Ossified Undead Tactics

Ossified Undead
Setting:	Age of Fantasy
Games:	Age of Fantasy, Age of Fantasy: Skirmish, Age of Fantasy: Regiments
Species:	Undead
Version:	v3.4.1

Why Play Ossified Undead

The Ossified Undead are an unrelenting tide of deathless iron.

Pros:

• Ossified reduces the impact of AP.
• Undead negates many of the issues with Morale
• Some pretty strong quality values for your army
• Army-wide poison means that you've good damage output

Cons:

• Very narrow unit selection
• (Almost) Your entire army is Slow
• Shooting is near-nonexistent

Army Special Rules

• Arcane Power: When this model and its unit take a wound, roll one die, and on a 6+ it is ignored. If the wound was from a spell, then it is ignored on a 2+ instead.
• Artisan of Shards: The hero and any attached unit get the Regeneration special rule.
• Breath Attack: Once per this model's activation, before attacking, roll one die. On a 2+ one enemy unit within 6" in line of sight takes 1 hit with Blast(3) and AP(1).
• Eternal Duty: Hero and attached unit get Furious and only take damage from undead on 1-2.
• Harvest Bones: Once per activation, pick one friendly unit within 12”, which gets Regeneration next time it takes wounds.
• Ossified: Attacks targeting this model reduce their AP value by 1, to a minimum of AP(0). While ineffective against hordes of basic Hand Weapons, it will make things like Great Weapons less powerful.
• Swift: This model may ignore the Slow rule. Unlike Unstoppable, this is only given to the model who buys it.
• Undead: Whenever this unit takes a morale test, it is passed automatically. Then, roll as many dice as remaining models/tough in the unit, and for each result of 1-3 the unit takes one wound, which can’t be regenerated.
• Unstoppable: Any attached unit may ignore the Slow rule.
• War Aspect: When this model fights in melee, they randomly get either Rending or AP(+1)

Wizard Spells

• Enslave (1): Target enemy unit within 18" gets -1 to hit rolls next time it fights in melee.
• Undermine (1): Target enemy unit within 12" takes 2 hits with AP(2).
• Command (2): Target 2 friendly units within 12" move +2" next time they Advance, or +4" next time they Rush/Charge. Essentially upgrades the speed of a unit one stage
• Deadly Contract (2): Target enemy model within 12" takes 2 hits with AP(4).
• Deception (3): Target 2 enemy units within 12" take 6 hits each. Your mob killer.
• Drain (3): Target 2 enemy units within 18" get -2 to hit rolls next time they shoot.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Herald of Death: Your premier hero, gifted with Poison as well as War Aspect to guarantee some measure of AP. That said, it is merely a 4+ for quality and defense, which might see it suffer a bit against dedicated beatsticks.
  • Melee: As mentioned above, every weapon the Herald uses has Poison, including its default Hand Weapon. If you are looking for something more, you can go for a Lance for increased AP and hit rolls on the charge, a halberd for Rending, a Spear for Counter, a Great Weapon for a guaranteed AP(2) or Dual Hand Weapons for more attacks.
  • Buffs: Spell Reaper provides Arcane Power, allowing the Herald to to give their unit a ward save that becomes a 2+ against spells. Lord of Bones offers Eternal Duty, improving the effectiveness of any offensive unit. High Liege gives Unstoppable, offering a very powerful speed boost for your retinue.
  • Mounts: Note that whatever you pick, you get Swift, which counteracts the Herald's crippling slowness. The Skeletal Steed is your budget choice, granting Impact to make charges appealing. The Great Steed is the beefed-up version with Impact(3) and adds +3 to the lord's Tough value, but more than doubles the price.

• Bone Master: A slightly cheaper hero, costing 40 points. While capable of buying all the same weapons, their upgrades are vastly different.
  • Buffs: Taking a Trophy Banner is a simple addition for Fear, a bit of a buffer for units that lack a Command Group. Soul Master grants them access to Wizard and the spells available to the army. Lord of Bones gives Eternal Duty, making it incredibly powerful for an offensive squad. Bone Shaper gives Artisan of Shards, providing some additional protection for a squad.
  • Mounts: Like the Herald of Death, you can also buy a Skeletal Steed for the Bone Master, boosting its speed to normal with Swift. However, you could instead buy a Bone Throne, improving its Tough rating and granting Arcane Power so you can increase the survivability the attached unit.

Infantry & Cavalry

• Guardians: Your basic troops are quite powerful, with a 4+ to quality and defense on top of everything else. Poison gives them a decent amount of offensive power, but you can also provide either Halberds or Spears depending on how you want to position them and one can grab a Great Weapon to rip through armored foes.

• Death Riders: Guardians on horseback, meaning that they're moving at normal speed with Impact. This comes at a 50% price hike, taking into account that you only get 5 of them. Lances are good if you plan on being the charger rather than the charged.

• Stalkers: Even crazier melee nuts, each one carrying AP(1) Quad Blades and War Aspect to improve their AP game. This makes them more potent in melee (especially if you give one of them Dual Falchions for a default AP(3) before factoring in War Aspect), but they remain just as vulnerable, if not more so, than the mere Guardians. That said, there are no fiercer beatsticks than these, benefiting incredibly from the power of a hero's Eternal Duty.

• Immortals: The elite of the elite, carrying a 3+ to quality and defense as well as a Halberd for a powerful melee weapon out the box. Though they're still Slow, they have a very powerful combination of a 3+ defense, Tough(3), Regeneration and Ossified to make them very difficult to remove.

• Skeleton Horrors: Monstrous airborne Immortals with Halberds for AP(1). Though lacking Ambush, they remain fast in a normally sluggish army and Flying allow them to cross plenty of obstacles without issue. If you're interested in improving their combat effectiveness, you can pick up Dual Hand Weapons, adding 2 attacks.

Monsters

• Harvester Beast: A literal flurry of attacks with an incredibly vital purpose: These guys share Regeneration with nearby units while also benefiting from it. This alone can make them a powerful addition, as they can reinforce your troops to tank even more abuse. If you plan on fighting other monsters, then the Mace Arms can make its attacks more impactful for a few less attacks. You can also buy Spew Death, granting a Breath Attack to handle more crowds.

Artillery

• Crawler Catapult: Your singular piece of artillery, mobile but Slow. Thankfully, it has outstanding range and gives you some much-needed crowd control with a rapid-fire Poison hit. If you're more worried about monsters and tanks, you could instead buy a Dread Cauldron, granting AP(2) and Deadly(6) to demolish the heavyweights.

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

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Tactics

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See Also

• Ossified Undead
• Ossified Undead Quickplay Armies
• Age of Fantasy

Ossified Undead
Overview - Tactics - Skirmish Tactics - Miniatures - Quickplay Armies - Skirmish Quickplay Armies

Age of Fantasy tactics

Beastmen - Chivalrous Kingdoms - Dark Elves - Deep-Sea Elves - Duchies of Vinci - Dwarves - Eternal Wardens Ghostly Undead - Giant Tribes - Goblins - Halflings - Havoc Dwarves - Havoc Warriors - High Elves Human Empire - Kingdom of Angels - Mummified Undead - Ogres - Orcs - Ossified Undead - Ratmen Rift Daemons - Saurians - Shadow Stalkers - Sky-City Dwarves - Vampiric Undead - Volcanic Dwarves - Wood Elves