Lore Of Death With Necrarch Thrall!, 2000 points

Hi all

Nice list lore of deth is my second favorite (necro is the first of course) i have massacred a slaneesh army with that lore only one charriot get into close combat muahahaha.

A quick point, all tests that use Ld is a Ld test so the banshee howl is a ld test and the doom and darkness can be used in combination, well that is what i read in some part of the games workshop site. Of course i can be mistaken

And you are, believe me. When was the last time you saw a Lizardmen player roll two dice of his own to determine his Ld value for the Banshee scream? It's a special attack that uses Ld to determine number of wounds but not a Ld test.

> Darok, thanks for the praise - note that I've made a few changes, I'm currently testing a mounted Wraith and the general have Forbidden Lore to increase the chance of rolling Drain Life.

well i dont know if it is different but the skavens can use their bonus of rank for their lidership against the banshee scream.

It's different yes. Skaven can use SiN for every purpose except for charges in their flank and rear.

Sorry, I don't have my book on me, but what's the wording on the lhamia ability? does it say -1 Ld, or all Ld tests are taken at -1, or ...?

All models in BSB contact suffer -1 to their ld, this includes any ld they use so if using generals -1ld to his for the test,

helped me out the other day for 2 turns when thrall was in bsb contact with their general (before she got her butt kicked),

With the more or less confirmed rumours about 7th edition, I’m thinking about remaking this old goodie. The crossfire rule advocates units of at least 5 Fell Bats, to fly up behind enemy units that are set up to flee, if they do flee through your unit they are destroyed.

Other changes are the 5 wide requirement to get rank bonuses, but most importantly – the new and improved Lore of Death! If you peek into the rumour section, you can see that Undead and Daemons won’t be protected anymore, Doom and Darkness! will be much cheaper to cast and Drain Life will affect even units in close combat! This alone is enough for me to risk the more severe magic penalties.

I’ve made two different lists tuned to 7th ed, please tell me what you think:

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Necrarch Vampire Count, lvl 2 (3) using Death Lore
Master of the Black Arts
Nehekara's Noble Blood
Unholy Cynosure
Forbidden Lore
(I’m focusing even more on Drain Life here, 2/3 chance of getting it, and Unholy Cynosure is the new must-have item if it wasn’t before. Master of the Black Arts is what makes it fun. He’ll be casting 4-5 dice Death magic each turn.)

Necromancer lvl 2
Rod of Flaming Death

Necromancer lvl 2
Book of Arkhan
Dispel Scroll
(no change on the necro’s, they’ll be raising Zombies at 3+ or 7+ each turn, starting by reinforcing my main blocks)

Wraith
Cursed Book
(to be more competitive, this boy will protect my lines instead of running of with the knights, and his literature is a must have against the dominating skirmish armies that put out a lot of attacks)

5 Dire Wolves
(lost one unit to free up points, great for sending that über unit in the wrong direction)

20 Zombies with command group
20 Skellies with full command and light armour
(too small?)

10 Zombies
(mage bunker behind my lines)

10 Black Knights with barding and full command
Banner of the Barrows
(a little boosted to be able to take on units on their own, and to make sure my opponents can’t just march recklessly forward)

2 Spirit Hosts
5 Fell Bats

Banshee
Banshee
(to take advantage of hopefully depleted ranks, obvious dead weight against certain armies without a BSB to support them)

Casting Pool: 9
Dispel Pool: 6
Models in Army: 78

Total Army Cost: 1995

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Necrarch Vampire Lord, lvl 3 (4) using Death Lore
Master of the Black Arts
Nehekara's Noble Blood
Unholy Cynosure
Forbidden Lore
(Even more focus on spell selection, and more magic power, along with the ability to survive some combats. The obvious drawback is the loss of the Wraith librarian)

Necromancer lvl 2
Rod of Flaming Death

Necromancer lvl 2
Book of Arkhan
Dispel Scroll

5 Dire Wolves

25 Zombies with command group
22 Skellies with full command and light armour
(a little boost for the freed points)

10 Zombies

10 Black Knights with barding and full command
Banner of the Barrows

2 Spirit Hosts
5 Fell Bats

Banshee
Banshee

Casting Pool: 10
Dispel Pool: 6
Models in Army: 84

Total Army Cost: 2000

No reply in soon a month? Come on Necrachs, show me what your fine tuned minds can come up with!

