Kings of War 3rd Edition: Nightstalkers Army Review

Hello Dash28, we are back with another of our Army reviews! This one written by the man, the myth, the legend Agent Micheal Scarn himself! Taking a break from saving the world from the terrors of Golden Face, Agent Micheal Scarn was kind enough to devote some time to reviewing the chilling Nightstalkers.

If you would like to see our other army reviews, you can find them here.

Tier Rankings: 

Trying to rank units in Kings of War is not a perfect science. By pure design, many units are meant to work in combination with other choices in the army and can be hard to judge on their own. For this exercise, it’s assumed the unit is being used to its utmost potential within the army. This is not just a math problem to determine the most cost-effective unit but to also see how they compare in scope, role, and impact across not just a single army but all Kings of War armies. For the most part, units will be treated as one entry; however, if an option or size drastically improves a unit it will be separately mentioned.

S Tier: Reserved for units that are widely acknowledged as either being significantly undercosted or having a combination of rules that perform well above units in similar roles. These units are often called “auto includes” as any list stands to be made better with their inclusion. Expect these units to be addressed in future CoK book updates.

A Tier: These units are some of the best the army has to offer. They excel in their specific roles and commonly help form the core of most competitive lists. While not auto include, they are great in almost any army they are taken in and will be seen frequently.

B Tier: These units have a mix of strengths and weaknesses that make them very playable but balanced. These units work great with specific roles in mind; however, their weaknesses mean they do not help every list. In a perfect world, all units would fit into this category.

C Tier: C tier units may still shine in niche lists and roles; however, they will feel underpowered when compared to similar units in other armies. Decidedly suboptimal, you could make them work but frequently will see other things that are just better. You will rarely see many lists take these units.

D Tier: Units that need some considerable love and attention. You will struggle to find any role for this unit that another unit couldn’t do better. Very often you will see these units labeled as “unplayable”.

NightStalkers

Yet another one of these army reviews – getting tired yet?

S Tier

Scarecrows – Scarecrows are the single most cost-effective trash unit in the game. If you want a block of nerve and unit strength on the board then Scarecrows are the way to go about it.

There are several armies with hordes of trash infantry offering around 21 rout nerve for the 120-140 point range, but none of them has the Scarecrows secret weapons; Mindthirst and Stealthy. These two rules mean that you do not need to babysit them with inspiring sources and shooting is usually completely ineffective. Honestly, when you compare Scarecrows to similar units in other armies it’s almost like you get these two rules for free.

Hordes are the most efficient unit size but don’t underestimate Regiments for the sake of objectives (though get a Portal of Despair first). They’re cheap and cheerful so you can happily leave them sitting on their own on an objective in your deployment zone all game. Legions are a bit too pricey compared to the other two.

Generally, you want to be gumming your opponent up and forcing them to chew through multiple hordes of scarecrows, while your heavy hitters mince through on a flank. Most decent melee units will take a couple of turns to kill a horde (though be aware of 25+ attack units with melee 3+ – these are very likely to one-shot a horde), and less impressive melee units can take the whole game to breakthrough. Scarecrows are all about delaying your opponent.

However, they are often underestimated. People scoff at Me5 and think scarecrows are terrible in melee. This is wrong and this is their undoing. You can expect scarecrows to deal between 2-6 damage to a De5 unit most turns. 2 points of damage is pretty rubbish, but if you do that upper range? That’s a significant hit.

Add on to this a Scarecrow Horde’s best friend; The Horror. This hero can give Scarecrows Vicious with its aura, all the while bane-chanting them. A Vicious Scarecrow horde with Crushing Strength 1 suddenly becomes quite a scary prospect with that 2-6 damage range jumping to 5-9 and an average of 7. With a good nerve roll, you can waver or rout a large infantry horde in a single hit. I’ve found one Horror for 3-4 Scarecrow hordes is a good ratio to aim for.

Artifacts? Don’t. Except for the Crystal Pendant of Retribution. Which you then use to bully your opponent. You monster.

I could keep writing about Scarecrow tactics. There’s a whole article to be had there. Needless to say, Scarecrows are a mainstay in many Nightstalker armies. They’re extremely effective for putting blocks of stubborn nerve and unit strength on the board and they’re greatly underestimated by opponents for their damage output.

Portal of Despair – The Portal of Despair is hilariously undercosted. The only thing that stops it being completely broken is that you can only take one of them.

Compare the defensive stats to a scarecrow regiment – for 10 points you gain +2 defence and +2 nerve. That’s insane! Now, you do lose some offensive capability and it doesn’t have stealthy, but in a straight one on one roadblocking this comes out miles ahead.

Add on to this that it has an incredible rule where you can grant a single unit Inspiring anywhere on the board and it’s just an auto-include. It literally doesn’t have to do anything except sit on an objective, hidden, all game. No Nightstalker army should leave home without one.

