I think I'm "finished" with the draft for the Skeleton Warriors, or Eternal Legions as I've decided to call them here.
The idea is basically that they are the Skeletons from both Nehekhara, the surrounding lands as well as skeletons from ancient petty kingdoms from before even Nehekhara's time. They are the ones he summoned using his great Ritual, those that didn't reach Nagashizzar before Alcadizaar killed him, and those that didn't have any sworn loyalty to the Tomb Kings etc.
From a game perspective, the idea is to make them very flexible in their use, by playing on the idea that nearly every piece of undead fluff mentioning Skeleton Warriors seems to agree on; the fact that they can easily be made to work in a synchronous manner, which no mortal army can ever equal. This is not reflected in any rules, and with Nagash's greater necromancy, historical ties to legions og skeletons etc, I think it is quite doable.
This is just the first unit though, as I imagine a Javelin/Naphtha Thhrower support unit in the Core section as well, and then perhaps a medium Cavalry Unit (like Arkhan is describesd as so fond of leading in the riology) as either a Core or Special choce. They will both be a lot simpler thoug, as they are both Co-horts, i.e supporting units.
Here goes:
Legions Eternal
When Nagash performed his great ritual, awakening al the dead of ancient Nehekhara, so powerful was the spell, that a much greater part of their life essence was brought back than what is usual when summoning the dead, resulting in Skeletons with a somewhat greater understanding of their ‘self’. So great was this change, that when Nagash was killed on his throne by Alcadizaar, those skeletons which had been in the service of the ancient Kings of Nehekahra, returned so serve their masters out of a sense of loyalty still found within their very bones. Most of the skeletons awakened in the great ritual, has never sworn loyalty to the likes of Settra and the other ancient kings, and these skeletons are those that now serve Nagash, or by extension, his Dark Lords.
Although these skeletons mostly fell when Nagash was destroyed by Alcadizaar, the cult of Nagash have over the years gone to great lengths to retrieve their bones, while the foundries of Nagashizzar have for centuries provided them with their traditional gears of war, their spears, shields and bronze armour.
While the Skeleton Legions of Nagashizzar were slowly assembled and armed over the centuries, one problem soon became apparent to the followers of Nagash, they were simply too numerous to control efficiently without the Great Necromancer revived, and at his full strength. With the Vampires gone, the task of solving this seemingly insurmountable logistics problem; fell to the best and brightest of the few necromancers, whom made the journey to Nagashizzar over the millennia. For centuries they worked on a solution, but with the secret of the Elixir of Life not to be found anywhere they dared go in Nagashizzar, they eventually perished before their research could give them an answer.
The solution was found, less than fifty years ago, and it was discovered by the infamous Arkhan the Black. He knew that for the massive and still growing Legions of Nagashizzar to be effective, without their true master controlling them, they needed to be more independent from their master, able to act more on their own former instincts, enabling the controlling Necromancer to have a greater number of undead under his control without straining himself overly much. The solution was to make create large legions of skeletal warriors, then summon the spirit of a single powerful and ancient general and bind the whole legion to his spirit, while sacrficing a whole host of lesser spirits to grant the one enough power to fuse with the whole Legion. Even though the Leginnaire are more potent warriors than the equivalents found in the armies of the Vampires and the Tomb Kings, there was also a drawback to Arkhan’s idea, since it proved itself impossible to raise new skeletons and add them to the Legion after the completed ritual, as the controlling spirit simply refused to acknowledge them, thus bigger legions cannot be formed, only new ones.
The Legion Eternal is a fearsome enemy on the field of battle, marching in perfect unison, fighting with a coordination not matched by any mortal force. Armed with spears and shields, in the manner of ancient Nehekarha, and the advanced unit tactics perfected by mortals over millennia, they form the core of the vast host of Nagashizzar. They are truly the most eternal body of warriors, and they now stand ready to be unlashed upon the world again…
Eternal Legionnaire: M 4, Ws 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 2, A 1, LD 3
Eternal Champion: same stats, but +1 A
Troop Type: Infantry
Special Rules: “Legion of Nagash”
We are Legion!: As the Eternal Legion is controlled on a unit level by its ancient collective spirits, they find it very disrupting to have any outside influence in their midst, and this goes for attempting to raise new Legionnaires and adding them to the Legion as well.
