Games Workshop Warhammer AoS - Easy to Build: Nighthaunt Dreadblade Harrows

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Huge glow up – Probably more than any other army in the game, Nighthaunt really needed an upgrade, with an old book containing old units and army-wide rules that seemed outdated just as the book was launched. The units are now generally much improved but the battle traits in particular are a lot better. A Soul to Claim is the kind of strategy that would be really, really good in an event that lets you change grand strategies between games, but might be too much of a gamble otherwise. You choose an enemy unit with the highest wounds characteristic as the target, and complete this strategy if it’s slain by a friendly Summonable unit (which is most of your non-hero units). It’d be worth taking if you saw your opponent’s army and knew their beefiest unit was an 8 wound hero, but if you run into gargants and have a Gatebreaker on one wound left, you’re absolutely going to use whatever you have at your disposal to take that final wound off, rather than letting the beast run rampant hoping you can achieve it next turn. To his benefit now, the undead god of poetic justice is incredibly mobile, with Spectral Tether allowing him to move to 9” away from enemy units, allowing you to place your big hitter exactly where he needs to go. He’s still going to dominate the magic phase with eight casts and unbinds at +3 while he’s suffered six or fewer wounds (even more so than Teclis, which makes us very happy every time it happens), and he’s got a couple of utility tools that might mean he sees play. Invocation of Nagash heals or resurrects up to 3 wounds to 5 different units, and Supreme Lord of the Undead means every time you determine how many slain models return, return an extra 1. While this might seem hilarious to combo with Olynder and a Guardian of souls, you’re dropping 955 points into this guy and you desperately need bodies to hold objectives and keep him alive, so the fewer ghosts you have the easier it is for those units to be completely removed, becoming unhealable. Death Magic Incarnate is a superb command ability, giving +1 to ward rolls for a Death unit anywhere on the battlefield. Combined with Discorporate or a high native ward save and you’ve got an incredibly tanky unit, but we’re not convinced you’ll have enough of those units to still do well in the game. The Thorns of the Briar Queen is a Nighthaunt Bladeborn warband from Warhammer Underworlds Season 2. Designed to be as easy as possible to assemble for new hobbyists while being detailed enough for the hardiest veteran to appreciate, this kit assembles 2 Easy To Build Dreadblade Harrows. Push-fit, with no glue required, this kit is incredibly straightforward to put together and comes on a pre-coloured turquoise plastic sprue.

We may have been a bit harsh on Nagash all of, uh, three paragraphs ago, but we really don’t think he has competitive viability at the top tables. He’s a model that’s very binary with victory almost decided at the list building step; if your army can solve the problem of him existing, you win, and if you can’t, you lose; there’s not a lot of tactical nuance or gameplay here. Bringing Nagash to a friendly game can lead to some real feels-bad moments when your opponent can’t solve him and you take off half their army, or they kill him round two and you’ve flat out just lost the game. We love Nagash at Goonhammer, but we’d happily see him reduced in power to increase in survivability and fun for everyone at the table.

Leader

Unholy Light (Triple, Guardian of Souls): Heal D3 wound to all nearby friendly fighters (roll individually). While the term encompasses hundreds of different kinds of spirit, Nighthaunt all share a few common features that bind them together. Most are created in one of two ways – either soul-cursed to eternal torment at the moment of death or raised from their slumber by the amethyst magics of Nagash. If you need even more options, the Thorns of the Briar Queen warband include 7 miniatures including 5 Chainrasps and an alternative Dreadwarden or Banshee. It initially stung to read that no longer could we deep strike half our army, but when you consider everything in this book now has base 8″ movement it’s not nearly as big a deal as it seems, and getting to decide what goes into reserves after deployment is a really nice touch that can really mess with your opponent’s options turn one. Wave of Terror

All the warscrolls for Nighthaunt, including the new heroes Awlrach the Drowner and the Scriptor Mortis, and the new unit of Craventhrone Guard. Nagash is in here too! Howling Vortex(Triple, Briar Queen):a chance to damage and reduce movement to an enemy within range.

Speed Kills – With an universal movement of 8” or more, army wide fly and army wide retreat and charge, Nighthaunt are fast , and you’re never going to pin them down in combat. This is an army that goes wherever it wants, whenever it wants, and Nagash help you if you’re in their way. Heroic Actions are a great new feature to the game and allow Heroes to heal, making them even more survivable than before. Heroic Recovery is very reliable, given Nighthaunt are often at a Bravery value of 10.

