Updated 11 April 2021.

Welcome, great Necromancer, to Start Competing: Ossiarch Bonereapers! Do you like completely sick skeleton warriors? Have you demanded that your loved ones leave “Rest in Peace” off your tombstone so you can be drafted into the great skeleton war when you die? Do you want an entirely new model range that can reliably play on the top tables of tournaments? Well then these are the boney constructs for you!

Faction Overview

The Ossiarch Bonereapers are a relatively new addition to Age of Sigmar, having been released in October 2019 alongside some very cool models. The Bonereapers made a big impact when they first dropped thanks to the excellent Petrifex Elite subfaction, but changes from the General’s Handbook have both weakened the army overall and allowed a range of other army styles to flourish on the tabletop. You’re looking at one of the stronger armies in the game right now, so let’s dive in!

Strengths

• Swole skeletons. Unlike other, sadder undead armies, the Ossiarch Bonereapers aren’t necessarily horde-based. You’ve got some real power behind those bones, but playing a horde can also be a real pain for your opponent. Options!
• Amazing Battleline troops. You have some of the most powerful battle line troops in the game that just refuse to die.
• Incredibly sweet models. The Ossiarch Bonereapers have an entirely new model range with some of the prettiest minis GW has produced.
• Versatile. You can interact with and do well in all the phases of the game.
• You don’t have to worry about Command Points or Battleshock! You have your own version of command points which are much more plentiful, and cant be stolen from you, and all your units ignore battleshock.

Weaknesses

• You may become ‘That Guy’ in your local meta. Some of your options are pretty strong and may not make you friends easily. Yes, we’re looking at you, Mortek Crawler.
• Limited range of models and options. They’re very cool, but your choices are limited. The upcoming Warhammer Underworlds warband has previewed a few new models which may lead into some interesting forthcoming options, but for the moment you’re a bit restricted in your choices. You aren’t nearly the most restricted book out there, but there are still gaps to be filled.
• Harsh learning curve. The Ossiarch Bonereapers have quite a lot of unique and complex rules which can take a while to learn and keep track of, which can also lead to:
• Not a great introduction to the broader game. While ignoring Battleshock and Command Points is a real strength, the army doesn’t really help you learn those key aspects of Age of Sigmar, so changing to another (lesser) army may come as a real shock when you only have one Command Point a turn and half your army crumbles in fear.
• Slow. With some exceptions your units are slower than usual without spending limited resources, and combined with the low model count that means you could potentially be out-maneuvered.
• No generic Command Point abilities. The inability to turn a run roll to a six or reroll charges can really hurt just when you need them most.
• No real gimmicks. Your power comes really from your stat blocks, which are generally great, but you lack the weird abilities that bump armies up to truly top tier, like Tzeentch, Seraphon, Kahadron Overlords, and Lumineth Realmlords.
• Trouble empathizing with other, lesser factions. As Ossiarch Bonereapers, you get to ignore a lot of basic rules, meaning if you’re learning AoS you may not understand what other factions do, or their struggles. Over time you will become detached and aloof, unable to connect with the plight of the common battleline infantry mook in these armies, or even their generals. You will sit in your tower, alone save for your undead servants, growing bored with this life and the petty squabbles of its inhabitants, until the only thrill you feel will be from crushing your enemies so utterly that only the sight of their masks of naked contempt turning to terror as you mow them down brings you any joy. At this point, you will have completed your metamorphosis into a true servant of Nagash.

Competitive Rating

Middle Tier.
Once the demon of the top tables, since the Great Petrifex Nerf of July 2020 (truly the most awful thing to happen that year) Bonereapers have fallen far. The army is very, very solid, and consistently runs 3-2 or 4-1 at larger events, but the days of actually placing are slipping away. Depressingly, we’re not entirely sure of the last time Bonereapers won an event.

Bonereapers really shine as a gatekeeper army; you’ll rarely place or win an event, but with the prevalence of our beloved bone brethren those winning armies will need to find the tools to punch through Bonereapers on their way to the podium. You may not be able to stop Seraphon taking yet another first place, but you can absolutely keep those Sylvaneth in their place. Yeah! Take that, walking trees!

Special Rules

Ranks Unbroken by Dissent

This has two parts. Firstly, you don’t take Battleshock tests. Ever. Simple enough, ignore that phase of the game for your models and embrace the exasperation of your opponent as their morale bomb falls flat.

Secondly, you don’t use Command Points. More than that, you’re not allowed to. Instead, you get Relentless Discipline Points (RDP) which are used to power up your units. You get these at the start of each battle round before you roll for priority. This is important to note as it means you have the resources to use your defensive abilities if your opponent goes first, but also means you have to think carefully about whether to spend them all defensively or keep some back for your own turn. Helpfully, it does encourage you to blow through them all at the bottom of a battle round, since you’re about to lose them all and refresh your stockpile.

You gain a point for:

• Each friendly Bonereaper hero on the table
• Each warscroll battalion you have;
• Each friendly Liege on the table (currently the Liege-Kavalos, Arch-Kavalos Zandtos, and the Liege that comes with Katakros, noting this stacks with those characters being heroes); and
• At the start of the battle round roll a d6 for every unit you have (including the above ones) and on a 6 gain an RDP.

Katakros also grants an additional three if he is your general and is on the board, taking him to a whopping five RDP per turn; three for his innate ability, one for being a hero, and one for having the Liege key-word (the fellow on his right being a Liege).
The army therefore starts out strong and declines in power as you lose key pieces (canny opponents will take out your Relentless Discipline generators as soon as possible).

Rather than the generic Command Point abilities such as reroll charges, Bonereapers all have access to Unstoppable Advance, which can be used to give a unit +3” move, making their fairly slow units suddenly quite speedy, as well as abilities unique to each subfaction and a whole bunch of warscrolls.

When building your army, this is the first thing you need to look at. How many RDP will you reliably generate a turn? What will you use them for? 6-8 per turn is probably a good number, any lower and you start having to make real sacrifices in what abilities you use.

Note that, per the Designer’s Commentary, you still gain the regular Command Point per turn and per Warscroll Batallion, you just can’t use them. So, if your opponent has any abilities that can steal Command Points from you, you still have a stash to have them stolen from!

Deathless Warriors

Like all Death armies, you can ignore wounds on a 6+ for all your models. The only catch is that you have to be wholly within 12” of a hero or wholly within 6” of a Hekatos (unit leader). This can actually be harder than you think so a lot of game time is spent finding that skeleton with a slightly different hat to make sure he’s in the middle of your blob of Mortek Guard. Note that this ability only works if the whole unit is within range; you can’t assign wounds to models in range of a Hekatos if even one model is out.

