Nicodem

include page="inc_1.5rules" **Nicodem, the Undertaker, Resurrectionist Master ** toc

=Overview= Nicodem, informally "Nico", is the zombie master. Controlling a horde of undead minions, he has the ability to summon more and more as his minions, and his enemies, fall. While his crew is versatile, seeing as he can use any undead unit in the game, he himself is rather slow. He is not primarily an offensive caster like Sonnia or Rasputina, but a supportive caster similar to Ramos or even C. Hoffman, to a degree.

Nicodem has a great deal of versatility and can take on several play styles. He can summon hordes of undead to send at his enemies, and has spells that bolster, hide, and heal his own units making them capable of withstanding a lot of damage and dealing the same to his enemies. While Nicodem has two offensive spells that are not of the same damaging caliber as similar caster-type masters, they're certainly quite powerful.

Nicodem is not an ideal Master to start with if you are new to tabletop gaming or miniatures in general. He requires a touch of finesse and knowledge of the game and positioning to be truly effective. He is very hard to kill if you know what to do, but if you don't you could find yourself losing him in battles quite a bit. If you have an understanding of caster-types and specifically ones that are not direct damage, then give him a try.

=Mobility= With a walk of 3" Nicodem is one of the slowest masters in the game. He can however get a free walk if using Mortimer's spell "Fresh Meat" since Nicodem's "Embrace Death" talent will allow him to get pulled by it (if you want). However, Nicodem is not a master that needs to be in the fray. Despite his high Wd's he is fragile out in the open and has no powerful abilities that rely on proximity. He works much like Kirai, and does very well on the edge of combat.

=Offense=

**Melee**
Nicodem is not a master with any melee combat prowess. He has a cane that does minimal damage at a Combat of 4 with a Crow attached to activate his trigger "//Empty Vessel//", which states if the enemy is killed by this weapon or his spell "//Decay//", you may replace them with a number of Mindless Zombies equal to their base size (50mm is 3, 40mm is 2, and 30mm is 1).

**Ranged**
Much the same as his melee attacks. Nicodem is quite impaired. In fact he has no ranged attacks at all save for his spells.

**Spells**
Nicodem has four spells in his arsenal, only two of which could be classified as offensive.

//"Decay"// is Nicodem's only true damaging spell, and while it causes a decent amount of damage it has far more utility than just causing harm. It does have a blast counter on its moderate and severe damage. If your own units are caught up in it, do not fear, as friendly Undead hit by it will heal 2 wounds instead of taking damage. That's not all, if a living or Undead enemy is killed by this and you activate the //"Empty Vessel"// trigger, they will turn into a Mindless Zombie that you can control. If you have Tomes in the casting total of the spell, you can instead activate the "//Putrefy"// trigger, which forces your opponent to discard a card and allows you to draw one if it is a five or less (regardless of suit). This is an excellent trigger to activate if you can't kill your target and want to make your opponent lose some control cards.

Nicodem's secondary offensive spell, //"Rigor Mortis"//, causes no damage but this isn't necessarily a bad thing as it causes an enemy failing to resist it to become Paralyzed. This forces the model to forfeit its next activation, so no walking, no charging, nothing (ziltch, nada). Paralyze lasts until the model's next activation, so if you cast it on something that has already activated, they still feel the pinch. Paralyzed models not only cannot attack or move but they also cannot make disengaging strikes against you, as their melee range is reduced to 0. On top of all that they also cannot activate the ability Slow to Die. This is many player's favorite Nicodem spell.

=Resilience= Nicodem only has Df 3, which is pretty bad. If you let opponents target him, he will probably get hit unless you use Soulstones. Fortunately, he has **Hard to Wound 1** which can help even out damage flips against him, but even with 12 wounds, Nicodem is far more fragile than he seems and you may find yourself wanting to use Soulstones to prevent damage. Especially if your opponent can focus attacks on him.


 * The Fog** provides Nicodem with some much needed protection from ranged attacks and thankfully only requires a 3+ of Masks to cast. Ideally, you can use it to protect Nicodem as he moves into range, but it also provide cover for the rest of your Crew, who will almost certainly be melee focused.

Although a fragile old man, he has a defense that no other master has: he has the option to sacrifice a Mindless Zombie (within range) to cancel a successful attack made against him. So if your opponent makes it through to land a solid blow against this necromancer, you can wipe out a Mindless Zombie and they must spend more AP to hit him.

