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So, I'm just getting into AoS and I want to play Nighthaunt because I love the models. I noticed that GW sells a box called Start Collecting! Malignants. In it there is a Mortis Engine that is not in the NH Codex, but the two other units in the box are NH. I also noticed that all NH have the Malignants keyword, so does the Mortis Engine, even though it's in the LoN codex. So how does this work? Can I run a Mortis Engine or the The Spirits of Fellblood Battalion with my NH? What are the rules with The Spirits of Fellblood? I couldn't find any information about it other than what's in the box. Sorry, I find that AoS is a bit confusing when it comes to how armies are run.

Yea that box is a relic from an older time and nowdays servers more as a box for generic death grand alliance. if you want to use the box as the nighhaunt faction with all their special rules, you cannot add the mortis engine! (maybe as an ally at 2000p, but idk how mutch points the mortis costs, or if NH can ally with LoN, i am very out of the loop when it comes to the rules for NH nowadays)

But if you run a generic undead army using special rules from Legions of Nagash battletome, you can add it BUT you can only use the following nighhaunt units: tomb banshee, cairn wraith,, spirit hosts, hexwraith and black coach.
Nighthaunt sub faction do not have a start collecting box, the clousest you can get is the Soul Wars 2player starter set.

Actually they added a bunch more Nighthaunt units to LoN by FAQ. You can even take Chain Rasp battline in Legions. Almost all Nighthaunt units can now be taken as LoN, and the handful you miss that you might reasonably want should be coverable as allies.

I'm a big advocate of running Nighthaunt in Legions instead of their own faction, I think you just get more out of the army. Mainly the command ability to bring back a whole dead unit!

 Stux wrote:
Actually they added a bunch more Nighthaunt units to LoN by FAQ. You can even take Chain Rasp battline in Legions. Almost all Nighthaunt units can now be taken as LoN, and the handful you miss that you might reasonably want should be coverable as allies.

I'm a big advocate of running Nighthaunt in Legions instead of their own faction, I think you just get more out of the army. Mainly the command ability to bring back a whole dead unit!

Thanks, I'll look into doing that. What is the benefit of the " The Spirits of Fellblood Battalion"? I couldn't find out anything about the rules for it.

I thought the Mortis Engine wasn't added to anything yet?

Honestly Death is extremely due for a re launch of a new book kinda like the CoS one. I pretty sure they will get a new book end of this year or start of next, as the rules are all over the place right now.

As others have mentioned that SC box is for Legions of Nagash, which can use a number of Nighthaunt units. The battalion is narrative/open play only, it cannot be used in matched play.

The best way to use this box, is via an expansion book called "Forbidden Power" for an allegiance called "Legion of Grief" that is described in there.

However, this box would leave you without any battle line units. You'd have to get some extra units elsewhere to fulfill that role: skeletons, dire wolves or chainrasp hordes.


In a Legion of Grief (who can really debuff an enemy's bravery), that mortis engine can really do a lot of splash damage on smaller units/heroes.

Alternatively, you can assemble it as a coven throne (a really underestimated hero choice in 1000p games as a general) and run in it a legion of Nagash army...You'd still need battle line troops however.

 Elmir wrote:
The best way to use this box, is via an expansion book called "Forbidden Power" for an allegiance called "Legion of Grief" that is described in there.

However, this box would leave you without any battle line units. You'd have to get some extra units elsewhere to fulfill that role: skeletons, dire wolves or chainrasp hordes.


In a Legion of Grief (who can really debuff an enemy's bravery), that mortis engine can really do a lot of splash damage on smaller units/heroes.

Alternatively, you can assemble it as a coven throne (a really underestimated hero choice in 1000p games as a general) and run in it a legion of Nagash army...You'd still need battle line troops however.

Thank you. I will be getting more Nighthaunt models. I just really like the Mortis Engine and the Black Coach. I plan on running it with a bunch of Hexwraiths and other mounted Nighthaunt. I want to run the Black Coach formation with all mounted dudes.

 Davespil wrote:

 Elmir wrote:
The best way to use this box, is via an expansion book called "Forbidden Power" for an allegiance called "Legion of Grief" that is described in there.

