Necromancers?

[Reughor]

Hi all, I’m very new to AoS. I’m currently assembling Soul Wars, but I can’t help looking ahead to what I’d like to field eventually.

Are Necromancers  considered strong units? What type of lists/battalions would be best for them and would those lists/battalions be considered strong? I was looking at the Lords of Sacrament, would that be a good choice? Thank you.

[Overread]

Necromancy is in an odd spot right now.

Legions of Nagash basically had most of the models of the range squished into one single force, with Flesheaters on the side. Steadily its been spreading out with new updates. We've had Nighthaunt take the ghosts and make their own army; Ossiarchs took reformed bone and souls; we've got Vampires coming out later this year* and will likely splinter off (and update models) for a bunch of vampire models.

We don't yet know if necromancers, skeletons and zombies are going to potentially do the same or if they are going to remain part of the Legions of Nagash only or if they are going to be taken into part of the Vampire force. 

 

There is also Warhammer Quest which might well add some new necromancer ideas and models into the range so if you've a fondness for them keep an eye out - though be aware whilst GW stocks Warhammer quest well during its core run, they are limited products and it has a finite life cycle which, once over, might mean sculpts vanish forever.  

 

Right now though you're looking only at the Legions of Nagash to run the army, what might happen in the future is impossible to say (ossiarchs, for example, were a big surprise no one was expecting).

 

*an Underworld warband has been revealed; there's Warhammer Quest which has a big focus on the undead and there's a new Vampire army hinted at strongly, but so far only 1 model has been seen and there's no date so we are looking at least 4 months off before any news at best

[Honk]

4 hours ago, Reughor said:

Are Necromancers  considered strong units?

Right now they are (one of) the best LoN support hero, much needed...

they like to have a big block of summonables around. 
The deathmarch battalion is still the strongest, tournament wise I think. sacrament just too expensive, for friendly games it can be alright, but the lore is debuffing and the battalion with all the models it‘s just too much...

try it all out, find your style

[Evil Bob]

They used to be stronger.  AoS 2.0 increased unbind range so it’s harder to backfield VDM cast.  More ranged shooting and flanking options make the (un)life of support heroes  interesting.

Outside Legions of Nagash you could bring them in a FEC army but would also need to ally some Deadwalkers.  Not advisable since you would need to canablize FEC synergies.   They can show up in Soulblight as well, only do if you have a good reason to give up gravesites and really-really want your vampire general to be a combat monster.

As Overread says stick to the big four of  LoN.  Leaning on Legion of the Sacrement is a good call.  As Honk said Lords of the Sacrement is too expensive.  Arkhan and one necromancer is about as far as you want to go.  My Sacrement lists will often only have Arkhan or a Necromancer, freed up points are better spent on more units or squeezing a VLoZD in there.  But that’s just a preference.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

16 hours ago, Reughor said:

Hi all, I’m very new to AoS. I’m currently assembling Soul Wars, but I can’t help looking ahead to what I’d like to field eventually.

Are Necromancers  considered strong units? What type of lists/battalions would be best for them and would those lists/battalions be considered strong? I was looking at the Lords of Sacrament, would that be a good choice? Thank you.

In my opinion, you can't really go wrong putting one Necromancer into your list. Legions of Nagash has good spell lores, and the Necromancer's warscroll spell (Vanhel's Danse Macabre) is very good. The only problem is that Necromancers don't get any bonuses to cast spells on their warscroll, but there are many other ways to get such bonuses in LoN (Legion of Sacrament, Mortis Engine, Corpse Kart...).

I personally don't think taking multiple Necromancers is very good, though. Just because you will likely want a Vampire Lord and a Necromancer before you want two Necromancers.

As for subfactions/battalions: Legion of Scrament is always a solid choice. +1 to cast is good, because LoN lists often end up with several casters without even trying. Master's Teachings is unreliable, but great if you pull it off. Legion of Sacrament also has many solid command traits and artefacts.

As for battalions: Most LoN battalions are not very good. In Legion of Sacrament, you have access to the Lords of Sacrament and Deathmarch battalions. Lords of Sacrament is playable, but not especially good. The big problem is that it sort of just gives you the casting ability of Nagash, but without all the other upsides that Nagash has (like his command ability) and for more points than Nagash would cost you. Deathmarch, on the other hand, is quite good. If you want to go with a mostly skeleton based list, it's worth looking into. Most LoN lists don't run a battalion, however.

[Reughor]

Thank you all very much for your answers. I'm wondering how they'd fit into a Legion of Grief list, have any of you ever run a Necromancer or two in there before?

[Evil Bob]

 

56 minutes ago, Reughor said:

Thank you all very much for your answers. I'm wondering how they'd fit into a Legion of Grief list, have any of you ever run a Necromancer or two in there before?

Since LoG excludes Soulblight and the army spells are “meh” there is very little reason to not take a Necromancer since VDM is one of the best spells in the game.  Might need to get more Bladegheists to properly try it out.
 

I’ve generally stuck with Nighthaunt since that is The Lady’s Legion.   When the Club gets back together I plan on trying out different lists as a way to bring back units that are not normally seen since AoS 2.0 came out.