Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Undead Legions

An army added in the 2014 End Times supplement/core rules update from Games Workshop to Warhammer Fantasy. It represents the myriad forces united under Nagash, who intends to first conquer the entire world and make all living beings into servants or Undead (although Nagash doesn't seem picky about what KIND of Undead you end up becoming) then to take over the Warp and consume the Chaos Gods to become the embodiment of Chaos Undivided. From that point on, it's likely he'd wage war on the multiverse (of which Warhammer 40000 is a part). As a result, this is a pretty powerful faction with some serious ambition to it.

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. A small warning though, don't go nuts with long unit descriptions or this page will become very bloated very fast.

Why Play Undead Legions

It is an enormous army of Undead, led by Nagash and trying to both conquer the world and destroy Chaos. It has almost everything found in both both the Vampire Counts and the Tomb Kings armies, making it the single most versatile army in the game.

You can make full-cavalry lists with Skeleton Horsemen as Core and Black Knights as Special, or convert a Necrolyth Colossus as von Carstein family statue. The options are mind-boggling!

GW pretty much brought back the "Warhammer: Undead" army from 4th Edition, but with more models than even Space Marines... Awesome!

Army Special Rules

By default, all options follow the basic rules of their original armies unless otherwise contradicted, but there are some additions.

• Undead Legions are a Neutral army like Tomb Kings, and can ally with any faction in the game for the purpose of 3+ player games.
• No crumble if your General dies. This includes undead summoned by Lore of Undeath. For that reason, the Hierophant is officially not needed for your Tomb Kings. Likewise, your VC General no longer needs to be a spellcasting model with the highest Leadership that gets forced into Lore of Vampires. The General still is the highest LD model in the army however.
• Tomb King models can March if they are within 12" of general.
• Nehekharan Undead now count as ordinary Undead for the sake of rules, and anything that specifically references "Undead" or "Nehekharan Undead" works for both (so you can take a Tomb Prince with a unit of Grave Guard, boost Necromancers with Hierotitans, or grant your chariots kick-ass regeneration with your Mortis Engine).
• Tomb King Constructs can only heal one wound per casting of a spell that heals friendly models, just like Characters and Ethereal models.
• Characters/Units can only take options/upgrades/magic items from their respective army books-so no Sphinx-riding Vampires, Red Fury Tomb Kings, or My Will Be Done for your Black Knights.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Note Under End Times supplement rules, you can spend up to 50% of your points on Lords, AND up to 50% on your heroes since they have separate points spending pools. When considering characters to be your General, it is important to remember that anything within 12 inches of them will be able to march.

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.

Lords

Nagash: Holy shit Nagash is back! Not only is he back but he has a crazy statline and summing up everything doesn't quite do him justice, here's the cliffnotes: He's a melee and magic powerhouse that is capable of taking on Greater Daemons in melee while out-magicking Teclis and summoning legions of Undead straight onto the field, so no matter how you want to use him he's up to the task. If you want a lot more detail click the expand button (his section is collapsable so he doesn't take up a huge amount of space).

Nagash is a special Lord-level Monster with a crazy statline. EVERYTHING is 7 other than Move, Initiative, and Attacks which are 6 and a Leadership of 10, plus even crazier special rules. Not to mention his magic items of eternal FUCK YOU, which make Malekith and Archaon's shit look like Core gear. He is a Large Target, and is obviously a Terror-causing Undead. Death Magic Incarnate allows all friendly models within 12 inches of him to suffer two less Wounds from Unstable, which stacks with other modifiers like the Battle Standard Bearer bonus (making Nagash a great model if you're intentionally making the biggest Tarpit army possible).

Melee: Zefet-nebtar, The Mortis Blade, is a Magic weapon which gives him +1S and Multiple Wounds (D3) Special Rule. Morikhane, The Black Armour is a Magic Armor which gives Nagash a 4+ in both Armor and Ward Save. Since he's a Monster, he has the Thunderstomp ability. At this point, he's better than even Red Fury Master Vampires as he's dealing six 8 Strength D3 Wound attacks, one of which can be Heroic Killing Blow, per turn. Plus he doesn't HAVE to be the General of your army if you can field something else with a 10 Leadership in a large game, allowing you to throw in Nagash as your sacrificial rapetrain. Nagash can take on any character currently in the game in melee and win, although the best suited against him are Thorgrim or a High Elf unit/character under Banner of the World Dragon. Both will have a 2+ against Nagash's attacks. In addition, a build exists for the Dwarf Daemonslayer where he gets Grudge/Might/Speed and ends up with a 40% chance to kill Nagash in Close Combat (which would be an epic death, even by Slayer standards). While not exactly a killing strategy, Dwarfs could make one of their Lords T10 with Shield-Bearers for extra Wounds which would make it extremely unlikely Nagash could land a blow on them in Close Combat, effectively Tarpitting him for the rest of the game. Good thing for Undead Legion players, Warriors don't have Harry the Hammer anymore...

Magic: He is a Level 5 Wizard with access to Lores of: Death, Light, Nehekhara, Vampires and Undeath. His Arch-Necromancer ability allows him to reroll Miscasts, although he must accept the second result (so the original reason Teclis was overpowered back in 7th). 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), allowing you to surpass the six Dice per spell limit. Supreme Lord of the Undead allows any models summoned from his Lore of Undeath spells to triple in range as well as points allowed, including additional points created by Raise the Dead counters (although it doesn't triple those, merely adds to the range). That's an important rule; while other casters could at difficulty 16+ summon 150 points worth of Monstrous Infantry models somewhere in 12 inches of themselves, Nagash could summon 450 points of models anywhere in 36 inches of himself. That includes options like Crypt Horrors, which puts models that refuse to die anywhere on the flanks of the enemy, and with Nagash's wizard level 5 it's only an 11+ difficulty to cast. Needless to say, Nagash tops in terms of annoyance (and how many models you're going to need to buy). 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 (similar to how Alarielle the Radiant rolls for her spells). It's worth noting that each time Nagash casts a Lore of Vampires spell, he'll restore one Wound to himself. In summary of Nagash's magic abilities; best in the entire game.

