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Thinking about getting in to a death force and was wondering who everyone's favorite was and why.

Bonereapers. Just really really powerful with most of the ways you can misplay the game removed/mitigated.

Legions of Nagash, Flesh Eater Courts, and Ossiarch Bonereapers are all quite powerful. FEC is among the top armies in the game right now, and Ossiarchs are looking to be that level as well. I would hesitate to recommend Ossiarchs though, because while parts of the army and allegiance are very well done other parts are extremely poor design that often leads to them being very unfun to play against.

I got into Ossiarchs pretty much immediately (I just really love their lore and models) but boy do I hope petrifex get nerfed. In the weeks since their release their overuse in competitive play has just been... gross. 20% of all sub-allegiance picks were petrifex, for ossiarchs alone it was 85%! And it's not like the other ones are even bad choices, the stalliarchs are really good. Just nowhere near as overpowered.

My favorite, based on the models alone, is the Ossiarch Bonereapers.
I'll be building these guys come 2020 (you know, gotta get Christmas & spending on others done first.).

Yes, they're the new hotness rules wise right now.
But you know what? They won't always be. After they get nerfed a few different ways, something crazier comes out, & an edition or two down the line? They'll STILL look freakin awesome. And that's how I choose my armies - based on models I like. Because if I'm going to spend $$, & more importantly invest the time in painting it up? Then it's going to be on models I like.

It's a shame skeletons seem so underwhelming. I really like skeleton armies for some reason from an aesthetic point of view... lol

OBR seem to be king of the hill right now, as expected with how nutso good Petrifex is. It seems to be definitely S+ tier alongside Slaanesh

Ossiarchs are also brand new so everyone jumping on right now is also pretty active with talking about them. Both those who want them for their broken petrifax and those who just love the models/theme/idea of the army.
For myself I really love their whole theme and designs. The models look fantastic, they are a more unique fantasy design and the way they are made has a lot of potential for GW going crazy with some cool designs. In addition they've got that whole "I'm alive but not alive" thing going on which makes them quite an interesting people from a story/lore point of view.

Flesh Eaters are neat, but I've never personally been a fan of rotting flesh models (I consider them a higher skill level for painting because of all the different kinds of rot and exposed flesh etc... - though you can get away with liberal amounts of blood). Their other problem is that they've got a few older kits and basically their entire model line is in the start collecting set. A lot of their "alternative models" are just one or two wing or head bits from a duel kit.

Right now they are possibly the worst army for AoS in terms of model variety and could really do with a few more models to flesh out their range and give them a bit more tactical and visual identity. Taht said I do love that you can build a whole dragon (zombie) army or terrorgast force from them if you want.


Nighthaunt look great, but all those whispy bits of plastic are not what I'm after in a model to clean up and build. That said they are a great looking and diverse force. Their weakness at present is that they are not as strong on the tabletop as they could be, however that hopefully will get addressed with balance updates.


Legions of Nagahs is a bit of a catch-all force for the Death faction. I'm still waiting and eager to see what GW does with the whole Vampire end of things as I think that Vampires hav always had a strong model and lore following and GW seems to really enjoy pubilshing the vampire stories. So I can well see a proper vampire focused release for them happening "one day"

While we're speaking death...
Are there any that could be considered good from a lore standpoint?

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
While we're speaking death...
Are there any that could be considered good from a lore standpoint?

Short answer no, longer answer ehhhhhh.

So pretty much all Death is commanded by Nagash, and Nagash basically wants everyone dead so he can claim their souls. He does accept that some people being alive in the interim is beneficial. He does hate chaos though, and arguably being undead is better than having your soul claimed by chaos. Maybe... so that's something.

Now many of Nagash's servants do have free will though, and some of them are somewhat reasonable. Some Bonereapers, Vampires etc can be bargained with, and some are honorable. Does that make them 'good'? I think youd really have to stretch the term to breaking point. But there are probably some dead with free will who try at least.

Another asterisk are Flesh Eater Courts. They do terrible things, definitely not good, but you might not want to consider them evil either as the killing they do is the result of derangement and not malice.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
While we're speaking death...
Are there any that could be considered good from a lore standpoint?

I don't think so right now, as they are all slaved to Nagash or insane.

