Intro
My name is Fitts and I like to say Awoooo when I’m charging in AoS and this is my story (actually, it’s a faction review for the 4th Edition rules but that just doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way)…
You may have seen some of my Kharadron articles around but I started my own personal AoS journey with Nighthaunt. When looking at factions, I was down to either them or Ogors (by Ogors I mean Stonehorns) and in the end I went with Nighthaunt, in part because they looked like a good way to get into painting again after a 20 odd year break. Back when I started there were 2 heroes, 2 troops, and a Monster… and that was it. It was an odd choice for an army at the time! As we all know, Nighthaunt got a fantastic expansion in terms of new models, lore, and army rules going into 2nd Edition!
Nighthaunt have been my main army ever since and I’ve dabbled in Skaven and Kharadron Overlords but I’ve always come back to my friendly ghosts. I’ve taken them to tournaments over the last 6 years and have persevered with them through thick and thin with my highlight being taking 3rd place in my first GT with Emerald Host before the combat range buffs. I took an off-meta list during a tough time for Nighthaunt but I enjoyed that uphill climb with them.
Anyway enough about me and Nighthaunt, let’s get into the spirit of things and dive down into the depths of the faction as it is today!
(Abbreviations: I’ll try to use full names where I remember in the article but Knight of Shrouds and Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed will be shortened to KoS and KoSoS respectively! I might drop a NH in for Nighthaunt from time to time too. Ah, I’ll also just use Bladegheists and Harridans.)
Who are the Nighthaunt?
A bunch of ghosts who are pretty pissed about the world. They might be pissed at their enemies or they might be pissed at Nagash, sometimes I think they’re just angry about being ghosts. During the Soul Wars, Nagash took the feral masses of spirits haunting all corners of the realms and weaponised them against his enemies. He raised Lady Olynder to be his Mortarch of Grief to lead the forces of the Nighthaunt. Nighthaunt have had some good presence in battles from time to time and I really enjoyed their involvement in the stories prior to the start of 3rd edition… especially in the joint assault with the Ossiarch Bonereapers on the all-points.
To be fair, the individual lore of the ghost factions is a little sparse and at times I’ve found it hard to make my own stories about my Nighthaunt battles. I like to take the perspective that many of the forces may legitimately think they’re the good guys (sounds a bit like FEC I know) defending souls or territories against the forces of order, chaos, and destruction. I like how that ties in with stories like those around “Nagash: The Undying King” where it gives a bit of an impression about life in Shyish and how the forces of Death tie in with the realm and Nagash, himself.
Why Play Nighthaunt?
Do you hate needing to walk around terrain? Play Nighthaunt. Do you hate needing to do maths to figure out what your save roll is? Play Nighthaunt. Do you think ghosts are cool? Play Nighthaunt. There’s plenty more reasons to jump on the Nighthaunt Coach and play them as an army. Personally, I do love the models ever since laying my eyes on the Spirit Hosts I’ve wanted to have some. They can be a tricky army to assemble with some of the models being notoriously difficult (Spirit Hosts and Hexwraiths) and others having some rather nasty seams (Bladegheists and Grimghast Reapers). On the other hand they really let you paint them how you want and there are some nice options out there for quick schemes and some really nice complicated schemes. From a gameplay perspective, they are relatively fluid on the tabletop and the breadth of warscrolls can let you play in a variety of ways. They’re often touted as a good beginner army because of fly and ignore rend (I do find it hard to play other armies where I can’t just walk over the top of my own units) but are also an army that tends to see success at tournaments with players who dedicate their time to get the reps in with the army. They can ironically feel a bit fragile when it comes to being hit with lots of attacks or mortals. With the new edition, the Nighthaunt feel has changed again a little and if you like the new options, now is a great time to start haunting your opponents.
Battle Traits
Ethereal – “What’s your rend?” Oh, I ignore it. It can lead to a bit of feels bad for the opponent but ignoring -3 rend and dodging big damage is a great feeling when it pays off.
Discorporate – a 5+ ward just as handy as ever… will be better on larger units (as now NH isn’t as inclined to go towards MSU as it was in 3rd). The downside I see is the higher demand on the Command Points than before.
Wave of terror – this is a new and somewhat confusingly written rule. It’s quite nice though being able to take a unit in combat and make a charge roll to then charge them into another unit or just using it as an extra pile in or triggering the Auras of Dread it is also nice! It’ll get less use if taking the retreat and charge battle formation but a bonus rule is a bonus rule.
