The Necroquake might have come to an end after the tumultuous events of Broken Realms: Teclis, but its morbid aftershocks are still empowering the forces of Death. The new Battletome: Nighthaunt is hitting pre-order this weekend, alongside the Craventhrone Guard and Awlrach the Drowner.
The spectral Nighthaunt have always been terrifying on the charge, a roiling spectral horde bearing rusty weapons and shackled with curses that transcend life itself. Such a sight would stab icy fear into even the most stalwart warriors, even before they start shrieking like a… well, like a banshee.
The new battletome brings a fresh Wave of Terror to these ethereal apparitions, ensuring they hit even harder.* Every time one of your Nighthaunt units makes a charge, you can compare the unmodified charge roll to the Wave of Terror table, and apply a petrifying penalty to a nearby enemy unit.
There are three blood-curdling debuffs on offer – if you roll a 4 or more, your Shriek will send chills down your victims’ spines, causing their aim to falter and subtracting 1 from hit rolls. On a 8 or higher, your gruesome visage will Stun even heavily-armoured foes, leaving them slow to raise their shields or dodge as they subtract 1 from save rolls.
Finally, if you roll a magnificent 10 or more, you can apply the strike-last effect as you Petrify your enemies into paralysis. A higher roll is always better, as you can choose to apply any of the effects to apply with each charge.
Best of all, you can combine multiple effects by making multiple charges. When your spectral hosts really gang up, they form a terrifying tidal wave that can overwhelm even the hardest targets with a dread combo of Shriek, Stun and Petrify, leaving them utterly helpless to retaliate – and with the updated Ethereal ability, you can retreat and charge again and again and again…
The various Processions of the underworlds have their own ways to take advantage of terror. The Grieving Legion is home to Kurdoss Valentian, who loves to choke the life from his victims in a tide of ectoplasm. These cursed souls prevent enemies from retreating if they’re too close to a GRIEVING LEGION unit with 10 or more models – a perfect use for massed Chainrasp Hordes.
The Bladegheist Revenants of The Scarlet Doom live up to their blood-soaked name, and spread more than just fear on the charge. When they finish a charge move, they can roll a dice for each gyrating ghost in the unit – for each 5+, a nearby enemy unit suffers a mortal wound. It’s like a ghost-powered lawnmower.
To top everything off, there’s Vanishing Phantasms. As if it weren’t enough for Nighthaunt to hitch a ride with Awlrach the Drowner and hop around the battlefield at will, this new ability gives them even more potential for jump scares.
After deployment, you can scoop up three of your frightful formations and set them lurking in reserve.** At the end of your movement phase you can unleash a cackle of macabre glee as you set up one or more of these ethereal ambushers on the battlefield. They have to be more than 9” from your enemies, but you were already aiming for high charge rolls, right? It’s perfect for wrong-footing your foe and setting up optimal Wave of Terror traps.
This complement of chilling rules is set to make Nighthaunt a real bump in the night, with a combination of debuffs and movement shenanigans that match their ethereality. As their battletome hits pre-order alongside Battletome: Daughters of Khaine, players of both factions can look forward to an update to Battlescroll: The Hunt.
Morathi-Khaine and the serpentine Melusai Blood Stalkers are coming off the Priority Targets list, so they won’t give up extra victory points on death. And in light of their petrifying revamp, the Nighthaunt will leave the Prime Hunters list.
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* You wouldn’t expect incorporeal spirits to hit that hard in the first place, but there you go.
** Where does Nagash hide his Nighthaunt armies? Up his sleevies, of course.