Nighthaunt Subfactions

[Undeadly]

So, this an idea thats been rolling around in my head for a bit, and the more I think about it, the more I would love if Nighthaunt were given Subfactions like some of the other armies in AoS. As for if they deserve them, I would say its justifiable, since Daughters of Khaine and Legions of Nagash were given subfactions while both being from older armies. Even books like Beasts of Chaos and Gloomspite Gitz got semi-subfactions in the bonuses for each of the minor factions that were combined into the larger, overarching books. And thats not even counting armies like Stormcast, Idoneth Deeplkin, Kharadron Overlords, etc.

Now, as to what Nighthaunt could get as subfactions, I think some neat ideas would be to help theme each Procession around specific units or playstyle, but I would love to hear from some of ya'll.

Some of my ideas are:

a Procession themed around boosting Banshee Screams and Casters(Lady O's army)

a Procession themed around abusing Terrain and flying around

a Procession for Spirit Torments and Chainghasts, maybe increase range and bring back more models for the ST's regen ability?

a Procession for bravery shenanigans, maybe drop Wave of Terror for a better Bravery Debuff?

a Procession based around Heros, giving them another wound and attack to represent the Heroic Nighthaunt spirits of Hyperia

Just some thoughts, but I want to hear from you all; Are these too good? Too narrow? Or should Nighthaunt just not have Subfactions?

[kenshin620]

One could say NH is a subfaction of LoN....👻☠️

I think that is the issue for subfactions within NH, there really can't be any since they are ruled over by a Mortarch so are technically a legion.

Although I suppose via their battalions, you could try to expand them as subfactions like the Death Riders.

[Undeadly]

6 minutes ago, kenshin620 said:

One could say NH is a subfaction of LoN....👻☠️

I think that is the issue for subfactions within NH, there really can't be any since they are ruled over by a Mortarch so are technically a legion.

Although I suppose via their battalions, you could try to expand them as subfactions like the Death Riders.

Eh, you could sort of say the same about Morathi and her Daughters of Khaine, but yet they have Subfactions, so I don't see a reason why they couldn't. Also, I don't think we'll be seeing too much of NH in the LoN armies for tooo long

[kenshin620]

4 minutes ago, Undeadly said:

Eh, you could sort of say the same about Morathi and her Daughters of Khaine, but yet they have Subfactions, so I don't see a reason why they couldn't. Also, I don't think we'll be seeing too much of NH in the LoN armies for tooo long

True, but also DoK are living beings with their own free will (well mostly)

NH are undead spirits trapped and controlled by their spectral jailers. Seems kind of hard to have uniqueness in an army all about being literal slaves to their ghost overlords. I suppose powerful enough Knight of Shrouds or Spirit Torments might be able to have some individuality, but they are still being "entrusted" to carry out the wills of Lady Olynder and Nagash. And those 2 have shown to have extremely powerful will bending control. Kurdoss is a prime example of why there aren't subfactions in NH.

In a way it would be like if Legion of Sacrament had their own subfactions. They theoretically could with maybe various wights and necromancers carving their own army, but in the end are undead controlled by Arkhan and ultimately Nagash.

 

Meanwhile FEC and Soulblight aren't directly controlled by a major undead lord (well Soulblight and Legion of Blood is still a mess GW haven't separated), so those allow for much more variation in organizations and fighting style.

[dmorley21]

Thematically, the only way that would make sense to do this IMO is to have a subfaction of Nighthaunt that rebel against Nagash.

It's mentioned that there are Nighthaunt that Nagash does not control in their battletome. It's also shown in the novel Soul Wars how some Nighthaunt don't necessarily completely want to serve Nagash.

It'd be fun to see the ability to run Nighthaunt as Legion of Grief (under Nagash's rule and led by Lady O) or as a force of destruction led by maybe Reikenor.

I doubt it will ever happen though.

As mentioned, your best bet is to hope for expanded battalions.

[Shroud Of Night]

I would love to see a subfaction based around Banshees that veer hard into a Bravery bomb mode of attack.  Get a Banshee caster that super debuffs Bravery and maybe some Banshee batteline options and a cool Battalion and you are almost there. 

[Greasygeek]

Out of curiosity how much of a bravery bomb can Nighthaunts become? After a quick look I found that I could obly get a -2 bravery which really isn’t enough if hero choices are to go on banshees.

[lord_blackfang]

Nighthaunt allegiance is a mess of random stuff and could use a full rewrite. They absolutely deserve "chapter tactics" if DoK and FEC can have them. And faction terrain too. How about a Gallows?

[dmorley21]

24 minutes ago, lord_blackfang said:

Nighthaunt allegiance is a mess of random stuff and could use a full rewrite. They absolutely deserve "chapter tactics" if DoK and FEC can have them. And faction terrain too. How about a Gallows?

I really think Nighthaunt are a faction that should not have their own terrain. It really doesn't fit their lore at all. I would like to see something like Shrieker Host make either Harridans or Myrmourns battleline.

[Shroud Of Night]

50 minutes ago, Greasygeek said:

Out of curiosity how much of a bravery bomb can Nighthaunts become? After a quick look I found that I could obly get a -2 bravery which really isn’t enough if hero choices are to go on banshees.

That is the disappointing part, all we can get to is -2 and like you said that just does not do all that much.  I would like to see it pushed a bit more, maybe a spell that gets it down to -3.  I know NH has a lot of bravery based attacks but I don't think this would break the game.

By contrast, Legion Of Blood by in LoN can get to -3 without sneezing and has a way to conditionally get to -4.  

[Greasygeek]

1 hour ago, Shroud Of Night said:

That is the disappointing part, all we can get to is -2 and like you said that just does not do all that much.  I would like to see it pushed a bit more, maybe a spell that gets it down to -3.  I know NH has a lot of bravery based attacks but I don't think this would break the game.

By contrast, Legion Of Blood by in LoN can get to -3 without sneezing and has a way to conditionally get to -4.  

Exactly! Correcting my self though I can see that we can reach -3 BUT it require enemy target unit to:

1. be within 6” of a nighthaunt.

2. Target enemy unit has bern hit by the suffercating gravetide.

3. Target unit is within 6” of a Purple Sun.

This is very unstable and highly unlikely sitation so banshees remain benched.  I would have thought that ghosts was suppose to be scary. You know things that go bump in the night. 

Even Nurgle can easily build a -4 bravery debuff not counting the extra debuffs for the mentioned endless spells.