Necrarch Playtesting Thread

[Disciple of Nagash]

Having found collecting playtesting data all in one thread a bit too confusing, I have decided to create threads for each of the Bloodlines.

In here you should post your experiences using the Bloodline stat changes, powers and optional army lists. You can also post your army lists here for feedback.

Any relevant feedback will be collated in this first post.

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

Right i think i might be able to get a playtest in this sataday. So as nobody's tried them so far i'm going to be using the Necrarch's (you might have guessed that as i'm posting in this thread).
So here's the 2000pt list:

Necrach Lord
MotBA, Forbidden Lore, Lotd
Lvl 3,Skull Staff, BoA

Necrach - Standard guy for raising skellys
Lotd, DA
Scroll

Necrach - A fighting Necrach :0
Experimntation, Quick Sliver
Flayed hauberk
Sword of Battle

20 Zombies

7 Experiments - These guys seem very expensive, ill see if they live up to the price

15 skellys
FC

10 skellys - Bunker for cowardly Vampires
FC

7 Dire wolves
Doom

19 GG
FC, Stringos

Zombie Dragon

I'm lacking flankers, but i wanted to try using the Zombie dragon

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

That list looks really thin on the ground. To be honest I think you will struggle with that, especially if you face some serious shooting.

Also I notice you have not chosen any of our custom Necrarch powers Any reason why not?

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

Also I notice you have not chosen any of our custom Necrarch powers Any reason why not?

It is a good point, I did have them in but while editing to fit monsters in I must have cut them out accidently in my over eeagerness to use 3 Zombie dragons. I shall edit them in now as there isn't a lot of point testing without them. - I shall play with 3 dragons another time.

Also how do i go about taking the extrahand weapons i can't see an option for it

I was looking at taking one of the new Necrach powers with my lord but Complete focus would have to be instead of MotBA or Forbiden lore, and without MotBA i don't think i'd have enough power dice to recast spells other then the necromancy spells in reality and without Forbidden lore i risk not getting the spells i want to recast.

Bloodline of worson seems expensive as well, and if you take it you can only be a level 3 wizard with it i don't think the benifits of it will be worth the cost.

If i'm lucky i might get a game in this afternoon

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

You don't have an option for an additional hand weapon - they are Necrarch's after all.........in fact maybe they shouldn't have quicksilver, but I'll let the playtesting speak for that.

I look forward to seeing your results.

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

Necrarch Stat Changes

-2WS
-1I
May not wear mundane armour
Cannot take mundane weapon options with the exception of an additional HW ( I can see daggers).
+1 to casting roll

That bit needs deleting in the stat changes then

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Lol - I knew copying and pasting was not good

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

Right the first part of my report, ill try and get the second one up soon but i've got into a serious and unfortunate tangle with real life. Beware its long.

Lists - Mine above

Opponent – Brets
Something like this.

Bret Lord
Warhorse
Auto-hit Lance
Grail shield I think

Paladin BsB
Warhorse
Don’t think he had a magic banner

Paladin
Warhorse
Lance
Magic items – didn’t do a lot so I can’t remember

Damsel
Lvl 2
2x Scrolls

Damsel
Lvl 2
2x Scrolls

20 Peasants
Pole arms, shields

11 bowmen
Stakes

8 Knights of the Realm
FC

8 Knights of the Realm
FC

6 Knights of the Realm
FC

9 Grail Knights
Std - +D6 inch charge






Set Up – something like this.

6 knights, Bowmen, Peasants, Knights, Knights, Grail, Trees
……Rock………………………………………………….
………..…………Skellys.. Experi,. GG, Dragon, Zombies, Rock
……… Wolves ………………… Bunker

As I suspected after its near success against me last time I played it, all his Knightly hero’s piled into the Grail Knights the Damsels Joined the peasant units, One in each. The brets prayed.

My mad Combat Necrach joined the GG and the other two hid in the bunker.

