Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Death/Ossiarch Bonereapers

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Grand Alliance Death

Ossiarch Bonereapers

The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the fuckboys!

Lore
Tactics
General Tactics

Armies of well-armored skeleton constructs representing Nagash's ideal for all the realms. They collect bones to make more of them and as tribute. Nagash is on the rise, and he's got a bone to pick with the Realms!

Why play Ossiarch Bonereapers?

Pros

  • They're SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS!
  • These guys have default, army-wide immunity to Battleshock, baby!
  • They're durable, even for undead. On top of tough, well-armored troops they don't rely on heroes for 6+ Deathless saves. Especially if you use the Petrifex Elite Legion.
  • Relentless Discipline Points can be used instead of Command Points. That means things that screw with CP won't work on them, and you have mechanics to gain RDP throughout the game. Despite this, they still benefit from Command Abilities.
  • Re-rolls out the ass, especially for the Necropolis Stalkers.
  • A few pleasant reminders of Nehekhara for you Tomb Kings fans, such as a war machine that hurls flaming skulls.
  • The models have multiple options for conversions or poses.
  • They collect protection payments of bone like a skeletal version of the Mafia.
  • Part of the reason for their existence is to troll Sigmarines.
  • Nagash, bro-tier mini-Nagash and the Morghasts are officially part of the army roster.
  • Hope you like bone puns...

Cons

  • Most of your army is slow, with a few exceptions. There are a few abilities to mitigate this.
  • No allies. They make the Daughters of Khaine look like the Stormcast Eternals.
  • Apart from the Mortek Guard, when you bring 5 guys, almost everybody else brings 10. So if your opponent is on a objective you need to smash him in the knee caps can't smash knee caps, you need them for the tithe... just cut their legs out from under them.
  • Some of the models look a bit cheesy or weird depending who you ask, especially Katakros' model (seriously, a bone bulge?)
  • Hope you like bone puns...

Allegiance Abilities

Battle Traits

  • Ranks Unbroken by Dissent: Do not take battleshock tests for friendly OSSIARCH BONEREAPER units. Yes, you read that right, immunity to Battleshock, and you don't even need to bring Nagash for it. Your enemies only options are kill, flee or be killed. In addition, you do not generate Command Points. Instead, you generate Relentless Discipline Points at the start of each battle round.
    • EACH Ossiarch Bonereapers Hero - 1
    • EACH Wascroll Battalion - 1
    • EACH Friendly LIEGE - 1
    • KATAKROS - 3
    • Roll a die for each UNIT with the HEKATOS keyword. On a 6, you get 1.
  • Deathless Warriors:
  • Unstopable Advance (CA): In Movement Phase. Pick 1 unit within X" of a hero or hekatos. +3" movement. It can still run OR charge. You cannot pick the same unit more than once per phase.

Command Traits

Artefacts

Spell Lore

  • Arcane Command: CV5. Gain D3 Relentless Discipline Points. Nice if you've got an extra spell, or had some bad luck with your rolls.
  • Empower Nadirite Weapons: CV5. Pick 1 BONEREAPERS unit wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, the units Nadirite Weapons ability explodes on a 5+ instead of 6, or 4+ if its a DEATHRIDERS attacking with spears after charging.
  • Protection of Nagash: CV6. 5+ FNP for the caster. If any wounds get through your FNP, and the caster isn't slain, remove them from the battlefield after all wounds have been allocated, and place them anywhere on the board 9" away from enemy models then dispel this spell. Great for getting important casters out of sticky situations, or absolutely hilarious on Nagash if you wanna fuck with your opponent.
  • Reinforce Battle-shields: CV6. Pick 1 BONEREAPERS unit armed with Shields or Nadirite Battle-shields wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, they gain a 5+ FNP. Pair this with a gothizzar harvister, the reroll saves command ability, and the fossil legion for some truly unkillable troops.
  • Drain Vitality: CV6. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. Until your next hero phase, reroll unmodified hit and save rolls of 6 made by that unit. Good for blunting a spooky unit's charge, but less useful than the other options available.
  • Mortal Contract: CV7. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. For the rest of the BATTLE, roll a die at the end of any phase that the unit dealt damage to a friendly BONEREAPERS unit. On 3+, the cursed unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Lawdy, this is probably the most obnoxious spell we can sling, if you can remember who you marked the entire game. Great into low unit-count armies.

