Backline general for Legions of Nagash

[Captain Roderick]

Hey folks, 

I'm starting legions of nagash, and I'm going to have vampires leading, a couple of necromancers, and a deathmarch (because it's the only non-special-character battalion). For this particular discussion I'm imagining grand host as the Legion, to get that sweet lord of nagashizzar and ossific diadem combo for nearby deathrattle units. Can also then give the chain to someone for greater survival. 

I'm trying to decide who to give the general hat to based on having someone in the backfield who can stay alive and keep bringing units back, so I'd choose someone on foot to be less visible to shooting. It seems like the rules are really well balanced, because I'm finding it really hard to determine who would be most survivable;

- Vampire lord can regenerate with chalice, combat and vile transference, but is more expensive and best in melee so I'm more likely to throw them in

- Wight King has a 3+ save, but needs to be near the deathmarch units to keep them moving and coming back, mediocre in melee 

- Necromancer can pass off wounds on a 4+ but sucks in melee so will be hiding as much as possible. 

 

Who would you choose as general? And how would you arrange and place those models amongst a deathmarch? 

Let's say 20 grave guard, 1 unit of 40 skeletons and 2 units of 10, and 10 black knights. 

 

Not played any games yet so wondering how you veterans would do it! 

Cheers, 

Cap'n R. 

[Wraith]

No one has yet replied so I will make an attempt at an answer. I’m thinking the necromancer is the hardest to kill. At least with shooting. 

 

But it this right? Is anyone able to do a math hammer analysis?

 

 

[Nevar]

15 hours ago, Captain Roderick said:

Hey folks, 

I'm starting legions of nagash, and I'm going to have vampires leading, a couple of necromancers, and a deathmarch (because it's the only non-special-character battalion). For this particular discussion I'm imagining grand host as the Legion, to get that sweet lord of nagashizzar and ossific diadem combo for nearby deathrattle units. Can also then give the chain to someone for greater survival. 

I'm trying to decide who to give the general hat to based on having someone in the backfield who can stay alive and keep bringing units back, so I'd choose someone on foot to be less visible to shooting. It seems like the rules are really well balanced, because I'm finding it really hard to determine who would be most survivable;

- Vampire lord can regenerate with chalice, combat and vile transference, but is more expensive and best in melee so I'm more likely to throw them in

- Wight King has a 3+ save, but needs to be near the deathmarch units to keep them moving and coming back, mediocre in melee 

- Necromancer can pass off wounds on a 4+ but sucks in melee so will be hiding as much as possible. 

 

Who would you choose as general? And how would you arrange and place those models amongst a deathmarch? 

Let's say 20 grave guard, 1 unit of 40 skeletons and 2 units of 10, and 10 black knights. 

 

Not played any games yet so wondering how you veterans would do it! 

Cheers, 

Cap'n R. 

Well you can also consider one of the Mortarchs.

Arkhan is really good with the new spells going on these days, especially with the endless spells and stuff that will be all over the place.

If you are worried about losing him, the Necromancer is probably the easiest to shield, because he can pass off his wounds, and gets the -1 to hit him while being within 3 of his units.  The main concern is model placement so you can make sure no one can pile in and melee him.  You can easily keep him wrapped in body guards, make it hard for people to shoot him, and pass of wounds that do slip in to his body guards.

That said though, he doesn't have many wounds, so any determined enemy will be able to pluck him out if they have shooting or spells in range.

[Captain Roderick]

Thanks folks! 

I can always give the necromancer an item to help him stay alive or regen on top of his normal ability to pass wounds off. 

@Nevar, I didn't mention that I won't be using mortarchs due to my backstory but I'm not super keen on them anyway. I feel I'd be much more likely to keep my general alive by just hiding a 5-wound infantry model amongst all my respawning deathrattle rather than making them a big monstrous target. I might even get a vlozd in order to force my opponent to deal with something else.

So is it just the ability to pass off wounds on a flat 4+ that makes the necromancer the safest bet? 

[KoalaSnok]

He is also the weakest fighter, meaning you would never want to put him in a fight either way. It is already natural to position him along with your tarpits to benefit from his own abilities and Di. The other heroes are more situational, sometimes you want them to fight. 

I think the VL is the worst choice of general, his healing wont matter if your enemy just kills him outright, which isnt hard with 5w, and he is the one you would probably want to join the fighting. 

[Captain Roderick]

10 minutes ago, KoalaSnok said:

He is also the weakest fighter, meaning you would never want to put him in a fight either way. It is already natural to position him along with your tarpits to benefit from his own abilities and Di. The other heroes are more situational, sometimes you want them to fight. 

I think the VL is the worst choice of general, his healing wont matter if your enemy just kills him outright, which isnt hard with 5w, and he is the one you would probably want to join the fighting. 

Cheers! 

Yes it's best for me to listbuild with my own foibles taken into account. 

It's going to be difficult to hold back with a VL. 

[ianob]

Necromancers make great generals, my general has been a Necro all through v1 LoN. They basically have 10 wounds and a 5+ 6++.... thats very survivable and nothing in the game that can actually hide effectively on occasion (though they rarely do get a chance to hide) can equal that.

Honourable mention to the WKwBA who’s armour is very good and frequently underestimated.

 

[Captain Roderick]

2 minutes ago, ianob said:

Honourable mention to the WKwBA who’s armour is very good and frequently underestimated.

 

Nicely put on the necromancer description. 

And really? I read an article (having no tabletop experience myself) which seemed to indicate that a 3+ all the time is better than a 4+ with wound halving. I suppose with a deathforged chain he has a reasonable chance of recovering after surviving a hero assault thanks to the armour? 

[ianob]

2 minutes ago, Captain Roderick said:

Nicely put on the necromancer description. 

And really? I read an article (having no tabletop experience myself) which seemed to indicate that a 3+ all the time is better than a 4+ with wound halving. I suppose with a deathforged chain he has a reasonable chance of recovering after surviving a hero assault thanks to the armour? 

Sure a 3+ can be better depending on what’s attacking you. But the things that people usually try to snipe out characters with are things like bolt throwers, dragon breath, arcane bolt (in v1), or other things that deal mortals. In real-game situations, the black axe is better. This is anecdotal, but my WK has never died and not for lack of people trying to kill him. Even if he had of died in most of those situations, I’d have been happy with how much firepower he soaked up to do it.

Also as an aside, the Black Axe is awesome. Weak players will be unreasonably scared of it, but good players will be scared of it too because no one wants to lose a game because a crappy hero oneshot their Stardrake. He exerts more board control than he should.

[Captain Roderick]

Awesome. Such a shame he doesn't come in the Barrow Lords box - would have loved to get him next month, going to have to budget him in later instead or pick up a reaper model as a stand-in.