Spells/ Random stuff
Damsel (bowmen) - Bears anger, Crows feast
Damsel (peasants) – Bears anger, The beast cowers

Lord – Takes Lore of Vampires
Necrach - (Bunker) Gaze of Nagash, Curse of years
Necrach – (GG) – Raise dead

Experiments Stats
M 5
Ws 4
Bs 0
S 6
T 3
W3
I0 (Minimum of 1 right? - other wise they die) – Stupidity
A3
Ld 5

Unstoppable – Regeneration

I decided to experiment on the Experiments - Distain- Hatred.

That’s turned into a pretty good unit, my opponent was looking quite worried.

I decided to give first turn to the brets, because I was terrified of his shooting – wait that’s not right,

Turn One Bretts
Movement
No charges,
His Knights all advance forward 12”ish, peasants move forward full. Bowmen load there bows, Knights on the far left go around the rocks and aim at wolves.
Magic,
Crows feast cast on skellys – cast on 8 – Dispelled
The Beast Cowers – Cast on 14 – Scroll
Shooting –
Bowmen shoot at skellys, 2 die

Turn one Vamprs
Charges None
Stupidity passed
Movement – Dragon flies over onto the flank, everything else advances, Dire wolves do nothing confidently out of charge range.
Magic – In short
Lord – Skelly’s gain 4, Zombies gain 16, Vanhels scrolled.
-General outrage at +3 to cast on skellys
Bunker Vamp – Skellys gain 2, zombies another 9
Vamp – Zombies gain 7

Shooting…
Good one

Turn 2 Bretts
Charges
Grails into Zombies
Knights into GG
Knights into GG
6 knights at wolves – Failed

Movement
Peasants move forward

Magic
Damsel (pesents) Bears anger – Dispelled
Damsel (Bowmen) Crows feast – 3 dead skellys

Shooting
1 dead skelly

Combat
Grail knights 19 wounds – Zombies none
Grail Knights win by 20, 6 zombies stand

Duo Knight charge on GG
Knights: 6 wounds – GG none, Vamp 2
Knights win by 2, 11 GG + vamp stand

Turn 2 Vamps
Charges
Dragon into Knights fighting gg (flank)
Experiments into peasants
Movement
Skellys towards bowmen
Dire wolves angle themselves so to take the knights away from the bunker on there overrun.

Magic
Lord – Raises 17 zombies
Casts curse of years on grail knights- Irresistible 3 knights fall

Bunker vamp – Curse of years on grail knights on 8 – Scrolled
Raises 4 GG

Combat Vamp
Raises 5 Zombies

Shooting…

Combat
Grail knights kill 8 – zombies kill … Ill give you 3 guesses
Knights win by 8 … 12 zombies stand

Knights Vs GG & Dragon
Dragon eats 2 (Damn wards), Vamp takes 1, GG take 1, - knights kill 2
Knights Loos by 4 … outnumbered by fear causing double 1 both run away neither caught, dragon goes an impressive 4”

Experiments vs Peasants
14 dead peasants – damsel does a wound! … double one … peasants run … peasants get caught … peasants get eaten.

At this point we stopped for a quick drink, so some feedback
From Me: I think the experiments we’re pretty tough and worth there cost in this game but I’m not so sure I’d be thinking the same if they got 1 wound and 1 attack each. I like having the option to take dragons as rare, my opponent thought that was pretty powerful but he though it was fine when I told him the cost. It seems magic is more powerful then normal vampires, I don’t play magic heavy that often but I got the impression from people watching. +3 seemed a lot on raising the skelly unit.

My opponent: “Those experiment things are pretty cool, but not that reliable there fun to use for non competitive games but I don’t think they’d be use too much for competitive ones”

“The +1 to cast is very powerful especially with that staff and the raising powers, it would be less potent if you had -1 of the casting values, same chances of casting but easier to dispel.”

continued... when i get round to it.

 

[Bishop]

The Brets +d6 charge "item" is actually a Virtue... so it's on one of the characters.

As far as the +3 to cast... do keep in mind that 1-2 always fails! You need a minimum of 3 to cast.

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

As far as the +3 to cast... do keep in mind that 1-2 always fails! You need a minimum of 3 to cast.

Yeah, but the minimum casting on one dice is a 6 and can be as high as 9, and stoping 9 is difficult on 2 dice.

 

[Capt Rubber Ducky]

Ok so here's part 2...