Even for Nighthaunts, Dreadblade Harrows are especially discorporate, phantasmal figures atop spectral steeds, who can disappear and reappear at will. They are the Knights of Regret, full of bitter recriminations. In battle they serve as bodyguards and lieutenants, or are despatched as outriders. Rearing upon their spectral steeds, they vanish into wisps of mist only to gallop out of thin air elsewhere to fulfil even the most unchivalrous commands - culling the vulnerable, cutting off retreating warriors, and other heinous tasks. [1a] Wargear [ ] These are enormous benefits and will really change how the army plays. In the old rules your ghosts only got the 6+ ward save while within 12+ of a Nighthaunt Hero, limiting their ability to spread out over the battlefield. Now it’s just innate; you can use your various movement shenanigans to put your models exactly where they need to be without risking them losing their save. Spiteful Spirit lets you roll a number of dice equal to your general’s Wounds characteristic on any turn they’re injured, inflicting a mortal wound on each enemy unit within 6” on a 4+. Most Nighthaunt generals that see combat aren’t going to be alive there very long, and while it might be cute as a little bomb it still doesn’t meet the mark for us. The first edition Nighthaunt book introduced the fascinating idea of Nagash as a god of justice, with cruel and evil deeds in life rewarded (?) by unending servitude and punishment by Nagash in death. Kurdoss Valentian was punished for his ruthless desire to rule and murder of his own brothers with a curse of being fated to never rule and never kill again, a bitter jest of Nagash. Dreadscythe Harridans were once healers and nurturers that denied souls to Nagash through extending their life now cursed with rage against those self-same healers, and Chainrasp Hordes were vicious and irredeemable criminals, how fated to be tortured and imprisoned forever.Captured Soul-energy (Quad, Spirit Torment): After taking down an enemy, heal up to 6 wounds to all friendly fighters nearby. This should see Heroes like Lady Olynder survive to strike terror into your enemies for longer than ever. Alternatively, damage to smaller support Heroes like a Spirit Torment or Reikenor the Grimhailer can easily be negated. Finally, Arcane Tome from the core rules is not a bad option, giving you another wizard on a hero you’re likely already taking. Nighthaunt have a fair few nasty spells, and even with Olynder, Reikenor and a Guardian of Souls in the same list (probably unlikely), you’re still probably wanting to cast another spell. Look outside the box that is this excellent battletome, and you might just find some still very useful basic enhancements in the core rules. Their loss in Toughness (only 4 now) makes them more vulnerable. They don’t have too many wounds and so they will suffer critical hits. In addition they are not particular strong so they rely on scoring critical hits themselves. Their resurrection ability is a bit worse than the Soulblight one but allows you to restore any fighter. Time-based missions in which you have to kill specific enemies within 3 or 4 battle rounds will be your biggest problem. As with the rest of the heroes, the remainder of the Nighthaunt units are largely there to just fill space and in my opinion none of them are either cheap enough to take as a swarm unit or do enough damage to take as a dedicated fighter especially when compared to those at the top of the list.

So, when this article refers to an ability being a Double, a Triple or a Quad, it refers to this system. It might sound a bit confusing, but takes no time to get used to when you start playing What changed in the new edition for the Nighthaunt Warband? The Nighthaunt presence in the Eightpoints intensified after the Necroquake, a ritual summoned by Nagash, and even more appeared since Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis, led an invasion of the Eightpoints and secured the Shyish gate. Since then gheists and other dangerous spirits populate the Bloodwind Spoil and in particular Lost Velorum, a subterranean spectral kingdom. Overview and Points for the Fighters in the Nighthaunt WarbandGrieving Legion: Enemy units cannot retreat while they are within 3” of any Grieving Legion units with 10 or more models. This ties in well with the many rules that tie in to the terrified function of Aura of Dread, but given this army’s fragility we can’t see this being taken as a mainstay – it would have been amazing as a command trait or unit ability, but the other Processions seem much nastier on face value. new profiles have been added following the small release at the beginning of 2022: Scriptor Mortis, Krulghast Cruciator, Craven Huntmaster and Craventhrone Guard. Let it never be said that we here at Goonhammer are afraid to change our minds or admit mistakes. A unit of contention in our Arena of Shades review, Myrmourn Banshees are looking like some of the real big winners in this book. With all the benefits of running a tonne of small units, a unit or two of these ladies can put out some serious hurt (rend -3 on a good Wave of Terror charge!) while also helping shut down an enemy magic phase that is likely already struggling with the plethora of excellent wizards you’re likely already taking. Spell-eaters lets you roll 2D6 every time an enemy spell is cast, not unbound and targets a unit within 12”, and if you beat the casting value (adding +1 if your banshees have three or more models) the spell is unbound or dispelled. This is superb , as it really doesn’t matter how many bonuses the enemy has. Nagash and Teclis can both cast with some absurdly high numbers, but these ladies don’t care – your casting value six spell stays at six, doesn’t matter if you rolled a 16 to cast it. A unit or two of these is our third near auto-include unit. List building and competitive thoughts It’s also worth noting that the March 2022 The Hunt update, which introduced the priority targets and prime hunters rules, won’t apply to this book – the writers of that update cleverly included a caveat that if a battletome or battletome update has a more recent publication date than March 2022, units from that publication may not be designated as either priority targets or prime hunters. Which is… honestly fine! Nighthaunt are in a much, much better spot than they were at the time. The other unit that had mortal wounds on 6s to hit, Spirit Hosts lost it and got given a new bodyguard rule, which allows nearby (3”) Nighthaunt heroes (so no Nagash) to pass wounds off onto this unit on a 3+. Nighthaunt have traditionally always fallen apart as soon as their support heroes die, so having a bodyguard unit that both has the summonable keyword so can be replenished and also doesn’t require a subfaction to use is fantastic. Along with the Cruciator these are almost auto include for at least one unit, if only to help stop enemy shooting from messing with your hero hammer too badly.