Wraith

Also Be’lakor and Alarielle were rivals in the end times. Maybe we will find out now how Be’lakor escaped the ruby Alarielle trapped him in? Anyway, no love lost between those two. Will Sylvaneth get new Karnothi units along the lines of the new hero in Cursed City? Be’lakor will get a new warscroll for his new, bigger model. Will his daemon legion get an update too?

So, umm, just looking at Belakor's new model. I guess he will get a new war scroll with more than 8 wounds. Will he keep his 'The Dark Master' ability?

Myrmourn Banshees are comparable to Wanderer rangers. Fragile but able to bring down monsters with their D3 -2 rend attacks. The unbinding bit is just a bonus that gets you extra attacks and prevents spells taking effect. The Harridans are a bit of a tax in the Shrieker Host. But in minimum sized units I think they can still be useful as speed bumps and screening units. With the fancier NH builds, which involve the ladies from the grave, one has to take a more elvish approach, I feel. It’s not a muscular build but rather more a ability focused build. To make it work requires a good deal of knowledge of what the rules are for this army and what the rules for opposing armies are and which abilities to use against which opposing units and when to do so. And of course making intelligent use of the Underworld deployment ability. A feminine build won’t absorb a lot of punishment, thus won’t cope well with mistakes and therefore can’t be considered a forgiving list. With practice and much thought, your wife could have a very powerful list. But it isn’t the easiest army to succeed with. Well, unless you understand how to use it. Then it would be quite easy to win. Much like Eldar in 40k. Edit: I forgot to add, it is the hero’s in elven builds that do the damage.

I see five options: 1/ use them for painting practice 2/ use stalkers and a spare cairn wraith as ‘counts as’ reapers to make a unit of 10 3/ use 3 of the reapers as ‘counts as’ stalkers to make a unit of 8 4/ convert the reapers into chainghasts 5/ all of the above

One of my other expensive hobbies (I have a few of them) is model railroading. A tip I learnt with that pursuit was the value of a pin vice and some brass wire for making strong joints. Even a few mm of brass wire will make a joint much stronger then glue alone. I drill one hole, glue in a short length of wire with only a mm or two sticking out. Cut the wire after gluing it as short lengths are very fiddly. Once the glue has cured (leave it an hour or so to be sure), rub pencil lead on the tip of the wire to mark the matching face of the joint and drill. Then just glue the pieces together. Small clamps, even clothes pegs, can be handy. I think this model needs addition support. Possibly a clear rod or more brass wire (at least 0.5mm) might do. Anyway, once I get one myself, I’ll figure something out. Edit: after a look at the model an idea occurred to me. If a scenery pice, say a suitably sized tombstone, was added to the base behind the second tendril of garment, the one trailing but not touching the base, it could be attached to the scenery feature. That should double the strength of support without having to use unsightly rods going up into the model.

I’ve been thinking about that for the last week or two. What is the point of glaivewraith stalkers? I have come to the conclusion that they are a training unit. When one thinks about it, the new Nighthaunt assault builds aren’t going to be simple to use. It will take a lot of finesse to get the most out of the retreat/charge along with the new pile in rules and allegiance abilities. There is serious advantages to be had from extra movement and engaging key units when they don’t want to be engaged. Only practice and getting used to the idea of high tempo assaults will bring satisfactory results. I can see a lot of people with new NH armies getting tabled because they expect the stat lines to carry the day. They never do. The new NH is an aggressive army but it is also an army that needs thought each turn to get it to work. Practice and experience makes it easier. So the glaivewraith stalkers are there to use in small games while one gets the hang of how the new NH work.

Well, you might be right that the ‘rasp’s and doggies will be ignored. After all, your opponent will have Arkan, a VLoZD and a Mourngul to worry about. But what is the overall strategy? The way I look at it, there are 3 basic builds: resilience threat overload sneeky Resilience is the most forgiving. The idea is that your army can take a beating in the first half of the game and then rack up the victory points when the opposing army runs out of steam. The strategy is to outlast the opponent. Threat overload is much more aggressive and aims to present the opponent with more threats than he can handle at once. Victory is achieved in the first half of the game by causing damage at a rate the other guy can’t recover from. These tend to be fast armies with big nasty stuff. But mistakes can cost the game. Finally, the sneaky armies which have tricks to prevent the enemy army from functioning, and then surgically take the opponent’s army apart. Takes lots of experience to pull it off. So there are some examples of overall strategy. Which is best depends on which play style suits your temperament. A resilience ‘rasp list might be built around 120 rasps and plenty of small hero’s to regenerate them. In a threat overload or sneaky build, only 40 rasps would be enough to fill the high model count unit role. They are actually good for this role because they are cheap but still relatively mobile. When all is said and done, every list is ok. It is practice that really makes the difference. The interesting thing about your list is the combination of VLoZD and Mourngul. I am interested to hear how that works out.