Endless Spells

An important distinction to note between these Endless Spells and others that exist is that the ones presented below have the Soul-Linked ability, meaning they always move before Endless Spells without the Soul-Linked ability and are controlled by the casting Player only, meaning your opponent cannot control these Endless Spells to mess with your plans. However on the flip side, the Wizard who cast the spell has a -1 to his casting rolls while the endless spell is up, and if he should die then the spell is also dispelled, so keep him alive if you want the spells to last.

  • Bone-tithe Shrieker: Gives -1 bravery, and +1 to be hit to enemy units within 12" of it. Simple, but effective. Place it just in front of your battle line to make the enemy think twice, or use it to make holding an objective less than desirable.
  • Soulstealer Carrion: Gives LOS to the Soul-Linked wizard. You won't be taking it for this. Instead, you'll be taking it for it's actual ability: Soul Thief. Roll a D6 at the end of each Phase if any Chaos, Order, or Destruction models were slain within 6" of it. On a 1 or 2, the Wizard this Endless Spell is Soul-Linked with heals a wound. On a 3 or 4, it does 1 Mortal Wound on each Chaos, Destruction or Order unit within 6" of it, and on a 5-6, it does both effects. AMAZINGLY fun, if you're not playing into death, so do with that as you will.
  • The Nightmare Predator: You standard causes Mortal Wounds Endless Spell (dealing D3 Mortal Wounds to all non-bonecasts within 3" of it), but with a twist - when cast, pick an enemy Hero to be marked as it's prey. If this spell gets within range of them, it spits out d6 mortal wounds instead. For it's dirt cheap post cost, this is almost auto-include.

Famous Legions

  • Mortis Praetorians
    • Battle Traits:-1 bravery to nearby enemy units.
    • Command Trait:
    • Command Ability 1: One unit charged by an enemy unit can re-roll hits against them that turn.
    • Command Ability 2: If Katakros is the general, +1 to hit for friendly OSSIARCH BONEREAPER units wholly within 18", friendly MORTIS PRAETORIAN units wholly within 18" also add +1 to their saves.
    • Artefact of Power:

The poster boys, the jack-of-all-trades and the best choice if you’re bringing Katakros, otherwise it's quite situational since other death armies do "fear-bomb" better.

  • Petrifex Elite
    • Battle Traits: Add +1 to their saves.
    • Command Trait: +2 Wounds.
    • Command Ability: In the combat phase, give a unit +1 rend on one weapon, can't stack.
    • Artefact of Power: Godbone Armor: The first wound allocated to the bearer in each phase is negated.

The tanky choice, the best all-rounder and arguably IS the best overall. Makes your entire army (including Nagash) stupidly tanky, gives your commander a few extra wounds for a chuckle, lets you put some durability on a caster via the relic, AND comes with a command ability that makes you killy, just to throw your opponent for a loop.

The magic choice. Their innate rules mean you can focus more on offensive magic, and the Artefact is perfect for any combat character. Competes with the Petrifex Elite for the best default choice. If your meta is very magic heavy, this choice is clear (hint: it's probably still petrifex)

  • Ivory Host
    • Battle Traits: If a unit has suffered wounds or a friendly IVORY HOST unit within 6" (not wholly within, just within) has suffered wounds, get +1 to hit, but -1 save.
    • Command Trait: Every hero phase your general gains an attack on his weapon on a 5+.
    • Command Ability: Cancel the -1 save from the battle trait. This is what makes the Ivory host interesting, letting you pull some shenanigans with a screen unit or pulling some clutch damage out at a vital time.
    • Artefact of Power:
  • Stalliarch Lords
    • Battle Traits: Run and charge. Pretty good for increasing your threat range on a slow army.
    • Command Trait:
    • Command Ability: Retreat and charge in the same turn. Good for repositioning or getting your charge bonuses again. Here's looking at you, Deathriders.
    • Artefact of Power:

The trolling choice, just like their lore. Do you wanna go fast? Do you want a liege or Zandtos to run fast next to fast cavalry? Then go these guys. They let you skimp out of the costly battalion with theri inherent command ability, and make your already fast cavalry even faster. They even pair well with Stalkers or Harvesters, to just really irritate your opponent.

