by Calvin Rarie

At long fucking last, the dark times are over and the age of jank has ended–FEC has gotten their battletome!  

I am so excited to break this one down, and I am deep in the sauce on this one.  Sprinkled throughout the review are some observations as well as some neat ideas for combos that I think are gonna be bangers. Let’s get started.

BATTLE TRAITS

Of surprise to no one, all FLESH-EATER COURTS units get a 6+ ward.  The really, REALLY important trait for Flesh-Eater Courts (FEC) is the Noble Deeds system which enables the new versions of Feeding Frenzy, Muster, and the new “Summon” Loyal Subjects traits–more on those in a second.

Noble Deeds take the form of points that are earned 1 point at a time by FEC heroes in the following ways, to a maximum of 6 deed points per hero:

• Each spell successfully cast = 1 deed point
• Each successful prayer = 1 deed point
• Each wound/mortal wound allocated by the hero to an enemy unit = 1 deed point
  • Wounds/mortal wounds allocated by mounts don’t count.

There are other ways to get deed points, which we’ll get to later on, but let’s focus on what deed points do:

1. Feeding Frenzy: A FEC hero with 6 deed points gives out a 12” bubble of +1 attack for friendly FEC units wholly within the bubble.  That’s right, double fighting is dead–long live All Out Attack! Six deed points may seem like a lot, but there are ways to almost trivialize this number that is coming up.
   1. Volume of attacks is how FEC wins fights.  There is basically no way to buff rend on melee attacks in this army, so instead FEC grinds opponents out by just drowning them in attacks with mediocre stats.
   2. This is a dice bucket army for the most part, just a heads up.
2. Muster Guard:  This is a COURTIER only ability that’s been stripped from Warscrolls and made into a battle trait, which works like this:
   1. At the END OF YOUR MOVEMENT PHASE, each of your COURTIER heroes can spend 1 deed point to bring back one slain SERFS model or 2 deed points to bring back one slain KNIGHT model to a friendly unit within 10” of them, and you can keep spending points until your Courtiers are out/all slain models are returned.
3. Summon Loyal Subjects:  This replaces all the weird summoning warscroll abilities across your ABHORRANT units with a pretty sexy new recursion mechanic:
   1. At the end of your movement phase, each Abhorrant can spend 6 deed points to return a destroyed SERFS/KNIGHTS unit to the battlefield wholly within 6” of the table edge, more than 9” from enemy units.  The returned unit can only come back once since it is a replacement unit, and it comes back at half-strength rounded up–but the missing models in the unit count as having been slain and can be Mustered and Rallied like normal.

Yeah, uh, that’s pretty damn good.  Picture this for a moment:  your opponent spends forever killing a block of 9 Crypt Horrors (who are Knights) on their turn.  On your turn at the end of your movement phase, your Abhorrant Archregent parked in the corner the whole game burns 6 deed points to bring them back, giving you 5 Horrors on the table, and then your Courtier hanging out in the same spot burns 2 deed points to add 1 of the slain Crypt Horrors back to the unit exactly 1” away.  Congratulations, by adding that one Crypt Horror back on a 50mm base (just under 2”) at 1” away, you’ve shaved off 2” off the charge.

HEROIC ACTIONS

We got two new ones, and they’re great! Note: these can be done in EACH hero phase, and not just your own.

1. Rousing Oration: Pick 1 friendly FEC hero and a roll a dice for each other FEC unit wholly within 12”, and gain noble deed points on a 5+.
   1. You are going to generate a shitload of deed points very quickly this way, especially if you run things in minimum-strength units (MSU).
2. Scent of Blood: Pick 1 friendly FEC hero and make a d6” move towards any enemy unit that has a wound, but you must finish that move more than 3” away from enemy units.
   1. Free movement is great.
   2. RAW, you can actually walk out of combat this away provided you aren’t completely surrounded.

MONSTROUS RAMPAGES

These are keyword restricted to ROYAL TERRORGHEISTS and ROYAL ZOMBIE DRAGONS, sorry Ushoran!

1. Delectable Appetizers: Pick an enemy unit within 3” with a wounds characteristic of 2 or less, and roll a dice.  On a 3+, that unit takes d3 Mortal Wounds and for each MW allocated and not negated, you heal that many.
   1. This is a strictly better Stomp vs small infantry units.
   2. This is also just straight up a Second Stomp, so two Dragons can can cause 2d3 mortal wounds at the end of the charge phase.
2. Bloodcurdling Shriek: Pick one enemy unit within 3” and roll a dice. On a 3+ that unit is -2 to bravery until end of turn.
   1. Considering Zombie Dragons and Terrorgheists turn off inspiring presence for anything unlucky enough to be in combat with them, this can be absolutely DEVASTATING in certain scenarios.

But this isn’t all, because the real star of the show is:

COURTS OF DELUSION

The Courts are army-wide buffs that you choose in the first battle round after starting command points are received and before the first turn (T1) starts:

• +1 to Wound rolls against Monsters
• +1 to Run and Charge rolls
• +1 to Save rolls for friendly FEC units contesting objectives
• +1 to hit rolls for your non-General heroes that made a charge.
  • Spoilers: Ushoran’s a Warmaster, so he never gets this buff
• Feast Day: Feeding Frenzy activates with 4 Noble Deed points instead of 6.

