Warhammer/Tactics/Lore of Undeath

With Lore of Undeath available to all spell-generating wizards (well, there's still discussion whether End Times rules are optional or override regular ones) (Lore of Undeath has been oficially FAQ'd into BRB), it adds a whole new layer of strategy to Warhammer.

Keep in mind, only wizards who generate spells can choose Lore of Undeath - the likes of Loremasters of Hoeth or Sisters of the Thorn can't pick it. Clarification is needed, but most likely wizards who can mix spell lores (like Grey Seer) can add the Lore of Undeath to the mix.

Of course, each race has use for different summons - Skaven have no use for tarpits and Warriors of Chaos hardly need more armored heavy-hitters.

Why Pick Lore of Undeath?

Available to all races (except Dwarfs, because they can't into magic), the Lore of Undeath allows armies to draw upon the formidable unit range of Undead Legions to compensate for their weaknesses, to augment their strengths or to just summon awesome-looking models for sheer epicness.

Quick Reminder: Summoning Spell List

• Lore Attribute: Raise Dead: Basically, every time you successfully cast a spell from lore of Undeath, you get a counter. When casting summoning spells from this lore, you can choose to consume any number of counters, increasing point value of summon by 10.
• Ryze - the Grave Call: Cast on 9+, this spell summons a unit of infantry worth up to 50 points. Boosted version summon has a 100 point limit and requires 12+ to cast. Even more boosted version summons monstrous infantry, has 150 points limit and requires 16+ to cast.
• Razkhar - the Abyssal Swarm: Cast on 10+, this spell summons 75 points worth of Warbeasts or Swarms. Boosted version summons Monstrous Beasts (only), has point limir of 150 and requires 16+ to cast.
• Kandorak - the Harbinger: Cast on 10+, this spell summons a character worth up to 65 points. Boosted version summons a single Monster, Chariot or Warmachine costing up to 200 points, requiring 24+ to cast.
• Akar'aran - the Dark Riders: Cast on 16+, this spell summons a unit of cavalry, monstrous cavalry or chariots, with a maximum cost of 150 points. Not boostable.

Summoning Tacticas

Undead armies are not listed here. Refer to Undead Legions or respective army pages for complete information of relative undead usability. Dwarfs are not listed for obvious reasons.

Bretonnia

Anything skeletons can do, peasants can do for less pay. Some of the other options are nice and fill holes, though, the monsters and monstrous infantry most obviously. Even the basic skellies can be something of a portable anvil, or mess up a warmachine crew while letting your knights charge threats more appropriate to their statlines. There are better options, but it might be worth trying on a cheap damsel riding with a knight posse for the magic resistance.

Daemons of Chaos

Blood for the blood god

Dwarfs

Fuck you, dwarfs don't need fun anyway.

High Elves

Skeletons and zombies are discount Spearmen at best, but High Elves appreciate going bargain hunting, and as High Elves tend to lack field presence, dropping a pack of highly expendable deadites somewhere uncomfortable for your opponent is a nice trick for High Elves to have in their back pocket. Great choice for a rank 1 scrollbot unlikely to be making big magical plays anyways. You can also technically take it on a Dragon Mage, which can let you do some interesting (and not to mention surprising) things with it, giving it some utility over blast central.

Lizardmen

If you think skeletons are better than T-rexes, you're not playing Lizardmen right.

They appreciate proper archers, even the shaky skeleton variety, though. Plopping down some infantry in the middle of nowhere can sorta help work around Lizardmen's generally low mobility, and compliment skinks somewhat by being yet more disruptive, easy to deal with, but tactically poor to focus down distractions to the field. Getting a monster is redundant at best, but if you turn your nose up at the idea of fielding too many monsters, you're ALSO not playing Lizardmen right, and can push an already monster-heavy list to overwhelm the resources an opponent has to deal with them. Cold Ones are also pretty overcosted, so getting some warbeasts can be situationally useful. It's also not much of a loss giving it to a rank 1 scroll caddy and/or Priest meant to be used as a range extender for your Slann anyways, and gives you an excuse to bash together that Skink Relic Priest of your dreams. It's probably better than Heavans on a second Priest, at minimum. Otherwise, dedicating an entire Slann to the lore of undeath is probably overkill, but hilariously puts those vampire pups in their place when papa toad shows them how a real master of magic rattles them bones. Giving up the magical dominance Lizardmen enjoy served to them effortlessly for more warm bodies (er..) isn't the best idea, though. You can also, RAW, give it to Kroak, if you want to staple his rules to a more conventional(?) caster for some reason.

Overall, it's not an initially intuitive way to do Lizardmen, and probably shouldn't be seen as a primary Lore for an army to rely on, but between the likelihood of a Lizardmen list having "spare" Skink Priests anyways, and the various gaps in the Lizardmen roster that summoned undead can fill that might otherwise be quite reliant on expensive specialist units, the Lore of Undeath actually helps a Lizardmen army be a bit more flexible and adaptable once it's actually on the table. Paying 75 or so points on a moderately geared Undeath Skink is a bargain for the in-game tailoring of your army it provides. The non-summoning aspects of the Lore of Undeath are all but lost on Lizardmen, though, which is all the more reason to keep it to skinks, not Slann, unless you're very sure of what you're doing.