Sweet merciful fuck. Talk about bringing a Tomahawk Missile to a knife fight. Nagash is currently the most overpowered thing in the entire game, putting everything from High Elf Banner tactics and Dwarf Cannon spam to within the "acceptable" range (although it's arguable for the Dwarftillery).

Weaknesses: Don't think that because you just put Nagash on the table, you're going to win though. There is a couple ways to kill him. The Empire has a magic item that allows a character to swap stats with a model in base contact, like everything else in the game Dwarf Cannons are the bane of his existence (re-rolls make it very easy to hit him, and you've got a 50/50 shot of getting through that ward save and causing D6 Wounds) so if you face that Dwarfpoleon buddy of yours you can watch Nagash get blown to pieces over the course of three turns or so (and that's IF they don't spam artillery). However, non-Dwarf Cannons are decidedly less effective. They'll need approximately 7 shots (without rerolls) since on average 1 won't hit, 1 will misfire, 1 won't Wound, and 2 will bounce off his save. If he survives then he can then heal himself using Lore of Vampires magic, but only one wound per successful spell, and if he's healing himself then he's not casting any summoning spells from the Lore of Undeath which means he loses a lot of his use. One would at first glance think that Tamurkhan's ability to take control of an enemy that kills him would be the perfect trolling option. But Tamurkhan's villain override only works on Infantry or Monstrous Infantry while Nagash is of the Monster category, and in addition it only works on things that kill him in Close Combat meaning that the player controlling Naggy would simply blast it with magic instead of charging into melee anyway.

• Vlad von Carstein, Mortarch of Shadow:

500 points for a virtually unchanged character, except that as Undead Legion doesn't have Isabelle there's no Isabelle dying special rule for him so he won't flip his shit and become a killing machine. Instead, he gets the Mortarch of Shadow special rule which gives everything a -1 To Hit against him and a -1 to the Leadership of all models nearby him. As a Terror-causer, this can be beneficial when facing low Leadership armies. Vlad's statline is pretty basic. WS7, S5, T5, I7, and 5 Attacks with Leadership 10. He's still a level 3 wizard, but can generate his spells like Nagash can from Lore of Death, Lore of Shadow, Lore of Vampires, or Lore of Undeath. As a Vampire, he can restore Wounds lost if he deals an Unsaved Wound against an enemy, but thanks to his Magic Weapon (which also grants him +1 Strength) he gets that Wound on a 4+ instead of a 6+. He also has a 4+ Ward Save, and a 30% chance to come back to life with one Wound in a Unit 12 inches near him if he's killed.

Out of all of the Mortarchs, Vlad is the one most likely to survive a battle despite only having 3 Wounds. While a generic character kitted out could be much better as you'd get Level 4 spellcasting and slightly more damage or survivability, Vlad ties with Mannfred as the best named choice after Nagash to actually put into play.

• Count Mannfred, Mortarch of Night:

Like all of the mounted Mortarchs, this guy is expensive (650 points) and is more of a liability than an asset against most (most meaning "can field warmachines") armies. His statline is mostly unimpressive compared to the other Mortarchs, with a WWS of 7, S5, T6, I7, and LD 10. He still has the Armor of Templehof, which combined with his snazzy ghost pony get him a total of a 4+ armor save plus two extra Wounds to a whopping total of 10. He has T6 and his mount makes him a Large Target so he still dies to cannonballs, but here's the fun part; the ghost pony is part of him, for all rules purposes, so they can't kill the horse from underneath him or take him off it. It also makes him a Monster, giving him Thunderstomp. Out of the three multi-kit mounted Mortarchs, Mannfred has the best save by far and has 10 fucking wounds to boot, which he can potentially heal back by using Lore of Vampires spells. He's a level 4 Wizard, and generates his spells like Vlad does (which is like Nagash does, but only in the Vamp-friendly Lores). Unfortunately, he lost Loremaster for some fucking reason, which was the very reason most people ever took him in the first place. Instead Master of the Black Arts now grants him the ability to reroll one Winds of Magic dice, giving you a better chance to get some juice that turn. He can restore Wounds via Close Combat on a 6+ like any other Vampire, and his spectral horsie grants him Fly (although chances are good that unless you're covering him in Fell Bats as redirectors you're going to be keeping him safe behind your forces and not using that to any advantage). Mortarch of Night grants him double Lore of Undeath summoning range, marking Mannfred as essentially the poor man's Nagash (although since he lacks triple the strength, it's not nearly as useful). He still has Gheistvor, Sword of Unholy Power to grant him an extra Power and Dispel dice for every Wound he causes in Close Combat (to a maximum of 5). Dark Cunning is a new ability for him, allowing you to remove one Power Dice from your Power Pool before the turn begins to give him another Attack (which is allowed to surpass the 10 limit in any stat), to a maximum of three. You can also add another Power Dice, taking away one of his Attacks instead (also to a maximum of three).

Mannfred may have lost Loremaster, but he got survivability and some of Konrad's batshit insane melee action instead. A Mannfred list is one full of fast and killy options, as you want to get into combat as soon as possible and tear up the enemy without giving them a chance to reposition themselves to take what you're dishing out. Mannfred is best to put into the weakest enemies first, so you can use those 6+ Attacks to rip apart the enemy and generate Power Dice for yourself. As for those Power Dice, you're going to be sitting on a HUGE pile of them so you'll want to bring spellcasters to use them (and lessen the burden on Mannfred in case of a miscast coming his way).

When it comes down to Mannfred or Vlad as a choice, you have to look at it like this; do you want a General who plays like the old school Undead leader who sits in a bunker of minions and deals a fuckton of damage from in the ranks while still benefiting from Look Out Sir! rolls, or do you want an expensive beast that will tear into the foe with abandon while flaunting that big bullseye like it's an Olympic gold medal?

