Zombie List Advice - Legion of Night

[Fiche]

Hey all,

Been trying to get some list advice and discussion on various outlets, but each place I go, people just make random suggestions of their favorite units. I try and ask them why they chose  a particular unit or made a decision, or attempt to argue against it with statistics and reasoning and I either don't get a reply or an angry response of, "Just do what you want." When what I want is to have a discussion to get the most mileage out of what I'm trying to achieve. So, as a last resort of not knowing anymore outlets, I thought I'd try to post here. Without further ado, here is my list.

 

Legion of Night
Mannfred, Mortarch of Night - 380 Points
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (Ally) - 220 Points
Necromancer - 130 Points

30 x Zombies - 180 Points
30 x Zombies - 180 Points
30 x Zombies - 180 Points
5 x Dire Wolves - 70 Points

5x Dire Wolves - 70 Points

Corpse Cart - 80 Points
Zombie Dragon - 300 Points

This leaves 210 points to grab something, I'm not sure what. Would love some input.

The playstyle....
Legion of Night allows me to deepstrike in 3 units. I'll do that with 2 units of zombies and something else depending on the enemy and use them to flank, and place 1 in the graves to summon on turn one to avoid shooting and enhance movement. The one in the grave will be near my units as a blanket for Lady Olynder and the Necromancer.

Mannfred provides rerollable 1's on hit and wound to everyone. He's also the hero killer.

Lady Olynder is there for two reasons. The first is mortal wounds. This army needed some mortal wounds to take out high save units, since zombies have no rend. The second would be for her unique spell which provides -1 to hit for an enemy unit and +1 to hit against that unit, to make up for the smaller zombie unit sizes.

The reason for the 3 units of zombies instead of one larger unit is for the regeneration. Targeting three units with Deathly Invocation plus the graveyard bonus would be 3D3 zombies back to each unit each turn, instead of just one unit. 

The Necromancer is there because zombies, he has the option between Overwhelming Dread for an additional -1 to hit and Danse Macabre.

As for the last 210 points I had a few options....

The first would be to increase all the zombies units by 10. This would give them the additional +1 to hit until they take damage. 

The second option would be to upgrade the Zombie Dragon to a Vampire lord on Zombie Dragon and take a command point, this would give me an additional Deathly Invocation for each zombie unit and more damage. 

The third option I can think of would be some Morghasts for a glass cannon burst of damage or a Mortis Engine for some more mortal wounds.

Would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations, preferably with reasoning.

[ACBelMutie]

Remember you can use the tombs once per turn, so you can't use a graveyard twice per turn to heal two units, so I think the regeneration isn't as important as the bonus when you have a full unit (and the point cost reduction). So you 30 zombies have 1 atack at 4/4/-/1 and if you loose 11 zombies, they go 5/5/-/1. When you have 60 zombies, they go 3/3/-/1 until they loose 21 zombis. In addition, 2x30 zombis cost 360 points and 1x60 zombis cost 320 points.

If you can fill 2x60 zombies, you don't have to think about the regeneration because you can resurrect one full unit and they have 60 wounds and a 6++ especial save.

Greetings

[Fiche]

Thanks for your reply! They get the bonus on 20 units, not 30. I did not notice the point reduction for taking a full unit.  It might be worth taking 2 full units of 60 then, but ugh so many zombies to paint. Fortunately Mantic sells them in sets of 40 for almost cheaper than Games Workshop sells 20. How often do you feel a unit of 60 would even die to make use of the graveyards? Realistically at most 10 would pile in for per enemy unit per combat phase. 
 

That changes things a bit. The core units would be...

Mannfred, Mortarch of Night - 380 Points

Necromancer - 130 Points

Corpse Cart - 80 Points

60 x Zombies - 320 Points

60 x Zombies - 320 Points

5 x Dire Wolves - 70 Points

1 x Zombie Dragon - 300 Points

 

That leaves a bit to play with, I can think of three options...

1 x Terrorgheist - 300 Points with 5x Dire Wolves - 70 Points. This would put me at 1970 points. 

- This would give me potentially more mortal wounds with the TG  but if he doesn't land those 6's his damage is rather abysmal and an additional objective capture unit with the wolves. 

1x Lady Olynder - 220 Points with replacing Zombie Dragon with Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon. This would put me at 1960 points.

- This would potentially have about the same mortal wounds as the TG, but extra support with her -1 Hit/+1 Received Hits spell, and a Vampire Lord makes the Zombie Dragon better, but only one unit for objective capture. 

1x Bloodseeker Palanquin - 300 points with 5x Dire Wolves - 70 Points. This would put me at 1970 points.

- This thing can bring back zombies with deathly invocation, it has a spell and is a bit more reliable for mortal wounds than the Terrorgheist with the Banshee Scream and 12 Spectral Host swings, but the potential is much lower. Also an additional Dire Wolf unit for objectives.

Thoughts?

Edited October 12, 2019 by Fiche

[ACBelMutie]

They have 2 bonus, when they are over 20 and over 40. So you want to have your Zombies over 40 to get 1 attack at 3/3/-/1. If

• Less than 20 Zombis => 5/5/-/1
• Between 20 and 39 => 4/4/-/1
• More than 39 => 3/3/-/1

So you want to have more than 39 always.

You can improve them with a Necromancer and/or a Vampire Lord. The Necromancer lets you attack twice per combat phase with his spell (van ****** Dance). The Vampire Lord can give them +1 attack expending a command point. I see a Corpse Cart in your list. You can upgrade your Zombis:

• 2 Attacks => Vampire Lord and a Command Point
• Attack twice => Necromancer spell => van Hell's Dance
• More than 39 Zombis => 3/3/-/1
• Corpse Cart and +39 Zombis => 2/3/-/1

I'm not sure if you know that the base of the Zombis is smaller than 1", so you can attack with two lines of Zombies instead of one. If you make a good combo, you can get 10-20 Zombis in combat.

Greetings

[Fiche]

6 minutes ago, ACBelMutie said:

 

I'm not sure if you know that the base of the Zombis is smaller than 1", so you can attack with two lines of Zombies instead of one. If you make a good combo, you can get 10-20 Zombis in combat.

 

Is that how that works? The base is .98 inch, I just assumed only the first row could attack.

I'm not too familiar with second edition rules. If I had Mannfred as my general, can I still use the command ability of a vampire lord?
Also, would it be wiser to save command points for battleshocks in a 60+ unit or just let the unit die to resummon it for more efficiency? 

[Panzer]

I loved facing a good zombie themed list back in whfb. The only advice I can give is less of a tactical one though. Just don't water down the concept in chase of efficiency. There's obviously a limit for how strong such a themed list can be or it'd be the most played type of DEATH list on tournaments after all.

[ACBelMutie]

13 hours ago, Fiche said:

Is that how that works? The base is .98 inch, I just assumed only the first row could attack.

I'm not too familiar with second edition rules. If I had Mannfred as my general, can I still use the command ability of a vampire lord?
Also, would it be wiser to save command points for battleshocks in a 60+ unit or just let the unit die to resummon it for more efficiency? 

Your range is 1", so the second line is nearer than 1" to the enemy unit, so they can attack too.

Yes, you can use a command ability even if that hero isn't the General, but you can only summon units with your General, not with heroes.

You will want to have your horde alive until they are weak or the enemy has got the objetive and they aren't profitable. In that case you let them die to resumon them again.

Greetings