This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules and optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
After a swathe of wins in the earlier months of fourth edition, carried to victory mostly on the back of various forms of spectral horse, Nighthaunt have settled into a comfortably capable position after a couple of Battlescrolls. Their unmodifiable saves and excellent mobility mean that they can put up a fight against most opposing forces, but sometimes they can struggle for quality damage output. The Scourge of Ghyran looks to switch that up a bit, with a pair of damage-focused warscrolls, two new battle formations, and three new artefacts of power. Alongside that, we’ve got the free warscroll for the Nexus of Grief, the Nighthaunt’s alternate build for the Soulblight Cursed Sepulchre terrain piece.
Nexus of Grief Faction Terrain
We’ll start with the terrain, for reasons that will become clear. Like the Soulblight’s Cursed Sepulchre, one Nexus of Grief is deployed using the normal faction terrain rules, before up to two additional pieces are added. Also like the Sepulchre the Nexus boasts 8 wounds, albeit behind a 5+ save and 5+ ward instead of the Soulblight 4+/6+.
The Nexus of Grief has 3 main abilities. First off, enemies just can’t use commands while they’re within 3” of it. This is situationally good, but helpful when people are using your faction terrain as a charge target to get into combat with a key target. Units suddenly finding themselves without an All-Out Attack can be the difference between killing an enemy to secure a battle tactic and not.
Secondly, and much more impactful, at the end of every turn the Nexus can pick up to three Nighthaunt units wholly within 12” and heal D3 health to them, or return D3 health worth of slain models if they haven’t taken wounds. Unlike the Rally command, you can’t mix and match within a unit – if any wounds have been taken, those have to be healed and any spillover can’t be used to replace models. Luckily, Nighthaunt thrives on single wound infantry models for the most part, so this restriction doesn’t feel too punishing. Worth noting that this is Once Per Turn (Army), so can only be focused around one of your three Nexuses each turn.
Finally, to support your rapidly advancing forces, one Nexus can teleport to within 3” of a friendly Nighthaunt unit in your movement phase, remaining 3” away from enemy units and 12” away from other Nexuses. Given the anti-command tech it doesn’t feel like it would have been too much to let this get within 3” of enemies, although more on that in the Battle Formations section. Overall, the Nexus of Grief feels like a solid support piece for Nighthaunt, offering another source of healing and returning models to help with longevity, although it’ll be interesting to see if players restrict how many pieces they put down to avoid giving away mobility and battle tactics to their opponent.
Battle Formations
First up, Hungry Nexus gives one of your Nexus of Grief pieces a 3” move at the end of each enemy turn, and lets the Nexus move into combat range of enemy units with this move. This is a great way of activating the no-command debuff before your turn (indeed, perhaps one of the only ways you’ll ever activate it), but it feels like a bit of a heavy investment to choose this instead of any of the other formations. It is very funny, though.
Fortunately, the other option is a little more compelling. Deathrust Gheists supports the drawn-out grind that Nighthaunt can sometimes find themselves in when they lack the killing power to take off whole units. In the enemy hero phase you can pick a unit in combat with a Nighthaunt unit, and give them -1 to their save rolls for the rest of the turn. Suddenly that big block of Chainrasps that you were using as a roadblock has a pip of rend, or your Bladegeists are finishing stuff off with rend 2. This isn’t always going to be a game-changer, but Nighthaunt end up in combat a lot, and it’s certainly going to throw some extra decisions your opponents’ way during their turn.
Artefacts of Power
Three new “Relics of Dolorum” here. The Stave of Suffering acts like a kind of magical beacon, giving the bearer a 12” aura of +1 to cast whilst it is within 12” of any enemy units that are damaged or have lost models. It’s situational, but cast buffs are always appreciated. You might expect to see this on a foot hero accompanying Nagash, just to make the big lad’s spells even harder to unbind.
The Tombstone of the Penitent keys off of board state, giving the wielder +1 to their attack characteristic for every piece of non-faction terrain that is contested by friendly units, to a maximum of 8. This seems of limited use, although I can see the case for adding a lot of attacks to something like a Lord Executioner, then sending him toe to toe with a much bigger hero. We’re a bit unsure whether the intent here is that the additional attacks cap at 8 (e.g. a maximum of 13 total for the Lord Executioner) or that the characteristic itself caps at 8. Assume the former, but perhaps expect clarification to be forthcoming in a future battlescroll.
