As I brought my attention to bear upon the idea of starting a new undead army, I found myself rather underwhelmed at the prospective troops Games Workshop was proffering. I get it, the undead troops are supposed to be super spooky and vampire themed, but the armor and weapons looks like they're going all shake loose at any moment. Sure, the Necromancy keeps it going, but it strikes me as inadequate. My army, my combat doctrine, and I say my army forges and maintains equipment of the highest order.
This is going to be a problem.
The idea of a well-maintained undead would (un)naturally be an extension of the commander's pre-death experience. If this was the Old World, you could just call it Bretonnian and get on with it, but AoS enables a little more breathing room with army theme, so here's a rough idea of what I'm working with: the general once fought for a Nagashi Catholic-esque religion, but died defending the land against Chaos invaders and was honorarily buried in the cathedral crypt with comrades. The invasion soon scoured the land until little was left but ruins and wilderness. After an age, our hero is roused from death by the Necroquake. As he musters an army to fight in Nagash's wars, efforts are made to return the land to its former glory.
After a look around, I found that skeletons and necromancers that fit the theme were easy to come by, Children of the Hydra's Teeth and Collegiate Arcanum Wizards respectively. With the addition of a Wight King, that covers the first 500 points, and the Wight King, not to mention the rest of the cavalry, is a bit of a unknown right now. The easy way would be to not worry about skeleton horses, and that's easily covered by saying some breed of wild death-infused horse has made a home out of the local wilderness. Knights weren't traditionally buried with their horses anyway.
The next issue is deciding on Morghasts or Blood Knights. I think the army fits well in Grand Host of Nagash, mechanically and thematically, which engenders Morghasts, but the models don't fit the army in my opinion. I've got plenty of time to find an alternative though. Until then, I'll keep building the army lore.
This is going to be a problem.
The idea of a well-maintained undead would (un)naturally be an extension of the commander's pre-death experience. If this was the Old World, you could just call it Bretonnian and get on with it, but AoS enables a little more breathing room with army theme, so here's a rough idea of what I'm working with: the general once fought for a Nagashi Catholic-esque religion, but died defending the land against Chaos invaders and was honorarily buried in the cathedral crypt with comrades. The invasion soon scoured the land until little was left but ruins and wilderness. After an age, our hero is roused from death by the Necroquake. As he musters an army to fight in Nagash's wars, efforts are made to return the land to its former glory.
After a look around, I found that skeletons and necromancers that fit the theme were easy to come by, Children of the Hydra's Teeth and Collegiate Arcanum Wizards respectively. With the addition of a Wight King, that covers the first 500 points, and the Wight King, not to mention the rest of the cavalry, is a bit of a unknown right now. The easy way would be to not worry about skeleton horses, and that's easily covered by saying some breed of wild death-infused horse has made a home out of the local wilderness. Knights weren't traditionally buried with their horses anyway.
The next issue is deciding on Morghasts or Blood Knights. I think the army fits well in Grand Host of Nagash, mechanically and thematically, which engenders Morghasts, but the models don't fit the army in my opinion. I've got plenty of time to find an alternative though. Until then, I'll keep building the army lore.
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