Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Death/Nighthaunt
Why play Nighthaunts?
Pros
- You can wear a sheet over your head without disappointing your parents.
- Army wide ignore wounds and mortal wounds on a 6.
- Army wide fly means you pay no heed to the idea of "Battle lines", just go above your enemy and hit them where it hurts.
- Strong leadership and small army size means routing is never an issue
- Dish out mortal wounds like it's nobody's business.
- GW support, with unique artifacts and warlord traits available to Nighthaunt armies.
- Easy access to deepstriking.
- Every hero you've got is a potential wizard.
Cons
- Your most important leader (Knight of Shrouds) is painfully monopose.
- Mourngul is expensive (In points and real dosh).
- Despite perfectly fitting the aesthetic, Mortis Engines aren't Nighthaunt units, while Black Coaches (A unit which doesn't) is.
- Lack of reliable staying power means you're going to get torn apart if you aren't lucky with mortal wounds.
- Once you're on the battlefield, your speed is as average as they come, deployment is key.
Allegiance Abilities
Battle Traits
- Deathless Spirits: Each time NIGHTHAUNT unit takes a wound/mortal wound. If that unit is within 6" of your general or any other NIGHTHAUNT HERO it can ignore the wound on a dice result of 6.
- Ethereal Rulers: NIGHTHAUNT units can be held in reserve at the start of the battle, each turn at the start of your movement phase you can roll on a table and see when/how they arrive. So long as you have at least one CAIRN WRAITH or TOMB BANSHEE on the battlefield (if not, you're buggered)
- 1-2: The unit remains off the table, you can roll for it next turn
- 3-6: You can set up the unit anywhere on the table more than 9" from enemy units. This counts as moving.
- Conduits of Ethereal Power: When a Black Coach in uses its Evocation of Death you can roll one dice for each CAIRN WRAITH or TOMB BANSHEE within 12" of the it, instead of only for each DEATH WIZARD.
Command Traits
- Hatred of the Living: Your general can re-roll hits of 1 unless the target has the DEATH or the DAEMON key word.
- Terrifying Entity: Subtract 1 from the bravery of enemy units within 6" of the general.
- Lingering Spirit: The general gets +1 wound.
- Pitiless Executioner: If the general causes a hit on a result of 6 or more, then add +1 to the damage caused.
- Cloaked in Shadow: General gets +1 to saves (Edit: It was FAQed: It now gives -1 to hit for ranged attacks vs. the General).
- 'Ruler of the Spirit Hosts:' As long as the general is alive you can reroll the dice result for the Ethereal Rulers trait.
Nighthaunt Artefacts
- Cloak of the Waxing Moon: Your opponent is at -1 to wound in melee against the owner of this cloak.
- Pendant of the Fell Wind: Add +3" to the movement of any Nighthaunt units within 6" of this character at the start of their phase.
- Dreadbolt Ring: If this model inflicts one or more wounds in the combat phase, then inflict one additional free mortal wound on an enemy unit within 3" after this model has finished.
- Lightshard of the Harvest Moon: Once per battle you can reroll failed hit rolls for all friendly Nighthaunt units within 6" of this model during the combat phase.
- Midnight Tome: The model becomes a Wizard and can cast/unbind once per phase and knows the two basic spells.
- Covetous Familiar: Each combat phase, roll a dice for every enemy unit within 3". On a 4+ they take a mortal wound. A perfect little bonus for a melee character, since it's a flat 50% to cause an unsaveable wound. Is also probably better than the Dreadbolt Ring since it operates within the same radius, but can inflict more than one wound per turn, works before any attacks are resolved (rather than after) and doesn't require you to do anything else to activate it.
Warscrolls
The common keywords of these warscrolls are: DEATH, MALIGNANT and NIGHTHAUNT.
Leaders
- Knight of Shrouds: Our first genuine commander model, rather than being a summonable hero like the Wraith or Banshee. Blessed with the same defenses as a Cairn Wraith but with an additional wound he's pretty tough. With basically a Vampire Lord's melee profile (Damage 2 instead of D3) he's not a pushover. His Command grants Nighthaunt units within 9" +1 To Hit, meaning he can hit on a 2+ himself and doubles the Mortal Wound output of your Spirit Hosts while he's at it (this has now been changed to unmodified 6+ only, so this is made obsolete). The downside? he cannot be summoned by DEATH Wizards like the other Nighthaunt heroes can, so he will find less use in army lists that tend towards other allegiances like Flesh-Eater courts or Soulblight who can summon units of their own from other Death factions. But in a Nighthaunt army with some allies, he's absolutely fantastic. He's tough as nails, regenerates with the damage he deals and he makes your already decent Spirit Hosts very scary.
