The Nehekros Imperishables: An Unofficial AoS faction

Doh! Was worried I'd missed something!

Fixed it now, though.

I've given the Legionnaires 150 for 10. I would say that Phoenix Guard have a slight edge over Legionnaires with that 4+ Ward Save and slightly superior weaponry, so I've decided Legionnaires will be 10 points cheaper.

You don't even need to wait for the lockdown to be lifted - all you need to do is use a compass to draw out circles and ovals on cardboard to represent the bases of the units you're using, cut them out and you're ready to go. I know it isn't as impressive as actually building an army of them out of miniatures, but it's pretty much free if you have cardboard and a drawing compass lying around. I'll list the base sizes alongside the points values I think, so you have an idea on what bases to cut out.

I'm going to try doing this and pitching them against Fyreslayer army builds to see what happens against them, as while I don't actually have many AoS minis yet, I pretty much know the Fyreslayers army list inside out with all the theoryhammering I've been doing with them.

 

The last Artefacts and Battle Traits have now been completed, meaning playtesting can now well and truly begin! I have yet to add the Battalions, but I would like to have a go at playtesting these chaps without them first in case they’re already too powerful or would become too powerful with Battalions, then I can perform any necessary adjustments and give some more room for work on the Battalions. I’ve been cutting out circular and oval tokens out of card to represent the units, and have been formulating both some sample lists and some sample Fyreslayer, Skaven and Gloomspite Gitz lists for them to fight to see how they get on (Fyreslayers because I know them like the back of my hand and Skaven and Gloomspite because I have a load of them I can use without needing to cut out tokens). I’ve started with some 1k lists so far so as to start from the bottom and work upwards:

Army Build 1:
Allegiance: Nehekros Imperishables
Royal City: Khepra

Leaders
Embalmed King (140)
- General
- Trait: Hand of the King
- Artefact: Destroyer of Eternities
- Dynastic Crook and Flail
Mortuary Priest (80)
- Ptra’s Incantation of Restoration

Battleline
10 x Settran Legionnaires (140)
- Brazen Khopeshes and Legion Shields
10 x Settran Legionnaires (140)
- Brazen Khopeshes and Legion Shields

Units
3 x Legionnaire Duneriders (240)
- Asaphian Bows and Gilt Khopeshes
3 x Legionnaire Duneriders (240)
- Asaphian Bows and Gilt Khopeshes

Total: 980 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 61

This army makes best possible use of the Khepra synergies by having as many Legionnaire units as possible. Overall tactics here would involve the two units of foot Legionnaires being deployed in lines around 3” away from each other, to benefit from the +1 bonus to armour save, with the Embalmed King in the middle so that he can buff them with command abilities (especially with the free command point from Hand of the King) and join whichever unit that struggles the most in combat with the Destroyer of Eternities at the ready, the Mortuary Priest just behind to benefit from Look Out Sir and stay out of the way while resurrecting casualties. The faster Duneriders in the meantime slither out in front to soften up any enemies guarding objectives with missile fire, harry the foe’s flanks and double-team any rearguard units in melee. This build would also work well with an Anhak allegiance as that also benefits Legionnaires, but would be a bit less killy and more tanky.


Army Build 2:
Allegiance: Nehekros Imperishables
Royal City: Monqatar

Leaders
Embalmed King on Warsphinx (360)
- General
- Trait: Exalted Construct
- Artefact: The Breastplate of Khutep III
- Regal Greataxe
Necrotect (80)
- Ptra’s Incantation of Restoration

Battleline
5 x Necrolith Onyxites (160)
- Carved Greatblades
5 x Necrolith Onyxites (160)
- Carved Greatblades

Units
3 Mortuary Scorpions (225)

Total: 985 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 57

This next build goes the other way in that the entire army is made out of animated constructs (with added Necrotect). A king on Warsphinx gets a lot more out of the Monqatar abilities and bonuses but takes up a lot more points, so you’re going to have to get him into the thick of it as quickly as you can to get him Thundercrushing any enemy hordes. The Onyxites are there to assist their liege and control objectives, while the Scorpions I envisioned as a bodyguard to the Necrotect so he can more easily resurrect fallen allies, but I imagine they could be pressed into other roles too. This army will most likely prove uncannily durable due to Ancient Incantations, Statues of Shifting Gold and a bazillion other tanky rules, but this is probably just as well given its low model count and slow speed.


Army Build 3:
Allegiance: Nehekros Imperishables
Royal City: None

Leaders
Embalmed King (140)
- General
- Trait: Ancient Strategist
- Dynastic Crook and Flail
Mortuary Priest (80)
- Ptra’s Incantation of Restoration
- Artefact: Khatepian Liche Staff
Necrotect (80)
- Khsar’s Incantation of the Desert Wind

Battleline
10 x Settran Legionnaires (140)
- Asaphian Bows
10 x Settran Legionnaires (140)
- Asaphian Bows

Units
3 x Necrolith Ushabti (170)
- Asaphian Greatbows
3 x Necrolith Ushabti (170)
- Asaphian Greatbows
Mortuary Scorpion (75)

