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Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
Vampire Lord:
COMMAND ABILITY Blood Feast - target DEATH unit can make one extra attack with each of their melee weapons until your next phase.



Necromancer:
SPELL Vanhels - Skeleton, mordant (?) or zombie unit within 18" can pile in and attack TWICE in your next combat phase.



Corpse Cart:
Balefire Brazier/Unholy Lodestone: Basically either an offensive or defensive magic buff, Lodestone buffs your rolls by +1, Brazier debuffs the enemy rolls by -1, with a range of 18" for both.

Vigor Mortis: Add +1 to hit to zombie units within 9" of your cart. (this is on the zombie scroll)

Vigor Necris: Gives Dire Wolves a 4+ save instead of 5+ to units within 9" (dire wolves scroll)



Zombies:
Dragged down and torn apart: Add 1 to hit and wound rolls for every 10 zombies in the unit, up to +3. So a unit of 30 zombies is hitting and wounding on 3+, not 6+. With a corpse cart nearby its 2+ 3+.


Wight King:
Infernal Banner: 6++ essentially, even against Mortal Wounds. 9" range when moved, 18" HUGE bubble when planted.

Mortis Engine:
Blasphemous Tome - Add 1 to casting rolls for DEATH WIZARDS within 12". Minus 1 to casting rolls of all other wizards within 12". You can give your Death wizards +2 to cast when alongside a CC, whilst giving the enemy -2. Makes getting that Vanhels off much more reliable. Or summoning that unit of zombies or Distraction Carnifex/terrorgheist.

------

These are the most obvious synergies I've seen so far.

Say, two units of 30 zombies, supported by a Wight King, VL, Necro and Corpse Cart. Assuming you can get 15 zombies into range (overlap bases, and zombies are quiet slender/small), they get 30 attacks at 2+ 3+, with 6++ saves, then they get to do it AGAIN.

Please please please, by all means add your own synergies that you've spotted or calculated.

Bearing in mind I haven't even looked at the TK warscrolls yet except for the "bend your knee" gag rule for Settra, so I'm sure there are some synergies in there.
 
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Demian

Vampire Count
Oct 28, 2011
1,245
You can raise zombies and merge them into a single horde whenever you want, making Commanding Abilities much better to use.

as for other synergies:

1x Strigoi Ghoul King (Black Hunger spell that increases attacks by 1 of all flesh-eaters in 18'' / Lord of the flesh-eaters command ability that adds +1 to HIT and WOUND rolls of all flesh-eater units within 18'') both buffs include himself as well.

20x - 40x Crypt Ghouls (Unholy Masters ability to re-roll 1's to HIT). They can't be resurrected by means other than the Grave Call spell from a SGK on a Terrorgheist, so the number you bring is the number it'll have to hold!

3x - 6x Crypt Horrors (Creations of the Ghoul Kings ability, that re-rolls all failed to HIT rolls for this unit)

1x - 2x or maybe 3x Varghulf (no specific rules that require Flesh-eater units, but they are one themselves, being able to be buffed by Ghoul Kings, they are worth mentioning)

1x Strigoi Ghoul King on a Terrorgheist (besides it's amazing Shriek, Grave Call spell increases every Ghoul unit by D6 models, in a 9'' radious. This actually increases model count, instead of just raising a new unit, and Ghouls have no other way to return slain models back. Fest on flesh command ability gives run & charge to a single flesh-eater unit)

1x - 3x Bat Swarm models (since both Crypt Horrors and Crypt Ghouls have a hard time resurrecting their fallen warriors back, you'd like to prevent they die from missile fire. Bat Swarms seem like the way to go to debuff ranged to HIT rolls here)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ghoulish line of combat is a bit less self-sustaining than the Skeleton or Vampiric style of army, but can pack quite a punch. If you are allowed (because I still don't know if it is permited yet) back them up with Tomb Kings army!

Tomb Swarm, Carrion and Sepuchral Stalkers, with a Screaming Skull Catapult are a great way to deal with those long range stuff that would try to gnaw at your flesh-eaters! They can in and out of the game board, and set up ambushes while the bulk of the Ghouls gets to use their fullest potential commanded by their Ghoul King.

There is a "Skeleton" synergy as well, but that one may even encompass Tomb Kings skeletons, since they are all DEATH mages, so I'll try to get into that and post it further here!
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
We lost our best synergy with Tomb Kings unfortunately.

The casket only gives a +1 to the roles of liche priests.