  • Crematorians
    • Battle Traits: When a model dies you get a chance to cause MW to an enemy within 3" on a 5+, with monsters and characters adding 1 to their roll/going off on a 4+.
    • Command Trait:
    • Command Ability: One friendly CREMATORIANS unit with 6" of a Hekatros or 12" of a hero ignores cover saves.
    • Artefact of Power:

the TRUE trolling choice. Paired with some revives and harvesters, and laugh as your opponent realizes that killing your models meant their guys died and then revived the dudes they just tried to kill

Warscrolls

The common keywords of these warscrolls are: DEATH, OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS

Leaders

Named Leaders

  • Orpheon Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis:
  • Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead: Changed from his early forms, Nagash is now 30 points more expensive, and no longer loots the spells from all of his death-based allies. Instead he can how restore wounds/models to 5 of his bonecast etnerals, and can sling mystic shield and arcane bolt as much as his undead heart (and casting limit) desire
  • Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament: Much like Nagash, Arkhan is more expensive now, at a "whopping" 20 points more than before. With an extra cast and deny, and the ability to sling arcane bolt and mystic shield like his Boss, it sounds like that price increase came with some buffs, however, Overall Arkhan's in a bit more disappointing place. Curse of years no longer succeeds on 1s, meaning it's slightly more fair, and his command ability has no been limited to one use a turn, spoiling an awful lot of fun that could have been had.
  • Arch-Kavalos Patru Zandtos:
  • Vokmortion, Master of the Bone-tithe:

Generic Leaders

  • Liege-Kavalos: Your commander on a big-boned mount. 3 Weapons, 3 attacks 1"/3/3/-1/2. 1 attack 1"/3/4/-/1. 6 attacks 1"/3/3/-1/1. When he charges, he had a good chance to deal a lot of mortal wounds then you can pile-in an additional 3". His Command Ability gives a unit wholly within 12" +1 to their attacks, doesn't stacks.
  • Mortisan Soulreaper: Your CC battlemage. Scythe 2"/3/3+/3+/-1/D2 that does 2 mortal wounds instead on unmodified 6's to hit and it gets rerolls to hit on enemy units with 5+ models. Its unique spell has 2 firing modes: hit one unit at range or hit all in CC with it. Then deal mortal wounds.
  • Mortisan Boneshaper: Your main healer. Automatically restores 3 wounds or 3 wounds worth of models to a friendly Ossiarch Bonereaper unit within 6" at the start of your hero phase. He is also a wizard. His unique spell is easy to get off at CV5 and lets you roll a d6 for every model in an enemy unit within 18". Every 6 is a mortal wound. Pretty good at crowd control. Keep him out of combat, though. On top of a lackluster melee profile, you really don't want to put him at risk.
  • Mortisan Soulmason: The grand vizier will see you now. He's got an alright melee profile, but that's not why you take him. He's a wizard with 2 casts and unbinds and a unique spell, Soul-Guide, that gives a friendly Ossiarch Bonereapers unit the ability to reroll 1's to hit. Pretty good so far, but it gets better. At the end of your hero phase, roll a d6. On a 1, nothing happens. On a 2-5, he can attempt to cast Soul-Guide even if it was already attempted that turn. On a 6, he can attempt to cast Soul-Guide D3 more times instead. Basically, he gives multiple units rerolling 1's to hit so long as they are wholly within 24" of him.

Battleline

  • Mortek Guard: Your basic skellies are a decently-protected lot with a 4+ save. Their basic weapons are 2 attacks with -1 Rend sword or a spear, both can double the hits inflicted on a 6+ to hit. The greatblade, on the other hand, trades that for a slightly better wound score, which isn't remarkable but at least keeps the sword's Rend. Their slow speed is helped by their banner giving them +1 to runs and charges, and the +3" move order mentioned above.
    • Mortek Hekatos: This boy is your squad's Hekatos, a mini-HQ that gives to your Relentless Discipline pool and keys to a deal of other things. He's only got an attack more than the base guard, but he also confers a command ability that lets his pack re-roll all saves for the combat phase - much more valuable for their survival.
  • Kavalos Deathriders: Your basic skellies, but on a horse! When compared to their foot-slogging brothers, these guys have +1 attack and 3 wounds each, the 2 extra pony swings we all know and love, and a whopping 12" move compared to the former's 4". Not only that, but their spears have exploding hits on a 5+ roll on the charge, giving you a bit more reason to think before selling the rend on your swords.
    • Mortek Hekatos: Much like the Mortek Guard, the deathrider's hekatos has +1 attack with their weapon, but his command ability gives you some mortal wound output on the charge and a double-range pile in

