Raptors + NL in 8th

[Ashe Darke]

Big fan of Nightlords but the game has never really supported their play style.

Been looking at Raptors and the wording on their ability is interesting. Most things are worded so they don't stack but this one doesn't. You could have x number of units and if you have the Nurgle Icon as well they are effectively adding x+1 to their morale roll on top of the number of models lost. This could be brutal.

Quick PL list (please assume all the best bits of wargear)

2 Winged Princes

7 x 5 Raptors
3 Helldrakes

99PL

I'd personally wait for the codex to see if something better comes out but still I think it has legs.

[ChazSexington]

I'd suggest making the Princes Psykers to give them Warp Time. I'd maybe drop a Heldrake and upgrade the Raptors to Warp Talons (and take more) as well. 

[Ashe Darke]

By dropping raptors you lose the morale mechanic, which is the whole point. You could cook a unit with the heldrakes and have these guys nearby and you could potentially finish them off on morale.

 

The princes are psykers anyway so that's already covered.

[Gordon Shumway]

Use Bela'kar as one of the princes. He has a 12" -1 LD debuff aura to any enemy units.

[ThatOneMarshal]

You could make the raptors nurgle and then give them the banner which gives you another -1 to morale.

[Gordon Shumway]

Another good tactic is to shoot the enemy with a Leviathan's butcher cannon array. If a unit suffers a wound from it, it gets a -2 LD penalty. So conceivably, if we attacked with two raptor squads, one with nurgle icon and supported with Be'lakor, after shooting with a Leviathon, that would effectively be -6 LD.

 

Of course that means that we would need to focus on enemy leaders that give LD buffs. That's where the heldrake comes in.

[Ashe Darke]

All good thoughts. Hopefully final Night Lords will not need to pile as many things in, but if you wanted to do something that felt like NL then this is making progress. It can work on those vehicle squadrons that can't split which is nice.

 

Would be harsh on a unit such as the Mech robots!

[Brother Aiwass]

Even if it doesn't look very Night Lordish, if you make them <Nurgle> they can take the Icon of Despair, for a nice LD debuff :)

[TrexPushups]

Chaos spawn attack morale too

[Galron]

I haven't pointed it out but when I get to my NL legion, it will have 30-45 raptors, a Fire Raptor gunship, a lord with jump pack, some vets for taking objectives, a contemptor mortis, and some heavy weapon dudes. I was going to roll them into my other two legions but figured I have the models, might as well keep them as is. Maybe a Deathstorm drop pod if they still exist. I try to stay truer to the fluff and keep my NL as little chaosy as possible. Warp talons, at least one squad are a good possibility though. These are waaaay down on my to-do list.

 

I think this edition might be good for jump troops. My friend is already planning for a full Blood Angel assault marine army if the edition works as well as he hopes.

[Lord Abaia]

I usually try to stay away from marks for my Night Lords (overtly), and of all the gods Nurgle fits with my vision of Night Lords the least. But with that said, I think in this era of the index while we wait for a proper codex with Legion traits (and restrictions) I will be giving my Raptors an Icon of Despair. I'm thinking of the banner from the AoS death upgrade kit would work as a nice counts-as for whatever icon I choose.

 

Also I may have to push my plans for Vargheist spawns further up on my to do list. The box makes three. Three units of one count as three units for Fate of Konor, has the potential to give -3 ld if they are near the same unit, and it let's me fill out a second Outrider detachment. It's looking pretty good.

[Gordon Shumway]

Unfortunately, because of the way the Spawn debuff to LD is worded, it doesn't seem to stack like raptors would as it says "enemy unit is within 1" of any" spawn, whereas the raptor entry says "enemy units within 1" of this unit".

[Lord Abaia]

Unfortunately, because of the way the Spawn debuff to LD is worded, it doesn't seem to stack like raptors would as it says "enemy unit is within 1" of any" spawn, whereas the raptor entry says "enemy units within 1" of this unit".

Ah you're right. I just skimmed it thinking it would be the same as Raptors. It's probably for the best.

 

I can't wait to run a few games of 8th to see if MSU Raptors are worth it. It's the only non-cult CSM infantry kit that's worth anything so I'm not sad to only buy Raptors/ Talons for a while.

[Sception]

I wouldn't get too comfortable with stacking raptor penalties, either.  Not to the point of building an entire strategy around it.  It feels like a mistake to me.  I would be shocked to see it survive our eventual codex, and wouldn't be at all surprised to see it errata'd away well before that.

[Gordon Shumway]

I don't know about that. A number of chaos units (lords, Daemon Princes, exaulted sorcerers) share the wording that would stack bonuses like the raptors. On the other hand, many have explicit wording that wouldn't allow for it (Spawn already mentioned, Dark Apostles, all the daemon heralds). Because of this, it seems like a conscience decision on GW's part to draw a distinction.

 

That said, there is nothing stopping them from changing the rules at any time (scuttlebutt has it that Guard conscripts might be getting nerfed a bit already on Saturday). I think it is generally a good rule with this edition not to get too terribly locked into one strategy though.