• Queen Neferata, Mortarch of Blood:

Neferata is the least magically inclined of the mounted Mortarchs, being only a L3 wizard, but she can still generate spells like Vlad and Manny. She's also 650 points. She has Fly and is a Large Target Monster, and thus has Thunderstomp (and is Cannon-bait). Neferata also has Always Strikes First, making her the only named option in the entire army to have this. She can restore Wounds like any other Vampire, and her Mortarch of Blood special ability allows her to take the first model she slays in a Challenge as a summoned upgrade-less Vampire. Twilight's Allure grants a -1 To Hit penalty to her to anything other than High Queen Khalida (if fielded by Tomb Kings). Her Magic Weapon Akmet-kar, the Dagger of Jet reduced the Strength, Toughness, and Attacks of an enemy down to 1 if they suffer an unsaved Wound from it for the rest of the game. Her other magic item Aken-seth, the Staff of Pain is an Arcane Item that causes any Magic Missile, Direct Damage, or Hex spell to also cause an additional D3 Magical Strength 5 Hits to the target model or Unit after the spell has been resolved. Neferata has a better WS than her fellow Mortarchs at 8, has 6 Toughness, the highest Initiative at 9, and 8 Attacks plus 10 Leadership. As a result Neferata comes in after Nagash for the best in this regard, although as she lacks any kind of Armor Save (or save of any kind) other than the 6+ her enchanted equine grants her she's easily the single most fragile of the Mortarchs. Mitigating this however is her 8 Wounds, giving her a chance to restore her health with some Close Combat or Lore of Vampires spellcasting.

She's a situational character, although not without merit. Her Always Strikes First combined with high Strength and Weapon Skill mean her magic dagger will probably get to cripple anything dumb enough to take her in a challenge, making it laughably useless for the rest of the game. She can also eat up a Unit with those attacks as well, although anything that can strike back will probably kill her if it can make it through a T6 and -1 To Hit. If she kills an enemy she's weakened (very likely, as the first Attack out of her 8 that lands will take away any Toughness protecting their Wounds unless they have a Ward Save or high Armor value) then the Vampire it spawns can provide her cover as she retreats back to safety.

Neferata's role in the army is that of a finesse scalpel, cutting out the tendons of any named characters when there's an opening while otherwise being content to blast away using her upgraded damage using the ample amount of debuffing spells available to her through the darker Lores. Contrast this with Mannfred's role as a blunt hammer to bash into the enemy's soft bits as many times as possible while throwing out a lot of spells. While she's inferior to Mannfred when taken as a whole, she's not by any means something to skip and can do a great deal in countering the comeback of Herohammer the new 50% Lord allowance will undoubtedly bring.

• Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament:

No longer a 5th level Wizard, which is why you fucking took him in the first place (that and his pimp chariot). Level 4 instead, generates his spells like the rest. Like Neferata and Mannfred, he now costs 650 points and is a Monster, can Fly, causes Terror and is a Large Target, is super-glued to his sorcerer steed so he's one and the same with it, and like Neferata only has a 6+ Armor Save and T6 with 8 wounds. He's the only Mortarch with a LD of 9, making it possible he may not be the General of your army. His stats are the lowest at BS 3, S5, I3, and only 7 Attacks. He gets the ability to restore Wounds like a Vampire does, and First of the Mortarchs makes him suffer one less Wound due to Unstable and March. Mortarch of Sacrament doubles the points worth of models summoned by Lore of Undeath spells just like Nagash. Zefet-kar, the Tomb Blade is a Magic Weapon he carries that lets him regain one Wound for every Wound he causes in Close Combat to a maximum of 4 per phase. Khenash-an, the Staff of Spirits is an Arcane Item that lets you store one or two Power Dice during your Magic Phase, which allows you to use them at a later time (going past the six normally allowed at maximum on a spell), although you have to wait one phase between storing and using. He's inferior to Mannfred and lacks any real abilities to make you want to get into Close Combat (although if he does and manages to survive it, he may restore himself back to full health).

If summoning Undead with Lore of Undeath is your thing and you can't afford Nagash, then Arkhan is the way to go. While the double summoning is much more useful than Mannfred's double range, Mannfred can make up for it in the ability to generate a metric fuckton of dice and get into melee. Unless you're facing an opponent that you DON'T want to get into Close Combat with for various reasons then Manny is the better option, and Neferata's MM/Hex/DD damage increase is much better as she actually has the potential to get the most use outside of just the Lore of Undeath summoning spells along with discouraging any enemy from coming after her. In addition, Lore of Death will wipe out Arkhan in short order thanks to his abysmal Initiative.

If there's a Mortarch you need to eliminate as a possibility right off the bat, it's Arkhan. But at least you can use his model from your kit to kitbash him to give him a lower body so you can field him in a Tomb Kings army.

• Krell, Mortarch of Despair:

No horse and at only 250 points is the cheapest Mortarch. Mostly unchanged other than swapping from Kemmler to Nagash in servitude. His statline is pretty low at WS5, S4, T5, W4, I5, 4 Attacks, and at LD 10 you almost NEED someone else LD 10 to make General as Krell isn't very durable.

As Champion of Nagash, he gets Heroic killing blow when he's in the same combat as Nagash and fighting a Challenge (although the points level to field them together is a minimum of 2500 and since he's Infantry while Nagash is a monster it requires careful positioning to get them into it together). Mortarch of Despair grants Krell a Wound restored if an enemy within 12 inches of him fails a Fear, Teror, or Break test. Krell himself of course causes Terror. Armor of the Barrows grants him a 4+ Armor Save, and any Magic Weapon that Wounds but fails to overcome that Armor Save becomes non-magical and loses it's benefits. The Black Axe of Krell gives him +2 Strength in Close Combat, and has Always Strikes Last and Multiple Wounds (D3) on top of the fact that any enemy suffering an unsaved Wound from it must roll a D6, taking a Wound if the result is higher than their remaining Wounds with no Armor Saves allowed. Since Generals don't have to take Lore of Vampires anymore, putting him in a Grave Guard unit supported by a Lore of Metal Vampire Lord can be an effective combo. If you want to put more eggs in that basket, add a Tomb King to make said unit have more WS, add Banner of the Barrows and suddenly everything melts and fails break tests against your deathstar. Pretty vulnerable on his own, but he's worth every penny when supported in the right way.

