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Who's your favorite Mortarch?


  • Total voters
    39

Unas the slayer

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 1, 2017
1,863
Northern Italy
Let's not fall into the gamer stereotype and start making generalizations about women.

That's a sound advice.

All her behavior is based upon typical things women do - I guess, even vampires have to obey nature rules :)

Of course, we could debate if it was GW's intention to give such personality traits to Neferata bacause those match their idea of feminine behavior.
In the same way the name Heinrich Kemmler was clearly inspired by a certain historical figure, which GW believed to be appropriate if used for an evil Lichemaster, rather than used for a noble knight of Bretonnia…

But i'd rather leave untouched the argument. ;)
 

benvoliothefirst

Grave Guard
Nov 22, 2011
278
Can anyone give us a list of who the current mortarchs are? Supposedly Nagash always has nine, but I don't think he's had the full compliment since The End Times, right?
 

Menkeroth

A Knight of Blood
Nov 11, 2013
934
Sehnde, Niedersachsen
Neferata, of blood; Mannfred, of night; Arkhan, of sacrament; Olinder, of grief (the coming one), and that's all for today. Nagash is clearly not in a hurry gathering all of them, it seems he has not yet made up names for all of them :D
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
UPDATED POLL WITH NEW MORTARCH - LADY OLYNDER, MORTARCH OF GRIEF

Please note that you can choose to change your vote if you want to

back in the day he was bad, true, but now he is a demigod of immense powers. He defeated Sigmar and Nagash (the latter being defeated two times in a row), conquered most of the mortal realms and controls the Eightpoints which means all the hard-won victories of late are nothing while Eightpoints remain in his power. Sigmar may dream of ruling all over the realms alone but he knows he never succeeds while Archaon lives and he fears him to the point he never takes to the field while Archaon, destroyer of countless worlds, is as a feared warrior as he is a general.

IMO, whilst it is a good that Chaos seem a more credible thread in the AoS, I'd have much preferred for a new big bad to have been created. I felt that Archaon's arc ended with him succeeding in destroyed in the Old World. I feel like he doesn't really have any further facets to his character or development now really


Let's not fall into the gamer stereotype and start making generalizations about women.

Agreed :thumbsup:

Supposedly Nagash always has nine

That's correct, and Nagash has always favoured lack of change. So hopefully more Mortarchs would be created, but saying that, GW doesn't seem to want to create as many special characters as it used to, so I'm not sure if this would happen.

Be a good future twist though if he created them, only for them to turn on Nagash and imprison him, taking over the rule of Shyish and the dead themselves.

GW - if you're reading - this was my idea first!!
 

Menkeroth

A Knight of Blood
Nov 11, 2013
934
Sehnde, Niedersachsen
IMO, whilst it is a good that Chaos seem a more credible thread in the AoS, I'd have much preferred for a new big bad to have been created. I felt that Archaon's arc ended with him succeeding in destroyed in the Old World. I feel like he doesn't really have any further facets to his character or development now really
Well, they needed to rely on some good old characters for players, so Archaon was a reliable choice, I guess. But I agree that he is not that different from him in the past save for his powers, and maybe that is what GW wanted in the first place, because Evil needs to be a faceless and terrible threat and Archaon never takes off his helmet but is always ready to come and crush your party.

Be a good future twist though if he created them, only for them to turn on Nagash and imprison him, taking over the rule of Shyish and the dead themselves.
Nagash suffered already much, only now he became a member of the Real Respected Boys club, so let him have his moment of triumph at least once.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
I just picked up the nighthaunt & soul wars book. Will possibly change my vote after finishing them, though it would take a lot to topple Arkhan as my personal favorite. And I do want to re-iterate that I really do love all of the mortarchs so far. I wish the writers would give Neferata more to do. I guess her spotlight will have to wait for a future Soulblight army book, maybe. But in terms of personality and character, they're all great, and I expect Olynder will be too.

In game terms... well, sadly they all seem kind of overshadowed by a generic Vamp Lord on Zombie Dragon. They're just not as durable as one would expect the immortal lieutenants of the god of death to be. I'd personally gladly pay more points on any of them for +5 wounds and some extra protection from mortals, or for some sort of bodyguard unit. Would be nice if grave guard or archai had such an ability. Ah, well, none of them are bad exactly either, so I really shouldn't complain.

....

