Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Undead Legions

WORK IN PROGRESS! Feel free to populate the page. We must no just c'n'p all info from VC and TK tactics - we must evaluate units against new options.

Why Play Undead Legions

Well, it is an enormous army of undead, led by Nagash and trying to both conquer the world and destroy Chaos. It has basically everything from both Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings armies, making it very versatile and awesome army.

You can make full-cavalry lists, with Skeleton Horsemen as Core and Black Knights as Specials, you can take Vampire Lord on Warsphynx (presumably) or convert a Necrolyth Colossus as von Carstein family statue. Options are mind-boggling!

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Note, that under End Times supplement rules, you can spend up to 50% of your points on Lords.

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, many named characters do have abilities and war gear combos unique to them so if you need to have them go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

• Nagash:

Nagash is melee and magic powerhouse, capable of taking on Greater Daemons in melee, while outmagiking Teclis and summoning legions of undead.He is a Level 5 Wizard with access to Lores of: Death, Light, Nehekhara, Vampires and Undeath. He gets Large Target, Terror and Undead, along with: Arch-Necromancer which allows him to re-roll miscasts, though he must accept the 2nd result. Death Magic Incarnate allows all friendly units within 12 inches of him to suffer two less wounds from Unstable, which stacks with other modifiers. Supreme Lord of the Undead allows any models that are summoned from his Lore of Undeath to triple range and points allowed, including additional points created by Raise the Dead counters, but NOT tripling them. Alakanash, the Staff of Power allows him to store up to four power dice from his current pool for later use in any of his magic phases, you can also discard one before close combat to give one of his attacks HKB, including ones made with Zefet-nebtar though you roll for it separately. Morikhane, The Black Armour is a magic armour which gives Nagash a 4+ in both Armour and Ward. The 9 Books of Nagash allow him to have 9 spells, the first always being, Ryze, The Grave Call from the Lore of Undeath, and he rolls the others from any selection of the Lores he knows although he does not pick them, but he can roll in any combination. Zefet-nebtar, The Mortis Blade, is a Magic weapon which gives him +1S and Multiple Wounds D3 Special Rule

• Vlad von Carstein, Mortarch of Shadow:

Gets new rules in End Times, waiting for release.

• Count Mannfred, Mortarch of Night:

Gets new rules and a snazzy horse in End Times, waiting for release.

• Queen Neferata, Mortarch of Blood:

The first vampire gets rules and a snazzy horse in End Times, waiting for release.

• Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament:

Gets a snazzy horse too, so maybe new rules as well. Waiting for release.

• Krell, Mortarch of Despair:

Apparently, he ditched Kemmler (his hat looked ugly anyway), so maybe he gets new rules. We'll see soon. Doesn't get a snazzy horse though.

• High Queen Khalida:

Queen Neferata's sister. No sign of her getting new rules, so apparently she is same as in TK army. She has ASF, making her the fastest Tomb King character available, coupled with 5 attacks and S4 poisoned, she is a very formidable melee character against basic troops. Her T5 and light armor are not enough to protect her against other characters or monsters, though. Khalida is the posterchild of Undead Legions archer lists, as her MWBD grants her BS3 to any unit of archers she joins in addition to granting their shooting attacks poisoned, ramping up the damage output of the unit. She makes a good general for archer-heavy lists, but a fragile one so if you take her, keep her in a unit, preferably buffed with some form of protection (Incantation of Neru).

• Prince Apophas:

Seems unchanged as well.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

Lords

• Vampire Lord:

Brilliant stat line, a metric fuckton of upgrade options, and outside of the Chaos Lord is probably the most dangerous generic combat lord in the game (he probably would have been the best since he can kill more models per round compare while the Chaos Lord is better at single combat, but there's the whole problem where your army starts crumbling if he dies unless you're at the point level to take more than one). Naturally, characters are the first place points go in a Vampire Counts army, and this motherfucker will likely soak up as many points as you can give, especially with the new 50% limit. Properly kitted out they can stand toe to toe with Lords and go on to rampage through Special units all while having excellent magical options. Mounting these badasses up is not only an option, but depending on your goals may just be the point of taking him. All Vampires are level 1 Wizards in Lore of Vampires, Death, Shadow or Undeath and you can upgrade them up to a level 4. Item selection and powers will be covered later. 220 points at base level.

