Today we’ll take a look at how to play Nighthaunt with a focus on building Emerald Lifeswarm and Grieving Legion 2,ooo points armies!
The new Nighthaunt Battletome came out recently and it’s time to take a dive into it to see how we can build out armies within the various sub-factions.
Today we are going to state with the Emerald Host and the Grieving Legion.
How to Play Nighthaunt: Emerald Lifeswarm & Grieving Legion 2,000 Points
Battletome: Nighthaunt $55
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Let’s start with the abilities all Nighthaunt get though.
- All enemies within 3” of friendly Nighthaunt units are terrified and cannot receive the inspiring presence command.
- All Nighthaunt units have a 6+ ward save
- All Nighthaunt ignore positive and negative save modifiers
- Nighthaunt units can retreat and charge in the same turn
- Unique Command Ability Discorporate: Use when a friendly Nighthaunt unit is picked as a target in the shooting or combat phase and their ward save becomes +5 instead of +6
- On a friendly charge roll, the following happens:
- 4-7: target has -1 hit rolls
- 8-9: target has a -1 save
- 10+: target strikes last in the combat phase
- *Note that you can choose any result that is lower than your roll
- Unmodified hit rolls of 6 automatically wound
- At the end of deployment before the start of the first battle round, you can select 3 friendly Nighthaunt units and remove them from the battlefield and say they are set up in reserve. At the end of your movement phase, you can set 1 or more of these units up as long as they are 9” or more away from enemy units.
- Unique spells, artifacts, and command abilities.
These are some very powerful tools to work with your armies and the charging rolls really encourage a multiple small unit type of army. That being said let’s jump into the sub-factions.
Playing Nighthaunt The Emerald Host 2,000 Point List
The Emerald Host: After armies have been set up but before the first turn is taken D3 +1 units on the battlefield and mark them. At the end of every battle round on a 2+, they take D3 mortal wounds (D3+1 if they are a monster)
- Awlrach the Drowner: 175 Points, Leader 1 of 6
- Cairn Wraith: 115 Points, Leader 2 of 6
- Knight of Shrouds: 135 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- Krulghast Cruciator: 150 Points, Leader 4 of 6
- Kurdoss Valentian, the Craven King: 210 Points, Leader 5 of 6
- Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief: 340 Points, Leader 6 of 6
- 3 Spirit Hosts: 125 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- 5 Hexwraiths: 160 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- 20 Grimghast Reapers: 320 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- 4 Myrmourn Banshees: 105 Points
- 4 Myrmourn Banshees: 105 Points
- Total 1950 Points
For this army, I am going with a mixed bag of units that make it an all-around useful army able to adapt to your opponent. My goal with this army is to charge a single unit repeatedly with as many units as I can and make sure my debuffs are going off. I am not overly concerned about losing a unit outside of my Reapers as they are there to try and get that 10+ charge roll to force my opponent to strike last, allowing me to overwhelm them before they have a chance to hit my units. The meat of this army though is in the heroes, and they are the ones that will be doing the heavy lifting. Kurdoss is a beast in combat and Lady O can hold her own against any non-demigod models especially if either is near a spirit host, they can shove wounds onto. The thing to look out for though is that if you don’t take out your enemy and or get a double turn the counterattack can be brutal.
You are not going to get a quick drop, so you are going to split between Vanguard and Warlord giving you a free charge reroll, bonus command point, and bonus artifact. I like the Cairn Wraith, Banshees, and Reapers in the Vanguard with the rest in the Warlord. The Cairn Wrath becomes your general and you will give him Hatred of the Living and Reaper of Sorrows to make him a one ghost horde killing machine. With the bonus enhancement, I am going to give my Knight of Shrouds the Lightshard of the Harvest Moon, which when paired with his ability to attack with a nearby unit (AKA the reapers) can really dish out some damage. For bonus spells, I am going to give Lady O the Soul Cage spell as making an opponent strike last is powerful, especially against this army.
Playing Nighthaunt The Grieving Legion 2,ooo Point List
The Grieving Legion: Enemy Units cannot retreat while within 3” of any Nighthaunt units with 10 or more models.
- Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief: 340 Points, Leader 1 of 6
- Awlrach the Drowner: 175 Points, Leader 2 of 6
- Guardian of Souls: 150 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- Spirit Torment: 115 Points, Leader 4 of 6
- Krulghast Cruciator: 150 Points, Leader 5 of 6
- 20 Chainrasps: 220 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- 20 Chainrasps: 220 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- 20 Grimghast Reapers: 320 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- 3 Spirit Hosts: 125 Points
- 3 Spirit Hosts: 125 Points
- Emerald Lifeswarm: 60 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 2000: Points
This list is about getting your big blocks of ghosts on the central objectives and not letting them go. It is going to be a war of attrition but with all the return spells and abilities, this list brings they will have to dish out a lot of wounds and you can make some of the more elite units get stuck in with your big blobs of troops since they can’t retreat.
Once your opponent is stuck against your blobs you can teleport your other units around using Awlrach the Drowner to threaten your opponents’ objectives in their backfield. Or if your blob has the objective, they are parked on removed or something teleport them somewhere useful.
It’s a defensive list, your goal is to keep more models alive on the board than your opponent so debuffing and improving your units’ ward saves are going to be key to allowing you to return models to the board.
In this particular list, I am going to take the Warlord Battalion and Vanguard, which will give you the much-needed extra enhancement and give one of my units a free at the double to move into the center of the board and claim those important central objectives.
Enhancements-wise, we are going to go with Ruler of the Spirit Hosts, which gives you a shot at returning another big block of troops and the Midnight Tome on your Guardian of Souls letting you auto-cast the Emerald Lifeswarm for free. The bonus enhancement will be the Beacon of Nagasgizzar allowing you to return even more slain models during a turn.
For my bonus spells, I am going to give Lady O Shademist to debuff attacks made against your big blobs of troops and then the Seal of Shyish to the guardian of souls giving it the chance to give your blob a 5+ ward save without having to burn a command point.
There you have it for the first two legions of the new Nighthaunt battletome, be sure to check out the other articles in the series below!
- Playing Nighthaunt: The Quicksilver Dead and The Scarlet Doom
- Playing Nighthaunt: The Emerald Lifeswarm and The Grieving Legion
More AoS How-To For Beginners & Veteran Players!
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