- Cairn Wraith: A hero with only four wounds, that's unusual, but understandable since the Ethereal rule already makes him annoyingly hard to kill, as it makes his 4+ save unaffected by Rend and 4 Wounds is enough to survive a perfect Arcane Bolt. What he does is swing a big honking scythe that's basically a Stormcast's Grandhammer with three swings and rerolls To Hit if the target unit has 5 or more models, so he's pretty blendy, too. While you're not likely to be able to do much killing with one these guys if summon these guys as mobile tarpits/support for your characters they more than make up for their points cost. In open play you can also field 3 or 4 of these guys in an unofficial unit and watch them tear through chaff (With scythes go figure). Sadly this dosent work as well in matched play as these guys fill up your precious hero slots. Then again, what were you gonna use them for? One Knight of Shrouds, one Banshee and after that you can spam Wraiths to your heart's content.
- Tomb Banshee: For all intents and purposes, a Banshee is more or less a Cairn Wraith with much weaker attacks (though at -2 Rend, that's pretty decent) and a scream attack that causes damage off of Bravery. If you're annoyed that almost all your Heroes can't shoot, have them summon one of these ladies to do the shooting for them. Also, just because they are less fighty than the Wraith doesn't mean they're less tanky. They have the same unrendable save and just enough Wounds to survive a perfect Arcane Bolt.
- Black Coach: Theoretically, the Black Coach is pretty good, especially if you keep buffing it with Wizards. The problem with this is that in order to get all those buffs, you pretty much need to spam Wizards, which equals summon spam, which equals not needing the Black Coach in the first place.
- It is fast with a 10" move, but lacks flying (gaining it later at the Fourth Level of Evocation of Death.) and is missing the Nighthaunts penchant to ignore rend. He has the same weapon as the Cairn Wraith and the reroll hits if a unit has 5+, with the addition of 4 more attacks with his horses. So in a Nighthaunt Allegiance army he will not level up reliably and costs the same as two Cairn Wraiths...the Wraiths will have 1 more wound, collectively, and double the good attacks on top of ignoring rends, oh and they fly.
Troops
Battleline
- Spirit Hosts:(SUMMONABLE) Compared to other swarms, Spirit Hosts have fewer Wounds, but way better attacks and a 4+ unrendable save, which makes them pretty tough against anything but Mortal Wounds. Effectively, they have a rather low damage output, but the vast majority of their damage is in Mortal Wounds, which makes them great, especially against stuff with big saves and high rend. Be'lakor in particular hates these things with a passion. Make them hug the Knight of Shrouds you clearly took for that tasty +1 To Hit so you inflict your Mortal Wounds on 5+ and their damage output becomes positively terrifying, averaging 2 Mortal Wounds per swarm per Combat Phase.
Others
- Hexwraiths:(SUMMONABLE) Nothing to get too excited about, but can still be useful in certain situations. These spook lords hit with a bunch of mediocre attacks, and have the ability to damage enemy units they move over top of by dealing a mortal wound on a roll of 5+ for each Hexwraith that flew over them. Not only that, but they have a 12" movement and they're also Ethereal, so their saves are damn good as they ignore all Rend. In fact, there's very little reason to ever take Black Knights over Hexwraiths. Your only real reasons would be Keyword synergy and the fact that Black Knights can regenerate D3 dead models each turn. Due to their rather low wound output, Hexwraiths are best used for 2 things: Using their flying 12" move to soar over terrain and cap objectives, or using their Rend ignoring properties to tie up enemy units that dish out Rend. You take these guys as a tactical option, rather than as a beat stick.
Behemoths
- Mourngul (Forgeworld): A Mourngul is the sort of annoying model your opponent will hate you for fielding. Why? Well, like all the other Ethereal stuff, its Save is unaffected by Rend. Problem is, it has a 3+ and like the Bastiladon also a 4+ against Mortal Wounds. As if this was not enough, it has 10 Wounds and regenerates in every turn it killed stuff, which will happen. A lot. It only has one weapon profile, but that one is a doozy, with lots of high Rend, high damage attacks that have a chance to generate extra attack. Be warned though that this profile alone is most definitely not enough to earn back its horrendous price tag. It also lowers the to-hit rolls of nearby units by one (awesome), or by two if they have 6 or less Bravery, so if you can lower their Bravery with something (a Screaming Skull Catapult, some banners, etc) it becomes almost immortal. In other words, we have a model that is nigh unkillable but rather slow and not particularly killy while being obscenely expensive. It won't win you matches except by making the opponent forfeit if you field too many, but use them sparingly to tie up things that are actually dangerous to your Ghosts an they perform well enough.