Auras of Dread
These are reliable debuffs which you trigger when charging in your own turn. Their each single use across the army so you can’t stack them and their also only useable in your own turn. What is great is that it’s largely controllable where you use them (especially with retreat and charge)
Shriek can be tricky to get off because of needing to have more models which looks good on hordes of chainrasps but otherwise might not be coming up as often as you’d like except against heroes and monster lists. This is particularly important because where you often want a -1 is on big blocks of troops throwing out lots of attacks which most ghosts are allergic too (since a large number of attacks with low rend makes the ethereal less useful).
The other 2 are limited by the number of pieces you will have to potentially proc them, less inclined to take a high number of heroes and cavalry/warmachine is limited (although there are a few heroes who can use this one too.
Battle Formations
Vanishing Phantasms
Really nice for teleporting units around, this is a good pick but the others look better. Could be nice on a reinforced unit of Craventhrone Guard who can then teleport around each turn… On the other hand we have access to the teleporting with Coach, Dreadblade Harrows, and Awlrach already. This could also be interesting if you want to try and build up a super mobile army where most of the army is teleporting each turn. However, a wily opponent will be locking you into combats which will be painful to retreat out of.
Hunters of the Accursed
This is a bit of a replacement for the Emerald Curse but can only pick heroes and need to have friendly heroes within 12” which reduces its viability. However… it’s possible to change the targets end of every turn. Every turn! So it’s happening twice a battle round if you’re able to keep those requirements fulfilled (edited 28/07).
Death Stalkers
Run and charge plus retreat and charge… this is a winner. The run and charge is very nice for lots of the units… especially faster ones such as Hexwraiths or the Coach and Bladegheists who want to always make charges. Retreat and Charge was one of Nighthaunts best tricks in 3rd and with this Battle formation it still can be. Expect to see this used a lot, especially with competitive lists.
Procession of Death
This is the one to take if you want a Black Coach or two backed up by lots of infantry units. This goes nicely together with Chainrasps, Grimghast Reapers, and Spirit Hosts who have high wound density per point.
Heroic Traits
A bit of a funny one here is that you may struggle to choose who should get the heroic trait because our named heroes are pretty tasty, leaving less slots free for those non-uniques in our lists.
Ruler of the Spirit Hosts (RotSH)
This one is great and I’ll be taking this on a decently tanky hero like the KoSoS or the Krulghast. Bring back half a unit for a command point… that’s just good value. Bringing back 10 Bladegheists or 5 Hexwraiths will be particularly good. It will paint a big target on that hero though.
Cloaked in Shadow
This one is nice for reducing damage into one of your heroes… that’s nice on it’s own but it’s effectiveness is increased for the general itself helping to make those battle tactics more difficult. I think I will try this on a KoSoS with 20 Hexwraiths in a General’s Regiment
Terrifying Entity AKA The other one
You can do two Aura of Dread abilities but it’s not going to come up as often and I don’t think I’ll be taking this even if it has some utility.
Artefacts
Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
+1 attack on all melee units for all Nighthaunt units within 12”… this is simply solid. There will be a few lists where this has less impact but it’s a good choice for many lists.
Covetous Familiar
This one is retaliating against enemy units in combat… this can be nice on a hero who is going to go in and get in combat like the Executioner / KoS / KoSoS. Will be very good against some opponents but against plenty of armies this will only have a minor effect.
Soulfire ring
Maybe good on an Executioner to keep it healing up. The hero needs to kill a model which just doesn’t happen as much as you’ll want and is useless into some matchups.
Spell Lore
Shademist
-1 to wound on a unit. Solid. Especially on blocks of Rasps or reinforced Hexwraiths. Also useful in the opponents phase to mess with them trying to kill one of your units. It’s also until start of your next turn so if you’ve got a few wizards you’ll be able to get this onto quite a few units with “unlimited”. Pretty nice!
Spirit Drain
Generic army specific, roll for every model in a unit and do a mortal on a 5+. Handy sometimes.
Spectral Lure
This used to be the GoS’ signature spell… now everyone has it, and it makes having some wizards with the option to cast this. At a 6+ again, it’s nice to potentially cast in the opponents turn.
Manifestation Lore
All casting on a 6+ is pretty good. Makes it easier to get these out and mess with your opponent in their turn.
Mortalis Terminexus
I love a +1 on a charge… this one couples well with the retreat and charge or the teleports available in the army. Unfortunately it only works in your own turn but it also has an optional heal (3) which is pretty nice.
Vault of Souls
It’s a static manifestation but has a chance to do some nice damage if you can get it lobbed in behind the enemy’s front line it’s got a good chance to do some decent mortal wound damage.
