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Made in us
Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman




Nevada

I'm looking to get into the death faction after playing some faceroll games of BCR (beastclaw raiders). I absolutely love everyone about the skeleton warriors, Wights, Knights, oh my. I don't know much (or anything for that matter) about tailoring a death alliance list, and I thought asking more experienced death players about it could help me!

What i'm looking for:
-Skeleton General (vampires are 4 losers)
-Skeletons
-more skeletons
-But I won't rule out any other model suggestions ( like the FEC )
   
Made in us
Enigmatic Chaos Sorcerer




Tampa, FL

While I agree on the cool factor I don't think the Deathrattle is fleshed out enough (ha) to do a full army of them without bringing in other Death elements. It's one of the sad things about GA: Death that you really need to pull from the entire alliance, except maybe for FEC.

Maybe hordes of skeletons and knights, necromancer of course, morghasts could work (they are sleketons as well), perhaps some of the ghosts? They aren't skeletal but can give that same sort of "the dead rise from their graves" effect.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/12/05 17:42:29


- Wayne
Formerly WayneTheGame 
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




a VC style deathrattle army is going to be on the weak end of the power spectrum no matter what you do.

If you want to have a skeleton heavy army and want to have the option of it being competitive too, go Tomb Kings. They really push the deathrattle power level up in a number of ways:

1. Necropolis Knights are probably the best deathrattle unit in the game.

2. Skeleton Chariots give you a fast skeleton option that doesn't suck, and they are battleline as well.

3. Although they aren't great, you get access to Skeleton Archers.

4. Screaming Skull Catapult is a legit skeleton artillery piece.

5. Warsphinx and Bone Giant are both skeleton-themed behemoths.

6. The characters are mummies but have a relatively skeletal appearance. They are also a lot better than Wight Kings.


The only problem with TK is that they are discontinued and thus somewhat more expensive and hard to find.

That said, if you really want that VC Skeleton aesthetic but want the TK ruleset, I don't see why you couldn't convert up your own versions of nearly every TK unit. It'll take some skill but should be quite doable. Let me know if you want ideas!
   
Made in us
Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman




Nevada

Wayniac wrote:
While I agree on the cool factor I don't think the Deathrattle is fleshed out enough (ha) to do a full army of them without bringing in other Death elements. .


You got it all wrong, I don't just want a pure "deathrattle" army. That would be daft, seeing how it has very few models. I'm looking for a death alliance list just with an emphasis on skeletons, and skeleton looking units (but I won't rule out FEC, or other non-skeleton like units: zombies).
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




 EnsignTuna wrote:
Wayniac wrote:
While I agree on the cool factor I don't think the Deathrattle is fleshed out enough (ha) to do a full army of them without bringing in other Death elements. .


You got it all wrong, I don't just want a pure "deathrattle" army. That would be daft, seeing how it has very few models. I'm looking for a death alliance list just with an emphasis on skeletons, and skeleton looking units (but I won't rule out FEC, or other non-skeleton like units: zombies).


Are you willing to use Tomb Kings? If you can answer that I can give much more focused advice.
   
Made in us
Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman




Nevada

swarmofseals wrote:
 EnsignTuna wrote:
Wayniac wrote:
While I agree on the cool factor I don't think the Deathrattle is fleshed out enough (ha) to do a full army of them without bringing in other Death elements. .


You got it all wrong, I don't just want a pure "deathrattle" army. That would be daft, seeing how it has very few models. I'm looking for a death alliance list just with an emphasis on skeletons, and skeleton looking units (but I won't rule out FEC, or other non-skeleton like units: zombies).


Are you willing to use Tomb Kings? If you can answer that I can give much more focused advice.

Arn't those out of production so I couldn't even get better updated models if I wanted to. The mummy aspect is very off putting and I don't like their look at all. However, they are really good units (game wise) so I hit a road block.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




Here is my take on a Skeleton army.

Necromancer on Nightmare (Death)
Tomb herald on skeletal steed (Pestilence)
Vampire Lord on Nightmare w/ chalice (Famine)
Bone Giant
Bone Giant
30 zombies
Legion of Death Battalion
Wight King on skeletal steed w/ standard (War)
10 Black Knights
10 Grave Guard w/ great blades
40 Skeletons
40 Skeletons
40 Skeletons
Total: 2,480

I call this list, "The Four Horseman". At it's core it's the Legion of Death Battalion. It grants movement bonuses, and more importantly adds +1 to banner regen. On top of this I add a Tomb Herald. They count as Deathrattle, have body guard abilities, and also add +1 to banner regen. They are easy to proxy as they are a skeleton with a banner. Between these two my Battalions will regen 1d6/1d3 +2 a turn. This makes the battalion units extremely durable.

