Warhammer Age Of Sigmar - Nighthaunt 4th Edition: Faction Pack Full Review & First Thoughts

Hey everyone, Alex here and WE ARE BACK!! Time to kick start the AOS 4th edition journey off with a full on dive into our beloved Nighthaunt. And the new faction pack rules in full. :D
Please keep in mind this is only my second time seeing the scrolls and my first time properly going over them and thinking more indepth about how they seem. So time will tell if my gut feeling about these rules comes true. ^^
I'd love to hear your thoughts and takes on the brand new Nighthaunt units and which ones you think will be the stand outs to start us off with on this new adventure! :)
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[@Malisteen]

It took me a bit to warm up to them, because there were several changes I wanted to see and was disappointed not to get. My nighthaunt wishlist was olynder as a big impressive expensive faction leader on par with her mortarch peers, the coach either hitting like a train or being a fantastic buff wagon or otherwise being really strong in blunt obvious ways fitting it's huge impressive model and us$150 price tag, big three melee units - reapers, revenants, & harridans - differentiated such that they play and feel meaningfully differently from one another, chainrasps unit size 20, and stalkers worth fielding; and exactly none of that happened. However, once that initial disappointment wore off it became more and more clear that this army is looking just really good overall. A few dud warscrolls, sure, some heroes that are only ok and thus won't see the field because they aren't upping your battalion count. But when you set that stuff aside you're left with a bunch of good units, several really excellent heroes, solid faction rules, and pretty aggressive points values. I expect Nighthaunt are going to be putting up some very good results out of the gate in 4e.

[@LakeyWargames]

You're not alone in those thoughts Malisteen. What you said prior would have been on alot of wish lists for Nighthaunt players I'm sure. Myself included. Especially with your thoughts toward Lady O and the Black Coach being bigger, more threating pieces to fit their titles. But I'm glad to see you can see through those and into the positives. It really does seem like we got some really neat new tricks. I was surprised how expensive some of the heros where but then I find we got off lightly on the troops side of things so I guess it all comes in balance. As you said with the way list building works that's probably not a bad thing at all. ^^ There's going to be lots of exciting times ahead for our faction I'm sure! :)

[@Pokeballer96]

I’ve seen a few videos miss Shriek’s caveat that you must have more models in your charging unit. So you won’t be able to Shriek with heroes.

[@LakeyWargames]

D'oh, ADD ME TO THE LIST!! ^^ lol! Yes, you're totally right about the wording on Shriek. It would indeed mean no single entity will able to pull that off. It would also change the interaction with the double Aura trait to really only be of use for a KoSoES with that being the case. ^^ Great spot Pokeballer96, thank you! :)

[@Pokeballer96]

@@LakeyWargames It’s probably because GW wrote it at the end and we tend to blah blah the rules after reading more than a paragraph. I started NH after discovering your channel and I hope you will teach us a lot more about the faction. Of the armies that I own this was the only one I couldn’t immediately build a list for that I was happy with. I’m looking forward to your take on lists to help us terrify our opponents XD

[@LakeyWargames]

Haha oh 100%!! Especially when everything is new and shiny. I'm definitely guilty of also getting carried away and wanting to see the new exciting bits so tend to skim through alot for a few passes and then go back and have it sink in hehe. I should have deep read all the text prior to hitting record but I thought it would be fun to have more a real-time first impression video/reaction. ^^ Awh thank you. I'm glad I could help you get things moving. I for sure will be doing plenty of single warscroll deep dives, combination unit tactics and army list building videos once the new rules start to sink in more and I can test stuff out. :) I always felt like I could talk too much on a single subject to really, really break things down. Like my almost 23 minute video talking purely about the Terminexus I was trying to keep short haha! But it seems this over 2 hour fly over has gone down well so far so I think a good mix of fly over tactics and really deep dive videos will be on the cards for sure! :D If our opponents aren't already scared of us as a faction they soon will be! ;D haha.

