Today we’re going to be taking a look at how to build a 2,000 point Grand Host of Nagash army for Age of Sigmar. Come see a complete breakdown and a great place to start your new army.
With Malign Portents finally over and a sort of stalemate between Death and the rest of the world, we are going to cover one final army from the Legions of Death book. Previously we have done one for each of Nagash’s generals, so this one is going to be for the big baddie himself.
- Arkhan the Black: Legion of Sacrament
- Neferata Mortarch of Blood: Legion of Blood
- Mannfred Von Carstein: Legion of Night
Grand Host of Nagash Alliance Abilities: Access to artifacts of Nagash, bonus command trait (we can’t use because Nagash is general). Your wizards receive an extra spell (Nagash gets 3). Picking graveyard points that let you heal summonable units within 9″. A 6+ save against all unsaved wounds or mortal wounds. All Morghast units gain 1 to their Attacks characteristic. In your hero phase roll a D6 for every summonable unit, on a 5+ that unit heals D3 wounds.
Nagash himself is 800 points we are not going to include any high-cost leader type troops to this army. He knows all the spells from any Death Wizards and can cast a whopping 8 spells a turn when he has less than 4 wounds, so we are going to just add one more necromancer to the list, so he can draw from him as well.
- Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (800 points): Leader 1 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- Necromancer (110 points): Leader 2 of 6
Nagash:
Move 9 (fly), 3+ Save, 10 Bravery, 16 Wounds. He has a missile weapon with Gaze of Nagash: Range 12, 1 attack, hitting on a 3+, wounding on a 2+, -1 Rend, for D6 damage. Then 3 different melee weapons the first being Alakanash: Range 3, 1 attack, hitting on a 3+, wounding on a 2+, with -3 Rend, for D6 damage. His second is Zefet-Nebtar: Range 2, damage table attacks (6 down to 2), hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -2 Rend, for 3 damage. His third attack is spirits: Range 1, 6 attacks, hitting on a 5+ (on a 6+ deal mortal wound), wounding on a 4+, for 1 damage. His staff has a damage table that adds to his casting and unbinding rolls (+3/+3 down to +1/+1) and he can cast a damage table extra spells (5 down to 1). He has armor that each time he is dealt a mortal wound on a 4+ he ignores it and on a 6+ it rebounds back to his attacker.
Nagash can heal 5 summonable units anywhere on the battlefield your hero phase a D3 wounds and he gets to re roll that D3 if he wants. For magic, he is a wizard and starts (not including the 5 bonus spells) with being able to cast and unbind 3 spells and has 2 unique spells. The first is Hand of Dust, with range 3 and casting value of 8, you pick a model and then take a dice and hide it in one of your hands. Your opponent then chooses a hand, if it contains the dice his model is safe, otherwise it instant kills the model. His other spell is Soul Stealer with a range of 24 and casting value of 6. You pick an enemy unit and roll 2D6 and if it is greater then the units bravery it takes D3 mortal wounds, if it is double the unit’s bravery they take D6 mortal wounds. Nagash then heals a wound for every wound dealt. Finally, his command ability let s you re roll all hit and save rolls of 1 for all friendly death units, and they do not need to take battleshock tests.
Necromancer:
Move 5, 5 wounds, 6+ save, and a bravery of 10. Staff attack: Range 2, 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound, with 1 rend for D3 damage, you are going to want to stay out of combat with him. He has an ability where, every time he takes a wound, on a 4+ he can transfer the wound to a nearby Death unit. He has Deathly Invocation, where he can pick two summon units within 6″ and heal or bring back D3 wounds or models to the unit. Finally, his unique spell is Vanhel’s Danse Macabre with a casting value of six allows a friendly summonable unit within 18 to pile in and attack twice in your next combat phase.
After that, we are going to take the first cohort and the units required to round out the rest of this force. Not only does that let Nagash move wounds to a Morghast unit within 3 of him, but also guarantees 3 wounds are being returned up to 5 summonable units anywhere on the battlefield.
- 2 Morghast Archai (220 points): Battleline 1 of 3
- 40 Skeleton Warriors (280 points): Battleline 2 of 3
- 10 Skeleton Warriors (80 points): Battleline 3 of 3
- The First Cohort (160 points): Battalion
Morghast Archai:
Move 9 (fly), Save 4+, 10 bravery, 6 wounds. Armed with either Spirit Halberds: range 2, 3 attacks each, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -2 Rend for 3 damage. Or Spirit Swords: range 1, 5 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend for 2 damage. They subtract 1 from the bravery of enemy units within 6 inches and gain a 5+ save any time a mortal wound is allocated to them.
Skeleton Warriors:
Move 4, 1 wound, 6+ save (if the opponent has no Rend add 1 to the roll), and 10 bravery. You can either arm these with spears or blades: Spear is 1 attack with a 2-inch range, hitting on a 5+, wounding on a 4+, for 1 damage. The blade has a 1-inch range with 1 attack hitting and wounding on a 4+, for 1 damage. With more than 20 models each model gets 1 extra attack, and with 30 models each gets 2 extra attacks. They get a bonus 1 to hit rolls if they are within 18 inches of a Death hero. The champ has 2 attacks rather than 1, horn blower lets them charge at least 6 inches (unless the charge roll is higher), and the icon nearer subtracts 1 Bravery from enemy units within 6 inches.
The First Cohort:
Ceasless Vigil: Each time Nagash suffers a wound or mortal wound on a 3+ you can allocate that to a Morghast unit within 3 inches of him. Eternal Servitude: When Nagash uses Deathly Invocation on any first cohort unit the result is a 3 rather than D3.
This puts you at 1650 points and meets all the battleline components you need to field this army, so how you want to build the last 350 is up to you. Personally, I like taking a lot of cheaper summonable units, because with the amount of healing your getting back every turn your opponent needs to make sure they destroy an entire unit before moving onto the next one. It is fun to summon these in the graveyards in your opponent’s territories to contest objectives.
Loadouts:
The only thing you must select is which 3 bonus spells you want to give Nagash and your necromancer. I really like multiple debuff spells Overwhelming Dread, Fading Vigor, etc. that if go off on a 9+ (unmodified) double their effects. Make sure you take one of the healing spells (Soul Harvest or Vile Transference) so that if Nagash does get damaged you can heal him up. What the necromancer takes is also up to you but just make sure it is not something you took on Nagash. Your Morghasts should have the spirit halberds and your skeletons should have spears.
Tactics:
Basically, use Nagash to destroy the world, casting 8 spells on a 9+ that effect going off twice is insane. Keep your Morghast close so that any unsaved wounds Nagash receives can be pushed onto them, and then just push forward with your big block of skeletons. With your small skeleton unit park, them on an objective and hope they don’t get killed off. Your big weakness is you only have 2 leaders in this army so if the battleplan is to claim objectives with hero units, you need to kill his leaders before they can claim them all.
There you have it an army of the Grand Host Nagash to magically stomp out any opponent, he is an awesome model and a great centerpiece for a Death force.
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
