Alright… apparently the rules state that every wizard in warhammer may choose to generate spells from the Lore of Undeath, which except for 2 augments and a DD spell basicly lets you put undead units on the table. The units are different trooptypes and points values for different spells and tiers of spells.
Yes, I see their urge to sell the new undead minis and no, I don’t approve of sales being a good enough reason to make every wizard in warhammer a necromancer… However every option available to the Legion of Azgorh needs to be examined
*I’m not an undead player, never was, what units would be good summoning?
*Will a lvl 2 Infernal Engineer Necromancer be the new black in babysitting warmachines?
*How will you convert your tournament legal Dawi’Zharr Necromancer?
Here’s a link to rumoured Lore of Undeath, seems realistic enough.
I don’t think converting undead dwarfs is that big a problem, they would still be highly armored. Just add skeleton hands, a skull with either a dwarf helmet or pin big hat, add a beard. … Yet another conversion that might be needed.
Like tjub I suddenly feel the need to dust off my unit of 20 undead Chaos Dwarfs I had started several years ago!! My oh my… if only I could find some time for my favourite hobby.
Hmm, feel an urge to convert a unit of undead Chaos Dwarves all of a sudden... :P Dreams of an undead workforce of eternal slaves.
Whats the fluff on why the "good" or chaos armies would use necromancy?
tjub
YES! Undead workforce :cheers Just look at the cursed company, would be perfect with the orcs, skaven and goblin skeletons...
GW sums it up...
"Due to the howling gale of death magic sweeping across the world, it is simplicity itself for one schooled in the magical arts to tap into this dangerous form of sorcery and command the dead to rise and do their bidding."
Still doesnt say why Wood Elfs would raise a 65 point generic Vampire Hero, however now they CAN...
MadHatter has it right. Perhaps a chaos dwarf experiment in necromancy, a pre cursor to the black orcs maybe, to create the ultimate slave; one that does not tire, need food or rest, and rarely needs replacing.
The lore reason is that the wind of Shyish have washed over the world since the return of Nagash. But we all agree it’s to sell a shitton of undead models.
IMO the Lore is super bad. The non summoning spells are plain out bad, and the summoning spells, while being good for making chaffs at the right time, suffers from range 12" and low point costs. I guess the Hand of dust can be relevant on a daemonsmith in combat with a char or monster, but overall I can’t see it compete with Death, Metal or Hashut.
But make no mistake. Nagash with this lore will be a menace! With triple range and point cost he can set up 450 points of chariots, monstrous infantry or cavalry, or summon characters from between 200-300 points fairly easy. He might misscast a lot (10 dices on a spell if he wishes) but he can reroll the result and heal up with invocation of Nehek.
May the Nagash expansion bring many converted Undead units to armies in Warhammer.
Having undead Chaos Dwarfs and slaves wouldn’t only be good for your CD army in Nagash battles, but would also be a great addition to any VC army. Also a nice scenario spice.
The new expansion besides, I don’t see it as unfitting for there to be some mystic dabblers in Necromancy on the periphery of the Dawi Zharr sorcerer/priest community. Not strong Necromancers, but still. They would never take center stage, but any inclusion of sects and further mysticism can only strengthen the CD background.
Converting undead Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs is indeed easy, it’s just a hand and face job. For the more advanced stage, go and rough them up, like the Mordheim Zombie Dwarf. That way you can tell they fell in battle!
I was planning on converting the undead dwarf king from Mantic’s Dungeon Saga into an undead Chaos Dwarf sorcerer anyway just for fun, but now it looks like I’ll actually have a use for him lol.
I was planning on converting the undead dwarf king from Mantic's Dungeon Saga into an undead Chaos Dwarf sorcerer anyway just for fun, but now it looks like I'll actually have a use for him lol.
Mantic zombies are what a lot of the VC guys over at Carpe Noctem seem to go with. You can get hundreds for cheap from Mantic and they are nicely posed and fit in well with the citadel range. The GW zombies are a bit goofie looking and carry weapons which most people don’t seem to like.
Raising undead is usually for tar pits or charge re-directors, and sometimes to replenish wounds/models on black knights or terrorgheists bogged down in combat. Zombies being easiest and skellies if you want a bit more resilience. I don’t know about this new Undeath law but raising a load of zombies to bunker your expensive lord / wizard is one of the often used tactics. Saves points not having to include a bunker for your lord
We already have hobgoblins for that kinda thing so I probably wouldn’t bother. I do like the Mantic zombies though and they make really nice slaves so maybe you could ‘summon slaves’ instead of summon undead.
I do like the Mantic zombies though and they make really nice slaves so maybe you could 'summon slaves' instead of summon undead.
iamahobgoblin
Now that's a great idea. I've always missed a slave rabble unit in Legion of Azgorh. You can use Hobgoblins, but with their stats and peculiar animosity it isn't an optimum rules-proxy for cannon fodder slave gangs.
I do like the Mantic zombies though and they make really nice slaves so maybe you could 'summon slaves' instead of summon undead.
iamahobgoblin
Now that's a great idea. I've always missed a slave rabble unit in Legion of Azgorh. You can use Hobgoblins, but with their stats and peculiar animosity it isn't an optimum rules-proxy for cannon fodder slave gangs.
Admiral
Well if the 'Unbound' rumour about 9th ed is true soon we'll be able to use Orcs, Goblins and all manner of other rabble units from other armies as slaves ;)
We already have hobgoblins for that kinda thing so I probably wouldn't bother. I do like the Mantic zombies though and they make really nice slaves so maybe you could 'summon slaves' instead of summon undead.
iamahobgoblin
I'm planning to go with a Daemonsmith guarding 2 Deathshriekers and using the Undeath signature to try and put 100 + 100 points of skeletons on the table the first 2 rounds. I'm used to loosing combat due to rear and flank charge-resolution. 1500 points I get to put 5-6 things on the table, 7 at most...
Contrary to what others think I think this will have a great impact on my wins to losses ratio!
"Summoned units can be upgraded to include any options listed in their army entries" does this mean they can take a standardbearer and a magical banner?
Ryze will give you up to 50 zombies on one cast. Use them as tar pits, and road bumps for your gun line.
Dark Riders will give you 5 black knights to save your warmachines. I included barding, and lances in that calculation, so they are s6 on the charge, with a 2+ armor save.
The big big spell to notice is The Herald. This will give you Cairn Wraiths, and lv1 death wizards. The Cairn Wraith is etherial, and s5, a3. He can instead do one attack that ignores armor, and wounds automatically if it hits.
Now if you have markers this spell will give you War Sphinxes, Black Coaches, and Terrorgheists… (The 24+ version) And none of these award victory points, which is craaaazy.
The sphinx is good vs infantry, the coach is character levels of immortal, and can get even more crazy if you feed it magic dice. (DO NOT ATTACK UNITS IN THE FRONT, IT WILL CRUMBLE. Due to static combat res.) The Terrorgheist’s scream can kill ANYTHING.
Btw, for those of you thinking about using this, check out the Mantic Kickstarter - there are some undead sets there that might be of use; think I saw in the Kickstarter comments that they give a saving, but can’t vouch for that or how big a saving they are.
If you are interested, be quick - Kickstarter ends in 23 hours
Dreams of an undead workforce of eternal slaves.
