Let’s take a look at the new Soul Wars Nighthaunts and what you need to put together a great 1000 point list for Age of Sigmar.
Some of the coolest models in the game right now happen to be GW newest AoS faction the Nighthaunts! Looking at the models in the Soul Wars box set they are a great starting point to building up your faction. So starting with that same Soul Wars set we are going to build a 1000 point list, and then follow it up with a 2000 point list for matched play.
Soul Wars: Taking Nighthaunts to 1000 Points
*If you’re not interested in the stormcast half you can usually sell it for about half of what the soul wars boxed set is running. Also you can keep the Stormcast half as it’s a great starting point for an order army, you can see that article here*
First, let’s look at what you get when you run Allegiance Nighthaunt:
- Aura of Dread: Subtract 1 from the Bravery characteristic of enemy units while they are within 6” of friendly Nighthaunt units.
- Deathless Spirits: Every time a friendly Nighthaunt model within 12” of you general or 6” of a Nighthaunt hero suffers an unsaved wound or mortal wound roll a D6. On a 6+ they ignore that wound.
- From the Underworlds They Come: Instead of setting up a Nighthaunt unit on the battlefield you can instead say it is setting up in the “Underworld”. You can put 1 unit in the underworld for every unit you put on the battlefield. At the end of your movement phase you can place any units set up in the underworld anywhere on the map as long as they are outside 9” from enemy models. This counts as their move for the turn.
- Feed of Terror: Each time an enemy unit fails a battleshock test pick one friendly Nighthaunt hero within 6” of that unit. Heal 1 wound allocated to that Hero.
- Wave of Terror: If you make an unmodified charge roll of 10+ for a friendly Nighthaunt unit, it can fight immediately after you complete a charge move. This does not stop the unit from being picked to fight in the combat phase of the same turn.
- Command Ability Spectral Summons: Use this at the start of your movement phase, pick a friendly Nighthaunt unit on the battlefield. Remove it and set it up wholly within 12” of your general and more than 9” from enemy models. This counts as their move for the movement phase.
These abilities give the Nighthaunts great maneuverability in terms of being able to show up anywhere on the table turn 1. A
lso, the command ability is great if one of your units gets bogged down somewhere that is not of interest, instead you can bring them back to a more important area of the table. The minuses to bravery are nice and will stack well with some spells, artifacts, and unit abilities to cause more failed battleshock tests.
Build Your List
Next, let’s dive into the Soul Wars set and start building our first list.
- Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed – 140 Points, Leader 1 of 4
- Lord Executioner – 80 Points, Leader 2 of 4
- Guardian of Souls – 140 Points, Leader 3 of 4
- Spirit Torment – 120 Points, Leader 4 of 4
- 4 Grimghast Reapers -140 (per 10), Battleline 1 of 2 required
- 5 Glaivewraith Stalkers – 60 points (per 4), No Unit Type
- 20 Chainrasp Horde – 160 points (80 points per 10), Battleline 2 of 2 required
Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed:
Move 12 inches (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), 10 Bravery, 6 Wounds. Has two different melee attacks the first is the word of stolen hours: Range 1 inch, 4 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend, for 2 damage. Then the horse attacks: Range 1, 2 attacks, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 5+, for 1 damage.
Allocate wounds from the sword attack before the horse attack, for each hero killed by the sword of stolen hours heal 1 wound. Command Ability Lord of Ghesists: Use this at the start of the command phase, pick a friendly Nighthaunt unit wholly within 18 inches, add 1 to that unit’s attacks characteristic of their melee weapons.
Lord Executioner:
Move 6’ (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. Has 1 melee weapon the Decapitating Greataxe: Range 1 inch, 3 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -2 rend, for 1 damage. If you roll a 6+ on a wound roll the attack dead +2 damage.
At the start of the hero phase you can pick an enemy hero within 3 inches and subtract 1 from their hit rolls in the combat phase. Every time this model suffers a mortal wound on a 5+ the wound is negated.
Guardian of Souls with Nightmare Lantern:
Move 6’ (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. Has 1 melee weapon the Chill Blade: Range 1 inch, 3 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for 1 damage. His lantern adds 1 to wound rolls for melee weapons from all friendly Nighthaunts within 9’.
He is a wizard and can cast and unbind 1 spell, his unique spell is Spectral Lure: Casting value 6, 18 inches, targets a friendly Summonable Nighthaunt unit, the spells either heals a D6 wounds or returns a D6 wounds worth of models.
