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However, Arkhan still manages to pack on the value and makes for one heck of a tough nut to crack when fielded against armies favouring fragile infantry such as Skaven or the various Elf factions, even if his rules are arguably inferior to what they were in the Tomb Kings army book. Of the three Mortarchs mounted on Dread Abyssals, Arkhan is perhaps the least impressive at first glance with seemingly neutered combat and magic capabilities compared to both Neferata and Mannfred, respectively.
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Oh, and if it wasn't obvious, being on a flying mount with all those crazy stats is insane - Mannfred is downright terrifying now and will no doubt be one of the biggest targets on the battlefield for any sane opponent! While losing Loremaster of two very powerful spell lores is a huge hit to his usefulness, doubling his damage output and survivability all the while increasing his power or dispel dice generation to a ridiculous level makes for a character that is significantly improved over his previous version.
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He is still a Level 4 Wizard that can freely take spells from up to three different lores in the one game and is unbelievably difficult to kill with ten wounds at Toughness 6 and a 4+ armour save, able to heal a wound on himself every time a spell from the Lore of the Vampires is cast within 12". He can freely boost his combat abilities by sacrificing power dice which can in turn be converted to bonus power or dispel dice in the proceeding Magic phase, all the while having an innate re-roll to go from a terrible snake eyes to a six and one for magic dice and so on. The end result of all the tweaks is that Mannfred is now a combat monster that will slaughter light to medium infantry and cavalry with impunity through a ridiculous number of attacks and has almost unprecedented control over the magic phase. Did I mention that each unsaved wound he causes provides him with an extra power or dispel dice in his next magic phase, and that he can re-roll one dice when determining the strength of the Winds of Magic? As George Takei would famously say, "Oh myyyy". This allows Mannfred to sacrifice up to three power (but not dispel) dice and generate the equivalent number of additional Attacks, allowing him to exceed the usual stat limit of ten and have up to a huge twelve Strength 5, Weapon Skill 7, Initiative 7 attacks, all in addition to D6 automatic hits per the Thunderstomp special rule. Considering that Mannfred triples the range of any Lore of Undeath spells he uses this does help to soften the blow, while Mannfred's combat prowess can be further expanded with the all-new Dark Cunning special rule. The big trade-off with Mannfred in his new unit entry is that he is no longer a Loremaster of both the Lore of the Vampires and the Lore of Death, though he is capable of mixing up the lores he generates spells from and could be seen as more versatile in a sense with the addition of the Lore of Undeath. Truthfully though the main one was always the one he managed to keep and so this really won't affect his crazy casting potential, but losing out on a wide range of spells certainly will. The Hunger remains under a different name, while his incredibly useful Master of the Black Arts has also survived the cull of Vampiric Powers - on that note, Mannfred has sadly lost the Dark Acolyte and Summon Creatures of the Night abilities. His Armour of Templehof remains and serves to make Mannfred by far the most durable of the three mounted Mortarchs, having the most wounds and the best saving throw with a 4+ armour save. His magic sword works the same as before by providing extra magic or dispel dice in the ensuring magic phase based on the number of unsaved wounds it inflicts, though this has thankfully (for opponents) been capped at five generated in the one turn. Add in that Mannfred now has the Monster unit type and is thus immune to Killing Blow and can also perform Thunderstomps and the sheer durability and killing power of Nagash's right hand man has doubled or more. Doubling his Wounds to a ridiculous ten, gaining Toughness 6 and having a whopping nine attacks base as a result of his combined profile with a Dread Abyssal signals a huge buff in the basic profile alone. His points cost has increased by just over a century' worth of points, though I think many would argue Mannfred comes out on top for the most part with this trade.
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The most successful of all the Von Carsteins (sorry Vlad) has been given a significant overhaul of his rules, restricting him to a single mount option and consolidating his rules into the "master" version.