Post: #1

This thread is to discuss and create an optional army list tailored to Necrachs. Players should be able to use this or the main army list with the Necrach stat / bloodline changes if they wish, so it needs to be balanced.

Ideally we don't want to create too many new units, just change or limit choices.

Army list so far: Will be updated as per discussion

Characters - All heroes can ride an Abyssal Terror

Core:
Skellies
Zombies (agreed at the 1+ choice)
Corpse Carts (doesn't count towards core)
Experiments (0-1) (see bottom of post for stats)

Special
Ghouls
Dire Wolves
Fell Bats
Grave Guard
Wraiths (I can see them being able to summon more of them?)
Spirit Hosts

Rare
0-1 Varghulf (Experimentation)
Black Knights
Unridden Zombie Dragon or Abyssal Terror - Does not count as hero choices, no need for monster reaction tests


Experiments - 35pts per model?
At the start of the game after deployment roll using the below table for the units stats. The roll is for the whole unit excluding characters:
M - D6+2
WS - D3+1
BS - 0
S - D3+3
T - D3+2
W - D3
I - D6 -1 (if 1 or less rolled suffers from stupidity for the battle)
A- D3
Ld - D3+4

Special Rule (Roll D6)
1 - Pickled Skin - has the flammable special rule
2 - Explosive - Whenever a zombie is killed all models (including friendly and other experiments) take an automatic S2 hit.
3 - Tough Hide - has 4+ armour save
4 - Relentless Blows - Has ASF
5 - Unstoppable - Has regeneration
6 - Assimilation - For every enemy model that is killed by a roll of 6 to wound, it is immediately resurrected as an Experiment, with the same stat line and special rule. It joins the Experiment unit that killed it.

Abyssal Terror Upgrades
The line of W’soran like to experiment with all their undead creations. Their favoured creatures however, are always the monsters they create by melding parts of other creatures together. Be it Wyvren, Dragon, Manticore or other hellish creature, the sum of the parts can prove to me much deadlier

You may choose to increase the statistics of one Abyssal Terror in your army. If this is a mount, it must be the mount of the general.

+1 S: 25pts per increase. Can only be taken a maximum of twice.
+1 WS: 5pts per increase. Each increase over the first doubles the points costs, so +2WS will be 10pts, +3WS, 20pts and so forth
+1 T: 35pts per increase can only be taken once
+1 A: 15pts per increase, Can be taken a maximum of three times.
+1 W: 50pts, max total 7 wounds.
+1 I: 5pts. Each increase over the first doubles the points costs, so +2I will be 10pts, +3I, 20pts and so forth

Special Rule Options
Scaly Skin / Tough Hide: +1 to the creatures armour save upto a max of 2+ armour save. 5pts per increase, each increase over the first doubles the points costs, so +2 to save will be 10pts, +3 to save will be 20pts and so forth.
Devastating Charge - Causes D6+1 impact hits in the charge: 35pts basic, add an additional 10pts for each strength upgrade.
Guardian - All ranged shots must be allocated against the AT. Any attacks in close combat must be randomised as per shooting, the rider cannot be specifically targeted. 50pts

Post: #2

Make Zombies a 1+ choice, Necrarchs have to have the horde feel...
Also may I suggest moving Dire Wolves to special, Black Knights to rare and Blood Knights removing all together. Necrarchs are not known for their cavalry.

Post: #3

Thing is you have got to remember that Necrach's can summon and create any undead, so they wouldn't have all the limitations that say a Strigoi army might have.

I would say:

Characters - All heroes can ride a Zombie Dragon or Abyssal Terror (does not take up an additional hero slot).

Core
Skellies
Zombies (agreed at the 1+ choice)
Corpse Carts (doesn't count towards core)

Special
Ghouls
Dire Wolves
Fell Bats
Grave Guard
Wraiths (I can see them being able to summon more of them?)
Spirit Hosts

Rare
0-1 Varghulf (Experimentation)
Black Knights
Unridden Zombie Dragon or Abyssal Terror - Does not count as hero choices, no need for monster reaction tests)

I would maybe suggest an additional unit:

Experiments - A 0-1 core choice that has random stats maybe?

Post: #4

Hmmmm, I wouldnt have heroes riding Zombie Dragons. Abysal Terrors yes, but not dragons. For the rare yes those unriddden monsters do sound good. Im not sure about ghouls in special. The fluff dos say that the Necrarchs make use of ugly living servants. I can easily seeing ghouls working for them.

Post: #5

Maybe some kind of undead construct. Like flesh golems or something. 3 wounds, so that they are hard to kill. Make them a special or rare choice.

Personally, I dont see them using wights at all. I know they can raise anything, but wights are too combaty in my opinion.

Post: #6

Why not? Necrachs are far from stupid. Whilst they love experiments they will want to ensure they are protected. I can't see them getting rid of GG.

I can see your point Marcus - limit the heroes to Abyssal Terrors. About the ghouls, yes its true that some do hang around Necrachs, but I don't think there are as many as Skellies or Zombies hence Special would be correct.

Not sure about the flesh golems. I was thinking of something similar on a smaller scale.

Post: #7

What, like super zombies? Sounds cool. Two attacks and two wounds sound like a good deal?

