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Introduction

When I began writing the Noobronomicon: A Beginner's Guide to Death, I was overwhelmed by the amount of support the project received. However, since the release of AoS 3, it has become increasingly difficult to bring the information in the original guide up to date. I simply couldn't let this project die, so I thought the best way would be to scrap it all and start a fresh. So here we are, with the Noobronomicon Volume 2.  I intend to write this updated guide with the same level of love and care as I did the previous.

If you are not familiar with this previous guide, I will quickly go over what it’s for and why I write these. This guide will cover beginner to intermediate play. We won’t be covering tournament play or min/maxing out lists. We will cover the basics of the Death Grand Alliance, the alliances within, and the sub-factions within that. Hopefully, within this guide, you will find everything you need to know in order to start your journey into playing a Death alliance in AoS. 

Hopefully, this will help newer players, as well as existing players looking to try out a Death army, find an army that fits you best. 

Glossary and abbreviations:
Soulbight Gravelords - SG or SbGl - A variety of different undead creatures.
Flesh Eater Courts - FEC - Cannibals and ghouls
Ossiarch Bonereapers - OBR or OB - Bone constructs
Nighthaunt - NH - Ghosts
Soulblight - Vampires
Deathrattle- Skeletons
Deadwalkers - Zombies

Grand Alliance - GA

 

Note: This guide will be updated as I finish each section. And a complete guide will be added in as a google doc soon for those you find this to be an inadequate format to read in. Feedback is always appreciated. 

Edited by Avatar Rage
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Death Grand Alliance

The Death Grand Alliance isn’t really a thing anymore. As of AoS 3 a Grand alliance army isn’t viable. Despite this, I feel it’s still important to cover the basics, as most Death armies have certain features that link them together.

Let’s cover the pros and cons of a Death army.
Pros:

  • Magic oriented armies
  • Access to hordes
  • Access to monsters
  • Strong in Battleshock phase
  • Access to regeneration
  • Access to many named Hero Characters


Cons:

  • Hordes are limited in AoS 3
  • Hero characters can be expensive
  • Basic battle line can be squishy in most armies
  • Elite units are expensive
  • Limited ranged units
     

The key to a Death army is master one or two of your particular armies pros, while doing your best to mitigate the cons. I know that's obvious, but with glaring weaknesses like squishy battlines and limited ranged units, you better be ready to regenerate your hurt troops quickly or you will be overwhelmed. Later in the guide, we will go into far more detail about how you can really take advantage of these abilities. 

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Nagash

The most prominent unit in the Death Grand Alliance is the Great Necromancer himself, Nagash. Nagash is a powerful, but expensive unit. He costs (at the time of writing) 955 points. Despite the price he has several major advantages on the battlefield.

One major difference between his current incarnation is his Warmaster trait. He now acts as a tie between the Death alliances and can be placed in any Death army as a general (in addition to the existing general in the army). 

Another advantage is that Nagash is one of the most powerful spellcasters in the game. He is as powerful as heroes, like Teclis and Karos Fateweaver. When at full wounds, Nagash can cast/ dispel 8 spells a turn with a  +3 to the respective rolls. It’s very hard to not cast a spell with Nagash. He can cast “arcane missile”any number of times in a hero phase (even when other spellcasters have used it), which is good for damage spam.

The most interesting thing about the big guy is that he knows all the spells in any Alliance he is fielded. In factions like Soulblight Gravelords, that means he knows two whole spell lores and bonus spells. This also gives him access to the Endless Spells of that faction and is in addition to her two unique spells. His unique spells “soul stealer” allows him to keep his wounds topped up (to make the most of his spells) and “hand of dust” allows you to instantly kill off a enemy character with a bit of luck (it’s saved my bacon a few times).

On top of his casting abilities, Nagash is a powerful leader and combatant. Combat wise, he has access to both a 12” range attack and a plethora of close combat attacks. At full wounds, he has 16 attacks across his three melee attack sources (4 from Alkanash, 6 from Zefet-nebtar and 6 form his specters). Not to be snuffed at, especially from a wizard.