When Nicodem is hit by an attack, he can defend or resist against it as normal. He can also cheat or use Soulstones. Only after the final target numbers are determined, and Nicodem knows how hard he's been hit, can he decide to sacrifice a Mindless Zombie to cancel the attack. If you feel confident enough to risk taking damage, you can save the Mindless Zombie for a rainy day (perhaps there are multiple negative flips in the damage flip or you know your opponent won't be able to cheat the damage anyway). Having a Mindless Zombie around may cause inexperienced player to waste a good card and a Soulstone, and will cause experienced player to change his targeting priorities.

If you use his spells proactively, you can stop attacks made against you before they come through by using "Rigor Mortis". If you see them coming after you, use it and Paralyze them so they are sitting ducks ready to be shredded by your minions.

Also, if needed, you can cast "Decay" on a nearby minion and hope to hit yourself with a blast from it as Nicodem's "Embrace Death" allows him to be treated as undead for certain spells. So use this and heal him if you need to.

=Soulstones= It is a wise idea to usually have 5-8 Soulstones in Nicodem's cache. Most of these are to beef up the casting total of his Decay and Rigor Mortis spells to make sure you successfully hit an important target. If you keep Nicodem safe in his sweet spot right on the edge of combat, you shouldn't need them for healing flips or mitigation of any kind, but it never hurts to have them in reserve. This number should be closer to 7 if you are fond of using his Totem, the Vulture, because casting spells through the Vulture lowers your Cast from a mighty 7 to an average 4, meaning that you can expect to need Soulstones to get your spells off.

Because both //Reanimator// and //Rigor Mortis// require high cards you can alleviate some of the pressure on yourself if you have the option of using Soulstones to try and ensure you can make the Casting Total. In particular, if you're having a hard time casting //Reanimator// (it's CC requires a 9 of Crows or better), you can try using the highest Crow in your hand then discard a Soulstone hoping to cover the distance.

=Tricks and Tips= Summoning! Nicodem is one of the best summoners in the game! As long as Nicodem has a corpse counter, he can summon almost anything Undead. Able to summon minions best suited to the situation at hand offers a great degree of flexibility. Typically it's better to summon multiple models from the available corpse counters (and remember, he does get a +1 Casting action), but since each successful cast of //Reanimator// only allows you to summon one model, this probably won't be an option unless you have a hand full of Crows. As a nice bonus you may draw a card for each Corpse Counter sacrificed, which is helpful for replenishing your hand over the course of a turn. In addition you will be surprised how often drawing these cards will give you the next high card you need to keep the summoning machine going.

Support your Minions Nicodem's zero cost action **Bolster Undead** is by far one of his best abilities, since it greatly increases the combat effectiveness of his minions. Weaker models become respectable, while heavy hitters such as Punk Zombies or Bete Noir become a serious force to be reckoned with. It makes sense to use Bolster Undead early in a turn, to maximize the duration of its effect and you'll ideally want to keep most of your crew within 10" inches of Nicodem to ensure they can benefit from it.

Bend and Scoop Reanimator has a range of 6". If corpse counters are far away and Nicodem is tied up with an enemy, use his (0) action **Arise** and summon them as Mindless Zombies around you. Not only will this give you a shield of sorts to protect you but since Mindless Zombies are treated as corpse counters, you can now summon whatever you need.

Death and Decay Position your models and lock them up with enemy models, then hit a friendly model with Decay. Nicodem can make the number high with a nice high card, then you can cheat the friendly resist flip low and that way you create a blast that will heal your models and hurt some of the ones they are in melee with.

Slap 'n Chop If you want some extra protection that the Mindless Zombies may not be able to provide, have a Punk Zombie stand near Nicodem. If something gets close, have that zombie charge or Flurry whatever gets close. They won't try it again without taking out that zombie first. Another variation of this tactic is to place a Punk Zombie and a Rotten Belle side by side; if something gets in range and line of sight of that Belle, lure them as many times as you can to keep them away from Nicodem.

