Mannfred........ is he good in combat?

[Dracothjay]

So I'm buying two skeleton horde starter sets and planning on making nefferata and mannfred. Arkhan seems a bit bleh to me so I'm going to make mannfred. 

Im just wondering if he's a good alpha strike character? I was planning on a terrorgheist in my 1K list, but if mannfred is more powerful in terms of combat damage then I will go with him.

thanks.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Mannfred is more powerful, plus his Command Ability is very solid.

[Thanatos Ares]

I wouldn't say he's brutal in melee, I prefer the Terrorgheist myself (if u have access to rerolls to hit)


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[Razorfate]

I think the weakest point of Mannfred's being a general is that he can not get any command trait (Ruler of Night is the best command trait not only in our faction but whole AOS imo) or an artifact (Ring of Immortality). His unique spell is no wonders either and VLoZD does outclass him with his command trait, artifact and command ability.

Nefereta has a very good command trait but since she can not give 5++ ward save within 10", she can not be an army general imo, but her spell making a unit ethereal is wonders, she can support a large grave guard, VLoZD, Bloodknight with immunte to rend spell and you can easily hold the center of the battlefield with ease.

 

[Squirrelmaster]

Rule of the Night is good, but I wouldn't consider it essential since you get a 6+ Deathless Minion save anyway. Against combat-based armies, I would consider Neferata's command ability far better for defense. Manfred's command ability boosts hitting power instead of resilience, so whether it's worth it depends on the army you're fielding and the strategy you want to use, imo. My experience of Death has often been that my army is resilient enough to last the whole game, but loses on objectives because I lack the hitting power to push my opponent back. If I was trying to build a more hard-hitting army, I would certainly consider Manfred.

For combat power, I would say Manfred hits harder than a Terrorgheist.

As for artifacts, don't forget that other characters in your army can take them instead.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I've gotten by without Ruler of the Night pretty well before, mainly when running Settra. 

[Razorfate]

Settra is a very good character with lots of synergy with the army. Manfred is not as strong as Settra in this regard. I think generic characters with command trait is a stronger option than the named ones. I'd use the named ones for their fighting prowess and/or uniq spell but that is only my opinion of course.

[Alexxk]

What I like about Arkhan is that he has a bad command ability. So you take you Vampire Lord or wight king as General. The 2 Spells of arkhan are nice I think. He hits way weaker than the other mortarchs but he is also way cheaper pointwise!