[@omnipotent343]

Thank you for posting this! I literally joined your discord to wait for this! Yaaay!

[@LakeyWargames]

Haha, you're most welcome. I hope it was worth while. ^^ Lots more to come both for videos and Discord chats for sure! :D

[@kvltovlvx1534]

Played first 4.0 game with NH (vs khorne) and here are some thoughts. I played as Procession of Death and paired coach with 2x msu Harridans. 6” wholly within bubble was almost too unforgiving even with msu’s and so far wouldn’t recommend this subfaction if you want to reinforce units. Over all this hammer-anvil was super effective and deleted one side of the board by the end of second round. Altho 10 rasps surviving 2 rounds against thirster+letters at mid board was quite lucky and played a big role in achieving this… :D I wouldn’t be suprised if we start to see 2 coach lists in future. List building was fun, but that restricts your hero choices at some degree. Some of our heroes have lost a little bit of power but for me that felt ok since atleast for the first game no hero felt a mandatory pick. Also GoS giving +1 to wound only when it is in a combat felt tricky but combined with forced strike last that wasn’t that scary to pull off. Also manifestations are big and feel even little bit broken at the moment. Our table was clogged with several ES and invocation pieces so this is something to take in considerarion when trying to visualise and plan your movement on table.

[@kvltovlvx1534]

Here’s first game’s list. We decided to play 1500 points since we anticipated a lot of pdf reading game pauses. Full version of this list would have had Dreadblades and additional infantry units but still 3 drops. ARMY Nighthaunt Procession of Death 1500 Points Drops: 3 Spell Lore - Lore of the Underworlds Manifestation Lore - Morbid Conjuration Regiments General’s Regiment Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (300 Points) • General Regiment 1 Guardian of Souls (140 Points) • Covetous Familiar Chainrasps (100 Points) Myrmourn Banshees (120 Points) Spirit Hosts (130 Points) Regiment 2 Krulghast Cruciator (150 Points) • Ruler of the Spectral Hosts Black Coach (260 Points) Dreadscythe Harridans (150 Points) Dreadscythe Harridans (150 Points)

[@LakeyWargames]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your first game, list and thoughts kvltovlvx1534!! :) That sounds like a fair point, although the BC itself has a big old base to cover lots of ground only a 6" wholly within buff is alot for a unit of 20 to try and stick too. I do really love the idea of this subfaction but yeah, it does seem like one of the harder ones to have effective at all times. I'm glad you had a fun game of it though. Those 10 Chainrasps will need a promotion by the sounds of it! ^^ hehe. I do agree with your take on the Manifestations. They do seem very strong but I guess it's one of those where it also doesn't feel too bad because everyone has the same access at no points costs too them. (Bar non-magic armies but they get their invocations and other things to make up for that) hehe. But yeah, in terms of blocking off board space I could see how if they're not getting removed it'll really cramp things up. ^^ I'd be really interested in hearing your thoughts on Lady O and the Cruciator if you wouldn't mind letting us know how you got on with those too? :)

[@kvltovlvx1534]

@@LakeyWargames Yeah it sure was fun! And the new Wave of Terror felt so much better! my leading thought with the hero choices was that since I decided to play Harridans I wanted to have several shooters to activate their buff. In the end it turned out that BC was pretty much enough for that job!^^ Krulghast wasn’t amazing. I mean the nerfed dmg reduction isn’t meaningless but it isn’t anything to write home about either. But Kruciator is also my latest hobby project so wanted to give him some table time :) Probably proper choice instead of him could have been for example Lord Executioner which seems fun this edition. Lady O was great. Thanks to her ability I recuperated fully from Khorne’s initial charge. One could argue tho that having both, her and BC, in a 1500 point list is too much of a point investment and I guess it is, in the sense that I could have had more battleline. But I relied on my personal math that Harridans having 4+ unrendable save to 5+ ward to lady O’s ability is a nasty amount of staying power and this paid off this time.. :)

[@GhostOrruk]

Great video, Alex. Excellent viewing/listening while I sit here with a brew, building Skaventide minis.

