Probably one of the most fun things about Nightfall is the awesome league specific units we get to play with. It’s sometimes fun to stop worrying about balance and just play with pure undiluted awesome, and Khador’s very own Greylord Dreadsages (the league version of the Greylord Ternion) is one such type of awesome.
The Dreadsages more or less keep the same stats as the Greylords, with a few key differences.
Higher to-hit: a +1 to MAT and Powerful charge means that if the Dreadsages get their charge in, they are more than likely to hit anything they attack.
Greater damage: +1 to damage, and weapon master! Any one hit points models are easy pickings.
Spells: The clouds were switched out for influence. This drops their defensive/support capabilities for a bit more offense.
Hit points: Hit points! They don’t die to a stiff breeze anymore!
All at just +1 point cost. And let me tell you are they worth their 5 points. I took 2 units of them in my last game and they performed really well for me.
Firstly, their hitpoints are awesome. Yes, a direct hit is going to kill them, but they worry much much less about blast damage, and you can be lucky with the odd hit. One actually survived a trampling Spriggan, to both me and my opponent’s amazement.
Secondly, they are monsters if they get the charge. Koldun Lords are an absolute must with the Dreadsages, allowing them to make a spell attack after killing an enemy model, and let me tell you, they are more than likely to do so, even against models with multiple hits. And when you can follow up a kill with a magic POW12 shotgun to the head, that makes them perfect for a second assault against packed infantry models.
The only thing that is a small drawback is losing the clouds for influence. At 10 inches, it’s almost always better for them to charge in rather than cast the spell.
I’ll have to say, these guys were the man of the match. Playing a tier 4 Old Witch list agains a tier 4 Vlad list was definitely asking for trouble. The Old Witch doesn’t have much offensive power, but these guys really picked up a lot of the slack. One single model charged in and finished off 2 Uhlans while another unit managed to almost destroy the Great Bears (damn tough saves!), and that’s saying quite a bit for wizardy spellcaster types.
I’m not saying they’re must haves. 12 points for 7 models (2 units of Dreadsages and 1 Koldun Lord) is a very expensive cost for quite a fragile set of models, and I’m not sure if I would have rather taken the Great Bears in a non-tier list for example.Still, if you manage to keep 1 or 2 surviving models, they will wreak havoc on any infantry they get the bead on. And they’re a damn sight better than the current Greylords for 4 points.
Doesn’t help the Old Witch against charging Uhlans though. 😉
