deathrattle horde, which allegiance?

[WillofNagash]

Hey guys, looking at running a bunch of skeletons across the table. Im kinda set on the list, but i cannot decide on the allegiance.

Should I go for Sacrament and have the extra 3" movement and shooting defense?

Should i go Nagash and get the extra heal on a 5+, extra attack? the extra 6+ save? great artifacts traits?

Should i go Night, +1 save in half the battle field, ability to come on the side of the board./ but no good artifacts or command traits?

Allegiance: ????
Vampire Lord (140)
- General
- Mount: Nightmare
Wight King with Baleful Tomb Blade (120)
- Mount: Steed
Necromancer (110)
Vampire Lord (140)
- Mount: Nightmare
30 x Grave Guard (420)
- Great Wight Blades
40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)
- Ancient Spears
40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)
- Ancient Blades
20 x Skeleton Warriors (160)
- Ancient Blades
10 x Black Knights (240)
Deathmarch (110)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 170
 

[Honk]

I‘d say you‘ll have to try out what’s best against your opponents.

I‘m not sure about legion of night, ambushing 40 skellis is not really a valid option and they might ****** the charge and then stumble around without spell-buffs and supporting heroes. They tend to shine in the midfield with supporting heroes and gravesites.

same with legion of blood, doesn’t fit the army composition, bravery debuff and vampire buff both not really used by your army

 

sacrament for good spell slinger action with good anti-shooting 

grand host for the true grind ...aaaand as I just remembered there is an ability +1 attack for deathrattle units, daisichain them all and escalate

 

[themortalgod]

Imo Grand Host of Nagash is a clear winner for the above army. Ossific Diadem and Lord of Nagashizzar are ridiculously powerful for skeleton-based armies.

Also, side note, Ancient Spears are WAY better on big units of skeletons than Ancient Blades. Its not even close. Blades are only better in situations where you won't have a second rank fighting. 

[WillofNagash]

1 hour ago, themortalgod said:

Imo Grand Host of Nagash is a clear winner for the above army. Ossific Diadem and Lord of Nagashizzar are ridiculously powerful for skeleton-based armies.

Also, side note, Ancient Spears are WAY better on big units of skeletons than Ancient Blades. Its not even close. Blades are only better in situations where you won't have a second rank fighting. 

I almost agree with you except for the local meta has lots of shooting, I don’t see a general that gives +1 attack surviving long. But maybe they will be forced to split attacks...thanks.

, I can’t change what weapon my skeletons have now. It’s too late. 

[AverageBoss]

I would not say Nights artifacts are bad. They are just not a blatantly good as some of our other options. 16" move Zombie Dragon lord with -1 to hit him with missile weapons is pretty solid. That being said, they is not the right type of list for Night. You want strong hammer units, to hit your enemies flanks where they are most vulnerable, and you don't really have any.

Sacrament and GH are the much better picks for this list. Though I have to say I am not a fan of Deathmarch post nerf (far to restrictive and reliant on an awful hero choice). I would honestly consider dropping the battalion and WK for either more skeletons (always a good option), or upgrading your general to a ZD lord (much more durable, and much bigger DI and DM auras, and gives you a hammer).

Also, if shooting really is that big in you area, I would go Sacrament and take the plus movement trait (better than the Deathmarch battalion by far right now) and anti shooting artifact (again, both are much more potent on a VLoZD than squishy 5 wound heroes).

 

[SpiritofHokuto]

4 hours ago, themortalgod said:

Imo Grand Host of Nagash is a clear winner for the above army. Ossific Diadem and Lord of Nagashizzar are ridiculously powerful for skeleton-based armies.

Also, side note, Ancient Spears are WAY better on big units of skeletons than Ancient Blades. Its not even close. Blades are only better in situations where you won't have a second rank fighting. 

It's not quite as clear cut as that. A 25mm base is just shy of 1" so a unit with Ancient Blades can fight in two "ranks". Admittedly this does mean that a unit with Ancient Spears can fight in 3 "ranks".

Assuming a unit of 40 within 18" of a hero with a "rank" of 10 being able to get in, for Blades that's 60 attacks of which 40 hit on average (using very fast and loose rounding). For Spears that's 90 attacks of which 45 hit on average. Add in the increased difficulty of getting 30 models into range vs 20 and all it takes is for 2-3 Spears to not make it and they're even.

Now assume being in range of Lord of Nagashizzar. For Blades that's 80 attacks of which 56 hit. For Spears that's 120 attacks of which 60 hit. Again only takes 2-3 Spears to not make it in and they're even.

Now assume maximum buffing (Lord of Nagashizzar and Vampire Lord's command ability) for Blades that's 80 attacks of which 71 will hit. For Spears that's 120 attacks of which 90 will hit. Clearly Spears are the superior option here and you'd need 6-7 Spears to not make it in for them to be even.

The double pile in from VDM is something else to take into account as that would help alleviate getting Spears into range. 

[CharnelChimera]

In a perfect world where you can nicely rank dudes up and ensure they'd be all in, I'd love to go with blades. In reality, I've never really gotten more then 2 ranks in even with spears just because you'll need to go around models and other obstacles. Spears might be better all around just for the QoL improvement of not having to argue with your opponent about a little fraction of an inch (3mm, I believe).