DioRa

So have also started doing some list building around the petrifex elite and Arkhan. I'm not 100% sold on either lists, as they feel all very low model count. First list. This one is more focused on the kavalos deathriders and the battalion for the extra artifact. Unsure on the mortek crawler, wonder if a harvester would not be a better pick to support the mortek guard further. Also lack of endless spells sits iffy with me when you have Arkhan around. Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers- Legion: Petrifex EliteLeadersArkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (360)Liege-Kavalos (200)Mortisan Soulmason (140)Battleline10 x Kavalos Deathriders (360)10 x Kavalos Deathriders (360)20 x Mortek Guard (260)BehemothsMortek Crawler (200)BattalionsKavalos Lance (120)Total: 2000 / 2000Extra Command Points: 1Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 115 For the second list I went with more mortek crawlers. But the complete lack of mobility in this army makes it feel terrible. I think mortek crawler lists can be quite the troll lists, but will still lose most of the time on objective play. Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers- Legion: Petrifex EliteLeadersArkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (360)Liege-Kavalos (200)Mortisan Soulmason (140)Mortisan Boneshaper (130)Battleline20 x Mortek Guard (260)10 x Mortek Guard (130)10 x Mortek Guard (130)BehemothsMortek Crawler (200)Mortek Crawler (200)Mortek Crawler (200)Endless Spells / Terrain / CPsSoulstealer Carrion (20)Bone-tithe Shrieker (30)Total: 2000 / 2000Extra Command Points: 0Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 104 Currently working on a third list. I think having Arkhan, Liege-kavalos and a bonemason is a solid leaders core. When it comes down to battleline I'd want to end up with two units of Mortek guard and one 10 man Kavalos deathrider unit. I do feel the Soul carrion and Shrieker are too good and to o cheap endless spells to not take with the likes of Arkhan around. So that leaves me with remaining points for the likes of mortek crawlers, harvesters and other units. So on to the drawing board.

I'd assume you could've casted the shrieker on a support wizard like the soulmason? Sure the -1 to cast hurts him more than Arkhan (thanks to his own buffs to casting). I like the carrion on paper for Arkhan and Nagash. But also like the shrieker a lot just to help out our units. Not convinced on the predator sadly.

@Tronhammer NZ How would you rate the Morghast performance? Made use of any buffs with them? How well did each endless spell perform? Also small units of 10 mortek guard were they enough?

True, but wouldn't multiple units of 20 not cover more ground. Be able to go for more objectives. I feel if you tie up too many points in big singular units you will be rather limited on board presence. When it comes down to crematorium the main shtick would be the whole suicide factor, widdle down your opponent with exploding skeletons. So you are kind of already hoping on throwing away units to increase damage. And when it comes down to sustainability for healing, I don't see any enemy wiping out a unit of 20 in one turn easily. And having points in a unit of 40 tied up in one location on the battlefield seems risky. It's an excellent anvil, but if you want to just spam mortek guard then you miss those hammer units to slam into the anvil target. This is all just paper theorizing and it will all depend on opponents and such. In the end people need to start playing with them to see what works and what not.

Why units of 40 specific? With so much healing, I think a unit of 20 will be just fine. Not to mention, the smaller the unit the easier it is to give them more wholly within bubble buffs. A unit of 10 is a waste I'd say, though with the crematorian units of 10 might function more as exploding suicide tarpits for a turn? Healing a unit of mortek would be viable from 20+ unit size. Then there is the question of harvesters, how would you field them? 2 next to each other, one per unit? Would you put them in the back of the unit, or would they be at the front causing as much damage as possible, but at risk of being destroyed themselves? As for boneshapers, can't go wrong with 2 of them, cheaper than 1 arkhan.