As if that wasn’t enough, Nagash has abilities to keep his minions alive (or at least on the battlefield). Invocation of Nagash allows Nagash to heal 5 models or units with the summonable keyword for 3 wounds. Supreme Lord of the Undead allows you to re-roll units returning to a unit with a healing ability (more on that later) or increase the number of models returned by 1. Then there is Dead Magic Incarnate, which gives a Death unit, that is not Nagash, a +1 to their save. Each one of those abilities is powerful in its own right, but together Nagash can keep those units on the battlefield. 
 

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Soulblight Gravelords 

Requires - Soulblight Gravelords Battletome

The Soulblight Gravelords are one of the most versatile Death alliances. This army has a fairly large unit roster and a variety of sub-factions to choose from. The units in this army come from three categories, Soulblight, Deathrattle and Deadwalkers. 

The battleline units for this army can vary depending on the sub faction, but the basic units are deathrattle skeletons, dire wolves and deadwalker zombies. These basic battline troops are cheap and can be versatile. They also lend themselves to being your oversized units. A nice big, cheap block of undead can really bog down a foe. If you choose to have a Wight King as a general, then Grave Guard can also be added to this list. Which is a solid choice for players who want their infantry to be slightly more robust. 

Key abilities

The abilities of a Soulblight Gravelords embody the Death GA. Reanimated Horrors allow you to break down your opponent’s bravery. While Deathly Invocation allows you to heal and revive injured units. 

Subfactions - Legions of Undead

The sub factions for the Soulblight Gravelords are plentiful and can shift your play style. Each one has their own pros and cons. Here we will briefly go over each subfaction. 

The Legion of Blood focuses on combining soulblight vampires with death rattle skeletons. This is the legion of the Mortarch of Blood, Neferatta and compliments her style very well. The Favoured Retainers ability allows you to ignore negatives on attack and wound melee rolls for deathrattle units while in range of vampires (please note, this is all vampires, not just vampire heroes). Black Knights are added to your battleline roster, which works well with the Favoured Retainers ability.

Legion of the Night focuses on using your core battleline units and ambushes. This is the legion of the Mortarch of Night, Manfred von Carstein. The core ability in this faction is Ageless Cunning, which allows you to place 1 unit in ambush for every unit you have on the battlefield. Which works well with the other ability, The Bait, allowing your deathrattle and deadwalker units to receive a bonus to their save rolls on the first battle round. The intention for these abilities is obvious, to set up your weak units on the battlefield and allow your elite units to appear behind enemy lines to flank. This is especially effective with vargheists being added to your battleline roster. These fast moving, flying units can be devastating and could potentially ruin your opponents' day. 

Vyrkos Dynasty uses core battleline units and soulblight vampire heroes. The thing that sets this one apart from the others is the number of cheap named characters. If you include those from the Cursed City game, you can access 8 unique heroes and 3 unique units with this keyword. Which is what sets them aside from the Legion of Blood. As they both buff weaker non-vampire units as long as vampires are nearby. In this case, the ability Strength of the Pack is the Wolf adds as bonus to wound rolls for deathrattle and deadwalker units. The intention here is to use a variety of cheaper vampire heroes to buff your units, and with the number of unique units on offer, this is very achievable. 

Kastelani Dynasty focuses purely on soulblight vampires, both heroes and units. The big thing here is that Blood Knights are a battleline for this faction, who can be set up in ambush thanks to the Shifting Keep ability. The Shifting Keep functions like Ageless Cunning, but it’s exclusively for Blood Knights here. Not only that but the Might of the Crimson Keep ability allows you to buff your vampire units as they kill in battle. Depending on what they kill they can get buffs in their wounds, charge rolls and even damage. This is a subfaction for those who like hard-hitting, fast moving, elite units.

Avengori Dynasty is a monster faction, full of big beasties. Terrorgheist and zombie dragons get added to your batteline list. The faction specific rules further enhance the capabilities of monsters too. Nothing really stands out to take note of other than the Cursed Abomination ability, which grants an extra ability to one of your monsters. The Vengorian Lords and the unique hero Lauka Vai are made for the Avengorii, being monsters themselves they make wonderful leaders for those that don’t like the idea of a Vampire Lord on a Zombie Dragon. Ultimately this faction relies on how appealing the idea of big monsters is for you. I mean, who doesn’t like giant monsters?

