Welcome to another guest article, this one made by the master of the creepy army himself, Joey Greek! Thanks to Joey for submitting this great article, and writing it sober this time!!
Hi, Joey here again this time with a long-form army overview and discussion on taking the Wiltfather. This article is gonna be a lengthy one, make sure you have a good pot of tea or sipping whiskey and an Ipad to read it.
So you’ve probably seen on Facebook about 10 months ago a lot of hubbub from Tom Annis about the ability to take the Wiltfather as an ally. Trust me, it was all the rage in the dark ages that was peak covid Fanatics. Now regardless of which side of allies you’re on, he is a current option for all but 1 army in the game at this time and something I personally believe you need to take a hard look at due to his uniqueness/self-sufficiency as an ally. But in this article, I’m going to limit this to just looking at the Wiltfather in Nightstalkers.
Nightstalkers – The unique toolbox
I’ve been running Nightstalkers for about 4 years now and have played around 400-500 games over that timespan, including some 2nd edition GT wins and Best General finishings. Most recently I’ve been running the Wiltdaddy with them, taking Wiltstalkers to Forge GT placing 2nd in November 2020, and Masters ‘21 where I went 5-1 and finished 5th in battle.
As an army Nightstalkers have always been well-positioned to be taken as allies due to Mindthirst not requiring any Inspiring character, but I’d also argue they’re not an army that needs or even wants allies. With some of the nerfs Undead have received as well as the changes to Withdraw hitting Surge hard, Nightstalkers have become the most efficient army list in the game right now; with excellent Infantry, Large Infantry, Large Cavalry, fliers, Monsters, and Heroes. There isn’t a hole in the army that needs to be filled with allies, as most things are covered in the faction.
Nightstalkers Pros
- Efficient unlocks – through Scarecrows/Butchers/Fiends
- Ability to bring multiple combat threats without relying on a particular skew – the majority of the army has or can achieve CS2 or CS1/TC1 fairly easily and the variety of units lets you play a balanced list that is still threatening
- Mindthirst – This lets you ignore a pretty good portion of the hardships most armies have while list building, spending those points on more toys and boys
- Monsters slots are phenomenal – Mind Screech and Planar Apparition are excellent utility pieces both as casters and chaff; Terror and Shadow Hulk are great hamvils you can build around. (However, the Horror Riftweaver is in my top 5 worst units in the game)
- Hero slots are pretty good – Shakira the Wailing Shadow is an amazing all round utility piece, Dreadfiends are still very viable, and the Void Lurker is a pretty serviceable dragon at 270 pts
Nightstalkers Cons(istency problems)
- Mindthirst – This might cause some controversy, but Mindthirst is a huge issue when trying to win multiple games in a row. Giving an opponent power over when and where you’re Inspired can turn games around. Unless the Nightstalker player takes Inspiring talisman or the Portal of Despair, the opponent can usually decide when to allow rerolls on Nerve checks. This can be the difference between 7’s once (59% to pop) and 7’s twice (34%) which over the course of an event can and will lose you games.
- 4’s to hit – a pretty big chunk of the list is only hitting on 4’s. Lightning bolt, Butchers, and Fiends can all swing big or durdle if the dice gods are angry. Reapers, Soulflayers, and the Titans help a fair bit with this but you are going to rely on 4+ for a lot of your bulk dice rolling.
- 4+ defense – Another thing about Nightstalkers is they pay for stealthy with reduced defense almost army wide. Game to game Stealthy might save you a few wounds, but on average 4+ defense with Stealthy is about the same as def 5 vs non Lightning Bolt shooting. Artillery is a lot worse against Stealthy though so, NS players do get that. And the def 5 units with Stealthy are very strong
- How to beat def 6 – The army can get to Crushing Strength 2 but CS3 and 4 are a bit harder to bring in appreciable numbers or units that hit on 3s.
This list is obviously just my opinion, but I do think native NS lists suffer from consistency issues at events. The army is one of the most popular now with the mantic line and the army getting true model support; however, I usually see in GT results (and through my own experience) the faction has a ceiling around 4-2 or 4-1 / 3-2 at an event. Def 6 armies are a struggle, shooting in mass can take advantage of Mindthirst not being in play on turns 1 and 2, and the Def 4 on a lot of the army is a pretty major downside. Something that isn’t brought up much in miniature gaming is how your army plays over 5 or 6 games, and when looking at a list competitively the consistency of that build is important.
The Wiltdaddy
Now with the 1st faction overview article done, let’s pivot and talk about the Wiltfather and how he fits into Nightstalkers.
To start off I’m going to ignore the unlocking unit for a moment and just focus on the Wiltfather.
- Average Speed – can play a touch faster with Scout, giving them good board control, but speed 6 is about average for Kings of War
- Elf Dragon offense – 10 attacks with CS3 and Vicious is an average of 6-7 wounds plus a freebie from Cloak of Death so you can expect 7-8 most combats.
