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My impression of Nagash's control is that its not perfect. He's not like a hive mind or overlord who controls everything.

In theory he can, but it takes a lot of his concentration and power and it seems that he cannot maintain control for long periods over a huge number of the undead. So he uses agents to rule over those factions - agents that he can exert greater control over without having to burn himself out.


Ossiarchs I think go one step further because they are "built" rather than born. So they likely have elements embedded into them which make them easier to control and guide and unable to resist his will. Though at thes ame time, rather like stormcast, the Ossiarchs are formed from living souls and there's every chance things can go wrong on that front.

At the same time Nagash seems to leave many of his forces to their own devices. In fact he seems to encourage in-fighting within the factions so that they are focused on each other and not him.
So two different Ossiarch kingdoms could oppose each other and war and compete over resources. In theory its a "weapons test" at the grand scale Nagash views things at; but at the local scale it would be more life and death for individuals. The big difference being that if a major threat were to arise Nagash could force those warring factions to unit and work under him.




In theory - if enough were rising up against each other and against him would Nagash lose control - who knows.

He is a narcissistic micro manager who BELIEVES he can control everything all the time and is extremely petty when it comes to trying to prove it, though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Charistoph wrote:

Overread wrote:Plus, lets face it, they are not Tomb Kings and a lot of people wanted them to be TK.

One of my larger complaints, really. While they didn't have to literally be reformatted Khemri with a new look, they could have easily kept some of their more defining differences from the other Undead, particularly ranged and giant constructs.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Right now, they lack much in the way of a ranged option. Going on the above, no need “and these deadly bowmen were there from the start but they lived in Canada so you wouldn’t know them”. Just have Nagash acknowledge ‘needs some cow bell’ and biggedy biggeyd bong, new unit or units o’clock.

That's pretty much all of Undead if you discount magic sources. Still, it wouldn't take much to include them not as a retcon as you say, even as a new inclusion, say they start getting some bones of those Wandering Elves, as an example.

Overread wrote:Ossiarchs will never be free of Nagash by their very design. Heck them being a thing suggests that Nagash knows he might one day lose control over Vampires and perhaps Nighthaunt as well and thus he wants to have his Ossiarchs. A force made by him fully in both body and soul who won't overthrow him; who won't even seek to escape his control and influence. Ossiarchs open the field for Vampires rising up and throwing off Nagash's shackles and starting their own Age of Blood across the Mortal Realms (especially as Vampires in AoS are way more powerful and free to act)

I still could see it happening, or at least, a small section of them. It's a little boring if units are too loyal such that 2 Ossiarch armies going at each other would only be considered a "training exercise", after all.

Well said, and agreed. Though tbh I imagine Bonereapers (and Warhammer undead in general) fight things out to settle arguments between commanders all the time. Both armies just get back up, it takes little more than time and the energy required to do it. Bonereapers literally pointing things out and having commanders essentially play real-Warhammer is not merely sensible but downright plausible.

Though they would balance things better

An Ossiarch would be the ultimate rules lawyer!

 Overread wrote:

Ossiarchs will never be free of Nagash by their very design. Heck them being a thing suggests that Nagash knows he might one day lose control over Vampires and perhaps Nighthaunt as well and thus he wants to have his Ossiarchs. A force made by him fully in both body and soul who won't overthrow him; who won't even seek to escape his control and influence. Ossiarchs open the field for Vampires rising up and throwing off Nagash's shackles and starting their own Age of Blood across the Mortal Realms (especially as Vampires in AoS are way more powerful and free to act)

On the one hand, I agree that having independent vampires would be a good move.

On the other hand, I'd really like to see it happen with a Tomb Kings reintroduction first. The Tomb Kings still exist in some form (they're mentioned on one of the early maps). And while they're no doubt under Nagash's thumb at the moment, they hate him more than anything else in existence (both meanings of that last half-sentence are correct, btw). It would be totally and completely appropriate for one of Nagash's periodic screw-ups - which are invariably both colossal and spectacular in scope - to provide an opening for Settra to come striding back in to lead the Tomb Kings out from under Nagash's control. The vamps can get loose in the ensuing scramble while Nagash tries to shore up his defenses (and Death is suddenly no longer unified). It would also help to explain why Nagash didn't just immediately crush either of the newly independent factions: he's forced to divide his forces between the new Tomb Kings and the freed blood suckers.

However, this isn't a Tomb Kings thread, so...

Visually, the Reapers are quite spectacular. But that's to be expected when the figures that look the most common-place are the visual equivalent of the old Tomb Guard from the Tomb Kings line. While they could use missile troops, regular bows and crossbows seem too ordinary for them. Something that involved missile troops unleashing spectral bolts of soul energy (which just happen to do the same damage as an arrow) would seem more appropriate for the general appearance of the troops. You would need something to serve as the launching "device", though, and I'm not sure what that should look like.

 Overread wrote:
An Ossiarch would be the ultimate rules lawyer!

Isn't that literally one of the people standing on Katakros' base?

Eumerin wrote:


Visually, the Reapers are quite spectacular. But that's to be expected when the figures that look the most common-place are the visual equivalent of the old Tomb Guard from the Tomb Kings line. While they could use missile troops, regular bows and crossbows seem too ordinary for them. Something that involved missile troops unleashing spectral bolts of soul energy (which just happen to do the same damage as an arrow) would seem more appropriate for the general appearance of the troops. You would need something to serve as the launching "device", though, and I'm not sure what that should look like.

Lean into the Psuedo- Roman look. Dual kit that can build either Shield and Javelin or Slings that fire magically flaming skulls.