Turn 3 - Brets
Charges
6 Knights into Dire wolves – Fear check failed – failed charge
Both Knight units Rally.
Movement
Bowmen move into 2 ranks ready to put up a fight against the skellys.

Magic
Bears anger – Irresistible – yay
Attempts to dispel Curse of years – Fails – BsB takes a wound, 1 Grail knight dies.

Shooting
Doesn’t do anything

Combat
Grail knights finish off zombies.

Turn 3 – Vamps
Charges GG into Knights
Experiments into the other knights
Skellys into bowmen
All tests passed
Movement
Direwolves do nothing
Dragon flies over and faces the rear of the Grail knights
Bunker edges forward a bit

Magic
Lord
Vanhels on dragon – stopped
Vanhels on dragon – Charge Grail knights rear
GG back up to strength
BoA on dragon – doesn’t power down
Bunker vamp
Curse of years – Miscats – 8 – magic phase ends, str 4 – wounds, RiP dispelled

Shooting

Combat
Grail knight challenges
Dragon does 4 wounds
Dargon wins by 3 Grail knights flee and are caught by the dragon

Bowmen lose and run away as expected, but make it away.

GG kill 2, vamp 1 knights kill none and flee, but escape again

The experiments wipe out the remaining knights and overrun 8”

We called it their so we could have a game of Blood bowl. So onto comments:

I think the experimentation power worked well on the Experiments but I’m not sure how much use it would be on skeletons as I don’t think they’ll get out of march range that often (though mine did) and with hatred I still think they’d do little because well their skeletons.

The quick silver power was pretty nifty, but quite un-Necrach like, my opponent suggested limiting the Number of minor powers somehow so the stay rarer then the standard powers for each bloodline.

Opponent’s comments: He thought pretty much the same as me about the Experimentation power. He thought the magic was more powerful then standard Vampire counts in that phase, but they lose the option to have a combat hero (bar wightking). They also can’t make as good use out of the helm of commandment and ghouls being moved to special could make them weaker in close combat to make up for the advantages in magic. Might be a slightly different story if you use it with a standard vampire list.

The Zombie Dragon make for quite a powerful rare choice but its cost and lack of armour only a 5+ save and T5 means it can be killed and its substantial cost makes it fair, also it isn’t as good in close combat as a ridden one which usually has hatred in a vampire list.

Edit: 500 posts yay

 

[Bauglir]

Necrarch vs Empire

Last Thursday I had the chance to playtest yet another Bloodline. This time I opted for Necrarch. A Bloodline I had learned to appreciate at the end of 6th ed.

I used to play a Lord of Dead. Lv4, +6” range on spells, re-roll first miscast, etc. So, Bloodline of W’soran looked quite appealing.

My list:
Vampire general: lv3, bloodline of W’soran, flayed hauberk, crown of the damned, rod of flaming death
Vampire: lv1, forbidden lore, cadaverous cuirass, book of arkhan
Necromancer: lv1, knows the three spells, black pariapt, powerstone

20 zombies
20 zombies
10 ghouls
5 dire wolves
5 dire wolves
corpse cart: balefire
corpse cart: balefire

3 fell bats
18 grave guards: fc, greatweapons, banner of barrows

varghulf
varghulf

In total: 1999p
PD: 7
DD: 6

For the first time I had the feeling my army was under powered. I had the feeling something was lacking. Only 7 PD, being Necrarch.

Empire army:

Arch Lector on war altar: sword of fate, horstman’s speculum, armour of meteoric iron
Battle wizard: lv2, 2 scrolls
Battle wizard: lv2, rod of power, ring of volans
Captain: BSB, fullplate armour, Icon of magnus

5 knights
5 knights
10 flagellants
20 swordsmen: fc
5 detachment handgunners
18 greatswords: fc
5 detachment handgunners
great cannon
great cannon
steamtank

Table:
In my opponent’s zone there was an impassable feature on my right. On the left there was some difficult terrain.
Near the middle on my right there was yet another small impassable feature. On my left near the middle there was a forest.
In my zone I had a hill on my right. There was a low wall in the centre, and one on my left.