Look, I’m not gonna beat around the bush here. I only named the last one because unironically in the overwhelming majority of cases it’s the only one you’ll ever pick.  A 33% reduction in deed points requirements means there’s gonna be a lot of cases where you can get all 4 in the first turn.  It also means that if you do burn the points to bring back a dead unit/muster slain models you recover those points MUCH faster.

The next best one is +1 to run and charge since we do have quite a few deepstriking units in the book.  +1 to wound vs monsters is goddamn hilariously strong if your opponent is playing Sons of Behemat, and +1 to save while standing objectives is good, but generally speaking the army almost exclusively is on 5+ saves at best.  That said, a Ghoul King on some form of giant monster can get a ludicrously high amount of +1s, all the way to a +4 to save (Mystic Shield, All out Defense, Finest Hour, Delusion).

You’re basically NEVER going to take +1 to hit rolls for your non-general heroes, since if you take Ushoran (who is a Warmaster) at best this is going to affect 4 other heroes if you max out your leader slots.

And while all of these are, in fact, ranging from pretty good to “Why would you not just always take this?”, we still have one more piece to the puzzle:

SUBFACTIONS

All four are back, and hooboy are they different.  I’d like to say, first off, just like every other 3.0 book, we’ve lost the compulsory sub-faction locked command trait and artefact system. Good fucking riddance.

Let’s jump into each:

1. MORGAUNT: FEC Heroes contesting objectives at the end of turn gain 1 Noble Deed point.
   1. This is pretty good, especially since it’s at the end of each turn, and not just your own.  By going 2nd in Round 1 and keeping your heroes on objectives, you get two points per hero.  If you have Feast Day as your Court of Delusion, you’re halfway to Feeding Frenzy!
2. BLISTERSKIN:  ABHORRANTS gain the Priest keyword but can’t cast and pray if they’re also a Wizard.
   1. Yes, you read that right, we’ve got DEATH PRIESTS!  Which is funny since you can take Nagash in FEC, so I recommend turning your priests to face Nagash while praying.
   2. The prayer lore is pretty sweet, but this also gives you the rare ability to interact with Invocations.
   3. Rules as written, a Priest + Wizard hero on your turn could give up their chanting roll to dispel an endless spell and still cast like normal, or give up a casting roll to dispel an endless spell and pray like normal. Same is true for unbinding.
3. HOLLOWMOURNE:  Knights get +1 to Damage if they charge, but doesn’t affect mount attacks.
   1. Tactical finesse is for cowards.
   2. From a pure statistical perspective, if you want to absolutely fucking maul your opponents as fast as possible, this is the one.  Damage 3 Crypt Horrors? Damage 2 Crypt Flayers?  Yes please.
4. GRISTLEGORE:  At the start of YOUR combat phase, you can give one friendly GRISTLEGORE Monster strike-first.
   1. The fact that this used to be a compulsory command trait and is now something you get to pick and choose at will in your combat phase is an enormous glow-up.
   2. However, this is honestly a very restrictive bonus, because this presumes you’re taking a LOT of monsters, which thankfully Gristlegore lets you do since unmounted monsters become Battleline. In short, I probably would not take this subfaction unless you went deep on monsters since being able to apply Strike-First at will can severely swing combat in your favor.
   3. For instance, giving a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist the ability to strike-first means you can rack up Noble Deed points and potentially turn on Feeding Frenzy for your next activation.

That wraps up Battle Traits, but before we get too much further, I’m going to try something new here.  Since Enhancements are tied to keywords (like Wizard or Priest), I figure it would make things easier to put into perspective exactly what is what in relation to keywords:

ABHORRANTS	COURTIERS	SERFS	KNIGHTS
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon	Varghulf Courtier	Crypt Ghouls	Crypt Horrors
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorgheist	Crypt Ghast Coutier	Royal Beastflayers	Crypt Flayers
Abhorrant Ghoul King	Crypt Infernal Courtier	Cryptguard (NEW)	Morbheg Knights (NEW)
Abhorrant Archregent	Crypt Haunter Courtier
Abhorrant Cardinal (NEW)	Royal Decapitator (NEW)
Abhorrant Gorewarden (NEW)	Marrowscroll Herald
Grand Justice Goremayne (NEW)

ENHANCEMENTS

The long and short of it is the number of enhancements are down to three of each type, with there being three command traits and artefacts each for ABHORRANTS and COURTIERS, and three mount traits for Zombie Dragon and Terrorgheist mounts respectively.