The heirotitan no longer exists save for as a bone giant.

My Will.be done only affects death rattle units.

The only unit i can see myself taking is a unit of 20 skeleton archers. Hail of ancient arrows gives a unit of 20+ archers a second attack.in the onlyshooting phase.for a tasty total of 40 shots.provided there's no.enemy unit within 3".
 

Demian

Vampire Count
Oct 28, 2011
1,245
We gained a synergy of our own with the Corpse Cart, so no biggie there!

Deathrattle units exist in both TK and VC armies (Wight Kings, Skeleton Warriors, Black Knights, Grave guard, Skeleton Archers, Riders, Chariots, etc) so it should be fairly easy to come up with some combos.

The Hail of Ancient Arrows ability clarifies the question "can I shoot into combat?" and the definitive answer is yes!

We can have a nice degree of control with hordes of infantry, many interesting shooting attacks from archers to shrieks, and very cool magic from Raising models / resurrecting to healing multi-wound stuff, or adding a single model to existing units (like Ushabti).

This army has every flavor of unit now.

There is also something to consider, I've found:

We are "immune" to Battleshock tests for units of 5 or less models, since D6 + 4 will never exceed our Bravery characteristic, so you can feel free to plunge into battle, and only by slaying every model will we relent.

Other armies are only immune to battleshock with single models, bear in mind :3
 
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Demian

Vampire Count
Oct 28, 2011
1,245
Oh! because of their Icons!!

Yep, there are some other modifers as well from other armies (I believe Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos) but that would be normal to have. Still, Bravery 10 is a cushion for small tactical units, while keeping our hordes a bit more manageable.

Just sayin =)


EDIT:

The Lizardmen army also clarifies the question "Can I summon units that I've not fielded in the game?" The definitive answer is Yes! since Lizardmen can now summon non-fielded HEROES!!

That is actually kinda cool, and dangerous

----------------------------------------------------------

Undead Healing synergy:

As you know, raising new/slain models and healing wounds is completely different now in AoS. So here's what I've found about it in our army:

Heinrich Kemmler:
Chaos Tomb Blade can add a single Skeleton or Zombie to a unit.
Invigorate spell can heal a wound to every DEATH model within 18''. Use it with an army composition of Multi-wound models, such as heroes Vargheists, Cairn Wraiths, Black Coach. It is not useful with single wounds models, like infantry. Maybe Cavalry can benefit a bit, but 2 wounds isn't enough to make any real difference. Also very useful when using more small units, than limited mobs of high model count.

Mortis Engine:
The Reliquary ability will heal D3 wounds of DEATH units, while damaging other units, but just once during the game. Same as the Invigorate spell above.

Isabella von Carstein:
The Blood Chalice of Bathori can heal a wound of any VAMPIRE 3'' away from her. Useful to combo with Vampire Lords, Blood Knights and Vargheists, specially them since they have no way to heal each turn, unlike HEROES and Blood Knights. Note that the Black Coach is no longer tagged as Vampire!

Tomb Herald:
Standard of the Undying Legion can return 1 slain model to every DEATHRATTLE unit within 24''

This is it for effects that HEAL wounds and some that raise fallen warriors, besides all the ones included in each warscroll, like Icon Bearers.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Morghasts also grant a +1 bonus to cast, although only for spells that summon new death units. Combine with a lodestone cart and engine with tome and you auto-pass the summon 10 zombies spell. Nagash auto-passes the summon 20 (40 for him). And the cart has the listed synergy with them (though corpse carts lack it). I was sad that we had skeleton and ghoul formations, but not a zombie/necro one, but honestly with all the synergy built in for them with summoning, bonuses to summoning, units that benefit from numbers and can join with newly summoned units to reach / sustain those numbers, with vampire / necromancer / corpse cart stacking buffs as well, they've essentially got a formation already.
 

Quinten

Grave Guard
Jul 17, 2014
267
Manfreds general ability on that unit of zombies that is hitting on 2+/3+
 

Woolly.Mammoth

Black Knight
May 13, 2014
360
AZ
There's a lot of individual synergy going on. While now you can now create massive united armies (most notably with "order" and "chaos") for the first time (and a long time coming) you have serious incentive and synergy with themed lists.

The big one that stands out to me first is Ghoul King+ghouls+crypt horrors+Vargulf. Fielding only these units will give you massive bonuses. I like this, specifically because I really hated having to bring 40 ghouls and 8 crypt horrors every single game, there just not my favorite theme of undead. Now I dont have to bring any in order to work toward a different theme. I like the idea of an all skeletal army led by powerful undead heros and now thats a big thing.

