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Warhammer Weekly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8DPDQJS-88 Watch it. It's the first truly "I'm not making hot takes against Nighthaunt because that makes me cool" review, and I appreciate it.

It's out. Can go get it right now.

Yeah, I wish the site got the donations it needs to stay up all the time.

The strat is designed for you to get off the objective once you claimed it. One of the strategies I've detailed before for both 2.0 and 3.0 is that once an objective is claimed it's yours unless the battle plan itself says otherwise. So you can claim an objective and then leave it completely and it'll still be yours until the enemy comes for it. And they can't if you lock them down. So, for example, if you were playing Grieving Legion, deployed in such a way that you claimed your objectives either on turn start or after your movement, and then charged with everything leaving 100% of your objectives empty but also trying up 100% of the opponent further than 6" from the objectives, and then never let them go, you win. Not only the points, but the strat. In the same vein, you still win even if you get wiped from the board in totality, with not a single model remaining, but gained so many points that your opponent can't make up the difference even when you can't stop them anymore. Check the battle plan before trying this, though.

Turns out I didn't have to. I faced two opponents and beat both by round two. I made some changes to that list before I used it. List as follows: - Army Faction: Nighthaunt - Subfaction: The Scarlet Doom - Grand Strategy: Hold the Line - Triumph: Indomitable LEADERS Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (155)* - Artefacts of Power: Pendant of the Fell Wind Spirit Torment (115)* - General - Command Traits: Cloaked in Shadow Guardian of Souls (150)* - Artefacts of Power: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon - Spells: Shademist Lady Olynder (340)*** - Spells: Seal of Shyish BATTLELINE Grimghast Reapers (160) Bladegheist Revenants (350)** Bladegheist Revenants (175)** Bladegheist Revenants (175)** Chainrasps (110)*** OTHER Myrmourn Banshees (105)*** Chainghasts (95)*** ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60) CORE BATTALIONS - *Command Entourage - **Hunters of the Heartlands - ***Vanguard TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000 Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App First game was against Sylvaneth. I won deployment but gave up the first turn. I had deployed aggressively with my only objective being to swarm two of the three objectives. I did just that and decimated the enemy units on the charge. I charged with heroes first to stack WoT procs, then Bladegheists for the mortals. My opponent managed to limp through battleshock, but conceded when I won the double turn. Second game was against Stormcast with their new elite subfaction that makes each model count for like 5 when contesting objectives. Same aggression with my deployment but for three of the four objectives that this map had. Lost priority on the drop and was made to go second. My opponent claimed all objectives in the first turn, which put him in charge range for my turn. I stacked several -saves and a lot of -hits, a couple petrifies, my opponent conceded before battleshock.

Hmmm.... - Army Faction: Nighthaunt - Subfaction: The Scarlet Doom - Grand Strategy: Hold the Line - Triumph: Indomitable LEADERS Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (155)* - Artefacts of Power: Pendant of the Fell Wind Spirit Torment (115)* - General - Command Traits: Cloaked in Shadow Guardian of Souls (150)* - Artefacts of Power: Lightshard of the Harvest Moon - Spells: Shademist Lady Olynder (340)*** - Spells: Seal of Shyish BATTLELINE Bladegheist Revenants (175)** Bladegheist Revenants (175)** Bladegheist Revenants (175)** Chainrasps (110)*** BEHEMOTH Black Coach (335) - Reaper Scythe OTHER Myrmourn Banshees (105)*** Chainghasts (95)*** ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Emerald Lifeswarm (60) CORE BATTALIONS - *Command Entourage - **Hunters of the Heartlands - ***Vanguard TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000 Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

The first misconception is that all of the unit of Bladegheists will swing at the enemy. With one inch weapon range and the need to be within 1" of two other models of the same unit if there are more than 5, then you'll quickly see that the actual amount of dice you're rolling becomes reduced. The Reapers have the same issue, but with their 2" ranged weapons the Reapers behind the models touching your target will still be in range, increasing the overall amount of dice you'll throw. This is what we mean by saying "they can attack in two ranks," which means that even the guys in the back can attack over the guys in front. Our Chainrasps can do that too. Despite their weapons only being 1", the Chainrasp base is less than 1" and thus not wide enough to prevent the second rank from attacking. The second misconception is the scenario. Data such as the enemy save characteristic, their base size, their number, their damage output all matter. Reapers in our old book excelled at attacking other horde units. In our new book that's slightly less so, but now depends on the subfaction you use. For example, there won't be much that can match the damage potential of Bladegheists in the Scarlet Doom subfaction, but if you wanted to play any of the others the differences start favoring Reapers again. And lastly, this is a dice game, and so be a bit wary of sticking hard to the math. Yes, you can literally figure out the probabilities, but the internal balance of the new book is aimed at allowing you to select units you prefer over what you're expected to take based solely on math. And, as is often the case when you deal with math hammer, is that the probabilities will betray you. Hedge your bets, but don't over invest.

