dmorley21

New battalions and possibly a new hero? Sounds like it's time to wishlist! I doubt it will happen, but my hope for the hero would just be re-releasing the limited edition Guardian of Souls and having a warscroll for the mortality glass be legal in matched play. It's a better model and would add to the army. As for battalions, there's a lot of great options. Just some quick thoughts: One with Reikenor, a Cairn Wraith, and Grimghast Reapers that changes "Reap Like Corn" to re-roll hits against all opponents. One that takes a hero and a unit and gives the ability from Cities of Sigmar and Necromancers that would allow the wound directed at the character to be allocated to a model from the unit instead. Anything that would include Lady Olynder. A different battalion for Myrmourns, Harridans, and Tomb Banshees since so much is immune to battleshock these days. What I fear is that the battalions will be for Legion of Grief and not Nighthaunt.

Via the Facebook Nighthaunt Age of Sigmar, it looks like next month's White Dwarf will indeed feature Nighthaunt as there's a photo of some Nighthaunt. What supplemental information/rules is usually in White Dwarf? I haven't bought a magazine in over a decade.

What's your scheme here?

Hey everyone, I have a quick question that came up over the weekend. I had been playing under the assumption that only the general of the army could use the "Spectral Summons" command ability. A different player told me I was mistaken, and that any hero can use that ability since it never mentions it has to be used by the general. I did some digging and couldn't find any evidence in the books that it had to be the general. So, can any hero use Spectral Summons or just your general? And where is that information located? Thanks!

This is the one that gets me. Such a better model too.

Along with Myrmourn Banshees and non-max Bladegheists, they are NH's most expensive non-hero/behemoth unit per wound. So, maybe they can be effective with the right strategy, but you really got to make them count.

Okay, your first one led me to an idea. The way I look at the lore, now that Olynder is leading the Legion of Grief, Nighthaunt are actually almost more like FEC or an order of Destruction and I don't think that works for Stormhosts. But you could say your ghosts come from a certain realm and that could give them an additional special rule. I'd be down with that.

Nope. The next update will be GHB 2020 with point changes. Since all armies will hopefully have books by then, maybe NH will get a little rules update in there like a new battalion. That's about the best case scenario though. @Neck-Romantic As for your ideas, I just don't think chambers work for NH, just like I don't think faction terrain works for them. I'd say for overall rules, get rid of Feed on Terror and give it to LoG. Then update Wave of Terror to Waves of Terror: Enemy units within 6" of a friendly NH unit are minus 1 bravery. A NH unit that had a successful charge this turn gets to fight at the start of the combat phase. A unit that rolls an unmodified 10+ gets to fight right away and again at the start of the combat phase. I don't think this would be overpowered because it's an ability that can be played against with screens and counter charges. Most other abilities that are always fight first can't be stopped. Overall though, I think revised warscrolls would make the biggest difference.

For me, the reason for using him was because Soul Cage, Shademist, and particularly Grief Stricken were such great spells. Him casting Grief Stricken on a 5 is so much better than Olynder only getting it off half the time... before unbinding roles. You bring up a good point though, one that I still struggle with when list building, which is competitive NH lists (at least as competitive as they get) can only really have one specialist thing going on in the list. You can run a battalion, sure, and there's some good ones. Or you can give Olynder a whirl. Or you can run Reikenor+Cogs+other endless spells. Or you can run a Mourngul. None of it is that obvious though and all of it makes you need to spend the rest of your points on our expensive troops (Chainrasps being the exception... I wish I had invested in those!).

I saw someone mention that somewhere else and it's not a bad idea though it would be weird if playing against the actual spell. I've been thinking about putting a Mourngul in my army. Yep, saw that. Makes sense as Kurdoss was probably not a top seller. From that perspective, I'd guess a unit of Harridans are in the box. Probably Stalkers too since they're in pretty much every box.

More generally, at 2000 pts, has anyone had success using Gotrek? I've thought about using him to start a cheap second army as he's reasonable from a money for points department and he's the original character that got me into Warhammer way back, but would like a fun army to play. I just haven't seen him in lists at all.

No, as the GHB 2019 came out after the published rules for the mortality glass.

So Arkhan got a new warscroll and can no longer cast the spells of friendly death wizards. I had been thinking about buying him to run him with Olynder... glad I didn't now.

So there's a rumor that Nighthaunt might be getting a battleforce box this year. Any thoughts about what might be in it?

I honestly rarely saw Nighthaunt armies doing this besides me... and I did it just because I love the Reapers models and that's why I chose the army. I think Blades have always been popular for NH. The problem with Harridans and Stalkers for that matter is the lack of a role. They're worse versions of things NH already has. They should have been written to have different playstyles.