I got my chance against a good WE player tonight, at 2250 points. I used the list with the lord and increased my existing infantry blocks to 25 strong all over to get a taste of 7th ed, and added a 16 strong block of Zombie necro bunker with command to reach the point limit.

He had 2x8 Dryads, 3 Treekin, Treeman, War Dancers with Highborn, 2x5 Wild Riders, 2x10 Glade Guards, Giant Eagle, lvl 1 caddie, lvl 1 Dryad, Alter Noble.

Drain Life really paid off as I could more or less neutralize the left flank (Riders) and then take down the center (Treeman, Treekin, Wardancers) with Black Knights and infantry blocks as my Banshees moved around to take out the Guards and scroll caddie. I had good but not shockingly dice and I'm pleased with the performance of the army.

What I wonder about the most is the Banshees, I could trade them and 3 Zombies for 4x5 Ghouls instead. Very tempting.

I could take out all ethereal units and add 4x5 Ghouls, but I kind of like them as ethereals often change the way my opponent plays even if they do nought during the game. Even ITP armies usually have a unit or two that can be targeted, and I don't expect to run into Daemonic Legions as rumour has is that SoC will be banned from tournaments up in my parts. And Banshee screams really plays with the rest of the army, as I will be throwing lots of missiles and increase the odds for panic tests. I don't think it'll be that hard to hide them when necessary, I do run some meaty units and there's usually terrain which don't obstruct their screams. And they are usefull in messenger scenarios.

Another unit of Wolves would be cool as well, but I'm short for points.

I could take one Zombie unit down to 20, and keep the bunker down to 10 naked Zombies, that would pay for 2x5 Ghouls. But as I only have two necromancy users, I like to have good sized starting blocks. And 20 strong isn't very good in 7th ed, as the rank bonus is lost in the blink of an eye.

Decisions, decisions.

Yes, I would indeed just leave the Banshees for the very same reason. They are dead weight against alot of armies, I hope their scream will be changed to affect a wider spectrum of armies.

I´d just add another host base and poke in as many ghouls as I can

I really like your character setup, yes yes.

Cheers dancey

Thanks for your reply dance. My current setup:

Necrarch Vampire Lord, lvl 3 (4)
Master of the Black Arts
Nehekara's Noble Blood
Unholy Cynosure
Forbidden Lore

Necromancer lvl 2
Rod of Flaming Death

Necromancer lvl 2
Book of Arkhan
Dispel Scroll

5 Ghouls
5 Ghouls
5 Ghouls
5 Dire Wolves

25 Zombies with command group
25 Zombies with standard
25 Skellies with full command and light armour
15 Zombies

10 Black Knights with barding and full command
Banner of the Barrows

2 Spirit Hosts
5 Fell Bats

Banshee

Casting Pool: 10
Dispel Pool: 6
Models in Army: 131

Total Army Cost: 2250

Faced Slaanesh mortals tonight. Lord in chosen knights with Rapturous Standard, exalted in another knight unit, BSB aspiring champion with 4+ ward in chosen Warriors of Pleasure, lvl 4 Great Bray-Shaman in Beastherd, 2 Tuskgor chariots, 2x5 Warhounds and 6 Furies.

6 dice of Slaanesh didn't bother me too much. The terrain was kind of strange, it scattered towards the edges creating a huge open area, but I got the better side with a forest.

I was able to lock down his main hammer early as he screened them with Warhounds, and the hounds failed two fear tests to charge my Wolves 1" in front of them. He send down the Furies to march block my knights, and I took them down with Fell Bats and some Ghouls.

As he focused too much attention on my knights to my right, I was able to pick him apart in the center and left. In my second magic phase he let through the Rod on the Beastherd with the lvl 4. I got an irresistible force Doom and Darkness! on them, and could raise 9 Zombies right behind them in the same phase. Panic on Ld 4 was too much to take, and they ran right into my Zombies and were scattered to the winds. Oh yes, gotta love 7th edition! Of course with both Furies and enemy magic gone in the second turn, my wizards could run around at will.

I managed a miscast with a necro on just two dice, he took a wound and let my opponent cast a free spell, but it didn't effect the game. My lord miscasted in the third turn, but was saved by Unholy Cynosure.

