Mantic gave us a treat last month by dropping brand new-rules along with some new models for Nightstalkers. After looking through the lists quite extensively and playing a few games I am here to break down the changes and talk through some new options you might expect to see more of going forward.
The GOOD
We love some good unit buffs! The following units got the most notable improvements.
Mind-screech (Planar Apparition Upgrade): For a 15 point drop in price and the loss of some attacks it was probably never going to use, the new Planar Apparition now has Radiance of Life, which really leans into it being a support / healing focused unit. The raw healing output for a scoring monster is almost impossible to find elsewhere — I put this guy in an easy top of A Tier. The biggest issue that stops it from being S Tier is that if you want to take these along with the Singing Aberrations (the previous Mind-screech), you will quickly find yourself at the Rule of 3 limit.
Terror: I think the biggest winner of the updates, the Terror is now a specialized infantry-killing machine. A massive RAMPAGE 8 more than makes up for its small loss in Speed and Crushing Strength. To top it off it got an increase to Defense 4, which will really help it against shooting. I think the Terror really shines in its role now.
Shadowhounds: A very cool new rule lets these guys really shine in their damage support role. Does it make up for their fragility in a list with many other fast, hard-hitting units? Time will tell.
The BAD
Luckily there weren’t too many “nerfs,” but the following is worth mentioning.
Mind Screech (huh?): What is now considered the Singing Aberration upgrade comes in at the exact same points but with the small loss of Pathfinder. Worse, the grouping of Mind-screech and Planar Apparition limits the ability to take them both in the same army. This restriction especially hurts given the buff mentioned above and that when you take rules like Lighting Bolt and Healing, you typically need to hit a critical mass to make them effective.
Butcher Fleshripper: Now just slightly more expensive and with the ability to be wavered with Fury, I’d say they have become a little less effective as the spammable multipurpose unit we saw in so many lists last year. Overall I would say this change makes the most sense and although 10 points doesn’t sound like much, its an almost 10% cost increase.
And the… NEW
What did you think I was going to say?
Ravagers: Butchers are popular… let’s make them shoot? While it is easy to compare them to Ogre Boomers, I think Ravagers make a lot more sense in Nightstalkers and can be a lot more effective for many reasons. The high Nerve and Stealthy really helps keep them alive, and the shorter range requiring moving closer to enemies means they are likely to benefit from the Mindthirst rule. Lastly, Nightstalkers have many other tools and spells to really compliment short range shooting which I’ll get into later.
Tormentors: Leaper is a very creative rule that take a big step into empowering infantry. You might ask if you can really consider a unit with Fly, Nimble and Speed 7 to be “infantry,” to which I would say, I play Dwarfs so everything over Speed 5 feels the same to me. They have great offensive hitting power but it does come with a hefty price tag and they make everything else in the army look like Ironclad by comparison.
ARMY LISTS
With a bunch of new options, I wanted to highlight three list archetypes that seem playable. Below is my attempt at making an army with each of them. I am sure there are more ways to play, but in limited testing I think any one of these could have some success. There are also a lot of variances.
First up… our old favorite!
The core of this build utilizes the twin-linked Shadow Hulks and Terrors to their maximum potential. They really need to hit the right targets, but when they do, it’ll be a beautiful thing to watch.
The biggest weakness of the list is that it’s a bit slow, so it uses the Soulflayers for a bit of reach and the Scarecrows as a wave of chaff. It’s best to think of the rest of the army as a delivery system for the big baddies. Next up…
Infantry!
Ok, although the whole list isn’t infantry, I think it still counts. The core game plan of the list is keeping one troop of Tormentors behind each horde of Scarecrows, waiting for their time to strike. The Horror doubles down on the hitting power of the Tormentors with a well-timed combination of Bane Chant and Vicious for pivotal combats.
The Portal and Mind-screeches play pivotal support roles that give a little bit of reach in an otherwise static list, while the Dread-fiends and Phantoms get to play down the flanks.
Lastly, my favorite of the styles, what can be called the “Pull and Push.”
The game plan here is pretty straightforward — a wall of Ravagers threatens to eliminate whatever target gets within 18″ of them. Your opponent smartly puts their army 18.5″ away, what now? Say hello to a combination of Enthrall to suck units into the zone of death and then Wind Blast anything that lives or gets too close.
This list can be very tricky to play against as it’s hard to calculate exactly all the push and pull moves that can be done to each unit as well as keeping track of the angles from the Soulflayers that might catch a unit off guard. Sometimes it can just be fun to pull an opponent out of terrain to remove Cover and kill a unit that was thought safe. The obvious downside is that the list is fragile and runs quite elite as Banshees don’t come cheap.
I hope you are having as much fun as I am playing with the new units and new army lists! Introducing armies one-by-one really helps to get our creative juices flowing by being able to focus solely on one list. We’ll see how many archetypes come out of the Northern Alliance and Twilight Kin as they come out shortly!