Nadirite Weapons

Most units have Nadirite weapons which cause them to score additional hits whenever you roll an unmodified 6 to hit. There are various ways of improving this, the strongest being the Empower Nadirite Weapons spell. Don’t underestimate this; often hitting on 2+ and with 6s doing additional hits, you can hit more times than you have actual attacks!

Legions

Ossiarch Bonereapers have access to six distinct subfactions. As is usual with these, they add an additional trait and command ability, but in exchange require you to take a specific command trait and relic before you’re allowed to take anything else.

You’ll get:

• An Ability, something all units in your army gain;
• A Command Ability, which allows you to spend Relentless Discipline Points on a unit within 12” of a hero or 6” of a Hekatos to do something funky;
• A Command Trait, which must be taken as your choice of Command Trait if playing that Legion; and
• An Artefact of Power, which must be the first artefact you take.

Katakros, Zandtos and Vokmortian are part of the Mortis Praetorians subfaction. You can include them in other legions but they do not gain the benefit of that subfaction. Nagash and Arkhan gain the benefit of whatever Legion they’re in, being the only named characters in the game to slot in to whichever subfaction you so choose.

Before the Petrifex nerf, you’d only ever see that single legion; the world’s largest Age of Sigmar singles tournament, Cancon 2020 in Australia, had 18 Ossiarch Bonereapers armies and all of them were Petrifex Elite. Since the change we’ve seen a much wider variety of Legions in play, with Mortis Praetorians and Stalliarch Lords being the most common, and all but Ivory Host seeing competitive play.

Mortis Praetorians

• Legion Ability: The Dread Legion – Units within 12″ get -1 Bravery. Not so great on its own but combine it with other leadership reducing abilities such as Sinister Terrain or Morghast Archai and hope you run up against Ogors rather than Skaven hordes! Every little bit helps. B
• Command Ability: Counter-Strike – Affected units get to reroll all hits after they have been charged. With most of your units hitting on 3+ or better this is damn near guaranteeing all your attacks will get in. A
• Command Trait: Katakros’ Chosen – Once per battle gain D3 Relentless Discipline points. A bit of a downer, since it’s once per game and you could get garbage, but it’s useful to have when you’re down RDP generation late game. You’re unlikely to see it in play though, as Katakros or Zandtos will normally be the general in a Mortis Praetorians army. D
• Artefact: Artificer’s Blade – Change a bearer’s melee weapon to Rend -3. Very nice, put this on a Liege-Kavalos and watch it cut through even the toughest saves. B+

Overall the Praetorians come with a pretty good set of abilities, but they really come into their own when using Katakros as their general (more on that later).

Petrifex Elite

• Legion Ability: Unstoppable Juggernauts – Formerly+1 to saves for all units, which was incredible, as of the July 2020 FAQ reduced to simply reroll save rolls of 1 in melee. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Especially hard hit are Mortek Guard, who for a single RDP can reroll all saves, making this Legion Ability useless. If you want the +1 to saves now you need to look to the Bad Boi of the Necropolis, Orephon Katakros in Mortis Praetorians. D
• Command Ability: Bludgeon – Pick a unit and improve it’s rend by 1. Again, simple and effective. Not only do you live longer you kill things better. With swords on your Mortek Guard or Kavalos Deathriders you’re at -2 rend on all your attacks! A
• Command Trait: Mighty Archaeossian – Add 2 to the general’s wound characteristic. It’s not bad, but not brilliant. B
• Artefact: Godbone Armor – Ignore the first wound allocated each phase. This is really good, especially combined with the improved save and bonus to wounds. A

Petrifex Elite used to be the big boogey man of Age of Sigmar. Oh, how we long for the simple days where +1 save was the worst an army could do to you. Now only rerolling 1s to save in melee, there’s arguably no great reason to take them in competitive play. The extra rend, wounds, and artefact are nice, but you’re comparing these competitively against the +1 to hit and save and five RDP with Katakros in Mortis Praetorians, or the excellent movement shenanigans of Stalliarch Lords. That being said, Petrifex Elite aren’t bad, and you can probably still make a very viable competitive list out of them. We just haven’t seen one perform well yet.

Stalliarch Lords

• Legion Ability: Equumortoi – Units can run and charge in the same turn. Although this applies to all units it definitely is meant to appeal most to faster units like cavalry. Combine it with the Unstoppable Advance ability all Bonereapers get and there’s nowhere you can’t reach. B+
• Command Ability: Rally Back – Applies only to models with a mount, allows them to fall back and charge in the same turn. This is mostly meant to combo with Kavalos Deathriders who can deal mortal wounds on the charge, and whose Nadirite spears explode on 5+ instead of 6s on the charge. B+
• Command Trait: Twisted Challenge – At the beginning of a combat phase, choose an enemy HERO within 3″, your general gets +1 to hit against that Hero, but -1 to hit anything else. This is okay for killing heroes, but you’re likely already hitting on 3+ or 2+ anyway. C
• Artefact: Nadir-Bound Mount – Adds D3 dice to the Kavalos’ Unstoppable Charge ability, which lets you roll a die for each number you rolled on a die when you made the charge. For each 6, deal a mortal wound. So, basically, half a Mortal Wound if you roll 3 on the D3 and also charge. Hrmmm… D

Stalliarch Lords are so close to being really good in a mostly cavalry army. They’re going to hit your opponent’s lines super fast but you’re sacrificing the defensive and offensive abilities of the other legions for raw speed. Still, they’re definitely playable, and an all cavalry build will be great fun and a unique challenge for your opponent. We’ve also seen Stalliarch Lords combo with Nagash for some interesting play.

Ivory Host

• Legion Ability: Shimmering Rage – At the start of the combat phase all units within 6″ of a unit with wounds allocated to it become enraged, which gives +1 to hit and -1 to save. This encourages running lots of multi-wound models and keeping them next to your Mortek Guard if you want them to trigger but sacrificing your excellent defence to be able to hit better is rarely worth it. It’s also the only Legion where you get both a positive and a negative, rather than just a flat bonus, which… kind of sucks. D
• Command Ability: Temper Fury – Lets you ignore the -1 save while keeping the +1 to hit. This makes Shimmering Rage much more appealing but could force you to spend a lot of RDP points, and there are so many other ways to get +1 to hit anyway. D
• Command Trait: Scrimshawed Savage – Every Hero phase roll a die, on a 5+ the general gains +1 attack to all melee weapons for the rest of the battle. Not bad, and on average you’ll gain 2 attacks over the course of a game, but the question is will those come turn 1, or turn 6? C
• Artefact: Beastbone Blade – Simple +1 to attack for one of the bearer’s melee weapons. Fine, but your characters aren’t really there to be beatsticks. B-

Rules that change up the way the faction works are always hit and miss and this one is probably a miss. That said, the possibility of a Liege-Kavalos with ten attacks from all the stacking buffs is moderately hilarious.