• High Queen Khalida:

Queen Neferata's cousin, oddly enough you can take her in the same team as her even though they hate each other's (lack of in Khalida's case) guts. She costs 365 points, and comes with Hatred (Vampire Counts) so you can route any other players dumb enough to keep going with the inferior faction.

She's unchanged from her Tomb Kings role, and doesn't really bring anything new to the table now that you can take Vampire Counts options with her. She has ASF, making her the fastest Tomb King character available. This is coupled with 5 attacks at S4 which are Poison, making her a very formidable melee character against basic troops. Her T5 and Light Armor are not enough to protect her against anything with some decent combat ability though. With Incantaion of the Asp Goddess, she negates enemy Poisoned Attacks against her, making them roll To Wound as normal. The Venom Staff grants her a level 5 Bound Spell Magic Missile with a 24 inch range, causing 2D6 Strength 4 Attacks. Khalida is the posterchild of Undead Legions archer lists, as her My Will Be Done grants her BS3 to any unit of archers she joins in addition to granting their shooting attacks Poisoned and ignoring any kind of penalty (or bonus) including cover, 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). She had The Curse like any other Tomb King, causing D6 Strength 5 Shooting Hits against any character or unit(s) that caused her to die. She's also Flammable, if that means much to you. Don't forget that you can support her unit with Lore of Heavens and watch them re-roll failed To Hit and Wound rolls. Good times.

Heroes

• Prince Apophas:

Apophas is unchanged from his Tomb Kings role and still costs 130 points. Apophas has the Desert Revenant rule, meaning he cannot join units nor can he be the army General. The latter hurts him, the former doesn't.

He has the Entombed Beneath the Sands rule which functions like Ambushers, but instead of appearing on the side you choose a spot anywhere on the field 1 inch away from anything they can't appear in (terrain, or another unit). You then roll artillery dice and scatter die; on a hit or scatter they appear, with the latter causing them to move before appearing the scatter distance. On a misfire they have a 30% chance to be destroyed, or a 30% chance to appear from the board edge instead. He can then move like normal (but not Charge or get into Close Combat). He can Fly and has Strider, enabling him to get into position where you want him and cause Terror checks to things he zips past. Scarab Prince gives him a Strength 2 Breath Weapon (pretty useless, as it's unlikely to do much) and upon death causes 2D6 inches worth of 2D6 Strength 2 hits (very gambly for not much potential damage). He has Soul Reaper, allowing you to mark an enemy character that Apophas can reroll To Hit and To Wound rolls against. He also has Regeneration, keeping him in the fight just a little longer against that character. But with his terrible stats (WS4, S4, T3, W4, 5 Attacks, and an unbelievably bad 1 for Initiative) he's unlikely to ever manage to do much of anything against anyone.

Theoretically, he'd be useful against horde armies as he'd allow you to pop him right into the middle of a cluster of units and cause Break Tests everywhere before belching out beetles to wreck all the low health buggers, but since you can't count on more than 2 inches of 2 hits of 2 Strength or on him even making it where you need him in the first place, he's pretty useless.

His only real uses are as an anti-warmachine/wizard trap, but even at those roles he's questionable. He's fun no doubt, and can cause a bit of chaos for an opponent who's planning on number-crunching though.

Generic Characters

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

when trying to decide whether to take a Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings equivalent in the same role, give the Magic Items available to each a quick browse as a tiebreaker.

Lords

• Vampire Lord:

Brilliant stat line, a metric fuckton of upgrade options, and are neck and (exposed) neck with the Chaos Lord as the most dangerous generic combat lord in the game. They don't have to be the General anymore, and your General dying doesn't mean your army crumbles which allows you to go as wild as you want with their role. This motherfucker will likely soak up as many points as you can give, especially with the new 50% Lord limit. You're looking at 100 points worth of Vampire upgrades, 100 points worth of Magic Items, and the biggest baddest fucking mounts around. Or, if you're afraid of Cannons, then multiple Red Fury Master Vampires hiding in the line of footplodders waiting to unleash hell.

All Vampires are level 1 Wizards in Lore of Vampires, Death, Shadow, or Undeath (remember that now you don't have to take Lore of Vampires at all) plus any non-Life Lore in the core rulebook with the Forbidden Lore upgrade, and you can upgrade them up to a level 4 Wizard as well. Item selection and powers will be covered later. 220 points at base level. These bad boys became much more versatile then ever before. Just don't go too overboard and make sure you have a clear plan of what you want him doing.

• 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 into Magic, cannot take mundane Heavy Armor, a Lance, or an additional Hand Weapon, severely loses in the versatility and customization departments, and doesn't look half as badass (though he does have more bling). 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 (which can be bumped with Magic Armor) and has a fantastic rule called My Will Be Done, which allows his unit to use his WS (which is 6). This would make Grave Guard even better than they were, but there's always the eggs/basket story and with this new book lords and heroes already tend to soak up lots and lots of points. He also has The Curse, punishing whatever kills him making any attempt to kill him a risky endeavor. Or you could go with Tomb Princes for a more cost effective variation, if none of the Tomb Kings Magic Items above 50 points catches your interest. Finally, scroll down to Tomb Herald below to see the main benefit to having a Tomb King over a Master Vampire.