[@LakeyWargames]

Thanks so much GhostOrruk, I'm glad I have been help to keep you entertained while you work on your new set. ^^ The Skaventide miniatures look amazing for sure. Feel free to share your hobby progress with us in the Discord. I'd love to see what you do with them! :)

[@davidfortin6437]

Hey man, love your content, been a subscriber for a long time. May I suggest that you increase your sound output on your videos please? Your sound is super low, I have to crank up the volume almost to the max and when ads pop up, it just destroys my ears. Please if you could improve that output, it would be more plaisant for your listeners :) Thanks in advance.

[@LakeyWargames]

Thanks davidforin6437! I really appreciate the feedback. The insight is most helpful for me to improve the content for everyone. :) Its going to be the next thing I invest in for the channel 100% I'm currently using a plug in headset and it seems to have alot of fuzzing feedback if I put the volume up too loud in my editor so I am currently having to turn it down to balance it out and make sure the audio isn't unbearably fuzzy. But I'm hoping to pick up a nice desk mounted microphone when I have the spare money to put back into it. And I'm hoping that by saving up a little and investing in a better quality over a cheaper one I will be able to have much, much better audio. ^^ Thanks so much for the support! :)

[@davidkey4272]

I think they are super impressive on first glance

[@LakeyWargames]

Oh 100% I think we're in a really good place for sure. Lots of tricks to be worked out but once our players start to unlock them it's going to be good I'm sure! :)

[@jere2510]

Damage points are INFLICTED after save roll, and ALLOCATED after ward roll, so abilities that have damage allocated -condition happen after wards. So stolen hours heals if saves&wards fail and the enemy unit actually takes damage. Also Reikenor's corpse candle skips wards/saves completely.

[@LakeyWargames]

Great spot jere2510!! You're 100% right there. My brain definitely got damage inflicted and allocated muddled up when reading that scroll ability through. ^^ It for sure makes more sense to be draining the energy from actually hurting enemies not deflected by wards hehe. Though the nice thing about this wording now is that you're healing from all the wounds you cause and not having to slay models outright. So still much improved self healing factor I'd say! :)

[@jere2510]

@@LakeyWargames Definitely makes the KoS way harder to kill in this edition! I'm also thinking that Reikenor could pair nicely with dreadscythes since you can be 100% sure that their +1 to hit/wnd triggers every time.

[@LakeyWargames]

Absolutely, with the lack of other heals for us. It's definitely nice to see some heros with built in healing for sure. :) Oh that is a nice way to get their buff of for sure! I've gone back and had another look through and corpse candles says any hero phase. Meaning you'd be able to wound enemies and buff your harridans even in the enemy turns too? That will be very nice and strong! ^^

[@marcbenson1969]

Been toying with pairing harridans with Knight of Shrouds. The KoS chain activation makes their ability very consistent. And adds some punch. Or pairings them with Crossboos. To inflict some damage in the shooting phase, drop a unit below the strength of the Harridan unit, to open up the Shriek ability and their +1,+1.

[@LakeyWargames]

Oh that sounds like a great combo marcbenson1969! :D I think the KOS is going to be playing a big role with his new ability to fight right after and confer the +1 to hit. Which even though Harridans can't benefit from that and their own + to hit. There seems to be alot of -1 to hits going around so it will be a perfect way to ensure you still get a positive overall! :) Crossboos are always a good choice that. Even more so now there's the new shoot in the enemy turn to really crank up the chances to keep on gaining the buff! ^^

[@phillipeh9990]

I wonder about pairing harridans with an executionner, to ensure the enemy is nerfed into oblivion, -1 to hit, -1 to wound, and -1 attack. Then either put the strike last on the enemy with the executionner, or just tank the attacks, resolve your other fights, and activate the butcher be fore the harridans to trigger the +1/+1 I like the KoS, but I find the timing on the Healing ability weird, as it feels like an incentive to activate him after your opponent, but his ability to chain activation and the possibility of adding a strike-last on the enemy seems to favor the opposite activation order. How did it go in your games ? Did playing the KoS help to mitigate opponent’s turns ?