A Tier

Reapers – Reapers mince everything they touch. At 25 attacks on 3’s with CS1 they can destroy most things in the game with ease. Their two downsides are their defensive stats and points value. While your opponent isn’t going to tickle them off the table, they can’t withstand much of a charge so they need to be protected.

Both unit sizes, Troop and Regiment, are great but my personal preference leans towards regiments for their survivability. Always take the Screamshard. Always.

In terms of items, there are a few choice picks; Brew of Strength, Blessing of the Gods, but I think that Potion of the Caterpillar and Boots of Striding are top choices too.

Horror – Horrors are there to support your infantry and like most Nightstalker units, they are perfectly tuned for that role. If you have some infantry units, especially Reapers, then the Vicious Aura is an auto-take, along with swapping that Lightning Bolt for Bane-Chant to make Reapers even worse (for your opponent).

They can even turn Scarecrows into killing machines.

The potential for lightning bolt spam is nice, but honestly, they’re just so good at buffing infantry that you probably won’t get much use out of lightning bolt.

Consider the Sacred Horn or Inspiring Talisman as artefacts for these guys.

Reaper Souldrinker – I don’t know what the Kings of War Community did to the Rules Committee to make the Rules Committee go “You know what? I don’t think Reapers are quite good enough yet… let’s give them some more buffs”. Here we are though.

The Lifeleech(+1) Aura for Reapers is fantastic and really helps with their biggest weakness – survivability. Don’t forget that you can stack this, so you can combine one with the Screamshard for a one-off Lifeleech(3) or have your Reapers with multiple Souldrinkers nearby giving them 2 or 3 lifeleech.

This doesn’t make Reapers invulnerable by any stretch, but it removes small pings of damage and can easily reduce the effects of a significant hit earlier in the game.

Their downsides are their relatively low speed and their low defensive stats. It’s better to hold them back and wait for the right moment to send them in than throw them into the first combat they can get to and risk your opponent killing them and overrunning into a target anyway.

Wings of Honeymaze are a great buy for them. They can freely go off hunting heroes, they can act as great chaff (remember that a disordered unit can’t charge through yielding Individuals) and they can still return to your Reapers later on in the game for that sweet, sweet Lifeleech Aura.

Don’t underestimate the reach of a Speed 6 Individual. They still have a great threat range and are good backline defence against more fragile enemy heroes – especially the sort who are likely to be hunting your horrors.

Phantoms – Phantoms make for some incredible chaff. At Speed 10, Flying, Nimble and Fearless they have the perfect attributes for this. They can very quickly gum up enemy units and being fearless they’ll not be getting in the way, whether they survive the counter-charge or not.

Don’t bother with a screamshard.

Butchers – Butchers are probably one of the best all-round large infantry units in the game, second only to Undead Wights. Their defensive stats are their best attribute with high nerve, good defence, fearless and most importantly – Stealthy. This makes them extremely resilient while they pump out fairly significant damage.

They are great at either the regiment or horde size and the usual artefact recommendations apply – Brew of Sharpness, Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding and the Potion of the Caterpillar are the top picks. Also have a look at the Elite or Vicious artefacts, but I’d generally stay away from the Brew of Strength personally since CS2 is already wounding half the units you meet on 2’s.

Mind-Screech – Great ranged support, but you’ll generally want multiple. One on its own is pretty meh but 2-3 start to really threaten enemy units at range, and can snipe enemy heroes and chaff with ease. While Lightning Bolt will be your main attack, Mind-Screeches also have Wind Blast. This can be vital in messing with enemy positioning and for pushing enemies off objectives in the final turns.

If you have Mind-Screeches in your army and playing a scenario involving a scoring area or objective markers, strongly consider taking 2nd turn so that you can use your mind-screeches to push your opponent off objectives.

Don’t forget that Mind-Screeches themselves score, and with Fly, Speed 6 and Nimble they can jump on uncontested objectives later on if they don’t push your enemy off.

Void Lurker – Dragon equivalents are great. Stealthy Dragon equivalents are even better. Stealthy Dragon equivalents with Regeneration are insane. Cheap Stealthy Dragon equivalents with Regeneration are borderline broken.

The only thing that stops a Void Lurker making it into the S tier is that it only has defence 4.
Dragons are great for board control and usually, their main counter is shooting, which stealthy and regenerate largely nullify. In a grind situation, the defence of 4 does hurt it, but dragons are all about board control. A Void Lurker does that extremely well and is at least 30 points cheaper than most other dragon equivalents.

If you want to make your opponent cry then take two along with a few troops of phantoms.

