So, Deathrattle/Nighthaunt together

[wayniac]

Me again

I keep thinking of why I like to play Death, even if I feel they are a bit weak right now.  And I realize it's because the models are cool, and something about summoning the dead makes you feel almighty.  Anyways, branching off from my previous topic on what makes Death competitive without using Tomb Kings or Mournghouls, I got to thinking of an army concept that I really feel is cool from a death alliance standpoint:

The Forgotten Dead
For every soul that Sigmar chose to reforge into a Stormcast Eternal, hundreds more were left to die, buried amidst the ruins of their once-mighty kingdoms.  The spirits and bones of those forgotten souls have risen from their graves, consumed with a desire to seek vengeance upon the living for the lives that were snuffed out so long ago in the Age of Chaos

So the idea is to have a lot of Deathrattle and Nighthaunt; skeletons and grave guard, spirit hosts, hexwraiths, etc. probably led by a Vampire Lord.  I can ally in my Flesh-Eater Courts and have a bit more leeway with stories since I wouldn't have to put everything through the POV of an insane ghoul king.  I could also more easily include other Death units, even some special characters (maybe my general made a deal with Arkhan or Mannfred)

So what in these two subfactions work best (not interested in adding/converting Tomb Kings units)?  Spirit Hosts and Hexwraiths seem really cool because they can ignore rend.  Skeletons are skeletons, but their replenishing mechanism is tied to banners and not characters so I think I'd have an easier time having them stick around, since the major problem I have with FEC right now is that the characters die easily.  They still seem to lack some heavy hitters though.

[KHHaunts]

Aside from the vampire leader this is basically my army. Except all models aside from the conjureres are painted in ghostly theme. Ive posted a few pics in the night haunt themed army thread

[wayniac]

1 minute ago, KHHaunts said:

Aside from the vampire leader this is basically my army. Except all models aside from the conjureres are painted in ghostly theme. Ive posted a few pics in the night haunt themed army thread

How does it play for you?

[KHHaunts]

Has served me well so far.

My spirit hosts and hexwraiths attack on the flanks. Unless im playing an open game in which case only the hexwraiths do while the spirit hosts trail behind the mortis engine using the malignant battlion.

My death rattle units move down the centre.

Ill use my spirit hosts to pin down opponents or summined cairn wraiths. Allowing my army to advance. 

If i manage to get my army into combat which i usually do my army does tremendous damage to my opponent. Its only when im delayed that they start to run out of steam.

 

Hopefully some morghasts will help with this problem.

[Ademo]

This is the kind of army I'm building - a sort of 'barrows' theme. Thinking the legion of death formation is a pretty solid reliable core and the spirits form more of an auxiliary. From what I hear, spirit hosts are fairly effective against big nasties as they can pile more in and thus the odds of dishing out more mortal wounds.

Summoning Cairn Wraiths also seems like a cool idea, especially in scenarios like 3 places of power etc, they look to be pretty resilient.

I agree with@KHHaunts that morghasts can also fit the theme - aesthetically they have both spirit and bone elements, not to mention they provide some much needed rend and damage output (thinking of archai in particular)

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[KHHaunts]

Also there strength dosent depreciate or rely on synergy which cuts reliance on heros

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah, this is pretty much exactly my theme, I even named it "The Forgotten Dead," haha. 

As noted above, the Legion of Death forms a solid core, I typically run a Wight King with Infernal Standard, 2x10 Skeletons with Swords and 1x40 with Spears, a unit of 10+ Grave Guard and a unit of 5 or 10 Black Knights. From there, I add support to it. Cairn Wraith for some mild hitting power and Deathless Minions buff on the cheap, Spirit Hosts for Mortal Wound output.

I've started to branch outside of those two subfactions though by converting or bitbashing models to represent certain characters. For example, my Aglaeca Dreagluth is something I often play as a Vampire Lord, after opponents kept saying he's really too imposing to be a mere Wight King, plus that ethereal sword just looks like it's going to rip your soul from your body for him to heal from, eh? I sometimes play it as a Tomb Blade in smaller games, makes him pretty nasty.

It takes a lot of work to convert some stuff, though. For example, I've held off making Necropolis Knights because despite really wanting some cool heavy cavalry since Black Knights tend to be a bit weak, I really want something that fits thematically and looks right, which is darn tough so far because I can be very picky about things. 

[KHHaunts]

9 minutes ago, CoffeeGrunt said:

Yeah, this is pretty much exactly my theme, I even named it "The Forgotten Dead," haha. 

As noted above, the Legion of Death forms a solid core, I typically run a Wight King with Infernal Standard, 2x10 Skeletons with Swords and 1x40 with Spears, a unit of 10+ Grave Guard and a unit of 5 or 10 Black Knights. From there, I add support to it. Cairn Wraith for some mild hitting power and Deathless Minions buff on the cheap, Spirit Hosts for Mortal Wound output.

I've started to branch outside of those two subfactions though by converting or bitbashing models to represent certain characters. For example, my Aglaeca Dreagluth is something I often play as a Vampire Lord, after opponents kept saying he's really too imposing to be a mere Wight King, plus that ethereal sword just looks like it's going to rip your soul from your body for him to heal from, eh? I sometimes play it as a Tomb Blade in smaller games, makes him pretty nasty.

It takes a lot of work to convert some stuff, though. For example, I've held off making Necropolis Knights because despite really wanting some cool heavy cavalry since Black Knights tend to be a bit weak, I really want something that fits thematically and looks right, which is darn tough so far because I can be very picky about things. 

Hexwraiths arent the hardest hitters but they are very fast and very durable. I never leave home without them.

Bkt if you want heavy take a look at this and tell me what you think. 

Its onlya.prototype and not finished yet (rider isent painted at all and gonna swap out for a more.imposing weapon) plus the next one is already looking better.

But.

This one of my abyssal wight. Its my nighthaunt themed proxy for a unit of blood knights