Dear Friends,
I would like to start an AoS death army based on malignants with a back up of skeletons and a Mortarch Leader.
This is sensible, sure. It's similar to what I do, although I reserve skeletons for larger games, as they kind of need big units to function well, so I gravitate towards grave guard in smaller games.
The base army I am figuring is (I play azyr comp):
a) 1 Mortarch
b) 1 Mortis Engine
c) 6 spirits hosts
d) 10 hexwraith cavalry
e) 40 skeletons
f) 10 grave guard
g) 5 black knghits
h) 1 Wight king
i) 1 Tomb banshee
Looks alright. If you're going to field black knights at all, I'd make them a unit of 10 and stick to 5 hexwraiths. Hard to say for sure though, as it's dependent on formation bonuses. The malignant box formation is actually very good, while the deathrattle
horde and army of the dead formations do very little for black knights. But black knights are going to be part of the new arkhan starter formation, so that might tip the decision.
Right now, the biggest hitters you've got going are the spirit hosts and the skeletons. Don't discount either! Both have just a ton of attacks, and while the skeletons are fragile, the spirit hosts will wall like nobody's business. Offensively, they both bank on rolling a ton of dice and hoping for high numbers, so they are capable of wild swings in offensive output, but on average will put the hurt on stuff. The spirit hosts are particularly versatile with the starter formation. It lets you bluff deployment (stick the hosts in one location, wait for the opponent to deploy their best counter, deploy the mortis engine far from it and recall the ghosts first turn), or become a melting wall (shielded hosts advance out front, blocking charge routes to your fragile skellies, then melt away just as its time for the skeletons to charge, appearing off on a flank to charge in as well), etc.
You are right that, depending on your mortarch, you may also want another heavy hitter - perhaps an unridden zombie dragon or another box of grave guard, or (if you can find one) a necrosphinx.
I would appreciate your advice as I am completly NEW to death faction:
1) Which is the most suitable mortarch for this type of army?
Mannfred or Neferata will give you that extra heavy hitter you're looking for. Neferata in particular will work well if you add another box of grave guard, fleshing that unit out so it can really take advantage of her spell (spirit hosts are already ethereal, and skeletons don't have the armor save to really make much use of it).
Mannfred is happy with the stuff you already have. He's a bit tougher and killier than neferata, but his spell isn't as useful, so you'll mostly be casting arcane shield and bolt with him.
Arkhan... arkhan
can work really well with this sort of list, but you'd have to make a few additions or changes. First, Arkhan's command ability isn't great, so he should always be leaving the mundanities of field command to a subordinate. Since you have some deathrattle stuff, the ideal man for this job is Krell (or, failing that, his lesser 'wight king with black axe' cousin). A regular wight king has the same useful command ability, but lacks the durability that a field commander in larger games really needs to function.
Next, Arkhan also needs an apprentice. See, Arkhan's signature spell is pretty bad, but he has the enviable ability to cast the spells of any nearby death wizards, which means he can trade up to the astounding Vanhel's Danse Macabre. Adding a necromancer to your list thus gets you two casts of this amazing spell (granted it doesn't work on your ghosts, but they're more than happy to get an arcane shield). Alternatively, you could take a lich priest, with a slightly less powerful skeleton buff, but nets you that 1/game auto dispel scroll... but while that's a pretty neutral trade as far as it goes, the 4++ look out sir save of the necromancer really puts them over the top.
But while Arkhan is happy to add his steed's weight to melee once the enemy's biggest threats are tied down, he isn't nearly the physical powerhouse that his vampyric peers are, so you'll need some extra muscle even more than you already do. Ideally, both an extra box of those grave guard (quite brutal when buffed with vanhel's and the wight king's command ability) AND another big thing like a zombie dragon, terrorgheist, or necrosphinx.
Honestly, of the three, Arkhan is my favorite, but he would require the most additional or altered purchases to make work for you, so that's something you'll have to consider.
2) The army is missing some punch? With which units can I complement the army to improve its punch and tactical viability?
Yes you are missing punch. Depending on your choice of mortarch, I'd add 1 or more of the following:
- Terrorgheist: a nightmare for low bravery opponents, but high bravery opponents will tend to shrug it off, so very situational
- Zombie Dragon: a relatively potent monster (not going to solo most other monsters, especially ones ridden by combat heroes, so don't overextend with it), not as frightening as the terrorgheist against low bravery opponents, but has better melee attacks with which to threaten steelier opponents.