Others

  • Necropolis Stalkers: Speedy, Re-rolling, tyranid warriors skeleton boys. Each turn, these massive lads pick whether they want to re-roll hits, wounds, saves, or add +1 to their weapons' Rend and Damage. While rerolling saves is nice when you get charged by something scary, you'll almost always use +1 rend and damage, as it turns yours basic stalker into a stormcast blender, and your unit leader into a literal monster into an equally strong blender as the normal weapons, when enhanced with -1 rend and +1 dmg, are actually stronger than the special weapon, proven by Mathhammer. Their command ability that lets them re-roll run and charge rolls while also ignoring terrain as if they could fly.
  • Immortis Guard: The Anvil to the stalker's hammer. These guys have a lower damage output, with 2 3+/3+/-2/2 damage (though the base rend 2 is nice), and the ability to bop someone with their shields for a bit of extra damage, with the occasional mortal wound when rolling a 6. Their main draw, however, is their base 3+ save and bodyguard ability. Whenever they're within 3" of a friendly hero, on a 2+ they can eat a wound or mortal wound that would have been applied to said hero. Their command ability lets them immediately pile in and swing again after their first go, but only with their shields. Less than impressive, but nice for positioning.
  • Morghasts Archai & Harbingers: Nagash's angels of death come in 2 flavors, with the archai having a chance to shrug off mortal wounds, and harbingers getting a 3d6 charge. Beyond those differences either one is monstrous combatants (always take the halberd for 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-2/3), and tough to boot, with 6 wounds 4+ armor and being Hekatos for the death save. They also have a bravery debuff as a bonus. It's worth noting that they are more expensive in a bonereaper army, but that may change in either direction depending on the next generals handbook, or some early FAQing.

Behemoths

  • Gothizzar Harvester: Big guy has 10 wounds and a 4+ save. Has good damage potential with 4 ranged attacks from his death's head that do 1 damage each, 4 melee attacks with his tail and hooves that do 2 damage each, and up to 6 attacks with his other weapon with a choice of bludgeons or sickles. These choice weapons have the exact same melee stats (3+, 3+, -2, 2), but different effects. Bludgeons do 2 mortal wounds on unmodified hits of 6 and stop the attack sequence, basically giving the guy frightful touch from Nighthaunt. The sickles get +1 to hit against units with 5+ models. Other than that, this guy is a healer. Each time any models (friend or foe) die within 3" of him, he can heal an Ossiarch Bonereaper unit within 6" on a 4+. The heals he gives depends on the wounds characteristic of the model slain. If the model had 4 or less wounds, you heal 1 wound. If the model had 5-9 wounds, you heal d3 wounds. if the model had 10+ wounds, you heal d6 wounds. The heals can also resurrect models up to the wounds value stated. It's worth noting he can do this to himself, making his relatively fragile 10 wounds and 4+ save last a little longer.
    • For the Crematorians, this guy makes the list even more trollish. Camp him by your Mortek Guard, and when they die and cause mortal wounds, he can heal them right back up. Free mortal wounds, anyone?
  • Mortek Crawler: The most trolltastic catapult in all of sigmar. With a nice 36" range and solid durability, it starts as a remarkably strong springboard for the absolute terror of it's ammo types. Whenever you opt to fire your centipede of doom, you get to choose 1 of 3 styles of shots:
    • Necrotic Skulls: Your normal shots. 3 2+/3+/-/variable shots that starts at 5 damage, and dips down to 1 as the model takes damage. Good as a general all-rounder, but palls in comparison to what follows.
    • Cauldron of Torment: the first of the meme shots. Instead of firing like normal, you roll a dice for every model in the target unit, and whenever you meet or beat their UNMODIFIED leadership, the unit takes a mortal wound. "But Anon," you reply, "lots of units have high leadership! That's not good" To which I say, sure, you're right. this isn't good against undead, but do you know what it IS good against? grots, where you wipe half of whatever squad you fire at. or freeguild, where you gun down a third of whatever unit you want in a ghostly fog. And we're STILL not done with this bad boy.
    • Cursed stele: Does your local meta not really do hordes? Or do they just love low model-count armies with high leadership? Well, have I got a unit for you! Instead of shooting normally, pick a model within range (so, characters, banners, unit leaders, etc.) and roll 2d6. If you roll equal to or higher than their wound stat, the guy dies (with some modifiers, starting at -3 to your roll, slowly turning to +3 as you lose wounds). This right here is disgusting. With an average roll of 4, you kill support heroes about 60% of the time, or get to guarenteed snipe off important banners or unit champions whenever you're feeling cheeky. Did that daemon prince swoop in and drop you to 1 wound? Wouldn't it be great if his failure meant your average roll is now a 10, and insta-gibs the winged fuck?

