Hello! I’m relatively new to the game and I’ve finally decided to start a Nightstalkers army!
Any tips or advice on army building and units would be greatly appreciated!
Hello! I’m relatively new to the game and I’ve finally decided to start a Nightstalkers army!
Any tips or advice on army building and units would be greatly appreciated!
some good advice regardless of army:
make sure you read up on what types of units unlock what others. even with list making programs like Good Army Lists (and hopefully soon, Easy Army), keeping track of what your available slots are will make creating an army easier.
make sure you pick a good core of basic troops. even if they aren’t your main offensive power, regiments and hordes of your basic troops are good for unlocks and ensuring the rest of your army can get into combat.
Try not to get caught up in the gimmicks and special rules too much. armies need to be flexible, and too much reliance on one aspect of the army (whether it is shooting, magic, flying, whatever) can make you vulnerable if your opponent can counter that gimmick. make sure you have options and a good solid force to fallback on.
Thanks for the advice and the link! I gave the Good army Lists a shot and tried to keep your advice in mind.
Here’s what I have for a 1k list with 20 points to spare:
Army: Nightstalkers
Points: 980
Unit Strength: 16
195, Scarecrow Legion
– Screamshard
195, Scarecrow Legion
– Screamshard
120, Specter Regiment
120, Specter Regiment
130, Fiend Regiment
125, Butcher Regiment
95, Horror
– Aura (Vicious (Melee) - Infantry Only)
The fiends and butchers are your main damage dealers, I would go for larger units of those (hordes have more attacks and nerve).
Thanks! I dropped the scarecrows down to regiments so I could have under 1k points while having Fiend and Butcher Hordes:
Points: 925
Unit Strength: 14
215, Fiend Horde
205, Butcher Horde
85, Scarecrow Regiment
– Screamshard
85, Scarecrow Regiment
– Screamshard
120, Specter Regiment
120, Specter Regiment
115, Horror
– Aura (Vicious (Melee) - Infantry Only)
Not sure what I should put on my Horror besides the Vicious aura for my Scarecrows (And maybe Specters if I screw up), as well as items for the rest of the units.
I wouldn’t bother with the aura. It’ll only impact the scarecrows on that list. I’d strongly suggest taking bane chant. I’d also us the aura points to bump one of the scarecrows back up to a horde. Having a big block of nerve to chew through is always handy
Thanks!
So the list would look like this:
135, Scarecrow Horde
– Screamshard
205, Butcher Horde
215, Fiend Horde
85, Scarecrow Regiment
– Screamshard
120, Specter Regiment
120, Specter Regiment
85, Horror
– Bane Chant (2)
That gives me 35 points for items to put on my units and/or a secondary spell for my Horror.
The issue with giving the horror another spell is that you may get stuck not using both of them. I’d add an item to your punch units like butchers and fiends. In that list they are the ones who will do the damage. Something like pathfinder to ensure they can hit and move quickly on the fiends for example.
You could even then take the strider boots on the butchers to make sure what they hit stays down. Hopefully your supporting horror will be bane chanting them too so cs3 will blow big holes in things.
Another option may be to make your fiends a bit faster with the mead or haste. You don’t have any chaff really and if they don’t get the first charge off they’ll be in trouble. He butchers with their nerve and de5 can usually handle themselves. Especially if lurking in terrain with those boots.
Thank you for the advice! Although I thought the scarecrows served as chaff?
But with the items, my list looks like this:
135, Scarecrow Horde
– Screamshard
235, Fiend Horde
– Brew of Haste
220, Butcher Horde
– Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding
85, Scarecrow Regiment
– Screamshard
120, Specter Regiment
120, Specter Regiment
85, Horror
– Bane Chant (2)
You could use the scarecrows as chaff but they are pretty slow if you’re putting them in front of the butchers and fiends. If you’re using the horde as chaff it may be tough to fit them in away from terrain. If you use the regiment they may be too narrow to cover the punchers completely. If you had the models a troop of phantoms are an amazing cheap chaff unit that can do loads of other things too. A flank or rear from them is still a big threat.
I may replace a specter regiment with a troop of phantoms then, thank you so much for your advice!
I would also recommend considering spectre troops instead.
Not significantly less shooting, but can double up as chaff and isn’t about resilience anyway.
With specters as troops instead of a regiment, that leaves a 40 point gap for more items:
Points: 960
Unit Strength: 13
135, Scarecrow Horde
– Screamshard
220, Butcher Horde
– Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding
235, Fiend Horde
– Brew of Haste
85, Scarecrow Regiment
– Screamshard
90, Specter Troop
110, Phantom Troop
– Screamshard
85, Horror
– Bane Chant (2)
Bringing the specters back up to a regiment brings my points total up to 990.
For 10 points you can get Conjurers Staff on your Horror, so you can re-roll one Bane Chant dice when you fail, which you will with 2 dice
Good idea. Having another chance to get Bane Chant off on my Butchers/Fiends will definitely be helpful!
Points: 1000
Unit Strength: 14
135, Scarecrow Horde
– Screamshard
220, Butcher Horde
– Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding
235, Fiend Horde
– Brew of Haste
85, Scarecrow Regiment
– Screamshard
120, Specter Regiment
110, Phantom Troop
– Screamshard
85, Horror
– Bane Chant (2)
– Conjurer’s Staff
Am I right in thinking that the inspiring talisman can be taken by Nightstalkers in 3rd?