I leeched a wound from his BSB in spite of the 4+ ward. I'm not sure you can still pick out a model in a unit, but we'll see soon enough.

Banshee picked on his undivided knights, his left chariot were destroyed by Drain Life and flanking Zombies (Vanhels), while I held up the warriors in the center with Spirit Hosts. I killed the BSB with my second Steal Soul, then my flanking Zombies could see them off without worrying about rerolls. They fled straight into another Zombie block and were destroyed. He wanted to conceed here but wanted to play out the turn.

On the right I had cleared his support units and had a charge on his main unit with my knights. I had one knight in btb with the lord - hitting on 3's, rerolled (Armour of Damnation) hit again, killing blow. Slaanesh, enter night.

He gave up after 3 turns, with only a depleted unit of undivided knights with Exalted left on the table, and my lord was on 6 wounds!

My dice were really on fire tonight, but I played flawlessly and my opponent made some tactical mistakes, screening the knights unnecessarily, not being aggressive enough and letting through the Rod on the Beastherd.

My gameplan to hold the Black Knights back as a threat works fine against many opponents. And it has the added advantage that it's not necessary to have them within marching range. As long as I can keep enemy hammers in check, I don't mind if my own knights are stalled as my magic wins the game.

Another unit of Wolves could really be useful, perhaps I'll ditch a unit of Ghouls and a few Zombies to pay for it.

Great work, you certainly played at our main strength. I really can see the rod being used alot now and the unholy cyno will definately find its way to nearly every necrarch vampire.

I will definitely try an army similiar to this(but probably leave the banshee at home).

2 questions though :

How did the 2 hosts work in this list?
Did the banshee pay her points or played a vital part?

The Hosts stood in the forest, angled so that they would flank anything that would charge my infantry blocks. The chosen warriors got close enough so I could flank them with Hosts alone, but they scored zero wounds (hitting and wounding warriors on 5's with a 2+ armour save...) and he had 4 static CR each turn (war banner, bsb, outnumbering) to my 1 for flank so I crumbled with 3 for two rounds of combat. Then I could flank him and break him with 25 Zombies, and kill off the BSB.

A BSB btw, really makes a difference now. I was only lucky to take him out that early, as he had a 4+ ward but failed both times.

The Banshee stood well placed in the forest and ran out on my left to entertain the undivided knights and Tuskgor chariot. She killed 2 knights in 3 turns which is about average, this helped a small unit of Zombies survive long enough to bog the knights down in combat, and would eventually have seen them off, one way or another. She's definately a keeper, it was just that her services were kind of redundant in this game. But two is probably pushing it, against some armies I'll have enough trouble to hide 2 necros.

I´ve been toying with the idea of the BSB myself lately. Either give him the rod or the cursed book, where to place him is a different matter, the extra CR he gives combined with the war banner would be extremely nice(and would make the ever so wonderful unit 25 GG + war banner exceptionally tough... +6 CR before combat and +7 CR with out-number). The problem would be the cost of said unit.

The solution, or a different approach would be placing him with the skeletons/zombies. Losing one less model will probably be enough to give the GG all the help they need and it makes our lesser infantry a tad bit more annoying to get rid of.

Obviously I would go with the count + 2 necro + BSB to retain some kind of magical power as a vamp lord and necro definately wont do the trick.

I´ve given the screaming undead girl some playtime and well I am must say I´ve underestimated her(or I was it the lucky rolls? ). Gonna draw up my updated list soon enough. I must say the character setup you have here works like a charm.
Its redicuously deadly against my Asur opponent, firing off an IF drain life... those poor silver helms

Cheers dancey

I like the list mate, seems to work well enough too. I personally have dumped both my banshees in preparation for tournament play as the can now be picked out by anything on a hill or large they are simply too vulnerable.

Ona side note you can indeed pick ANY model to use Soul Steal....so killing those champs in a unit can be amusing.

I played 1000points of 7th edition in store on tuesday, first time with full new rules. Turn 1 and my necro miscast, wounded himself and forgot Invoc!! Oops, my other necro had Death. In turn 3 he promptly miscast and injured himself taking 4 skeletons with him. Not a good display.

I did have an entire unit of 10 black knights killed by spell 6 from the lore of metal tho....in 1 casting. Brettonnians and Empire are screwed if they meet a Slann or High Elf Mage Lord!