How do you plan to play the list? With a VLoZD and a Mourngul, surely you’d want to attack with those two. Arkan is a good distraction that you could try to keep just out of reach. The Spirit Torment is good support for the Mourngul. The necromancer would want to hide behind the ‘rasps and support them. But do you need two high model count units? Maybe you need more fast stuff to attack with beside the VLoZD and Mourngul? You could replace one unit of ‘rasps with 4x5 Dire doggies or 3x2 bats for mobility plus board control. Or drop the endless spells as well and add a terrorgheist to get total threat overload.

Yes, that is right. Generally, we want one high model count unit for those missions needing them to take an objective. Reapers are a fine choice for that role.

1. Given you already have a decent collection, I’d say no. You probably don’t need two starter sets. 2. Guardian of Souls and Spirit Torments. It would be nice to have two of each, though we might not use them all the time. 3. All useful. Hexwraiths especially. You could get the new Black Coach and the Dreadblade Harrows when they are released and you’d have the Deathrider battalion. The rest are all good to have too. Given the starter set has only 4 Grimghasts reapers, you could use the cairnwraith and stalkers as ‘counts as’ models to give a full 10 Grimghasts to experiment with. I think you have a nice collection to use while finding out what works.

I would say yes, allies will benefit from your graveyards. See Legions of Nagash, designers notes, 3rd question “can opposing LoN armies use each other’s graves”. Answer: yes. Given enemy death units can use your graves, surely your own allies can too. Should be FAQed to be sure. @RuneBrush what is your opinion of that?

Hmm, the new warscroll builder works. Allegiance: Legion of SacramentMortal Realm: ShyishLeadersNecromancer (110)- General- Trait: Mastery of Death - Lore of the Deathmages: Overwhelming DreadNecromancer (110)- Lore of the Deathmages: Overwhelming DreadNecromancer (110)- Lore of the Deathmages: Fading VigourVampire Lord (140)- Mount: Nightmare- Lore of the Vampires: Vile TransferenceVampire Lord (140)- Mount: Flying Horror- Artefact: Black Gem - Lore of the Vampires: Amaranthine OrbCairn Wraith (60)Battleline10 x Dire Wolves (120)10 x Dire Wolves (120)10 x Dire Wolves (120)40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)- Ancient Spears60 x Zombies (320)Units2 x Bat Swarms (80)2 x Bat Swarms (80)2 x Bat Swarms (80)1 x Corpse Cart (80)Total: 1950 / 2000Extra Command Points: 1Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 225

That looks good. I think the Calvary list is going to be one of the better builds. what about combining the deathriders with shroudguard? So something like this: Shroudguard lord of shrouds on horse 2x bladeghasts Deathriders 2x dreadblade harrows 4x heaxwraiths black coach You will need points for extra command points. Being an alpha strike army, having command points in the first turn is important. You get two for the battalions but more would be useful. Build is low on wizards. I think the general trait and artefact are still there to make hero’s into wizards. Maybe add the dude on the flying horse to make a three drop list? Three artefacts with this list. Pennant of course. The mini gaming review mentioned a select your victim artefact that will be handy. And a wizard artefact. happy play testing.

Deathrider battalion. 1-2 Dreadblade Harrows 2 (or more?) Hexwraith units 1 Black Coach You get to fight immediately if you roll 9 or better on your charge. This is an improved version of one of the new allegiance abilities (usually on roll of 10). You still get your normal fight phase later in the turn. Also +1 to charge but above ability only kicks in on unmodified roll. The reviewers also mentioned something about coming on from reserves. The Black Coach is nasty enough without all of this. It can retreat and charge. Edit: minimum 830 points

Mininwargaming review goes into more detail. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0UcahYl6HKY There are 6 allegiance abilities now. Two are the updated minions and deepstrike. You get a spell lore, battalions are OK. Calvary battalion might turn out to be particularly nasty. Also video looks at command traits, artefacts, etc.

