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So getting into the game I just picked up the malignant box and would like to continue with the Night haunt theme. 1000pnts is the goal.

So far I am looking at this.

Malignant warscroll

10 Hex wraiths
6 Spirit hosts
1 Mortis Engine

From there I am not sure what else I need to do for the force.

I figured this in addition to the top.

2 Cairn Wraiths
1 Banshee

and maybe a ton of spirit hosts or more spirit hosts and another 10 man unit of Hex Wraiths?

Hex wraiths are just plain nasty. Everything being ethereal is a major bonus ignoring all rend is stellar. The spirit hosts are required simply because of the battleline. The carin wraiths and banshees are great cheap heros for scenarios and can be quite effective. I don't see you not getting use out of at least 2-3 start collecting boxes. Its a very small faction but if you dig the theme its an easy one to collect and paint up for the table.

Cairn Wraiths are better in melee, Banshee's provide one of the few shooting attacks in a Nighthaunt army.

Spirit hosts are good, they do low damage but they generally output Mortal Wounds, which are deadly enough as is.

But yeah, you'll want one of the 'leader' type heroes.

what are your thoughts on the Mortis Engine and how to use it effectively?

Confused, because it doesn't have a night haunt keyword and thus it ruins the allegiance.

Mortis Engine though? As your not running wizards you kinda just wanna slam it into the enemy and start bashing out mortal wounds like it's going out of style, you get 12 attacks with a potential on 6 for a mortal wound, a 9" range of potential d3 mortal wounds for everything in the aura, a 4d6 range of D3 mortal wounds that heals your units, and it weakens enemy mages, get in there and make them regret.

funnily enough its a part of the warscroll you get with the Malignant battle force and the ability of the war scroll lets me move any unit in the war scroll within 6in of the mortis engine. That's what the first part of my list entails is that war scroll formation.

Not as important for the Hex Wraiths with their 12" movement, but the Spirit Hosts will find it useful with their 6". Not the greatest effect but it could come in handy.

But yeah you'll need some other battleline units as Spirit Hosts stop being battleline with it in the army, I believe they plan to change it once this Malignant book eventually comes out, but as it is Night haunts will not be able to use it as effectively if you wanna go all spooky.

I was thinking the "teleporting" would be useful when I deploy say the Hexwraiths for a "flank Attack and the teleport them to the other side of the board or say pull a unit back to protect or support the Mortis Engine.

Yeah, it's got plenty of mobility shenanigans that can work well with it, surprise charges by spirit hosts or enabling hex wraiths to jump over enemy units better.

Pull units out of enemy charge ranges, put them into others, make the spirit hosts faster, or just in general make it hard for the enemy to guess what your plan will be in the coming turns.

well aslong as you dont play pitched you can use the mortis engine, but the moment you go pitched you have to remove it as it dont have the nighthaunt keyword.

generaly as it is, playing a pure nighthaunt in pitched is a bit lacking in models, it is better to just play its a normal death grand alliance and fill the bulk of your army whit night haunts.

if you are going for a pure nighthaunt in pitched just fill it up whit spirits and hex.
unless you realy feel the need for a model whit lots of wounds the black coach is NOT worth it as you need a death wizzard to lv it up and night haunts cant have them unless you use the command trait master of the black arts, but whit only 1 dice you might go the entire battle whitout lv it up....

currently i am playing whit a 540 NH but im planning to try this 1000p:

3x units of spirit hosts
2x units of hexwraiths
2x cairn wraith
1x tomb banshee
1x black coach (I do feel the need for atleast 1 unit whit more then 4 wounds agasint my casual play mates)

if you are going to break 1k, you need the mourngul from forge world to be your heavy hitter.

Why the Black Coach without any wizards? It's not exactly going to do much otherwise, you might as well bring along another banshee or add more to the units.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:
Why the Black Coach without any wizards? It's not exactly going to do much otherwise, you might as well bring along another banshee or add more to the units.

as i dont have it yet i want to try and see how bad my luck whit 1 dice can be.
if my luck is bad, it is as you say that i switch back to 1 additional unit of spirits and run the ruler of the night trait that i allways use.

Get yourself a Mournghoul and watch your opponent weep tears of frustration Probably a bit over the top in a 1000 point game, but nice to add when going up to 1500 points

Last Edition wrote:
Get yourself a Mournghoul and watch your opponent weep tears of frustration Probably a bit over the top in a 1000 point game, but nice to add when going up to 1500 points

Better to break from the Nighthaunt allegiance, run two 10-man zombie units as battleline (merge them once the game starts) and a cairn wraith general, leaving enough points for two Mournguls!

Last Edition wrote:
Get yourself a Mournghoul and watch your opponent weep tears of frustration Probably a bit over the top in a 1000 point game, but nice to add when going up to 1500 points

a 1000p for fun list i want to try is this:

3x units of spirit hosts
1x unit of hexwraiths
1x mourngul
1x cairn or banshee

only thing i am worried about is the low number of models on the table.

"Fun 1000 pt list" and "Mourngul" really shouldn't go together. Don't run a Mourngul at 1000 or even 1500 points if you want to make a fun list.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
"Fun 1000 pt list" and "Mourngul" really shouldn't go together. Don't run a Mourngul at 1000 or even 1500 points if you want to make a fun list.

I second this.

Most of the forgeworld stuff could cost you friends. Its all pretty obnoxious the mourngul is a stand out but there are plenty of others.

Its not forge world in general though, plenty of stuff is more reasonable (or perhaps, less unreasonable than basic GHB offerings).

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
"Fun 1000 pt list" and "Mourngul" really shouldn't go together. Don't run a Mourngul at 1000 or even 1500 points if you want to make a fun list.

a fun list in my eyes is an experimental list for casual play only.
plus if my opponent brings a behemoth to a 1k battle, why cant i? not my fault that the mortis engine dont have the NH key word when it cleary should, based on its lore and its looks.

biggest problem about playing a splinter faction is that you give up so many viable standard options and get nothing in return.
imo all splinter factions should have 1 or more special abilitys connected to that faction, or units should have an exeption note.

aka, black coach. if you dont take master of the black arts you can never level it up, and at best you might only get 1 or 2 levels. but if there was a foot note that said; if used in a NH faction, replace death wizzard whit death hero!, then all of a suddenly it gets usefull. might need a slight points increase but still it would be usefull.

FrozenDwarf wrote:

Last Edition wrote:
Get yourself a Mournghoul and watch your opponent weep tears of frustration Probably a bit over the top in a 1000 point game, but nice to add when going up to 1500 points

a 1000p for fun list i want to try is this:

3x units of spirit hosts
1x unit of hexwraiths
1x mourngul
1x cairn or banshee

only thing i am worried about is the low number of models on the table.

Seems like a fun list. Your model count can be your problem in many of the matched play scenarios - you will probably win the fight, but loose the battle