Eternal Legionnaires count as skeletons for all intents and purposes, but the Legion’s size can under no circumstance become greater than its original 50 Legionnaires.
Undead characters may join this unit, but it will then be unable to benefit from the Legion Tactics special rule for as long as the character is present, as his presence is a disturbing presence for the Legion’s collective spirit.
Legion Tactics: Wars in ancient Nehekhara and the surrounding region was fought using a lot of refined unit tactics, and while some things was very hard to teach soldiers of free will, even given years of training, this is something which the undead Legionnaires can now perform perfectly with what seems like an ease that would shame the most skilled of mortal infantry.
The Legion Eternal is incredibly adept at changing its formation and purpose at an incredibly short time, acting as if they are guided by one single will. To represent this, and how the Legion uses this coordination to adapt to any situation, it has four specialist formations available to it listed below. Whenever the unit performs a successful Reform maneuver, for whatever reason, it may change its formation, as well as its facing and so on according to the normal Reform rules. Unless the owning player specifies otherwise, the Legion always deploys in the Shield-Wall formation. The number behind the formation’s name is there so that one can place a four sided dice by the Legion unit, with the number corresponding with the formation it currently uses.
The Legion Eternal does need to be within the General’s Inspiring Presence range to be able to perform a Reform maneuver.
•Shield-Wall Formation (1): Even though it is armed with Spears and Shields, the Legion makes a near impenetrable shield-wall facing their enemies.
The Unit has the “Parry Save” rule normally associated with the hand weapon and shield combination, even though they are armed with spears. They still benefit from the Extra Ranks special rule for having spears.
•Wedge Formation (2): This formation is used to break enemy formations as a shock tactic, by hitting their centre hard, and using any opening in the enemy line to disrupt the enemy formation. While effective when used by mortals, it is much more so with every attacker working together in near perfect synchrony.
When making a successful Charge move, the Legion adds an additional +1 to the Combat Result for being the one to Charge, but more importantly, should the Eternal Legion be a part of a winning combat, any enemy unit in contact with them counts as having half its number of ranks of five or more models, for the purposes of determining Steadfast (rounding up).
This formation weakens the flanks of the unit, so any enemy unit attacking the Flanks, need only be five models strong to disrupt the formation.
•Tortoise Formation (3): This formation was used for maximum protection vs. missiles, most commonly arrows. By pressing together, and keeping their shields above and facing outwards at all directions so that they nearly overlap, the unit creates a tortoise-like shell which protects it. The downside to this formation is that it leaves little room to fight, as well as slowing down all movement considerably.
The Unit has a +2 bonus to its armour save, vs. all manner of ranged attacks (i.e. a 3+ armour save), but it may not have a higher bonus than it currently has additional ranks of five or more models (so one additional rank of five models would only constitute a +1 bonus to the armour save).
The unit may not Charge an enemy while in this formation, nor may it make a March move. While in this formation, only the front rank may ever make attacks (even if armed with spears).
•Phalanx Formation (4): The unit stays close together, all spears pointing as effectively in one direction as possible, forwards.
The unit gains the Extra Ranks special rule, effectively fighting with two additional ranks if did not charge, because of the spears. The Legion gains a +1 armour save towards its Front, but any unit attacking the Flanks or Rear negates any bonuses for using a shield, and they also double any combat resolution bonuses from attacking in the Flank or Rear in the first place.
If a unit that is not Infantry, Swarm or War Beast Charges the Phalanx formation to its Front, it counts as having the Armour Piercing special rule for the following round of close combat. A Phalanx formation may only March if they are not in any kind of special Terrain (basically anything that has some special rules for it, regardless of what it is)..
Army List:
Core Option
Unit Size: 50 (Includes Champion, Standard and Musician)
Cost: 325
Weapons: Spears and Shields
Armour: Light armour
Options:
• One Legion Eternal may carry a magical Standard of up to………. 25 pts
Legion Javelin Auxiliary
Eternal Auxiliary: M4, WS 3, BS 3, S3, T 3, W 1, I 2, A 1, LD 3
Eternal Champion: M4, WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 2, A 2, LD 3
Troop Type: Infantry
Special Rules: “Legion of Nagash”, Skirmish
We are Legion!: As the Eternal Legion’s Auxiliaries are controlled on a unit level by its ancient collective spirits, they find it very disrupting to have any outside influence in their midst, and this goes for attempting to raise new Eternal Auxiliaries and adding them to the Javelin Auxiliaries as well.