And he'd still kick their ass. Dat quill tho

If I know I'm going to go up against an army that is wholly dependant on their heroes like we were in our last book, I'd go Emerald Host every time, with a Scriptor Mortis as a cherry on top. Can you imagine what 3.0 Nighthaunt would do to 2.0 Nighthaunt like that? But then again, Quicksilver Dead would dismantle 2.0 Nighthaunt, too. So would Grieving Legion. Well, I mean, 3.0 NH would table 2.0 NH without any Procession at all and a stiff wind, so I guess that's not a great example.

I always get tripped up by them hiding these in the core book now. I'll edit.

I'll bite. How to deal with shooty armies when given the first turn. You'll be able to use Vanishing Phantasms to pick up to 3 units and stash them in reserve. You've got 3 "end of movement phases" to figure out what to do with them. Deploy specifically to bait your opponent to line up their shooty units in response, and then poof those units away and place them somewhere safer. You'll have your Hero phase, so Shademist and Seal of Shyish are mandatory. Discorporate for a command point when a unit is targeted is also pretty much needed. In terms of damage mitigation, Shademist should result in less wounds overall than the 5+ ward, so that would go on your most important unit, and then delegate as you see fit. They can work in tandem, too, so Shademist and 5+ ward on the same unit is fine if you really need it to survive. You'll also have the option to take an endless spell. Prismatic Palisade is still a solid choice to block line of sight from shooty units. Place it as close as possible to the enemy unit to maximize their blocked field of view. Or, if you worry your heroes or tanky units are going to be damaged, getting a Terminexus out and in heal mode will put wounds back into every multi-wound unit in range. You'll have your movement phase. We move 8 almost army-wide, which means a run of 9-14. If you need to run a unit out of your opponent's move and shoot range, I don't see a problem making that choice as long as you're not in full retreat as an army. Remember that the name of the game is capping objectives and then denying your opponent objectives, so you don't need to camp them in firing range. Get them and then get out, but also don't let your opponent take them over. Charge phase is tricky thanks to Unleash Hell and some army's equivalent abilities. As far as Unleash Hell goes, you can shut it down in a couple of ways. First, if you force a Redeploy command on an enemy unit they cannot also shoot with Unleash Hell, per the FAQs. So if you can bait a unit into that via your movement you have some protection. You can also force your opponent into a bad usage of Unleash Hell by charging the shooty enemy unit with a chaff unit first, and then double up by charging with your killy unit after. Unleash Hell can only be used if the unit receiving the command is NOT within 3" of 2+ enemy units, so if they don't use the CA on your chaff they lose the ability to use it at all. And if they do use it on your chaff, they also lost the choice to use it at all anywhere else that phase. Combat phase is pretty self-explanatory, I think. Kill the unit, or kill it enough for battleshock to do the rest. I feel like the Spirit Torment is an auto-include. It could be argued he is interchangeable with a Guardian of Souls if you are not bringing Chainghasts as a point tax, but I'd counter-argue that the Spirit Torment is uninterruptable. I'd bring two if I expected a lot of casualties. Or a ST and GoS. Basically, I think we kind of need them. I don't agree that MSUs, or minimums in this case, are a bad thing. They are only bad if those units are being focused on, or they are rolling excellently, or you are rolling poorly. When comparing the other 3.0 books, 10-man units should hold up just fine with an occasional reinforcement. When comparing against 2.0 books is where we start feeling like we need to max our our reinforcements. That being said, if you can purposely draw fire against a specific unit or two of yours, then for sure reinforce those and shove them into the face of your enemy, and then MSU the hell out of everything else. And remember to ABC, always be charging. Even with heroes. Especially with heroes. Emerald Host and Scarlet Doom are going to be our "one list-all comers" Processions, as they stand the highest chance of being useful no matter what your opponent brings. However, the other Processions will be more useful if you can tailor them against your opponent or local meta. As always, NH is the techiest of the tech armies. That being said, Emerald Host does chip damage on 2-4 units up to 5 times for 1-3 mortals each or 2-4 if it's a monster. Scarlet Doom, in contrast, will do 0-10+ mortals (depending on unit size) as many times as you can charge, and you can elect new targets for that damage during the course of the game, and you are bringing your native 4attack/3+/3+/-1/1 damage profile along with it. Even our non-combat heroes are still great for this. By charging with your heroes first, you have started the ball rolling on the WoT procs. We still want that 10 at least once, so it's good to have more chances, but even if we don't a fair few -hit will make it easier to keep those heroes alive, and if you are lucky enough to get a few -saves, well then that unit will hopefully not be around long enough to damage them too much. Also, attack with the most important units first, be they hero or troop. Good opponents tend to wound the units that still have combats left.