I feel like Legions of Nagash was a starting point for Death and eventually the grand alliance will become Legions of Nagash or Grand Host of Nagash. Since 2.0 dropped, they've released Nighthaunt, Flesh-Eater Courts, Legion of Grief and now have Bonereapers. Along with Gloomspite and Stormcast, NH and Bonereapers are the two biggest releases in that time in terms of models. As far as competitively, NH was a miss while FEC was a hit, though NH did make Legions better. You could easily argue that Grief has overperformed for being an expansion and not a fleshed out faction. I think Death will then get at least one more faction (vampire focused), but could also see a faction merging sacrament and deathwalkers as a necromancy focused faction. I could even see other factions allying with Nagash if he becomes a true power... especially factions that already worship death/murder but also hate chaos. So I think Death will become Legions of Nagash and by 3.0 will be a diverse grand alliance. I am curious about what happens to Nighthaunt in the future. Will their next book turn them into Legion of Grief with that playstyle? Will there be two distinct factions like there is now? My pie in the sky would be separate books for Grief as a Legion of Nagash led by Olynder while some spirits slip away from Nagash and become a force of Destruction.

@Tropical Ghost General This is probably because I come from WHFB, but ghosts with battleshock immunity just seems wrong. That's them fading away. If the battalions all dropped to around a 100 pts +/- 10 I think they would be dynamite. Death Riders, Condemned, Death Stalkers, and Shrieker Host all have awesome rules but suffer from the battalion cost on top of the units you don't want tax. Point drops can fix a lot of issues for this army, and realistically is all we're getting for several years. However, pie in the sky, I'd suggest: Wave of Terror being changed to units that charge get to fight at the beginning of combat, units that get 10+ do what they do now and fight again at the beginning of combat. Lady O, Kurdoss, and Reikenor go up in wounds. Reikenor get two spells. Black Coach be a hero. Lord Executioner do a flat 3 damage but lower attacks. Stalkers be re-written to always have the Death Stalkers battalion special rules. Also make them two wounds... they're two souls (rider and steed) merged into one. Harridans become tanky units. Nagash wants them to stay alive to see the damage they cause, so it fits their fluff. I'd recommend a 4+/4+ over two wounds. Myrmourns gain an attack and/or have two wounds. Change the wording on reap like corn to re-roll hits. Give Hexwraiths reap like corn.

Yeah... it's really curious about how lacking NH representation is. They just don't get played. I'm also surprised at how LoN has disappeared.

Honestly, NH were never a strong faction competitively... even when the book came out. The activation wars and amount of mortal wounds since then have only made things worse along with losing access to the mortality glass wielding Guardian of Souls (I still would love to know the backstory there). Still, NH simply don't appear at major events, and if they do it's not top players and it's not a competitive list. I haven't played top lists, but have found success against my opponents by using the Death Stalkers battalion. I've heard from others having success with the Death Riders battalion... some even running it as two battalions. I've seen one top player run a magic heavy list with Arkhan/Lady O/Reikenor/GoS and have success by doing combos of Grief Stricken/Soul Cage/Shademist to neutralize or delete one opposing unit a turn. The MSU lists seem to have some potential. Then there's Legion of Grief, which has had some success competitively. Being able to revive units of Myrmourns/Reapers/Bladegheists or bravery bomb for Tomb Banshees and Harridans seems successful. So, I wouldn't give up on the faction.

With the recent big events, has anyone been having success with Gotrek? It seemed like a lot of people were concerned, but I'm not sure what army he makes better.

Discussion has really dried up in this thread. However, what do we think about the new Bonesplitterz build that can ignore ethereal? I've never played Bonesplitterz, so I'm curious to hear the thoughts of others.