Total: 995 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 66

This last build doesn’t belong to a Royal City as I wanted to have a play with the standard Artefacts and Traits. I wanted to have a go at designing a more shooty army because although shooting isn’t intended to be one of the main super strengths of the Imperishables, I still wanted to see how effective it could be en masse. 2 units of Legionnaires and 2 units of Ushabti all with bows will certainly at least have me rolling a lot more dice in the shooting phase, and given the Arrows of Asaph special rule (posted directly from Warhammer Fantasy, no less), it may not be too bad. Certainly the Legionnaires and Ushabti can still handle themselves in melee (perhaps arguably more so than in shooting), so can steadily advance toward objectives while slinging a load of enchanted hissing arrows at the enemy without worrying too much about being charged. I also managed to fit in both a Mortuary Priest and Necrotect so I’ve got two prayers to play with, along with a Mortuary Scorpion to guard them and a Khatepian Liche Staff for the Priest to make doubly sure he can cast that Incantation of Restoration.

Those are the first three builds I’ll try out, and will have a go at uploading batreps featuring them directly to this thread.

 

There's so much wealth of knowledge in here, wow. Ill have a better response later, but for now? Wow, just wow. Love what ive read so far... like, I had to stop reading to make this comment about how much I love what ive read so far.

Carry on.

 

Thank you!

Playtesting of the Imperishables came to a halt during the summer due to being distracted by playtesting Warhammer Fantasy army lists for my unofficial Swarms of the Hive Mind army (based on Tyranids), but I have cut out all the card base circles needed to form the three army lists above and will prepare some Gloomspite and Skaven lists for them to fight. Haven’t got any Fyreslayers yet, principally because Coronavirus has ground my plans to take them to games at GW have ground to a halt and because I’ve got loads of Fantasy and 40K projects on the go right now.

I look forward to hearing your longer response!

 

So yeah, this is amazing and on a personal level will help me map out the Hathorians a bit.

I love that you're bringing back Settra, I remember this story too (golden statue, etc) which I loved reading originally (it was for a contest, wasnt it?) and the lore you're creating. The way you have made it so Settra can filter his own logal souls back from Shyish is great and could be interesting in future lore installments (if you choose to do so).

I really enjoy the units, warscrolls, etc but admittedly I uave no advice as Ive never played a game before (Im a painter and lore writer at heart) but it all seems good! The suggestions from others make sense (with my limited knowledge), so I think you camt go wrong if you choose to change stuff.

My Hathorians will also be a quality force vs horde force, so nice to see a comparison.

Overall I love it and look forward to seeing more. Gonna go read through it again later tonight, just enjoyable to read, and again a wealth of knowledge.

Well done.

 

Also, I have a bug race in Ghur, along with one if my Seraphon Temple Cities...

Look out for the Thunder Lizard and what lurks beneath

 

You should check this out... maybe some inspiration? A continuation of our convo on my thread about you maybe thinking of how to make your own

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKMSrUYHcyb/?igshid=1tpiy1ntul4my

 

Thanks for finding this. It’s an interesting conversion, but uses existing GW components, which can only be bought on EBay for ridiculous prices nowadays. What’s more I largely have an idea of what the units in the Nehekros Imperishables faction look like, but I’m a loss as to how to convert them in reality. I’m ideally looking for third party-made Tomb Kings stuff, of which you allegedly said there were ‘lots’ in your Hathorian thread, which led me to believe that maybe you had found something I hadn’t, and I was interested in knowing if you’ve found any manufacturers that have made the bold leap into making their own Tomb Kings range.

 

Lost Kingdom was the main one, they have new stuff coming out for January as well. I thought Raven Twin Miniatures did also, but it was Chaos Dwarves, Seraphon and then began Sci Fi stuff. I swore I saw other ones, but ill have to look around again. As tomb kings didnt really interest me a whole lot, thought I remember seeing maybe 2 more, but I know Lost Kingdom you can just orint weapons and stuff.

Though, if you have a specific vision, Best to just design yourself

 

My vision for the Imperishables was based on much of the existing GW range (bad idea I know given that it's out of production), so unless GW do something amazingly fantastic like bringing all the 8th Ed plastics back for the Old World, I'll have to make do with the best that I can find. I won't be making a Nehekros army for a long time yet because I've got a lot of other projects on hand for Warhammer Fantasy and 40K at the moment, but I've had a rethink and have come up with the following solutions to making most of the units:

Nekaph, Emissary of the King: I had a crazy brain wave of using Syll 'Esske as the basis for the new Nekaph, if I ditch the Daemonette on top and base Nekaph around the massive human mortal with the axe. I'd have to abrase off the tattoos on his body and his nose ring, replace his axe with skulls on chains for the flail and try my hand at greenstuffing to give him some more Egyptian apparel, but most of that shouldn't be too much trouble and after I would paint him up as a stone statue, he'd look great as Settra's bodyguard.

Embalmed King on Warsphinx: This was a difficult one, but Lost Kingdom have developed a really nice one. Are their Tomb Kings stuff 3d-printing files or actual models? Because the prices look very cheap to be for fully-made models.