Yeah, Grieving Legion would be our technical/tactical Procession for sure. I'd love to run it against a Cities of Sigmar list, or another army that likes to redeploy or has retreat shenanigans. But I also think it's will likely require a high level of chess-like moves in order to really pull it off. I think with effective use it will be our elite procession, but won't be as plug-n-play as the others. I do want to see some sweaty IQ9000 plays with the Procession, though.

If I were to guess at it in this early days of the faction, I'd say we're shifting focus away from heroes and on to troops, and may well be using our hero slots for cheap ones to get WoT procs with. My take on the results coming in so far are pretty much in line with @dmorley21. Though I am more biased against Hammer and Anvil style play, I think he is completely correct that we need a threat unit that's reinforced. Whether we use it as an anvil, or as a distractionary threat unit, we need something that is menacing on the table that can absorb hits. Reapers do seem to be a good pick for this, but so does a unit of Bladegheists in Scarlet Doom. To fit more troop choices electing for cheaper heroes might be the way to go. If their only purpose is to return models and aid in WoT procs, that might be the meta. Big units like Olynder, Kurdoss, or the Black Coach may or may not be just too big of point sinks unless you're using Olynder with Spirit Tether to be a hyper-aggressive nuisance. Lastly, between the Processions, right now I am leaning toward Scarlet Doom as our "all comers" candidate. My reasoning here is that Emerald Host is amazing if you happen to roll 4 Emerald Curses, or maybe 3, but it sharply drops off in usefulness with only 2. The reason being is that the Curse only procs at end of the battleround, so at max 5 times and more likely only 3 or 4. And, it only works as long as your cursed targets are alive and you chose good targets, AND can also not proc at all if you roll a 1, AND ALSO your opponent can defeat the whole thing if they can put your target into reserves after the start of the game. Lots of variables. In contrast Scarlet Doom only asks that you load up on Bladegheists, which most of us would want to do anyway, and keep the units in relatively good health for each charge phase. Yes, you could whiff the rolls, but with 3 or 4 units of BGs charging every turn, the option to point those charges at targets of your choosing as the game unfolds, and that the impact damage doesn't care about how many actually can pile in and attack, I think the damage potential might be in favor for Scarlett Doom. It may just boil down to the opponent army type. If you know or are guessing on facing gods or large single-unit threats, Emerald Host may be the way to go, and in contrast Scarlet Doom for everything else. But, if you are pretty good at misdirection and getting your troops where you want them to be then Scarlet Doom may still be better against those gods and large single-unit threats. Do you want 1-2 mortals spread across the board, or 5-6 focused on a unit or two of your choice (and in range)?

