy unit AND an enemy unit later dies near a gravesite AND you get lucky enough to roll a 4+ AND there weren't any other enemy units near that same gravesite.  If it were free, it would be a cool thing that might maybe happen sometime, but since in practice it means playing a unit down in every game for the possibility of maybe bringing a unit back maybe once every, what, six?  ten games?  I would have felt better about this preview if everything had been the same, but that simply hadn't been there.  A conceptually cool ability that just cannot be used is more frustrating than not having an ability at all.

But looking at the better stuff, and trying to put the gravesite thing out of my mind, I'm going to have a hard time choosing between the Legion of Nagash and the Legion of Sacrament for my initial force out of this book.

I think the intention is that it is free. 

[RuneBrush]

3 minutes ago, Sharrankar said:

Yeah, here's the question - if you roll 9+ (or whatever is needed with the modifiers) on, let's say, Hand of Dust, do you pick two different models/resolve it until it kills someone and then pick another model/it doesn't work on such a spell? 
Because if it does affect spells like this, Nagash and all the wizards with decent spells (Arkhan and his Curse) will become really powerful - I'm very interested in this alliance, as it does seem like real fun! 

They do state 9+ on one of the Lores - so I don't think you'll get the double effect bonus on spells on warscrolls, just the chosen ones from the Lores.

3 minutes ago, Sharrankar said:

Also, can someone enligthen me again how exactly does spellcasting work here? Let's say, I have Arkhan - he can cast two spells. I decide to cast Curse of Years and another spell - it can be any spell from either of the Death Lores? Or how does it work actually? lol
40k player here, I've yet to play my first AoS game 'cause Death is my 3rd army, on which I started focusing just recently, and yet have to collect a big force before being able to play properly

I believe you pick an additional spell from one of the Lores at the beginning of the game - however my other army is Khorne so spell shenanigans isn't something I've really tinkered with

[KnightFire]

Just now, Envyus said:

I think the intention is that it is free. 

You are putting a unit that died back into the game so it costs points - its still useful and you may want to keep some reinforcement points for it, but its probably mostly an open/narrative play ability (as are many of the other abilities in the game that add models the the battlefield)

[Sception]

1 minute ago, Envyus said:

I think the intention is that it is free. 

The intention can be anything, but we have the actual wording on this one, and based on the actual wording it is not.  The last time we had a similar conflict between the seeming intention and the clear wording - specifically on the ring of immortality - the official ruling came down on the side of the wording, not the intent, and it remained that way until the rule itself was revised.  I expect the same to be the case here.

[RuneBrush]

1 minute ago, Envyus said:

I think the intention is that it is free. 

I think this is going to be one of those ones that we'll need to get the book in our hand in order to confirm.  Currently if you bring a new unit or a previously destroyed unit onto the table it will cost you reserve points.  The one exception that I'm aware of is where a hero may become a Daemon Prince or a Spawn (I believe this might even be in the GHb17)

[Sception]

For other battle tomes with spells, each wizard from the tome got to pick one spell to know from their lore, in addition to the spells they know from their scroll.  It will probably be the same here, though it may be different for the deathlords.  We know they have access to both lores, but does that mean they know one spell from each lore, or one spell chosen from either?

Additionally, Nagash knows every spell known by any (friendly?) death wizard on the table, while Arkhan knows every spell known by any friendly death wizard within a particular range, so whatever spells they personally get from the lores, they'll also have access to additional spells if you take additional wizards.

[Envyus]

Legion of Sacrament also lets Death Wizards know another spell. 

 

[KnightFire]

6 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

I think this is going to be one of those ones that we'll need to get the book in our hand in order to confirm.  Currently if you bring a new unit or a previously destroyed unit onto the table it will cost you reserve points.  The one exception that I'm aware of is where a hero may become a Daemon Prince or a Spawn (I believe this might even be in the GHb17)

Im pretty sure the FAQs say that becoming a spawn (or DP) costs reinforcement points...

I keep telling myself that one of these days I will paint up a spawn, and then when I kill the enemy general with unchecked mutation, I will pay the points to put the spawn on the field. In practice it will never happen as those points could be 10 blue horrors.

[FractalRain]

4 minutes ago, Sception said:

For other battle tomes with spells, each wizard from the tome got to pick one spell to know from their lore, in addition to the spells they know from their scroll.  It will probably be the same here, though it may be different for the deathlords.  We know they have access to both lores, but does that mean they know one spell from each lore, or one spell chosen from either?

Additionally, Nagash knows every spell known by any (friendly?) death wizard on the table, while Arkhan knows every spell known by any friendly death wizard within a particular range, so whatever spells they personally get from the lores, they'll also have access to additional spells if you take additional wizards.

Regarding the deathlords and spells, I think it is similar to a Tzeentch wizard with the mortal and demon keywords for the  spell lores, where they can choose a spell from either lore, rather than being restricted to one - but you still just pick one spell.

[Killax]

Spawn costs those points, this will likely too, because it doesn't specifically say it doesn't (40k has this a few times now allready).

Logical also because else the ability would be sheer madness, now it's flavourful, great for narrative gaming and perhaps less relevant for Matched point games.

[Sharrankar]

True, l didn't notice that it said "from any lore" - thanks for the clarification!
And thanks for the clarification of the spells as well!

It seems then that Master's Teachings will be just a fluffy mechanic - to really make it count someone would probaly have to set up a fairly big unit. However, a unit of 3 Spirit Hosts doesn't cost that much, does it? And snatching an objective or killing some important lad in a cheeky way would certainly be a nice way to use this rule lol

[Killax]

Yeah and in general my gut feeling is that much more Summonable units will be cheaper. 

In general I see this as a potentially decent ability to secure objectives.

[Sception]

again, you can already hold a summonable unit in reserve to deploy from a gravesite without having to have another identical unit in your army die first, and have an enemy unit die within range of a gravesite, and roll a 4+.  Even if you do hold points in reserve to deploy summonables from grave sites, this is still objectively worse than the normal method of doing so.

[KnightFire]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

again, you can already hold a summonable unit in reserve to deploy from a gravesite without having to have another identical unit in your army die first, and have an enemy unit die within range of a gravesite, and roll a 4+.  Even if you do hold points in reserve to deploy summonables from grave sites, this is still objectively worse than the normal method of doing so.

It is objectively worse in matched play - but in narrative or open play its a free unit.

There are many abilities in many factions that are the same, so this isnt a new situation - there exist in AoS rules that are valueless in matched play, but which add fun flavour in open play.

[Killax]

3 minutes ago, Sception said:

again, you can already hold a summonable unit in reserve to deploy from a gravesite without having to have another identical unit in your army die first, and have an enemy unit die within range of a gravesite, and roll a 4+.  Even if you do hold points in reserve to deploy summonables from grave sites, this is still objectively worse than the normal method of doing so.

I do not see this as worse method of doing so, it is very much an additional method of doing so.

One requires you to thake the iniative in summonning, the other is a responce to being destroyed.

As long as you keep it cheap I see no issue with this ability. It's situational but useful also because it's a different timing of having a unit elsewhere.