Thanks to Games Workshop for sending us these rules and the Skaventide box set for review. Over the coming weeks, we will be having experts provide insight into how they are building and running lists with each faction in Age of Sigmar. For this overview, we’re looking at what stands out for each faction, how much has changed, and how we might approach some key challenges on the tabletop.

Faction Overview

While their rules have changed pretty drastically, Bonereapers maintain the same identity they had in third. They’re a hyper tough elite undead army which gives you the power fantasy of a general commanding your army. They can be a staggeringly powerful force on the table, but if your units over extend past your heroes, or you pick the wrong Relentless Discipline ability, you’ll soon find your forces crumbling.

Army Rules

Battle Traits

The Bonereapers gameplan revolves around their Relentless Discipline abilities, which allow you to bolster your forces at key points in the turn in order to better adapt to a given situation. All these abilities require units to be wholly within 12” of a targeted friendly hero and basically give you one of two choices in the Movement, Charge, and Combat Phase.

In the Movement Phase you have an option between an Unstoppable Advance, which gives you an extra 2” to movement, or you can Re-Form Ranks which allows your units to Retreat and Charge in the same turn. Unstoppable Advance is probably your default most turns since Bonereapers are generally a very slow army but having Re-Form Ranks in your back pocket is very valuable but it should be noted even though you can retreat and charge, you still take the mortals for retreating from combat.

In the Charge Phase you can choose between either a Coordinated Charge, giving your units +1 to their charge rolls, or a Counter Strike which gives all your units Anti-Charge (+1 Rend). This one’s not really a choice to be honest. You simply use Coordinated Charge in your charge phase and Counter Strike during your opponent’s.

Lastly, in the Combat Phase, you can Bludgeon which gives units +1 to wound or have your units form Impenetrable Ranks to give them a 5+ Ward. Both of these are immensely powerful and its going to be a toss up which you pick. The nice thing about all these abilities is they are all useful and I can see myself using all of them at some point during every single game.

Another rule worth mentioning isn’t exactly a Battle Trait but its worth mentioning, almost everything in this army has Crit (2 Hits). This was represented by their Nadirite Weapons rule in third but is just baked into the warscrolls in this edition.

Battle Formations

The Battle Formations generally give bonuses to specific groups of units or in some cases a specific warscroll. Mortek Phallanx for example allows you to return a Mortek Guard unit that was destroyed on a 5+ at half strength. While this is somewhat inconsistent, you can try in every movement phase which helps make it a bit more interesting. The other warscroll specific formation is the Mortek Ballistari which hilariously buffs Mortek Crawlers specifically, giving them +1 to hit if they didn’t move and are in your territory (up to a max of three crawlers can benefit from this). I really like the Mortek Crawler in this iteration and giving it +1 to hit makes it much more consistent. I don’t know that I’ll take three, but I’m considering two.

On the more general side of things, Necrotic Symphony gives all your foot wizards +1 to cast. While this isn’t as splashy as the other formations, it might be the strongest. The spell lore for Bonereapers is very strong and very much worth building around. Kavalos Lance on the other hand allows you to pick three Cavalry units after deployment and move them 6”. While your cavalry options are somewhat limited shooting Arch-Kavalos Zandtos straight into the heart of your enemy’s lines is very funny.

Heroic Traits

Bonereapers get some really strong Heroic Traits. Diversionary Tactics for example imposes a -2 to charge rolls within 12” which can absolutely ruin your opponent’s plans. While its not as strong as its third edition predecessor, its still very much worth taking. Aura of Sterility also returns from third edition in a slightly weakened form, imposing a -1 to wound from incoming ranged attacks that target units wholly within 12”. Again, while this isn’t as strong as the third edition trait, this is still a strong pick. The last trait is Mighty Archaeossian which forces rolls of 1-3 to miss this hero. This is fine but most of your characters are support units and if they’re in combat something bad has happened anyway.

Artefacts of Power

The Artefacts Bonereapers have access to are somewhat less exciting than their Heroic Traits. Marrowpact gives you a once per battle ability that makes it so when an incoming combat attack rolls a 1-2 they take a mortal wound. As I mentioned above, I don’t really want my Bonereaper units in combat so giving them this as an inconsistent option isn’t my favorite. Lode of Saturation gives them a 5+ Ward. Neat. Lastly, Helm of Tyranny subtracts two from control scores within 12”. This one’s probably my first pick unless I’m trying to beef up a Soulreaper.