For ABHORRANTS:

• COMMAND TRAITS:
  • Shadowy Obfuscation: your general is invisible to enemy units more than 12” away from it.
    • This is my slam dunk go-to.  You’re likely always making an Abhorrant your general, one way or the other, and the most common one you’ll see out there is a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, which gets a hell of a lot more terrifying for your opponents since they can’t interact with it unless they’re within 12”–y’know, charging distance.
  • Feverish Scholar: +1 to cast/unbind/dispel, or +2 to if the general has 6 deed points.
    • The most efficient way of getting deed points is by staying the Charnel Throne, which anchors your hero in place.  While the spell ranges for our spells are at MINIMUM 18”, that’s not super long range.  A +1 is always generically good, but don’t bank on the +2 coming up often.  
    • This is best on an Abhorrant Archregent, who is our only two-cast wizard.
  • Master of the Menageries:  Instead of returning a SERFS or KNIGHTS unit using the “Summon Loyal Subjects” ability, instead return a slain non-hero FEC MONSTER to the battlefield with 6 wounds allocated.
    • I, uh, almost passed out at this one.  As far as I am aware this is the first time in the game’s history where MONSTERS can come back from the dead except for Alarielle in Sylvaneth.*  
    • If you’re in Gristlegore and you have 2-3 Battleline Dragons/Gheists, you’re taking this.  At 6 wounds allocated, an unmounted MONSTER isn’t even bracketed yet.
    • Again, this best goes on an Archregent, who is camping in the backfield. You’ll see why in a moment.
• ARTEFACTS:
  • Grim Garland: -1 bravery for enemy units within 9” of the bearer.
    • Not bad on mounted Ghoul Kings since they prevent inspiring presence, but pass.
  • Blood-river Chalice:  1/game heal 2d3 wounds.
    • This is a sick amount of recovery and helps keep your mounted kings alive a lot longer.
  • Heart of the Gargant: 1/game +1 to melee attacks for the bearer, including their mounts.
    • If you’re taking this it’s going on a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist so you can fish for more sixes on the Fanged Maw.  

For COURTIERS:

• COMMAND TRAITS:
  • Stronger in Madness: +2 to wounds, and a 5+ ward while the general has 6 deed points.
    • So this one’s weird.  If you put this on a Varghulf Courtier, he’s going to get that 5+ ward in no time since he is a DPS beast, but then he moves to 10 wounds and can longer hide in Wyldwoods.  
    • Honestly, if I was taking ANY Courtiers as a general, it’d probably be the Marrowscroll Herald so I can sit him in the Charnel Throne, give him this Command Trait, and make him as tough as possible to kill to score the “Defend the Throne” grand strategy.
  • Cruel Taskmaster: Reduces the cost of mustering KNIGHTS to 1 deed point, and increases the number of SERFS returned to 2 SERFS per 1 deed point.
    • If you want the most efficient mobile support piece in a COURTIER general, this is probably the Command Trait to take.  A Crypt Infernal Courtier leading a pack of Crypt Flayers around in Blisterskin will LOVE this command trait.
    • Morgaunt Courtier Generals love this one too, since it means contesting objectives gives them deed points, which means bringing back a lot of models faster.
  • Savage Beyond Reason: melee attacks from the General gain exploding 6s to hit, and while they have 6 noble deed points, each 6 to hit is 3 hits instead of 2.
    • If you’re taking this, you’re putting it on a Varghulf Courtier, because he can dump out a lot of attacks, especially under Feeding Frenzy.
• ARTEFACTS:
  • Medal of Madness: 1/game issue a command for free without spending any CP, and the bearer is treated as a general when they do so.
    • This is filler garbage no one is ever going to take.
  • The Flayed Pennant:  re-roll charge rolls for friendly FEC units while they are wholly within 12” of the bearer.
    • Yeah this is awesome, especially on your super-mobile Courtiers like Crypt Infernals or Varghulfs.  Getting to put a 12” re-roll charge bubble wherever you want is just great value.
  • Charnel Vestments:  The bearer becomes a priest.
    • Well this is a first–instead of a book, putting on a smock turns you into a priest. Who knew?
    • The prayers in this book are genuinely quite good, but so is gaining access to Curse.  Ghouls may not hurt a lot in combat, but a unit that eats a Curse is going to get absolutely blasted by 80+ Ghoul attacks doing mortals on 6s.

In summary, what’s likely going to happen is you’ll generally be taking an Abhorrant general for the overall better Command Traits, and if you have any Courtiers, they’re likely to be the one to get the artefact.

SPELL LORE

Those crazy bastards at GW let FEC keep their bonus effects on their spells on MODIFIED casting rolls unlike their less-deranged cousins in Soulblight.  That said, there’s only 3 spells, but they are awesome:

• Miasmal Shroud:  CV 6, 18” range, pick an enemy unit
  • Okay, it’s a mouthful, but basically you roll 6 dice, or 8 dice if the casting roll is 10 or higher, and the spell does different things depending on how many of the same dice value pop up, but you can’t apply the same effect twice:
    • 2 or more same values: 1 mortal wound
    • 3 or more same values: -1 to hit
    • 4 or more same value: -1 to wound
      • You more or less get 20% higher odds of getting any of the above values with 8 dice over 6 dice, so if you’re really digging for the debuffs, you’ll want to pump Primal Dice into it.  Or use Nagash. Or both.
• Deranged Transformation: CV 6, 24” Range, pick 1 friendly FEC unit with a wounds characteristic of 7 or less +2” to movement and +1 to Wound rolls for attacks.  On a 10+, pick 3 friendly units wholly within range instead of 1.
  • This excludes all Monster Units and the Varghulf Courtier due to the Wounds characteristic restriction, heads up.
  • This is absolutely hilarious on blocks of Flayers, since it applies to shooting attacks as well as melee attacks.  
  • If you’re not taking Gristlegore, this is probably the Spell you’re bringing with you.
• Crimson Victuals: CV 6, Range 18”, pick an enemy unit within range and a friendly FEC unit with a wounds characteristic of 1 within 6” of that enemy unit, and deal d3 mortal wounds to the enemy unit. For each mortal wound not negated, return a slain model to the FEC unit you picked.  On a 10+, do 2d3 Mortal Wounds.
  • If you’re taking this, you’re taking enormous blocks of Serfs.  
  • There is minor debate on whether or not you can pick an enemy unit that doesn’t have an eligible FEC unit within 6” of it.  If so, this is a better arcane bolt.  If not, then don’t take it if you don’t have many SERFS.