My opponent’s battleline (my left to right):
Flagellants, knights, steamtank behind difficult terrain, Arch lector on waraltar, great cannon, detachment, swordsmen + wizard, greatswords + wizard and captain, detachment, impassable feature, great cannon, knights

My line (left to right):
Varghulf, bats, wolves, zombies behind them, CC, Varghulf, GG + vampire lord and vapire, ghouls behind them + necromancer, CC, wolves, zombies behind them.
I completely deployed my army in the left tablequarter.

My opponent took first turn.

Nearly everything moved forward. I had to let some magic go through. And we all know when taking risks. Sometimes you lose, sometime you win. This time I lost. One corpse cart down. In addition, two were being evaporised.
On the other hand, his crew blew up the great cannon in front of me.

I readied my varghulfs on the left to charge the arch lector. Bats flew over to my right to hunt down the second cannon crew. The three strong wolf unit marched towards the cannon as well. My lord focused and let lose gaze of nagash, killing a couple of swordsmen. On top of that he casted curse of years. Again some warriors dropped dead and the men fleed in panic.

The fleeing unit rapidly regained their nerve and turned around again to face the enemy. The angred wizard killed the marching wolves. The steamtank rolled forward towards the centre closing the gap.

Both varghulfs smelled that the arch lector was close enough. They roared and off they were. Concentrating there attaks on the altar hey were able to damage it. Yet not enough to completely destroy it.
The bats moved in behind the uncoming knights on my right. The zombies at the righthand side of the GG marched on to meet the steamtank. However the wizards failed to van hels into contact.

The knights on the left joined the battle to help their beloved Lector. The varghuls didn’t mind, as long as they could spill some blood. The steamtank driver saw the gap between the forest and the zombies and charged the GG. There it stuck for a couple off rounds. Though the GG took casualties due to impact the senechal and vampire lord managed to wound it 4 times.

The Varghulf in contact with the knights took another beating, but it wasn’t killed yet. The bats finally were in range to killed the cannoncrew. My zombies that were being passed by the steamtank turned around facing the greatswords coming their way. GG were being re-raised, and in no time the GG were in number again.

In the end, the fierce attacks of the varghuls were too much for the lector and the knights to handle. The knights fled and the Lector was being torn apart. The Steamtank took another beating.

One of the varghulfs however met his reaper. A magic bolt was too much for this undead creature. The GG kept on damaging the tank, taking it down piece by piece.

In the meanwhile the handgunners had gunned down the bats.
The remaining knights on my right were being charged by the ghouls in the flank - the necromancer had left his unit before. The knights however fled and kept on fleeing.
The surviving varghulf charged the swordsmen ripping them appart in no time, satisfying his hunger.
The GG were too overpowering for the tank and is was being taking down completely.

A solid victory for the Necrarch.

The victory suprised me.
But more importantly we had a fun battle. Dave really liked the list. He liked the fact that Necrarchs aren’t combatmasters and potent wizards in one. So, the reduced WS is really ok.

About the Bloodline of W’soran. The +6” range took him by surprise. But he liked it. The –1 to cast isn’t opverpowered. However combined with two balefire carts it can shut down an enemy’s magic phase.

I myself, amnot completely convinced. I’m not sure this power will be taken much. Also I find the imune to miscasts a bit too much. I reckon it ought to toned down to maybe the first miscast, or a re-roll one die.
The thing is there are other powers which are much more potent than this one. I think about forbidden lore/MoDA, dark acolyte. I reckon that this combination will be taken much easier for a general.

I feel that Bloodline of W’soran ought to be deconstructed again. Maybe leave the option to just the take the +6” range.

The +1 to cast for Necrachs is spot on. Not overpowered at all and in character.
Dave didn’t mind. He told me that they are casters after all.

On other thing. Scince I started playtesting the Bloodline I haven’t lost a single battle.
Also, the Bloodlines somehow let me build more fluff armies or armies that are in character. Like in this list. I’ve have never taken the crown of the damned before. However, in this one I think it fits really well. Somehow I view Necrarch as being mental cases.

Yours
B

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Thanks for another excellent report. A rather more mixed on there, and I sense you didn't enjoy this one as much. As per the other ones, could you perhaps try and take the Necrarch army list and see if it works any better with that?

