Sup guys, so today I wanted to get started on chatting about Faith and Fury and how it relates specifically to the Nightlords legion. I'm just going to straight out and say it, it's about freaking time!! These new rules are fluffy as fuck and are game winning. Now of course this means that everybody and their mother will be running a detachment of Nightlords now but that is ok, the 8th Legion welcomes all. I can also take solice in the fact that my patience and loyalty has been rewarded finally. I cant be accused of being a bandwagoner as I have been playing the army since the days of the famed 3.5 codex. As I stated before, the rules in Faith and Fury bring a heck of alot of flavor to the 8th legion. I just wish that it also gave you access to additional rules when you run an entire Nightlords army similar to what space marines are getting. What it does give is a toolbox of tricks that a Nightlords Commander can use to effectively shut down armies and allow the rest of the army to get where they need to be in order to claim objectives, get into assault, etc. I had a great player once tell me that GW made Chaos armies to be good at assault which you see with the amount of strats and warlord traits that focus on making your army better in close combat. The new Nightlords strats really emphasize this but do it in a fluffy way that really brings the flavor of the Nightlords out. I have just played a couple of games now with Faith and Fury and I can say that they make a huge difference to how I play it. Now my focus is on getting as much command points as possible to fuel the army which I wish was easier for Chaos as things are so expensive at the moment. I know that with Chapter Approved this will help a little but really other than cultist spam, Chaos Space Marines really dont have enough units that are cheap enough to say run multiple battalions without sacrificing something. Lets go over the meat here, the Stratagems
1. In Midnight Clad - Same as before and as useful as before. -1 to hit against an infantry unit is just great. I usually combo this with another -1 with Miasma of Pestanlence to provide a heavy hitting unit such as a termi squad.
2. We Have Come for You - Wow is this awesome, Nightlords finally got the ability to tie up an infantry unit after charging them. This is huge, i cant stress how important and game changing this is as you can effectively shut down an opponents shooting phase in a turn. Where i do see the limit of this strat is the fact that you cant lock down vehicles, that would have been amazing but a little over powered if you ask me. I did face an opponent with a lot of dreads and this strat really didnt come into play
3. Vox Scream - Another game changer strat, the ability to shut down auras is crazy good. It is a little expensive at 2 but i do reconginze the need to have it at that cost. The fact that you can use any Nightlord unit is what makes this crazy good. I use a Fire raptor with this since it can be anywhere on the board at a moments notice but can see use of a heldrake as well for a cheap alternative.
4. From the Night - this can be a such great Stratagem if it didnt require you to be on terrain. I see the point as this is to mimic Nightlords coming out of the shadows but unless you have a lot of terrain on your table, might not come into play. giving you 2+ on your charge roll and giving you +1 to hit in melee is really good.
5. Prey on the Weak - Ok so I am going to mini rant here. There was several outlets out there that said that this Strat wasnt worth it or was super situational. Are you kidding me, this one I have found to be one of the most useful of all the new Strats. In every single one of my games i have used this more than even We Have Come for you or even Vox scream. This on a fire raptor or leviathon Dread (both with leadership 9 by the way) as well as havoc squads makes this amazing. Think of it as another Prescience giving you a plus +1 to hit that you can have on another unit, couple that with Veterans of the long war and it can be devastating. and of course Nightlords drop leadership so it really comes into its own in Melee.
6. Raptor Strike - Nightlords get to act like Blood Angels now, at the cost of 1 CP, you get to charge 3D6. Simple yet very effective, really good on a warp talon squad giving you the ability to shut down over watch to multiple units and then being able to tie them down in combat with We have come for you.
7. Hit and Run - Another great one, the ability to fall back and charge another unit in your turn is amazing. Something to help in tieing up key opponents during the fight phase which can also be game breaking.
8. Flay them Alive - Another fluffy choice which is way more conditional than Prey on the Weak but one that can all but guarantee a unit to lose models with careful Nightlord unit placement. the key of course is to cause multiple units to have to take moral checks causing opponents to have to choose who they want to save.
As you can see these strats bring a lot of flavor to your Nightlord armies and is something I have been waiting for a long time. The one critisim i have is of course the army being very CP intensive. This forces the player to have to take multiple battalions or try for a a brigade which in some cases causes you to focus on just some key units. Chapter Approved definitely helps with this but I really wish that some of these were just inate Nightlord abilites. I mean how cool would it have been if you auto tied up infantry units in CC if the opponent loses a leadership roll or you get 2+ on charges if you charge out of a ruin? Something to think about for sure.
