Magistratum Subfaction

One of the mightiest pillars of the empire is the Magistratum, which consists of several sorcerous orders – most notably the Ordo Mortificarum which practices the depraved art of necromancy. Legions which fail the empire are condemned and turned over to the Magistratum where they are summarily executed and reanimated as undead soldiers, to form the ranks of the ghastly Legio Mortum. As rotting, skeletal husks they have been granted an opportunity to regain their lost honor. The Necromagi and Mortifexes of the order employ the undead in service to the empire, raising skeletal warriors to do battle, unleashing withering spells and constructing infernal monsters from the cadavers of slaughtered beasts.

 These defilers of death pay no heed to their ancestors; indeed, the necromancers callously enslave their forefathers’ souls. Only an apprentice with the strongest of willpowers and the coldest of hearts survives to become a Necromagus. After decades spent immersed in the spirit plane, these sorcerers are barely classifiable as living, and for them the line between life and death has long-since become blurred.

Mortifex

Background

Death is but a doorway which may be crossed from both directions, and the necromancers of the sinister Ordo Mortificarum are the holders of the keys. This morbid sect is an ancient and integral cornerstone of the Mortan Empire and its members work to expand the empire by means of their dark arts.

Decades spent in dark catacombs enacting unhallowed rites, and weeks spent travelling the dead planes have fashioned these necromancers into unsociable hermits, distrustful of the living. Mortifexes view death and undeath dispassionately as mere states of being.

Mortifexes see themselves as enlightened scientists of death, freed from the shackles of morality to manipulate the laws of nature, and their daily toil commonly sees them bolstering critical areas with undead troops, or terrorizing newly conquered provinces.

Game Role

Taking the Mortifex basically commits you to playing a largely undead Mortan warband because of his awesome magical powers which are best used to buff undead models. So while the Necromagus makes sense to take in any Mortan Warband, the Mortifex does not.

His familiarity with the undead gives the Mortifex a bonus for casting spells on them, and he is also able to cast spells while engaged in melee. Besides that, he has access to ancestral powers, gaining a new one by spending Act or by killing enemy models in melee. These Ancestral Powers allow him to perform special abilities which greatly enhance an undead warband, for example, use fighting styles, make a free movement action, or make a free melee action.

As you may have noticed, the Mortifex is designed to get into the melee himself, although this should only be against soft targets. With MEL 7 he should have no problem hitting, and his bladestaffs have a POW of

On the defensive side, he has a DEF of 13 and an ARM of 8 so he is quite well protected, and in addition, his bodyguard tactic allows him be rplaced with another friendly model any time he get engaged. In addition, his Spirit Shroud gives him +! Def against MIS and Mag attacks.

One of his most amazing abilities is being able to Soulbound – The Mortifex is able to sacrifice his own life points to bring destroyed models back to life by sacrificing his own life points. This can be a great benefit when playing Molochs.

Legio Mortum

Background

Several particular dark days are associated by Mortan citizens with infamy; rare occasions when the unthinkable happened – a legion fell into disgrace. The condemned legionnaires are rounded up along with the remains of the dead, and the survivors are executed during a week of games in the arena. The Legion is then expunged from the register, and in occult rites lasting a fortnight, their disembodied occupants re-awakened within their own lifeless corpses. Cadaver by cadaver a new legion of the damned is mustered.

Such soldiers of the grave are lumbering and slow-witted, with no initiative. Nevertheless, they provide an excellent defensive force since the Keraunic power enervating them works to repair damage from wounds they suffer.

Besides the raising of entire legions, Necromagi and Mortixes are granted license to raise fallen soldiers whenever they find it tactically prudent.

From a distance the soldiers of the Legio Mortum could be mistaken for living legionnaires, but a closer examination reveals them to be maggot-infested, rotting carcasses which reek of death and decay. Their arms and armor are often severely corroded, rent and smashed. Nevertheless there are occasions when the undead outperform the living such as in extreme environments like deep deserts, arctic plains, beneath the waves and in the festering filth-pits of the Banebrood.