Only got the one game in. 1500 points vs Sylvaneth. My list: Battleplan: Tooth and Nail Result: Opponent conceded at the top of turn 3. Synopsis: Aren't we just a treat now. I deployed with the intent of having one Bladegheist unit with the KoSoES, two Bladegheist units supported by the Spirit Torment with the sleeper meme unit of the Cairn Wraith, and Oynder with the pack of Spirit Hosts. The Chainrasps hung back to camp my starting objective to make sure I never lost it, and the Banshees stayed close to Olynder and the double-pack of Bladegheists . Though my opponent went first and was able to pump up his casts bonus, I effectively shut down any offensive casting he could do thanks to the Banshees. Which was good, because I couldn't roll an unbind worth a damn at all. The Banshees were even better the next turn because I had gotten them close enough that when Durthu as chosen as the target for a trumped up heal spell, they were able to eat it instead. The Bladegheists did respectable damage. The Scarlet Doom buff they got felt like it brought their damage back in line to what it was when they charged with a Spirit Torment/Chainghast combo from our 2nd ed book. I think that's kind of the parallel I'd draw from the procession; if you want the old BG damage this is the Procession for you. With so many units of them and the heroes I had I got off multiple WoT procs and was able to stack them or spread them as I needed. Though I only ever got one Petrify, I got plenty Shrieks and a few Stuns. I don't think any particular proc of WoT influenced the game that much, but they of course helped. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to really flex my heroes. The Cairn Wraith was very much a meme, because I couldn't roll over a 6 in order to enable his -4 rend from the artefact, and my opponent didn't bring enough units for me to have more than 5 attacks. Though the potential is crazy good, I will likely not bring the Cairn Wraith again unless I have the free points. As for the other heroes, I forgot that Olynder could deny a command, but that didn't result in much. Her presence and her Lifting of the Veil was strong enough to keep my opponent backing up. The KoSoES got one use of his free CA. On our second turn I went first and killed the unit I was targeting on the BG charge. The Spirit Torment is great, though. 3 models back every combat phase? Tasty goodness. By the bottom of turn 2 I had wiped four complete units of 10 from my opponent's side for a trade of one unit of Bladegheists and no damage on any of my heroes. I won priority for turn 3 and my opponent conceded. My takeway is that as long as we are super aggressive, and focused, on our turns we can weaken enemy units to the point of not taking too much incoming damage. The trick was to make sure I only engaged in two or three actual combats, basically choosing an objective or two and focusing on taking them for myself. The only hope my opponent had was to reinforce on those objectives, and that didn't end up working. I stole two objectives at the end of turn one and was in position to steal the last one by the top of turn 3. One thing I want to mention, though, is that I think we should expect a FAQ for the Banshees. RAW, even though I only had two unbinds and they always failed, the Banshees was able to eat up all but one of my opponent's spells that targeted anything. So he was stuck summoning more Wyldwoods, afraid to cast anything else positive or negative because of how I had them positioned. I agued that the risk is that I had to have the Banshees close to the enemy to absorb the positive spells, he countered that he felt they were too much of a bait unit, requiring a disproportionate amount of points to nullify than, say, attempting to delete a unit of Bladegheists. I'm not so sure, but it was work mentioning.

I'm loving the overall very positive reviews I'm seeing. Feels good to be a ghost player right now. Against all odds I've got a game today. It's a 1.5k point limit to see if we can get in more than one and at such short notice, but I'm excited to test these new rules out. I'm torn between choices, which is a good thing.

Yep. Pacific Northwest American here. I'm glad for a game that spans geography like this one does.

Pre-orders are up. PRE-ORDERS ARE UP! https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/searchResults?N=2070689437+3206404541

Yep. Got a Scriptor Mortis coming in next week or so, and I'm pre-ordering Awlrach and at least one unit of the Craventhorn. I might do two, because who knows they may get buffed months or years from now.

This is harder than it used to be. I was able to do it a while back... After about a dozen tests I'm thinking it's not a tag anymore. Maybe an applet. Dunno.

This got me to break out my spreadsheet. Let's see... I have 278 models right now... with the points increases... No points for Mourngul yet... Carry the one.... Yep, I've got 10,010 points of Nighthaunt. With all but 3 of them painted. Hmmm... Mmmhmm. Yep. I've got an problem.

Latest rules update: "And in light of their petrifying revamp, the Nighthaunt will leave the Prime Hunters list." Source: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/05/12/jumpscare-your-opponent-with-spooky-nighthaunt-abilities-to-petrify-and-perplex/

This sounds interesting to me. Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/05/11/take-your-nighthaunt-on-a-magical-voyage-with-awlrach-the-drowner/ Hype is in full force. Nothing new, but good to see it.

Granted, these aren't tactics I'd personally use. It's still early days, so there are still some synergies to get a handle on. That being said, Discorporate, while saving some units from wiping in the combat phase, didn't save those units from wiping in the battleshock phase. I'd call that a wash for the command point, and would structure my army around that knowledge.