Spell Lore

Ossiarch Bonereapers get a great spell lore to go with their cavalcade of wizards. Empower Nadirite Weapons, which gives the target unit critical hits on 5’s, returns as the faction’s unlimited spell. This is a fantastic fallback option if you’re not sure what to cast since everything in the army has exploding 6’s and it goes off on a reliable five. Drain Vitality also returns, which gives an enemy unit -1 to hit and -1 to save. This is a fantastically powerful debuff spell who’s only downside is it goes off on a seven. Luckily you have a battle formation to help with that. Shard Storm is the last spell, which goes off on a seven and has you roll a die for each model in a target unit and do a mortal wound on each 5+. This is the only spell I’m not wild about but its pretty nice to have in your back pocket.

Manifestation Lore

Following their powerful spell lore, the Bonereapers Manifestation lore also holds up. For example I see myself summoning a Nightmare Predator every game. It’s got 7 wounds and just a 5+ save but it has six attacks that hit on 4’s wound on 2’s with 2 rend and 2 damage and when it dies or is banished it can come back at the end of the turn on a 4+. This guy’s basically a free unit you’re adding to your army. 

Soulstealer Carrion has a similar melee profile but with one less rend and D3 damage, but also comes with the ability to subtract 5 from infantry control scores within 6”. While its previous iteration could completely shut down unit’s ability to control objectives, the ability to rumble in melee and the fact that it’s free makes it a powerful pick.

The last Manifestation, and probably the most situational, is the Bone-Tithe Shrieker. Its got a pretty middling shooting and melee profile, but its real value comes from the fact that it imposes a -1 to Ward rolls within 12”. Death armies hate this.

Warscroll Spotlights

Katakros

Look I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, most of the warscrolls are the same as their 3rd ed counterparts but slightly worse. This is fine for the most part, the scrolls were in a very strong position and a lot of armies saw a tune down in the edition change. Where its going to hit the hardest though is on our boy Katakros. His abilities are: Increase the range of Relentless Discipline abilities from him to 18”, once per turn you can roll to cancel a command on a 5+ within 18”, add three to the control score of nearby Bonereapers units, and a 1CP command ability to add one to save rolls for three Bonereapers units within 18”. For those familiar with his old scroll, basically all his ranges were reduced by 6” and he lost three other abilities. His combat profile got better however in that he always has a static number of attacks, but I don’t think that’s an equivalent trade for the utility he had before.

Gothizzar Harvester

The Gothizzar Harvester has traditionally been a difficult unit to nail the fantasy down. Its supposed to be something that, as it fights, heals nearby units by stitching them together with pilfered bones. This iteration has done a good job of capturing that. It has a Rampage ability that does D3 mortals and returns that many Mortek Guard models to a nearby unit, and an ability where every time something in combat range dies, it gains points to a max of six, that you can cash in to return that many wounds of models. The cool thing here is its flexible enough to work on everything up to a Morghast, making it a unit that works in most lists. 

Immortis Guard

Immortis Guard were infamous last edition for being a Big Problem last edition and after a series of nerfs being relegated to just being Very Good. In this edition they’ve been toned down a bit further.They’ve lost a wound, a point of rend, and their once per game fight twice. Their bodyguard mechanic has been cleaned up a bit, improving wards for nearby heroes but on rolls of one the Immortis Guard take the damage. The other important note is that the Gothizzar Harvester is the only way to return models to the unit, so you won’t see recurring unkillable blocks of these guys. Which begs the question, are they still worth running? Obviously it’ll be points dependent, but they still present a fairly durable block of wounds with a reliable melee profile so they definitely still have value.

Outro

While the mechanics Bonereapers used to hang their ossified hats on are gone, the army identity and battlefield roles are largely intact. There’s a ton of overlapping buffs here that it makes it hard to evaluate these warscrolls in a vacuum, that said most of them are elite and high quality. Players who were fans of the faction’s identity will likely be happy to hear that it survived the transition to a new edition.

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