Hobby Update: Undead ASBs and Zuinok Iceblood

The proper-game debut for the Undead to close out 2023 was a ton of fun and I learned a lot. One shortcoming were my supporting individuals, so up now are some Army Standard Bearers and a surprise Zuinok Iceblood for the Undead!

The newcomers.

One of the many things I learned from the game was that despite the rest of their robust combat profile, Revenant Kings actually only have 3 attacks. That means that statistically they are likely to get in about a damage in for most combats. This output is on par with a Kingdoms of Men Hero, which costs half as much as the Revenant King. The 40 points extra is for Inspiring, Lifeleech 1, Fearless, and more Nerve. These are all good abilities to have, but expensive to pay for if he's not going to be getting into any combats. Buying Surge 5 for 10 points is great, but pushes the King's cost up even higher to 90 points. I will definitely test him out more, and have some ideas for him, but he's not the go-to Inspiring and do-everything unit I thought he'd be, so I need to branch out.

I think an ASB or two with items could be the way to go for a more competitive player, especially with the new aura changes. Tome of Darkness gets you Surge 5, and that on an ASB is 15 points cheaper than a Surging Revenant King. It's not much, but every bit helps in a competitive list! My go-to ASB with Lute of Insatiable Darkness is only 10 points cheaper, but Bane Chant is still nice to have around, and this could be a good Inspiring unit for some hammers. The ASBs even bring additional utility to the army with the new Clash 2024 changes, gaining a Wild-Charge Aura for Skeletons (including Revenants and Revenant Cavalry), which I want to try this out sometime. 

The ASBs.

Hobbying-wise, the ASBs were leftovers from my bits box, mostly painted up long ago. I added some new shields and an old Chaos marauder banner, and updated the colors to get away from the old purple and white scheme. My Undead are a hodgepodge of ranges and ideas and I really want to make the army more colorful as I touch it up and bring it into 2024..

Next up is a unique hero for the Undead: Zuinok Iceblood. Mantic actually has a model for Zuinok, which I was unaware of before sitting down to write this up. It looks cool! But I already have mine, which is a Wizkids mini picked up for fun after the Undead debut. This seemed wysiwyg enough for Defense 5, and the fail was a head, which seemed fitting for a necromancer. Hobbying-wise there is nothing all that special going on. It came with an alternate head with a fire breath attack, but that didn't seem fitting, so I went with the more boring option. The end result seems almost a bit too pristine though, so while he's ready for the table now, I may dirty him up sometime. 

Zuinok Iceblood.

Game-wise, he's a neat little caster. He Inspires, which is great, and comes with a cool suite of spells: Surge, Fireball, and Veil of Shadows. The Veil is an Arcane Knowledge spell, granting an aura of Stealthy, which is why most folks will want to Zuinok I think. However Surge is great to have in the list, and his other special rules really play well with Fireball: Necrofire which lets his Fireball damage heal a nearby Skeleton unit; Witchfire which lets him reroll hits on the Fireball spell.

Fluff-wise he is an outcast, so dirtying up the armor could be a good touch (the undead probably aren't too helpful at donning, doffing, or cleaning armor). The Outsider special rule expresses the fluff, and prohibits any other unique undead heroes from joining him in the army. He is listed as an Arkosaur necromancer, which I don't think has actually been defined well in the fluff? It shows up on Mantic's website, but is not in any of the army keywords for the Salamanders that I saw.

Back in my Warhammer days, a very talented local hobbiest created a unit of undead orcs just for fun. Wargames Atlantic has Undead Dwarves, and TT Combat has Halfling Zombies and Halfling Ghouls. If Arkosaurs are undefined and unrepresented, it could be an awesome design space to explore for the Undead to get some one-off upgrades for existing units (like NA and Varangur Huscarl-style units; or the League of Rhordia's Dogs of War units) to raise up more atypical undead units? That seems unlikely though, as those kind of upgrades are needlessly complex, and probably not the direction Kings of War will take the army.

Zuinok's Fireball tweaks and the new aura for the ASB's both encourage more skeleton use by Undead generals, which I am very excited to explore. Ultimately, I think I was a bit naïve to think I could get by with just Rev Kings, and I think most Undead players are usually going to run a mix of heroes. The Undead have a ton of customizability, so I am pleased to have these finished to give me some more options for list building. The year has been off to a bit of a rocky start for me, but I'll hopefully be able to get some games in soon!