B tier

Planar Apparition – The Planar Apparition is a pure support piece

Doppelgangers These horrors are surprisingly great as a board control unit. The number of times they’ll actually be able to use their special rule to steal the attacks of your opponent’s pain train killer unit is extremely rare, but do you know what you’re opponent is going to do? Keep their pain train killer unit way away from your Doppelgangers.

Just the threat of them potentially stealing your opponent’s top attacks is enough to completely change up the game.

Have them in an area with objectives that you need to control. Your opponent will either steer clear of the area altogether or be extremely cautious in engaging there – giving you control. Don’t be disheartened if your doppelgangers fail to steal attacks from anything significant if they’ve been able to dominate crucial areas of the battlefield just from their presence.

Fiends – These are quite remarkable in the Nightstalker list in that they’re just decidedly alright. They’re not great, they’re not bad. They’re alright. Solid 7 out of 10. They’re a little on the expensive side for a cavalry type unit at 215 points, but they have a pretty decent damage output and stealthy is always a win on fast units. Their nerve is very high, making up for their lower defence.

If you take them then strongly consider the usual cavalry artefacts – Maccwars Potion of the Caterpillar for Pathfinder and Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding for a one-time Strider. Brew of Sharpness is a great, albeit expensive artefact and turns them into real pain trains. Pair these guys with some Phantom troops for chaff.

Soulflayers – Soulflayers are a great board control unit. They can keep your opponent’s flyers honest by threatening them while the rest of your army advances and they can keep your opponent from exposing a flank to them. If they get the opportunity to flank something then they should generally take it, but they are not a direct assault unit. 9 attacks, even with the good melee stats that Soulfalyers have, isn’t enough to deal major damage, and once bogged down they’ll disappear fast.

Instead, keep them dancing around and forcing your opponent to react to you. Use Wind-Blast to mess about even more with your opponent. Avoid relying on them as pure damage dealers though.

Terror – Tanky monster that chews through most units. Pairs very well with a Planar Apparition

Shadow-Hulk – Borderline A. Really good giant. Speed 6 is not great, but Stealthy De5 and 20 nerve is a solid roadblock while dealing decent damage.

Dread-Fiend – It’s alright. Borderline C because most armies will find a shade does the job better, but if you’re lacking for unit strength then definitely consider picking one of these instead.

Shade – Shades are another one of those solid all-round units. A flying speed 10 individual that’s surprisingly tanky. Use them to hunt enemy heroes or war engines and generally just fly around being a pain for your opponent. Dread is an awesome rule, and having it on such a mobile character that can get pretty much anywhere it wants is incredibly flexible. You should definitely consider one or two if you’re facing war engines on a regular basis.

C Tier

Blood Worms – These are supposed to be a tarpit, but unfortunately there’s already an excellent tarpit option in Nightstalkers – Scarecrows. For 10 more points than a Blood Worm regiment you can get a Scarecrow Horde, which has 7 more points of nerve, is fearless, and better in melee. No contest.

Banshee – The Banshee unfortunately suffers the same as other dedicated Wind Blast/Enthrall casters in that it’s just difficult to justify. The ability to deal damage with Wind Blast and Enthral is great, but for just 5 points more you can get a Mind Screech instead which has Lightning Bolt as well and scores. Wind Blast and Enthral can be game winning, but you can find yourself without any decent targets for them quite easily. If this were a bit cheaper then it would be great, but really a Mind Screech is just more dependable.

Dream Hunter – Very expensive individual that doesn’t deliver as well as Basusu or other expensive individuals.

D Tier

Horror Riftweavers – These are kinda some sort of backline protection but just… no. For what they deliver they are extremely expensive at 120 points. The only thing that’s sort of useful with them is Dread, but you can get a Shade for 15 points more which is much more survivable, almost as deadly in combat, comes with fly, speed 10 and hits almost as hard. Just take a Shade instead.

Spectres – These are the only ranged option for Nightstalkers outside of Monsters or Heroes, and they’re terrible at it. They are a special rule, Steady Aim, away from being usable. Unfortunately, with Ra5, a short-range and few attacks, they’re hitting on 6’s most of the time and it just makes them awful. For 30 more points than a regiment, you can get a Mind-Screech which is far better.

Shadowhounds – I find them outclassed by Phantoms. Some players disagree and says they’re B tier, favouring damage and keeping Nimble when disordered. I’m not convinced.

Needle-fangs – There’s nothing that these crawlies do that Phantoms don’t do much better and for not many points more. If you really just want a throwaway unit for 80 points then get a scarecrow regiment instead. If you want chaff then get some phantoms instead.

Butcher Fleshripper – Just find the 25 points for a Dread-Fiend instead, which is better in every single way.

And that is Nightstalkers!!! A big shout of thanks to Agent Micheal Scarn from taking his time away from his beloved, Catherine Zeta Jones, to write this excellent article!