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 Sacrament Army.
The Legion of Sacrament Army uses a lot of summoning models and magic to overload your opponent.
Warning: This is a high model count army!
Start with the units you need for the battalion “Lords of Sacrament.” I added one extra necromancer because this is a high magic army, even though you only need two for the battalion. If you want more summoning pool points or a different leader you can drop one.
- Necromancer (110 points) – Leader 1 of 6
- Necromancer (110 points) – Leader 2 of 6
- Necromancer (110 points) – Leader 3 of 6
- Arkhan the Black (320 points) – Leader 4 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- Mortis Engine (180 points) – Behemoth 2 of 4
- Battalion “Lords of Sacrament” (70 points)
Arkhan the Black:
Move (fly) damage table (16 down to 4), 11 wounds, 4+ save, and 10 bravery. He has four different melee attacks: Zefet-kar with one attack hitting and wounding on a 3+, at -1 rend, doing D3 damage; Khenash with one attack hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, at -1 rend, doing D3 damage; Razark’s claws with damage table attacks (6 down to 2), hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, at -2 rend, doing two damage each; and the Spirits with six attacks hitting on a 5+, wounding on a 4+, for one damage (hit rolls of six cause one mortal wound). Every combat phase in which he killed an enemy model, he heals two wounds so he has some staying power. He has a damage table to his casting and unbinding rolls (+2/+2 down to 0/0). Her has Deathly Invocation where he can pick four summon units within 18″ and heal or bring back D3 wounds or models to the unit, and he can choose to reroll the D3. His unique spell is Curse of the Years, with casting value of six and you roll ten D6. For every 6+ it causes a mortal wound and you then reroll those dice. On a 5+, it causes a mortal wound and you reroll, continuing in this way until the target is killed or no wounds are inflicted. Finally, he knows all spells Death Wizards within 18″ of him know, and his command ability adds six inches to the range of Death Wizards spells.
Mortis Engine:
Move (fly), damage table (14 down to 4) 4+ save, 10 bravery, and 12 wounds. In the shooting phase, roll 2D6 and any units within a damage table range (9″ down to 5″) suffer D3 mortal wounds if their bravery is less than the number rolled. Then you have host attacks, which has damage table attacks (12 down to 4), hitting on a 5+ wounding on 4+, one damage. If a six is rolled to hit, it is an automatic mortal wound. Then you have the Necromancer’s Staff with one attack, hitting on a 4+, wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for D3 damage. Along with that, once per battle, you can unleash Death Energy and roll 4D6. All Death units within that many inches heal D3 wounds, while all non-Death units suffer D3 mortal wounds. Finally, it adds one to all Death wizards casting rolls within 12″ and subtracts one from all non-Death wizards.
Necromancer:
Move 5″, 5 wounds, 6+ save, and a bravery of 10…your basic wizard’s stats. With his staff giving him one attack at 2-inch range, 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound, -1 rend for D3 damage, you are going to want to stay out of combat with him. If you can find a model on a Nightmare, that would be better, as it is same point price for more movement and bonus horse attack. 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 to pile in and attack twice in your next combat phase.
Lords of Sacrament:
Unearthly Focus: your Hero phase, Wizards within 6″ of the Mortis Engine can cast an additional spell. Swirling Spirits: In the Shooting, phase add one to save rolls if within 6″ of the Mortis Engine.
Coming in at 900 points, this gives you a solid foundation to build an army around, allowing you to take control of the magic phase. The battalion gives your bonus spells (wizards within 6″ of the Engine) and a bonus to save rolls against shooting attacks. Here, you really want the bonus spells to allow your Necromancers (and Arkhan) to overload your opponent with spells which includes the Locus of Shyish. More on that later, next up we need to get three battleline units on the battlefield to make this army legal at set up. For that, we are going to take some cheap meat shield type of units with 3 units of 10 zombies.
- 10 Zombies (60 points) – Battleline 1 of 3
- 10 Zombies (60 points) – Battleline 2 of 3
- 10 Zombies (60 points) – Battleline 3 of 3
Zombies:
Move 4″, no save, 10 Bravery, 1 Wound. 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 then 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.