Battalions
The Spirits of Fellblood
Found in the Start Collecting - Malignants box
A Mortis Engine, a unit of Hexwraiths and a unit of Spirit Hosts
This sweet little Battalion allows you to pick either the Hexwraiths or the Spirit Hosts up off the table and redeploy them close to the Mortis Engine so long as you stay 3" away from enemies. For Hexwraiths with their 12" Move this is not too terribly useful, but the 6" Move Spirit Hosts very much like being pulled after the rapid 14" Mortis Engine. This does become significantly better if your Spirit Host unit is a bit bigger than just three models, though.
Note: If you want to run a Nighthaunt Alligence army, then the mortis engine cannot be used as it does not have that keyword.
Army Building
A few quick tips on army building:
- The Sword of Unholy Power: If your allegiance is generic "DEATH" then this beauty can be given to any one of your Heroes and automatically successfully casts any one summoning spell for Death models once. This can of course be used to summon a Mourngul in a more favorable position, but it can also be used to summon a unit that does not fit your allegiance, like a Terrorgheist or a unit of Morghasts. Picking a unit of Morghast Harbingers as quick chargers with a massive damage output for example is quite a good use of your Artifact.
- Black Coach: If you like it, then don't play a Nighthaunt allegiance. It needs Wizards to be good and aside from the Command Trait that makes your general a Wizard, you don't have any. Quick update, as of generals handbook 2017 Cairn Wraiths and banshees can be used instead of wizards in Nighthaunt allegiance lists.
- Hero/Unit balance: Your Heroes are very meh and Inspiring Presence doesn't help your army, so you might be tempted to only use one tax Banshee and leave the other Heroes out. Do not. Your Heroes are damn cheap and can spread Deathless Minions around. And between Deathless Minions and your Ethereal saves, your models are ridiculously tough (even more so than usual). Also, you don't want that single Banshee to be your General AND your Artifact carrier.
1000 pt.
General - Mourngul(400), Command Trait: Ruler of the Night or Master of Black Arts or Red Fury. (Suggested Red Fury) Battleline - 2 units of 6 Spirit Hosts(480) Heroes - 2 Cairn Wraiths(120), Artefact of Death: Cursed Book or Sword of Unholy Power if your allowed summons (Suggest summoning a second Mourngul) This army of course will make you "TFG" wherever you go.
2000 pt.
A sweet/fun spot for this army. Tons of heroes. Tons of ghost's. Get ready to spook your opponent because this is just the right point value to run TWO Mourngul's, while still having a beefy battleline that isn't effected by rend! Run 4 big globs of spirit hosts, load up your heroes, and watch your opponent weep as you destroy his bravery-weak battleline with THREE separate banshee screams.
2500 pt.
Depending on what kind of player you are, you could run a 2500 point list for pure fun! If you want to be competitive, chuck in a Mourngul or two and watch as the tears pour down your opponents face. If not, running a list entirely composed of spirit hosts and hexwraiths isn't out of the question either. If deployed properly using their new Allegiance Ability within the GH 2017, a Nighthaunt army can consistently hold and score objectives, even on the first turn!
Allied Armies
If you want to deploy a MALIGNANT army, you should definitely consider the Mortis Engine, if only because it's part of Start Collecting - Malignants.
The Nighthaunts have the ambiguous honor of being one of the most Hero-saturated armies in the game while simultaneously having no support from their heroes.
The obvious remedy is to take some Death Heroes that do buff your units, such as Vampire Lords. The foot-slogging/flying/Nightmare-riding Vampire Lord has a great buff to toss at your Hexwraiths and the one on Zombie Dragon helps Spirit Hosts out a ton. Mannfred von Carstein is also useful because his Dread Abyssal is surrounded by spirits so he fits the theme,because he's very powerful and his buff aura is amazing and because he can summon more Nighthaunts for you every turn. Keep in mind if you do this you will need hard battleline units from the Death Grand Alliance.
External links
Rules are here
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-tomb-banshee-en.pdf
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-cairn-wraith-en.pdf
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-black-coach-en.pdf
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-hexwraiths-en.pdf
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