 

[Bauglir]

Hi Disciple,

I did enjoy the battle, that isn't the problem. Maybe my judgement suffers a bit from hindsight here. Back in 6th ed I usually took a lv4 Necrarch vampire and two lv2 necromancers, giving me 10 PD. Now, I "only" had 7. Maybe that difference just struck me. As I view the Necrarch as powerful wizards.

The thing is that the W'soran power is a lord option only, leaving one with no real potent options to kit the thralls.

However I will playtest the Necrarch again as I want to try out experimentation and spirit link (so sneaky). It will probably not be an optional Necrarch list. On the other hand, unridden zombies dragon sounds appealing.

Yours
B

 

[Terror Wrong]

id like some pro advice ....


i'm thinking of starting whit the necrarch
but all of you who have tried different blood types
which blood type do you think could be the strongest against against Dwarfs, Wood Elves and Tomb Kings???

these are the 3 races i will be up against
and which strategy should i use against them

i have

core:
9 skeletons + champion
9 skeletons + champion
9 crypt ghouls + champion
9 dire wolfs + champion

no special

rare:
2 wraith + 1 banshee


i'm going to have an army of 2000 pts but i don't know which models i should use/buy to get an effective army that could do some serious damage...
please send any advice you could spare to help a fellow vampire count

 

[Bauglir]

Evening CN

This is my last report on the bloodlines.

I played against Bretonnia. Again I chose Necrarch, but this time I went for the optional list for once. As I had never before deployed a Abyssal Terror, and in addition an unridden zombie dragon seemed like fun.

My vampire lord took the abyssal terror for a ride. No upgrades were taken due to not having enoug creds left. His bloodline kit was quite classic. Upgrade to level 3, master of the black arts, forbidden lore. However, I do believe that this kit will be taken much more over other ones like W’soran. As it is much more inoto character with Necrarch, in my opinion.

I still believe that there should be an extra bloodline power that gives the vampire an 6” extra range for spells like in 6th ed.

I also took experiment and spirit link on one of my thralls. Both seem ok. Experimentation is fine. I don’t see any changes necessary here.

Spirit link is nice fluff wise, but a bit expensive I reckon. 15 points seem more appropriate. In the game I made much more off black pariapt than spirit link. As a matter of fact I didn’t use it at all. Don’t get me wrong here, you don’t have to drop spirit link as such.

Experiments are cool. My opponent was completely in awe when I explained them to him. The fact that their characteristics are completely random is pure fun. His words: “That’s what Bloodlines should be about. Why doesn’t GW come up with these things.’
However I do see one minor point of critique. They are fairly pricey at 35p. 25-30 points seem more reasonable to me. As they can be completely crap.

The unridden zombue dragon looks awesom and quite treathening. But that is it. It LOOKS!

Anyway, one thing is for sure we had great fun. It also the first I have lost since I’ve been playtesing bloodlines. This doesn’t mean that the Necrarch optional list is not good. I just made some mistakes durign the game. And my opponent rightfully took advantage of that.

My list:
Vampire lord: Lv3, master of the black arts, forbidden lore (metal), flayed hauberk, wristband of blakc gold, rod of flaming death, abyssal terror
Vampire: Lv1, dark acolyte, lord of the dead, black pariapt, powerstone
Vampire: Lv1, experiment, spirit link, book of arkhan

19 Skeletons: FC
10 skeletons
20 zombies
20 zombies
5 dire wolves
5 dire wolves

5 experiments
3 wraiths: banshee
3 spirit hosts
zombie dragon

My opponent’s (from what I recall):
Lv4 special character on horse
Lv2 damsel
Paladin: BSB
Bretonnian Lord

Two blocks of Grail knights
Block of Errants
5 Yeomen
6 knights of the realm
Two times 10 archers (flaming arrows)

The battle wasn’t a thriller at all.

