Sception

And other spells are "within 9" of the caster" or "within 18" of the caster" or what have you. Soul harvest has the exact same "of the caster" wording for range as every other spell, it just hits "each enemy unit" within the listed range instead of "one enemy unit". If soul harvest doesn't work through the portals because its spell text spevifies that range is measured from the caster, than there are no spells that can be cast through the portal. There is no reason why it wouldn't work through the portals like anything else, and the portals themselves are of such limited edge case utility post nerf that I'm not sure why your club would feel the need to neef them further by removing one of the very few spell interactions they're still almost worth running for. Now, limiting arkhan's CA so it doesn't stack with itself? That's a homebrew nerf I could get behind. Honestly, I think AoS 2e matched play could use a new official "rule of one" for command abilities in general.

Yeah, I meant radius, not diameter. It is a sick combo, but very expensive between to portals, command points, and requiring 2 successful castings. Though even if the combo fails, the extra spell range can still be useful for other spells you try that turn.

Hand of dust and soul harvest mainly, the latter mostly only with arkhan. Even if his CA ability is errata'd not to stack with itself, a 9" diameter d3 mortals grenade that can be lobbed 18" is enough to justify the 60 points. Also can be good with spectral grasp. I probably wouldn't take the soellportals outside of nagash lists, but they're not unysable with arkhan. Probably shouldnt still be 60 points, though.

nerf to spellportal is that it can only be used for one spell per phase, and that other endless spells cannot be cast through it. Only real 'crazy combo' for sacrament that I see is using arkhan's command ability multiple times in a single hero phase for a massive range improvement, followed by the deathmage spell soul harvest to deal d3 mortals to every unit in that range, possibly through a spellportal to measure the range from 18" up. against many opponents won't matter that much, d3 isn't a particularly large number of wounds, and the multipel CP cost means you probably are only pulling it off once per game, but against some armies with many tiny units it can be pretty devastating. otherwise, it's not so much combos as just some very good units (eg, skeletons, grimghasts) with good recursion mechanics (gravesights, deathly invocation, endless legions), and multiple casting & dispel buffs, helping us resist enemy spells and force through our own, in an edition where magic seems to be, if not dominating, at least a fair bit more significant than before.

I have not had any luck with zombies, not since they lost their mob up rule. They're too expensive (40 points more than skittles for a max unit), they hit like pillows, and they either crumble to battleshock or devour your CP on inspiring presence. They're more speed bump than tar pit. Maybe if we had strong offensive magic to kill things while they were busy fighting zombies, but our best spells are debuffs to help our killier units win fights. The units themselves still have to be able to fight their way out of a wet paper bag. So... max skeletons or min dire wolves for core. Maybe (maybe) chainrasps, if you're already taking guardians and/or torments to buff grimghasts. At least, if you're trying to win. If you're looking to throw a few games as penance for some terrible game crime, then zombies are fine.

Wasn't a sacrament list, was a 3k grand host list for a 2v2 narrative big game. First cohort (2 archai, 2x40 skittles, 30 gg) plus arkhan, vamp lord, 2xnecro, spellportals, 2 extra CP, alongside 2.5k of beastclaw raiders agains 5.5k of skanev defending a dreadhold. The skaven invested heavily in weapon teams, there were over 20 morters. I actually rolled pretty poorly on the nuke, dropping only about a quarter of said teams, but that was apparently enough to suck all the fun out of the game for them. I feel bad about it, though I honestly don't thonk the one time nuke had that big of an effect on the game. Honestly, the beastclaws did more damage, trampling everything outside of the dreadhold, including verminking, but it was nagash who drew all the hate, leading to the skaven players quitting after turn one, both clearly mad at me, and one swearing to never play against nagash again. Which, i mean, the nuke they were so mad about was all arkhan, even if nagash cast the spell, but i suppose it's better they blame nagash since i use him a lot less than arkhan. At least they didn't swear to never play against me again. The AoS player pool around me is shallow enough already.

Yeah, i think I'm going to be "that guy" for a while. Will maybe switch to a zombie based list for a couple weeks as penance. ?

I think the double cast can only send the first cast through the spellportal.

Im kind of surprised that they didn't at least make it once per phase. Just cast a soul harvest through a spell portal after sinking three command points into first of the mortarchs, and the results were a little silly.

I dont know. I dont really see a way to do them that is both true to their oldhammer character which would require them to be opposed to Nagash the Traitor, and true to the fluff of age of sigmar, which would require suborning their will to that of Nagash the Deity. Imo better to skirt the issue by expanding deathrattle in a way that allows for a greater portion of the old tomb king range to be run in a counts-as fashion.

