Easy To Build: Nighthaunt Chainrasp Hordes

Off We Go A’haunting

Can you hear the drums? The harrowing groans? The Nighthaunt Chainrasp Horde is on its way, and they want vengeance! In this review I’ll go in depth into the model, painting scheme, play styles and unboxing; to show you what to expect from this box of miniatures.

The Chainrasp hoard is one of the most well known units in the Nighthaunt faction. Found in groups of 10, they specialize in bogging down their targets in close combat while the real powerhouses get stuck in elsewhere on the battlefield.

Chains n’ Rasps

As there are quite a few plastic components to this unit, the box is larger than expected, and full to the brim with sprues. Inside you’ll find:

Enough components to assemble 10 models

10 x 25mm round bases

1 x instruction booklet

The first thing I noticed upon opening this box, is the large amount of spindly pieces and fragile looking weapons. As is the way with most nighthaunt models, fragile is the name of the game; so be careful when removing the sprues from the box.

The same amount of care is also needed when removing the pieces from the sprues, as the sticks that make up the weapons are incredibly thin and flimsy. Thankfully, it’s quite clear where the individual pieces fit together, so all in all, the assembly is quite straightforward.

It’s also nice to see a large amount of customisation options available for this unit. There are a good few of each weapon on the sprues, which means you can have a nice variety of each throughout your troops.

Back in the second edition, I ran two units of chainrasps, and so I wanted an easy way to tell both units apart whilst keeping the style the same. To solve this, I kept the cloaks of one unit plain with niklakh oxide, and coated the cloaks of the others in a dark blue. This made both units easy to distinguish, and still looked amazing in large numbers.

Swarming Gloom

Personally, I think the sight of hordes of chainrasp models look amazing on the battlefield. Especially when they’re swarming an unsuspecting enemy or charging through tight streets between buildings.

Although there are much better battleline units to use with the new edition rules and battletome, chain rasps are a great way to use up any spare points. What’s more, they are a great tactical entry point to the nighthaunt army if you want to experiment with playstyles.

Unfortunately, nighthaunt are a simple on trick pony and have no options for ranged or magic. For those offensive options you’ll want to look at nighthaunt leaders or the newest archer unit that has been added to the roster.

With 1 wound a piece and a save of 5+, these ghosts won’t be sticking around on the battlefield for long; unless your rolls are godly that is. Luckily they have a move of 8″ and, like their allies, benefit from charging. As an added challenge, though, they have a bravery of 8 which means if you lose any more than 2 models in a round, you risk some of them fleeing.

If your rolls are good, and you choose leaders that provide a nice combat buff, you could make a nice ghost shaped dent with the chainrasps only melee option. Their malignant weapons have two attacks at a range of 1″ and wound and hit on a 4+; dealing 1 damage for each successful attack. Although this doesn’t seem like much, that’s 20 attacks per a unit of 10 models. If they all hit, you’ll be laughing.

To make things a bit sweeter, chainrasps also benefit from a tasty passive ability. The Chilling Horde ability allows them to add 1 to wound rolls for melee attacks if the chainrasp unit makes a charge move in the same turn. That means you only need to roll a 3+ and you’re dishing out attacks left, right, and center.

Final Thoughts

Although chainrasp hordes aren’t often seen in competitive play, they are great fun to see and command on the battlefield. Flooding the opposition when they’re trying to take an objective really is a sight to see.

For the chainrasp horde to really pack a punch, you’ll need to get a few additional buffs in there. Otherwise the 4+ hit can remove most of your dice in the first roll. As I mentioned earlier, there are other more desirable options for battleline units that pack more of a punch and have more maneuverability. However, none are as entertaining to command a the chainrasp horde.

As for which models to pair the chainrasps with, the Guardian of Souls and Lady Olynder are must haves. If anything, just for the ability to bring back slain units or models each turn. What’s better than having your opponent thinking they have the advantage in a skirmish, before bringing back a units worth of models in a single roll. Fun tactics are the best!

Of course, I wholeheartedly recommend picking up a few boxes of these models. Especially when you can have up to 30 models if you reinforce the unit twice. Just be sure to save some points for the hard hitters and leaders.

So, that’s a wrap for this spooky warhammer review. As always, we’d love to see how you’ve painted yours, so be sure to show us on twitter!