With 1020 points total we now have a legal list to continue building on, let’s round out the leader unit types and add some a couple of buffing troops.
- Wright King on foot “Black Ax” (120 points) – Leader 5 of 6
- Wright King on Horse “Tomb Blade” (120 points) – Leader 6 of 6
- Corpse Cart (80 points) – No unit type
Wright King with Black Ax:
Move 4″, Save 4+, 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. Black Ax has four attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for one damage. If the Black Ax wounds a model but doesn’t kill it, roll a D6 and on a 6+ that model is slain. His armor halves the damage of any attack, rounding up. Then 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 command ability allows a friendly Death Rattle unit within 18″ to add one to their attacks characteristic.
Wright King on Horse:
Move 12, Save 3+, 10 Bravery, 5 Wounds. His Tomb Blade attack has four attacks, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend for one damage. If a wound roll with his blade attack is a six, it deals D3 damage. Then 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 command ability allows a friendly Death Rattle unit within 18″ to add one to their attacks characteristic.
Corpse Cart:
Move 4, Save 6+, 10 Bravery, 6 Wounds. Can choose between a Goad or Lash, with the goad having range 2″, two attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for one damage. The lash has range 1″, three attacks, hitting and wounding on a 4+, for one damage. Then the zombies with 2D6 attacks, hitting and wounding on a 5+, for one damage. You can choose to not attack with the goad or lash and instead roll a D6, on a 5+ a model within 1″ suffers a mortal wound. Finally, it can either carry a Loadstone or Brazier. The Loadstone adds one to casting rolls for friendly Death wizards within 18″ and lets you re-roll the D3 for wounds healed with Deathly Invocation ability. The Brazier subtracts one from casting rolls for enemy wizards within 18″ and enemy wizards within 6″ suffer a mortal wound on a 4+.
Coming in at 1400 this leaves 600 points for you to summon whatever troops you want from the graveyards, which is nice as the below list has what is considered summoned troops for you to choose from. You need to pay points for these, but there is no summon roll and there is no set number, so, for example, you can just set up a unit of 30 Grave Guard in your opponent’s territory if you have a hero within 9″ of a graveyard.
- Bat Swarm
- Black Knights
- Dire Wolves
- Fell Bats
- Grave Guard
- Hexwraiths
- Spirit Hosts
- Skeleton Warriors
- Zombies
Loadouts:
The only multiple option model for this army is the Corpse Cart and by far the best choice is the one with the “Unholy Loadstone”, to give you spellcasters a boost. For artifacts (you are getting two cause of the battalion), I would go defensive to help keep your Necromancers alive by giving one the Shroud of Darkness and the other the Wristbands of Black Gold. Each of your Necromancers can choose a bonus spell from the Lore of Deathmages (I like Overwhelming Dread, Fading Vigour, and Soul Harvest), then for Arkhan, as he is a Deathlord, can dip into the Lore of Vampires and take Amaranthine Orb.
Tactics:
This is all about magic and getting massive amounts of troops on the battlefield. With 600 reinforcement points, you can move Arkhan and or the Wright King on Horse into your opponent’s territory and create a massive number of troops (two max units of skeletons, grave guard, etc). The rest of your army is going to sit behind that wall of zombies (make sure you combine them) and just transfer wounds to them and heal up. You could even use the graveyards in your own territory to summon more zombies to add to the pile. While your opponent is dealing with that your spellcasters are going to debuff your opponent’s troops and cast some buffs. Plus, with the Locus of Shyish, if you roll a hard 9+ the spell effect goes off twice for the Lore of Deathmages or Lore of Vampires. Really you need to play to the battle profile with the summoning of troops, but luckily there are aggressive, mobile, and defensive all in that summon list!
There you have it, a standard death troop army that focuses on magic and the rank and file troops! What is cool is that you can buy whatever summoning troops you want and use those as you see fit, or how the narrative is. That feature makes this army very flexible and changes it up a bit in terms of what your bringing to the table every time!
Check out more “newbie” tips for the Hobby