Null Myriad

• Legion Ability: Eldritch Nulls – Ignore the effects of a spell or endless spell on a 5+. This is an optional roll, so you don’t have to ignore your own buffs. B
• Command Ability: Holdfast – Oh man this is the good stuff, before you roll for Eldritch Nulls you can use this ability to make it a 2+ instead of a 5+, virtually guaranteeing you resist the spell. Seraphon lists or Nagash heavy lists will be brought to their knees. Sadly, less useful against the new lords of magic the Lumineth Realm Lords, as their scariest spells mostly affect their own units. A
• Command Trait: Unsettling and Sinister – Subtract -1 from melee hits against this general and give -1 bravery to enemy units within 3″. Good both as a defensive and offensive tool. B
• Artefact: Baleful Blade – An extremely good relic. When an opponent is struck by this weapon, they cannot make a save and cannot make a feel no pain check. Put this on a Liege-Kavalos and watch them cleave through enemy Heroes, saves be damned. Again though, your characters should usually be buffing your units, not yeeting themselves into the enemy. B+

Null Myriad can either utterly dominate a magic army, or make you wish you were playing literally any other Legion when you come up against Blades of Khorne or Orruks. An intriguing Legion which could be strong depending on the meta you play in, but most of the truly obnoxious spells coming at you right now buff your enemy rather than deal direct damage, so this is one incredibly situational subfaction.

Crematorians

• Legion Ability: Immolation – Whenever a model dies in melee, roll a die, on a 5+ deal 1 mortal wound to an enemy unit within 3″, 4+ if the slain model is a Hero. When combined with the various ways of bringing models back this could hypothetically be quite good, but is definitely always fun. B
• Command Ability: Levellers of Cities – Lets you ignore cover saves for units in melee. Honestly, when was the last time you saw this change a game? F
• Command Trait: Wrathful Avenger – If the general dies, Immolation triggers on a 3+ instead of a 4+, and deals D3 Mortal wounds. Anything that requires your general to die is probably not something you want to be counting on. D
• Artefact: Searing Blade – +1 to damage. Simple but effective. B

More of a gimmick faction that won’t win you many games but still is fun to play. It turns your army into walking bombs that regenerate, overwhelming your foes. Stick a horde of Mortek Guard next to a Gothizzar Harvester or two and watch the world burn.

Relics

The only way to get access to these is to either not play one of the named Legions or to take a Battalion to give you access to a second relic (don’t do the first, maybe do the second). They’re split into sections for Kavaloi (Liege Kavalos), Boneshapers, Soulmasons and Soul Reapers so you’re limited in what you can take by what you have in your list (you should probably have at least two, if not three of the above units).

One interesting thing to note is that there seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment away from any relics at all. Both our successful lists, below, only have unique named characters and do well without being able to take a relic.

Relics of the Kavaloi

• Mind Blade: On a hit of a 6+ your opponent loses a command point and that model can’t use command abilities. Not brilliant due to the low proc rate. D
• Lordly Phylactery: Get D3 relentless discipline points at the start of the battle. Since they don’t carry over until your next turn you’re limited in what you could do with them and you could just roll a 1. D
• Scroll of Command: A 6” bubble of -2 Bravery. Could be good when combined with other leadership debuffs, but those are mostly confined to Legions. C normally, B if you’re planning a morale bomb with Mortis Praetorians and Morghasts.
• Grave-sand Boneplates: Roll for each enemy unit within 3” at the end of the combat phase and on a 4+ do a mortal wound. Mortal wounds are good but one on a 4+ isn’t amazing. C
• Marrow Pact: A once per game ability to do D3 mortal wounds to a unit on a 3+ and heal the same number back. Cute but not really worth the investment to take. C
• Helm of the Ordained: +1 to hit for Bonereapers within 12”. Excellent. This should always be your first relic if you don’t have Katakros’ +1 to hit aura. A+

Tools of the Boneshaper

• Artisan’s key: On a 4+ you can heal two units instead of one, or the same unit twice. Excellent if you’re going with the never dying Mortek blobs. A
• Lode of Saturation: Choose a unit in the hero phase within 1”. Grants Deathless Warriors saves on a 5+ rather than 6+. Not bad. B
• Crafter Gems: Heal up to 3 wounds in the hero phase but once it’s done 3 it’s used up. Not exactly amazing. C

Treasures of the Soulmason

• Gothizzar Cartouche: +1 to wound in melee for units within 9” if you’re not fighting Death models. A very popular choice and probably reason enough to take the Soulmason, especially in the current Chaos and Order heavy meta. A+
• Soul Reservoir: +2 to casting values but goes away if you ever roll a natural 10+. Absolutely brilliant until it becomes completely worthless. B+
• Throne of Dzendt: +2 wounds and +2 to your mount attacks. It’s ok but always take the Cartouche if you’re giving an artefact to a Soulmason. C

Weapons of the Soulreaper

• Luminscythe: -1 to hit him, +1 to cast. It’s fine, but Soulreapers probably shouldn’t be in your list to begin with. B
• Vial of Binding: A once per game auto kill a model within 12” if you can roll higher than their wounds on a D6. Incredibly unreliable. F
• Guardian Reavesoul: Grants a 5+ Deathless minions instead of a 6+ for the bearer and can be destroyed to stop the model dying when they takes their last wound. Again, okay but not worth building for. C

Command Traits

Honestly, you aren’t going to use these in matched play since you’ll be taking one of the named Legions, which forces you to use their Command Trait. This isn’t an exaggeration; there’s absolutely nothing here that remotely compares to the benefits of taking a legion subfaction.

Spells

Every Wizard gains one of these spells as usual. Nagash and Arkhan know all six. This is a brilliant spell lore, with only one real dud.