As for their number, the Nighthaunt Battletome stated outright that there are NOT always nine. It's a number nagash has favored in the past, possibly due to the number nine being associated with arcane power in warhammer land on account of being the favored number of tzeentch. But at the time of Olynder's choosing, there were now canonically only three other mortarchs.

That could of course be retconed later, and Nagash can always elevate new mortarchs, or recall previous ones from the depths of his memory, but for the moment we have clear canon that there are not currently any other mortarchs out wandering the perifery. Krell is not currently kicking about, despite implications made in the old death alliance book. Vlad isn't waiting in the shadows, etc.
 
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Ol'timer

Ghoul
Oct 2, 2014
104
Now four Mortarchs with Katastroph Katakros. Rejoice, brothers, for a mighty bone crotch protector has joined the codpieces of Death.
xD Yeah well...lady oleander and her team, great work with nice models. The new crew......yeah, miss for me. The background is ok but the upgraded necron/ genestealer look just falls flat I feel. Maybe it's because the style is so different to whats been done with the rest. While the majority are still a mix of Egyptian and gothic undead, there's guys are a whole new look altogether. Oh well, that's just me.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Five with Katakros, as he's added to the three left over from the old world plus Olynder. Personally I'm all about the new Ossiarchs. Very late 80s / early 90s cartoon villain, a look I quite enjoy. Though I can understand why others don't, as there's a distinctly toyetic goofiness to them far removed from the more serious business feel of the oldhammer undead or even the more recent nighthaunt stuff.

Regardless of your opinion on the models, the lore's been pretty fun though. Nagash continues his unbroken string of victories (partial victories, but victories none the less) running back to Malign Portents and the Necroquake. In particular, in 'Wrath of the Everchosen' a combined force of ossiarchs and nighthaunts led by Katakros and Olynder take the Death Gate in the 8-points, and while their assault on the central citadel is eventually repelled by Archaon, it's only at significant cost to chaos (they lose their chance at rescuing slaanesh and effectively have to start the 'hunt for slaanesh' plot line from scratch), AND they haven't taken back the territory around the Death gate fortified by Katakros, making the undead the first faction in the game to successfully take and hold territory within the 8 points back from chaos, effectively reducing it to the 7-points. The best Order managed in the Realmgate wars was to close off a couple gates from the other sides, Sigmars shiny boys & friends were never able to actually push into the 8-points itself.

So yeah, despite the 'wrath of the everchosen' name of the book, and almost entirely chaos rules within it, and ending on a chaos victory (against a sacrificial exploratory probing force, albeit one led by two mortarchs), it still represents another relatively lopsided win for Nagash overall, which as an undead player in AoS is nice to see.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Arkhan the Black seems like the kind of middle management you wish was the actual management.

That is kind of his gimmick. He's pretty great, though I'm afraid his portrayal in AoS, and for a while before that honestly, has been boardering a bit on the Mary Sueish. Lately he seems to have no actual flaws, is never wrong, is always manipulating everyone else and never the one being manipulated.

AoS writers' love of Arkhan is such that his presence sometimes warps the portrayal of other characters around him, with Mannfred, Neferata, and even Nagash at times distorted or made to carry the idiot ball so that Arkhan can get to look cool and wise by comparison.

I love Arkhan, too, he's certainly my favorite mortarch, but he'd still be my favorite mortarch if he were caught out a bit more, and if the others got a bit more time in the spotlight. I haven't read the new Neferata novel, though, hopefully she gets to shine more there.
 
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Grave Tacticus

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 26, 2020
334
Utah
I've heard some weird off-hand stuff about the fiction, but I also have the Neferata material in my sights, would like to know a little about how the Legion of Blood operates, more specifically. I'm not a fan of the Morghast models, so if Legion of Blood wins me over I can just ignore them.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Legion of blood is basic legions of nagash (hoardy infantry buffed by support heroes, heavy recursion, some monsters and hammer units). Blood specifically buffs vamp lords and blood knights, so slightly punchier hammers, and debuffs enemy leadership, which stacks with your banners and lets you get some extra mortals out of banshees & terrorgheists.

Between the LoB buffs and recent points cost decreases, blood knights look to be a reasonable hammer unit. vamp lords on zombie dragons have also been decent, but losing the ethereal amulet hurts them a lot, so I'm not sure how strong they'll be going forward. You'll certainly have to be a lot more conservative in where you put them.

