Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Death

Why Play Grand Alliance Death

If you want to play a Mix of Death factions but some of the units you want are not in Legions of Nagash or you want to play Tomb Kings.

Of the Grand Alliances, Death has the most Synergy as many units buffs effect units with the Ubiquitous Summonable Keyword or just plain Death.

Allegiance bonuses

If you have DEATH allegiance you have some additional bonus (from the Core Book 2018)

Battle trait

Deathless Minions: an extra save at 6+ for every wound or mortal wound inflicted on DEATH units within 6" of your general or one of your HEROES.

Command traits

1) (Ruler of the Night) friendly Death units are affected by deathless minions if they are within 12 inches of the general rather than 6.

2) (Predator of the Shadows) Add 1 to the hit and wound rolls for your general if they are in cover. Frankly, this is one of the worse command traits and if you are trying to run a melee lord you are better off taking Red Fury or Supernatural Horror.

3) (Death incarnate) Pick a unit within 3" of your general in your hero phase and roll 2d6 if the roll is more than the targets bravery it takes 1d3 mortal wounds. This can act as a free arcane bolt against enemies like Skaven who have naturally low bravery and can shred spellcasters just out of reach of your general if combined with an arcane bolt.

4) (Master of the Black Arts) Turn your general in a wizard who knows arcane bolt and mystic shield, or add +1 to casting and unbinding roll if he's already a wizard. This can be useful if you are running a themed army like Death Rattle or Nighthaunt otherwise its waste of a command trait when you can take a vampire lord and an extra command trait instead

5) (Red fury) After your General attacks in the combat phase, roll a D6. If the result is 5 or more, they can immediately pile in and attack again. This is an alright command Trait but it will only activate a third of the time meaning you shouldn't be banking on it and only works once in each combat phase.

6) (Supernatural Horror) Double fleeing enemy models for units within 12" of your general. This can be terrifying to things like goblins and Skaven and can destroy a center line if used efficiently, but can be an utter waste against things like Beast-Claw Raiders who rarely lose anything in battle shock.

Artefacts of death

1. Cursed Book: Any model targeting you within 3" of the bearer of this artifact must subtract 1 from all hit rolls, as long as they lack the DEATH keyword. This is a good "leader" item, as with all the buffs to survivability your dudes have, another layer doesn't hurt.
2. Cloak of Mists and Shadows: This looks familiar... at the start of combat move a model 12", more than 3" from enemies. This can be really useful to GTFO of a combat that is going badly for your hero or after springing a trap. Take note that the effect is ONLY when you should pile in, so unless you're in combat, it's useless. Also, it's only 12", so have an escape route beforehand.
3. Blade of Dark Summons: Once per battle summon a summonable unit. Hoo boy. A sure-fire summon spell is always welcome, especially in this faction because it doesn't require the bearer to be a wizard. You have almost all the DEATH range to choose, so use it when your chosen unit is going to do the most damage. Make sure to have enough points left beforehand or plan accordingly.
4. Black Amulet: Once per game, you deal mortal wounds equal to the battle round to an enemy unit within 12" This is VERY situational, if not outright bad. You can only do 5 mortal wounds at most at 12", and that in the last turn. While it's true that this can kill a common hero or a damaged monster in one strike if by then your victory depends on that strike you should rethink things.
5. Tomb Blade: Each wound roll of 6 deals a mortal wound. This could be interesting to make your general more durable while dishing mortal wounds. Acceptable if you want a strong melee lord (combines well with red fury).
6. Ring of Immortality: He may not have returned, but his ring has. Resurrects at 12" with d3 wounds when it's killed. This can be a blessing, especially if you have the ability the heal the bearer.

Factions

See the various faction pages:

• Legions of Nagash
• Flesh-Eater Courts
• Nighthaunt
• Ossiarch Bonereapers
• Tomb Kings (Compendium)
• Vampire Counts (Compendium)

Battleline

Without more allegiance, you have to use just the basic:

• Zombies: Min. size: 10, 60pt. Zombies are awful. Really fucking awful. But they also have the most potential in the entire game. They start out with a single attack at 6+/6+/-/1 but get better the more you have. If you add a bunch of buffs, you can turn that to a 2+/3+/-/1 easily. So yeah, the Zombie Rape Train relies more on support than anything else but gets you quite a lot of mileage. Zombies can also infect the guys they kill and two Zombie units can actually combine in order to get to greater numbers, which grants them better To Hit and To Wound rolls. Standard bearers make D6 models return every hero phase and musicians make sure that you can always charge under 6".

• Skeleton Warriors: Min. size: 10, 80pt. If a Hero is within 18", they get +1 to their hit rolls. If the unit includes at least 20 models, each one gets an extra attack, which becomes 2 extra attacks if they're at least 30. Crypt Shields give them +1 Save against attacks that have no Rend value. They're slow as molasses, but actually, pack a punch in combat. And their ability to return D6 slain models to the unit in your Hero Phase is amazeballs. A good sized unit (I wouldn't run units smaller than 20) can swing from nearly dead to full strength repeatedly throughout the course of a game. Especially nasty if you can bring yourself to run a stock Necromancer for Vanhel's Dance Macabre.

• Crypt Ghouls: Min. size: 10, 100pt. Not too shabby, all things considered. They get two attacks each with a third if the unit's big enough and they have a 6+ save, which may sound bad but is actually pretty good because that means unlike, say, Zombies, Ghouls can actually make use of cover and Mystic Shield. If you want to capitalize on Ghouls, just remember to bring some Crypt Ghast Courtiers to keep your units nice and big and remember that all in all, the save-after-the-save buff of the Terrorgheist-Ghoul King is probably better than a simple Mystic Shield at keeping your Ghouls on the board longer.

• Dire Wolves: Min. size: 5, 70pt. They're like normal wolves, but they're dire. With most units of the vampire counts, the tenor has been that their strength is in numbers and that one-on-one they lose out to most other similar units. Not so with Dire Wolves. These are what Chaos Warhounds wish they could be. In a game that loathes tarpits and chaff, these guys are the best there is. They have high movement, two wounds each and a 5+ save that can be increased by being close to a Corpse Cart. They can roadblock anything slower than them and take forever to kill and have just enough attacks that people don't want them to strike first. Also, a fantastic low point investment to fill out battleline.

• Chainrasp Horde: Min. size: 10, 80pt.