I personally thing gg were still not good enough. 30 guard are 140 points more than 40 skeletons. That's a whole vampire lord. GG are stronger than skeletons, but they're not 10 men and one of our best small heros stronger. Grimghasts just make it so super obvious that it cannot be ignored. GG could be 100 points cheaper for a full unit and they'd still have a hard time comparing to the reapers. I hope and pray for a deathrattle battle tome that dramatically reworks the unit, but given that GW has had baducally six chances at this unit and they've bately been touched...

griping start // Every time i look at grimghasts, I get bitter at how good grave guard aren't. I simply do not have the funds for another us$150 unit, and even if I did, I really don't think grimghasts look good in such huge units. And yet every time I look at their rules, 30 grimghasts jusy look more and more like the best unit available to the army by a country mile. Not just grave guard, but morghasts (even in LoN!), vargheists, knights of all varieties... nothing apart from maybe skittles seem to come close, and even then only because of battleline requirements. Are grimghasts way too good, or are the bulk of our units just terrible? Are we doomed to an entire year of wraiths dominating every legion list, only to watch GH2019 nerf them into oblivion with a 60 point price hike per batch just as I finally break down and buy them? Bah. I'm probably just grumpy that I don't have the funds for them right now. At least, not all in one go. That, and i just really want my wights to be good, and, whether in the compendium or the grand alliance or the legions book, whether it's 2016, 2017, or 2018 points values, they just keep falling short. But to have to stand them next to 'the same unit, but better in basically every way, oh and they're more than a full command point cheaper to boot' is just... disheartening. // griping over

Mostly because we don't have a lot of big boom magic. You can get some of that out of endless spells, but the points costs involved, the chance of those spells being bounced back at you after you cast them, and the limit of each caster only attempting a single endless spell per turn, kind of limit that. Our best spells tend to be more of the utility kind. Debuffs from necromancer lore, stuff like pinions or soulpike on the vampire side. There are some solid offensive spells - arkhan's curse of years, the vampire spell amaranthine orb, but while their potential damage might be reasonably high, they're also rather unreliable. I can't tell you how many times I've thrown off a curse of years only to do no damage at all, or pulled off a double-cast orb only to wiff against every unit it passed over. Don't get me wrong, our spells are great, but they aren't generally great at killing things. They soften the enemy up for your units to hammer them, but that still means spending most of the points in your list on units to hammer with. That said, if you wanted to try direct damage magic heavy list, maybe something like... That's just off the top of my head, you could probably put something better together if you tried. I do kind of like the look of that, though. Might try running something like that myself some day.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/

The battalions in the Nighthaunt battletome do not list an allegiance, and nothing in the 2e rules refers to a battalion's allegiance. The 2e rules do not, for instance, say that units within one of your faction's battalions don't count as allied units. That seems to be an faq answer written for 1e that does not match the 2e rules at all.

Certainly a rule to remember, as it will be nice when it triggers.

Yeah it's free now, although triggering it is still pretty unlikely.

Yeah, if anything gets nerfed, it will be the portal. Possible nerfs include: points increase (honestly, portals and purple sun swapping points costs wouldn't be unjustified, imo), shortened range (perhaps only 9" or 12" between gates instead of 18"), only one spell cast through it per turn, etc. For now, though, it's a dominant force for any magic heavy lists, and spells that would be horrifically overpowered except for their limited range, like hand if dust, are positively silly with it.

Good job! Remember that endless spells are dispelled only at the start of the hero phase, so you have to leave the doors open for a turn, then close and reopen them next turn.

In 1e, battalions had allegiances, in 2e, that doesn't seem to be the case. If the units are in your army, normally or as allies or both, then it seems you can use the battalion, and the points for the battalion itself do not come from your allies limit.

I meant [close and reopen] next turn. Like, do both next turn. If you keep doing that, then you don't get to cast other endless spells unless you have other wizards to cast them with though. Which does put a damper on Nagash's output in terms of shere damage, especially against hordes. But sitting still with Nagash feels like a waste of Nagash. He's so expensive, you have to be putting all of his potential to use to justify him, and that includes is maneuverability and melee. And even if you don't move, your opponent will, and you'll still need to reposition the portals to try for another hand of dust, which you'll probably want to do.

Nagash has so many casts. Just close the portal and re-open it next turn.

Right now, a spellcaster who is neither a deathmage nor a vampire nor a deathlord can take spells from either lore, but while it's a clear reading, it's also a rather tenuous one that could come down either way in future errata/faq updates.

Grave Guard are rather points inefficient, sadly. They're not so bad that you can't field a unit or two and make them work if you like them aesthetically, but even then I wouldn't really advise building a whole list around them. And yeah, a lot of the power of the Legions in general, and Grand Host in particular, comes from hordes of summonable units, in particular basic skeletons. You might want to consider Legion of Night or Blood, as their playstyle and allegiance abilities lean more towards elite stuff. No nagash, but Legion of Night goes a long long way with a dragon lord, a couple units of harbingers, and a terrorgheist, plus maybe an allied terrorgheist and just a few dire wolves to grab objectives and gum up charge lanes, and Legion of Night can make the Castellans of Dread Keep work, again relying on some dire wolves for battleline. If it's an aesthetic thing, fenrisian wolves make good dire wolf substitutes and look really good, though admittedly they're a bit pricey. All that said, Nagash is a beast and a half, and morghasts are pretty hurty, especially in grand host. You can definitely build a working, if perhaps not optimal, list around them - with or without a few tiny grave guard units to qualify for a first cohort. The problem will come in holding objectives, which in many scenarios is difficult to do without some bigger units. It's not unplayable, though. I'd definitely proxy it a few times before buying that many morghasts. Test out something like: Nagash Coven Throne with Ethereal Amulet (Shyish Relic) 2 Archai with glaives 2 Archai with glaives 2 Harbingers with glaives 2 Harbingers with glaives Umbral Spellportals See how it goes for you.

The new look out sir is -1 to hit for shooting attacks targeting non-monster heroes that are near friendly units of sufficient size. Not as good as +1 save in many cases, but fully compatible with ethereal.