Neferata is a cool character with a great model and command ability, but unfortunatrly she must be your general if you take her in Legions if Blood, and that's a problem since she's quite expensive and not at all durable, even with her CA up. Losing your general in any LoN army is a major problem, since you lose the endless legions command ability, so making your feneral a huge fire magnet yet only barely more durable than a basic infantry hero is a big problem. As such, she's sadly much better off in a grand host army, where someone rlse can be the general, rather than in her personal legion. It's frustrating, but a problem Mannfred and Arkhan share. I'm not saying don't run her, just maybe save her for fun narrative games.

Dire woves are fast, cheapish, fill battleline requirements, and help screen for your vampire units and heroes, so def take some. The models are kind of dated, consider using fenrisian wolves instead. You'll still need recursive bulk infantry for onjectives & attrition. Skeletons are the traditional choice, but chainrasps are probably better these days. Unfortunately, unless you live in the UK, where a recent magazine promotion has flooded the market with cheap chainrasps, the cost per model is kind of prohibative, given that you want to field like 80 of them. Grimghasts are also decent as a harder hitting summonable horde, basically better grave guard, but they're not battleline, so points you spend on them are likely to detract from your blood knight budget.

Speaking of blood knights, the models are expensive, resin, and while looks are subjective I certainly am not a fan. You may want to look into conversion options or third party alternatives.

The other concern is future proofing. Chainrasps and grimghasts were added to the army to promote the soul wars bix, which I fon't think GW even sells anymore, so they could be removed from the list at any time, and such is especially likely if LoN ever sees a new battle tome. Soulblight is also rumored to see a separate faction at dome point, and when that happens blood knights might see new modrks, which could make a waste of money and effort you invest in vonversions now. Worse, vampire units in general might see new updated rules that make tgem work better in the soulblight army and worse in legions if nagash, much as what happened to Arkhan and Nagash with the OBR book.

If you start collecting LoB now, a Soulblight book, if one does come out, will probably be great news for your vampire units, but the bulk of your army in the mean time will be dire wolves and summonable infantry hordes, and none of that is likely to still want to run with them, which may end up splitting your expensive collection in half down the middle.

I have no good advice gor what you should do about it, because even if a soulblight faction is coming, it probably won't be any time soon, thanks in no small part to covid delays. Heck, the lumineth arent even really out yet, and we havent heard anything about the guants in ages, and right now 40k has the spotlight, so the earliest we even might see a soulblight book, assuming the rumors have any substance to them, is ptobably next year. That's a long time to wait on a book that might not even be coming, when ypu could be starting and enjoying an army right now.
 
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Grave Tacticus

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 26, 2020
334
Utah

Thanks Malisteen, I really appreciate that. Yeah, it's hard to say what GW is planning. My personal preference is against running special characters, since I like my army generals to be "my guys". I do hope they rework Neferata and Mannfred to be more useful. Speaking of Mannfred, I've never really liked him, or characters like him, that whole "I'll increase my power by eating all of my allies". Doesn't really inspire confidence in his leadership.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Mannfred is basically Warhammer Starscream. Hard to take seriously, but if you're not overly conserned with that he can be a lot of fun.
 
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Jon Skellan

Zombie
Oct 9, 2019
9
Lille
I'm much afraid of Vampire Counts getting TombKing'ed, eg Squatted.

They seem to have not gotten much love in GHB2020, and Katakros might be a herald of more somber things to come for true believers.
 

Grave Tacticus

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 26, 2020
334
Utah
I'm much afraid of Vampire Counts getting TombKing'ed, eg Squatted.

They seem to have not gotten much love in GHB2020, and Katakros might be a herald of more somber things to come for true believers.

With Neferata and Mannfred getting love in the main fiction, I don't think we have to worry about it too much. But... I've been wrong before. It's this sort of zero faith in GW that's gutted the community, and inspired me to give my armies to a friend when AoS first appeared.
 

Unas the slayer

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 1, 2017
1,863
Northern Italy
Vampires as VC are no more.
LoN, Nighthaunts and FEC fractured them into differenr factions, tied together by Nagash.
Then Ossiarch B. added a new army to Death. The focus is drifting away from our old undead vision.

But that said, "vampires" are included in LoN, which is the main faction, where you can play Nagash himself... they are not going to be squatted.
 

Oppenheimer

Varghulf
May 26, 2013
743
I wonder what's going to happen with Arkhan now. I won't put spoilers but the Teclis broken realms book had some developments for him in the fluff.
 

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