Yeah, I was surprised by that too. Oddly, the black knights and Hexwraiths boxes were discontinued on the Australian site last week. Now the Hexwraiths are back on pre-order. Appear to be exactly the same sprues.

Sure, you’ll get more than 10 in range. The idea is to go after the biggest unit in the opposing army so they can get their reroll. And you want them to hang around, so 30 with leave you with useful numbers after causalities. The GoS can heal them up. The Spirit Torment and Banshees make a nice team for taking on tough targets, The Chainrasps are just there to block and give cover to the heros. Their main claim to fame is being cheap. You could go the Hexwraiths and Lord of Shrouds on steed. But then maybe you should go 2 units of 5 and drop the Grimghasts. Generally you want enough of what does the job rather than a bit of this and a bit of that. To give you an example of what I mean, a friend once ran a Feudal French army (6th ed WRG Ancients) which had a few knights, crossbow men, men at arms, etc. But not enough of anything to develop effective effort for any plan, defensive or offensive. So he gave up on that army idea and used his figures to form a Sicilian Norman army, built around knights and turcopoles (horse archers). The turcopoles screened the knights and the knights charged home in sufficient numbers to make a difference. Worked quite well. A balanced army isn’t about a bit of this and a bit of that. It has troops that complement each other around a certain game plan. So decide how you think you might win and try to build around enough of whichever troops suit that plan. In terms of Nighthaunts, to me they look like an aggressive army which goes straight into the attack. In fact most death armies are like that. No ranged attacks. But, despite GW blurb, it doesn’t as suitable for a board control/ long game plan compared to LoN armies. It doesn’t have the high wound count combined with extensive resurrection. Basically you want to build around the idea of getting in there and do lots of damage. Spirit Hosts and Grimghasts are both good at this so build around them.

What about this for 1250 points: MoGrief 240 Guardian of Souls 140 Spirit Torment 120 20 Chainrasps 160 - battleline 30 Grimghasts 360 - battleline 12 M. Banshees 210 Endless Spell 20 So you got 4 dispels in there. A bit of healing. Decent sized units. Some good damage output. What do you think.

It is certainly handy being able to heal in the opponent’s turn. And the Spirit Torment can heal any NH unit, not just summonable units. It is particularly good when having to endure an opponent’s double turn rather than having to wait for one’s own next hero phase, when most healing abilities can activate. Just need a decent sized unit or two of Grimghast Reapers to provide a steady supply of souls to charge up the Spirit Torment.

A question about the Spirit Torment capture soul energy ability. The wording says ‘start of the battleshock phase’. Would that be in both one’s own and also in the opponent’s battleshock phase?

Maybe I should make one of the necromancers as the general? With -1 from the bats, -1 from the new hero targeting rule and their 4+ wound hand off rule, it would take a lot of shooting to get him. I want the general to have the Master of Death trait so the zombies get some extra movement. Having a necromancer as general would free up the Vampires to move around away from the zombies, given the general has to stay close to the zombies to grant the extra movement. I’d like to split up one of the units of doggies also. Lots of small units of doggies have more chance of charging stuff and can spread out. What if I replaced one necromancer with a Cairn Wraith? The Cairn Wraith would give some protection to the necromancers from being charged. But at the cost of one wound, one spell and 2D3 resurrection. So the list would look like this: Necromancer (general, mastery of death) 2x Vampire Lords (steeds or wings) 2x Necromancers 1x Cairn Wraith 1x Corpse Cart 1x 60 Zombies 1x 30 Dire Doggies 6x 5 Dire Doggies 3x 2 Bat Swarms 1990 points. 245 wounds. I think 5 spells to caste is still enough to caste the needed spells and still have enough casting attempts to take over the opponent’s endless spells. On the table, the bats and MSU doggies, supported by vampires, move forward to disrupt the opposing army. Zombies, necromancers, wraith and corpse cart would to engage the centre. The large unit of doggies follows up as reserve and basically occupies space.

The Legion of Sacrement seems to have a lot of potiential list build suggestions. Here’s what I’m thinking about: Vampire Lord (general, steed) Vampire Lord (wings) 4x Necromancers 1x Corpse Cart 1x 60 Zombies 2x 30 Dire Doggies 3x 2 Bat Swarms 2000 pnts. 246 wounds. The idea here is to emphasis resilience and board control. What do you think?