Making your battle lines resemble a metal album cover is a worthy cause, as well.

Ogre Kingdoms

The lore of undeath is actually quite good for Ogres. It gives you cheap throwaway units in an otherwise expensive point cost army. Your main snag is that if you take any butchers or slaughtermasters, at least one of them is required to take the lore of the great maw but... firebellies can take the lore of undeath now! While this is entirely unfluffy, as firebellies can only cast magic as a result of a blessing from their volcano god, it still works as according to the rules and will bring an entirely new playstyle to your ogres.

Orcs & Goblins

The Greenskins are a prime candidate for using the Lore of Undeath, given their inherent restrictions on other Lores and an abundance of cheap casting options. There is heavy potential for Night Goblin level 1 spam - not only are they the cheapest casters in the game but each also effectively gets a free dice each turn by popping their mushroom. They're casting Ryze on 1 (power) dice slightly less than 50% of the time. Put them on squig hoppers for maximum board coverage, or put common goblins on wolves for a Vanguarding 18" mover who can raise dead in all sorts of inconvenient table locations - any amount of cheap infantry will give a headache to Warmachnes.

Skaven

With low casting values, Warlock Engineers are natural candidates for taking this lore. Grey Seer is needed to cast Spells of Plague. Also, you must convert your Lore of Undeath Warlock Engineer to look like Dr Frankenstein or Herbert West.

• +Archers. With their shooting being, well, crap, Skaven could really use some cheap firepower. Skeleton Archers and Horse Archers are perfect summons.
• +Liche Priest. A tough caster with access to Lore of Death and Lore of Life, Liche Priest is invaluable to the Skaven, being their only access to conventional lores (well, unless you count Wizarding Hat). He is also easy to summon with just a couple of tokens. Take.
• -Hand of Dust - while a nice spell, Skaven casters suck balls in melee, barely having a chance to hit anything worth hitting before getting murdered.

Warriors of Chaos

The Warriors of Chaos are one of the hardest armies in the game, with a bevvy of lethal units, nasty monsters, and some of the deadliest characters of all. But the one thing they ain't is cheap. Another thing they ain't is good at shooting; these guys are pretty much melee-exclusive, with a grand-total of one war-machine and one abyssmal upgrade for ranged firepower on one of their suckiest units.

Ergo, the Lore of Undeath offers two major advantages to the hordes of Chaos: tarpits and ranged attacks.

With this in mind, first and foremost, always go for Ryze - The Grave Call, the Lore's signature spell. This allows you to call up Skeletons, Zombies, and most importantly of all: Skeleton Archers. Yes, their 5+ to hit rolls may suck, but A: you ain't got any other choice besides Marauder Horsemen with Throwing Axes, and B: you're getting them for free and in large amounts. Ideally, two Sorcerers pumping out alternating units of Skeleton Archers and Zombies should amply fulfil both roles in a Warriors of Chaos army.

Aside from Ryze, the only other spells of the Lore of Undeath that are even plausibly useful are Morkharn - Breath of Darkness (healing for your tarpits and Skeleton Archers), Khizaar - the Soul Stealer (blasty spells are useful for Chaos Sorcerers, and the extra Raise the Dead counters are good for boosting Ryze) and Razkhar - The Abyssal Swarm (since swarms make fairly decent tarpits). Hand of Dust is pointless since you have plenty of melee-monster characters and units for mowing down enemies, and there's already plenty of monsters, chariots, warmachines, cavalry and monstrous cavalry in the Chaos list already.

Wood Elves

With low casting values and Blessing of the Ancients, LoU can be easily cast by your scroll caddy, freeing Spellweaver for more powerful lores. Branchwraith is also a superb candidate, since Lore of Life isn't easy to cast to level 1, while LoU gives them a chance to get Hand of Dust. In fact, it may be worth it to have just Branchwraith roll LoU.

• +Tarpits. What you need most are tarpits - Tomb Swarms, Spirit Hosts, Zombies. Even if you are running a melee-oriented army, a nice tarpit never hurts.
• +Casket of Souls - with their awesome magic phase and cheap Spellsingers/Branchwraiths, Wood Elves have a great use for this miracle. With some luck, those Sisters of the Thorn will finally have enough dice to cast spells alongside their Spellweaver.
• +Hand of Dust - while most wizards in the game are sub-optimal in melee, Wood Elves have access to Branchwraith and Shadow Dancers - two awesome melee combatants who can also magic. With their high WS, they have a good chance of landing that Hand of Dust hit on the enemy. The only drawback though, they are both level 1 wizards so this is a big gamble.
• -Skeleton Horsemen - a crappy unit as it is, in such a cavalry-heavy army as Wood Elves, this unit sucks even more. And even more than that. Don't summon them, ever.