• Arcane Command: Casting value 5, gain D3 Relentless Command Points. This can be the difference between winning a fight and losing one, definitely worth taking. A
  • RagnarokAngel’s take: I’m not sure I’m as enthusiastic on this one. D3 is pretty variable and depending on how your army is structured you may be stacked enough with Relentless Command Points. I’d probably give it a B, possibly a C if you have Katakaros as your general.
• Empower Nadirite Weapons: Casting value 5, allowing you to pick a unit within 24” and causing that unit’s Nadirite weapons to explode on unmodified 5s rather than unmodified 6s (or 4s for Deathrider’s spears, as those are already 5s on the charge). This is something you should be casting every turn you want to be in combat A+
• Protection of Nagash: Casting Value 6, gives the caster a 5+ feel no pain and if they ever take a wound, you must teleport them anywhere on the field more than 9″ from enemy units. Be wary though, the teleport kicks in after all the attacks have been resolved so unless you’re putting it on Nagash himself it’s unlikely you’ll survive to use it. This used to be a lot better, granting a key model an extra save, but since the 2020 General’s Handbook change of only allowing one save-after-save it’s become much, much worse. D
• Reinforce Battle-Shields: Casting Value 6, gives a unit with shields a 5+ save against Mortal Wounds *only*. Pretty handy if you’re going up against a mortal wound outputting army like Seraphon or Lumineth, but fairly irrelevant if not. C
• Drain Vitality: Casting Value 6, Pick an enemy unit within 18″ and force them to reroll all unmodified 6s to hit and save. This is a great debuff and can make armies with abilities that fire on a six very sad. Again, brilliant against Seraphon and Lumineth. A
• Mortal Contract: Casting Value 7, select an enemy unit within 18″ and, if it deals damage to one of your units, roll a die at the end of that phase and on a 3+ deal D3 mortal wounds for the rest of the battle. Units may only be affected once per battle. This is a good spell and a really strange one, it never goes away once cast and works for each phase of the game, so no matter what kind of attack wounds your army, you can get your retribution. Anyone remember Remains in Play spells from old Fantasy days? Spread this one around judiciously and your opponent won’t be able to attack with anything without some payback. Extra fun if you charge a sacrificial unit into the cursed target, forcing them to attack you and take damage as you say ‘stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!’ A

Endless Spells

Ossiarch Endless spells work differently to other factions. Thanks to the Soul-Linked rule, only the casting player is allowed to move them (hurrah) but in return the casting wizard gets -1 to cast while they are soul-linked to an endless spell and they can’t cast another Soul-Linked endless spell while one is active. All of the spells are both cheap and good and with very few low points options or the ability to get an extra command point these should always be what you’re filling up your list with.

• Bone-Tithe Shrieker: Casting Value 5, has an aura of -1 to hit and +1 to be hit for enemy units within 12” of it. Pretty good, but your army has a huge range of ways to get +1 to hit. B+
• Soulstealer Carrion: Casting Value 6, at the end of every phase if any Order, Chaos or Destruction models were slain within 6” of it roll a dice. On 1-2 the wizard soul-linked to the spell heals a wound, on 3-4 it does a Mortal Wound to every Order, Chaos or Destruction unit within 6” and on 5-6 it does both. This is great, especially on a big multi wound wizard, just try and remember it every phase! Also gives the wizard line of sight from the bird. A
  • Magos Sockbert’s take: There are too many hoops to jump through for me to reckon this is worth casting. Cast it, get it in the right spot, hope you do damage to the right units (which might not be the strategically best ones), and on a 3+ units near it take a single Mortal Wound? Pass. D
• Nightmare Predator: Casting Value 7, a rather standard offensive endless spell that does D3 Mortal Wounds to enemies within 3”, except that you also get to set a prey for it which suffers D6 instead! A

Battalions

• Ossiarch Cohort – The big, multi battalion battalion. Not usable in standard matched play, so moving right along…
• Mortek Shield-Corps – 1 Mortisan and 3 Mortek Guard. Once per turn you can use the Mortek’s command ability for free. This is a good command ability you will likely use constantly so this is a good investment, using units you probably were using anyway. B+
• Mortisan Trident – 1 of each non-named Mortisan and a Gothizzar Harvester. Each Mortisan can cast an extra spell while within 18″ of the Harvester. They don’t learn any new spells mind you but this does help squeeze a bit extra out of them, which is great given how good the spell options you have are. B
  • Magos Sockbert’s take: On the other hand, you’re highly unlikely to actually want to take all three Mortisan options in one list, especially the Soulreaper. D
• Katakrosian Deathglaive – 2 Necropolis Stalker and 1 Morghast Harbinger. Basically gives all the units within the battalion scout, giving them a free 6″ of movement at the start of the game. Good rules but an unlikely combo of models you’ll want to include.  C
  • Magos Sockbert’s take: Competitive utility aside, this is probably the most enjoyable Battalion to field. Trigger the Stalker’s Hunt and Kill Command Ability and Unstoppable Advance and you have a potential threat range of 6” pre-game movement + 6” base movement + 3” Unstoppable Advance, +2d6” with a reroll run and 2d6” with a reroll for a charge. Will you ever need a potential 39” threat range? No! Is it fun to have? You bet your bones it is.
• Aegis Immortal – 2 Immortis Guard, 1 Morghast Archai. Immortis Guard exist to block wounds from hitting heroes, with their Soulbound Protectors being a 2+ Look Out Sir!. This Battalion not only gives it to the Morghast but also makes it so on a 5+ the wound or mortal wound is negated instead of allocated to the Immortis or Morghast. A very expensive investment in models you’re probably not going to take. If it was just an Immortis Guard buff, we can talk about it, but the Archai are just a tax. C
• Kavalos Lance – 1 Liege-Kavalos or Arch-Kavalos Zandtos and 2 Kavalos Deathriders. Let’s all units fall back and charge again, which is a brilliant movement buff, and also letting the Deathriders hopefully proc more mortal wounds using Deathrider Wedge, which also can be used once per turn for free. If you’re taking cavalry and not going for Stalliarch Lords this is definitely one to think about. B+
• Mortek Ballistari – 1 Mortisan Boneshaper, 1 Mortek Guard and 2 Mortek Crawlers. Essentially gives Crawlers a 4+ Look Out Sir! from the Mortek Guard, a 2+ if the Boneshaper is nearby. Catapults are good. Mortek are good. This seems good, but you’re having to leave some excellent models near your catapults to get the most use out of it, and it’s not like you’re short on healing anyway. If your Crawlers are getting targetted, you’ve probably got other things to worry about. C

In addition to the standard battalions in the Battletome, White Dwarf 453 brought us three new Battalions in May 2020.

