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What About The Night Lords, How Good Are They?

Danny here from TFG Radio to once more to go into detail about Night Lords and trying to make the best literary-themed Primarch’s children do some work.

Of course, if you don’t want to play 40K on hardmode, check out Frontline’s ever-expanding Tactics Corner!nightlordassaultmarine-240x300

So last time, I went over the special rules and detachment benefits for Night Lords, and today I am going to dig deep into their warlord traits and artefacts. As my usual bonus, we’ll take a look at a few list ideas that maybe, just maybe, give Night Lords some moves on the tabletop.

Warlord Traits:

  • One Piece at a Time: Warlord gains Hit & Run.
  • Murderous Reputation: Warlord and unit can reroll any 1s to wound in the assault phase.
  • Bitter Hatred: Warlord gains Hatred.
  • One With the Shadows: Your Warlord can re-roll failed cover saves.
  • Dirty Fighter: Warlord and unit gain Hammer of Wrath. If he/they already have it, they get to reroll wounds for their Hammer of Wrath attacks.
  • Killing Fury: Warlord gains Rampage.

Ok, so there isn’t a lot great in here. There are two that I really like, namely Hit&Run for some counter-moves, which never, ever hurts. I also like re-rolling failed cover saves as suddenly, a Lord on a bike can be almost like a Black Knight. Almost. Dirty Fighter isn’t terrible as being able to do Strength 4 attacks at initiative 10 can help thin out squishy but high initiative units like Eldar, and since Bike squads are all the rage, getting to reroll to wound on those Strength 4 attacks is good. Rampage is ok, I suppose, but Night Lords characters lack the sheer kill output of say World Eaters where that might matter more. Hatred is pretty meh as is the re-roll 1s to wound in combat.

konrad-curze

Why can’t they have better Warlord Traits?

So yah, maybe rolling on strategic is just a better choice unless you are really fishing for re-roll cover saves or Hit&Run, and well, that’s not great odds.

 

Artefacts:

  • Scourging Chains: Warlord gains Shred in melee.
  • Claws of the Black Hunt: Strength +1, AP 3, lightning claws with Master-Crafted and Rending. Replace all melee and ranged weapons.
  • Talons of the Night Terror: Strength User, Ap5, Shred claws that generate an addition D3 attacks (or D6 attacks on the charge).
  • Vox Daemonicus: Enemy units within 6” of the bearer are -1 Leadership. Also, opponent suffers -1 to reserves whilst bearer is on the battlefield.
  • Curze’s Orb: Bearer can reroll 1s for Runs, to Hit, and To Wound.
  • Stormbolt Plate: 2+ armor save and +1 cover save.lightningclaw

Ok, so the artifacts here are much better than the Warlord traits, thankfully, and while there are a few duds, there is some useful Tek in here. The first and most obvious is the Vox Daemonicus. The -1 LD isn’t all that important as it is so short-ranged (although it could come in handy), but -1 to reserve rolls is big as the Night Lords are relatively resilient to the 1st turn Alpha Strike, so any null deploy army has to deal with the Night Lords at their strongest and then have the rest of their force come in piece meal. This is amazing, and if you are taking Night Lords, you should have a good reason why you aren’t taking this. I also like the Stormbolt Plate as it gives you a rather resilient lord who can hop on a bike for T5, a 2+ save, and as a Night Lord, a 2+ cover save from Jinking. Not too bad at all. There’s no limit on who can take it either, so you could have a Daemon Prince with a 2+ save and a 2+ jink, and of course, add in Tzeentch, and well, you have all the rerolls now. Not entirely terrible. Yes, Hunter’s Eye Centurions still wreck either of these, but there are very few things in this game that they don’t.

I’m relatively neutral on any of the others. Curze’s Orb is ok for essentially preferred enemy (all), and the Claws of the Black Hunt aren’t bad for S5, Master-Crafted, and Rending (But so expensive!), but then they aren’t all that great either. Talons of the Night Terror really works best with a Daemon Prince as the additional D3 attacks (or D6) plus Shred on a S6 model that makes the claws AP2 isn’t too bad at all. That gives you a nice little blender that doesn’t have the chance to hurt itself like other daemon weapons.

The Scourging Chains is also a bit weird as 10 points for Shred in melee isn’t a terrible deal, but it’s not great either. Perhaps again on a dirt cheap Daemon Prince for S6 shred, but eh, seems like a waste. I suppose if you really want a double-lightning claw Lord and save 5 points, you could do this and a Power Sword.

So with all this in mind, let’s see what weird lists I can create with Night Lords being the main star (or at least there).

If you would like to check out the 3 Night Lords lists you catch the rest of the article at Frontlinegaming!

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About the Author: Frontline Gaming