PRAYERS

The only way to get these is to be the Abhorrant Cardinal, be a Courtier with the Charnel Vestments artefact, or being an Abhorrant in the Blisterskin subfaction.

• Bless This Meal:  on a 3+ pick an enemy unit within 18” and all your FEC units within 6” of that unit gain a wound each time a model from that enemy unit gets slain.
  • Note that this doesn’t require melee attacks to get the healing.  You could walk up a barely alive Zombie Dragon to the target unit, shoot it with Pestilential Breath, and heal a wound for each model slain. Then charge and stomp/appetise the enemy unit and gain even MORE wounds back.
  • This is a slam dunk in Gristlegore, don’t leave home without it if you can.
• The Summer-King’s Favour:  On a 3+ pick a friendly FEC hero wholly within 18” and that hero gains 1 additional noble deed point each time it slays an enemy model.
  • Again, this isn’t restricted to melee, so mounted Ghoul King shooting can let them rack up points before diving into combat.
• Charnel Conviction:  on a 3+, pick 1 friendly FEC unit wholly within 18” to gain a 5+ ward.
  • This is an ENORMOUS survivability buff on your Knight bricks as well as your Ghoul blobs.  Crypt Ghouls come in multiples of 20 now, so you want to make the toughest possible brick of Ghouls, give 60 of them a 5+ ward and wish your opponent luck in killing them all.

MOUNT TRAITS

• For mounted ZOMBIE DRAGONS:
  • Baneful Breath: +1 rend to Pestilential Breath.
    • Neat, but not particularly useful.
  • Death from the Skies: put the mounted Zombie Dragon into reserves during Deployment, letting you deepstrike him in outside of 9” enemy units.
    • Pair this with the Archregent’s warscroll spell to really get your Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon exactly where you want him.
  • Venerated Zombie Dragon:  +1 to hit rolls for friendly FEC Monster units wholly within 12” of this unit.
    • If you are taking Gristlegore and want mass Zombie Dragons, this is the way. This is an INSANE buff, since it improves not just melee but shooting as well.
• For Mounted TERRORGHEISTS:
  • Gruesome Bite: +1 Fanged Maw attacks
    • The re-rolling Fanged Maw hits ability is now the Ghoul King of Terrorgheist’s warscroll spell, so while this potentially gets you 6 more mortal wounds, I’d probably pass on this.
  • Horribly Resilient: the Royal Blood ability heals 2d3 wounds instead of d3.
    • This is probably the one to take on a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist.  Being only 16 wounds on a 4+ save can be a bit of a liability since chip damage will eventually drag your Ghoul King down, so any amount of good healing is welcome.
  • Morbheg’s Swiftness: Retreat and charge.
    • Retreat and charge on a massive base like the mounted Ghoul King’s means hopping over enemy lines isn’t a sure thing, but it helps keep your big beatstick as mobile as possible.

For me, if I’m bringing a Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon it’s only going to be in Gristlegore with Venerated Zombie Dragon and lots of other Zombie Dragons to buff their shooting.

I’m bringing a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, it’s a tougher choice.  I’m a big, big fan of mobility, so I’ll likely be taking Morbheg’s Swiftness personally, but the likely answer is just to take Horribly Resilient to squeeze every once out of survivability out of your noble lord on steed.

That’s Enhancements in a nutshell.  We’ll jump into Matched Play stuff at the end, as most of it is keyword locked, so it will help to know what we’re referencing and what your best options are, before we talk about Battle Tactics and Grand Strategies.

WARSCROLLS

Much like our friends at Goonhammer, we’re breaking these down by Keyword rather than battlefield role.  The only generic battleline in the book are Crypt Ghouls, and you can see all the conditional battleline here:

Unit Name	Conditional Battleline if…
Royal Terrorgheist & Royal Zombie Dragon	GRISTLEGORE
Crypt Flayers	BLISTERSKIN
Crypt Horrors	HOLLOWMOURNE
Cryptguard	MORGAUNT
Morbheg Knights	ABHORRANT GOREWARDEN GENERAL

With that said, let’s look at Abhorrants–outside of the mounted versions we’re not going to talk about combat profile, as they basically all have the standard foot hero schtick of 5 Attacks 3+/3+/-1/2D.

Ushoran himself is worthy of an entire article himself, which fellow Craic Head Patrick Nevan has talked about at the link, so we’re going to start with the original Abhorrants and work our way into the new ones.

• Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorgheist (450) + Abhorrant Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon (440)
  • They’ve gained 2 wounds, sitting pretty at 16 wounds on a 4+ save.  While not exactly durable, they pack quite a punch and move quite fast, starting at 14” and degrading as they take damage.  Additionally, the Ghoul Kings themselves FINALLY have Damage 2 on their attacks.
  • Ghoul Kings on Terrorgheist (and Terrorgheists in general) kept the old ability to do a flat 6 Mortal Wounds on unmodified 6s to hit for the Maw.  The Ghoul King’s spell–which used to grant a 5+ ward–is now a CV 6, 12” range spell that hands out the re-rolls to hit on the Maw that used to be a mount trait.
  • Ghoul Kings on the Dragon play entirely different roles now, and are actually worth considering being taken!  FEC Zombie Dragons now have the same shooting that their SBGL counterparts have, and the same is true for the Ghoul King on one.  His warscroll spell is now radically different, and designed for Monster Mash lists, granting an 18” pulse that gives friendly FEC monsters wholly within range run and charge for the turn.
  • Additionally, most forms of Terrorgheist and Zombie dragon in the army now have the Terror rule, which prevents Inspiring Presence from being issued to enemy units within 3” of them, further increasing their impact.
  • Putting Shadowy Obfuscation on a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist is incredibly powerful, so if your opponent has gunlines they’re going to really struggle to do meaningful damage to him before he gets to connect.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Terrorgheist-mounted Ghoul King in most lists.
  • Kings on Dragon are a bit different, and are instead a support unit that buffs all the monsters around them. You’ll likely not want to make him your general, since in Gristlegore you REALLY want Master of the Menagerie to bring back slain non-mounted Monsters.  But if you go full hero hammer for Gristlegore, comboing the Venerated Zombie Dragon mount-trait and Shadowy Obfuscation will create a VERY powerful base to start from.
  • Final note: Ghoul Kings on Zombie Dragon benefit the most from Flaming Weapons as a spell, since their Skeletal Claws have 7 attacks, and basically any other spell just doesn’t do a lot for them beyond maybe Miasmal Shroud.
• Abhorrant Arch-Regent (150)
  • Still a 2 cast wizard, hooray!  Now that summoning has changed, his points cratered, which is a good thing because boy oh boy does he have some spice.
  • First off, at the start of your hero phase he can add back 3 Serfs or 1 Knight to a friendly unit within 18”–not wholly within, just within.
  • Second off, his spell is now COMPLETELY different. Where it used to add d3 extra attacks at 24”, it now does this:
    • CV6 board wide–friendly FEC units being set up at the end of the movement phase get to move d6”.
    • The implications and applications of this spell are almost infinite.  This affects:
      • Units coming out of deepstrike, like Zombie Dragons or Crypt Flayers/Morbheg Knights that went into deepstrike with an Abhorrant Gorewarden;
      • Units being set up at the end of movement phase due to the Summon Loyal Subjects battle trait;
      • Units coming out of Garrisons (when it’s applicable).
    • There is so much flexibility here with this spell that the sky is literally the limit, and I am VERY looking forward to comboing this guy with Master of the Menagerie in Gristlegore.
• Abhorrant Ghoul King (130)
  • Still a 1 cast wizard.
  • He can now “duel” enemy heroes at the start of the combat phase which gives him +1 damage against that hero, but that implies you’re going to be able to make that happen reliably.
  • His warscroll spell, which used to give out an extra attack, now gives him the ability to make a 3d6” charge in the hero phase, and if successful it gives him Strike First in the combat phase.  Which is uh, cool I guess, and there’s a pretty funny combo involving the Ghoul King, a Gorewarden and Levitate which will be in the combos article coming up, but for now you pretty much have no reason to ever take this this guy.
• Abhorrant Gorewarden (150)
  • He flies, he deepstrikes, and can bring 1 unit of CRYPT FLAYERS or MORBHEG Knights with him in Deepstrike. That’s all pretty good considering he also moves 12”!
  • His Warscroll spell is kinda weird, in that it’s a teleport spell that affects him and one FEC unit with fly, letting them both teleport across the table, but they can’t move in the following movement phase.
• Abhorrant Cardinal (120)
  • The cheapest Abhorrant out there, which is kind of a big deal since you really need them to keep the table full of loyal subjects.
  • He is the aforementioned Death Priest, and doesn’t do anything other than pray.
  • His warscroll prayer lets you pick an enemy unit within 18” and visible to him on a 4+ and until your next hero phase, you roll a dice every time that enemy unit receives a command–on a 4+ that command has no effect.
  • The warscroll prayer is honestly pretty good, and he’s cheap and can carry another prayer without having to dip into Blisterskin to unlock priesthood for your other Abhorrants.
• Grand Justice Gormayne (140–Unique)
  • Okay, I left this guy for last because Gormayne is one of the most ridiculous units I’ve seen in a long time.  This little guy is in the same spectrum of “What the fuck?” that Pontifex Zenestra has, and you can bet his points are NOT going to stay at 140 for long.
  • Basically, he has a warscroll ability–not a prayer and not a spell–that activates in your hero that has INFINITE RANGE and only requires visibility to do the following that affect YOUR ENTIRE ARMY:
    • Pick 1 enemy unit, roll a dice, and on a 3+ your units get +1 to wound against that unit.
    • Pick 1 enemy unit more than 3” from all enemy units, roll a dice, and on a 3+ your army gets run and charge against that unit.
    • Pick 1 enemy unit within 3” of a friendly ABHORRANT, roll a dice, and on a 3+ your army gets +1 to hit against that unit.
    • Pick 1 enemy unit that has slain an ABHORRANT this turn, roll a dice, and on a 3+ your army gets +1 damage against that unit.
  • Again, that’s not a prayer or a spell, it’s just a thing he does.  You could park your Charnel Throne in the back corner and he could just point at things and make them die, more or less. 
  • Bonus points for taking this guy in Blisterskin and making him a priest, so he can do both his warscroll ability AND a prayer in the same turn.

