If you’re an Age of Sigmar Death player, you won’t have failed to notice that we’ve a new Battletome on our way – Legions of Nagash! We’ve started to get a few leaks of the warscrolls that we’re going to see, so I’ve created this post to collate them together. Most have come from DakkaDakka (via TGA) and aren’t the best quality – as they improve I’ll update the images here.
Update – Now includes the majority of warscrolls
So first up we’ve got the Big Daddy of Death – Nagash. Overall the warscroll is the same with a few additions. He can heal up 5 units with the “Summonable” keyword for D3 wounds (which can also resurrect slain models) from an ability which Nagash can re-roll – this is anywhere on the battlefield too.
Next up we’ve Arkhan the Black who has also gained the Deathly Invocation ability (but only for 4 units within 18″) and can re-roll the number of wounds added, he has lost his 1 casting ability when summoning however.
Neferata has had a few more tweaks. In addition to Deathly Invocation (4 units within 18″ as per Arkhan), her Dagger of Jet has improved and become an instant kill on a roll of a 6 . Her Mortarch of Blood ability no longer allows you convert a hero into a Vampire Lord and instead just heals up 1 additional wound if she kills any heroes. Her unique spell grants a unit fly and makes them immune to any armour save modifiers. Neferata has also gained the Soulblight keyword.
Mannfred appears to have only had Deathly Invocation added (4 units within 18″) and gained the Soulblight keyword.
A new addition, basically a named version of the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon but buffed up. The lance has 1″ longer range, 1 extra attack and an increased rend (now -2), whilst the maw has one more attack. Armour save is a 3 (so the shield bonus included). The breath attack is a ranged mortal wound attack on a 3 (I don’t really like this type of attack, but it trails off quickly). His unique spell is a simple 1 to hit and wound and the command ability is quite clever in that it allows a unit within 14″ to either pile in and attack or a Wizard to case an additional spell.
This is a non-flesh eater variant of the Terrorgheist, the biggest change is the Gaping Maw is reworded so that it’s not mortal wounds inflicted but normal damage (just unsavable and 6 damage)
As with the Terrorgheist this is a non-flesh eater variant of the Zombie Dragon.
Another new warscroll but one that looks like it’s a kitbash of the Coven Throne and Mortis Engine. Very clever little unit that can add 1 attack to another Soulblight unit if an enemy unit is slain with 9″. It also has Deathly Invocation (but only for 2 units within 6″). It’s spell is different too, basically a hero only mortal wound spell, but based on a D6 roll (1-3 = 1MW; 4-5 = D3MW; 6 = D6MW)
No earth shattering changes to this other than the Bound Necromancer wording.
Two changes to Vampires Lords, who have gained the Dealthly Invocation on 3 units within 12″ and lost their named spell (I assume it’s been replaced by spell lists in the Legions of Nagash Battletome)
A few changes on the Wight King, the most noticable being the loss of it’s Infernal Standard option. Sadly the lack of model has seen this fantastic option disappear (I’m expecting it as an Artefact). He has had his armour save increased to 3 and gained the Deathly Invocation ability on 2 units within 6″. [Updated to larger version]
As with Neferata’s Black Dagger, the Black Axe wielded by the Wight King is now a simple roll to slay a wounded model on 6+. He’s also gained Deathly Invocation for 2 units within 6″
And finally Blood Knights. Two changes on these, firstly the Kastellan now gains 1 attacks rather than 1 to hit and secondly the Standard Bearer rule now is a bravery debuff. However the wording on this is slightly worrying and implies that this is the new Death Standard Bearer rule – have we lost our unit regen?
[edit – added] So we’ve got Knight of Shrouds which though it’s not part of Legions of Nagash is still a new Death unit. This model is one of the Harbinger units for Malign Portents and I can see how he’s an ideal general for a small Nighthaunt army (1000 points or so), granting +1 to hit to Nighthaunt models within 9″ as a command ability. As a model he’s a fairly solid little combat unit with 4 attacks at damage 2 and the option to heal. However as with all heroes it wouldn’t take much effort to snipe him off without some kind of additional save.
