Benji

You need it for the Deathless save, plus you want to have the ability to counter strike if another squad comes into the combat.

Based on my tournament experience 40 is unwieldy. Keeping that many models in 6" of the Hekatos is difficult. In theory it's fine but in practice as soon as you add a terrain piece or you barely make a charge it you lose the ability to shield wall/counterattack with the squad trailing behind, or your guys at the front are moving 2" so the ones at the back stay in range. I've had success with 30/20/20 and 20/20/20 (and 10/10/10 but that's a whole different can of worms).

Yes, he teleports when 'any wounds or mortal wounds are allocated to the caster and not negated, and the caster is not slain'. There is no teleport condition related to him failing the specific PoN save.

Drain Vitality is better in sustained combat, it's difficult to get the spell down on a unit before the first round of shooting and combat due to it's range. I find with Mortek if they survive the initial shooting and combat phase, and you have Katakros or a Boneshaper nearby you will win long term. Give both a try and see which you prefer, I don't think picking one of the two is a game winning/losing move, but RBS does take the edge off the first strike from Salamanders and other alpha units such as eels or cavalry with mortals on the charge. Arcane Command is just not good though, you need to get the spell off, the enemy needs to not unbind it and then you get D3 RDP. You can't rely on it for your turn planning as you will get 0 RDP quite a bit. Even with Nagash lists I don't find myself casting this unless I desperately need the RDP for tricky objective plays, Arcane bolt is more effective.

It still has a lot of value, even if it forces the enemy to not shoot at the unit you want to survive. I feel like it's better than Arcane Command in a list with 5+8x6+ RDP.

There are still a lot of games taking place in Tabletop Simulator, and even some tournaments online, so the Meta is still progressing and developing. It is probably moving quicker as well as you don't need to purchase models to try out new lists. Seraphon is the core of the current Meta, the standard list being Skink battle line, Kroak with his retinue (Starpriest, Astrolith, Priest) and as many Salamanders as you can fit into the list. There are variations, but Kroak + Salamanders are the strong lists. Reinforce Battle Shields will give you some protection from Kroak's spells as well as the Salamanders Mortal Wounds.

Consider Reinforce Battle Shields instead of Arcane Command. With all the spellcasting in the current meta it keeps Mortek alive a lot longer. With that list you shouldn't need the RDP from Arcane Command, especially with only the 1 crawler.

1. I ran Liege/Katakros for a while and ended up swapping the Liege for a Soul Mason. The Liege is redundant in that list, he shouldn't need to be giving something +1 attack unless Katakros is lagging behind, in which I would say Katakros isn't being used properly. Soulmason gives Soul Guide and the ability to unbind endless spells, which I found important as players were using them to block my slow mortek's movement. The boneshaper's ability is fantastic for its cost and the soulmason is actually a pretty decent caster (getting 2+ spells each turn, and soul guide is amazing). Both have a place in competitive lists. Nagash is a large chunk of your list, but he does a lot. His command ability makes your army just stronger in every way. 8 spells is a lot of damage (Arcane Bolt machine gun does a ton of mortals to something within 18") and his combat profile will do a lot of damage. If you get protection of Nagash off, he won't die that turn, and if you don't get it off, well you know before the movement phase and can play safer with him. Yes things can kill him, but you should be able to play around those units easily enough with 9" movement. 2. Stalkers have a place in lists, especially against armies like Orruk. I agree that Crawlers and Harvesters make that 200 point slot competitive, but Crawlers and Harvesters have problems of their own as well. Crawlers are feast or famine, and if you have some bad dice rolls, or they make some saves, they do nothing. Harvesters are a difficult unit to run as you need to play conservative to avoid mortek charging out of range of them, which means your slow army stays slow, and you 3. Give him a try, you can play him smart enough that he doesn't die, and whilst you run less units with Nagash. I find Nagash lists a bit more difficult to play, but I think the ceiling is higher as well, in that a great player piloting a Nagash list will accomplish more than he/she would with a standard list. 4. Pendulum doesn't have the control that Nightmare has, it might do more damage but Nightmare is the better endless spell as your opponent cannot plan for it's movement like he can Pendulum. I would never put the boneshaper or soulmason on a balewind, they need to be moving (especially the boneshaper) and they get nothing out of the extra 6 inch range on their spells. If your lists are hitting 50-100 points leftover, I'd consider moving some things around for more units. Mortek and Deathriders are priced so that you should be able to hit pretty much right on 2k if you move some things around. If you have 120 points you can pick up Shield Corps and get another artifact which adds a lot to your army. On paper the Spirit Blades are better, especially as you can get them to Rend -2 Damage 2 with their ability. My stalkers have the Falchions as the damage output difference isn't massive, Rend -3 is good for the mirror (5+ Save with Shield wall saves a lot more than 6+) and because I play Warcry where they're good, and I don't want to buy a ton of extra models

1. Liege has his place, mostly when you want to take two artifacts and in conjunction with the Boneshaper/Soul Mason, or if you run Nagash and need some cheap RDP generation. 2. I've seen 6 stalkers run more often than 2x3, but both can work. Immortis Guard are not used too much so I can't talk about how people take them. I personally don't think stalkers are worth it as they do a similar role as Mortek (Do well in close combat), but they're cool models and kick ass in Warcry 3. Yes, I'm currently running Nagash, Liege, 1x15 Deathriders, 2x5 Deathriders and spellportal at 2k to some success. Deathriders don't require as much RDP as Mortek to be useful, so if you are running something like Nagash or a low RDP generating army, they are great. They're also fantastic as objective grabbers, and can do decent in combat even in a squad of 5. If you're going 5, get swords. If you're going 15 get spears. 4. Bone Tithe is good in an army without Katakros or Nagash (Liege, Boneshaper, Soulmason mostly) to help with the +1 to hit. Nightmare Predator isn't terrible either. Carrion looks better on paper than on the battlefield, as you want to use it on something like Nagash or Arkhan to keep them topped up, but it's soul linked so you're hurting your own casting by doing so. 5. Nope, I'd argue that Arkhan isn't very good at all at the moment, and most competitive lists have dropped him in favor of Katakros+Soul Mason, Nagash+Liege or Liege+Boneshaper+Soulmason (or variations of these). There's an appeal to Katakros+Arkhan in being able to heal 4 of your units 6 models/wounds a turn, but honestly it's overkill as usually only 1-3 of your units need healing. Your 1k list looks solid! Liege will be great at those points, I would love to hear how it performs!