• Vampire:

• Tomb King:

At the first glance, Tomb King loses out to Vampire Lord on many accounts - lower M, WS, BS, I and A, Flammable, cannot magic, cannot take mundane heavy armour, lance or additional hand weapon, severily loses in the versatility and customizability departments, and doesn't look half as badass. But that's not why you take a Tomb King. Where Vampire Lord is the perfect predator, Tomb King is the leader, focused on improving his army. He is much cheaper (170pts vs 220pts naked) and comes with at least light armor by default and has a fantastic rule called My Will Be Done, which allows his unit to use his WS. Note, that for now he cannot take any horse-like mounts and his MWBD only works on TK undead, so he cannot support VC units much. This may change when End Times are finally released.

• Tomb Prince:

• Master Necromancer:

From the two mage-lords, this one is your summoner one. Unlike his mummified collegue, Mastermancer can increase a unit's size beyond its starting limit (with Master of the Dead upgrade), is 10pts cheaper and can ride a variety of mounts - which you shouldn't, you should stick him in a nice bunker - of Skeleton Archers, for instance. If you want numerous mages, take only one of these for Master of the Dead upgrade.

• Necromancer:

• Liche High Priest:

From the two mage-lords, this one is your support caster. Compared to Master Necromancer, he has +1T, has access to lores of Nehekhara and Light, providing the army with much needed buffs, especially from the lore of light. If you want numerous mages, take one Mastermancer in the back ranks and one Liche High Priest somewhere closer to the front, spamming Light-magic bubble goodness.

• Liche Priest:

• Strigoi Ghoul King:

• Wight King:

• Tomb Herald:

• Necrotect:

Very cheap, grants Hatred to his unit and has fine (by VC standards) Ld. Stick him with Grave Guard and watch them melt enemies. With 50pts magic item limit he can be turned into a cheap specialized tool too. Not worth taking for regeneration aura - Mortis Engine does that better.

• Cairn Wraith:

• Tomb Banshee:

Core Units

• Zombies:
• Crypt Ghouls:
• Dire Wolves:
• Skeleton Warriors:

99.5% identical in both TK and VC versions, with two differences - TK version cannot march (may be resolved in new rules) and has +2Ld, making in more resistant to crumbling.

• Skeleton Archers:
• Skeleton Horsemen:
• Skeleton Horse Archers:
• Skeleton Chariots:

Special Units

• Tomb Guard:

For 11 points you get a pretty good (for a skeleton) statline, Killing Blow, magic standard, shield and light armor, with an option to swap that shield for a halberd for 2 points. They were a bit overpriced in TK army, and in the Legion they lose out to...

• Grave Guard:

For same 11 points you get same statline, KB, magic standard and shield, but with heavy armour instead of light, ability to march and great weapon instead of halberd. Since you have abominable I (3), that ASL won't be even felt, so you that is just +1S, basically, and for just 1 point. Even though Tomb Guard get +2Ld, they are not worth it. If you want elite infantry, take Grave Guard.

• Corpse Cart:
• Crypt Horrors:
• Fell Bats:
• Bat Swarm:
• Spirit Host:
• Hexwraiths:
• Vargheists:
• Black Knights:
• Necropolis Knights:
• Tomb Scorpion:
• Ushabti:

Overpriced and not worth it in pure TK army, and against new VC options? Totally not worth it. Use their awesome models as "count-as" Crypt Horrors (boy, are those ugly guys).

• Tomb Swarm:
• Carrion:
• Khemrian Warsphinx:
• Sepulchral Stalkers:
• Morghast Harbingers:

The new unit. We will find out more about it soon.

Rare Units

• Varghulf:
• Blood Knights:
• Cairn Wraiths:
• Black Coach:
• Terrorgheist:
• Mortis Engine:
• Necrolyth Colossus:
• Hierotitan:
• Necrosphinx:
• Screaming Skull Catapult:
• Casket of Souls:
• Morghast Archai:

The new unit. We will find out more about it soon.