The best case for a Death faction to be considered good is to have some honorable dudes among their ranks or in their leadership (The Wight Lord in Dominion of Bones was a cool character) or they would work with an Order faction to join forces against a common foe. FEC could have some honorable delusions, but we all know the reality of their situation.

Most of the goodwill that Order had for Death was ruined once Nagash didn't reinforce the Stormcast at the Shyish gate, and further ruined due to the events that led up to the Soul Wars. Though they can still set aside those problems(warily) if needs must (in the aforementioned Dominion of Bones, for example)

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
While we're speaking death...
Are there any that could be considered good from a lore standpoint?

From a lore stand point first lets put Flesh Eaters to one side. They are insane. Even Nagash cannot control them perfectly if at all at times, they are totally deluded and mad wrapped up in their own little world. That said they are insane, but at the same time their insanity is that they think they are the most noble of knights. From the serfs working the land for their lord all the way to kings and queens that ride into battle atop Pegasus, divine beasts and wondrous steeds. Gallant knights and plucky squires. To everyone else they are a nightmare of flesh eating cannibalistic monster vampire ghouls.

So on the one hand they are perhaps the most good faction in the entire game; however from the other they are one of the most twisted of the "not chaos" forces.

From this point when I say "all of death" I mean everything BUT Flesheaters.


Another lore standpoint is that good in the Mortal Realms often translates to "Hates Chaos" by which definition then all of Death.



As for if they are "Good" in a more moral sense then its actually quite individual. Nagash controls all, but he doesn't have the power to exert his will over all of Death at once in one big go. So most of his servants have independent thought (or are controlled by an independently thinking creature). Bonereapers are not so much evil as just a construct that basically requires souls and bones to propagate itself. They are as evil to the living as wolves are to sheep. Ossiarchs will "farm" the living. That said they also do honour their agreements, even if they will be the twisty sort who will aim to create deals taht might work in the short term but backlash on others in the long term. Of course as a nation they have divisions, some are more honest and such than others. Heck Katakross doesn't actually hate the living, at least not at the start, he only hates that the living are invading the realm of death which he feels should be for the dead alone. However Nagash has given him a weapon that amplifies his dislike of the living into a much more general sense.

Individual Ossiarchs, far as we know, do think and feel and have thoughts. However they are a bit like Data in that they aren't fully emotional, or at least not as emotional as the living. So they can be quite cold and calculated at the same time.



Vampires run the gauntlet from twisted monsters all the way to the nobility that, whilst sitll blood feeders, wouldn't consider humans as slaves as such (but certainly not their betters). Again its that "you're food, but favoured food" approach to things.

 nels1031 wrote:
Most of the goodwill that Order had for Death was ruined once Nagash didn't reinforce the Stormcast at the Shyish gate, and further ruined due to the events that led up to the Soul Wars. Though they can still set aside those problems(warily) if needs must (in the aforementioned Dominion of Bones, for example)

To be fair, Sigmar and Nagash hadn't been seeing eye to eye on a lot of things before then, and both sides had contributed to it.

 Charistoph wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
Most of the goodwill that Order had for Death was ruined once Nagash didn't reinforce the Stormcast at the Shyish gate, and further ruined due to the events that led up to the Soul Wars. Though they can still set aside those problems(warily) if needs must (in the aforementioned Dominion of Bones, for example)

To be fair, Sigmar and Nagash hadn't been seeing eye to eye on a lot of things before then, and both sides had contributed to it.

Nagash was always going to backstab Sigmar. Even when they were building cities in the Realm of Death together, Nagash was using it as an excuse to hide huge catacombs underneath them within which he placed his slumbering Ossiarchs. His latest creation awaiting only a general who could be trusted enough to lead them in Nagash's name. Stormcast being let loose on the battlefields and the ever encroachment of Chaos tipped Nagash's hand - that and his Soul War failure - all making him unleash his legions with his new general leading the force forward unto battle.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Thinking about getting in to a death force and was wondering who everyone's favorite was and why.

I play all death factions pretty much. If I were to rank them according to rules power, I'd go:

1) Ossiarch bonereapers
2) Flesh eater courts
3) Legions of Nagash / Legion of Grief (hybrid of LoN and nighthaunt)
4) Nighthaunt.

Sadly, the best model range imo is still nighthaunt... But they have the worst set of rules. If you do like those models, I'd recommend the Legion of Grief instead (check out the forbidden power expansion for that).