I flew up both my flyers So I could be in his rear on turn two.
In turn two I blew up my rod and my lord takes a wound due to the magic mirror. The zombie dragon tried to evapourate some archers but only one drops dead. In the mean time my hosts killed the yeomen. But get flank charged in return by the grail knights.
My Lord got impatient and charged the archers in the flank using his rod as a club. The zombie dragon took on the Errants, but fail to do enough damage to win that combat. From then on its a downward spiral for the undead.
The zombie dragon turns to dust. The experiments get charged by the grail knights. My Wraiths met their reaper by charging the other unit of grail knights and so on.

Nevertheless my nearly complete loss. I had a great time.
CN, much obliged for giving me the opportunity to playtest the Bloodlines. My opponents and me had great times while playtesting. And I feel that even non VC-players are more in favour of the bloodlines than of our recent VC-book.
Anyway, I’ll keep the bloodline rules. So I can still play them from time to time. And I hope that GW realises what the added value for VC is by using Bloodline powers.

CN, thank you. You have done a great job.

Yours
B

 

[Lord Asuryan]

OK, played a game with the Necrarch list a few days ago, thought I'd let you know how it went:

My List:
Lord: skull staff, flayed hauberk, MoTBA, Forbidden Lore, Lord of the dead

Vampire: Dark Acolyte, Book of Arkhan, steed

Wight King BSB: Sword of Kings

20 skeletons, full command, war banner (Wight King Goes Here)

20 Zombies, full command

9 Experiments
(Lord Goes Here)
2x5 dire wolves

5 wraiths, with banshee

5 black knights

Abyssal Terror: Devastating Charge, Strength Upgrade, WS upgrade

Abyssal Terror

Experiments rolled decent for stats--strength 4, T4, A2, W2, explosive, WS2.

his list:
Arch Lector, 4+ ward, great weapon, Icon of Magnus, Armour of Metoeric Iron, GW

Warrior Priest: Unknown equipment

BSB: Griffon Standard, full plate

Light Wizard: 2 scroll

25 swordsmen, full command (Arch Lector)
detachment: 10 halberdiers

25 swordsmen, full command (Warrior Priest, BSB)
deatchments: 10 crossbowmen, 10 handgunners

15 flagellents

5 pistoliers: outrider with repeater pistol

5 inner circle knight, full command

Cannon

Steam Tank

Helblaster

The scenario was objective based--one large objective worth 500 VPs on one side in centre, one smaller one worth 250 VPs on the other side. he won first turn.

Turn 1-Empire:
He moves up all infanty, trying to claim the large objective, a building, but falls an inch short. his flagellents and pistoliers move around the building, trying to head off flankig attempts. Magic phase is uneventful, he only manages to get off one prayer of sigmar (the unbreakable one) from his arch lector. Shooting decimates my black knights, as he tries (and fails) to cannon snipe the vampire, leaving only 2 standing.

Turn 1-VC
I Move my experiments into the building, cortesy of their M5, claiming the objective. my skeleton unit goes around the other side of the building from the flagellents, towards his general's unit. one unit of dire wolves moves forward to decoy the flagellents out of position, while on the other flank, vampire and remaining black knights position themselves to avoid future cannoning. wraiths (thank you, ethereal M6) run forward onto the second objective (light cover), directly across from his Stank and knights. Magic phase goes well, black knights are raised to 4, skeletons get some reinforcements, as do zombies. a well-time danse send the skellies toward the general's unit. The abyssal terrors skulk out of sight of cannons. in the shooting phase, the banshee shriek takes a wound off the Stank

Turn 2: Empire:
The steam tank attempts to combo-chrage the wraith with the knights, but fails, because Stanks cannot enter difficult terrain, and ends up jammed against it. the knights fail terror and flee off the board. the flagellants charge the dire wolves, and the pistoliers (unecessarily) charge the flank. dead doggies. general unit sits where it is. magic phase is similarly uneventful, as the arch-lector maintains unbreakablenss. the great cannon kills a zombie (all-time low) and the helblaster kills eight skeletons. in combat, the flagellants demolish the wolves, and are left facing away from the building.

