The rules of (undead) engagement

The time has come. For my third End Times post, I'll present to you the choicest rules and the character of Nagash himself!

Bear in mind that I won't be covering both End Times in 100% detail but will concentrate on the most interesting rules and special characters. I don't want to write an essay here, just an enjoyable hobby article. Oh and no fluff this time. This entry is crunch only.

Mind you, the word "enjoyable" has been removed from the vocabulary of most Old Worlder's

Also I really want to move towards new things, mainly reviews and my personal thoughts about RPG's. That means no Glottkin rules/crunch review for some time. However the next two posts will be about the rest of special characters from the End Times book "Nagash".

New rules in "End Times vol. 1 Nagash"

Introduced in the first End Times book "Nagash" we have rules for underground fighting called the "Darkest Depths", which include, among other things, falling stalactites and cave-ins. These rules almost guarantee that each turn every combatant will lose some of his troops to these natural phenomenon. Oh and did I mention that all magic and shooting attacks have maximum range of 24"? Cool stuff.

Another new feature is called "Hauned Battlegrounds" and is mainly about fighting in spooky places like Gardens of Morr (cemetaries) and forests. Every necromancer and undead lover will have an easier time casting spells. Also Undead and Nehekharan units will be harder to kill, since they take one less wound due to Unstable special rule and Ethereal units will have their stats buffed a bit in Haunted Forests. Altough GW does not want to give out too much goodies to the restless dead by granting them the punishment in the form of statue of Morr. Every round they fight within 6" of the monument, at the end of the shooting phase they take D6 S4 magical hits... if the controlling player rolls a 6 on a standard dice. Nice!

Now one of the biggest new additions to the game is the Lore of Undeath, which can be officialy taken by any wizard in the game, since Nagash has returned and it is easier for everyone to become a necromancer. Yeah, you've heard that. Now your merry Bright Wizard can easily rise a horde of skellingtons if he wishes it. This lore is based mainly on summoning nasty critters every round to the field of battle. Depending on the Wizard's level you can staisfy yourself with a small unit of zombies or... one of the Mortarchs! It is even possible to summon Nagash himself thanks to the Lore's Attribute!

Just be sure to bring the right mini this time

The last, but surely the biggest change in "Nagash" book is the introduction of Undead Legions. Simply put, you can now field both the Vampire Counts and the Tomb Kings armies with new special rules. Among them are: the ability to ally with any army in the game, but only if you're playing a 3+ player battle, no more crumbling with the death of army's general, the ability for nehekharan models to march if they're within 12" of the general and more. Needless to say this changes the game A LOT. Chaos will recieve similar list in its "Glottkin" book.

I've written about the retuirn of Herohammer in my last post, but now I bring you the details. With the introduction of End Times it is possible to now spend 50% of your army's points on Lords and Heroes. You still need to retain the 25% of Core troops but needless to say, the old Herohammer is back. For good or worse.

New characters in "End Times vol. 1 Nagash"

The End Times have brought us plethora of new and old special characters for those nice duels to the death that we love. I'll cover every one of them in my next three posts with small summary of their strenghts and weaknesses. Let us start with...

Nagash, the Supreme Lord of Undeath

Hooooly crap, the old bony bastard is back and he means buisness! At an impressive 1000 points Nagash is a powerhouse of a model with all stats at the value of 7 (except M, I and Attacks) and a I10. To make it even better he's a natural level 5 wizard with the axcess to the Lore of Death, Nehekhara, Vampires, Undeath and Light. Jeeeeez! Even Teclis is level 5 because of a book. All friendly Undead models suffer one less wound when within the 12" of Nagash and he causes Terror and is a Monstrous Creature.

His gear is equally impressive but not over the top, as I initially expected. Nagash bears the Zefet-nebtar, the Mortis Blade, which gives his attacks a +1 strength and a D3 wounds per hit special rule. Not bad. He also has in his posessions Alakansah, the Staff of Power. This handy little item allows his to store up to 4 power dice inside and use them to channel up his spells (he can cast from whooping 10 POWER DICE!) or to discharge them during CC and grant himself a Heroic Killing Blow special rule (one per dice). He can't use those rules in the same turn that he stored the dice mind you. Now that's what I'm talking about! Mortis in itself is quite ordinary but combined with Alakanash it can become the bane of any monster/special character in the game. With his stats and gear Nagash can easily go toe to toe with Greater Daemons of Chaos and even Ascended Karl Franz can be troubled by him. He's a friggin beast and no mistake.

Bu that's not all. Even the Great Necromancer can be vulnerable to blows, and so he comes with the  Morikhane, the Black Armour which gives him a 4+ armour save and a 4+ ward save. Not bad, but his AP value is easily his biggest weakness and the opposing army's only real boon against him.

Altough that exposed midriff is sexy as hell

Finally there are the Nine Books of Nagash, which bear all his necromantic knowledge, that he managed to accumulate during the millenia of his un-life. With them the Great Necromancer knows nine spells, with Ryze - the Grave Call as his prime one. The oher he generates from the Lores of: Undead, Death, Nehekhara, Light and Vampire. It is possible to choose for example 3 spells from the Lore of Death and 5 from the Lore of Light. Sky's the limit here.

At this moment Nagash is easily one of the strongest in-game characters in 8th edition. His monstrous stats combined with his magical capapbilities are incredible and any opposing player should be weary of him. However I do not think that he's overpowered. Like any Monstorus Creature he suffers greatly from allergic to warmachines, and Dwarfs with their runic cannons will be the bane of the Great Necromancer. Also remeber that he costs 1000 points and is just one model. No matter how tough, if you lose him that's 1K points down the drain. Bear that in mind.

You called?

Since ol' Bonehead has been out for quite some time now, I've managed to do a little research and the results are pretty interesting. Most players don't push him into combat, as initially many of us thought, but instead let him camp behind their lines and summon the endless hodes of Undead. With his insane power level and magic items, Nagash can easily double the size of your average army in just two turns. This means that if you're facing him be sure to not only bring a lot of heavy firepower but also tons and tons of spell casters. Personally I'd ignore him as an opponent in combat and just concentrate on blocking his summoning attempts. Even with the new and improved Karl Franz, I still think that this is a better idea.

So there it is. My entry on Nagash. Tommorow I'll cover his lieutenants, the Mortarchs and after that the final entry will be about Valten and Vardek Crom. Then... I think I'll review something.

Until next time guys.

Xathrodox86