Embalmed King and Mortuary Priest: Mantic's Empire of Dust range has a metal kit that can be used to build either a Tomb King or Liche Priest each time, so buying a few of those would give me an Embalmed King and several Priests to guide my legions to victory.

Settran Legionnaires: I think the Mantic Empire of Dust skeletons are the best bet here, as I based the Legionnaires on the Tomb Guard which are now OOP and though Mantic's range is halfhearted and mostly metal, the aesthetic is the closest to the plastic Tomb Guard. The Revenants and Archers can be used as Legionnaires with Halberds and Bows, and Legionnaires with Khopeshes can be kitbashed using the Skeleton Warriors and some metal Khopeshes from Crocodile Games, who sell a lot of Egyptian-themed metal stuff.

Necrolith Onyxites: Crocodile Games' Sebeki crocodile-men are based on 25mm square bases which translates to 32mm rounds in AoS, so they'd make some cool animated statues when painted in the right colours.

Necrolith Ushabti: Mantic make some metal ones, which are a bit chunkier than the GW ones and maybe not as detailed, but they're not bad and are highly affordable.

Mortuary Scorpions: By far the easiest to find alternative models for. Reaper make a good Giant Scorpion in their Bones range, as do Wizkids. Won't have a problem finding a few of these.

Legionnaire Warsphinx: As with the Embalmed King on Warsphinx, Lost Kingdom have developed a skeletal War Elephant with skeleton crew that look like Tomb Guard for their take on Tomb Kings, that fits the role of a Legionnaire Warsphinx quite well, though the skeletal elephant is of course not a stone construct.

Necrolith Colossus: Txarlifactory make a good colossus model that harks back to the old metal Bone Giant. They also make their own take on Legionnaire Duneriders and Sepulchral Stalkers, but those are sold out and I don't know if they'll be making any of those again.

Necrolith Heirotitan: Norba Miniatures used to be quite good at making Tomb King models, but since they changed their material to their new plastic, they've got rid of most of the stuff they made for Tomb Kings. However, the one model they have remade in their new material is their great Heirotitan model, which looks decently affordable and fits the description perfectly. Apparently Norba have a reputation for poor customer service, but it'd be worth it just to get a single Heirotitan for a Nehekros army sometime down the line.

Settra is the one thing I'm really struggling with for proxies, because my vision for him is so specific and unique. Someone else got close to it with this Tomb King-ified answer to Katakros:


But my ideal model of him is big enough to take up the whole base by himself to be around the same size as Nagash, doesn't have all the familiars around him, and is ideally posed like the Incarnate Elemental of Fire:

But with the Blessed Blade of Ptra instead of that fiery staff, and his features of course looking like a Tomb King. Perhaps I'll have to bite the bullet and look for Tomb King bits on EBay to make my vision of Settra, I was certainly visualising the pharaoh Necrosphinx face as Settra's face, and perhaps one of the Necrosphinx blades as the cutting edge of the Blessed Blade.

 

Some awesome January releases for LK i think could work well for you. Maybe?

 

The Colossus looks great (forgot about Lost Kingdom’s Colossus model), the Hieracosphinx Cavalry would work well as Legionnaire Duneriders (though the Arab costumes on the riders would need to be changed) and the mummified centaurs would work well as Sepulchral Stalkers. Thanks for reminding me of these!

Do you know if these will be fully-made models or 3D-printing files, or both?

 

They sadly only do the files now, shipping and such was too much I think? They might have a MyMiniFactory account though? Cant remember, hope this helps some! They wrre just released on their patreon, so could nab em all for like 10 or 15 bucks

 

Not yet, I have the card proxy circles cut out and ready to use, but my original intended time to start playtesting was replaced by playtesting for my Swarms of the Hive Mind army list for Warhammer Fantasy (the batreps for which you can read in the ‘Other Armies Discussion’ section of the Fantasy forum). Perhaps I’ll get round to playtesting them this year against my Night Goblins, Skaven and fledgling Beastmen forces (though not just yet as I’ve got to finish my Short Story Contest entry )

 

Hope you don't mind, shared this on one of the AOS forums as talk about Settra took place. I think this is a really cool rebirth (including the short story) of Settra and his followers, needed to be shared to a wider audience

 

Yes, by all means do it! Is it TGA? I really should join some of these AoS forums to preach my obsession with Fyreslayers and my unofficial AoS factions

 

Oh, just an AOS facebook page, i guess i used forum rather loosely lol

 

Now that 3rd Edition's here, it's high time I should work on updated rules for my unofficial factions (even though I haven't even had chance to playtest the 2nd Edition rules yet ).

I'm going to make it clear now that I'm not going to delete the 2nd Edition Warscrolls, I'm simply going to add the Third Edition ones for the Imperishables onto this thread in a series of future posts, as I imagine some out there will want to keep playing 2nd Edition for fun, and I also want to charter the journey these factions are taking over the course of Age of Sigmar's duration.

Stay tuned for the 3rd Edition rules in the coming months!

 

Just added a bit in the Second Edition rules posts by finally getting around to work on a few Warscroll Battalions, though given they'll be clearing off in Third Edition they won't be continued in the Third Ed update, unless GW renege on their idea and include faction-specific Battalions AND Core Battalions