That’s it for the royalty, now to move on to the landed gentry that are the Courtiers.

• Crypt Ghast Courtier (100) and Crypt Haunter Courtier (140)
  • Since Muster is a battle trait now, all they do is the combat trick of immediately activating a Crypt Ghoul unit or Crypt Horror unit respectively immediately after the Courtier fights.  Seriously, that’s all they do. While the Haunter hits like a truck, it just isn’t worth the points investment. I don’t recommend taking them.
• Crypt Infernal Courtier (145)
  • NOW we’re talking! Instead of doing tandem activations like his lamer counterparts, instead the Infernal has an awesome trick where until the end of the phase, Crypt Flayers wholly within 9” of him gain +1 damage on their shooting attacks if the Infernal’s shooting attack slayed any models.
  • As a bit of a spoiler, you can get a block of 9 Crypt Flayers to have a shooting profile of 36A/3+/2+/-2/2D when supported by the Infernal and some other buffs.  That is a LUDICROUS amount of damage at range.
• Varghulf Courtier (165)
  • Firstly, there’s more than one head on the sprue, so if you think his dumpy head from the box art is all there is, rest assured there’s some better options for you.
  • Secondly, the re-rolls are gone, and the Varghulf lost fly, but gained an ability that lets him ignore terrain when he moves.  I would like to vote him in as an honorary Spiderfang unit.
  • After the end of the combat phase, if the Varghulf slayed any models, it heals D6 wounds and can immediately retreat.  Getting heroes stuck in combat is sometimes something that needs to be avoided at all cost, so having that as an ability really helps keep the army mobile.
  • His damage was buffed a bit, with his Dagger-like Fangs going straight to 3 damage instead of d3, but the REAL buff here is the King’s Champion ability: at the start of the combat phase you can give the Varghulf two extra attacks, but it can only pick a unit with a wounds characteristic of 1 or 2 that isn’t mounted to fight.
    • While the damage buff there is pretty awesome, this can create some wild scenarios where if you need to charge with the Varghulf and have it not kill the unit it charged (e.g. for achieving a battle tactic(, just pop King’s Champion if the enemy unit isn’t made up of small infantry and you just don’t do any attacks.
• Marrowscroll Herald (100)
  • Completely unchanged since he was released in Dawnbringers, but he has actually gone WAY up in value, as he has a few things going for him:
    • He costs 100 points, making him tied for cheapest hero in the book;
    • He’s invisible while within 6” of 5 or more other friendly FEC models. Hilariously this still applies even while he’s in combat, so something like Arcane Bolt can’t be used on him.
  • Park him in your throne to score the Defend the Throne Grand Strategy while surrounded by some Serfs, give him the Charnel Vestments artefact and have him shoot for Guidance every turn and you’ve got a solid command point battery going all game.
• Royal Decapitator (100)
  • This little guy has a lot going for him, namely in that for a 100 point hero he’s REALLY hard hitting– 3A/4+/3+/-2/3D.
  • That kind of damage output means he’s going to max out on Noble Deed points in no time, which is great because after he fights he can make a SERFS unit fight immediately if they are wholly within 9” of him and within 3” of enemy units.
  • The real funny bit about him is he’s a mini-Neferata, in that if he wounds a hero but fails to kill them, at the end of the combat you roll a dice and on a 5+ that enemy hero is slain.  While it’s not super likely to happen, you could turn him into a miniature cruise missile by giving him Arcane Tome and taking Lauchon the Soulseeker, letting him rampage across the map hunting heads.

That’s all the heroes–err, I mean nobility!  Next up on the menu are the gallant KNIGHTS of the realm, who are here to bring the hurt on the enemies of Ushoran.