• Vokmortian’s Dread Retinue – Vokmortian, 1-3 Mortek Guard, 1 Necropolis Stalker, 1-2 Morghast Archai or Harbingers in any combination. Also, has to be Mortis Praetorians. Two abilities here. Before you start the first battle round, pick an enemy Hero and on a 2+ subtract 1 to hit when that Hero targets Vokmortian. In addition, at the start of the hero phase you can pick one unit within 8” of Vokmortian and return one slain model to that unit. It… exists, I guess. 2+ is pretty reliable, but one in six battles you’re only getting the second benefit which is profoundly mediocre, since your 5” move Master of the Bone-Tithe is very unlikely to be next to Stalkers or Morghast, which would really benefit returning a model. Honestly though, the real drawback is needing to include possibly the weakest unit in the book, Vokmortian. D
• Harvester Scythe-Corps – 2 Kavalos Deathriders, 1 Gothizzar Harvester. Add 1 to wound rolls for attacks made by Gothizzar Harvesters if within 12” of a Kavalos Deathriders unit. Has to be a Mortis Praetorians army with Vokmortian as the general. Again you see a nasty Vokmortian tax, and the only benefit of the battalion is +1 to wound for a single model, since Harvesters are one model per unit. Pass. D
• Vokmortian’s Tithe Legion – Another multiple battalion battalion, which we can again ignore.

Finally, Broken Realms Teclis brings us Horrek’s Dreadlance!

Horrek’s Dreadlance – 1 Liege-Kavalos and 2 Kavalos Deathriders units. All must be Stalliarch Lords, and the Liege- Kavalos becomes a unique named character, Horrek Venzai. Horrek has to take the artefact and command trait from Stalliarch Lords, and whenever you use the Rally Back Command Ability from Stalliarch Lords (a unit can retreat and still charge) you regain that RDP on a 4+. Honestly, for a book so narratively focussed around Ossiarch Bonereapers, profoundly disappointing that this is the only Bonereapers content for the game, but as a battalion it’s actually not awful. Stalliarch Lords didn’t really want to be in the Kavalos Lance, as it partially duplicated their Legion Ability, so giving the horse lords a cavalry battalion is actually a pretty neat addition. B+

Unlike some factions, there’s no standout Batallion and you can build some perfectly good armies without one, but the extra RDP per turn you gain from having one is always nice. However, if you want a second Relic then this is the only way to get one so pick the one which matches what you want in your army. Sadly, only Mortek Shield-Corps and Kavalos Lance are seeing any competitive play.

Units

Heroes

Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis

Katakros is an odd model, and the first of its kind in Age of Sigmar. He’s basically a diorama with several models included who are usable until they are killed (40K later used this gimmick for the Triumph of St. Katherine and the Necron Silent King). He himself sits back and lets his minions die until he gets fed up enough to get involved. That means that his abilities decrease as he takes wounds, but his combat skills get much nastier.

His companions are:

• Gnosis Scrollbearer: Dies after 2 wounds, allows you to pick an enemy unit anywhere on the battlefield at the start of the hero phase and make it hit at -1 until your next hero phase. Has an okay dagger, but a brilliant ability. Sadly, you can’t use your healing IN the hero phase to bring this guy back to use his ability at the START of the hero phase.
• Prime Necrophorus: Dies after 4 wounds. Allows you to use your command ability with a range of 36” instead of 18”, meaning your key buff will likely cover the entire table. Probably the most valuable companion.
• Aviarch Spymaster: Dies after 8 wounds. Allows you to roll a dice once per turn when your opponent receives a Command Point, on a 4+ it is lost. Has a slightly better dagger.
• Liege-Immortis: Dies after 12 wounds, doesn’t grant any abilities. Has twin duelling swords which put out 6 attacks. Note that, oddly, he can still give you two RDP a turn even when dead, since he grants the whole Katakros model the Liege keyword.
• Katakros’ own combat starts off relatively weak with just one sword attack (although it’s rend -3, damage three) which increases to two attacks after four wounds and four attacks after 12. He can’t use his shield to attack until he’s taken 13 wounds but when he does it’s a fairly tasty rend -2, damage two with four attacks which inflicts an additional two Mortal Wounds if the attack roll is a 6. Note that only two of his attack profiles can generate extra hits from Nadirite Weapons.

His own ability is to heal three wounds or return three wound’s worth of models back on 3 units within 24” in the hero phase which is excellent for keeping your Mortek Guard alive, and thoroughly depressing to your opponent after they spent so long trying to kill them. He can also use it on himself, to gain some of his dead allies back.

His command abilities are :

• Endless Duty: +1 attacks to a unit within 12”. Use this on Katakros to generate an ungodly number of pretty decent attacks, however much damage he’s taken.
• Supreme Lord of the Bonereaper Legions: +1 to hit rolls to *all* units within 18” and +1 to Save rolls for all Mortis Praetorian units within 18”. While the Necrophorus is alive that’s a massive 36” bubble.

These are both excellent, especially so in Mortis Praetorians. His only real downside is his high points cost for a unit which exists mainly as a buffing piece, which is a big chunk of change from your army. Still a very strong choice and almost always included in competitive lists, and a great babysitter for anyone thinking of taking a shot at your backline Mortek Crawlers.

Liege-Kavalos

The Liege Kavalos is your non-character mounted hero. He’s pretty fast and can hit pretty solidly, especially with the artefacts from Mortis Praetorians or Null Myriad. His unstoppable charge ability allows you to roll as many dice as you rolled for the charge move and on a 6 cause a mortal wound to a unit within 1”. Nice, but likely only one or two mortal wounds at best. His sword is damage two with three base attacks but don’t forget his absolute beast of a horse who has 6 attacks hitting and wounding on 3s!

His command ability is

• Endless Duty: +1 Attacks to a unit within 12” for that phase (can be used in combat or shooting phase, making him one of the few ways to buff catapult shots). Feel free to buff himself to make him even nastier.

Since all of our other “combat” heroes are named characters the Liege is a popular choice as the general and relic holder.

Arch Kavalos-Zandtos

A named version of the Liege-Kavalos who hits slightly harder in combat and grants Mortis Praetorians rerolls of 1 to wound if you’re fighting Order or Destruction, or allowing them to reroll all wounds if you’re fighting Chaos. This is the only source of reroll wounds in the book, so take full advantage. Note that this does nothing against Death armies, which we’re sure you’ll see a lot of when the Soulblight Gravelords drop.

