White Dwarf - Issue 31 by Games Workshop

Author:Games Workshop
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: 40000, citadel miniatures, white dwarf, warhammer, games workshop, hobby
Published: 2014-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

As death magic spreads throughout the world and the power of Nagash rises, the restless dead forsake the grave. Every Wizard can harness the Lore of Undeath, drawing Zombies, Skeletons and worse to the battlefield. Adam looks at what this means for our games.

Adam was the first in the White Dwarf team to face the Lore of Undeath – he claims it has left an emotional scar on his soul.

Nagash’s rising has done more than turn the balance of power in the Warhammer world upside down, it’s also tipped the scales on the tabletop too. As the hurricane of death magic rages across the world, no Wizard is left untouched. Now any spellcaster that ever felt like dabbling with the Undead can have a crack at it. The effects are going to be profound.

First and foremost, the Lore of Undeath enables you to bring Undead reinforcements to the battle – four of the seven powers in the new lore enable you to summon reinforcements, from adding a regiment worth up to 100 points to a new monster or even a character. As any veteran player will attest, the arrival of a new unit or two onto the table can dramatically swing a battle – if two armies are evenly matched, the addition of 200 points of Blood Knights or Skeleton Chariots could change things dramatically, especially if they are summoned in places where they can threaten flank charges in future turns or arrive in positions to hold back an enemy advance.

In our limited experience here in the White Dwarf bunker so far, we’ve seen a couple of different uses for these summoned troops, and the emergence of some cunning tactics. The first is to shore up weaknesses in an army’s overall strength. If you are using High Elves, and you cannot afford to sacrifice valuable lives, why not bring some Zombies to die on your behalf? If your army is a Goblin Horde, and you need to add some crunch, you could summon Grave Guard, Black Knights or even a monster?

The second use of these summoned units is to throw your opponent off his game, giving you a tactical edge. Most generals start to panic if a mob of Grave Guard arrive unheralded in position to threaten their war machines, or a Necromancer rises silently from the dust. It’s another problem to think about, it requires the diversion of resources and can force a moment of hesitation, which could be just what you need for victory.

Now, these new units won’t score victory points, but they also won’t lose you any. That means they are unlikely decide the results of the game. Instead to get the best out of them you need to view what you summon like a true Necromancer: they’re all pawns to be exploited to your own ends. What do a few hundred mangled Zombies or the festering corpse of a Vargheist or two matter if you have saved your Empire village from desolation? And Khorne, well he doesn’t care how many Ghouls die, or where the blood comes from, just so long as it flows.

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