Nighthaunt vs Daughters of Kain battlereport on Warhammer +. I watched it so you didn't have to. The Nighthaunt army was played by Simon. Points: 1750 Battleplan: King of the Hill (with special rules). Nighthaunt as attackers, DoK as defenders. Special Rules: 4 rounds, the player with the most models specifically on the mausoleum at the end of the game wins. In addition, at the end of each battleround roll a die for each slain model in a unit that has not been wiped out, and on a 6 return a model to the unit. List Emerald Host w/ Warlord and Battle Regiment battalions Heroes: Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, Scriptor Mortis, Guardian of Souls, Cairn Wraith Troops: Chainrasps x10, Bladegheists x10, Dreadscythes x10, Hexraiths x5, Craventhorn x5 Misc: Black Coach Deployment: Deployed at the most forward edge of the battlefield possible with the Chainrasps directly opposite of the objective mausoleum. In a line out from them, to the left was the KoSoES who was nestled in with the Bladegheists. To the right was the GoS, then the Cairn Wrath who was with the Dreadscythes. To the right of them was the Hexrwaiths. Behind the Hexies and Dreadscyths was the Craventhorn, and just behind them the Black Coach. The Scriptor Mortis was able to deploy high on a terrain feature away from the front line able to see the whole battlefield. Pregame: Rolled 4 Emerald Curses. Placed them on the Bloodwrack Shrine, Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood, Doomfire Warlocks, and Bloodstalkers. Battlereport Round 1: NH was given priority as they were the attacking army in this game. The Scriptor placed judgement on the Bloodwrack Shrine. Simon then moved his left flank with runs (Bladegheists and Chainrasps) and the rest as normal moves, all up to their maximums. There were no charges. This put him in enemy missile range which resulted in losing 5 Dreadscythes right away. Combat consisted of DoK charges, losing the Craventhorn and the Dreadscythes, and forcing Simon to attack with KoSoES and the Cairn Wraith, who each wipe their respective enemy units. The Chairn Wraith did 10 wounds! Battleshock ended up wiping both sides' wounded units. Round 2: Scriptor's judgement kills the Bloodwrack Shrine, but in payback NH suffers huge losses on the Bladegheists despite Discorporate. DoK focused damage on the Black Coach, but it took the hits and survived. Hexwraiths were wiped, and on Battleshock so were the Bladegheists. Round 3: NH wins priority. Scriptor moves judgement to the Hag Queen. Simon decides to press on to the mausoleum and uses his retreat on the Black Coach to get into charge position on what's up there. He also unleashed the BC's Evocation doing only 2 wounds. The KoSoES and Ciarn Wraith were free to charge into new enemy units respectively, and did so, resulting in two more clean wipes on the DoK side. Cairn did 16 wounds on his own that time. This results in DoK retreating trying to fortify their position on the mausoleum except for the Blood Cauldron who charged the Black Coach. It used All Out Slaughter and finally put it down. Round 4: Priority goes to NH again. Scriptor fails its judgement, so it fell on the Cairn Wraith to do some damage. It scores another 7 wounds and wipes another unit. This leaves the KoSoES and the Hag Queen to determine the game as the only two models on the mausoleum with no movement left. On the DoK turn the Hag attacked, but with Discorporate the KoSoES survives. The counter attack is not enough to take the Hag down. Round 5 (bonus): Due to the result being a draw, they decide to go one more round with just the Hag and KoSoES to see who'd win in the brawl. NH gets priority again (seriously, can I have those priority dice?) and with All Out Attack the KoSoES is able to deal the last 8 damage needed to fell the Hag Queen. But, due to her Rune of Kain ability she got an automatic counter attack which kills the KoSoES, resulting in a draw. Takeaways: As a casual game with special rules, we can't really use this to judge tactics or units. But, the clear and away winners for the Nighthaunt were the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed and the Cairn Wraith. The KoSoES got up to 9 wounds on his card and every combat was able to either wipe his enemy unit or get close enough for battleshock to do the rest. The Cairn Wraith is far and away the highest damage dealer in this game, doing more damage alone than any of Simon's units could. And since his units were targeted more than the heroes, that was a net win. However, the battlereport video itself isn't in full detail. I have no idea what happened to the Guardian of Souls or who was in what battalion. Also the exchanges during the rounds were sometimes out of order or just skipped completely. But the production value was really nice.