Spirit Torment:
Move 6 inches (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. Has 1 melee weapon the Shacklegheist Chains: Range 2 inches, 3 attacks, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, with -2 rend, for D3 damage. At the start of any battleshock phase, if 3 or more enemy models were slain that turn heal D3 wounds (3 if they were Stormcast Eternals) to a friendly Nighthaunt unit within 6 inches.
You can instead return a D3 number of slain models to a unit instead, this can only be used once per Spirit Torment and each Spirit Torment must use 3 different slain enemy models. Finally, all Nighthaunt units wholly within 12 inches of this model can re’roll hit rolls of 1.
Grimghast Reapers:
Move 8 inches (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), 10 Bravery, 1 Wound. They have 1 melee weapon the slasher scythe: Range 2 inches, 2 attacks, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend, for 1 damage. You can re-roll failed hit rolls for the slasher scythes if this unit has 5 or more models. The leader attacks with a death knell rather than scythe: Range 2 inches, 1 attack, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend, for 2 damage. Allocate death knell wounds last and for each enemy model slain by the knell you can inflict 1 mortal wound on an enemy unit within 3 inches of the leader of this unit.
Glaivewraith Stalkers:
Move 6 inches (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), 6 Bravery, 1 Wound. Has 2 melee weapon which is the hunter’s glaive: Range 2 inches, 2 attacks, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, for 1 damage. This unit can retreat and charge in the same turn. You can re-roll failed hit rolls for attacks with this unit if they or the target charged this turn.
Chainrasp Horde:
Move 6 inches (fly), Save 5+ (unmodifiable), 6 Bravery, 1 Wound. Has 1 melee weapon the malignant weapon: Range 1 inch, 2 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for 1 damage. Re-roll wound rolls of 1 when this unit has more than 10 models. The leader is a dreadwarden he gets 1 additional attack and make the units bravery 10 rather than 6.
Coming in at 840 points this is a pretty solid starting force. You get an astounding 4 leader models and can cover all three of your battle line units. You do need to round out some units though so be sure to get another 6 Grimghast Reapers to get the correct unit size.
With the other 160 points you need are capped out on leaders and have your two battleline requirements so keep it cheap and get some of the sweet new anti magic units that happen to come in 15 dollar Easy to Build Kits (ETB).
- 8 Myrmourn Banshees – 160 points (80 per 4), No Unit Type
Myrmourn Banshees:
Move 9” (fly), Save 4+ (unmodifiable), Bravery 10, 1 Wound. 1 melee weapon attack the chill dagger: Range 1”, 1 attack, 4+ to hit, 3_ to wound, with -2 rend, for D3 damage. Spell Eater: Once in each enemy hero phase, if this unit is within 18” of enemy Wizard that successfully casts a spell this unit can attempt to unbind it. (Add 1 to the roll for every 4 models. If successfully unbound add 1 to the attacks of this units Chill Daggers until the next enemy hero phase. This unit can attempt to dispel an Endless Spell they are within 6” of, if successful they suffer D3 mortal wound but add 1 to the attacks characteristic of Chill Dagger until your next hero phase.
Total 1000 points.
Loadout: Starting with the bonus command trait I am going to give my general the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed Ruler of the Spirit Hosts which allows him to return D3 slain models to a summonable unit within 9”. For my Guardian of Souls, I am going to give him the bonus spell of Spirit Drain to help pick off enemy heroes. Finally, I am also going to give the Guardian of Souls the Beacon of Nagashizzar which increases his Spectral Lure spell to a D6+3 to return additional models.
Tactics: Your units need to get buffed to be super effective, but they are survivable thanks to the deathless spirits buff and the ethereal abilities. You’re going to want to keep your heroes close to your larger units to get the Look Out Sir bonus against shoot as if they get sniped off the table you’re in rough shape. With three units that can return slain units you should be able to take whatever ranged fire. For me I like to set up the Banshees in the underground along with a with either the spirit torment or the guardian of souls and go wizard/artillery hunting.
The model you don’t use should then be placed smack dab in the middle of the chainrasp horde so that it can return models to them and provide the re-roll hit rolls of 1. After that, it is all about getting into combat with your units that can heal themselves and return slain models.
There you have it at pretty easy 1000 point army to build using the Nighthaunts from Soul Wars, next time we’ll take them to 2000!
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
