dmorley21

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.

More list talk... a Nighthaunt player finished 11th at NOVA with this list: Harrow w/ midnight time KoSoES w/ balefire blade 2 Torments Reikenor 3 x 10 Chainrasp Horde 1 x 30 Grimghast Reapers 2 x 10 Bladeghesit Revenants 2 x 5 Bladegheist Revenants 1 x 4 Myrmourn Banshess Shroudguard What are everyone's thoughts on that list? It's not for me, but I really like the list design apart from the artefacts. Having one big block as a threat to draw fire/attention from your smaller units seems like it could be worthwhile.

For Nighthaunt, the essential hero is a Dreadblade Harrow. Just about everyone makes him their general. After that, it boils down to what you want to do. Reikenor is needed for endless spells. Guardians and Spirit Torments are kind of swiss army knives. Lady O, Kurdoss, and the two knights of shrouds each have their purpose. Typically, people don't take Wraiths, Tomb Banshees, or Lord Executioners. For core units, you'll need some Chainrasps. Even if you just take a couple units of 10, they're good screens/objective holders. But they're our cheapest unit by far and are used to some degree in most lists. Other than that, the only unit that truly doesn't get taken are Glaivewraith Stalkers. They're expensive and anything you can do with them you can do better with another unit. Every other unit has their fans. As for the behemoths, both are overpriced. The Black Coach does a lot as it goes up in levels, but it really doesn't add up to much. The Mourngul has a nice aura, but it's hard to justify the points. A typical 2k force will include 4-6 heroes and then a combination of units. Running full hordes can be detrimental for NH as it limits the chances for rolling a Wave of Terror, plus the more units you have, the more than can be hidden in the underworld. Hope that helps!

The smiling faces of the infantry remind me of samurai oni masks... I'm guessing that was intentional. I also think a different paint scheme might be better for this army... I love the look of the one painted black on the mortarch's base. That scheme might help the basic infantry.

Totally understand, but thanks for the write up! Hearing information like that really helps. How big are your units or Condemned Rasps? Just 20?

I wish AoS Conquest was available in the US.

@punkycloud Awesome to hear and congrats on doing so well! I'd love to read a more detailed write up if you get a chance. List/tactics/quick game summaries. It's always good to hear about NH having some success! My biggest question is how you spend your CP. Between teleporting and fishing for WoT, and the +1 attacks, that seems pretty CP heavy. Also, besides Condemned Chainrasps, what made up your main forces?

A Nighthaunt player went 3-2 and finished 20th at EGGS. Anyone know the list/playstyle used?

I mean in the Nighthaunt battletome there's a blurb about how some Nighthaunt still oppose Nagash. Some were released underwater by some IDK.

@Tropical Ghost General I haven't played against Gloomspite yet, but it seems like they have very different builds. I've seen grot hordes, squiggles based forces, endless spell spamming lists, and troggoth lists. If a list is running one massive unit of grots, I'd recommend a Death Stalkers battalion and a KoS on foot with Pendnant of the Fell Wind. You could then have Reapers hitting on 2's and wounding on 2's against your chosen unit with re-rolls to hit. So it won't hurt as much with their to hit modifiers. Bravery shenanigans is another option as others mentioned. Tomb Banshees, Olynder, Mourngul, Endless Spells... there's options there. Minimum sized units could be used to hero hunt. You could also run a magic heavy list. Take Arkhan as an ally. Reikenor. Olynder. A Guardian with Wychlight Lantern. Sending a Purple Sun at a unit of 60 grots seems like it could be fun. Just some ideas from someone who hasn't faced them.

Yeesh, I have definitely been playing the re-rolls wrong. Was that in a FAQ? This is where the game has serious rule bloat and could use a simplification. As for the other options, I guess it boils down to intent. I've never used Olynder or Kurdoss as I haven't seen them being worth it on paper, which is why I'm curious to hear how you're using them. Does Olynder get off spells without having any modifiers to her casting? Does she survive to cause the mortals? Is Kurdoss a better assassin than 10 Blades/10 Harridans/8 Myrmourns/5 Hexwraiths?

@Tropical Ghost General Great analysis. Thanks. I wish ethereal saves could be used against regular wounds or mortals. I didn't realize that Reapers don't re-roll 4's when they're -1 to hit. How did you feel about taking all 3 special characters? That seems like a major point sink to me that I can't justify.

@Tropical Ghost General You mentioned you took a fluffy list. Do you think you would have done better with a more optimized list?

Oddly, I haven't actually seen many lists like what you mention apart from what I ran (60 Reapers in Death Stalkers), but I've never played in a tournament. The bottom line is that Nighthaunt are not a competitive tournament army, so if you want to try for top 10 don't take them. The key to a good list with them is maximizing their stellar movement and Wave of Terror abilities. Many of us are starting to think that means lots of minimum sized units.

A question has come up for me now that I'm looking at breaking up my two units of 30 Reapers into smaller ones... do units of Reapers need to have an Extoller of Shyish (bell ringer)?

I bought 60 Reapers just because I love the look of them. I play Nighthaunt, not LoN, and was running them in a battalion. They're a great unit, look really cool (I don't put in their heads), are battleline, and fit the lore of my army. I get that power gaming is not cool, but there's reasons why someone might buy a lot of a certain unit.

For me, Chainrasps don't hit hard enough to make an entire army out of them. And when talking about optimizing the army, I don't think a force of just them does that either. The only warscroll in our army that can be the entire army (apart from heroes) is Reapers IMO and even then it's far from optimized.

Yeah, that's a great point. Even without the horde discount they are pretty cheap and I think we underuse them as a community based on what I read on here and on Facebook. I get it - they're not a fun choice but I really think having a good number of them allows our other units to be more effective at specific tasks.