Monday 18 July 2016

Age of Sigmar #3 - How to play Nighthaunt?


The common keywords for these units are: DEATH, NIGHTHAUNT and MALIGNANT

Most units in the Nighthaunt have both the Fly and Ethereal rules. Fly allows them to ignore scenery when moving and also pass over enemy units. Ethereal ignores all attacking weapons rends.
With the Season of War in full swing I'm ready to play my first games towards the global campaign.

Heroes

Cairn Wraith: I usually take about 3 Cairn Wraiths and run them into large horde units. Their Reaped Like Corn ability allows them to re-roll hits when the target has 5 or more models. The problem with Nighthaunt Heroes is that they don't have any abilities that buff other Nighthaunt units around them. 

Tomb Banshee: The Tomb Banshee is a must take against a low bravery army, essentially a little weaker than the Cairn Wraith in melee its scream has good potential to cause tonnes of mortal wounds on small low bravery units.

Black Coach: I find it very hard to find a place for the Black Coach in a pure Nighthaunt army. It relies on being close to Death Wizards in order to gain power which is something the Nighthaunt do not have. With the new leader upgrades in the Generals Handbook allowing your general to become a Death Wizard, this can be rectified but it still requires you to roll a 6 each turn to get the upgrade. Not that any of the upgrades really appear to be that useful.

Black Coach, taken from Black Coach warscroll

Units

Spirit Hosts: I like Spirit Hosts, in large numbers this unit can be devastating. It has the standard Fly and Ethereal as most Nighthaunt do but with 3 wounds each, it can be quite hard to get rid of a base of them. They have the ability to cause mortal wounds on a hit roll of 6 and when each base has 6 attacks each more often than not you do most of your damage from these wounds alone. I usually run them in groups of 6 for a potential 36 to hit dice.

Hexwraiths: Hexwraiths are best suited as fast flanking harassment units if they fly over an enemy unit in the movement phase they each have the chance to hit them with their scythes causing mortal wounds. I usually run these around avoiding combat flying over units till my spirit hosts get into combat, after one final flyover charging into the rear of units or going to pick off unsupported heroes.

Hexwraiths, taken from Hexwraiths warscroll

Monsters

Mourngul: Only earlier today did it hit me that the Forge World Mourngul looks like a giant spirit so after a quick check of its warscroll I know I have found what the next addition to my Nighthaunt host will be! Rules wise without using it in the game it seems very strong. It keeps the standard fly and ignore rend that most of the Nighthaunt have with a 3+ save, a second 4+ save against mortal wounds and then the ability to regain D3 wounds every turn it kills something. The Mourngul only has one melee attack option but at full wounds, it has the potential to throw out 16 damage at -2 rend not accounting for the extra attacks it gets if it rolls a 6 to hit. It has a nice bravery damage effect that could work well with the Banshee scream. I can't wait to get a hold of this model to just start causing some chaos on the table.

13 comments:

  1. Hi, i want to make a Pitched Battles Nighthunt Army. Can i ask you some questions?

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    1. I want play a 1000 points list so i can only use 3 leader. Should i use 3 Cairn Wrath and 1 Banshee?

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    2. At a 1000 points you can take up to 4 Leader units so a combination of Cairn Wraiths, Banshees or Black coaches. I have found in pure Nighthaunt lists that the the heroes just do not survive. In my 1000 points list I take 1 Tomb Banshee as my general and make her a wizard and 2 Cairn Wraiths to sit on objectives. In all of the games I have played this list the heroes have done next to nothing so I fear that your 3 Cairn Wraiths and 1 Banshee could be a little too much. If you want to check out my 1000 point list its noted in the first AoS post on this blog. What are else are you planning in your 1000 points?

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    3. My List is not finished yet. My first problem was what hero i should take.

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    4. Fair enough, id say 3 heroes are enough. Leaves tons of points then for the killy units like Spirit Hosts (take lots of them!).

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  2. I think first i will try the same List like you and later i will Mix a little bit to use the Mortis Eng and the Mortarch of Blood

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  3. I also really need help as I'm just starting the death faction with the nightnaunt keyword. I think the units are allright (although the mourngul is one of the best units in Death) but I love both the fluff and models of the army. What do you think about using the command trait that allows a 5+ army wide Sv to create an even more Op mourngul and sprit hosts

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    1. Don't get me wrong having that extra 5+ save would be really useful but the ability to give that Mourngul or a unit of Hexwraiths +1 save using mystic shield will all ways be my choice. Our models are already really survivable as is with everything being a multi-wound model and ignoring rend due to Ethereal.

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  4. ,How many hexwraiths do you think I should have in a 2000pt list? I'm also only using nighthaunt in the list as well

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    1. I have yet to play at 2000 points but when I get to that level I thick I would play 2 units of 10 Hexwraiths.

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  5. The Mourngul's Ghastly Apparition ability is pretty sweet.

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