Scenery

  • Bone-tithe Nexus:
    • A new model.

Battalions

Cohort 100

  • The Super Battalion.

Aegis Immortal 80

  • 1 Archai, 2 Immortis. The ARCHAI from this battalion has the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS ability from the Immortis Guard warscroll. In addition, if you use the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS and the roll is a 5+, the wound/MW is negated instead of allocated to a unit from this battalion.

Katakrosian Deathglaive 80

  • 2 Stalkers, 1 Morghast Harbinger. After units are set up but before first battleround, if all unnits from the btn are WHOLLY WITHIN 12" of the Harbingers, you can move any of them up to 6"

Kavalos Lance 120

  • Arch-Kavalos OR 1 Liege-Kavalos, 2 Kavalos Deathriders. Units from this battlion can retreat and charge if wholly within 12" of the Liege when the charge roll is made. In addition, once per turn, you can use the Deathrider Wedge CA for a unit from this battalion without spending RDP.

Mortek Ballistari 100

  • 1 Boneshaper, 1 Mortek Guard, 2 Crawlers. Roll a die before you allocate a wound/MW to a Crawler from this btn while it is within 3" of the Mortek Guard unit from the same btn. Add 2 if the Crawler is within 3" of the Boneshaper from the same btn. On a 4+, it is instead allocated to the GUARD instead of the CRAWLER.

Mortek Shield-corps 120

  • Volkmortian, 1 Boneshaper, 1 Soulreaper OR 1 Soulmason, and 3 Mortek Guard. Once per turn, you can use Shieldwall for one unit in the battalion without spending RDP.

Mortisan Trident 110

  • 1 Boneshaper, 1 Soulreaper, 1 Soulmason, 1 Harvester. EACH Mortisan from this battalion can attempt to cast 1 extra spell if WITHIN 18" of the harvester AND the harvester is within 3" of any enemy units.

Army Building

Tactics

Mr. Arkhan’s Wild Ride

Take Arkhan the Black as your general, along with two Gothizzar Harvesters and a buttload of Mortek Guard. Finally put them all under the Crematorians legion. Your boney boys will proceed to explode in the faces of the enemy and then be brought back to un-life from the ashes thanks to the Mortarch and Harvesters’ restoration abilities. Is this trolling? Yes. Is it fun? Oh yes.

Allied Armies

No Allies

Mercenary Companies

It's worth noting that if you ever include Arkhan or Nagash in your list, you're locked out of Mercenaries. However, we dodge the command point punishment, but because we're so expensive it'll be hard to fit much. Try to use these guys to squeeze in some cheap screen or synergies into your army.

  • Blacksmoke Battery: our catapults to it better
  • Greyfyrd:
  • Grugg Brothers: far to costly for not enough gain IMO. If our stuff was cheaper, it'd be a maybe.
  • Gutstuffers: Could be cute with the new ogor rules making maneaters and firebellys both way better, but you bump into the cost problem again
  • Nimyard’s Rough-Riders:
  • Order of the Blood-Drenched Rose: Lore shenanigans aside, this could have been amazing, if only for the Vampire lord. While blood knights aren't too amazing in the list, the ability to spend a command point to chuck an extra, EXTRA attack onto a death unit could have been great! If only we had command points
  • Rampagers:
  • Skroug’s Menagerie:
  • Sons of the Lichemaster: The funniest option. Bring your necromancer and 3 squads of skeletons to have some baby skeletons take bullets (read charges) for your big-boy skeletons.
  • Tenebrous Court: Probably your best choice for some speedy screen, could lead to some interesting combinations.


Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics
Order
Chaos
Death
Destruction
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