- Necrosphinx: Just an absolute monstrosity. Comparable offensive power to the zombie dragon, but much, much more durable, and has a spike damage potential against other monsters that will have the enemy thinking twice about sending their own big stuff after your backline casters. Wound halving and a healing spell on a monster this big is insane. Arkhan's best friend, just be careful - it can run and charge, and must declare a charge if it can, so it can wind up out of position pretty easily. I cannot recommend this thing enough... unless you like having friends.
- Another box of grave guard: Grave guard hit hard - obviously a bit harder with great weapons, but even hand weapon grave guard can put out an impressive amount of wounds, especially when buffed by a wight kings command ability or necromancer's vanhels, and the shields, while situational, can be a life saver against enemies who rely on quantity rather than quality of attacks.
- Morghasts: even if you aren't using summoning (something that can really mess up games if abused or really used at all apart from just as an alternate deployment method), these minions of Nagash are still something to fear. Harbingers blend speed and a flurry of hard hitting attacks, making them a perfect complement to Mannfred or Neferata (although neferata may prefer archai for reasons I'll get into later). Archai have better armor, a 5++ against mortals, and while they have fewer attacks, those attacks hit much harder, and with reach, allowing them to swing over the heads of even large units like spirit hosts. A line of spirit hosts with a couple archai behind it is a fearsome defensive challenge indeed. They're also great and highly thematic bodyguards for mortarchs (particularly arkhan, who could use the backup).
On top of all that, morghasts are just an ideal fit for your army both thematically (since your force is going to be let by one of the mortarchs) and aesthetically (you're running a mix of ghosts and skeletons, and morghasts are giant skeletons with ghosts trapped in their rib cages and trailing from their wings).
3) Do it requieres more wizards?
You don't NEED more wizards, but you should strongly consider it, considering you're already getting that casting bonus from the mortis engine, and as an undead player you have access to some of the very best generic wizards in the game, particularly the necromancer. if you field arkhan, then I'd say you absolutely need another wizard to give arkhan a better spell option.
- If you end up going with Neferata, she has a pretty strong formation (which can be found in the Balance of Power campaign book, or purchased from the official Age of Sigmar app) that includes her, two units of morghast archai (they're min unit size 1, so a single box gets the minimum requirement), a coven throne, and a vampire lord riding a zombie dragon. It may be straying a bit far from your intended army theme and aesthetics.
- Arkhan is getting his own formation in the new starter box, but nobody knows what it does yet. It includes himself, a unit of skeletons, and a unit of black knights.
- The army of the dead or deathrattle
horde formations are not ideal for you. Those formations are very large, requiring three skeleton units, and I wouldn't even think of fielding them with less than 50 skeletons (one unit of 30, two of 10). Their benefits aren't terrible, but I think you're doing too much else to reasonably run them. Their benefits certainly aren't worth the attacks you'll lose by cutting your skeletons to a smaller unit size. If you really want a formation benefit for your skeletons and black knights, maybe wait and see what the arkhan formation does.
- If you don't end up picking arkhan, maybe consider skipping the black knights altogether. They're not that great a unit, especially when fielding only five. The main thing they've got is mobile walling, between their 2 wounds, decent saves, and banner, and that really needs a larger unit to work. If you field them at all, I'd field them in units of 10, even if it means only building 5 as hexwraiths. hexwraiths work just fine in smaller units.
- The malignant box formation is great. I already said this, but it really is. Not a major power boost, but the tactical utility is great, and it's just a lot of fun.
- Your big spirit host unit is also great. Another thing I already said, but definitely stick to one big unit rather than two little ones, at least if you use the formation. In fact, if you really want to push the Nighthaunt theme, you might want to consider picking up two more boxes (maybe instead of the wraith, banshee, or black coach), in order to have some extra spirits to summon mid game. Again, unrestricted summoning can ruin games, but if you count them towards your total army size and treat summoning as an alternate deployment option, then you get the fluff and an interesting tactical option without unbalancing things.
Not sure how well they'll do in lower numbers.