Whether or not he’s better than a generic Liege-Kavalos really depends on your army build. He can’t take an artefact or Command Trait, but his own tools and abilities are tasty, and no one (other than you) wants to see Mortek Crawlers rerolling wound rolls.

Nagash, Supreme Lord of Undeath

For a god, Nagash seems about right in terms of raw power, but costs an ungodly amount of points. His combat is pretty good; he has a D6 damage eye laser and hits pretty hard with his staff while having 16 wounds to chew through with a base 3+ save (2+ with Katakros!), ignoring mortal wounds on a 4+ and reflecting them on a 6+! But the main reason he’s here is for his spellcasting and he doesn’t disappoint.

Firstly he knows all of the Bonereaper spells and can cast Mystic Shield and Arcane bolt for as many of his spells as he likes, giving him a proper D&D magic missile look. He can cast and unbind 3 spells but his books of Nagash grant him 5 extra cast and unbinds (which decline as he takes wounds). His Staff of Power also grants him +3 to his casting and unbinding rolls (again declining with damage). His two unique spells are:

• Soul Stealer: Casting Value 6, pick an enemy unit within 24” and try and beat their bravery on 2D6. If you succeed they take D3 mortal wounds and if you double it they take D6. For every wound that isn’t negated Nagash heals one wound. Meh.
• Hand of Dust: Casting Value 8, pick 1 enemy model within 3” of the caster, hide a dice in one hand and get your opponent to pick a hand. If they pick your empty hand the model is dead, gone, kaput. Mind games galore, this, combined with the Umbral Spellportal, used to be a key part of standard Nagash tactics.

Like most of the named heroes Nagash can heal three wounds or return three wound’s worth of models back in the hero phase but he gets to do it on 5 units, with no range limit!
His command ability is:

• Supreme Lord of Undeath: Reroll 1s to hit and 1s to save for *all* your units on the board which is fantastic. If only there was a decent way to combine this with Katakros’ +1 to hit and +1 to saves… Please note, once again, Petrifex Elite gain no real bonus to their saves here. It’s almost as if the nerf was a reflex change and not well thought out…

Nagash used to be the best spellcaster in the game, but a certain pointy eared git and a zombie frog have solidly taken over his spot as lord of magic. He’s still an excellent caster though, and add in endless spells (notably the Umbral Spell Portal), his high wounds, large base and decent combat abilities plus his very powerful healing and you have a hard hitting piece, but one that you will have to build your army around him but that seems to be a choice worth making.

Sadly, in the current shooting heavy meta he’s far, far too easy to take off the board for, and make sure this sets in, eight hundred and eighty points. Running up against the magical dominance of Seraphon, Lumineth and Tzeentch and his bonuses don’t seem so fancy after all. Right now? Paint him up all nice and pretty and leave him at home to impress your guests.

Arkhan the Black

Arkhan is like a mini Nagash, with similar spell casting rules but less power in combat (and a much cheaper points cost to reflect it). Right now he’s probably the best wizard in the Bonereapers book, balancing both punch and points cost.

He has 11 wounds and only a 4+ save, with none of the extra abilities that Nagash has to keep him alive. He has a couple of decent melee attacks which can heal him if he does damage but you really want to be keeping him out of combat where you can as he will die fairly easily.
Like Nagash he knows all of the Bonereaper spells and can cast Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt for as many of his spells as he wants. He can cast and unbind 3 times and has a +2 to both (which degrades). His unique spell is:

• Curse of Years: Casting Value six, pick an enemy unit within 18” and roll ten dice. Each 6+ does a mortal wound, then gets rerolled with a 5+ doing another Mortal Wound, then being rerolled for 4+ etc. until you get to 1 which automatically fails. This can be scary, and is great for baiting out a dispel, but it is, on average, about two Mortal Wounds. Not exactly the most powerful spell out there.

Arkhan can heal three wounds or return three wound’s worth of models back in the hero phase for 4 units within 24”. His command ability is

• First of the Mortarchs: Add 6” range to all death wizard’s spells within 18” of him. Great to lob out a cheeky Endless Spell a bit closer to the victim.

Arkhan is definitely a good choice for a spellcaster if you don’t want to pay out for Nagash. Katakros and Arkhan buddy lists are seeing a rise in popularity, with the ability to heal a combined 7 (!) units allowing a truly excellent level of resilience for your army.

Mortisan Boneshaper

A wizard who can keep your models alive. Probably better to think of him as a healer that can sometimes cast a spell; you’re really taking him for Boneshaper, which lets them either heal three wounds or return three wounds worth of models back in the hero phase. This only works within 6” so make sure to keep him close to your units who will need it (most likely the Mortek Guard) since they won’t get to move before using it.

They can cast one spell, Shard-storm, which is ok, but since they’ll be following your Mortek Guard round he’s a good source of Empower Nadirite Weapons.

Mortisan Soulmason

This is a strange piece. They’re a wizard who can cast and unbind twice. Their special move is his signature spell

• Soul Guide: Casting Value 6, give one unit reroll hits of 1 for all attacks until the next hero phase.

Their creepy awesome bone chair lets you roll a dice at the end of the hero phase; on a 1 nothing happens, on a 2-5 you can cast Soul Guide again and on a 6 you can do it D3 times. If you want a wizard with 2 casts then they’re a great pick and the Soul Guide is a nice bonus. Remember that some of the best artefacts in the army belong to this guy.

Vokmortion, Master of the Bone-Tithe

A two cast / dispel wizard whose main gimmick is his signature spell which can straight up kill a model within 1” on a roll of a 5+. Getting your 6 wound 5+ wizard into combat with something worth doing this on (with a low chance of success) is really not worth including him for when you can get two casts from a Soulmason for 40 fewer points. Quite possibly the worst pick in the book.

Mortisan Soulreaper

A combat wizard with the chance to do mortal wounds in combat and a mortal wound spell. Only 5 wounds with a 4+ save means they won’t survive very long to do any of that. Not a great choice despite being a cool model (and reasonably cheap).

Battleline

There are only two battleline choices but luckily both of them are excellent.

Mortek Guard

Mortek Guard are one of the best battleline units in the game. Able to be taken in units of 10-40, they’re single wound models with a 4+ save, with their Command Ability allowing them to reroll all of their saves not just failed saves. Remember Games Workshop’s rule of ‘rerolls before modifiers’. This really matters when you raise their saves via cover or Katakros.

