Death Magic and the Dead

[[Black] Katalyst]

I always veered more towards magic heavy VC armies. Usualy a Necromancer Lord and 3-4 Necromancers. It brings a lot of zombies and skeletons to the table but thats about it IMO. The other necromancy spells are useful but there are also some nice bound spells that can do the same thing; Book of Arkhan and Staff of Damnation.

So I've been trying a different route. Using all my Level 2 Necromancers for raising and what not and using the level 4 Necromancer Lord with Death Magic. I personally think its a more efficient build. Let me break it down a bit...

Dark Hand of Death- A cheap magic missile that can easily force your opponent to lose a rank. Denying your opponent that one extra point can make or break the combat. I always take a Black Periapt so the extra dice usually isn't a problem. I like to use this right before I'm going to be charged.

Steal Soul- Great for popping a unit champion. The extra attack will help in combat and the extra wound gained will help the frail Necromancer live longer. Since there is "..no targeting restrictions whatsoever." it works well with the Gem of Blood. Most hero level characters only have two wounds anyways, so its a cheap way to kill them while making your Necromancer last a bit longer.

Wind of Death- Great magic missile. With a good amount of spell casters, there's a good chance that you'll get Gaze of Nagash somewhere else. Now you have some decent ranged attacks, combined with a Galloper Gun or two, your army will have some nasty ranged shooting before combat and none of it needs "to hit rolls"!!! Yet again, a great way to peel ranks off an enemy unit. VC has no ranged attacks other than a Banshee, which is hit or miss. Magic Missiles in general are better than normal ranged attacks that need to hit IMO. With plenty of skimishers in the game, hitting automatically is nice.

Walking Death- I love this spell. First raise a small unit of zombies, not skeletons because you will automatically raise atleast 4 zombies with a lvl2 IoN, right in the middle of the enemy. Then cast this little spell and watch all the Terror tests. It doesn't have great range but it works well against armies with low LD and slower armies. Its a simple combo that will cause a lot of Ld tests and with a well played VC army, there will be a lot of Terror and Fear tests followed by Panic tests. I've used this against Ors and Goblins and made 4 units flee all the while popping out almost all my opponents Fanatics in the middle of his army. It also works great with Ghouls. Since they skirmish they can walk straight through terrain. Now you have a terror causing uint that can freely move up while in cover.

Doom and Darkness- Another great spell. Nice range, its not a "Remains in Play" spell but can still last a full turn. The Ld debuff is nasty. Use it the turn before you're charged or after you do the WD/IoN combo to make a desicive enemy unit run for the hills. It works really well against high Ld armies, all of a sudden, a unit has the Ld of a goblin :-)

Drain Life- A little pricey to cast IMO, but its nice to have against armored troops and, like other spells, it can shave off a rank bonus. It can be cast in combat and its an area affect, which is nice against small flanking units with the possibility of bringing them down in unit strength.

These are just some of my ideas to show how Death Magic can really help a VC army that are heavily based on magic.. I've had great success with it and I hope this can give players an extra edge in becoming better generals.