The hero you choose to lead clearly has a big effect on synergy - you pick the hero to represent your playstyle.

The Casket situation is weird. They made it only Liche Priests which is odd considering it got big for VC in end times. Its just another example of GW not understanding its fan base. Regardless it has cool rules and is not useless by any means. But there is synergy abound for VC+TK more than ever. It does seem like TK are seperated by "Mummy" heros, and "Reanimant" constructs, but there are a ton of "deathrattlers" and synergy with all "death" units. for example a War/Royal/Necroshpinx can be healed by any death wizard.

The rules are very cool but as of right now there's that big motzaball hanging out there that there's no reason not to just take nagash and 6+ Tgheists.
 

Demian

Vampire Count
Oct 28, 2011
1,245
Morghasts are REANIMANTs, so Liche Priests can affect them with Righteous Smiting.

Van Hel's Danse Macabre affects Skeletons (all kinds), Zombies (which are: Corpse Carts, Dire Wolves, and regular Zombies) and Mordants (which are: Crypt Ghouls and Crypt Horrors so far). Varghulfs are not Mordants and won't be affected.
 

Macarian

Vampire Insomniac
Jan 19, 2014
153
Netherlands
Neferata looks great to me.
1) Dark Mist on a unit of Blood Knights. They have a 3+ Save against all attacks (Ignore Rend and Bloodshields) and they Fly. Hard-hitting, durable and mobile. Added bonus from Twilight's Allure.
2) Twilight's Allure for -1 to hit, couple this with Bat Swarms and we have -2 to hit Shooting Protection. She can even summon the bases in range.

Speaking of Bat Swarms, they just became our very best Roadblocks. As long as the enemy can't do 5 wounds on them, they heal all damage after inflicting a wound. They are fast Flyers and single bases can't run away because of Battleshock.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
The liche priest ability to buff Morghasts is returned by the morghast buffing lich priest summoning rolls. Not quite perfect synergy, since morghasts don't buff liche priests when the later are casting spells to buff the former, but even so I'd say morghasts are a very good pairing with liche priests, arguably more so than their own native TK statues. While the TK scroll says to use heirotitans as bone giants, I would not be at all shocked to see some players using theirs as an archai, in order to preserve that synergy with their casters.

I could see running liche priests with a casket in place of necros and a corpse cart for summoning lists that wanted bony undead rather than the fleshy kind. Theoretically lich priests could benefit from the casting bonuses of both caskets and carts (and engines, and morghasts), but carts really want you to be summoning zombies, and once combat is joined necromancers are much better support for zombies thanks to their native spell.
 

Macarian

Vampire Insomniac
Jan 19, 2014
153
Netherlands
Today I played my first game of AoS. The Flesh-eater Carrion Battalion is really strong, lots of internal synergy.
  • Strigoi on T-bat increases Ghoul unit size making them stronger (at 20+ 1 extra attack) and give them re-roll 1's to hit. Within 15" of the Charnel pit, you're talking 4 attacks per model, with re-rolls.
  • Crypt Horrors also become great with the re-rolls to hit and extra damage on 6's, really easy for them to kill a unit, get the 4+ save and then anvil with their regeneration.
  • Also T-bats are just as strong as ever (they blasted a unit of Dragon Ogres with 9 mortal wounds in one round) and benefit greatly from the battalion moving their save to 4+ and having the strong regen.
Other nice units:
  • Blood Knight on the charge are finally the scary monsters they ought to be.
  • Bat Swarms get the award for new single base area-denial unit.
But the star of the match for me was Neferata, she is A-ma-zing, start her outside 18" of enemy Wizards, cast Dark Mist and Mystic Shield on herself. Now move 16" and charge whatever you want.
  • Mystic Shield and Dark Mist combine for a 3+ save against everything but Mortal Wounds.
  • Combined with Twilight Allure and Feaster of Souls she is really, really tanky.
  • She churns out a frightingly amount of damage and her Dagger of Jet allows her to kill Heroes mounted on Monsters efficiently.
Next game I'm going to add a Wight King with Infernal Standard to help the fragile Ghouls stay alive against shooting attacks.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
As mentioned in the thread over in bloodlines by Demian, bubble wrap your reach units with something tanky or numerous, and you won't have to worry about the majority of incoming attacks while still being able to dish out your own.