Shield Wall: Pick a unit of Mortek Guard which includes a Hekatos and you can re-roll all saves for attacks targeting that unit in that combat phase. Sadly, in this current shooting heavy meta, no benefit against shooting. When combined with Katakros’ Command Ability they have a save of 3+ rerolling which is absurdly good, especially when combined with many of the healing abilities the army has. A large unit will last a lot longer than any battleline has any right to. Just be aware this can cause some bad feelings for opponents who throw their best combat units into your Mortek Guard only to bounce right off.

Their weapons can either be swords (+1 rend) or spears (an extra 1” range). The competitive tendency is to go for swords; the extra rank of attacks spears grant doesn’t really offset this. All of their weapons are Nadirite and have 2 attacks (3 with Endless Duty), hitting on 3+ and wounding on 4+ (with each 6+ becoming two hits, or 5+ if you have cast Empower Nadirite Weapons). That’s a very respectable amount of damage, especially if you’re using Bludgeon from Petrifex with swords meaning your rend is -2!

One in ten can take a banner allowing them to reroll charges (may as well take as many as you can) and one in ten can take a Soulcleaver Greatblade which simply wounds on a 3+ rather than a 4+ with the downside that you can’t generate extra attacks, as it isn’t a Nadirite weapon. Rarely seen at tournaments. Mortek Guard really work best in larger units; big units will survive until the stonecows come home, since you can heal them up so well. Smaller units are fine to hold objectives, but benefit less from healing, since they won’t survive as long so you can’t bring as many back.

Kavalos Deathriders

The cavalry choice of champions. These can be taken in units of 5-15, have a great movement of 12” and the same save as the Mortek Guard whilst also being three wound models and having three attacks each, plus two more from their mounts which, as all Bretonnian players know, will do more damage than the riders. While they are pretty survivable their main ability is to dish out large amounts of damage. Swords are probably better on smaller units; that rend -1 is so important against valuable targets, so it’s what you normally see at tournaments. 2” lances can be good, especially when buffed with Empower Nadirite Weapons and Endless Duty. A basic unit of five with those buffs is going to have 21 lance attacks and hit 24 times! Add that to Nagash rerolling 1s to hit or one of the many +1 to hit this army can get and you’re throwing buckets of dice around.

Their command ability is also pretty good:

• Deathrider Wedge: When you charge a unit roll a dice for each model in the Deathrider unit and do a mortal wound on a 5+. A couple extra mortal wounds is nice, but nothing to write home about. You can also pile in an extra 3”, which is the real kicker here. 6” pile in lets you pick exactly who you get to nuke.

Both large units to make use of the Deathrider Wedge and smaller units who can flank and capture objectives quickly are excellent choices.

Artillery

Mortek Crawler

Only one choice here but boy is it a good one. A giant, slow moving catapult with three attacks (four with Endless Duty!) at 6-36” range, hitting on 2+ and wounding on 3+ doing five damage, although this degrades as it takes damage. Even that alone would be pretty awesome but it also has two additional shots it can use once per game.

• Cauldron of Torment: Doesn’t need to hit or wound, instead pick a unit in range and roll a d6 for each model in the unit, adding a penalty which increases as the Crawler takes damage. If the roll is equal to or greater the target’s unmodified bravery then a model is slain. Okay against hordes of low bravery models like Skaven but not going to put a dent in most things.
• Cursed Stele: Doesn’t need to hit or wound, instead pick an enemy model (not unit) in range and roll 2D6 adding a modifier that gets stronger as the crawler takes damage. If the result greater or equal to the target’s wounds characteristic it’s slain, up to +3. This is especially good for targeting units that are strung out in a line as you can target a model in the middle and leave half the unit out of coherency to kill them all in Battleshock. This is incredibly strong, but something that a knowledgeable opponent can stop happening through positioning. Even then it’s great for taking out multiwound models.

Magos Sockbert’s take: This is a *fantastic* screw you in the later parts of the game, especially if you’re on the losing side. More than once have I seen a damaged Crawler delete an expensive enemy model; the look on your opponent’s face when you remove his Kroak on a 4+ on 2d6 is priceless. Farm those kill points!

One of the key pieces in almost every Bonereapers army, this piece can single handedly remove hordes of low-save models, or snipe out keystone pieces in your opponent’s army; there’s very few characters that can survive two of these. Some of our preferred targets include Orruk Warchanters, Khornate Bloodsecrators, and the frog-daddy himself, Lord Kroak.

This unit is sometimes called out as not reliable enough to be worth including, but we here at Goonhammer believe that the ability to reach out and touch someone, and force them to come to you or risk more skulls to the face, more than merits its inclusion.

Behemoths

Gothizzar Harvester

A strange support unit which can either choose Soulcleaver Sickles (+1 to hit five or more models) or Soulcrusher Bludgeons (6s do two mortal wounds) in combat. The bludgeons are probably better in most cases since you’re likely already getting +1 to hit from another source, but neither are bad picks.

However, the main reason to take these is for its bone harvest ability. This lets you roll a D6 for any model slain within 3” and on a 4+ heal (or return) a model to a unit within 6”. The amount you heal depends on the wounds of the model that was slain. You can use this by either placing him just behind the front ranks of Mortek Guard to return them to life when they’re killed by an opponent or send it into melee to heal up other units around it. When combined with the other ways of healing models and the high survivability or Mortek Guard this can combine to form a nigh on unkillable unit.

Definitely something you want to consider one or two of if your goal is to have big units of unkillable Mortek Guard, especially with Katakros’ +1 armour save ability.
Note that since each attack is resolved individually, you can keep bringing back the same model, then killing them, then bringing them back, over and over.

Other

Necropolis Stalkers

One of the four multi-wound options in “other units”. Taken in units of 3-6, these are the most offensive of the options, being four wounds each with a 4+ save. Their weapons are pretty nice: Spirit Blades which give 5 attacks hitting and wounding on 3+ with -1 rend. One in every three can swap the Spirit Blades for Dread Falchions which are only 3 attacks hitting on 4+ but doing 2 damage with -2 rend. Mathematically inferior when combined with Precision Aspect, stick with the Spirit Blades.

Their main selling point is their Quadrarch Aspects rule which lets them choose from a variety of modes during the combat phase:

• Blade Strike: Reroll hit rolls.
• Blade Parry: Reroll save rolls.
• Destroyer Aspect: Reroll wound rolls.
• Precision Aspect: +1 rend and plus one damage, this is the real threat!

Having the ability to choose this on the fly really lets them threaten all sorts of units and makes them a very good option for damage dealing. Their command ability is
Hunt and Kill: Can reroll run and charge and can move across terrain as if they can fly but has to be done in the hero phase so forward thinking is essential.

