Warhammer Age of Sigmar Warcry Guide - Nighthaunt

The Nighthaunt are the malevolent spirits of the Mortal Realms. They hate all living things and Nagash assembles small groups of them for delicate tasks, which could explain their appearance in the Eightpoints.

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Nighthaunt Fighter Types

The Nighthaunt have 2 leaders, and several fighter options, all with Fly, which gives them incredible maneuverability.

Their leader options are:

• Extoller of Shyish - The Extoller isn't like standard leaders in Warcry. The Extoller has fly and Move 6 and a triple rune to resurrect fighters than have been taken out. Rather than rushing into combat with them, surround them with cheap, weaker fighters and go for a triple each turn to keep as a shield wall in front of them. Their range 2 attack will let you attack over the top of the wall. This will help you whittle down enemies and also overwhelm objectives.
• Dreadwarden - The Warden is a cheaper leader choice, with the same resurrection rune ability, but can boost their attacks if there are minions nearby. They're perfect if you're going for a pure swarm, but the Extoller is usually the better choice for that extra movement point and more durability. The lack of range 2 attack hurts as you will need to get them into direct combat.

Their fighter options are:

• Grimghast Reaper - The Reaper's are similar to the Extoller, but with fewer wounds and less standard damage in attack. They don't have the leader's ability to resurrect, but they do have a quad that lets them strike all enemies within 3 inches. Unless there's a huge opportunity to take out loads of fighters, the quad is usually best used as a triple for the leader's resurrection ability. The Reapers are useful because of their speed, but there's no need to take loads of them.
• Myrmourn Banshee - The Banshee's are slightly more expensive than the Reapers. They have similar stats, losing out on the Reap ability and range 2 attack for a higher strength and more standard damage. They're great for seeking out a specific target, so taking at least 1 Banshee or Reaper is recommended.
• Glaivewraith Stalker - The Stalkers are cheaper than the Reapers, and for that, you get 1 less movement and 1 less crit damage. They're faster and more durable than the Chainrasps and also come with a range 2 attack. A mix of both Stalkers and Chainrasps does well. Stalkers are useful as fast support.
• Chainrasp - Chainrasps are the line troops of the Nighthaunt. They're pretty useless in combat, but they're fast and are great at locking up enemy fighters to stop them doing what they want to. 
• Spirit Host - Spirit Hosts are expensive, but combat monsters. 6 dice in attack, which when combined with their triple rune, can count every hit as a critical. Move 5 and fly means that they can threaten a good portion of the board and 30 wounds make them difficult to take out. Use them to hunt down enemy targets.

How to build a Nighthaunt Warband

To build a Nighthaunt warband, you first need either:

• the Nighthaunt Card Pack / Out of Print
• or their rules from the WarCry 2019 Annual / Purchase from Firestorm Games
• or the Nighthaunt Warband pack (which contains 13 miniatures and the Card Pack) / Purchase from Firestorm Games

Warcry Nighthaunt Warband Box

Purchase from Firestorm Games

The Nighthaunt Warband Box is the perfect place to start a Nighthaunt warband. It contains 4 Myrmourn Banshees, 4 Glaivewraith Stalkers, and 5 Grimghast Reapers, 1 of which can be built as an Extoller of Shyish.

The warband box contains the Nighthaunt card pack and is currently the only way you can get the fighter card for the Myrmourn Banshee.

It also has a Nighthaunt themed Warcry token set.

If you haven't bought the Nighthant warband box and already have the rules from Tome of Champions, or if you have some Nighthaunt already, you can buy the units separately, but for Warcry, the dedicated Nighthaunt box is the most cost-effective way.

To purchase the boxes separately:

• Myrmourn Banshees / Purchase from Firestorm Games
• Glaivewraith Stalkers / Purchase from Firestorm Games
• Grimghast Reapers / Purchase from Firestorm Games

Regardless of how you build your force, you will want to add Chainrasps and Spirit Hosts. Chainrasps for the swarm and Spirit Host as the hard hitters. You can also start your Nighthaunt force with just Chainrasps and a Spirit Hosts box and add the Warcry Nighthaunt box later, or simply the Chainrasps box for a pure swarm force.

• Chainrasps / Purchase from Firestorm Games
• Spirit Hosts / Purchase from Firestorm Games

The Chainrasps box lets you build a Dreadwarden, and the Spirit Hosts box contains 3 Spirit Hosts. Between those 2 boxes and the Nighthaunt box, you will have all the miniatures you'll ever need for a Nighthaunt warband, regardless of the combination of forces you're looking to build.

If you're a Warhammer Underworlds player, or you just want some interesting sculpts, then the Champions of Dreadfane has the same Banshees as the Nighthaunt box and the Warhammer Underworlds Nightvault core set has the Briar Queen and some Chainrasps that could be used as alternative miniatures.

Nighthaunt General Tactics

Resurrection is your friend when it comes to the Nighthaunt. It can be a struggle to take out enemies with anything but the Spirit Host, but being able to throw stuff at the enemy and bring them back makes them overall, much more durable than any enemy you may face. You can afford to stuff your Chainrasps into combat, but be sure to have a fighter with a range 2 attack behind them to make the most of it. They are extremely maneuverable, so grab those objectives and swarm enemy targets.

Nighthaunt Deployment Tactics

For this section, we're only looking at the balanced options for each of the decks. Using all the cards is harder to predict and plan for, but great for open friendly games.

Using only the balanced deployment cards, Shield is deployed 15 times out of 18 on the table. Nightaunts' movement and fly make deployment extremely forgiving for them. If you're playing a swarm force, having most of the Chainrasps in Sheild with some range 2 backup is advisable. Or if you're playing a more elite hunting force, have your hardest hitter here with some cheap backup to start getting work done.

Hammer appears in Round 2 onwards 10 out of 18 times and Dagger 8 out of 18 times. You can fill out Hammer and Dagger with either the rest of the swarm or some of the faster units. Even if they come on later, you will still be able to position them to take objectives or hunt down enemies.

Nighthaunt Mission Tactics

Out of the 18 balanced missions, 6 are combat based, requiring removing either the leader or different deployment groups. 9 are objective-based and 3 are mixed, movement/survival-based.  

Put your leader on any objective, and either surround them with Chainrasps, which you can keep resurrecting, or send out your Chainrasps to lock up enemy fighters, resurrecting them as required and sending them out again to keep the enemy away from your leader. Or use the Banshees and Spirit Hosts to take out enemy targets, and resurrect them if they get taken out trying.

Do you play Nighthaunt? What's your standard Warband composition? Who is your favorite fighter? Let us know in the comments below.

The copies of the Age of Sigmar and WarCry products used to produce this article were provided by Firestorm Games.