Today we’re going to be looking at the new rules being given to Night Lords in the upcoming Faith and Fury release. Games Workshop was kind enough to give us a review copy, and we’re here to review everything in it to make sure you’re prepared to dominate the tables when this book officially drops. We’re going to be looking at all of the Warlord Traits, Relics, and Stratagems, and close out with some crunch on powerful combos and a general evaluation of how good everything is.
WARLORD TRAITS
Night Haunters Curse- Just like it is in the core CSM Codex. It buys your Warlord a free re-roll to hit, wound, damage, or saving throw.
One Piece At A Time- This allows your Warlord to Charge if he Falls Back, and your opponent receives a -1 to hit your Warlord in melee.
Murderous Reputation- This causes your Warlord to inflict a Mortal Wound on an unmodified hit roll of 6.
Killing Fury- +D3 attacks if your Warlord Charges, gets Charged, or performs a Heroic Intervention.
One With The Shadows- If your Warlord is completely on or within a terrain feature, add one to his saving throws (ignoring invulnerable saves) and also improves his invulnerable save by one.
Dirty Fighter- While there are more friendly models within 3” of your Warlord than enemy models, your Warlord gets +1 to Wound.
All 6 of the Traits here are dedicated to boosting your Warlord to being the best one-man-army that he can be, but there’s really 2 that stand out here. Night Haunters Curse allows you lots of free re-rolls which can be used to turned failed saving throws into successes. You could run with One With The Shadows for defenseto boost your defenses, but it’s really difficult to set up consistently and will generally be weaker than Night Haunters Curse. The other option that really jumps out here is One Piece At A Time, which allows you to stay on the move flying between combats while also mitigating at least a bit of damage. The other Traits are fun to be sure, but they just aren’t on the same level as power as One Piece At A Time/ Night Haunters Curse.
RELICS
Flayer- Replacers a Power Sword, S+1, AP-3, Damage 2 Weapon that kills count as 2 for Morale Purposes.
Stormbolt Plate- 2+ Save and the bearer always counts as being in cover. INFANTRY only.
Vox Daemonicus- This was the early preview for Night Lords. Your opponent can’t deep strike within 12” of the bearer, and it makes enemy units within 6” change the range of all their Aura abilities to 1”. INFANTRY only.
Talons Of The Night Terror- These are a S+1, AP-1, Damage 1 weapon that give a bonus D3 attacks every turn, D6 the turn you charge. Doesn’t replace a weapon, and it’s only for models that FLY.
Scourging Chains- This is an upgrade for a character that improves the AP value of their weapons by 1, and makes opponents subtract 1 from their Attacks stat while they are within 1” of the bearer.
Misery Of The Meek- Once per game use, the bearer can drink this to recover D6 damage and, until the start of your next turn, they also get +D3 attacks.
A lot of the Relics here aren’t super impressive, but the Vox Daemonicus and Scourging Chains both have a lot of use. The Vox Daemonicus is a really flexible relic that can mess with powerful auras and deny your opponent the ability to charge out of deep strike with some smart positioning, and the Scourging Chains are really scary on a Demon Prince with Talons or a Lord Discordant. Couple the Scouring Chains with the Warlord Trait One Piece At A Time and you have a Demon Prince that can rip apart your opponent by himself, one unit at a time.
STRATAGEMS
In Midnight Clad- Just like it is in the Codex, in response to being shot and any NL INFANTRY unit can receive a -1 to be hit for the rest of the phase. Still solid.
Vox Scream- 2CP, and any NIGHT LORDS unit can turn off the aura ability of any enemy CHARACTER within 18”.
Prey On The Weak- 1CP, When a NIGHT LORDS unit Fights or Shoots an enemy unit with lower Leadership then they do, they get +1 to hit.
Hit And Run- 1CP, One NIGHT LORDS unit can Fall Back and Charge.
We Have Come For You- 1CP, Just as it was previewed for Faith and Fury, this lets you stop all enemy units from falling back from one of your NIGHT LORDS units that isn’t a VEHICLE. This doesn’t stop VEHICLES or TITANIC units from falling back. Still, your Demon Prince can stop a Riptide from falling back, so there’s that.
From The Night- 1 CP, if a NIGHT LORDS INFANTRY unit makes a charge roll while entirely on or within a terrain feature, add 2 to their charge roll and they also receive +1 to hit in the following Fight Phase.
Raptor Strike- 1CP, if a NIGHT LORDS JUMP PACK unit is placed on the table from reserves, they get 3d6 to charge instead of 2d6.
Flay Them Alive- 1 CP, when a NIGHT LORDS unit destroys an enemy unit in the Fight phase, your enemy rolls 2d6 and discards the lowest for any Morale Tests taken by other units within 12” of the NIGHT LORDS unit that destroyed the enemy unit.
There’s a ton of powerful Stratagems in here. In Midnight Clad has always been a powerful Stratagem, and it’s now joined by multiple other power houses in Vox Scream, Prey On The Weak, Hit And Run, and We Have Come For You. The ability to turn off aura abilities is possibly game swinging depending on the character that we’re talking about, and at last NIGHT LORDS finally have a pay off for lowering Leadership in Prey On The Weak. Hit and Run forms a brutal combo with We Have Come For You and Raptor Strike. 10 Warp Talons dropping down making a 3d6 charge and wiping out a unit, then consolidating into a second unit is already decent. But being able to prevent your opponent from falling back, wiping that unit out in the next Fight Phase and finding more targets the next turn is really appealing.
THE BREAKDOWN
The Night Lords are easily one of the more competitive options for CSM now with these rules, and in some ways the most. Many of the Legions have ways to make total lawn mowers out of their Characters, and the Night Lords aren’t lacking in that department. However, the Night Lords are also able to keep their plastic lawn mower on the move and alive on the table in ways that other Legions struggle with. A Chaos Lord with The Claws Of The Black Hunt or the Slaanesh Daemon Weapon The Rapacious Talons (Strength User, AP-2, Damage 2, Get bonus attacks equal to your Demon Weapon Check) and One Piece At a Time can run around the map disassembling your opponents army literally one piece at a time while the rest of your army keeps them engaged, and he won’t take much damage since he has a -1 to be hit in melee. If your table has a lot of terrain, One With The Shadows will make you almost impossible to hurt, as you have a 1+save against shooting and a 3+ Invulnerable Save. In melee, you still have a 2+ and a 3+ Invulnerable save while staying in terrain. Meanwhile, a Daemon Prince or Lord Discordant with the Scourging Chains can provide a second distraction that must also be dealt with while not totally breaking the bank.
Night Lords also have a variety of ways of disrupting the opponent, as they have two different ways to turn off enemy Aura abilities, they can heavily punish opponents trying to deep strike in major threats with the Vox Daemonicus, and they can realistically land huge charges with a large unit of Warp Talons thanks to Raptor Strike, and if you can set this up you can even use From The Night instead of Raptor Strike and get a free bonus to hit on top. With Warp Talons denying Overwatch when they Charge out of Reserves, your opponent will be hard pressed to completely shut you down.
The only downside to Night Lords is how overwhelming CP reliant they are. You have a lot of powerful effects in your Stratagems, but you’ll be hemorrhaging CP left and right for all of your various effects while still using things like Veterans Of The Long War. But, that’s the price you pay for the incredible amount of battlefield manipulation that you get for playing Night Lords. Even if you can’t make your opponent’s army run in fear due to Morale, you can make your opponent petrified as he’s unable to move his models away from you while you rip his army to shreds. Truly, The Night Haunter would be proud of this update.
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