- Def 6+ and Fearless 19 – not really much to add, it’s very good
- Auras – The Vicious aura when taken as an ally might as well read Wiltfather has Vicious, it’s good in his native armies but not really a focus here. The real juicy part of his profile is switching Radiance of Life to Cloak of Death. This is the part of him that makes allying really worthwhile, everyone could already ally in a Tree Herder but not everyone could have Cloak of Death.
- Scenario Play – The Wiltfather is a great scenario tool. For scenarios where the center of the table is something to fight over, such as Dominate or Control, Cloak of Death is great. Push is also great for him, load him up with all 3 tokens and go for a joy ride. The 2 loot varieties he also performs well in. Raze is another good one since you can scout up and threaten 1 raze token while bringing another fast unit to partner with him so you can grab it turn 2.
A big thing I want to stress here is that the Wiltfather is very self-sufficient and that’s a key thing with allies. When taking allies the units you bring need to be able to do their job without requiring support. This is a big reason shooting allies are always useful, Heartpiercers and a flying lightning bolt Unicorn will do their job in any army. But taking ratkin allies isn’t going to be that useful since their non-shooting units rely on interlocking auras/bubbles/items in order to function well.
How to bring him
Now for the unlocking unit, I’m going to offer 2 options I think work the best with him. There are 12 total units you can take to bring a Wiltfather, but I think overall these offer the best mix of points cost and potential.
Centaur Bray-Striders, the cav no one takes. I love this unit overall, as it natively does 5-6 wounds against defense 5, and against defense 4 they’re swinging 7 wounds through. Add in their 14/16 nerve and a point cost of 160 pts, and it’s a very well-costed unit for what you’re getting. They can serve as hitty chaff or a combat threat depending on the opponent. This is a unit that meshes really well in armies that aren’t Herd and Forces of Nature but tends to get overshadowed by other units in its native list.
P.S. RC please bring back the centaur living legend from 2nd ed, the units are cool and he was a fun idea.
Naiad Heartpiercers are an obvious take. This unit doesn’t mesh with the Wiltfather, but they don’t really have to either. Unless the army you want to ally the Wiltfather into already has a Steady Aim firebolt thrower these add a nice tool to the box. Effectively ten, 18” LB, goes great in almost any list, and in the scope of NS their Firebolt unit is pretty bad.
For me personally, I like to use the Centaurs as my unlocking unit. In other armies like Rhordia or Goblins if I was allying this package in, the Heartpiercers would win out. Going back to the NS overview, Centaurs and the Wiltfather add some much-needed consistency. Yes, the centaurs are def 4+, but you get these 3+ melee units to contrast the Fiend hordes and support the Butchers.
Putting It All Together
With all of this in mind, the build I’ve been running and took to Masters is this
2 Butcher Hordes
2 Fiend Hordes, 1 with Elite
1 Regiment of Soulflayers
2 Mind Screech
1 Planar Apparition
1 Horror w bc2/weakness 2 and Conjurors Staff
Shakira The Wailing Shadow
Portal of Despair
1 Regiment of Centaur Bray Striders
Wiltfather
There are 13 units and 22 US, 11 of the units are scoring. Probably most notable there are both 0 units of chaff and up to 6 units of chaff, depending on the scenario. That’s a personal playstyle that I’ve come to enjoy, but other players’ mileage may vary. Many of the units here hit for about 6-7 wounds vs def 5, which is the multi-charge threshold for me. That’s enough where any 2 of the combat units can charge a 15/17 def 5 unit and reliably win that fight allowing me freedom in deployment and movement. Especially when you pair it with the Wiltfathers Cloak of Death and Dread from the planar/shakira/portal which helps immensely in the def 6 matchups the army normally can struggle with.
Cloak of Death is one of the most powerful rules in the game at this time. The ability to ignore Defense for free damage and apply it on charges pushes the odds in your favor. Making a 15/17 large infantry horde 14/16 means your hammer unit that averages 10 wounds is now 14% more likely to break the target. Then add in NS ability to take Dread in mass, and now that 15/17 unit is 13/15 before rolling dice, and you get a total 25% increase in odds to rout a unit, and over the course of multiple games that adds up in your overall finish. This is where Shakira (Esenyshr) is very useful as a flying, CS 3, Strider, Dread ball of fury that can reasonably 1 shot 15/17 units when paired with the Wiltfather and that’s all on 70mm of total frontage making it very hard to protect. The two together don’t have to be in combat with the same unit to project that Nerve bomb, making it pretty useful for both shooting past/around them or supporting adjacent combat.
Consistency has long been a struggle for me with NS, but having access to a Def 6 wall that punches like a dragon and supports the army with his Cloak of Death has paid dividends on the table. As an ally he is unique, no other Cloak of Death unit available as an ally is as self-sufficient. Goreblights Shamble and can struggle to keep up, the Chroneus is solid but requires more support and isn’t an offensive juggernaut. Nothing really comes close to the complete package you get with the Wiltfather and I both encourage players to try him out, see how you can build around this unique unit.