• Master Necromancer:

Out of the two caster-Lords, this one is your summoner one. he costs 165 points vanilla, plus 35 for his level 4 upgrade. Unlike his mummified colleague, Mastermancer can increase a Skeleton Warrior Unit's size beyond its starting limit with Master of the Dead upgrade (although not any of the Tomb Kings Skeleton Archers or Horsemen sadly) and is 10pts cheaper with an identical statline. He can only use Lore of Vampires, Lore of Undeath, or Lore of Death.

The Master Necromancer and also can ride a variety of mounts, although the main point of these is to let him keep up with Black Knights if you are going full-cavalry. Otherwise, find him a nice big bunker full of Core to stick him in. If you want multiple casters, only take one Master Necromancer as only one can take the MotD upgrade in your army.

• Liche High Priest:

Out of the two caster-Lords, this one is your support. He's 175 points plus 35 for level 4. Compared to Master Necromancer, he has access to Lores of Undeath, Nehekhara, and Light of which the latter two provides the army with much-needed buffs. 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. He can be mounted on a Skeletal Steed, but this is only useful in full-cavalry armies.

• Strigoi Ghoul King:

Still a proper punch sport, but with all the options you're getting and all the possible combinations you can make this guy will probably won't see the light of day much. He's 260 points for a Regenerating, Poisoned Attack with Infinite Hatred rapetrain that can't take Magic Armor. Dragonbane Gem is mandatory to protect him from Flame Attacks and most Magic Weapons aren't worth taking since they'll make him lose his Poisoned Attacks. He benefits a great deal from the Lore of Nehekhara Augments, and is not a bad idea if you want a Close Combat character to deal some guaranteed kills.

Heroes

• Vampire:

105 points core, lower stats and half the upgrade points available as the Lord counterpart. Can take Lore of Shadow, Lore of Death, Lore of Vampires, Lore of Undeath, or with Forbidden Lore can take any non-Life core rulebook Lore. Take it if you need a killy hero (although the Wight King is cheaper for slightly lower stats), are taking a low pop army and need your Level 2 casters to be able to dish out and take in Close Combat, want a core lore and need the level 4 Wizards on more important tasks, or if you took a named character Lord and want that Coven Throne on the field. You can kit out a Vampire to Fly and launch them directly into enemy warmachines or Wizards, making them an amusing warmachine hunter.

• Tomb Prince:

Even cheaper than Tomb King at merely 100 points, but with same rules (although The Curse deals one point less in S, he gets half the Magic Item allowance, and only grants WS5 rather than WS6). With new limit on Heroes, feel free to take many Princes, greatly improving your footsloggers. WS5 Zombies? Hell yeah! If you're only interested in solo performance, the Vampire has +2M, +1WS, +1S, -1T, -1W, +1I, +1A, -2LD for 5 more points. While My Will Be Done is worth the difference, there are times when you want the higher statline. Like the Tomb King, see the Tomb Herald when choosing the TK over the VC option.

• Necromancer/Liche Priest:

See respective Lord-version entries, as barring the fact that Necro is 65 points while LP is 70 and they as usual have half the Magic Item allowance they're the same. If you have a Light Liche High Priest, Necromancers may be better options as Lore of Vampires and Death are superior to Lore of Nehekhara and the Necro can take Master of the Dead if in LoV to bolster your numbers of Skeletons.

• Wight King:

An awesome option in VC book, not so much here. Compared to the Tomb Prince, he has basically same statline barring -1WS and +1I, comes with Killing Blow but has no Curse, and is only 85 points. His main downside is lack of My Will Be Done. On the other hand, Wight King can take a cavalry mount, and can take Heavy mundane Armor. If you want a BSB who's cheaper than a Hero Vampire, a Wight King is useful. Oh, and he's non-flammable compared to his mummy counterpart. Also, if you want to be a dick (of course you do), take 10 with Great Weapons and stick them in a unit of Grave Guard carrying Banner of the Barrows. Watch your opponent desperately struggle to get through T5 5+ as you launch 30 S6 Wight King Killing Blows, followed by 20 S6 Grave Guard attacks which all have a +1 To Hit thanks to their awesome flag. NICE.

• Tomb Herald:

Disregard his statline (one point lower T, W, I, and LD than the Wight King for 60 points) and Banner-carrying option, they're unimportant. This guy's Bodyguard special rule allows him to take wounds for his Tomb King, allowing the Tomb King to pick Destroyer of Eternities and still be survivable. Don't forget to load this guy on Magic Armor, as wounds are transferred before Saves. Basically, you up your Tomb King's cost to Vampire levels, but in return get awesomely survivable character with 150pts item allowance (100 for the King, 50 for the Herald) and My Will Be Done. Unfortunately Tomb Heralds can only take Wounds for Tomb Kings and Tomb Princes, and each is assigned only to one character (and each can only have one assigned to them) at the beginning of the game. In addition, the Tomb Herald must be in the same Unit as them.

• Necrotect:

Very cheap at 60 points, and his statline isn't bad for it (don't expect him to survive for too long with only T4 and Light Armor with 2 Wounds, or deal much damage s WS3 S4 Attacks, but that's not bad all the same). He gets 50 points worth of Magic Items to specialize him with and he grants Hatred to his Unit via Wrath of the Creator (he's buttmad people keep wrecking his shit pulling the gems and gold out), while his 7 LD can go a long way with VC company. Stick him with Grave Guard for an enemy-melting combination. Stone Shaper grants any Constructs within 6 inches Regeneration, which can be bumped up further with a Mortis Engine allowing those adorable little Sphinxes of yours to shrug off cannonballs. No matter how you plan on using him, the screaming artist with the whip can find a place in almost any Undead Legion army.

• Tomb Banshee:

With awesome shooting options from TK army, and now competing against even more awesome Heroes (Tomb Princes in particular), there's absolutely no reason to take these. At 95 points, you'd get more use from spending another 35 and putting Apophas on the field. The only advantage they have is Ethereal and the ability to give decent damage to low LD enemies, but that's not very useful. They can still "fire" in Close Combat however, allowing you to field one in a Unit of squishies you don't want in such a state to strike back (for example putting one in your Archer bunker can knock out those pesky warmachine hunters harassing your ranged options).