• Crypt Horrors (130)
  • No changes from the Dawnbringers book except they moved from Bargain status to just cheap status.  Hollowmourne Horrors hit like dump trucks, jumping from 2D to 3D and they still have +1 damage on 6s to wound.
  • The increase in damage from Hollowmourne makes up for the lost of the ludicrous amount of attacks these guys could roll all at once in the original book, and this time it means they get All-Out Attack.
  • In a world of Hoarfrost, Horrors are king with the insane amount of damage they can put out.
• Crypt Flayers (160)
  • Still the same from Dawnbringers, but cheaper this time at a MUCH more reasonable 160.  
  • While backed up by a Crypt Infernal Courtier, these guys make incredible skirmishers, especially in Hollowmourne.
  • Now that Feeding Frenzy is an aura ability, being able to use the Escort ability to chauffeur our foot heroes around is a big, big deal in keeping the pressure going. Take a block of 6 and have them carry around an untargetable Marrowscroll Herald with Cruel Taskmaster to keep the fight going.
• Morbheg Knights (150)
  • Yeah, these aren’t staying at 150 for long.
  • The newest Knights on the block, the Morbheg are highly mobile mounted ghouls-at-arms, with the mounts doing the most work at 2D and the riders at only 1D.  Morbheg actually get the least benefit from Hollowmourne since the mounts can’t be buffed, but they’re still quite good there.
  • The Standard Bearer really opens up some nonsense–basically, on turns where the Morbheg charge, they count as 3 on objectives instead of one, which is good since they are only 3 wounds each on a 4+ save.
  • They also have a fantastic ability called Shrieking Charge which does two things after you make a successful charge:
    • Pick 1 enemy unit within 1” and that unit cannot unleash hell;
    • Roll a dice for each model in the unit that’s within 1” of the picked enemy unit, and on a 4+ that enemy unit takes d3 mortal wounds.
  • Those impact hits are so juicy that it’s worth considering taking Morbheg in exclusively MSU to maximize impacts.
  • Lastly, if you do take a big blob of Morbheg and they get locked in combat, don’t worry!  They can retreat and charge.
  • Morbheg being at 3 wounds is a bit of a liability, but only if you invest massively into them.
  • Or, you can take Nagash and bring them back either as replacement units or put one back at a time with his invocation abilities.

Rounding out our troop choices are the SERFS, the common clay of the eight realms.  

• Crypt Ghouls (160)
  • Crypt Ghouls no longer come in blocks of 10. Hooray!  You can buy a box and use it like normal now!
  • Like with Horrors and Flayers, Ghouls are still the same as they were in the Dawnbringers book, though starting at 20 Ghouls means it’s easier for them to get their Boundless Ferocities bonus (auto-wounding on hit rolls of 5+).
  • At 160, they really aren’t screens any more, though you can definitely use them that way. For me, they’re a 160 point unit that helps me score tactics, and what else do you really want in an infantry unit like this?
  • Blocks of 60 are probably too unwieldy to use, but blocks of 40 with a 5+ ward are going to be OBNOXIOUS to kill.
• Cryptguard (140)
  • Coming in squads of 10, these are the new SERFS on the block.  Combat wise, they won’t have the volume of attacks that Crypt Ghouls will–or nearly the same amount of bodies–but these guys are quite good for what you pay for them.
  • First off, they have 2” on the following profile: 2A/3+/3+/-1/1D.  Given they are on 25mm bases, that means you can fight three ranks deep with them, which is a LOT of good quality attacks.
  • If they wound an enemy unit in the combat phase, that unit can’t issue or receive commands until the end of turn–which while it won’t prevent a unit from using All-Out Defense, it WILL prevent them from receiving Inspiring Presence later in the battleshock phase.
  • They are also quite durable, with an innate 5+ ward and a really neat trick which bumps up the ward save by 1 for FEC HEROES wholly within 3” of a Crypt Guard unit.
    • Tough but doable on the big guys, they are VERY good at bubble wrapping a Charnel Throne that’s garrisoned and making the occupant very hard to kill.
    • RAW right now you can stack the +1 to Ward save, but expect that to not last long.
• Royal Beastflayers (115)
  • Still the same as always, but now they are our cheapest non-hero unit. Want a cheap-ish screen that’s relatively competent in combat?  Here you go.

And that’s the troops!  With that, we only have Endless Spells, the Charnel Throne, and the Tactics and Grand Strategies to go.

If you’re wondering about Nagash–yes he’s in the book, and for some reason he’s back to being 965.  I suspect this is because the books went to print before the battlescroll update, so he’ll PROBABLY be at 900 when the book becomes legal to play with.  I think he has real potential, but I’ll reserve talking about him in a future article.

Speaking of spellcasting, let’s talk Endless Spells:

• Cadaverous Barricade (20)
  • The current cheapest spell in the game got a significant glow-up.  It used to only halve the move distance of non-Death units within 3” of it.
  • Now, it halves the movement of ENEMY units within 3” of it, and enemy units cannot run or retreat while within 3” of it.
  • For 20 points, it’s a very, VERY hard argument not to take this unless you’re trying REALLY hard for that triumph.
• Chalice of Ushoran (50)
  • Went up by 10 points because now the chalice is PREDATORY BAYBEE. Now you don’t have to worry about moving out of the 12” bubble it provides, because it just follows you along!
  • If you’re taking Mass-Serfs, you’re bringing the Chalice. It is TOO GOOD to pass up if you’ve got 100+ 1-wound bodies to bring back, since it lets you keep your Deed points around without needing to spend it on Muster.
• Corpsemare Stampede (60)
  • Basically the same as it was, except now your roll 6 dice instead of 5 when the Stampede passes over an enemy unit.  For 60 points you probably have better options–I would probably just take Gravetide or Pendulum over this.

Last up is the FEC terrain piece, the Charnel Throne.  It retains it’s “must take battleshock” bubble of 12” around it, which is good.  It lost the free summoning rule–since the army is not really about that any more–but instead the hero garrisoned inside gains an additional d3 Noble Deed points at the start of your hero phase. If you’re putting anyone in the chair, it’s almost assuredly going to be an ABHORRANT, to be ready and able to resurrect destroyed units as quickly as possible.

