Age of Sigmar: Nexus Of Grief Rules – Nighthaunt Faction Terrain
The new Nexus of Grief rules are out, and the Nighthaunt have a new way to mess with their enemies in Age of Sigmar.
Over the weekend, Games Workshop released the new Nighthaunt rules for the Scourge of Ghyran. In those rules, they mentioned the new Nexus of Grief. I was a little confused because, while GW had mentioned those rules were coming, they weren’t made available until later. Well, the rules for the Nighthaunt Faction Terrain are now available. So let’s talk about them.
Nexus of Grief Faction Terrain Rules
We just have the basic deployment rules here. If you read the Designer’s Note, it explains how this is supposed to be used. Basically, you put one piece of the Nexus of Grief down in step 1 of the deployment phase and then the other two pieces in step 3. It seems simple enough. But what does this Nexus actually do?
It comes in with 8 wounds and a 5+ armor save and a 5+ ward. It also has the Cover and Impassable terrain rules, too. But let’s check the various abilities it’s bringing, too.
While the Nexus of Grief doesn’t technically have a move stat, these terrain features DO move around. Hungry Crypts lets you move the Nexus of Grief features to within 3″ of a friendly Nighthaunt unit. This is where things get a little weird. You can’t place it within 3″ of an enemy unit, which is unfortunate. Why? Because that’s where you need it to be for the Screams of the Penitent to kick in. This is the REAL reason you want to bring it to battle.
Screams of the Penitent deny enemy units within 3″ their use of commands. That can really be a game-changer for fights. “How do you sucker your enemy into them” is going to be the puzzle you’ll have to solve unless you take the Hungry Nexus Battle Formation. In this case, you just move them into the enemy.
Okay, but there’s also one more reason you’ll want to bring the Nexus of Grief along. It’s got the heals!
That’s right — you can heal up to 3 friendly Nighthaunt units for D3 wounds or up to D3 slain miniatures based on their health characteristic. Unit recursion is good and these little buggers are going to do that for the Nighthaunt.
Personally, as a person who has a Nighthaunt Army, I’m just glad to get some Faction Terrain for them. I don’t really see a reason NOT to take these. If the enemy targets them, great! It’s 8 wounds and a 5+/5++ save to chew through. They will be more than just a speed bump. And the extra command blocking shenanigans combined with the heals makes them seem pretty useful to me. Now, I just need to figure out the correct positioning to get the best effect from them…that’s going to take some game time.
Are you a Nighthaunt player looking to add these to your army?