Understanding the "Zombie shield" The, often overlooked, synergy Nicodem has with his minions resolves around mutual tank/hammer interchangeability. If the opponent focuses on killing Nicodem, keep him alive with your Control Cards, Soulstones and his Zombie Fodder, while his Punk Zombies will kill their minions and perhaps even their master (if you have good enough Control Hand and activate Flurry). If they focus on killing his minions instead, Nicodem alone can kill their minions and perhaps even the master with Decay, neutralize the dangers with Rigor Mortis and all the while increasing survivability of his own troops (by healing them with Decay blasts). Keeping up a shield of Mindless Zombies is an essential part of that interchangeability.

Essentially to re-establish the shield in the latter case costs Nicodem almost nothing (his (0) action). The more general impact on his crew is that he can't keep Bolster Undead up if the opponent keeps the pressure on him or his Mindless Zombies.

Another important thing to remember is that Mindless Zombies do not belong to any of the crews on the table. They are friendly to Nicodem only during their activation, if they fall under his Zombie Control. That means they can be used both defensively and offensively and to bounce Decay blasts from. If you keep a circle around him, with Mindless Zombies more than 1" away, you can always cast Decay on them (or the opponent, depending on who is easier to hit and damage - remember Mindless Zombies are Hard to Wound). It will kill the Zombies and the blasts generated by the attack will heal Nicodem and his other Undead minions in range, while wounding or killing other enemy models in range. At the end of such an activation, you can use your (0)Arise action to bring the Mindless Zombies back (perhaps their numbers are augmented by the ones created from the Corpses of the killed opponents). This is a reasonably good way to deal with opponents who like to swarm their targets - from the Alp bomb, to other undead or weaker Nephilim. The difficulty lies in positioning your models so that Nicodem is not in melee range of Mindless Zombies and cannot be engaged by the opponent's models either. As soon as he finds himself engaged, Nicodem loses the ability to cast Decay. Rigor Mortis may help with that, if there's a manageable amount of opponent models engaging Nicodem (after all he has 3 cast actions per turn if he doesn't have to move), as Paralyzed models lose their melee range (and stop keeping Nicodem engaged). Nicodem can cast Rigor Mortis when engaged.

=Strategies and Schemes for Nicodem= Generally like all the other members of the Powerful Old Man Club, Nicodem is very slow. So most of the strategies will require intelligent choice of minions and positioning. Along with the list, there will also be a general difficulty level associated with the strategy which has to do with how difficult it is for Nico and his crew to accomplish.

Nicodem is quite slow, so choosing the right minions is key for this one. Using several Canine Remains is suggested since they lose Insignificant in packs. If not them, then use Necropunks or something equally as fast. If you can jump on them quick enough and use your Rotten Belles or Crooked Men to hold your enemy off, you should have no problem getting it. Don't always go for all five markers, as you might spread your forces too thin then it will be a lot easier for your opponent to topple you and take the win.
 * A Line in the Sand [Moderate to Difficult]**

This one can be done in a few ways. You can split up into two main forces, one made of Belles and Punk Zombies that stand away from the Claim Jump marker luring and shredding anything that gets close to the force holding the marker which should include heavy and/or numerous models such as Flesh Constructs, Rotten Belles, Canine Remains, or even Necropunks. The other concept is to take time in the beginning to neutralize any threat that can generate damaging pulses, blasts, or auras because you will be using a tight formation and turning that marker into a meat grinder. In either case Nico should be close to the marker, within 10", preferably 6", out of sight or line of sight of the enemy. This way he can replenish your losses almost as soon as they drop, which can happen. Nicodem is quite fragile alone, so be sure to keep him carefully placed away from all the action!
 * Claim Jump [Easy to Moderate]**

Going after a Master is no easy task as it is. This really depends on what type they are though, as if they are a caster-support type this can be very difficult as they will be placing a lot of obstacles in your path. If this is the case, you could be in luck as Nicodem is the Master of attrition as well as the undead. Simply put, they will run out of guys before you do. This is an obvious advantage, so simply hold an offensive line and kill anything you can, and when they are out of supplies (cards, minions, or Soulstones) plan your advance and kill them off.
 * Contain Power [Moderate to Difficult]**

If they are a melee-aggressive type (for example Lady Justice or Lillith) it is a matter of waiting. Think like a bear trap, spend time preparing for your schemes or building your forces and try to out-activate your enemy. Let them come to you, use Nicodem to paralyze them with Rigor Mortis and then be sure to use (0) Bolster Undead and melee them to death. If Rigor Mortis isn't for you, try luring them into several un-activated Punk Zombies, a few Flurries should take them down a peg or two.

