Grave Guard?

[Nico]

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So many juicy combos. I play Sylvaneth and we have 0 buffs, so it's really interesting.

Thanks guys

To be fair, there's Alarielle's command ability (decent as it works on Pew Pew) and the Winterleaf buffs, which murder Chaos. However, it would have been nice if one of the Lore Spells had been a buff spell.

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Sylvaneth seem to rely on Wyldwoods for buffs rather than each other. Death have the advantage of having insane synergy all over the place. 

I cannot say that the second sentence is true. Deathrattle have the best synergies in the game (mostly because of Settra and Vanhels Danse Macabre). They are nevertheless far weaker than they were under partially nerfed Righteous Smiting (SCGT), instead of massively nerfed Righteous Smiting (GH). FEC have some good synergies but still not the best.

However, Nighthaunt, Morghasts and Soulblight have frankly poor synergies (righteous smiting does work on Morghasts but it's really poor). At best they have good command abilities (but almost all of them on named characters - so you lose the 5+ ward save that is keeping Death competitive despite having the worst shooting and no teleporting and by far the fewest number of Warscrolls and the fewest Battalions.    

Chaos probably have the best synergies provided that Little Archaon is available (counterbalanced by the worst units overall; and without a shadow of a doubt the worst monsters - Jabberslythe being the only one that's seriously underpointed); Order have got some horrendous ones too mostly involving the Hurricanum. 

 

 

[CoffeeGrunt]

Every time someone calls my Death force OP, I hold up my Grand Alliance book and say, "this is what I have to work with!" I then hold it against their's for reference and tell them with 2-3x the options they've got plenty of scope to do better.

[Solaris]

I think this is a bit of an overstatement on the uselessness of Death. Nighthaunt, while having little to no internal synergy, goes through the roof with Settra. Morghasts with Righteous Smiting is as you say not all that inspiring - however, with Settra they too become a force to be reckoned with. I think a big issue is that the really juicy combinations in GA: Death revolve around Settra. As a TK player dabbling in the other factions, this is no problem for me at all, but I can see how that may be an issue to new Death players that might not want to rely on outdated compendium warscrolls to find success.

In terms of other factions with strong synergies, Free People's come to mind. I think in general though, assuming that balance is more or less on point, armies that have a lot of synergies NEED those synergies to be competitive, whereas armies that lack them do not need them to the same extent. In the end, it is mostly a matter of play style - either you like to play a tight game, where your whole army has to act as one unit, or you like the freedom of having your units be more or less independent of each other. Your preference will dictate whether you should gravitate toward synergistic or non-synergistic armies.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah, I'd say Nighthaunt are very one-note to play, but aren't necessarily worthless. Plus as-noted. Settra is just a buffing machine for everything in Death, to varying degrees. I honestly find it very difficult to write a list that doesn't have him in it.

[Nico]

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Every time someone calls my Death force OP, I hold up my Grand Alliance book and say, "this is what I have to work with!" I then hold it against their's for reference and tell them with 2-3x the options they've got plenty of scope to do better.

Exactly. Except that it's not a book - it's a pamphlet. Not to mention that several pages are such luminaries as the Fell Bat, Bat Swarm and Black Coach.... The inclusion of the 5+ ward save was a smart move to make the Grand Alliance viable in the interim before a new Death book.

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I think this is a bit of an overstatement on the uselessness of Death. Nighthaunt, while having little to no internal synergy, goes through the roof with Settra. Morghasts with Righteous Smiting is as you say not all that inspiring - however, with Settra they too become a force to be reckoned with. I think a big issue is that the really juicy combinations in GA: Death revolve around Settra. As a TK player dabbling in the other factions, this is no problem for me at all, but I can see how that may be an issue to new Death players that might not want to rely on outdated compendium warscrolls to find success.

In terms of other factions with strong synergies, Free People's come to mind. I think in general though, assuming that balance is more or less on point, armies that have a lot of synergies NEED those synergies to be competitive, whereas armies that lack them do not need them to the same extent. In the end, it is mostly a matter of play style - either you like to play a tight game, where your whole army has to act as one unit, or you like the freedom of having your units be more or less independent of each other. Your preference will dictate whether you should gravitate toward synergistic or non-synergistic armies.

Don't get me wrong I do like Spirit Hosts and Hexwraiths are good cavalry. It's just that their keywords are a weakspot for buffs. The VloZD also gives them an extra 4 attacks in effect. 

Settra might work if your opponent hasn't seen the combo before. The Archai still don't put out damage sufficient to make them tempting. The Spirit Hosts are still very slow and big based. Settra's the best Death Warscroll - I think most would agree.

Some armies are still resilient or potent without synergies (e.g. if the buffing heroes die) and others aren't. Necropolis Knights are still good even with Settra and all the buffing heroes dead. Clanrats without Tretch and the Verminus Clawpack and the Crown of Conquest are feeble. That can make a big difference. Other armies are also resistant to player errors (forgiving) while others require fine micromanagement and one slip can cost you dearly.

I've only played Free Peoples once and it was MSU rather than buff stack on large blocks of pew pew. 

[ElectricPaladin]

I think that Death is in a weird place, overall. Right now, only Flesh Eaters have a real battletome, and if the changes between the Grand Alliance book and said update are any indication, we can count on pretty significant changes in all the other sub-factions.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I'm hoping so.