VC Turn 2:
skeletons charge the swordsmen, and are countercharged by detachment, which passes it's fear test. Abyysal terror also charges. the dire wolves, over on the farther flank, move up to blockade the steam tank from turning towards the battle. the wraiths continue towards the main battle line, while the blakc knights and zombies attept to set up a flank charge on the BSB unit, (by now also containing a wizard.) magic phase is mostly focussed on neheking zombies and skellies, everything else is dispelled. Combat is dissapointing. the skeletons fail to kill much of anything (which, understandably, is their job) and the abyssal terror manages only a dissapointing 2 impact hits. the wight king manages a KB on the general, but he saves it, and wound the WK in return. combat is lost by one, only the BSB and war banner keep the terror from evaporating.

Empire Turn 3:
The BSB unit charges the zombies, hoping to break through them in one round. the flagellants turn around. the steam tank is blocked from joining thr battle. the magic phase concludes with only hammer of sigmar being cast on the arch lector. shootig blows, as both the cannon and helblaster misfire, shutting down for two turns. crossbowmen have no targets. combat, once again, dissapoints, as my wight king KB's again, but is stoppedby ward save. this time, though, the WK is not wounded. swordsmen perform exceedingly well, and the terror evaporates and several skeletons crumble. the BSB unit manages to kill almost enough zombies to destroy the unit (one left standing, I'll never fail to take that banner, ever!) but still fails, reforming to face the black knights.

VC turn three: the black knight charge in, joined by the wraiths. no other movement occurs. magic phase is phenomenal, dansing the skellies, and raising zombies back up to 20. second abyssal terror charges swordsmen. combat ends with BSB unit fleeing and being caught, but the AL unit still refusing to flee, despite a phenomenal performance by both the WK and the terror (and yes, he made hs ward save.) however, this time, the halberdiers do not hold and run away.

Empire turn 4
The flagellents finally charge the building. the magic phase is nil, as he only has 1 AL left. shooting is also next to nil, though his handgunners and xbows do manage to take dwn a black knight and several zombies. the steam tank steam guns and pistols the wolves, killing all of them. in combat, the AL finally fails his ward save and without the Icon of magnus, the swordsmen flee and are run down. the flagellents are cut down without too much trouble, though an interesting chain reaction happens with th experiments. he concedes.

his thoughts: good list, seems solid, his main problem was that he took defensive magic and had virtually no way to deal with wraiths. he thought that wraiths as special was a little OP, but as I didn't abuse it, was OK with it. thought the upgrades on AT were a bit much.

My thoughts: +3 casting is really nasty. but in line with fluff. 6-9 on 1 dice burns through DD really quickly. overall, a fun game, IMO.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Initial Playtesting Review​

The below comments are a roundup of previous made comments. If a power or item is not noted below, it is either not been commented on, or it received positive comments. I have only noted the things which have been noted that need changing, or players have asked questions.

• Experiments – Performed well, but only down to good rolls. No complaints about OP, but worries about what could happen if poor rolls were made?
• +1 to cast combined with other possible bonuses from Master Powers and Skull Staff was possibly OP. Suggestion to reduce casting roll required by -1, as it would make dispelling a little easier?
• No sure if Experimentation power would be effective on cores other than Experiments. No playtesting results to confirm though.
• Bloodline of W’soran is not very good / fits the fluff. It’s -1 to cast combined with Balefire Carts can shut down enemies magic, the caster is only a level 3 wizard which doesn’t make sense, player also felt ignoring miscasts completely was too much. Like the +6” to range though. Recommends rethinking this power entirely.
• Wraiths as special can be abused.
• Upgrades on AT could be OP, but not definite.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

My thoughts

Experiments – I think more playtesting is needed before we change them really.
I agree that having a total of +3 to cast from a combination of powers and magic items is perhaps too much. Reducing the casting roll required by -1 seems a good alternative.

Experimentation power needs playtesting on other core units.

I do agree on the Bloodline of W’soran. I would suggest an alternative such as the vampire becomes a Lvl 4 wizard with 5 PD and 3DD. He may also add +6” to any spell he casts. Possibly ignore first miscast of the game.

Wraiths – Agree with moving them back to Rare.

Think AT upgrades are ok, need more playtesting before changes.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Bump - any thoughts please?

 

[Bauglir]

Well, I agree.
I like your suggestion in regards to W'soran.

Yours
B