For many in the Mortal Realms, death is a cold and unknowable terror waiting for the moment it can cut their lives abruptly short. Those enlightened by the true nature of mortality know better, for even as the body rots, the spirit is freed to serve the Undying King’s every whim – and the wrathful gheists of the guilty, the sinful, and the damned gather into his spectral vanguard known as the Nighthaunt.
They are warped wraiths moulded in the image of their mortal sins, for Nagash is a strong believer that punishments should fit the crimes he deems a soul to have committed. It helps that the many violent and traumatic ways one can die in the Mortal Realms produce particularly vicious phantoms for his armies, and they all share a bitter hatred for the living.
Even now, as the deadly Necroquake that saw Nighthaunt ravage the realms recedes into memory with the coming of the Vermindoom, the howling spectres at death’s command still rise from Shyish to drag mortals to their untimely fates. Those who fight back discover their corporeal weapons find no purchase against these ghostly forms, and even those lucky enough to fend off an attack learn the unforgiving truth – death comes for everyone.
Overview
Gheists have haunted burial sites and sepulchres since before the Age of Chaos, but it wasn’t until Nagash’s dark ambition unleashed the Shyish Nadir that their great processions began to sweep across the realms on winds of deathly amethyst magic. In concentrating the magical energy of the Realm of Death into its centre, the Great Necromancer caused unchecked death magic to sweep across the other realms, and entire hosts of shades rose up to spread their master’s dominion over the mortal world.
Though the Nighthaunt attacked in discordant waves more akin to a force of nature than an invading army, the rise of two great leaders formed them into a unified fighting force with organisation, structure, and purpose. Lady Olynder is the undoubted master of the Nighthaunt, bestowed the title of Mortarch of Grief by Nagash and tasked with afflicting the mortal world with endless misery and sorrow, while her consort Kurdoss Valentian plans the tactical aspects of their assaults.
The Nighthaunt now fight with discipline and strategy, led by their lieges, or their subordinate Knights of Shrouds. The particular character of a leader lends each host a distinct personality: rage-filled spirits charge recklessly into melee while more patient commanders might prefer devious traps or complex gambits.
Spirits are influenced by the realms they rise from. The Quicksilver Dead possess bodies of liquid metal shaped by the magic of Chamon, the Realm of Metal. Others are born from the wars that wrack the Mortal Realms, where blood-soaked battlefields and endless, unrepentant murder gives rise to the Scarlet Doom who claw their way through pools of blood to exact a toll of vengeance from the living.
Battle Traits
Nighthaunt are typified by their Ethereal nature, which pays no heed to the sharpness of enemy weapons or the weight of their hammers. Even when an attack comes that may break their spectral defences, they will simply Discorporate and evade the blow.
Even the stoutest of hearts is gripped by mortal fear when facing down Nagash’s ghastly horrors, especially when they bear down in a Wave of Terror. Their incorporeal forms allow them to swoop in over and again, paralysing their prey with a haunting Shriek while galloping cavalry Stun lesser men. Those who lay eyes on the champions of the Nighthaunt find themselves Petrified by their terrifying malevolence.
Battle Formations
Formations of Death Stalkers are expert hunters who use their ethereal gifts to swirl in and out of combat however suits them. They can ignore damage while retreating, helping them get constant use out of their Charge abilities. They repeatedly paralyse soft-hearted foes and prove truly that There Is No Escape.
Other Battle Formations let you transport entire units of spirits across the battlefield with the Vanishing Phantasms, or enlist the Hunters of the Accursed to sap the souls from enemy Heroes with your own champions. Should you prefer to cluster your gheists around the chilling aura of a Black Coach, the Procession of Death uses malign magic to bolster their durability.
Each Faction Pack also has three Heroic Traits and three Artefacts of Power to choose from. These can be taken by any Hero, adding extra layers of flexibility and tactical choice to your list building.
Arcana and Incantations
Nighthaunt Wizards invoke the Lore of the Underworlds to draw chilling magics from Shyish, and while they’re naturally suited to stripping away life force with a quick Spirit Drain, they can also aid their allies by conjuring a shrouding cloud of Shademist around their advance.