• Cairn Wraith:

See above, but these shmucks cannot even shoot. 60 points, isn't too bad except that you can take them as a Rare option in a group. With the increase in character allowance taking one isn't as painful, but with the new options from Tomb Kings his place is even further at the bottom. Pass, pass, pass.

Mounts

Sadly, mounts cannot be taken cross-army.

Vampire Counts

• Skeletal steed: The Black Knights basic mount, ignores terrain as they are treated as Ethereal for movement and does not get the -1M for barding if you take it. Think about that for a moment, you can charge units on the other side of buildings if you can see them. Never take a dangerous terrain test with these guys again!

• Barded Nightmare: Simple undead horse, best in a Unit of Blood Knights, and never put with Black Knights unless there's no terrain, as they'll lose their Ethereal movement. Ordinary in all regards. other then being S4 WS3 horses.

• Hellsteed: A flying Barded Nightmare, and overall a better horse. Not too expensive and still a great investment if you like running with Fell Bats or other silliness. Still, if used right it can be a scary model that's great for picking off warmachines or other small units, since arrows don't tend to have the killing power needed for a Vampire.

• Abyssal Terror: Not great by any standard of a monster. Can be given Poison Attacks or Armour Piercing, has Thunderstomp (which doesn't get the upgrade abilities sadly). Fairly cheap and it flies so it's not exactly bad, but it's just beaten out by the next two usually.

• Coven Throne: Hot motherfucking damn (also damnably hot if you know what I mean, seriously this has one of the most glorious models Games Workshop ever released), this thing has a good number of abilities, and a few downsides. Absolutely fucking awful against any army with high leadership and siege weapons (so mostly Dwarfs with their army wide LD 9 or Elves with archer spam) or usually just any army lot of cannons as they'll pass The Battle of Wills eventually (it's fun and helps its survivability but it isn't too reliable for stopping the majority of attacks aimed at it). On the other hand, excellent in combat, you get 2D6 attacks from the ghosts hauling this thing around, the ghost horses grant it Ethereal movement so there's no troubles from terrain, a 5+ Armor Save, a 4+ Ward Save, four S5 ASF attacks from the Handmaidens, D6 S5 impact hits. Sadly a lesser vampires don't have a high enough leadership to consistently use The Battle of Wills effectively (so putting them on a shitload of points isn't a good idea), so the only thing worthwhile to put on it is a Vampire Lord, which is a lot more appealing in an undead legions list because now you can allocate 50% of your total points to Lords, so not only can he buy good equipment in 2000 points games, you can get other Lords to back him up and if he dies to a cannonball your army no longer crumbles. Don't give the rider too much equipment though because he's still a huge target.

• Zombie Dragon: Exactly what you think it is. It's got beefy stats, can be healed massively thanks to lore attribute plus Invocation, his Pestilential Breath attack causes -3 to armour as well as causing a S2 hit and it adds that extra "fuck you" to Ogres in the form of terror. Has Swarm of Flies (ew!) which causes -1 to To Hit rolls in melee. A great time if your Vampire has the same stat line as the mount its on. Can really wreck heavy cavalries day as well as rank and file, though it will die to cannons or Heroic Killing Blow. Still a wonderful kick ass model and is our only dragon, but like most fun things, it's a magnet for artillery and mass shooting, though since losing your general no longer causes crumbling, that's not as much of an issue as it used to be.

Tomb Kings

• Skeletal Steed: Basic Undead horse. War Beast, low stats other than it's M. Use it to keep up with cavalry.

• Skeleton Chariot: Same as the Skeleton Chariots below, but the Tomb King or Tomb Prince replace a crewmember. Useful to bolster a large unit of Core Skeleton Chariots and grant the My Will Be Done, as "And The Tomb Kings Rode To War" allows character Chariots to join units (but only Units of Skeleton Chariots). By itself however, not useful at all.

• Khemrian Warsphinx: While putting a Tomb King on one and granting it WS6 may be somewhat useful, it's not a great use of points as he'll only grant that ONE sphinx his bonus. It gains a 4+ against Shooting, with the King having a 5+ against it, but loses the 4 crewmembers cutting it's number of attacks. While this used to be good when keeping your General alive was important, it's now a sub-par option.

Core Units

• Zombies:

Tarpits extraordinaire. Vulnerable to crumbling, but that can be mitigated with the right choices. Invocation of Nehek multiplies their number quicker than other Undead. Don't leave your Tomb/Crypt/Mausoleum/Pyramid/whatever without them.

• Crypt Ghouls:

Hit hard compared to the other infantry choices, but are more expensive and more fragile as well. Can't be bumped past their starting number, but have Poisoned Attacks.

• Dire Wolves:

A good flanking unit/missile screen and good scouts/warmachine hunters in small games. They're better than Skeleton Horsemen in stats and cost plus having a special ability for the Charge, but Spirit Hosts are a better missile screen for infantry.

• Skeleton Warriors:

You know them, you love them. With the new rules, they are effectively identical in both armies (technically, TK skellies are 1pt cheaper but have to buy light armor for 1pt. VC skellies start with light armor. Also, VC skellies can take spears for free, while TK skillies gotta buy them for 1pt although you won't be using Spears either way). Since they have the same name and are now both just "Undead", Necromancers can bolster either past their starting numbers.

• Skeleton Archers:

Compared to the previous entry, this choice is a no-brainer (pun not intended). Take at least one unit of these, even if you're going for mostly VC units.

• Skeleton Horsemen:

Light Cavalry ahoy! Full-cavalry lists are a thing now! The world of the living will be trampled under unliving hooves! Apart from that, Horse Archers are probably a better choice, as Hexwraiths and Black Knights fill all "Melee Skeletal Horseman" niches perfectly. Same statline as normal Skeletons, but with horses and Vanguard allowing them to get into position ahead of time. They cost 12 points a model, 4 points more than Dire Wolves for inferior stats barring 2 more points of Leadership. Dire Wolves have a maximum unit size of 20 while you can take as many Skeleton Horseman in a Unit as you want, but it's unlikely you'll be taking that many of either.