I saw you mention large skeleton horde armies: those can still very much work. Skeletons are some of the better core units and many an army would be jealous of them. Numerous, tough (in a Resurrection kind of way) and quite a nasty amount of attacks... But very slow.

Great stuff guys, thank you.
I was leaning towards nighthaunt so that stinks to hear they're lower teir.

Im curious how skeletons with a 1 attack 4/4 is made good?

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Great stuff guys, thank you.
I was leaning towards nighthaunt so that stinks to hear they're lower teir.

Im curious how skeletons with a 1 attack 4/4 is made good?

A: 1 H: +4, W: +4 R: - D: 1 is diddly. My horses' hooves do better than that (they have A: 2). Get 40 Skeletons and you have a whole lot of diddly especially since they add more attacks per model the bigger the unit gets. But they still probably aren't taking anything down since it would be hard to get a whole lot within 1". So I would imagine that Skeletons are chaff, area control type unit which at 280 for 40 seems okay-ish to kind of pricey to me, but I don't have much experience with AoS yet. I see them as basically 15 Chaos Warriors which I think head to head each unit would probably take awhile to chew through each other. Though I think my Chaos Knights have the ability to carve large chunks out them each fight, and Chaos Knights aren't really that scary in the scheme of things.

I think they will be your standard objective holders that you probably don't want to commit to fighting if possible. They pretty cheap for the number you get which might dissuade an opponent from attacking them thinking they are more of hassle than worth fighting, and they allow you more points on other more proactive stuff. They don't seem like that would cause all that much damage to anything that would allow themselves to be caught by them and even with 40 wounds a clever opponent is going to attack them with Rend -1 taking their save and their Crypt Shields possibly wiping out a dozen a fight. Again, pretty new to AoS so I don't know how accurate I am.

In terms of attack output, you have:

20+ in a unit gives them +1 attack, +2 at 30.

Wight King gives them +1attack with Command Ability.

Necromancer can make them attack twice with a spell.

Vamps have another + 1 attack with Command Ability.

Host of Nagash has a +1 attack aura command trait, Legion of Night has a version of that too.

The battalions may have something as well, but nothing comes to mind.

And spears get them a 2 inch range, at 5/4.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Great stuff guys, thank you.
I was leaning towards nighthaunt so that stinks to hear they're lower teir.

Im curious how skeletons with a 1 attack 4/4 is made good?

If you like Ghosts, just run Legions of Nagash. They get most of the Nighthaunt stuff. You could run Legion of Grief which is the Ghost focused Legion, but all the Legions get access to lots of Ghosts.

My favourite is Flesh-Eater Courts. They have a delightful insanity that gives you almost endless possibilities to do a lot of things. They are like the Ork faction of Death in my mind. Want your Flesh-Eating Serfs and Knights to look like Serfs and Knights? Then do it. Want to convert that Broodlord into an ArchRegent? Do it. How about that Slaughterpriest? DO IT!

They also just have a fun open ended lore behind them that allows you to roleplay your army in such a wide variety of ways. For example my court belongs to none other than Thomas le Cruise who is a noble vampire of a vast empire and has fought many a scourge that threatens his rule. By his side stand two of the most formidable warriors of the realm: Lestat and Louis(both Varghulf Courtiers).

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Great stuff guys, thank you.
I was leaning towards nighthaunt so that stinks to hear they're lower teir.

Im curious how skeletons with a 1 attack 4/4 is made good?

You do need to bear in mind, the "not so good" thing is from tournament perspective, where one-trick gimmick lists are the order of the day. If you plan to play with people casually, they're definitely capable of holding their own- they're not like Kharadron where the whole army is actually horrible from start to finish.

Cronch wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
Great stuff guys, thank you.
I was leaning towards nighthaunt so that stinks to hear they're lower teir.

Im curious how skeletons with a 1 attack 4/4 is made good?

You do need to bear in mind, the "not so good" thing is from tournament perspective, where one-trick gimmick lists are the order of the day. If you plan to play with people casually, they're definitely capable of holding their own- they're not like Kharadron where the whole army is actually horrible from start to finish.

Yeah, I definitely agree. Nighthaunt armies still show up at tournaments and may not do well but don't get totally crushed either. The armies people don't even bother bringing are the ones to be concerned about.