The New Death Book and My Death Faction

So with the new Legions of Nagash book and the overall changing of the Death faction, what are my opinions of it and how will it effect my own Death forces.

First off, the Book and the four new Allegiances are great if you are one of those players who has collected a bunch of Vampire Counts/ Death over the last few years. It has certainly given Death a big boost as far as flexibility in combat tactics goes. The big change has gone from simply summoning models to giving these units the Summoned keyword, so most heroes can restore lost wounds to them just by being next to them. That said, it does separate them further from the Tomb Kings line and while I didn't expect their return, it only makes it harder to incorporate them into the main Death line. Actually, I was more disappointed with the lack of new units as I would have loved some more variety in areas like the Deathrattle or Deadwalkers. Then again we still have Bat Swarms, so I guess it still has that going for it.

It does feel like if you don't pick one of the main four Allegiances, then you may be at a bit of a disadvantage. They certainly changed it so that Black Knights and Grave Guard no longer count as Battleline in a Bonerattle Allegiance under the new Pitched Battles points sheet, nor do Vargheists count as Battleline in a Soulblight Allegiance (despite Soulblight getting some Allegiance rules), Nighthaunt Allegiance still have their Battlelines. Though if you have a Legions of Nagash force lead by Nagash himself, then he does get to count Grave Guard and the Morghast variants as Battlelines (which does make sense for someone as powerful as Nagash). There is some good lore and certainly his arrogance is showing just how much he has turned against the side of Order, believing all souls are his and to take them away is to steal from him (and those who are alive or dead who do not kneel before him and submit should be obliterated). It's very much what I expect from him by this point, though it is interesting to see that Mannfred and Neferata have forged their own Kingdoms based on their homes in the Old World (guess they wanted the fans of classic warhammer to still feel like these were still the Vampire Counts they knew and loved).

So how does it effect my current forces? Well, the changes to units means that until I get more current Death units, I may change a few things around. Certainly I can't pick one of the main four Allegiances as you can only use models from the book to field in them and I don't have anything close to that point. I am also currently debating if Queen Judith should still count as a Necromancer or if she should be a Tomb Queen and the armies General. If she does so, then I could either go for the Command Trait that increases the aura of the Heroes 'Deathless Minions' battle trait to 12" (from 6") or I could choose the one that makes her count as a Wizard and thus also granting her the spells Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield. She also has a Command Ability where all Desert Legions get +1 to hit in their Shooting phase, which would bring the Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers shooting to being a 4+ to hit (the Archers unit also gets +1 to hit if it has 20 or more models, so as long as the unit stays at that level with the banners help, they would hit on a 3+). I feel that King Nicholas wouldn't benefit being the General at this point as the only unit I have that his Command Ability effects is a unit of 10 Skeleton Warriors with hand weapons basically. That said, he will still hold the Artifact, but it's a toss between -1 to hit to all non-Death units within 3" of him or the one where if he is killed on a 3+ he returns with D3 wounds and is replaces anywhere within 12" of his spot.

Any expansion of my Death faction will involve Skeleton Warriors (as they are a Battleline unit), Grave Guard, Black Knights, Fell Bats, Bat Swarms and a Terrorgheist, with the eventual goal of reaching the 2000pt mark and have all four of my leaders in the force. As for what could be carried over? I will still look at keeping the Skeleton Archers, Skeleton Horse Archers and the Tomb Scorpions. Not sure about the rest at this point, but that will be the current plan for the distant future of this army.