NAGASH: The Statline

Nagash's Statline

M:6 BS:7 WS:7 S:7 T:7 W:7 I:6 A:6 Ld:10

Monster (Yup, detected that from his entourage of ghost toasties floating about him, and the size of the ghouls in comparison)

Level 5 Wizard (Note-overpowered magic ability)

Large Target, Terror, Undead

Arch Necromancer: Rerolls miscast results

Death Magic Incarnate Reduce losses due to instability by 2 wounds (12 inch range)

Summoning spells have triple range and summon triple the normal wounds of models.

Staff of power - acts as a reservoir of up to 4 magic dice that can be stored and used later.

Black Armor (4+ AS, 4+WS)

Knows 9 Spells: Ryze (Undeath) and combo of Death, Light, Nehekara, Vampires and Undead

Zefet-nebtar - magic weapon (+1 S and Multiple Wounds)

Lots of conjecture out on the net, about how to kill him and how to field him, and what direction 9th ed is going to take due to this turn of events, also hints at a new undead army and a return to "heromammer" form of game. Time will tell

I think we are heading the same way as 40K: Herohammer and monsterhammer.(Read buy more models)

You'r going to have to shoot the cr*p out of him, (read multiple cannon); charge him with hard hitting impact causing chariots/monsters, poison or tar-pit him. One-on-one combat's going to be hard going.

Comments from the net:

"Initiative is more than respectable, so many kill spells are risky, if you can even cast them.

Heroic Killing Blow isn't too great due to his 4+ Ward Save.

Cavalry could potentially get a save against him, but are unlikely to have enough attacks to take him down.

Monsters seem a fairish gamble - though if he gets a couple of blows in, it's goodnight vienna for most.

Artillery it would seem is our best bet, even if it will take several Cannon hits to drop him.

Quite honestly, I think multiple run in with Chariots or other Impact Hits are the best bet. His base is likely wide enough for a triple charge. Wee bit of luck, and he's toast. It's not exactly a great plan of course, but it's feasible!

You'll really have to kill him through weight of dice, preferably with poison, or a crap load of artillery. No single model would be able to take him down without a bit of luck. A blender vamp, kitted out Demon Prince, or similar combat character could do some damage, but I doubt they could do it on their own without magic buffs. We know the augments available to him via the existing lores can make him even more problematic, and we haven't seen anything about the Lore of Undeath.

If 9th Ed. went back to using the tabled allowance for it's armies, as in at 2k-3k you get 0-2 lord, 0-2 heroes, 2+ core, 0-4 special, 0-2 rare, and maybe an extra section where it's like 0-1 allies/monsters/undead legion. Similar to how 40k has been pushing expanding/unbound field allocations, the extra freedom in Fantasy might be a welcome breather and see more of the BBEG dudes like Nagash, Archaon and Malekith on the table. Herohammer ftw

"Nagash can be included in an Undead Legions army. His Point cost counts towards your lords allowance."

However, it doesn't state that "he -is- a lord" So with allowing 25% core, you're looking at about 1334 points to be able to field him.

As for people coming up with ways to take him out, I really don't think it's as difficult as you might think. He's got a 4+ armor and a 4+ ward save. He's going to be able to deal 6+d6 wounds at most if you are infantry. Charge him with a big enough block and you have a charge, +3 ranks and a banner, and that's before you've even done any damage. If it's a scary big block it might even include a BSB. 

Let's take the optimal thing, a big scary block with a BSB and full command charges him in the rear.

Your bonus:

+1 charge

+1 banner

+1 BSB

+2 rear

+3 ranks

Before anybody swings, you've already won combat by 8. He'll most likely need 3s to hit at best, so 4 attacks hit. He'll then need 2s to wound, so let's assume he wounds all 4. After that he stomps, let's assume he rolls 4 and wounds all of them, which seems better than average to me. He has now broken even. If it's a unit with ****ty WS (5+s to hit) and mediocre strength (6+s to wound), you're still looking at doing like 3 or so wounds after saves just from the sheer number of attacks you get with such a big block. And that's assuming they are terrible at combat. If they are weapon skill 3 you're hitting at 4s, if you're 6 he's also hitting at 4's and likely to miss more. If you're strength 5 you're wounding him on 5s. Great weapons you're going to be shredding his *** and his armor.

Even if you only deal 3 wounds at that point, you're still causing him to crumble by 1, resulting in 4 wounds lost in 1 combat phase.

That's not really how I read it. His points count towards his lord allowance, but nowhere does it say he is actually restricted to lord allowance, only that he counts towards it. For every other dataslate that adds new heroes, it mentions that "x is a lord choice for army y". The way they wrote this one different makes me believe that they intend for you to be able to take him with smaller armies, by sacrificing the ability to take any lord and much of your points for other units.

I can't imagine this was intended as a "lord you can only use in 4000 point games", as the market for 4000 point games is pretty darn small.

Yeah i would agree it probably means he is the only Lord you have if you take him, while still getting 25% of your total points as core. In a 2k game you could field him, 500 core, and 500 whatever else you want.

Does sound like he has some nasty summoning magic though