In the general discussion there is this hilarious thread going on how OP the ossiarchs are. We could be OP as the claimants say if our point costs were not so high

Quite the outburst there. Katakros is still 1/4 of your army, as a solo piece he is not going to dominate. I can't imagine him being much of a competitive pick to be honest. Due to this army being starved for points. Mortek guard, only 3+ in one subfaction. I will admit that the petrifex subfaction will be the most popular out there. The reroll saves ability still costs RD points to use. So kill the armies heroes and you starve them out of points to use all these fancy CA abilities. 130pts for 10 ain't cheap, in an army starved for points and board pressence (see where im going with this). Stalkers are best killing unit. Should we have no killing units at all? Again i bet these guys won't be as widespread picked as kurnoth hunters. Mortek crawler, scared of that thing? It has no rend, it's 200 pts and needs all the buffs that the heroes could be giving to other units to make it extremely effective. Not to mention it's our only ranged piece. I think it can work if you build a list around only these guys, and then you have a pretty static army. 1 of these in a combat oriented list would be a waste of 200 pts that you'd rather use to buy 3 more stalkers with. I think cav is being undervalued together with morghasts. Everyone looks at the killing stats and seems to ignore the mov value. Sure you can use an ability to move faster but it still costs you RD that you are not using now for the +1 attack, reroll saves etc. Any smart opponent will focus on the ossiarch support heroes first and use speed to the advantage of manouvering. Because the ossiarch is a small slow moving army, one that kind of needs to stay clumped together for the buffs to work to make the units do something. The sky is falling on paper, i think any competent smart opponent can abuse the flaws of the ossiarch army.

The unit leader is a hekatos. As long as the unit fits in the 6" bubble of the unit leader then it can work, without any need for extra heroes. Downside, it's a small bubble. So a unit of 40 mortek guard would be a no go again.

Problem I have with the more useful battalions is that it is another 100+ points. I'm already starving for points when building lists. Yes the extra artifact is nice, and I feel the extra RD is neglible. Personally the only battalions I like are the deathrider one and the mortek guard one. But the mortek one is so not worth the points. Can better put those points in 10 more mortek guard or a support caster.

I think arkhan is great. Also he has good speed and a nice sum of wounds. In petrifex 3+ save etc. I would always give him the carrion endless spell. It can help with the healing and serve as his point of LoS. Meaning you can keep him nice in the back, hiding behind terrain etc. Keeping out of harms way. All the while he can do his thing at the front lines from the carrions pov. Immortis guard are just a huge point of investment that would do no dmg and would slow down arkhans mobility. Feel immortis guards are more suited for an unkillable nagash list.

I'm having quite the second thoughts on the mortek crawler. The lack of rend on the normal shots really bothers me. And investing 400pts in two of them seems a too big investment. Without characters babysitting the crawlers to give buffs they seem too much luck dependent on very few dice rolls. I rather have my chars support and buff units like mortek guard, deathriders etc. I have a feeling that if you want any of the crawlers then you need to build a list around them. I don't think they're a good supplement to a list. And sure they're good at character sniping I guess, but no rend again...

Rend is king in AoS I will agree on that. But I don't see mortek guard as the unit sent out to go kill some kurnoth hunters. They're more there to be the anvil and just tarpit something forever. We have other stuff to go on proper killing with even better rend. The cav is a different story, you want to go and kill stuff on them. Also if playing petrifex you can always use the CA to give the spears -1 rend, then again you can make swords -2...

Sounds like a popular question for the FAQ. Because then we can apply it to the banner bearer, any special greatswords in the unit. My initial assumption would be YES, that you always heal/restore a unit to its original point. So if I had 4 greatswords in it and lost them, I can always get those models back. You simply restore the unit to its original composition.

Technically even armies with high leadership could be removed easily, as we can easily modify leadership to such extremes as -8. So even bravery 10 would be a mere 2 at that point.

Add a horrorghast endless spell for another -2 ld. Yes we can really easily bomb the leadership. But like you say a lot of armies ignore it, and the horde armies will make sure their important big blocks will be immune as well to it. What I'm disappointed with the most is that the mortek crawler special shot works on unmodified bravery! Wouldn't it be nice if it instead combod with all our leadership debuffs, be a valid tactic. Zero synergy!