Eternal Auxiliaries count as skeletons for all intents and purposes, but the Auxiliary’s size can under no circumstance become greater than its original 10 Eternal Auxiliaries.
Undead characters may join this unit, but it will then be unable to benefit from the Legion Tactics special rule for as long as the character is present, as his presence is a disturbing presence for the Legion’s collective spirit.
Auxiliary Tactics: The Auxiliary units main purpose was to support the Legion in battle, to weaken enemies before close combat ensued, and to disrupt the enemy lines.
This is a set of special rules, which may be utilized if the Auxiliary starts the round within the general’s Inspiring Presence range, or within 8” of an Eternal Legion:
•The Javelin Auxiliary must be deployed together with an Eternal Legion and counts as one deployment choice. It must be placed within 8” of it, but this does not have to be within the army’s deployment zone.
•The Javelin Auxiliary may choose Flee as a charge reaction, and it will automatically rally at the start of the LoN player’s following turn.
•If an Eternal Legion is in close combat with an enemy, the Auxiliary may support it by throwing Javelins (or Naphtha Jars) into the rear ranks of their foes. This can only be done if the Auxiliary are in the enemy unit’s Flank or Rear arcs, and the Auxiliary is not in close combat themselves. Any casualties inflicted in this manner, will not cause a panic test, but will instead be added to the Legions next combat resolution score.
Upgrades:
Naphtha Jars (25 pts): Instead of Javelins, the unit carries jars of burning naphtha, developed in the laboratories of Nagashizzar. This weapon was first and foremost developed to take on the traitorous Kings in the Land of the Dead and their subjects, but it has proven most useful against others as well.
The Naphtha Jars have 8” range, are S4, -2 to armour save, counts as magical Flaming Attacks, Ignores Cover, and are Move or Fire.
Army List:
Core Option (you may include one Javelin auxiliary unit for each Eternal Legion in the list).
Unit Size: 10 (Includes Champion, Standard and Musician)
Cost: 75 pts
Weapons: Javelins, Hand Weapons and Shields
Armour: Light armour
Options:
One unit of Javelin Auxiliary may upgrade their Javelins for Naphtha Jars………. 25 pts
Legion Cataphract Auxiliary
Eternal Auxiliary: M4, WS 3, BS 3, S3, T 3, W 1, I 2, A 1, LD 3
Eternal Champion: M4, WS 3, BS 3, S 3, T 3, W 1, I 2, A 2, LD 3
Skeletal Steed: M 8, Ws 2, BS -, S 3, T -, W -, I 2, A 1, LD -
Troop Type: Cavalry
Special Rules: Legion of Nagash
We are Legion!: As the Eternal Legion’s Auxiliaries are controlled on a unit level by its ancient collective spirits, they find it very disrupting to have any outside influence in their midst, and this goes for attempting to raise new Eternal Auxiliaries and adding them to the Cataphract Auxiliaries as well.
Eternal Auxiliaries count as skeletons for all intents and purposes, but the Auxiliary’s size can under no circumstance become greater than its original 10 Eternal Auxiliaries.
Undead characters may join this unit, but it will then be unable to benefit from the Legion Tactics special rule for as long as the character is present, as his presence is a disturbing presence for the Legion’s collective spirit.
Auxiliary Tactics: The Auxiliary units main purpose was to support the Legion in battle, to weaken enemies before close combat ensued, and to aid the Legion when needed.
This is a set of special rules, which may be utilized if the Auxiliary starts the round within the General’s Inspiring Presence range, or within 8” of an Eternal Legion:
• The Cataphract Auxiliary must be deployed together with the Eternal Legion, and within 8” of it.
• If the Cataphract Auxiliary is fighting in the same close combat as an Eternal Legion, the combat resolution counting against the LoN player from casualties (not including any characters involved), cannot exceed the lowest number of models slain, from either the Legion or any Auxiliary unit when determining the effects of the Unstable special rule.
Army List:
Core Option
(you may include one Cataphract Auxiliary unit for each Eternal Legion in the list).
Unit Size: 10 (Includes Champion, Standard and Musician)
Cost: 150 pts
Weapons: Spears and Shields
Armour: Heavy armour
Options:
• The entire unit may be equipped with Short Bows……………………20 pts