• Skeleton Horse Archers:

A decent choice at 14 points each, they make good Scouts (especially if they gain the ability to march, stand and shoot or both) and can soften up enemy units before you charge in with something else. There are no VC equivalents, so they are definitely worth a look. If you need some outriders, Skeleton Horse Archers are probably the way to go since for 2 more points each you'll be able to pump out some ranged attacks. Sadly, there's no way to get Khalida with them so they're on their own barring some Augments from afar.

• Skeleton Chariots:

One of the Tomb King's main advantages. 55 points each for a durable damage dealer that has Bows and can have a Tomb King with them. Even with the large amount of options, you have no excuse not to at least consider these. They only need three models wide for a rank bonus, and add their rank bonus to the Strength of Impact Hits. Units of chariots can bring the pain and be hard to put down, especially useful if you're against Elves. Very good as a flanking unit, just be careful of the Unit's footprint (large surface area of the combined bases can make maneuvering difficult).

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:

Normally a decent choice, they lose to Carrion (*see below) in an Undead Legions list.

• Bat Swarm:

If you plan on running ushabti these guys can be a lifesaver. Striking at the same time as an opponent is a lot better than going after. But no real reason to run ushabti with Crypt horrors available.

• Spirit Host:
• Hexwraiths:

At a glance they render Horse Archers redundant, though this is not the case. Hexwraiths have the advantages of Ethereal and their attacks, though they're more expensive (in points and dollars) and cannot shoot or scout. Hexwraiths are a harassing/denial unit.

• Vargheists:
• Black Knights:

A good linebreaker choice, the Black Knights offer the advantages of ignoring terrain, slightly higher armour save and strength on the charge. Though with Necropolis Knights and Blood Knights they lose out. It is useful to ignore terrain when charging but the chance to pop up behind the enemy's lines can be even better.

• Necropolis Knights:

A more versatile unit than Black Knights, and your opponent will cry if they get in his army's rear. Necropolis Knights have the advantages of Monstrous Cavalry, poisoned attacks and their EbtS ability allowing them to spring up in an opponent's vital areas. If you have to choose one special unit linebreaker, choose these, but take both if possible.

• 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), or stitch on some wings and use them as Morghasts.

• Tomb Swarm:
• Carrion:

Good at flanking and hunting warmachines with S4 and undead. Superior to Fell Bats in almost every way. They're a few points dearer, but have higher S, T, A and Ld. Also, now they can properly fly! (only within General's range though, much like vampires' undead).

• Khemrian Warsphinx:

Decent infantry-killers and a good distraction/missile screen from your other big and nasty units (a buffed Warsphinx is more likely to survive a ranked Ogre charge than a Coven Throne). A breath attack is always a good investment and the model looks kickass.

• Sepulchral Stalkers:

A decent choice with becomes spectacular against low initiative armies. They don't take the job of any Vampire Counts units and their gaze works similar to a Terrorghiest or Banshee Howl (except for the chance of backfiring). Take them against low initiative armies (Dwarfs, Lizardmen) or Banshees/Terrorgheist against average or lower leadership armies (Empire, Chaos).

• Morghast Harbingers:

The new and exclusive unit (standard VC armies can take them too). Hovering monstrous infatry, two hand weapons, 5+ save, KB, Terror. New special rule - Heralds of the Cursed One: Causes all friendly Undead around them to suffer 1 less wound from Unstable rule. Cost 10pts less than Archai (Rare version), but wield two hand weapons instead of halberds and have a slightly worse armor save - statblock is otherwise the same.

Rare Units

• Varghulf:
• Blood Knights:

A great linebreaker, these guys would compete with the Necropolis Knights for that honor though they have different uses. Blood Knights are a hammer, where Necropolis Knights are a pocket-knife, with rules that can handle various situations. Take them against heavily armored opponents.

• Cairn Wraiths:
• Black Coach:

Combos well with casket to absorb more dice. Only slightly over costed in the vc book, and has no place in legions except for theme.

• Terrorgheist:
• Mortis Engine:

Every elf army has flaming because of this unit. And now that it effects tomb kings be prepared for chariot and sphinx spamming shenanigans.

• Necrolyth Colossus:
• Hierotitan:

Hahaha, this and a blasphemous tomb mortus engine. Support all those extra spellcasters you bought

• Necrosphinx:
• Screaming Skull Catapult:

A welcome choice in this army. The ability to force panic tests, let alone magical and flaming ones is not to be overlooked. They make a shooty undead army a viable and deadly prospect.

• Casket of Souls:

Worth it. If you're even thinking about a magically offensive army, this is a mandatory unit.

• Morghast Archai:

The new and exclusive unit. For 90 points you get a solid statline (S5 T5 W5 A3), 4+ and halberds. Rest of rules as Morghast Harbinger, including anti-crumbling aura. All in all, nice support unit to provide resilience to your unstable units, capable of surviving in melee, if need be.

Building your army

Buying your army

Start with the Vampire Counts Battalion, it doesn't matter who you are, the battalion has 20 ghouls, 20 skeletons, 10 Dire Wolves, and a Corpse Cart, which will do just fine for every wizard in the game because those are all good options, and they are also all options that, excluding the Corpse Cart, can be summoned relatively easily using the Lore of Undeath, and they are all good support options no matter what army you are running.

Tactics

Well... somebody actually thought that the Undead Legion wasn't a broken idea? Let's get right to it, then.

Vampire Counts have a fantastic core army composition, but few supporting elements. Tomb Kings have a bad core army roster (those CHARIOT UNITS disagree), but fantastic support elements. Undead Legion lets you use all units of both armies. Cherry picking the good units from both books isn't rocket science.

