Age of Fantasy/Tactics/Ossified Undead

Why play Ossified Undead?

The Ossified Undead are an unrelenting tide of deathless iron.

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Pros

• Universal reduction of AP
• Undead makes you immune to Morale
• Some pretty strong quality values for your army

Cons

• Very narrow unit selection
• (Almost) your entire army is Slow
• You have an artillery piece, a breath attack and spellcasters, that's it for ranged options.

Special Rules

• Undead: Your models all auto-pass morale checks, which is great. Instead, you need to roll a d6 for each remaining model/Tough wound in the unit; any time you roll a 1-2, they suffer a wound that bypasses Regeneration.

Wizard Spells

• Enslave (4+): Two enemy units within 12" get -1 to hit. No better way to keep your bony boys unharmed than making them unable to get hurt.
• Undermine (4+): One enemy unit within 6" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Command (5+): Two friendly units within 12" get to move +2" on their next Advance or +4" on their next Charge/Rush. The fact that your army is Slow just proves how invaluable this spell is.
• Deadly Contract (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes 2 hits with AP(4). It's not a lot of hits but it's a good way to at least dent a hero or brute.
• Deception (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 AP(1) hits each. Way stronger than most spells like this and still able to flatten mobs, but keep the range in mind.
• Drain (6+): Two enemy units within 18" get -2 to hit in shooting. Considering how easily your army can get caught in the open, that -2 is incredibly powerful.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Herald of Death: Your main hero, comes with the War Aspect rule to give a 50/50 shot at either Rending or AP(+1). Has access to a variety of weapons that are all Poisoned. The Great Weapon is the only one with any kind of AP, with the rest giving Impact(1), Rending (50/50 risk of wasting your War Aspect), Phalanx or double the number of attacks. Can be given either a regular horse for Impact(1) and the removal of Slow, or a scary horse for Tough(3), Impact(3) and the removal of Slow. Can be upgraded to either block spells like a Wizard(2), make your unit Fearless and Furious or remove the Slow rule. Those last two are very effective, the former when the Herald of Death joins one of your two units that isn't Slow already, and the latter increases the effectiveness of your scarier units. Note that these upgrades more than double your Herald's cost.

• Bone Master: Same Quality and Defense as the Herald of Death with the same weapon options minus the Poison and the War Aspect. This is your support hero to help out the rest of your army. Can be given a banner to cause Fear, be turned into a Wizard(1), be given the same Eternal Duty as the Herald or give their unit Regeneration. They have access to two mounts: a horse and the BONE THRONE, giving the Bone Master a much-needed Tough(+3) on top of the Arcane Power of the Herald of Death. The Eternal Duty option turns the Bone Master into an affordable platform to make your units Fearless and Furious, which can be paired with the horse to buff your cavalry units. Wizards vibe well with the BONE THRONE, making the Bone Master better at stopping spells and providing you the support you so desperately need. Regeneration is extremely expensive, more than tripling the base cost of the Bone Master, so picking it only works when pairing it with units that are going to take a lot of wounds instead of fewer Deadly ones. The banner is suboptimal because it requires your vulnerable Bone Master to be in melee.

Infantry

• Guardians: Your basic troops are quite powerful, with a 4+ to Quality and Defense on top of everything else. Their Poison hand weapons are good at dealing a lot of hits, and upgrading to spears makes your unit more expensive but also a hazard to charge if your enemy lacks the options to thin your ranks. Halberds are much cheaper, and because they are also Poison your unmodified sixes to hit turn into three hits at AP(4) that ignore Regeneration. One of them can upgrade into a Great Weapon with AP(2) and Poison, making the weapon less reliant on its sixes. Slapping on Eternal Duty might be worth it, if just to tell your opponent what your attacks are about to do.

• Death Riders: Guardians on horseback, meaning that they're moving at normal speed with Impact. More expensive than your Guardians wound-for-wound but can be given Lances to add some extra Impact at the cost of making them almost as expensive as your Guardians. Note that Poison does not apply to Impact, and you'll need to charge a pretty big unit to get all your Impact in. They've got a high damage potential, but if they get charge they will lose most of it.

• Stalkers: Same War Aspect as your Herald of Death, and come with Tough(3) to help them out. A4 AP(1) is a decent stat line, and one can be upgraded to A2 AP(3) to actually become cheaper, but remember that at Quality 4+ only half your attacks will hit. They're almost as durable as a unit of Guardians for a similar price, trading their vulnerability to Blast for being vulnerable to Deadly.

• Immortals: One of the Quality 3+ Defense 3+ units in your army. Come with Regeneration, and A3 AP(1) Rending is no slouch. Tougher, but not all that deadlier than Stalkers at a 55 point price hike. Have no upgrades.