Shyish Reaper
On a charge it gets 3 attacks with 3+ 2+ 2 4 which can make some owies but otherwise it’s just there to get in the way of the enemy with a decent base size.
PSA: The Manifestations don’t get ethereal as they’re not treated as a unit for that!
Units
I won’t go through every unit in this article… but as I splurged out my thoughts on the page it’s turned out to be quite a few! I’ve tried to focus on combos and the things which have stood out to me as I’ve read the warscrolls over and over again 😀
Cairn Wraith and Grimghast Reapers
The Grimghast Reapers really want to fight into infantry with 5 or more models where they start to get quite dangerous… on top of that the Cairn Wraith when in combat gives out an extra attack to all Grimghast Reaper units within 12”. I can understand why people are excited to put this on the table. I’m excited to have a reason to use the first AoS model I ever painted again and I’ll definitely be trying this out!
On the other hand, I don’t think they’re as good as plain Bladegheists… can form a defensive line as their skills aren’t charge dependent. I will play around with both and I’m sure we’ll see trends in the meta.
Bladegheists
I just like Bladegheists… from back when I was deep striking units of 5. I almost always have them in my lists. People know that they’re dangerous on the charge and that helps to force a decision onto the opponent. You can’t talk about Bladegheists without bringing Harridans up. I prefer to keep my buffs simple so Bladeys are my pick. Also I just really like the model. Feel free to use Harridans too!
Awlrach and Bladegheists
Want to make Bladegheists (or Harridans) better.. bring our old friendly boatman. I’m happy to get this combo going… both thematically with the 2 nautical units but also being able to drop them in outside of 7” which with the Mortalis Terminexus can bring it down to 6” charges. This’ll give an early teleporting threat that later enables objective grabbing. Awlrach can get bogged down and become ineffective if he ends up in combat so try to avoid that where possible (or use it to bait your enemy into attacking him or moving where you want them to… use your weaknesses to your advantage, my fellow gheists). It is only in your turn though so let me introduce you to…
Dreadblade Harrows
So… they teleport in both your turn and your opponents turn. I only see one decision to make here, 2 units of 2 each or 1 unit of 4. Oh yeah, they also can teleport out of combat.
Reikenor
Ouch! Reikenor got seriously dangerous in combat, especially if he starts to get into enemy wizards or priests. He’s still got his candles and now they can give him an extra power level… also, he’ll often play aggressively forwards so he’s great to try and get manifestations out in the middle of the enemy.
Hexwraiths
Talking about ghosts riding ghost horses… These fellas with a good move and 3 wounds are going to be great. They form a block of about 15” across when set up sideways and will be really hard to shift.
Black Coach and foot heroes
On the theme of horsey units, The Black Coach now has an ability to resurrect dead friendly heroes if it kills an enemy unit. I feel like if I want to lean into this, I’d go for quite a few foot heroes, 2 coaches, and the Cavalcade Battle Formation. I think this could result in a strong build… I’m just not quite sure what it is yet.
Glaivewraith Stalkers
Nah, I’m just kidding… but they did get better when pulling off a charge and I find myself slotting them in here and there because of their low points. I’m not going to build my lists around them.
Spirit Hosts
Their role hasn’t changed since 3rd but how it works has gotten better. Now they throw out a 4+ ward on infantry heroes (bummer that it doesn’t work on the Cavalry and Warmachine heroes). This is just generally interesting especially for buddies like the Guardian of Souls who needs to be in combat range now for the +1 wound buff.
Myrmourn Banshees
Not as fantastic at eating up spells as they were… they’ve now become a threat to low wound casters and might give your opponent a tough decision or another as when they unbind they dish out D3 mortal damage.
(via the NH FB group)
I guess I have to mention the two following characters:
Nagash
He pretty much makes up half an army if you choose him. I’m not a big character player so this doesn’t lend itself towards my playstyle. Lots of people do find him favourable and I see him featured in a lot of the lists. He looks like he might combo well with the potential flooding the board with Hexwraiths.
Lady Olynder
Lady O looks interesting… in a way that I’m not finding myself drawn to her but she’ll definitely have use especially when used to reduce control scores. Grief Stricken is good but I feel like other spells will just be a higher priority. She is a good potential Manifestation Caster with 2 casts and she’s hard to take down.
Overall considerations
There are some clear winners from the new warscrolls and I’ve got a clear personal bias. In our Nighthaunt Facebook group, we had an interesting table posted which helps to give an idea of the points vs combat effectiveness. Showing both wounds per point and damage per point. This of course isn’t the be all and end all of whether a unit will be effective and some unit abilities will make them shine regardless (there’s also a little typo under the Glaivewraiths, I’ll update this if there is a new version).