Hey everyone. So I went to play my first game at a local store today (I have only previously played with friends before at homes before) and turns out what I thought was a drop-in event was actually a one day tournament. So I played my first tournament! Wow, did I learn a lot! I finished 2-1 and the third game came down to where the main objective on shifting objectives ended up. Here's a write up: First, the armies were 1500 points. This made me really just throw a list together without a lot of time to think about it as I've only built 1000 and 2000 pt lists before. The scoring was 6 pts for a major victory, 4 pts for a minor, 3 for a draw, 1 for a lost, and 2 for each hidden objective you got. I really struggled grabbing the hidden objectives so I finished 7th out of 10 despite my record. My list was: Harrow (general, RotSH, aetherquartz brooch, soul cage) Reikenor Guardian of Souls (shademist, pendant of the fell wind) Cairn Wraith 30 Reapers 10 Reapers 4 Stalkers 4 Stalkers 10 Chainrasp Horde 10 Chainrasp Horde Command Point Death Stalkers battalion My first game was total commitment against Dispossessed. He had 30 Ironbreakers (IB), 10 IB, 20 Irondrakes (ID), 20 ID and some heroes. He castled on his objectives and teleported a unit of 20 Irondrakes to try to take on of mine. I didn't know he could do that, but I was able prevent the Irondrakes from taking my objective using the Harrow and his teleport/summon combo. I ignored his castle on one of the objectives and launched my unit of 30 Reapers into an Ironbreaker castle on the other objective. I had soul marked the Ironbreakers and while I never destroyed the whole unit, I was able to reduce them so that I started claiming his objective. This was definitely a learning game for me and probably should have been a lot easier. I ended up winning 16-14 and didn't get either of my secondaries (destroy his biggest unit and take 50% of his army's points). My second game was against Skaven playing relocation orb. Based on what I know, it was a weaker Skaven list. 2x40 Clanrats, Thanquol Boneripper, 2 Warp Lightning Cannons, a Grey Seer, an Engineer, and a fighty hero. I put my entire battalion in the underworld, and gave him first turn. He scored the objective and I tried to deepstrike into his back line to kill his wizard heroes because that was one of my secondaries. This failed and I quickly lost my Harrow, 10 Chainrasp, and Wraith. My 10 Reapers I deep struck and charged into his unit of Clanrats that had taken the objective. They had been soul marked, I ended up killing eighteen and was able to take the objective. I also deep struck a unit of Stalkers to block a second gnawhole. I gave him first turn on turn two and the objective moved out of his reach. He killed the rest of my unit of 10 Reapers. On my turn I was able to deepstrike my other unit of Stalkers onto the objective. He won the third turn and decided to go first and took the objective. I put my 30 Reapers around my GoS with Pendant of the Fell Wind and just waited for turn 4 to see where the objective would go. It went back toward the middle of the board and I charged my Reapers, Reikenor, and remaining Chainrasps into what remained of his Clanrats and smaller heroes was able to keep it. I was able to avoid combat with Thanquol the whole game, but he did light me up with shooting and magic a few times. Overall I felt better about this game and felt like apart from a failed attempt at taking out the wizards for a secondary, I did pretty well. The third game was against Slaanesh... but no Keepers. Two units of 20 deamonettes in a battalion and two units of 10 Striders with some heroes. I really played poorly this game and almost got tabled by the end of turn 3 (that's where we ran out of time). Still, it did come down to where the main objective ended up on our final turn. I say I played poorly because I could have easily won this game had I hidden my Harrow better and deep struck on turn one into his daemonettes (destroying one of his units before he destroyed one of mine would have given me a secondary). A few overall thoughts: I never used Ruler of the Spirit Hosts or Spectral Lure - there really wasn't an opportunity. The Dreadblade Harrow, Pendant of the Fell Wind, and Reapers were the MVPs. My spells never did anything. The Death Stalkers battalion is hit or miss depending on the opponent and whether or not there's an obvious unit to soul mark, but it really chews through whatever it soul marks. The Stalkers were actually good at deep striking onto objectives and blocking the gnaw holes and the Wraith did some damage with its frightful touch, but they remain an additional tax for the Death Stalkers battalion. Command Points were essential for me, and it's important to always have one back to do the Harrow combo. But fishing for Wave of Terror was very effective. Reikenor was able to clear chaff units trying to grab objectives, but I never had the opportunity to cast Soul Cage. Finally, there were a lot of instances where I wished I had a Shrieker Host battalion and could block Inspiring Presence and make my opponent re-roll 1's for the battleshock test. Overall though, as we all know, this army is all about the movement shenanigans. A Harrow as your general and a hero with Pendant of the Fell Wind are essentials IMO. Missions with moving objectives or main objectives are really fun to play as Nighthaunt even though I got outmaneuvered by Slaanesh.

As someone else pointed out, that army idea came from a White Dwarf. However, I do think GW will make an army like this. They could also make them sky pirates. Lore wise, I could see Nagash wanting a faction to hunt Deepkin as they keep stealing souls.

I have no idea; I simply saw the thread in another list and thought it merited discussion here. Another list I saw on Twitter being run by Mike Wilson (who is a really good AoS player from the UK scene from what I gather - I'm a newbie in the US) had some success at a small one day tournament. This one featured Arkhan, Lady O, Reikenor, a GoS, a ST, 2 x 10 Chainrasps, 1 x 20 Reapers, and 2 x 10 Bladegheists. I had not looked at Arkhan too closely before and didn't realize he could cast other wizards' spells and extend the range. It seems like the strategy in that list was to use a combo of Grief Stricken, Shademist, and Soul Cage to soften up a unit for the Reapers and/or Blades. I also wonder if NH could run a strong endless spell spam list. Arkhan with two +2 casts, Reikenor with one +3, and a wychlight lantern GoS with one +1 cast could easily pump out four endless spells. In that scenario, I'd opt for Purple Sun, Aethervoid Pendulum, Geminids, and Quicksilver Swords probably for maximum carnage. I've only used Cogs before... has anyone ever tried endless spells spam with NH? Being able to hide units in the underworld could really make it interesting IMO.

I'm not a fan of the Bladegheist models, so I don't plan to buy more than the 10 I already have. However, their mobility with the retreat and charge is really good. I always take Pendant of the Fell Wind. The movement bonus just really amps up the mobility of our army, and can win games. So I'd take that over the blade. Midnight Tome is great and is a solid option as a second artefact. That, Aetherquartz Brooch, and the Guardian Lanterns are all good options. However, I think overall the list is great and it did really well at NOVA. I'll definitely be borrowing some ideas from it.