• Skeleton Horrors: Not Slow, and can Fly to boot! A2 AP(1) Rending isn't the best on your roster, and for a 30 point cost increase you can exchange them for the same A4 AP(1) as the Stalkers, but with no War Aspect to bakc them up. They're faster, but not THAT much faster and their point increase is significant at 100 points upgraded compared to base Guardians.

Vehicles

• Harvester Beast: A8 Rending or A6 AP(2) combined with four stomp attacks with AP(1) makes for a deadly unit, and with Tough(12) and Regeneration it's a tougn cookie to crack. Their special move is Harvest Bones, which when activated lets the Harvester Beast give Regeneration to two friendly units with 6". A wrecking ball of a monster with a significant point cost: it costs about the same as a fully kitted double unit of Guardians. Can be given a Breath Attack for 25 points.

• Skull Catapult: Your singular piece of artillery and most reliable source of ranged damage. Its Cursed Skull shoot at A4 with Poison, the perfect middle ground between Blast and Deadly, and 36" is a nice range. The skulls can be replaced with a Dread Cauldron, which comes with AP(2) and Deadly(6), which can snipe an unsuspecting hero surprisingly well. Note that this is a replacement and not an upgrade, meaning that your Skull Catapult is useful for only one of these things.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Universal Regeneration
• Some pretty strong quality values for your army

Cons

• Very narrow unit selection
• (Almost) Your entire army is Slow
• Shooting is near-nonexistent

Special Rules

• Undead: Your models all auto-pass morale checks, which is great. Instead, you need to roll a d6 for each remaining model/Tough wound in the unit; any time you roll a 1, they suffer a wound that bypasses Regeneration.

Wizard Spells

• Enslave (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit in melee. No better way to keep your bony boys unharmed than making them unable to get hurt.
• Undermine (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Command (5+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". The fact that your army is Slow just proves how invaluable this spell is.
• Deadly Contract (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes 4 hits. While they lack AP, it's a good way to at least dent a hero or brute.
• Drain (6+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -2 to hit in shooting. Considering how easily your army can get caught in the open, that -2 is incredibly powerful.
• Deception (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 AP 1 hits each. Way stronger than most spells like this and still able to flatten mobs.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Lord of Bones: Your most combat-ready hero, gifted with both a 3+ in quality and defense. This along with his versatility in loadout make him a pretty good contender, but he lacks any manner of shooting. His special rule is Eternal Duty, which adds +1 to hit for his attached unit.
  • Melee: The lord of bones starts with a basic hand weapon and all the other options are pretty generic: dual wielding (for another three attacks), halberd (Rending), great weapon (AP 2), spear (Phalanx), and lance (Impact 1, bunt only available while mounted).
  • Mounts: Note that whatever you do, you get Swift, which counteracts the lord's crippling slowness. The skeletal steed is your budget choice, granting Impact to make charges appealing. The great steed isn't an option here considering the absurd price.

• Bone Master: A very feeble wizard. This guy's not so cut out for combat, and its only other non-casting upgrade is Fear - a joke unless you throw this guy to the front lines.

• Bone Wizard: On the outset, you'll notice that this and the bone master are nigh-identical. This is fairly apt except this guy sucks even harder in combat. That said, it has ways to improve, the easiest being a bone scythe for A3 Rending to close that gap. You can also buy Bone Shaper, which improves allied Regeneration and is thus incredibly useful. It sadly lacks a mount, which deals a blow towards its psychic blocking potential, but it's still a wizard.

Infantry

• Guardian: Your basic troops are quite powerful, with a 4+ to quality and defense on top of everything else. They also have a pretty diverse list of armaments, with a special bonus: The soul blade, which gives a model an AP 2 Rending attack, pretty strong for the price. If you're looking for something to take on most enemies, then you won't be disappointed.

• Horseman: Guardian on horseback, meaning that they're moving at normal speed with Impact. This comes at a rather drastic price hike. If you plan on riding hard into the Impact life, then the lances are your only option.

• Stalker: Even crazier melee nut, dual wielding and gaining another boost with Combat Stance (each turn you pick between either +1 to hit in melee, +1 AP, or +1 to defense). This makes them more potent in melee (especially if you give one of them falchions for a default AP 2), but they remain just as vulnerable, if not more so, than the mere guardian.

• Elite Stalker: Unlike the base ones, these are very no-nonsense. All they need to get things done are halberds and a better statline. This makes them more exposed to focus fire, but you can't ask for a stronger hero bunker.

Army Building

Tactics

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Age of Fantasy Tactics Articles
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