50% Lord and Hero allowance is a dream come true for Vampires. Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon in 1500 point games? Multiple Vampire heroes? Vampires were always obese in their character choices, and suddenly having twice as many points to put towards them is.. well, completely game changing. You might want to let the other End Times alliances come out before taking advantage of this particular change. The alternative is that all your opponents will hate you, and not in the 'ha ha friendly rivalry' way. There is really no excuse, you should have at least one level 4 caster in every game now.

Nagash and Friends are cool looking, but they're HUGELY inferior to a kitted out Vampire Lord, point for point. Yes, they have a lot of wounds. That doesn't mean shit. You could take a Level 4 Vampire Lord on Nightmare with a decent power and gear kit, drop him in a bodyguard of Blood Knights or Black Knights, and the whole thing would be about as expensive as New Mannfred. It would also have more attacks, 2+/1+ armor saves, a 4+ ward save on the Lord, and just about as many wounds. Flying isn't even an advantage for the Morties, because taking advantage of it means that they'll be ahead of the rest of your army (which is to say, dead first).

In the same vein as the above point, cheap troop spam has NEVER been more appealing. Let's be real for a moment. Two fully loaded Vampire Lords are about as expensive as Nagash, and honestly I would rather play against Nagash than 1,000 points worth of Vampire Lords. And if Legion has options like that, you're going to want to load up on lots of cheap troops to saturate the field while still leaving room for your scary Vampires. Yes, Gee Dubs wants you to play with Lore of Undeath and summon lots of undead to the field.. but y'know what? Lore of the Vampires works just fine, especially since it'll buff the TK elements of your army now too.

Why are two Vampire Lords scarier than Nagash? Two words: Target priority. Nagash is big, so killing him is straightforward. You shoot him with cannons and spells until he stops moving. While scary, he's only got a 4+/4+. Any number of horrible things could happen to him (Warhammer Fantasy is basically Horrible Things: The Game), and once he's dead, you're out 1,000 points and literally all of your magic juice. Arch-Necromancer might be nice, but if Nagash is doing all your casting, eventually you'll 'whoops' him from miscasts alone. By contrast, if you have two Vampire Lords running around, you can set one up on each flank of your army and pose two very difficult problems to your opponent, especially if one's on a Zombie Dragon.

Spirit Hosts have a new model that doesn't look like a bunch of dudes hiding under bedsheets. There's really no excuse not to take them anymore.

Tomb Kings have a lot of really nice support elements in their list that VC just doesn't have. Necrotects, pretty much the entire Tomb King Rare list, and.. Tomb Princes. Tomb Princes and Necrotects with a unit of Grave Guard will turn anywhere into a charnel house. Necrosphinxes will also be funny for killing Nagash and Friends, or whatever other End Times badasses pop out of the woodwork.

Speaking of murdering really expensive models, Screaming Skull Catapults are your friends. Really. They're inexpensive artillery, which is one of the glaring flaws in the Vampire Counts roster. Since The End Times seems to be all about huge-sized monsters, a couple artillery pieces will be a good investment if you want to make sure everyone else joins you in the afterlife.

The only really big drawback to Legion lists is that VC's two best casters got cut. Kemmler is out, and Mannfred's not a loremaster anymore. This means that reliable buff spells (from their loremaster abilities) are no longer on the menu (sigh) so you'll have to make up for it in list anatomy. Luckily, Caskets of Souls and TK casters are in to replace their magical edge. If you can't have quality, make up for it with quantity, I suppose. Just take several casters (two minimum, and one of them should be a Level 4) and you'll be fine.

Lore of Undeath. Yeah, someone decided to let everyone summon skeletons. Literally everyone. Sigh. God damn it, Games Workshop. You were doing so well, and then you had to bust out the blatant marketing scheme to sell more zombies. On the whole, Lore of Undeath isn't bad, but it's what everyone is going to EXPECT you to have, so you should probably take Lore of the Vampires instead. Lore of the Vampires is very, very good at what it does, which is make your opponents dead. If you're loading up on casters with a Legion army (and you should be), Lore of the Vampires will do the lifting that you need. Alternate opinion: Something to keep in mind if you take Lore of Vampires, everyone except Dwarfs can take the Lore of Undeath, EVERYONE and they can summon a shitload of models onto the table using it too (including really tough ones you do not want to charge, Ryze and one RtD counter will allow that goblin shaman to summon 2 Morghasts into your flank), if you do only choose the Lore of Vampires, not only are you are in danger of being continuously outnumbered and ground down but also in danger of having really hard to kill units popping out of everywhere since Lore of Undeath does far more than just raise new units of skeletons and zombies, and though Lore of Vampires is a good lore, it works better to support Lore of Undeath and to keep all the new units alive.

The new Monstrous Creatures, Morghasts.. uh. There's really no way to say this nicely. They're overpriced (in both real money and points), and you have a dozen better options. Skip them and save your money for better kits. Another opinion on the Morghasts is that they are actually a good thing and not as overpriced as previously stated by a GW naysayer. The models stand as tall as a dreadnaught and are pretty awesome as well. In game they will provide some much needed high tough, high wound monster that can stay in the back lines of your army and not be torn to shreds as easy as a skeleton warrior. They are options worth consideration if for no other reason than they are cool models with fun rules and when it comes down to it (contrary to popular belief) winning is not everything. But its a tactics page. I assume that means winning tactics, which is why an alternate opinion is that they work fantastically as redirectors using the Lore of Undeath to bring them in (which prevents them from being shot to death), since they are only 2 models wide, you don't have to be worried about scarier units charging your wizards, summon the morghasts slanted slightly so that if they enemy charges and somehow wins, they'll overrunning the wrong direction from you, setting up a flank charge from another of your units, or they'll have to just sit there, either way you just bought yourself another full turn (at the minimum, losing one less wound from losing combat is HUGE, especially if they are near the BSB)) of not having that unit in combat, and since every wizard can summon them now this strategy works for all wizards.