The requirement to target a unit with more than three models means you won’t be able to shore up your largest leaders and elite entities, but that will be of little comfort to your opponent when huge, reinforced swarms of Chainrasps shrug off blades and missiles like rainwater.
Unit Focus
When a particularly vile transgression against Nagash requires the personal touch of his Mortarchs to extinguish, Lady Olynder leads her procession from the front in a bow wave of suffocating sadness and tragedy. She is a powerful warrior-mage in her own right – the result of the Great Necromancer’s cruel experiments on how much misery he could stuff into a single soul – and always takes to the field with an entourage of wailing handmaidens in tow.
Her position as the Mortarch of Grief is more than ceremonial. Her very presence terrifies mortal souls unlucky enough to be around her, while the Horrifying Visage beneath her veil is mortifying enough to slay heroes and monsters on the spot. Should Lady Olynder’s Nighthaunt minions fall in battle around her, she can simply decree that there is No Rest for the Wicked and wrench their scattered souls back onto the battlefield.
Not all those who lead processions have a military heritage, and some exceptional leaders mete out Nagash’s will personally when their special skills are called for. The soaring executioner known as Reikenor the Grimhailer is one such paragon, freshly returned from the near-destruction of Emberguard during the Dawnbringers saga.
Reikenor is a potent Wizard with the unique ability to infuse his spellcasting with life force – be it his own or the enemy’s. By snuffing out one of the Corpse Candles adorning his mount Kyllaron, his casting attempts get a handy boost, which you’ll make great use of casting his personal spell Wraithstorm.
Dreadblade Harrows are grim lieutenants, raised from the souls of those who served a general or warlord who would later become a Knight of Shrouds.
Once deployed as singular heroes to spread commands around your army, they now double up in units of two – or up to four when reinforced – and help mobs of lesser troops contest important objectives with their Curse of Loyalty.
There is little that Nagash enjoys more than inflicting ironic punishments upon those who wronged him, and for the Myrmourn Banshees who sought ever greater magical power without paying proper respects, this manifests as a yawning hunger for all things arcane.
Their need to consume magical essence is so great that they have become bona fide Spell-Eaters, agonisingly dispersing the energy of arcane attacks that would harm the spirits around them.
The Word from the Studio
Jimbo: “The army has a lot of access to debuff abilities which can severely neuter their enemy's combat prowess, like Dreadscythe Harridans who lower wound rolls against them when charging into the fray. This keeps their somewhat fragile units intact and charging often – something the army wants to do at every opportunity.
“Some units have had fairly significant tweaks, like the Dreadblade Harrows who now come as a unit rather than an individual hero. Their Phantasmal Discorporation ability still allows them to be almost anywhere on the battlefield when you need them most, which is especially useful now that their Curse of Loyalty ability boosts the control scores of nearby Nighthaunt after a charge, letting you muscle key objectives away from enemies when they least expect it.”
Spearhead Spotlight
Every faction in the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar has a Spearhead force designed to play the fast-paced, compact Spearhead game mode. The Nighthaunt aim to flood the field with a horde of malevolent spirits who love nothing more than to feel their blades bite deep into mortal flesh, barely held in check by the savvy military mind of the Knight of Shrouds.
Like the full-sized Nighthaunt faction, the Slasher Host wants to be charging at every possible moment, using their overwhelming numbers and the Wave of Terror Battle Trait to shred opposing forces before they have the chance to fight back. Any time spent out of combat is time wasted, and to make sure your relatively fragile troops stay on the board long enough to charge again, the Knight of Shrouds can shore up their defences in a snap.
As if two units of 10 Chainrasps weren’t enough to control the board, they also have the REINFORCEMENTS keyword so they can return right back to the battlefield after death. This gives you free rein to throw them into the front lines to cover for your Grimghast Reapers and Spirit Hosts, and if they’re chopping through your spectres a little too quickly, you can always cripple their swordsmanship with the Chorus of Terror Regiment Ability.
We’ll be back next week with the second of our Grand Alliance Order factions, as the Cities of Sigmar plant their Castelite formations and prepare for the Skaven assault with swords, guns, and cannons at the ready.