[@marcbenson1969]

@phillipeh9990 good idea. One I'd not thought of. In my games, it's worked well so far. I don't generally benefit from the healing. But the chain activation certainly keeps the clap back from your opponent to a minimum. Ended up killing 8 Vanquishers and 3 Questor Soulsworn. I think it depends on the match-up, really. And I'm liking your idea of a the -1 A, -1to-wound . I'll have to give itva spin.

[@UberPwner09]

Regarding Awlrach's (and other teleporty abilities) rules, see Core Rules 24.0: "A unit set up on the battlefield in a phase other than the deployment phase cannot use Move abilities in the movement phase of the same turn." Therefore, any unit teleported by Awlrach cannot move, run or retreat that turn, regardless of whether or not it was the one to use the ability.

[@LakeyWargames]

So both yes and no. The way I interpreted that ruling is you won't be able to use a "move" after you teleport but nothing in the text says you can't do it beforehand. The way it is written is basically to stop you teleporting in this case 7" away. And then being able to move after you teleport to close that gap more so with the teleporting unit before you make a charge later on in the turn. Because until you teleport you haven't been "set up" again yet. So therefore you'll be able to "move" then "set up" but not the other way around if that makes sense? Awlrach himself can't retreat and teleport in the same turn because the teleport has the "core" keyword to his ability and thus retreating is also a "core" movement meaning he would be using two "core" abilities in one phase which isn't allowed. But the unit effected by his teleporting isn't using the ability so to speak. They're just a by-product of his ruling. So a unit can use the "core" ability of retreat. Then Awlrach will use a "core" ability to teleport them. Of which they can because of the order of timing you've completed it in. I hope I explained that a little better for you UberPwner09. :)

[@bartrus5414]

Great video! Stayed till the end. 🫡

[@LakeyWargames]

You sir are a real MVP!! :D Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it!! :)

[@williammirone5186]

I would love to see a deep dive on Nagash, I feel like he's such a unique piece that he's basically unprecedented. Teclis and Kairos put together don't have as many casts as him!

[@LakeyWargames]

Thanks for letting me know williammirone5186!! It's always good to see some love for Papa Nagash! He is always lots of fun to use. I will have to see about throwing together that Nagash guide/deep dive video for sure. As I touched on here there's always so much to using a model as big an impactful as Nagash so definitely deserves more time spent unpacking him. He has some new neat tricks for sure! :D

[@yeturs69420]

Is the mourngul still a thing? I converted up a necron nightbringer with giant tyranid wings as a counts-as, and i liked running a big dumb monster. Is it legends, or just gone? Thanks for making this video, ill be digesting it over the next day or two.

[@LakeyWargames]

Sadly not. The Mourngul went into legends a long time ago and I don't see it listed in the 4th edition Legends so safe to say it's gone completely now. Which is sad because it was such a cool model and also having seen many Nightbringer conversions for one that is also a really cool alternative! :) If you still want to make use of it. What I would suggest is to rebase him to a 130mm round and use it as a Krondspine Incarnate. ^^ The Krondspine is looking really strong and now it's just a free manifestation lore. Unless you really want to bring some other lore. He would look rather fitting and be a menace for enemies to fear with the Krondspine profile for sure. It's what I'm planning to do for mine. :)

[@yeturs69420]

@@LakeyWargames woah, that's a great idea! Thanks!

[@LakeyWargames]

Most welcome!! :) If you use Discord at all, there's a link to the Lakey Wargames one in the video description. I'd love to see your conversion if you want to share it in the hobby section. ^^