MATCHED PLAY

Not gonna lie there, while the Grand Strategies range from okay to good, the tactics range from okay to almost impossible.

• Grand Strategies
  • Legendary Exploits:  have 3 FEC Heroes alive and with 6 noble deed points each at the end of the battle.
    • The only real way to make this reliably scoreable is to play Morgaunt and table your opponent, then sit your heroes on objectives.  This is also presumes you have more than 3 heroes at any given time, and our heroes aren’t cheap, so this is almost always a pass.
  • Expand the Kingdom:  Have a friendly ABHORRANT wholly within enemy territory and make sure the enemy general isn’t wholly within their territory.
    • Ushoran is a tough motherfucker, and is also incredibly tanky, so getting him into your opponent’s territory shouldn’t be hard, and it shouldn’t be hard to keep him alive either.  The trick is killing your opponent’s general, which can be much easier said than done.
    • Crypt Flayers escorting around an Abhorrant also does work here, letting you sneak the Royalty into a corner of your opponent’s territory.  After that, you just need to kill your opponent’s general.
    • This is a solid pick, though not a give-me like WAAAAGH is for Big Waaagh!
  • Defend the Throne: Have no enemies within 6” of the Throne and have it be garrisoned by the end of the game.
    • Now we’re talking!  This is almost guaranteed to be the default pick, since you can do dumb shit like putting the chair in a corner, putting Gormayne in the chair, and then bubble-wrapping it with Serfs.
• Battle Tactics
  • Screamed to Death: Pick an enemy unit and shoot it to death with missile attacks from a CRYPT FLAYER, CRYPT INFERNAL COURTIER, or ROYAL TERRORGHEIST.
    • If you have any of those three units in your army, it’s certainly a tactic you can do.  Doing it reliably requires building into it, which means you’re either in Gristlegore for mass Terrorgheists, or in Blisterskin for Mass Flayers. The former is much, MUCH more reliable.
  • Valiant Slaying:  Pick an enemy monster and kill it with an ABHORRANT.
    • If your opponent has no Monsters, that obviously sucks, but if they do?  You’re likely taking a Mounted Ghoul King or Ushoran anyway, so this is quite doable.
  • Overrun: Every enemy unit on the battlefield has to be within 3” of a friendly FEC unit at the end of turn.
    • This borders on impossible unless your opponent is almost tabled, and you get PUNISHED for killing any enemy units in melee on the turn you choose this tactic, so you’re going to have to REALLY try hard to score this one.
    • The Varghulf Courtier–again–has a funny interaction with this tactic. Basically, charge the Varghulf into something mounted or with a wounds characteristic of 3 or higher, pop the King’s Champion ability, and voila!  No attacks from you. Just hope the Varghulf lives.
  • Glorious Feast: Your entire army has to be wholly within 12” of a FEC hero with 6 Noble Deed points at the end of turn.
    • This is surprisingly doable, especially in Morgaunt since you can do the Rousing Oration heroic action to farm Deed points as well as generate them from standing on an objective with your heroes.
    • Also doable if you play “We have Beastmen at Home” and roll hot with a hero garrisoned in the Throne.
    • Probably wouldn’t try this T1, but who knows?
  • Lance Formation:  make at least two 7+ charges with KNIGHTS this turn.
    • Morbheg with the +1 to charge Delusion do this best, since they get an innate +1 to charge bonus from their musician.  Flayers and Horrors can of course do this too, but it’s less reliable, and of course if you’re going deep on Ghouls it possible you don’t even have the room for Knights at all.
  • The Ties of Chivalry:  Pick an objective controlled by your opponent and take control of that objective with at least 1 SERFS model, 1 KNIGHTS model, and 1 friendly COURTIER.
    • Exactly the same as the White Dwarf tactic from five thousand years ago, except arguably better now with how list construction works in the new book.

If you can’t tell, the tactics being almost exclusively keyword locked means you are going to have to pay a lot of attention to them while list-building. I personally am not a fan of this kind of tactic creation and would have loved to see more tactics around summoning or mustering units, similar to what SBGL has.

WHAT ABOUT LISTS?

We’ll be having another article coming up talking through combos and lists to your heart’s content.  There is SO MUCH latitude and open air on list building that I’m excited to show you what we have cooking up, but this article is already long by our standards, and that’s saying something.

CONCLUSION

The holidays came early this year!  I am so, SO excited about this book and the options it provides. I can reasonably say for once that I can put down the 18 Horrors and try new things, and trying new things is great!**

I hope you all enjoyed this absolute monster of a review–next up will be some lists and combos to help round out the experience.

---

* Note: You could also summon back the Troggoth Hag via the Loonshrine for a little while. You got back 0.5 Dank Dames (rounding up to one full one), because she had the Fellwater keyword and GW forgot she existed. Silly sausages. ~Pete

** Except crack.

If you’d like to help us continue our work, we’d love to have your support. All Patreon Tiers include Discord access, exclusive articles and regular contests. Our Tiers are priced to be within everyone’s reach, so please click here to join us today!