Game Role

For undead warbands – Legio Mortun are the foot-soldiers of the Magistratum warbands. They are a cheap, poor unit which works well in various buffing synergies to create a terrifying horde of deadly fighters. Key to making them effective is taking a Necromagus or Mortifex. In an undead warband it makes sense to take at least 2 minimum units. It is best to only deploy minimum units because you can add extra models to the unit with spells.

For other Mortan Warbands – Legio Mortun are worth taking as a decoy, sacrifice or roadblock. They can absorb a charge pretty well, holding the enemy up so you can counter-charge them.

Legio Mortum suffer only half damage from attacks with a POW4 or less. That means half damage from probably 60% of models in the game. In addition, if they are only damaged and not destroyed in a round, they heal back all damage they have received.

Best of all, they only cost 6 points per model, so you can get a core unit of 6 models for 38 points as an effective decoy/sacrifice, or you can build a horde of 40 by taking 4 core units and adding models to them (only 152 points!).

Necromagus

Background

While the commoners of the empire are slavishly devoted to worship of ancestors and live in near servitude to their forefathers, the Necromagi are a sect of state-sanctioned blasphemy who callously and irreverently command the dead in the name of the emperors.

Following their despicable internship within the Mausoleum-Colleges, constructing undead monsters, enslaving the souls of enemy heroes and copying evil codices, all Necromagi are assigned for a decade to assisting the Legions during military operations. In this role they reanimate and command the Legio Mortum, interrogate dead enemies and launch clandestine attacks using revenant spirits.

Game Role

The Necromagus is a useful buffer character in any Mortan warband due to a number of very useful spells he has access to such as Imperial Blessing (+1 damage on attacks), which is extremely useful for Legionnaires and auxiliaries. He also has a number of direct attack spells.

For undead warbands he is a must because of his spells and special talent for buffing undead models. Not only can he reanimate destroyed models, he can also raise additional models to increase the size of Legio Mortum units.

His Ancestral abilities are the same the Mortifex has, enabling undead units to use fighting styles, make extra movement actions or melee attacks. In a large undead warband it makes sense to take a Mortifex and 2 Necromagi.

Moloch

Background

Constructs of the living-dead are routinely fashioned by the necromancers of the Magistratum from the rotting corpses of multiple beasts. Every creation is unique, but one general type particularly favored by the Magistratum is the Moloch – an immensely powerful and unsubtle mountain of putrid flesh.

The massive back legs of a Wyvern, Mastodon or Slothodon are often used to provide thundering locomotion, while the heads are commonly those of rhinos, buffalos or other creatures with horns. For the spine, those of Sabrefangs and Vargs are preferred for flexibility, while the front legs are ideally taken from a Manticore or Griffon. Another key ingredient is that of a tail – usually from a Sandosaur or crocodile. The raw carcass is then embellished with fangs, claws, tusks, scales or scraps of armor.

Game Role

Molochs are primarily used to crush heavy units, and once engaged they gore with their jaws or thrash around with tails which are whips the size of a tree. However, the terrifying appearance of such an unnatural assemblage of gangrenous undeath can scatter the enemy even before combat is joined due to their Horror ability.

The Moloch is perhaps the best creature in wave-1. Not only is it powerfully offensive, but it is also extremely difficult to kill.

Firstly, models need to overcome or ignore horror, then they need to pass a leadership test every time they want to attack the Moloch. After that they need to beast its DEF13 and ARFM 7, but any attacks made against them with POW4 or less only do half damage. Add to that 18 life points and the possibility to be reanimated by a Mortifex, and you have a hard beast to kill. It even has a de-buff tactic to prevent models charging it.

Offensively, the Moloch automatically does direct damage on models it comes into base contact with when it charges. It has MEL7 and POW5 so it’s a real monstrous killer.

Molochs are a useful addition to any Mortan warband, but in an undead warband they add a needed heavy hitter.