Putting things together like a true necromancer

Outside of the core abilities and the subfactions, the Soulblight Gravelords have several other tricks they keep up their sleeves. Most notably the amount of units that apply buffs to friendly units. Corpse Carts are an excellent example of this. The Lodestone carts buff zombies and Soulblight Gravelord Wizards. While the Balefire variant debuffs enemy units and wizards. Depending on your army either can be a valuable asset to your army.

Similarly Mortis Engines, Sanguine Thrones and Bloodseeker Palanquins are powerful focal points for an army that can lean into a variety of play styles. Mortis Engines are powerful AoE weapons that can buff your wizards. Bloodseeker Palanquins are deadly hero hunters that can pick apart notable heroes and buff nearby vampires as an extra trophy. These two also have access to the Wail of Doom ability which can potentially do D3 damage to every unit in range. The Coven Throne is a hero unit complete with a command ability, it provides a plethora of buffs and a powerful debuff spell, Shudder. Shudder, when cast, can essentially place an enemy unit out of commission for an entire turn. Any one of these centerpiece units can be a fine addition to any army. Oh and yes they can all fly, which is very useful for getting them in the correct position. 

There is also a common misconception that this army is slow, which is understandable because zombies are not quite known for their speed. But a Soulblight Gravelord army can be quite fast and manoeuvrable. Dire Wolves, for instance, are a core battle line that can effectively tie up enemy units at a low cost. Both Black Knights and Blood Knights are decent cavalry units for their costs. Vampirice units like vargheists and fell bats are not only quick, but can fly too. So never be afraid to throw in a quick unit or two to bog down your opponent or even surprise them with how quickly your shambling corpses can move.

Magic

The Soulblight Gravelords have an advantage over other factions in that they have two whole lores of magic to choose from, as well as a bonus spell for all their wizards. 

First up is Invigorating Aura, the spell every wizard in this army gets. This is a cornerstone spell for the army. It heals 3 wounds on a summonable unit wholly within 18” of the caster. 

The first spell lore is the lore of the vampires and can be cast by (you guessed it) vampires. The selling point of this spell lore is it’s damage, with only one of the six spells being support spells.

The highlight spell for this lore is Soulspike. This spell has rarely done me wrong. It’s cast on a unit within 18”. If that unit charges then you roll a dice and deliver a mortal wound for every 4+. The better the charge roll, the more dice you get. This can lock down strong charging units out of fear from harm, or better yet break them down before combat. 

The second lore of magic is the lore of deathmages. Which can be cast by mortarchs and deathmages (aka necromancers). This spell lore is more about debuffing foes, with only one spell to cause actual damage. 

The highlight spells here are a trifecta; Overwhelming Dread, Fading Vigour and Decrepify. Overwhelming Dread reduces an enemy unit’****** roll results by 1, while Fading Vigour reduces an enemy unit’s attack characteristic by 1. While Decrepify can only be targeted on enemy heroes it reduces their to wound rolls and damage characteristics in melee by 1. Put them all together and you have an enemy hero, hitting less often and not as hard.

Let’s apply these three to a decent melee hero, a Stormcast Knight-Questor. An often ignored unit that can cause trouble in melee combat. If applying all three spell this unit only has 3 attacks that require a 4+ to hit. If that hits then it now wounds on a 4+ too. Making this unit an average combatant. Although it doesn’t reduce the weapon damage (as it’s already 1) this unit deals 2 wounds on a wound roll of a 6, which gets bumped down to a 1 again. Mitigating the hero’s ability.

A quick note about these spell lores, although it specifies that Mortarchs can cast the Lore of Deathmages it should be noted that both the Mortarchs in this army have the vampire keyword. So they have access to both the Lore of Vampires and Lore of Death Mages.
 

(Lore section coming soon)

Edited by Avatar Rage
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