The obvious example for this would be a ghoul king on terrorgheist, who would lose out on his claw attacks, but still be able to attack (in shooting and melee) with the monster over a blocking line of ghouls, while using his abilities and spells to buff those same ghouls.

The downside is that you can't charge that way, since the wrapped unit won't be able to get within .5 inches of an enemy unit without first abandoning its shield, but works well defensively if you can count on the opponent charging you (ie, they're not spaming ranged weapons).

........................

If you're doing this with zombies, or even just using zombies as a tar pit generally, it's worth leaving a string of them stretching back away from the combat, so that you can raise new units more than 9" from the enemy but still within 1" of the zombie unit in combat, letting you refill their ranks and keep their bonuses to hit and wound up.
 

Demian

Vampire Count
Oct 28, 2011
1,245
Zombie strategy sounds nice! since you can add them to your existing zombie unit in the same phase that you raise them.

I added a maneouver that would let you "charge" and reposition your long ranged melee weapons units in the AoS experience. I'll copy the text below:

Depending on your charge roll, you can move within 1/2'' with your large models (only 1 model will suffice, if talking about Skeletons, the rest can get behind your ghouls), anywhere near the frontline is fine. Then, in the pile up phase you move them 3'' behind and start grinding.

With infantry (Ghouls + Skelies) you can even leave a gap between 2 ghouls enough for a sinlge skeleton to pass and trigger his combat since they can fit very well between the 1'' maximum distance of models in a unit. You can send that skeleton away once the combat starts.

Flying models work good as well (like Carin Wraiths) since they can reposition themselves behind the frontline easily.
 

Oppenheimer

Varghulf
May 26, 2013
743
But the star of the match for me was Neferata, she is A-ma-zing, start her outside 18" of enemy Wizards, cast Dark Mist and Mystic Shield on herself. Now move 16" and charge whatever you want.
  • Mystic Shield and Dark Mist combine for a 3+ save against everything but Mortal Wounds.
  • Combined with Twilight Allure and Feaster of Souls she is really, really tanky.
  • She churns out a frightingly amount of damage and her Dagger of Jet allows her to kill Heroes mounted on Monsters efficiently
I am so pleased. I had been fielding Neferata in 8e and she wasn't really doing well with no save. I'm so pleased that she is a power house now.
 
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Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
Not to mention for every hero she kills in combat she can potentially add a vampire lord to your army....

Also, if you field Neffy AND Nagash, Nagash will know Dark Mist AS WELL, since he auto knows any of the spells of other death wizards on the board.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
I am so pleased. I had been fielding Neferata in 8e and she wasn't really doing well with no save. I'm so pleased that she is a power house now.

You may also be pleased to know that Krell is pretty decent now, too. Not the powerhouse that Neferata is, but his armor actually does something now, he hits reasonably hard for an infantry hero, and if you make him your general he actually has a command ability that can meaningfully buff your units, making him feel more like the general of undeath that his fluff described but that his rules never managed to convey.

Honestly, all of our heroes look pretty decent, and with the returned access to Kemmler and Konrad, we actual have some respectable options for representing the previously neglected mortarchs the nameless and Luthor Harkon respectively. Wallach, of course, is still well represented by a vampire on zombie dragon. Now it's actually Dieter who's the hard one to fully capture - running him as another arkhan or as a vamp lord on abyssal terror could work, but neither feels quite right.
 

Oppenheimer

Varghulf
May 26, 2013
743
That's great. Krell's axe seems pretty powerful now too. Heinrich is a heal bot now which works great on the 2 wound calvary or on some monsterous infantry. I do love my named heros. Isabella's healing ability applying per model killed instead of just once for any number of models killed seems like it could heal up every vampire around her if she gets a few kills in, especially if she's got her 8 attacks. In fact I think a Vlad and Issie team would be pretty effective.
I don't own a Konrad but maybe I'll have to pick him up.
 

Demian

Vampire Count
Oct 28, 2011
1,245
You want to pick him up.

He told me so.

As a matter of fact, he told me to go get him asap, even if it is 3 in the morning. He won't mind.

=)

----------------------------------

Vampire Lords on Abyssal Terrors is what I'm lacking, but I guess they could be fielded to face tons of infantry, even if infantry now can kill a lone model more easily.

Konrad is still the better choice by far, with his Red Fury.

No I won't always talk to him while in this forum. He's okay with that.
 
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The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
It is not really synergy related but I actually think I prefer Harbingers over Archai in AoS, that charge range and 5 attacks are juicy!
 

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