Use a faster model or have a Rotten Belle lure them to another model who can take the (2) action to do it. It should be quite simple if they are a melee type and desire to be in the middle of combat. If this is the case, a Rotten Belle is a better alternative as they are very durable for just 4 Soulstones as well as their Lure spell.
 * Deliver a Message [Easy to Moderate]**

You may have difficulty if the player has the opposing master in the back behind their forces. If this is the case, try using Necropunks and leaping over their forces to get to their master. If you manage to surround them with a few, they are slow until they can kill off a few of them, but they will find that Necropunks are very durable.

This can be very hard for Nicodem's crew as they are quite slow. He does have a few models that could do it, but it is likely that your opponent will have several models stationed at the markers you need to claim. Meaning you will need something very fast and powerful, which there are very few of.
 * Destroy the Evidence [Moderate to Difficult]**

A typical strategy for this is to just beef up your forces for a turn and attempt to bulldoze all enemies in your path to each marker.

If you can get Nicodem in a prime position, you can paralyze them before they cross over and cause you to forfeit your Victory Points. Keeping their master locked down for all of the game is not advised, since this is extremely difficult and highly problematic, not to mention obnoxious. It is merely to hold them off so you can send your minions in the fray to kill them.
 * Distract [Easy to Moderate]**

Another method would be to rush the master with minions and have Nicodem sitting back about 6-10" away. Have them keep the opposing master occupied for as long as you can and do as much damage as physically possible while conserving your control cards. Most of the emphasis should be on keeping your resources safe. Whenever you can, summon Crooked Men near Nicodem and durable/high damage models as close to them, hopefully within charge range. If your opponent starts killing them off faster than you can summon them, bombard them with blasts and damaging spells via Decay and the Crooked Men's Cave In spell.

The final method would be to position Rotten Belles behind the line dividing the middle of the table. Once they get near it, lure them. If you can get Nicodem past the line as well, then bolstering and healing your Belles will make this method a lot easier. Most of this aspect is about battlefield control over killing, meaning you will try to push or pull them back instead of killing them, however don't restrain from killing anything. That is not a limiting factor to Nico and his crew. You may also want to put Crooked Men up front and control the line with Shafted counters hoping to Paralyze them, but this only works if their master is slower and has no way to move past their 2" radius.


 * Escape and Survive [-]**


 * Plant Evidence [-]**


 * Reconnoiter [-]**


 * Slaughter [-]**


 * Supply Wagon [-]**


 * Treasure Hunt [-]**


 * Turf War [-]**


 * Player's Choice**

=Nicodem in Brawls=

Nicodem works great with the Spirit Master. He can send his MZ's at the enemy, let them die allowing Kirai to gain a number of Seishin, then re-raise his Zombies to die again, creating more Seishin, raise again, etc.... Both masters have their own version of a Meat Shield, both are quite fragile, and both work better as support casters.
 * Kirai**

==

=Starting Nicodem= The Undertaker's Lot, or Nicodem's starter box comes with Nicodem, Mortimer, and 3 Punk Zombies. You will however almost certainly need to purchase at least 1-2 packs of the Mindless Zombies. You WILL be summoning these (its a given).

This alone, in a 25 point game, leaves you with a very large cache of 6ss, which is a very nice number for Nicodem. This makes his box set a very good buy, as there is nothing you need that you absolutely cannot do without.

=Building a Crew=

Since Nicodem's role is to support his crew, rather than the other way around, you have a wide range of models to choose from and this allows you to try and pick models best suited to your objectives.

Nicodem work best with minions with the Undead since he can bolster their abilities and heal them. Unsurprisingly, most Resurrectionist minions are Undead, but a couple of Spirits do lack the characteristic, along with the handful of Living models in the faction, so you may want to think twice about taking them.

Mortimer is a common choice to support Nicodem since he counteracts two of Nicodem's major weaknesses; a reliance on corpse counters and low speed. Unfortunately players who prefer consistent models may find Mortimer frustrating as he is quite card-reliant, requiring low Crows for //"Exhume"// (to produce new corpses) and a 7+ of Masks for //"Fresh Meat"// (to speed the undead up). This shouldn't usually be a problem, but it does mean a bad hand seriously reduces Mortimer's utility, leaving him as little more than an average combatant. Nevertheless he has a lot to offer.
 * Sidekicks**

Vultures are Nicodem's Totem, and he can bring a pair of them to the field. They are very swift, and can be used to increase the range of //Decay// to an incredible distance. They are also decent for collecting corpse counters for Nicodem, though its unlikely such tokens will be outside of the Necromaster's revival range. Vultures are even capable of casting //Decay// themselves, but only with a 12+ Crow card, meaning its almost required to cheat to pull. While decent for sniping large groups of enemies, Vultures are usually not recommended without a special or specific tactic in mind.