However, this box would leave you without any battle line units. You'd have to get some extra units elsewhere to fulfill that role: skeletons, dire wolves or chainrasp hordes.


In a Legion of Grief (who can really debuff an enemy's bravery), that mortis engine can really do a lot of splash damage on smaller units/heroes.

Alternatively, you can assemble it as a coven throne (a really underestimated hero choice in 1000p games as a general) and run in it a legion of Nagash army...You'd still need battle line troops however.

Thank you. I will be getting more Nighthaunt models. I just really like the Mortis Engine and the Black Coach. I plan on running it with a bunch of Hexwraiths and other mounted Nighthaunt. I want to run the Black Coach formation with all mounted dudes.

Are you talking about the Deathriders Battalion?

You cant use Nighthaunt Battalions in a Legions of Nagash army, and the minimum points for the Battalion is 830, which is way more than the allies limit.

Alternatively if Nighthaunt is your main faction you can use that Battalion, but you cannot use the Mortis Engine, as Nighthaunt cant ally it in (Nighthaunt can only have Soulblight or Deathlord units as allies, and the Mortis Engine is neither).

Basically I'm afraid it's impossible to have that Battalion and the Mortis Engine in the same army.

(Well... until you're up to like 5000pt games or more, when the allies limit would be big enough for a Legions army to fit the Battalion in the 20% ally limit... but the standard for the game is 2000pts, so that's sort of irrelevant)

I would like to remind you OP that the Mortis Engine kit has 2 more alternative builds. Bloodseeker Palanquin and Coven Throne, which both have the Soulblight keyword making them viable allies for pure Nighthaunts.

Though i'd make the army be one of the legions from Legions of Nagash. Or as the Legion of Grief from Forbidden Power book if seriously want to run a Mortis Engine.

Another thing to consider though is that while Bloodseeker Palanquin and Coven Throne do cost more points, they are both heroes and wizards, and as such being able to fling spells and be equipped artefacts and come with special abilities like the Coven Throne having a chance to turn slain enemy heroes into vampires and stuff, where as the Mortis Engine just doles out an simple but useful aoe buff/debuff for wizards.

Food for thought

The Mortis Engine is a very cool looking model, but besides the Rule of Kewl, why would you want it in your army? It's not very impressive unless I'm missing something.

 Tamwulf wrote:
The Mortis Engine is a very cool looking model, but besides the Rule of Kewl, why would you want it in your army? It's not very impressive unless I'm missing something.

You're not missing anything. But it is a cool model.

 Tamwulf wrote:
The Mortis Engine is a very cool looking model, but besides the Rule of Kewl, why would you want it in your army? It's not very impressive unless I'm missing something.

For netlisters? Not missing out on much.

For those attempting to build a fun bravery bomb Legion of Grief force (that can easily go for a -4/5 bravery), that mortis engine can force more bravery tests than an opponent has CP to negate them in a fairly large board area... It does D3 mortal wounds regardless of rolling well over enemy bravery or just getting it... It's amazingly fun to bring down bunker style armies that way. Especially with it's explosion in the same turn, I've had it insta-gib minor support heroes in a single turn.

Is it amazing A-tier list style gameplay? Probably not... Is it a fun way to take a list that has some teeth in a more casual setting: without a doubt.

 Stux wrote:

 Davespil wrote:

 Elmir wrote:
The best way to use this box, is via an expansion book called "Forbidden Power" for an allegiance called "Legion of Grief" that is described in there.

However, this box would leave you without any battle line units. You'd have to get some extra units elsewhere to fulfill that role: skeletons, dire wolves or chainrasp hordes.


In a Legion of Grief (who can really debuff an enemy's bravery), that mortis engine can really do a lot of splash damage on smaller units/heroes.

Alternatively, you can assemble it as a coven throne (a really underestimated hero choice in 1000p games as a general) and run in it a legion of Nagash army...You'd still need battle line troops however.

Thank you. I will be getting more Nighthaunt models. I just really like the Mortis Engine and the Black Coach. I plan on running it with a bunch of Hexwraiths and other mounted Nighthaunt. I want to run the Black Coach formation with all mounted dudes.