Immortis Guard

Bodyguard versions of Stalkers who can take damage on behalf of other models and have a 3+ save. They’re okay in combat, dealing two damage at rend -2 but they don’t really pull their weight and are incredibly expensive as bodyguards. We’re seeing a recent surge of blocks of these used to babysit Arkhan who can heal them back up; more data is needed but this is certainly a build to watch out for.

Morghast Harbringers

Hitting slightly harder than the Stalkers base attacks but with no rerolls. They do get to charge at things 18” away and can roll 3D6 to charge, as well as flying, but don’t have any Relentless Discipline command abilities on their card. They make fairly good hard hitters if you need a simple smashing unit, but they’re outshone by pretty much every other Ossiarch unit.

Morghast Archai

A lot like the Harbringers but with a Mortal Wound save instead of the extra charge distance. Not really worth considering either.

Scenery

Bonetithe Nexus

A pretty chunky scenery piece that goes down before any other terrain pieces. Check with your Tournament Organiser how they want to implement this on boards with pre-set terrain.
It comes with 4 different punishments you can use in your hero phase:

• Punishment of Agony: Pick an enemy unit within 18” and on a 4+ it’s subtracts 1 from its hit rolls until your next hero phase. Painful, especially when stacked with another -1 to hit from Katakros.
• Punishment of Death: Pick an enemy unit with 36” and on a 2+ it takes a mortal wound. Fine to finish off a wounded unit or character, but rarely the best choice.
• Punishment of Ignorance: Pick an enemy wizard within 36” and on a 2+ it’s -1 to cast and unbind until your next hero phase. We’d say this was the real deal, but with the prevalence of casting bonuses magic-heavy armies have these days it often only turns ‘supremely powerful’ casters into ‘very good’ casters. Still, good to throw on that Orruk wizard to make the greenskin sad.
• Punishment of Lethargy: Pick an enemy unit within 18” on a 4+ it can’t run and can only roll one d6 for charge rolls. Clinch, if you can get it off on the right unit at the right time.

It’s free so you’re going to take it anyway, but you can almost always find a good use for it each turn, with Lethargy and Agony being the most powerful effects but needing a shorter range, so place it where you expect the enemy to be near if you can. Don’t forget about just using it to bottleneck parts of the board either, just its size can really help control the battlefield.

• Magos Sockbert’s take: Honestly, this is what terrain pieces should be, and other factions can be rightfully jealous. It’s basically a free priest that can cause a real benefit but only on a die roll. Seraphon players don’t always bring their terrain pieces, Idoneth players only really care about their boats to block movement, but this gives a unique and interesting benefit to your army that all other factions should have a shot at. Just watch out for Sevireth and Gate-Breakers.

Army Lists

Kyle Calip’s Mortis Praetorians

1st place, Butcher’s Tribe Tabletop Simulator teams event

In with the winning team (the excellently named Seraphonies) comes Kyle Calip with a fairly non-traditional list heavy on the heroes. We sent a ghost to sit down with Kyle and learn a bit about how he runs it.

I started running this list back before the Petrifex nerf. I basically use the Deathrider block as incredibly durable yet mobile objective grabbers. If I’m charged, I can reroll all hits, which when you’re hitting on 2+ and maybe exploding 5s, you can fish out a crap tonne of wounds, but the real power comes from their 6” pile in. Also, the 15 5+ Mortal Wounds can sometimes snipe out important support characters just from tapping them on the charge.

The lynchpin for this list is really Zandtos. Still Their Breath! is super good when you’re only wounding on 4+, and against Chaos with all the other stacking buffs you can actually wipe out a brick of Horrors in one activation. His speed also allows him to keep pace with the Deathriders block to be in range to give Endless Duty and Deathless Warriors.

The general mantra I have for running this list is that the movement phase is the only phase where you have a hundred per cent control, so as long as you don’t mess that up then dice don’t matter as much.

For spells, I always use Empower Nadirite Weapons, but I alternate between all the others based on the situation. Arcane Command is definitely a favourite, Mortal Contract is good but slow, and Drain Vitality is great against big units or Seraphon and Lumineth.

I’m looking forward to putting this on the table myself, and thanks to Kyle for a quick run down on how his list worked! Sadly, the ghostly envoy was destroyed during the encounter.

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
- Legion: Mortis Praetorians

Leaders
Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (500)
- General
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (360)
Arch-Kavalos Zandtos (220)

Battleline
15 x Kavalos Deathriders (480)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield
10 x Mortek Guard (130)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield
20 x Mortek Guard (260)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Nightmare Predator (40)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 113

Michael Wood’s Mortis Praetorians

3rd place, South Australian Grand Tournament

Third place at a singles event is real nice, with only *checks notes* Slaves to Darkness and Grand Alliance Death coming ahead. Okay, so it’s an Australian event, so not always the most internationally reflective meta, but 100 Mortek Guard on a 3+ save, rerolling, and bringing back six a turn to each unit is a real tough nut to crack. This list will suffer on more mobile games, but plonk 40 Mortek Guard on an objective and they ain’t leaving.

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
- Legion: Mortis Praetorians

Leaders
Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (500)
- General
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament (360)

Battleline
40 x Mortek Guard (440)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield
30 x Mortek Guard (390)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield
20 x Mortek Guard (260)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Nightmare Predator (40)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 121

Magos Sockbert’s Mortis Praetorians

Right now something resembling this is probably the most common build you’ll see on the tabletop. Katakros and two catapults is so incredibly common at least one streaming commentator doesn’t pick games with this list to stream because they’re so generic. This is the list I’d recommend to a newer OBR player; it works in all phases of the game, it’s tough enough to survive a few hits, and it’s a decent all-round general introduction to the faction and game. From here, build to taste!

Allegiance: Ossiarch Bonereapers
- Legion: Mortis Praetorians

Leaders
Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis (500)
- General
Mortisan Soulmason (140)
- Lore of Mortisans: Empower Nadirite Weapons
Liege-Kavalos (200)
- Artefact: Artificer's Blade

Battleline
30 x Mortek Guard (390)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield
5 x Kavalos Deathriders (180)
- Nadirite Blade and Shield

Artillery
Mortek Crawler (200)
Mortek Crawler (200)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 117

Wrapping Up

And that’s it. With many, many words above there’s inevitably some mistakes or stupid decisions in here somewhere, so if you spot any, or have any other feedback, drop us a note in the comments below, email us at contact@goonhammer.com, or drop us a line in the comments below