Canine Remains are a great choice for cannon-fodder. At 2-ss each, they can make your opponent waste attacks on them, before getting themselves killed and revived as Mindless Zombies or upgraded into more powerful minions. Turning 4ss (from two dead dogs) its a 7ss Brute (Flesh Construct) is a nasty option for any foe to face. Furthermore, if 2 dogs are within 1" of an enemy, the target will suffer a -2 DF penalty - making it easier for your MZ's to bite and even convert them into another MZ.
 * Minions**

Necropunks are a second great choice to the dogs. Also quite cheap (3-ss each), impressively mobile, and are decent cannon fodder to be re-summoned as bigger, badder nasties when killed off. Similar to the dogs, if 2 Necropunks are within 1" of an enemy, that target will suffer from Slow which can radically hinder their actions. Furthermore if they manage to start in combat with a target, their Flurry can allow the little buggers to make 3 Melee attacks on the target! Nasty!

Bete Noir is a nasty gal and works great with Nicodem. She appears whenever a living or undead model is killed or sacrificed. If Nicodem is attacked, he can use his Meat Shield to kill off a Mindless Zombie, and the Sacrifice can summon Bete to the field. This is quite nasty given she is likely to activate almost immediately after appearing (and, since she's not summoned, she does not suffer from slow). Alternatively, she can manifest as soon as one of the above cannon fodder is killed off, which will often place her right in the fight where she wants to be.

Killjoy is an Undead Mercenary (costing 11-ss because of Undead Master) but similar to Bete Noir is very powerful. Best fielded with a swarm of Necro-punks, as their "Slow to Die" can be used to trigger the needed sacrifice to bring out the brute. Furthermore, if Killjoy is working alongside Bete Noir, the sacrifice can bring the pair of psychos to the field with the death of one minion. Having two hardhitters right in the enemy's face can be very terrifying for anyone to deal with. However, the Soul-Stone cost for this is quite high and could be used to employ a large number of cannon-fodder to provide Nicodem with his much needed Zombie Meat Shield.

Though the following can start on the field beside Nicodem, they are also available to be summoned by him.
 * Summons**

Rotten Belles are great for luring people into traps

Crooked Men work well with Belles in that they can lay traps

Flesh Constructs are large meat shields with high attack power and damage. They are also one of the greatest Undead Summons to choose from, being very cheap in corpse counters compared to their starting soul-stone cost to have them on the field to start with.

=Playing Against Nicodem=

Nicodem does have some trouble when fighting Constructs (as they don't produce any Corpse Counters) and Death Marshalls (as they remove Corpse Counters). If up against him, use either or both to limit his summoning options.

There are only two ways to deal with the Zombie shield:

1. Target Nicodem and win the Duel high enough to force Nicodem to sacrifice a Mindless Zombie. This is resource intensive, as he will need to win a duel against a master, but because a sacrificed Mindless Zombie drops no Corpse Counter, he can weaken or completely eliminate Nicodem's shield that way. This is why it is important to keep several Mindless Zombies around Nicodem.

2. Target Mindless Zombies. This leads to more possibilities - if his crew can sacrifice Corpse Counters, he can easily remove the shield altogether. Such masters are generally considered strong counters to Nicodem; Von Schill gives that option, for a hefty price, to most crews, as he can be hired as a Mercenary. He's always a high priority target for Nicodem and his minions. Typically models with such abilities need to get close to Nicodem first, so it can be prevented.

Without access to such abilities, the opponent can try to kill the Mindless Zombies, but in such case they will drop the Corpse Counters which Nicodem can turn into Mindless Zombies again, with his (0) action. That in turn means the crews with no means to sacrifice Corpse Counters must either out-activate Nicodem's Crew and start killing Mindless Zombies after Nicodem's activation, or they have to simultaneously activate enough models to kill all the Zombies and Nicodem.

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