Age of Sigmar: Ossiarch Bonereapers Battletome Updates
We’ve gotten some time with the new Ossiarch Bonereapers Battletome and the new updates are exactly what the Mortisan ordered!
Games Workshop showed off some initial changes to the Ossiarch Bonereapers and those teasers were all well and good. I was happy with many of the changes. But after getting my hands on the Battletome itself, those changes were just a few of the highlights. Today, I want to touch on a few more things in the book that I’m really impressed with and why I think this Battletome is going to well in the meta.
Ossiarch Bonereapers Battletome Updates
Now I do want to preface this by saying this will not be an exhaustive list of all of the changes. You’ll have your hands on the book soon enough and then you can go over it with a fine tooth comb all you want. Instead, I want to hit on some of the key changes that I’m most pleased with and how they will impact my own playing of the Ossiarch Bonereaper army. And to kick things off, we need to talk about Katakros.
First up, Katakros is still a boss. However, unlike the previous version, he doesn’t lose abilities as he takes damage. He still has his retinue and they also get the Nadrite Weapon rule applied to them — however, things like Gnosis Scrollbearer and Aviarch Spymaster don’t go away as he takes wounds. And he’s got a full page of rules again to go over.
He’s still a Warmaster so he always counts as a General even if you don’t select him as one. He’s got Prime Necrophoros that allows him to issue a command to a friendly OBR unit anyone on the battlefield without spending a Command Point once per turn. Gnosis Scrollbearer allows you to choose one enemy unit and they are -1 to hit friendly OBR units until your next hero phase. The Aviarch Spymaster still causes your opponent to lose a CP on a 5+ once per turn — although you don’t gain it, it’ just goes away. And that’s just what his Retinue can do.
Katakros also has some more tricks with Do Nothing! This One is Mine! as a new ability. When you’re within 3″ of an enemy hero you use the bottom profile for his attacks. That means his personal guard does less fighting and Katakros gets the max number of attacks with Inda-Khaat and The Shield Immortis. Both of which are pretty mean! Furthermore his Mortarch of the Necropolis ability allows you to heal up to 3 wounds or bring back up to 3 models with a wounds total of 3 or less to anything other than Immortis Guard or Necropolis Stalkers. And for those two units in particular, you heal them for 3 wounds or if no wounds are allocated to them you can bring back a slain model on 3+ now. That’s fantastic as there wasn’t a way to regen those big guys before.
Endless Duty buffs another friendly OBR unit to have +1 attack until your next hero phase and Supreme Lord of the Bonereaper Legions adds +1 to hit rolls and +1 to saves for friendly OBR units wholly within 24″ of Katakros, too. There is a restriction that he has to be outside of 3″ of an enemy to do that…but that’s probably fine. Also note that the restriction for that to only apply to a specific subfaction is gone. All of his buffs can be used on ANY of the Bonereaper Legions now.
He does all of that for a bargain at 440 points! If you’re planning on playing an Ossiarch Bonereaper Army I’d strongly consider looking at Katakros for your lists. He’s just good for pretty much any build you can think of.
Speaking of the Bonereaper Legions, you’ve got good reason to look at all 6 options as there’s no clear “winner” in my mind. A lot of it will come down to your playstyle and what you want to do with your army.
Mortis Praetorians have a nasty counter-charge ability that happens during your opponent’s charge phase. Petrifex Elite are -1 to damage (to a minimum of 1) for attacks that target units with the Hekatos keyword or the Gothizzar Harvesters. The Stalliarch Lords can re-roll their charge rolls for units that have a mount while the Ivory Host gets an ADDITIONAL hit with their Nadrite Weapon rules for unmodified 6s — that means they get 3 hits for every 6 they roll now.
Null Myraid units get to ignore enemy spells on a 2+ if they are within 9″ of a friendly Mortisan or Arkhan and considering Mortisans are kind of the buff heroes that need to be close to units that’s probably going to happen on accident. And finally, the Crematorians get to explode still but this time they get to roll a dice for each wound they have and for every 5+ it’s a Mortal Wound to an enemy unit within 3″. So the big guys go boom even harder.
Ossiarch Commands
You might have seen the new Relentless Discipline ability and thought “what do I do with all those Command Points?!” Well, you’ve got seven Ossiarch Commands you can use in addition to the core Command Abilities. The Ossiarch specficic ones can also be used multiple times per phase — you can’t target the same unit multiple times but you can order multiple units per phase. I really think those seven new commands are really going to make playing the army interesting and challenging. Knowing which Ossiarch Commands you want to use and when to use them and budgeting to use them is going to require practice. But once you get it down you’re going to have answers to the tactical problems your opponents throw at you.
On the plus side, you’re still going to have Deathless Warrior wards and you’re entire army is immune to Battleshock. So they will have to destroy you down to a model before a unit goes away. And the army has a lot of ways to bring models back. I could keep going as there’s still a whole lot more to cover. Necropolis Stalkers were one of my favorite units before and they got better. Mortek Guard can make their 4+ save unmodifiable. Mortek Crawlers got a unit that can buff them AND their funky ranged attacks got simpler and are no longer once per game for a few of them. Heck, even the new Battle Tactics are also achievable, provided you bring the right units, so scoring VPs shouldn’t be a huge issue for the army either.
I’m pleased with these changes and can’t wait to bust out my own OBR army for a spin again. And considering how down I on my OBR army since the shift to AoS 3.0 that optimism is a good thing. The Bonereaper Legions are back and are here for the Bone Tithe…I hope you’re prepared to face them or it could cost you an arm and a leg!
Now then…time to make my Ossiarch Legions battle ready once more!
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