Finally, the Amulet of Waking Nightmares lets you turn off Guarded Hero and/or Obscuring terrain for a model within 18” in your hero phase. Just two problems. First, the model must be visible, which means you have to negotiate a situation where you had the foresight to put your hero with the amulet in a position to avoid obscuring terrain, without remembering to do that for your wizard or shooting unit. Secondly, you don’t have a shooting unit that is worth supporting with this. Craventhrone Guard can already shoot targets that aren’t visible, so they’re only avoiding the guarded hero aspect. Chainghasts can’t be reinforced so have a mighty four attacks, which makes this a big investment for an expected 1 or less damage. Nagash can only target a unit once with his invocation, and it’s not like there are a huge amount of other damaging spells that you’d be trying to stack against a key piece, and guarded hero means nothing against spells. Perhaps it might be good for Pyregheists? For now it feels like this is a bit undercooked, but we know these rules are made to align with the new General’s Handbook season, so perhaps rule changes there could make it more impactful.
Warscrolls
Two new warscrolls for the Nighthaunt, and both of them add some much needed hitting power to units that were previously a bit lacklustre. Firstly, Kurdoss Valentian The Craven King gets a glow up, giving up his command point tricks in exchange for being more of an objective brawler. He gains an attack on his Sepulchral Sceptre, although loses his attendants’ claws attacks in exchange. Inescapable Mockery gives him +1 to hit and wound against anything with a lower control characteristic than him (i.e. 4 or lower), whilst A Traitor’s Legacy activatesin the combat phase as long as he’s in combat, allowing him to pick an effect for a friendly Nighthaunt unit within 12” for the rest of the turn. That can be Anti-Hero (+1 Rend), +5 control score, or turning off commands for enemy units in combat with them. All of this will cost the same 190 points as the original Kurdoss warscroll, giving you a choice of two quite different variants depending on what suits your army better.
The Black Coach, on the other hand, feels more like its Scourge of Ghyran warscroll is firmly in upgrade territory. It loses its Soulreach Grasp ranged profile, and trades the Relic Bearer’s Spectral Claws and the Steeds’ hooves and teeth attacks for a new profile. The Black Coach’s Iron-Shod Wheels is a Companion profile, with 8 attacks hitting on 4s, wounding on 3s, rend 2 and damage 2, with Crit (Auto-Wound) like most Nighthaunt profiles. So far, reasonably good, but this shines with the addition of the Coach’s Spectral Attendants rule. In each hero phase you can choose to make all of the Coach’s attacks, companion included, Crit (Mortal) instead of auto-wound. 13 damage 2 attacks with Crit (Mortal) is not insignificant, and it’s definitely an improvement on having to roll a lot of different profiles. Alternatively, if combat isn’t on the cards you can pick a Nighthaunt unit wholly within 12” to gain 3 additional dice on a rally roll, or make the Black Coach a Wizard (1) for the turn. The crit mortals feel like the impact piece here, but it’s good to have flexibility.
On top of that, the Coach also has One Stop, No Return, which turns off crits for enemy units on an objective you don’t control as long as the Coach contests it. Against certain armies this will be really impactful on the turns where you need to reach out and shift a unit like Vanari Wardens off of an objective. This also activates in every hero phase, letting you use it flexibly. It’s worth noting that both One Stop, No Return and Spectral Attendants are once per turn (Army), so expect to see no more than a single Black Coach in most builds. Finally, Spectral Carriage gives the Coach an extra dice on the charge in your turn, really solidifying this as a piece that’s now intended to reach out, take objectives, and cause some havoc. The Coach clocks in at 280 points, so slightly more than the original warscroll, but it feels much more worth the points.
Final Thoughts
It’s fair to say that I absolutely love the new Black Coach warscroll. The model has always looked amazing, and now it really feels like it can make an impact on the board, so I’m looking forward to getting my Nighthaunt back on the table soon. Kurdoss also feels like a nice change, and it’s good to have the option of two different scrolls depending on your listbuilding intentions. The Artefacts are a mixed bag, and probably none are as good as the Lightshard of the Harvest Moon still. Overall it feels like this will shake up Nighthaunt list-building a little, and that can only be a good thing.
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