With the Legions of Nagash book out and a Death vs Everyone campaign with Malign Portents, let’s look at building a 2000-point Legion of Blood army.
Malign Portents is still going strong and it looks like Death is not backing down anytime soon. A few weeks ago, we looked at what Nagash’s right-hand man Arkhan the Black might run, so today we are going to look at another of his Lieutenants. This army is going to focus on the Legion of Blood which happens to be Neferata’s jam, so she is taken as the general of this force.
Legion of Blood confers the following special traits: Bonus command trait (not going to use as Neferata is your general), Artifacts of Bood, picking graveyard points that let you heal summonable units within 9″, a 6+ save against all unsaved wounds or mortal wound, all enemy units within 6″ of any legion of blood units subtract one from their bravery, and finally all Vampire Lords and Blood Knights get +1 attacks to all their melee weapons.
This force centers around Neferata and the Court of Nulahmia battalion.
- Neferata, Mortarch of Blood (400 points): Leader 1 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- Vampire Lord on Nightmare (140 points): Leader 2 of 6
- Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (440 points): Leader 3 of 6, Behemoth 2 of 4
- Bloodseeker Palanquin (320 points): Leader 4 of 6, Behemoth 3 of 4
- Court of Nulahmia (70 points): Battalion
Neferata, Mortarch of Blood
Move Damage Table (16 down to 4), fly, Save 4+, 10 Bravery, 11 Wounds. She has four different melee attacks. The first attack is Akmet-har: Range 1″, five attacks, hitting on a 2+, wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for one damage. If the target takes a wound for Akmet-har but is not killed, roll a D6 on a 6+ the model is slain. Then, Aken-seth: Range 1″, two attacks, hitting on a 2+, wounding on a 3+, with -2 Rrend, for two damage. Next, her mount Nagadron: Range 1″, damage table attacks (6 down to 2), hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, with -2 Rrend, for two damage. Finally, she has Spirits: Range 1″, six attacks, hitting on a 5+, wounding on a 4+, for one damage. If the spirit attack hit roll is a 6+, they deal one mortal wound. In ANY combat phase that she kills a model, she heals two wounds, three wounds if it was a hero model. She picks four friendly summonable units within 18″ and can heal or return D3 wounds at the start of your Hero phase. Her command ability is Twilights Allure, which has a damage table range (15 down to 3) and all enemy units subtract one from hit rolls in that range. Finally, she is a wizard and can cast two spells. Her unique spell is Dark Mist which is cast on a six. If cast successfully, the unit can now fly and it ignores save modifiers when making save rolls.
Vampire Lord on Nightmare
Move 10″ (when on Nightmare), 4+ Save, 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. Spirit Possessed Blades: Range 1″, four attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for D3 damage. Nightmare’s Hooves and Teeth: Range 1″, two attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for one damage. He heals a wound at the end of EACH combat phase that he kills a model and his Chalice of Blood lets him heal D6 wounds once per battle in your Hero phase. He is a wizard that can cast one spell a turn. If successful, one enemy unit subtracts one from each of its unit’s melee weapons (to a min of one). He picks three friendly summonable units within 12″ and can heal or return D3 wounds at the start of your hero phase. Finally, his command ability is Blood Feast, which lets you pick a friendly Death unit within 15″ and models within that unit make one extra attack with their melee weapons.
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon
Move and fly damage table (14″ down to 6″), Save 4+, 10 Bravery, 14 Wounds. For a missile weapon, he has Pestilential Breath which is: Range 9″, one attack, hitting on 4+, wounding on damage table (2+ up to 6+), with -1 rend for D6 damage. Also, with the breath attack, roll a D6 before the attack and if the roll is equal or less then the number of models in the unit it automatically hits. For melee weapons, this model has either a Deathlance or Vampire Sword. Deathlance: Range 1″, three attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend for two damage (three damage on a charge). Vampire Sword: Range 1″, four attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for D3 damage. Then you have the Zombie Dragon’s maw and claw attacks. Zombie Dragon Maw: Range 3″, two attacks, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, with -2 rend for D6 damage. Zombie Dragon Sword-like Claws: Range 2″, damage table attacks (6 down to 2), hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+, with -1 Rend for two damage. He is also equipped with an Ancient Shield and Chalice of Blood. Ancient Shield increases his save to a 3+ and Chalice of Blood lets him heal D6 wounds once per battle. He heals one wound at the end of EACH combat phase in which he kills a model. He is a wizard with a unique spell called Blood Boil. The spell targets an enemy unit within 18″ and has a casting value of six. If successful, the unit takes a mortal wound and, if no models are slain, on a 4+ it deals another mortal wound and continues until either a model is slain, or you roll under a 4+. He picks three friendly summonable units within 12″ and can heal or return D3 wounds at the start of your hero phase. Finally, his command ability lets you pick a Death unit within 15″ to re-roll failed hit rolls.