Are you talking about the Deathriders Battalion?

You cant use Nighthaunt Battalions in a Legions of Nagash army, and the minimum points for the Battalion is 830, which is way more than the allies limit.

Alternatively if Nighthaunt is your main faction you can use that Battalion, but you cannot use the Mortis Engine, as Nighthaunt cant ally it in (Nighthaunt can only have Soulblight or Deathlord units as allies, and the Mortis Engine is neither).

Basically I'm afraid it's impossible to have that Battalion and the Mortis Engine in the same army.

(Well... until you're up to like 5000pt games or more, when the allies limit would be big enough for a Legions army to fit the Battalion in the 20% ally limit... but the standard for the game is 2000pts, so that's sort of irrelevant)

Why would I run a LoN army when I could run a Nighthaunt army and ally in the Mortis Engine? The only LoN model I want is the ME. Also, I could take it as part of the Legion of Grief.

You cant ally the Mortia Engine though, that's what I'm saying. It is not part of a faction that Nighthaunt can ally. Also a pure Nighthaunt army is generally more effective as Legions than as Nighthaunt, Legions just have better rules.

Legion of Grief is a sub faction of Legions of Nagash, so when I talk about using LoN that includes LoG.

 Stux wrote:
You cant ally the Mortia Engine though, that's what I'm saying. It is not part of a faction that Nighthaunt can ally. Also a pure Nighthaunt army is generally more effective as Legions than as Nighthaunt, Legions just have better rules.

Legion of Grief is a sub faction of Legions of Nagash, so when I talk about using LoN that includes LoG.

OK, I get it. I know as Legion of Grief I can take every Nighthaunt unit and anything with the Battlemage Keyword, which the Mortis Engine has. SO I will probably take that model. Why can't Nighthaunt ally with LoN? They are both part of Death. I know nothing about AoS ally rules.

 Davespil wrote:

 Stux wrote:
You cant ally the Mortia Engine though, that's what I'm saying. It is not part of a faction that Nighthaunt can ally. Also a pure Nighthaunt army is generally more effective as Legions than as Nighthaunt, Legions just have better rules.

Legion of Grief is a sub faction of Legions of Nagash, so when I talk about using LoN that includes LoG.

OK, I get it. I know as Legion of Grief I can take every Nighthaunt unit and anything with the Battlemage Keyword, which the Mortis Engine has. SO I will probably take that model. Why can't Nighthaunt ally with LoN? They are both part of Death. I know nothing about AoS ally rules.

Most factions dont have freedom to ally everything in their Grand Allegiance actually. Within a Grand Allegiance, its pretty common in the lore for sub factions to really not get on very well. Though the lore justifications for particular allegiances seem a bit shaky sometimes.

In each Battletome there is a list of what keyword units you can include as allies. For Nighthaunt, the only keywords allowed are SOULBLIGHT and DEATHLORDS. This basically means vampires and mortarchs respectively. Nighthaunt cannot ally with any unit that doesnt have one of those keywords.

I dont what the specific reason is that Nighthaunt cant ally with all of Legions, but that's what it is. Similarly, Ogors can only ally with Troggoths and Gargants. Even though currently all Troggoths and Gargants are part of the Gloomspite faction, but you cant ally with other Gloomspite, just Troggoths and Gargants.

Doesnt always make sense, but thems the rules.

One big thing to note is that LoN does not include Mournguls.
I did plan on this until I found that out.
Since I always run a pair of them in my list I’ve had to stay pure nighthaunt for that alone.

Jackal90 wrote:
One big thing to note is that LoN does not include Mournguls.
I did plan on this until I found that out.
Since I always run a pair of them in my list I’ve had to stay pure nighthaunt for that alone.

LoN can ally Mournguls though right? As LoN can ally all Nighthaunt.

 Stux wrote:

Jackal90 wrote:
One big thing to note is that LoN does not include Mournguls.
I did plan on this until I found that out.
Since I always run a pair of them in my list I’ve had to stay pure nighthaunt for that alone.

LoN can ally Mournguls though right? As LoN can ally all Nighthaunt.

I think so but your then using your ally allotment on those.
You also can’t take more than 1 unless playing bigger games.