Now the list needs hammer units. First up are the grave guard. They are pretty good on their own, but really get scary with support. The Vampire's command ability is the same as the wight kings. It's not needed except that I wanted to have my general separate from the Battalion and to get another artifact. The Vampires command ability can give the grave guard an extra attack, bringing them to 3 each. Next we have the Necromancer who casts the dance macabre on them giving the unit another pile in and attack for 6 attacks total. With a squad of 10 that's 60 attacks dealing about 32 wounds at -1 rend. Very little can stand up to that kind of punishment. I also threw in 2 Bone Giants as they fit the Skeleton theme.

Lastly since I needed a 4th troop choice I threw in some zombies as they are cheap and will be put in the summoning pool to grab objectives and portable bubble wrap. We will just call them "Freshies".

That's my take on a Skeleton list. Other Tomb Kings units you may like;

Necropolis Knights: really strong, but you might not want the giant cobra aesthetic.

Skeleton Archers: these do work in large numbers.

Chariots: fast, durable, and an ok range attack. Plus they are Battle line.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




 EnsignTuna wrote:

Arn't those out of production so I couldn't even get better updated models if I wanted to. The mummy aspect is very off putting and I don't like their look at all. However, they are really good units (game wise) so I hit a road block.


They are OOP, but if you are creative you can convert your own versions of their units to meet your own aesthetic standards, especially if you have even moderate skill with greenstuff. For example, I think grave guard riding on crypt horrors or vargheists would make great "VC" necropolis knights. Chariots are super easy and can be done in a number of ways. If you are willing to branch out to non-GW models there are some skeleton mammoths with howdah out there that could fill in for a warsphinx as well as some more euro-looking bone giants. The screaming skull catapult looks awesome as it is, but you could make a trebuchet version easily. Someone posted a scratchbuilt one on reddit that recently and it looked great. You could kitbash the TK archer quivers/bow arms with the VC skeleton kit to make skeleton archers (probably, I haven't tried this).

The real problem is the characters though. Deathrattle just doesn't have enough hero options. You have no combat lord on big monster option, which is very limiting. That said, nobody is stopping you from putting a wight king on a zombie dragon and using the Vampire Lord on zombie dragon scroll. Convert an extra fancy wight king on a chariot pulled by four horses and use the Settra warscroll.

I would be really surprised if anyone had a problem with any of this as long as you are clear about what's what and make an effort to at least roughly match the size and look of the relevant units.
   
Made in be
Thunderhawk Pilot Dropping From Orbit





In the Warp, getting trolled by Tactical_Spam, AKA TZEENTCH INCARNATE

swarmofseals wrote:


They are OOP, but if you are creative you can convert your own versions of their units to meet your own aesthetic standards, especially if you have even moderate skill with greenstuff.

The real problem is the characters though. Deathrattle just doesn't have enough hero options. You have no combat lord on big monster option, which is very limiting. That said, nobody is stopping you from putting a wight king on a zombie dragon and using the Vampire Lord on zombie dragon scroll. Convert an extra fancy wight king on a chariot pulled by four horses and use the Settra warscroll.

I would be really surprised if anyone had a problem with any of this as long as you are clear about what's what and make an effort to at least roughly match the size and look of the relevant units.


This. It's something I've done (and will be doing more of in the near future) for my own Skeleton-heavy force as well. You can try to convert units from the Soulblight, Nighthaunt or Tomb Kings faction into ones that fit with the Deathrattle aesthetic, or you can look for alternative models from other model ranges.

List-wise, if you're into the Skeleton Warriors' aesthetic (I'm not, by the way ), big blobs of the skeletal bastards are the way to go. I've heard that units of 20-30 Skeleton Warriors work pretty well (they get some bonuses from being in a bigger unit). They're also Battleline, so you pretty much need to take them anyway (unless you use Skeleton Horsemen as Battleline instead). A formation that uses a lot of these is the Legion of Death formation; you'd have to take a Wight King (your skeletal general, although he isn't that great), a unit of Grave Guard, a unit of Black Knights and three units of Skeleton Warriors.



Tactical_Spam: Ezra is fighting reality right now.

War Kitten: Vanden, you just taunted the Dank Lord Ezra. Prepare for seven years of fighting reality...

War Kitten: Ezra can steal reality

Kharne the Befriender:Took him seven years but he got it wrangled down

 
   
Made in be
Dakka Veteran






You know, you can always look outside of the GW range for alternative minis to replace OOP units, they will probably be cheaper then they have ever been at GW... As long as you do not play at official GW tournaments or at the GW store opponents should not fuzz about that if the models are roughly same size and can represent that which they need to represent.
   
Made in us
Pious Palatine




2-3 wight kings at least 1 with tomb blade, 2 necromancers and as many bricks of 40 skeletons as you can get. Add screeming skull catapults and mournguls for flavor.


 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





there are also plenty of folks getting rid of tomb kings in the swap threads.you should be able to find them pretty cheap and easy.
   
 
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