1500 Point Undead List

[Grok]

Hi Everyone,

This weekend a local store is having a 12 person Kings of War Tournament. Any of the rulebook scenarios, minus loot, could potentially be on the table to be used.

Here is my List:

Legion of Zombies with Giant Dogs 200

Regiment of Soul Reaver Cavalry with Potion of the Caterpillar (PathFinder) 320

Regiment of Skeletons 90
Regiment of Skeletons 90

Troop of Wraiths with The Fog (-1 to hit with shooting) 175

Cursed Pharaoh with Wings of the Honeymaze (Flying 10) 185

Necromancer with Heal (3) and Surge (8) 100

Vampire Lord 220

Revenant King 120

Total: 1500

The legion of zombies serves as a center to soak up hits and control board space. I plan on losing them almost every game, but hopefully while distracting and holding stuff up.

One regiment of skeletons anchors the flank of the zombies, while the other is held in reserve to deal with flyers and break through units.

The Soul Reavers hit incredibly hard. With pathfinder the main way to mitigate them, terrain, is canceled. I can also sit them in forests to avoid shooting damage. These guys, while a main hammer, are such a huge target the opponent most likely with be maneuvering to counter. Their main job is to either gun up a flank, or control a board section, while my characters and wraiths clean house.

Wraiths + flying Cursed Pharaoh are SOOOO good! Both fly, so its easy to keep in surge range. With the fog one of the main ways to deal with wraiths, shooting, is reduced in effectiveness. The cursed pharaoh is also quite hitty, able to jump forward of damage most things at least once, stopping Thunderous Charge, or shooting.
The cursed pharaoh also supplies some much needed inspiring on the forward lines

The revenant king has been great to hold the flank of a unit, or face off against regiments of cav. Though he won't kill stuff in one go, his high defense, Crushing Strength 1, and leech life, keep him in the game until something can come in and support.

Vampire Lord is a new addition, my past 3 games I had a lich king with bane chant; however, most of the time I found he was not doing much. Bane chant is great, but my wraiths often were out of range, and the other targets either hit hard already, or aren't necessarily there to do damage. With some swapping around I found the points to replace the Lich King (which i still really like) with a Vampire Lord.

I figured the Vampire Lord serves a similar role to the Cursed Pharaoh but hits harder, and so can lurk around where needed.

Finally, the necromancer's main use is to supply heals to my elite stuff and characters. Having another source of surge is nice too, since it never hurts to double up (or in my case quadruple).

Thoughts?

I know the Soul Reavers are a pretty heavy investment at 1500 points, but their ability to march, Defense 6, and Leech life 2 seems well worth it.

Its a bit more character heavy then I would prefer, but seems like Undead need that. I would like some shooting but I have no shooting models yet :/

 

[Blutsauger]

Looks pretty good to me. Maybe see if you can find points for a horse for the Vampire for a bit more mobility and to let him keep pace with the Soul Reavers if need be?

 

[Grok]

Looks pretty good to me. Maybe see if you can find points for a horse for the Vampire for a bit more mobility and to let him keep pace with the Soul Reavers if need be?

Solid point, unfortunately I don't have any mounted VC characters need to rectify that.

 

[countulrich]

Personally I would take the fog off your troop of wraiths. Upgrades are fairly pricy and to me, and in theoryhammering it out with some of the other big GT players I know, the general thought is only spend points for upgrades on large units.

 

[Blutsauger]

Magic items are always going to change in actual value because their utility is going to change, depending on what unit they are equipped on. One of the main ways to deal with flying units (particularly ones with Def 6) is shooting them with piercing attacks. And taking The Fog really helps to deal with that. Usually you'd see it on a dragon mounted Vampire lord, or a unit of Drakon Riders or something like that, but it's still got reasonable utility on Wraiths.

 

[countulrich]

If it were a regiment I would agree with you, but paying for an upgrade - especially the fog, one of the most expensive upgrades - on a troop I just don't find to be the best use of points personally.

 

[Grok]

CountUlrich I agree with your thought, except you have to take into account the point scale I am playing. 1500 points is about 500 less then the average games I hear played on GT levels and almost 1000 less then many of the mantic events.

In a smaller point scale game I think the wraiths can do a ton of work, but they are going to be a target for shooting. The Fog seems a natural counter. Going to a regiment of wraiths increases their footprint too much, making it harder to get behind and around units.

With the Fog you can also plop the wraiths in front of any of the units in the army, and give the unit cover, which is pretty sweet.

Taking into account the role the wraiths play in the army, and scale of the game, and the utility additional shooting protection affords I am pretty happy paying the points .

 

[Grok]

I played the tournament today, here is the list I took (tweaked from the original list, after some great feedback here and on the Mantic Forum):

200 Zombie Legion with Dogs
320 Soul Reaver Regiment with Potion of the Caterpillar
140 Wraith Troop
160 Regiment of Werewolves
90 Skeleton Warrior Regiment
90 Skeleton Warrior Regiment
120 Necromancer with Heal, Surge, and Inspiring Talisman
185 Cursed Pharaoh with Wings of Honeymaze
80 Army Standard with Healing Charm
115 Regiment of Zombie Trolls

We had 10 people show up, which was a pretty great turn out.

I actually placed 3rd with 2 wins 1 loss.

My only loss was a very narrow loss, with the claim the center mission (decimation ?), opponent beat me by 152, 3 points over a draw lol.

Some learning points/ observations. Pathfinder on the Soul Reavers was a great choice, them sitting in a wood won my my third game. My opponent had an all mounted list, and between hindered charged and healing he couldn't take down my Soul Reavers, which allowed the rest of the army to envelope him.

The Flying Cursed Pharaoh was a beast, taking hits and blocking units up, not dying once!

The Arch Fiend, that Twilight Kin can take, is really tough. I wasn't prepared for him and he bogged me down in my second game, which cost me the game.

A regiment of werewolves is a great distraction unit. I used mine wide on the flanks. They were basically there to force my opponent to divert resources, so the Soul Reavers and Wraiths could do work.

I really wish I had some range support, or another unit of wraiths. I need to be able to reach out and hit opposing ranged units a bit better. I also wish I have some skeletons with spears.

Overall the list worked great, and I was happy with how I played. The more I play the game (I have about 10 games under my belt now), the more the subtleties of each unit are popping up to me. I am excited to start playing with the Abyssal Dwarf army I am working on, as my Undead are still very much so a Warhammer army, and need tweaks to work better in Kings of War.

So yeah thanks for all the help everyone! I walked away with a Orc War drum from the raffle, $10 store credit, and an AByssal Dwarf Ironcaster (I traded $20 store credit to a friend for it).

 

[Blutsauger]

Great work!