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Currently I'm working on a Brotherhood project https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/770634.page" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/770634.page which I'm about halfway finished.

I usually do my hobby projects in manageable chucks, such as a unit at a time, sometimes a small detachment of a few units or the upgrade of a detachment to a 1,000 or 1,500 point army.
The main advantage of this way of hobying it that there's always room for something else on the Horizon.

The new Mantic Nightstalkers (see https://manticblog.com/2019/01/30/nightstalker-battle-tactics/ look gorgous!
I'd love to paint up a 375-point or maybe even 500 point detachment of these guys to ally to my league or undead armies.

Now I've never played Nightstalkers and only once or twice played against them. My question to you guys is:
What would make a decent allied detachment? How would you spend up to 375 or 500 points?

vince1248 wrote:
What would make a decent allied detachment? How would you spend up to 375 or 500 points?

Like you, I've only played against them twice. What I took away from those battles was Dopplegangers are incredible when used right. Manuever them to hit a more expensive and high stat unit and copy their melee-relevant attributes. That's 150pts there and they can destroy more expensive units thanks to that copycat ability. However, there are no Mantic models for them yet, and you like the look of the current offerings.

So, Reapers, a regiment is 220, and has 25 Attacks with Crush 1, hitting on 3+. A fine hammer unit.

Still, what figures in the current range do you particularly like? Perhaps you could work those in to the detachment.

I love the butcher and shade models. These models are really great, I'd love to assemble them.

That said, having read through the army lists, I fear that the butchers have nothing to add to my undead lists. for the same offensive stats (18 attacks@4+ and CS2) as zombie trolls, I'd pay a premium of 45 points at horde level. (Granted, they are def 5+, but they won;t benefit from my surges.) Maybe they would benefit my league armies, but I'd need to find out the surge tax for nightstalkers.

Unless there is errata I missed, the Butchers do still have Shambling as of CoK 2019. Still, Surge tax is 90pts for a Horror (Surge 6 in Uncharted Empires, Surge 8 as of CoK 19). That's a 310pt Allied detachment. Whether the +45pts over Zombie Trolls is worth it for Def 5+ ... not sure. After all one loses the Lifeleech 1. {Played against a lot of Varangur. With so much CR, I've found healing my Undead is better, as the Varangur WILL wound my units, even Mummies.}

As for the Shade, its a 145pt Flying Individual. It wouldn't add much with a Butcher Horde. Probably be better with a fast flanking force like Shadowhounds.

vince1248 wrote:
I love the butcher and shade models. These models are really great, I'd love to assemble them.

That said, having read through the army lists, I fear that the butchers have nothing to add to my undead lists. for the same offensive stats (18 attacks@4+ and CS2) as zombie trolls, I'd pay a premium of 45 points at horde level. (Granted, they are def 5+, but they won;t benefit from my surges.) Maybe they would benefit my league armies, but I'd need to find out the surge tax for nightstalkers.

You could have a whole line of scarecrows. Might as well take zpmbies in undead though.
They're cheap and unlock the fun stuff thoigh.

Three thoughts for the fun stuff:
A well supported terror is amazing.
A fast detachment that you don't need to inspire. Shadow hounds and fiends, maybe nightmares. The void lurker is a cool flying monster that does not pay for frills it doesn't use like dragons do. Shades are nifty too.
Some piercing 1 shooting might do well in undead. Add a screamer or mind screech.

Not sure which of those is the most appealing to your curremt armies and/or style.

 DarkBlack wrote:
You could have a whole line of scarecrows. Might as well take zpmbies in undead though.
They're cheap and unlock the fun stuff thoigh.

Three thoughts for the fun stuff:
A well supported terror is amazing.
A fast detachment that you don't need to inspire. Shadow hounds and fiends, maybe nightmares. The void lurker is a cool flying monster that does not pay for frills it doesn't use like dragons do. Shades are nifty too.
Some piercing 1 shooting might do well in undead. Add a screamer or mind screech.

Not sure which of those is the most appealing to your curremt armies and/or style.

Thanks for all the ideas. It's helped me in the following analysis:

a) The butchers are not the way to go. In undead wights / zombie trolls supported by my surgers are better. In my League of Rhordia, I can have a 500 point detachment consisting of:
2 hordes of zombie trolls + revenant king (or liche priest) so I have the 18 CS (2) attacks combined by inspire + sure. Using Stalkers I can't take 2 hordes of butchers + surge (as I don't need inspiring) as they go over 500 points. Likewise, scarecrows don't add anything to an army that has zombies.
b) Fiends + nightmares are 380 points, unfortunately 5 points over the 1,500 point allied detachment. Upgrading to 500 is doable, but then I'd want a horde of fiends + nightmares + dread fiend (as both shadow hounds and shade are 10-15 points over). Sadly, Mantic hasn't produced anyof these models yet.

As none of these are the new Mantic models, I'll think this project will have to wait until I find models that please me. Also, as my gaming group thinks about picking up vanguard, I might as well paint up a vanguard nightstalker warband if this is going to be thing.....

The Vanguard Nightstalker warband might do the trick. You'll have the 1 Shade for a Command option, and two Butchers, one of whom could be a Butcher Fleshripper for yet another Command option.