Scourge of Ghyran: Skeletal debt-collectors come a-knocking

Have you come to pay the bone tithe? You have? Good, good. It won’t cost an arm and a leg. Just our little joke. Why are you crying? It’s not worth losing your head over. Unless you want to, of course. That can be arranged. Alex the Soulmason will explain all the details. He has a chair made of people, you know? 

As you would expect from a military-minded Mortek, today’s instalment includes two new battle formations with which to do battle in the Realm of Life, inflict misery on the living, and then turn them into bone constructs when they don’t pay their tithes. The Hekatos Drillmasters formation is entirely suited to this task as it enables you to upgrade an infantry unit to be faster, stabbier or harder to kill. Meanwhile, the Tithe Guards formation makes use of all the spare bone lying around the battlefield, putting it to good use repairing the legion.

Continuing the theme of deathly reanimation and rejuvenation, the Mortisans have learnt a new spell lore – the Lore of Necrotheurgy. All three spells are super easy to cast – on a 5+ – and revolve around ignoring incoming damage (Bolster Creation), empowering your units with extra attacks (Invigorate the Ranks) and inflicting damage on the enemy before using their shattered bone parts to rebuild your own warriors (Soul-claim). All three work perfectly with the new battle formations and warscrolls, which are the Mortisan Boneshaper and the Mortek Guard. 

The Boneshaper has taken its job title to heart by finding new ways to shape bones. It can do this in two ways – by granting bonuses to units when they Rally, and by summoning replacement units when others have perished.

Meanwhile, this version of the Mortek Guard now has the Shields of the Legion rule, which allows them to protect nearby Mortek Crawlers, Gothizzar Harvesters and Mortisans. Bolster them with one of the new formations, spells (or both), and use them to keep your other units safe from harm. Nagash will be most pleased.

There’s a distinct red tint to the air ahead of tomorrow’s article, in which we’ll be taking a look at some of the new terrain rules from the General’s Handbook.