FAQs and Errata Feb 26 Legions of Nagash

[Demian]

So, the new FAQs came out and, well, they are somewhat disappointing I believe.

They updated Grand Alliance Death, Malign Portents (minimal) and General's Handbook, and it wasn't so fun.

They did address some confusing situations (like Prince Vordrai's Breath attack occureing at the start of the shooting phase, or Ceaseless Vigil's interaction with Total Carnage), but kept the questions about Zombies merging and the Wight King's Infernal Standard, which is weird them being outdated rules... Oh, and Mourngul cannot be a part of a LoN army, saddly. I was hoping for the best.

Anyways, the hardest part to swallow was the interaction of Endless Legions and Teachings of the Master costing Reinforcement points. I guess I should've seen it on the General's Handbook, but noticed until now, it was always meant to cost points, which is meh.

I wasn't very fond of these FAQs =(

EDIT: I think the only nice thing about them, was the interaction with Nagash (Ceaseless Vigil - Deathless Minions - Morikane) being able to squeeze in a bit more survival for Nagash, using all effects to our benefit, and last, if all else fails, transfer the wounds to Morghasts, who in turn, have a chance to resist wounds themselves. If I'm reading correctly tht is.

 

[Sception]

You are reading the ceaseless vigil bit correctly. And confirmation that the mortarch formations aren't restricted to their legions is good. However, the fact that they not only didn't fix morngul, shardspire skeletons, and knight of shrouds in legion lists, but overtly stated that they never intend to (keldrek can still be taken as an ally, but whatever fancy new artifacts we get for him from dread solstice will never see play) is very disheartening, and bodes poorly for the hope of anything else new for deathbthis year, not just in terms of new models, but new battle tomes as well. It very much looks like our 'year of death' may be over in february.

And they didn't even answer the question of whether an allied keldrek can be the general of a legion army that includes their named character, a specific vs specific rules conflict that actually needed clarification.

But the worst bit in the faq is that the deathmarch battalion, now litterally the only battalion in the entire grand alliance not to require a special character, was dramatically nerfed, with the extra movement going from formation units 'within' 9" to units 'entirely within' 12". Good luck affecting more than one or maybe two units out of the formation's five with that, especially if you take the skeleton units in sizes large enough to matter.

All in all, a disheartening faq. Nothing improved, the only real change an outright nerf.

 

[Demian]

Yeah. I think Nagash, in all his might isn't doing a proper job in Age of Sigmar.

Vlad von Carstein would just go about and teach everyone his spells and include each and everything he could in his armies, you know, so that he can win.

Gravesites? He'd be spreading them all around the Realms so that everyone can use them.

You just invented a new ethereal knight? Here, have some really powerful artifacts so that Vlad could actually use him in battles that matter.

"Sir! our Wolves are wounded, should we use the power of Undeath to heal them, or raise more?"
- "Don't be silly brainless minion. Do both. You're not a mortal anymore" would answer Vlad.

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EDIT: Ok jests aside, I believe regarding to the Deathmarch Batallion, you can still use the Deathrattle Horde in regular DEATH armies. Sure they won't move at the start of the turn, but they can run an extra 4 instead or rolling a dice. I believe it is still legal for play and can still ress a model per turn.

Plus, I didn't notice before, but the Castellans of the Crimson Keep can be taken in regular Death armies. Don't know if that's nice, but it was new to me hehe.

ALSO ALSO! They never clarified what lore does a non-Deathmage non-Vampire wizard get when using the Lores of the Dead? Like, Banshees / Wight Kings are neither, so... huh!?

 

[Sception]

All of the legion formations can be taken in regular death armies, though none of them are actually good as such (deathmarch has a lot of units that rely on gravesites, first cohort and lords of sacrament are no good without the spell lores, castellan blood knights are rather poor outside of legion of blood, and neferata's and mannfred's formations aren't especially good even to begin with, imo).

Deathmarch is just the only one that can be taken without special characters, which makes it worth considering in legion lists that avoid fielding fragile mortarchs or pricey nagash. Made it worth considering, anyway. I'm not sure that can still be said post-faq. We'll see.

 

[Alabaster427]

ALSO ALSO! They never clarified what lore does a non-Deathmage non-Vampire wizard get when using the Lores of the Dead? Like, Banshees / Wight Kings are neither, so... huh!?

I think you just answered your own question. And the book agrees. Death mage wizards=necromancy; vampire wizards=vampires; deathlords=both; neither=neither

 

[Demian]

I think you just answered your own question. And the book agrees. Death mage wizards=necromancy; vampire wizards=vampires; deathlords=both; neither=neither

Ok, so...

How does the Dark Acolyte Command Trait (Legions of Sacrament) work with a Banshee / Wight King? Is this just silly rules writting?

 

[Alabaster427]

Ok, so...

How does the Dark Acolyte Command Trait (Legions of Sacrament) work with a Banshee / Wight King? Is this just silly rules writting?

I would say it is a gross overlook. if you ask GW at aosfaq@gwplc.com they will probably clear it up when they do the next faq update (I think in March) Most of the questions I asked got added to the FAQ this time.

 

[Sception]

The command trait itself gives you access to a spell from either of the new lores, on whatever character you give it to. The restriction on who can take a spell from what lore is in the abilities granting access to them, it's not fundamental to the lores themselves.

 

[Demian]

As Written...

yeah, you make a good point Malisteen. It does seem to imply that Dark Acolyte gives deathlord-like wisdom to the general, which is a nice tech. I'll use it as such, unless they nurf-FAQ it.

Anyways, I say we'd be better off with Vlad. These rules seem to take anything but matched play into account. I'll give them a feel and see how it goes.

 

[Woolly.Mammoth]

I think they might be changing everything, or a lot of things to "fully within x" in the new edition. But its not so annoying when you are taking about keeping a unit of say 5 paladins inside a range compared to multiple units of 40 skeletons. There was one guy at LVO who almost made top 10 with that battalion so maybe it was a required nerf that most people just don't know about because, there are not a lot of people in the world with 160+ skeletons.

As for the FAQ, as per usual I sent important questions to the FAQ team and they were not addressed at all. How the heck is Oubliette Arcana supposed to work? This may have been a typo considering the new edition "when someone casts a spell within 30", instead of attempting to unbind". So GW may have been deliberately ignoring that as to not call attention to the 30". I also asked why the Knight of Shrowds doesn't fit in, and I guess they couldent exactly say "no he doesn't fit because hes getting his own army in a few months".

Shutting up the naysayers with the First Cohort FAQ was very cool though.