Thanks to Jean-Vincent Frucot from the Nighthaunt Age of Sigmar Facebook group.
From a wounds perspective Hexwraiths are killing it… I do expect a points adjustment there as couple with their huge move they’re a fantastic unit. On the damage side, it’s a pick your flavour scenario of Bladegheists or Dreadscythe Harridans where the Grimghasts shine when they’ve got their buffs up but that is more restrictive than the other 2.
Sample Lists
Fitts’ “I want to use these units” List v0-1 (1970 points)
Army: Nighthaunt
– Battle Formation: Death Stalkers
– Spell Lore: Lore of the underworlds
– Manifestation Lore: Cthonic Sorceries
REGIMENT 1
Hero: Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (180)
– Heroic Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts
– General
Unit 1: 10 Hexwraiths (320)
– reinforced
Unit 2: 10 Hexwraiths (320)
– reinforced
REGIMENT 2
Hero: Awlrach the Drowner (160)
Unit 1: 20 Bladegheist Revenants (300)
– reinforced
Unit 2: 10 Chainrasps (100)
Unit 3: 2 Dreadblade Harrows (160)
REGIMENT 3
Hero: Reikenor the Grimhailer (210)
Unit 1: 10 Chainrasps (100)
Unit 2: 4 Myrmourn Banshees (120)
TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)
I’ve thrown in a lot of my favourite warscrolls and combos from the unit review up above. Honestly, I think most of my considerations got captured up there. The general is going to get a lot of heat… but on the other hand it’s also a regiment that is really hard to shift and if they want to kill one of the units off it’s going to take them quite a bit of work. I’d play the Bladegheists really aggressively with Awlrach with the plan to bring them back with Ruler of the Spirit Hosts. At the same time, the Hexwraiths are going to be getting up on objectives and making things tough for my opponent. I’m a bit unsure about the Chainrasps… it’s 2 units of 10 instead of the Hexwraiths to give myself some better screening but I don’t like the way the points land and I’ll play around with this for a bit (always at least 4 games for me) before looking to optimise it further. My best thought would be another unit of Myrmourns or the Pyregheists.
I’m only one fella with a pretty biased point of view so I got Lakey (an old mate and fellow Admin of the Nighthaunt Facebook group) from Lakey Wargames to throw me a list and he’s definitely given me something tasty for this article!
Army: Nighthaunt
– Battle Formation: Cavalcade Of Death
– Spell Lore: Lore of the underworlds
– Manifestation Lore: Krondspine Incarnate
REGIMENT 1
Hero:Lady Olynder – 300
– General
Unit 1: 20 Dreadscythe Harridans – 300
– reinforced
Unit 2: 8 Myrmourn Banshees – 240
– reinforced
REGIMENT 2
Hero: Reikenor The Grimhailer – 210
Unit 1: 2 Dreadblade Harrows – 160
Unit 2: 3 Spirit Hosts – 130
REGIMENT 3
Hero: Tomb Banshee – 150
– Heroic Trait: Ruler Of The Spectral Hosts
– Artefact of power: Lightshard Of The Harvest Moon
Unit 1: 10 Chainrasps – 100
Unit 2: 10 Chainrasps – 100
TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)
From Lakey himself: “The idea behind the list is to have a really strong centre in the form of the Harridans, Banshees and BC. These will be supported by the Tomb ĺ will be trying to shut off commands on any key units coming in to engage them. Lady O will be there to support and make sure controlling is going in our favour. Reikenor will be there to bring his strong magic support and try and get the incarnate into play ASAP (I opted to stay 50pts down to get the extra CP turn one to get a shot at casting on the enemy turn too) He and the incarnate will be able to provide a strong flanking punch as and where needed due to good movement speed and set up potential. The Harrows will be looking to teleport in and score help scores, take the flanks, and take their land. After that, depending on how the game is going, they will be able to lend a hand in capture weight and fighting aside the others. Two units of rasps are there for cheap screens/objective holders and just general fodder. Because there’s so much strong stuff going in on the middle, I felt I needed more bodies in the list. I bought Spirit Hosts because it just feels wrong to not bring some. But they only benefit the Banshee, so they might not be worth it. But we shall see.”
End of the article
Having gone back and forth over the new abilities and warscrolls… I really think that Nighthaunt have legs (ironic I know). They can be built into a couple of different options and feel like they’ve got a few good tricks out there. I think there will be a good variety of lists performing well in tournaments in the near future… I’d even hazard a guess that we’ll need to see Nighthaunt get a few point increases. Get out there and start haunting your local scene and have fun making “Awoooo” noises when you charge!