Bloodseeker Palanquin
Move damage table (14 down to 4) fly, Save 4+, 10 Bravery, 12 Wounds. Has a Wail of the Damned range attack with damage table range (9 down to 5), roll two dice if it is higher then the targets bravery they suffer D3 mortal wounds. Then for melee, it has two attacks the first being a Bloodletting Blade: Range 1″, four attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for D3 damage. She has a Spirit attack with range 1″, damage table attacks (12 down to 4), hitting on a 5+, wounding on a 4+, for one damage. If you roll a 6+ to hit with this attack, it does a mortal wound instead. If any enemy heroes are slain within 9″ of this model, add one attack to all melee weapons used by friendly Soulblight models within 12″ until your next hero phase. She picks two friendly summonable units within 6″ and can heal or return D3 wounds at the start of your Hero phase. Finally, she is a wizard with a unique spell called Blood Siphon. This spell has a casting value of 6, when successful pick an enemy hero within 12″ and roll a dice. On a 1-3 they suffer a single mortal wound, on a 4-5 they suffer D3 mortal wounds, and on a six they suffer D6 mortal wounds.
Court of Nulahmia
While models from this battalion are within 9″ of the Bloodseeker Palanquin, they can add 4″ to their movement characteristic this turn. If Neferata is within 9″ of the Bloodseeker Palanquin, she can reroll failed hit rolls against heroes.
Next, we need to fill out the battleline units to help control objectives:
- 30 Dire Wolves (320 points): Battleline 1 of 3
- 10 Zombies (60 points): Battleline 2 of 3
- 10 Zombies (60 points): Battleline 3 of 3
- 6 Fell Bats (180 points): No Unit Type
Dire Wolves
Move 10, 5+ Save, 10 Bravery, 2 Wounds. They have a Fang attack with range 1″, two attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for one damage. The leader of the unit has a bonus attack, if they are within 9″ of a Corpse Cart, add one to their save rolls, and if they charged add one to their wound rolls.
Zombies
Move 4″, no save, 10 Bravery, 1 Wound. The Bite attack with one attack, hitting and wounding on a 5+, for one damage. You can add one to hit rolls if there are more than 20 models or add two to hit rolls if there are 40 or more. Any models slain by this unit, on a 6+ at the end of combat become a zombie, and you can add one to hit rolls if they are within 9″ of a corpse cart. Finally, the standard subtracts one from the bravery of nearby enemy troops, and the noisemaker lets them charge 6″ automatically unless their charge roll is higher.
Fell Bats
Move 14 (fly), 6+ Save, 10 Bravery, 3 Wounds. They have a Fang melee attack with range 1″, three attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for one damage. If a model is killed within 6″ of this unit, their attacks increase to six rather than three for the rest of the battle.
Load-outs
The only weapons choice you have in this army is the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon, who I would arm with the lance over the sword. For artifacts, I would equip the Lord on Dragon with the Soulbound Garments, allowing him to reroll save rolls of one, and the Lord on Nightmare the Orb of Enchantment which, once per battle, lets him select a Hero at the start of combat phase within 3″ and they cannot pile in and attack or use abilities. For bonus spells, I would give Neferata the Amaranthine Orb. For the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon, I would give Vile Transference, the Blood Seeker Palanquin Soulpike, and for the Vampire Lord on Nightmare the Amethystine Pinions spells.
Tactics
This army is all about speed and keeping your guys healed up, starting with your battalion you can pretty much get where you want to go with any of them. Luckily your large battleline unit of dire wolves is great for keeping up with your battalion and you can heal them up as they are summonable. Same with the fell bats, while they are squishier they are incredibly fast and so can go after war machines or objectives in your opponent’s territory. If you kill a hero close enough to you Palanquin, you are getting an additional attack to all melee weapons on top of the bonus one from your Legion of Blood, so you can really start attacking. Finally, your zombies are generally there to be stop gaps for your opponent or to hold objectives in your end, you should really be taking this fight to the center of the table or in your opponent’s territory though to be most effective. This army is really one that uses its superior movement to control the battlefield so if you are finding your self in a situation you do not like, retreat, regroup and play for combat in the next round.
Total Points: 1970
There you have it, a very interesting way to play the Legion of Blood. If you wanted to go with more models you could drop the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon for another one on Nightmare and add some Blood Knights. I like the massive amounts of wolves this army brings along with some bats, to give it some flavor.
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