Now the Cairn Wraith has had a nice buff, they’ve gained the new Ethereal ability, but now inflict mortal wounds on a to hit roll of 6+
The Necromancer has received a pretty big change in that his spell only effects Summonable units which means you’re much more limited on what you can buff. He’s got the 2 unit 6″ Deathly Invocation ability too.
Morghast Archai have gained a new Morghast keyword in addition to their unit name – interesting considering there are only two Morghast units. Heralds of the Accursed One has been changed to a simple -1 bravery debuff, so this unit is now a pure melee hitter. Note they don’t have the summonable keyword either.
This is identical to the Archai warscroll but with the 3 dice charge rather than the armour that halves damage.
Spirit hosts are pretty predictable, the new Ethereal ability and gaining summonable as a keyword
A tiny buff to Black Knights in that they now have 2 attacks and gained +1 to hit on their lance. The standard bearer is now the bravery one and the unit has gained the summonable keyword. A minor change making them a tiny bit better but far cry from other cavalry units due to their potential fragility.
Sadly only minor changes to Grave Guard, with the new -1 bravery standard and summonable keyword. This is an interesting one as they’re still 1 wound, meaning keeping them up at full strength is a lot easier.
Fairly predictable changes based on everything else we’ve seen, the new -1 bravery banner with summonable keyword. Thankfully they’ve kept the +1 attack buffs for large units.
Legions of Nagash Summary So Far (updated)
We’ve seen a few big changes. All Death Heroes can heal/regen multiple summonable units – this is potentially huge it’s an ability and stacks from different heroes. However we have to look at this in relation to losing our regen banners. Not all heroes/behemoths can heal either – minor ones such as the Cairn Wraith and new Knight of Shrouds can’t.
Ethereal now ignores armour modifiers of any kind, including mystic shield. This might sound bad, but this will mean that things like the Nurgle ability to reduce your armour will have no effect on those units which I actually think adds more tactical options.
I’m still excited about Legions of Nagash but a little bit of the enthusiasm has petered off. It would appear that we have no new models being added to the army (not even replacing some of the awful or missing models) and this battletome is completely being overshadowed by the new Daughters of Khaine release (another Order army) which really worries me if GW are serious about Nagash being the “big bad” in Malign Portents.
I can see regen being more powerful even with the loss of banners, however it’s yet again created a dependence upon easily sniped characters.
With luck we’re going to fing that allegiance abilities are quite good and improve some things like Deathly Invocation. My worry is that this book is going to fall into the “Blades of Khorne” trap where the army would have played fantastically 18 months ago, but just doesn’t have the tools for the armies that have received a proper update since then.
Ya you make some real good points. I do like that they added the bringing back from the dead part. Personally I think summoning was super nerfed because you have to set aside reserves and this is how they are changing that. But I hate that the mists will only be positive against tend 2 or better. Not many models have that and it will actually hurt your skeletons if the opponent has no rend. Case 1: cast mystic shield and opponent unit has no tend; save 4+ 2: cast mists and opponent has no rend; save 6+ because the mists negate your crypt shield.
I’ve mixed feelings on the change, on the one hand it’s a pain as you can’t benefit with Mystic Shield or cover, however on the other hand it means you can ignore things like Rustfang or anything else that could reduce your armour save.
Against rend -1 weapons, Dark Mist and Mystic Shield have always had the same end result (effectively a 6+ save) as Crypt Shields only get +1 save against weapons with no rend (Dark Mist didn’t negate this even though some people played it like that). It’s against -2 rend when Dark Mist is still better. In truth though, the mechanic of bringing models back from the dead compensates for the change.
Previously you needed to get a character down to below 6 wounds to be able to instant kill it, now it’s a straight up 6 on a D6 if you put a wound on from her dagger. Although it’s not as good against lower wound models, you could feasible kill a Great Unclean One in one round of combat.
Not sure if my first comment got on here but I hate that they nerfed neferrattas spell. Now crypt shields don’t do anything for skeletons. Might as well just cast arcane shield.
Also it mentions her dagger got a buff. Seems like they nerfed it to me.
Thanks! I can’t take credit for the actual leaks, but I find collating them into one location makes things significantly easier to handle!
Awesome stuff, thanks for posting!