Post: #8

Something along those lines, maybe randomly generated stats at the start of the game like:

M - D6+2
WS - D3+1
BS - 0
S - D3+3
T - D3+2
W - D3
I - D6 -1 (if 1 or less rolled suffers from stupidity for the battle)
A- D3
Ld - D3+4

Special Rule (Roll D6)
1 - Pickled Skin - has the flammable special rule
2 - Tough Hide - has 4+ armour save
3 - No effect
4 - Bloodlust - May march move
5 - Relentless Blows - Has ASF
6 - Has regeneration

Post: #9

That sounds good, but maybe a little complicated. If you have two or three of these units, it could take quite a while to get their stats rolled, slowing down the game before it has started.

But I really like the ramdom special rules, especially if the enemy doe not know what they are facing.

Post: #10

I suppose that's why DoN suggested they're a 0-1 choice

I think those rules are great though - makes me wanna go straight back to a Necrarch army

Greetz

Post: #11

Thanks EC. Yeah that's why said 0-1. What about points though?We need to take into account they may end up really bad or really good, so I would suggest around 20pts?

Post: #12

30-40pts minimum. At average stats, they'll be M4-5, WS3, S5, T4, 2W, I2-3, 2A, and Ld6. They're Grave Guard with an extra attack, possibility of a better move, +1 S, another attack and another wound. They only lose equipment and Wight Blades.

I'd like to see a customizable Abyssal Terror for Lords, where you could buy stat upgrades and special rules up to a limit.

Something like:

+1 S: 25pts, can only be taken once
+1 WS: 5pts
+1 T: 35pts, can only be taken once
+1 A: 15pts
+1 W: 50pts, can only be taken twice
+1 I: 5pts

Regeneration: 50pts
Killing Blow: 30pts
Magic Resistance: 15pts each, can only be taken 3 times

And a couple of other special rules, plus a couple of different breath weapons to choose from.

Post: #13

Yeah I like that idea Kaladas

I would say that the Strength upgrade should be able to be taken twice. S7 for 50pts would be ok.

I would say that WS should double its cost after every upgrade, or you are going to end up with WS10 for 30pts.

Toughness - fine

Attacks - max of +3 extra?

Wounds - I wouldn't put a limit on it. If someone really wants to pay 250pts to put an extra 5 wounds on, well that's a lot of points.

Initiative - same as I said about WS

Other abilities:

Scaly Skin / Tough Hide: +1 to the creatures armour save. 5pts per increase upto a max of 2+ armour save.
Devastating Charge - Causes D6+1 impact hits in the charge: 20pts?
Guardian - All shots or attacks in close combat must be allocated against the Terror, they can not be randomised or targeted against the rider: 50pts

Post: #14

I'd say that the Devastating Charge should be a straight 50pts. Compare it to the Lizardmen Stegadon Warspear, which increases the impact hits of the Stegadon the Skink is riding from 1D6+1 to 2D6+1 S6 impact hits. That's 50pts, and this is on a considerably more mobile platform.

The restrictions were to keep it from outshining Dragons, as if you can make a Terror just as good as a Dragon, why take one?

And combining the Strength upgrades with Devastating Charge would be lethal. Nothing in the game has S7 impact hits.

Post: #15

True - but taking your points cost from above would make that upgrade 100pts alone, so it is fairly pointed. Plus I don't see why the Terror could not be made as mean as a dragon, after all a Necrarch may even be using a dragon as a basis.

Post: #16

I've got three suggestons:

1 - I think there should be a limit on how much you can add to a terror, perhaps a points max like Vampire Powers or magic weapons.

The next two could potentially fall under 'experiments'

2 - Exploding Zombies - all b2b models take a S1 hit no AS. Max number per unit a la Fanatics.

3 - Borg Zombies - you will be assimilated - For every model killed by zombies (including extra hits from non-persuit) roll. On a 1 free brainz.

Post: #17

For your uber-zombie suggestion DoN I think we need to show the potential for the experiments to go wrong, I thin,k they should have stupidity as standard. with this, I thinhk around 35pts would be fair.
I like the idea of a customisable Terror as well, and io believe the ideas so far are good. Doubling the cost for WS and I every time is a good idea, and +3 attacks seems fair, any more and its ridiculous.
To Fodderboy, I dont think there should be a limit, as people arent going to spend to much anyway othewrwise they wont be able to afford an army! For the exploding zombies, it seems interesting but would the wounds be inflicted on all models in btb contact, including our own? As for the Borg Zombies i dont see what the effect actually is?

Post: #18

I really like the idea, Fodderboy. Let me make sure I have it right, before I go off and start throwing my Necrarchs together.

For every wound inflicted by zombies, roll a d6. On a 1, we get another model? That's what it sounds like.

I like these suggestions so far, and really don't have much constructive to add. Keep up the banter, I'm eagerly awaiting something I can go playtest.

Post: #19

Onikago, maybe for every 1 rolled for an armour save - 1 wound models only. That way the zombies still have to wound something.

Post: #20

I quite like that idea - for every 1 rolled on an armour save would work.

I think the limits mentioned above Fodderboys post work, as Marcus said, if you really want to pay out hundreds of points you could do. However you would have a one egg that will probably get cannonballed to death.