Marching towards us in an unwavering, unstoppable advance, the new Battletome: Ossiarch Bonereapers is almost here. It so happens that the Ossiarchs are a favourite army of Nick – who presents Battle Report on Warhammer+. He has been studying the book late at night by candlelight, muttering about “paying the tithe”, and was kind enough to take us though some of his favourite bits from the new book.
Nick: The new Ossiarch Bonereapers Battleome is a glorious construct, crafted by the skilled Mortisan Bookshapers in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Studio to be simple and easy to use – but difficult to master. There’re some great new rules to be found in its dusty pages, all based around making your quality of (un)life better. Here are my five favourite changes.
Number 5: Deathless Warriors
A ward is pretty common across armies from the forces of Death, these days – it represents the unflinching, lifeless nature of their warriors, and the fact they are particularly difficult to truly kill. Appropriately enough, the Ossiarch Bonereapers now have it as standard across their entire army. No longer do you have to position your units around a HERO or champion for protection!
This means you can send forth mighty constructs to crush your armies, without needing a spare champion to babysit them on the battlefield. Perfect.
Number 4: Nadirite Weapons
The strange weapons carried by the Ossiarch Bonereapers are made of soul-draining nadirite. In game, they give you extra hits when you roll a 6 to hit, which is great when you’re rolling a charnel bucket full of dice for your Mortek Guard!
Once limited to specific units, this is now a universal rule across every melee weapon in your army. Yes, even the shovels and tools of the Mortek Crawler’s crew are now made of nadirite! The only exception is for mounts – alas, your Kavalos steeds are not shod with nadirite horseshoes.
Number 3: Grand Strategies and Battle Tactics
The design philosophy here matches the background of the army, encouraging perfection in every possible arena of combat. The grand strategies reward you for keeping your units unblemished – or at least, rebuilt – as well as controlling every objective on the battlefield, keeping your Mortisans alive, and adhering to Ossiarch battle tactics. Strive for deathly perfection!
The battle tactics focus on different aspects of Ossiarch warfare – charging with cavalry, protecting your vulnerable heroes, destroying the foe with artillery, invading enemy territory, and rebuilding your forces. The battletome directly challenges you to achieve tactical mastery, just as Orpheon Katakros does his generals.
Number 2: Relentless Discipline.
The new battletome rolls Relentless Discipline points into the command point system. As a result, Ossiarch players earn loads more command points than their opponents – which really gives you, as a player, the feeling of taking direct control as an army general. You can use your influence to change the ebb and flow of battle as your warriors follow every command without question. It’s a much simpler system, and it really makes you feel like a Liege-Kavalos.
Number 1: Ossiarch Commands
With so many command points to spend, you’ll be glad to hear that the exclusive Ossiarch Commands are back – and bigger than before. There are seven army-wide command abilities, plus a whole range of specific commands on individual units’ warscrolls – it’s a real toolbox, allowing you to boost combat efficiency, mobility, survivability, and more on demand.
Alongside this, the usual restriction on using the same command ability more than once per phase is ignored for these commands – whether they’re army-wide or unit-specific. Let none gainsay your orders!
Thanks for the insight, Nick! We’ll let him get back to his dark, dusty, and suspiciously skeletal study room now. You can watch Nick control his undead legion in this week’s episode of Battle Report on Warhammer+ and don’t forget – Battletome: Ossiarch Bonereapers is up for pre-order this weekend.