Games Workshop - Age of Sigmar - Battletome: Soulblight Gravelords

Product Information

You love halloween? You still clutch your 5th edition Vampire Counts army book to your chest? Soulblight have a cool, old school warhammer aesthetic with a brilliant model line that has (almost) totally been revamped. The depth of the line gives you options to monster mash, to take hugely powerful heroes, devastating heavy cavalry and shambling hordes – but it’s also totally viable to take a mix. Top 5 Things About the Battletome Few Soulblight lords cut as fearsome a figure as Lauka Vai, the Mother of Nightmares. Once a monster-hunting knight with principles even her enemies could respect, a fateful encounter with the magics of Tzeentch saw her transformed into a raging beast ever at odds with her disciplined nature. Now regarded as the queen of the Avengorii Dynasty, Vai leads her cursed kin into battle with the skill of a warrior and the strength of a monster. Even truly ferocious vampires tend to be versed in the more delicate arcane arts – as you’d expect, given the many years of immortality they’ve had to brush up on spell casting. The old Locus of Shyish trait has been replaced, and now every spell in the Lore of Vampires and Lore of Deathmages gets a unique extra effect on an unmodified casting roll of 9+, proof that centuries of study really pays off.** Radukar the beast lost the free sumon wolfs but cost the same,so in truth he got a nerf in points of 130(wolfs cost) This resin kit from Forge World is designed to fit perfectly with the plastic Warbringer Nemesis Titan . We don’t know about you, but we don’t fancy our chances against one of those giant cannons. Although, if we had a choice between fighting that and the next guy on our list, we’d take the cannon every time.

As with any book we will need to see it perform on the battlefield first before we can jump to any conclusions, but I’m excited to expand my undead and gather together a collection allowing for multiple different army builds. Stormcast Eternals • Orruk Warclans • Maggotkin of Nurgle • Fyreslayers • Idoneth Deepkin • Nighthaunt • Daughters of Khaine • Skaven • Sylvaneth • Disciples of Tzeentch • Sons of Behemat • Lumineth Realm-lords • Ogor Mawtribes • Slaves to Darkness • Beasts of Chaos • Gloomspite Gitz • Kharadron Overlords • Blades of Khorne • Hedonites of Slaanesh • Ossiarch Bonereapers • Soulblight Gravelords • Seraphon • Cities of Sigmar • Flesh-Eater Courts The cadaverous constructs that make up the Ossiarch Bonereapers are designed and realised by the bone-crafting Mortisans. Of this artisan class, the Mortisan Ossifectors are dedicated to creating the most complex and formidable war machines – from lumbering Gothizzar Harvesters and Morghast Achai to terrifying Mortek Crawlers .

MATCHED PLAY

This was always going to be a strong Bloodline thanks to the vast array of characters, and the rules for them only strengthen the case. Kastelai Dynasty I also think we will see some variety as there are a lots of different playstyles and lists I can see already from Zombie Hordes, to Vampire Cavalry and even a Monster Mash list all being viable ways to go. The book also contains some painting advice for painting your own Vampires, Zombies and Direwolves Allegiance Abilities

There’s an important note on the Vyrkos enhancements here – unique Vyrkos units can take these traits and artefacts. Vyrkos is bursting with great named characters and this lets you take them with no regrets, there’s also some pretty nice combinations out there. Finally the Standard of the Ulfenwatch lets you roll a dice whenever your opponent spends a CP, on a 4+ you gain a CP. Given the pressure on your heroic actions, this can get you a good command economy going. Painting-wise, I used Blood Angels Red for the skin and added Martian Ironcrust to the bases to really give them that Aqshian feel. My Isharann Soulrender is clearly a typically arrogant aelf, and so wears golden armour (painted with Retributor Armour ) into battle. One thing that I’m especially happy with is his fish, which is Aethermatic Blue over Grey Seer and gives an almost translucent look, almost like some real fish.

Overall Legion of Night is solid. Not great, but if you like a lot of outflanking shenanigans there can be fun to be had here. Vyrkos Dynasty You could use this unit to extend the aura of Legion of Blood’s Immortal Majesty, making more models run when near a Vampire. Which is kinda odd, really, changing the dynasty and heritage of unique named characters, but rules as written they’re in any dynasty or legion you so choose. At 200 points though, I don’t think even the spell or dynastic flexibility makes the unit worth it. The 60 point ‘Warhammer Underworlds warband tax’ strikes again! Battleline From opulent castles atop the shadowy crags of the Realm of Death, the vampires of the Soulblight Gravelords are plotting their domination of the Mortal Realms. At their command is a menagerie of nightmarish horrors and legions of mindless thralls – and with the upcoming Battletome: Soulblight Gravelords , this aristocracy of the night is better poised than ever to extend their deathly domains. Ivya roams the realms alone, hunting hulking behemoths with the help of her beloved woodsman’s axe and her loyal swarm of needle-fanged bats. Battletome: Soulblight Gravelords Every vampire now benefits from a revamped version of The Hunger . Each time they fight, these lordly leeches get to heal the same number of wounds they caused. You can heal up to a maximum of six wounds on bigger models – and now even bestial Vargheists and loping Vargskyrs get to partake in the blood buffet.*

Martin: I was delighted to be invited to take part in this new take on the classic “Tale of Four Warlords” for Warhammer Community. I’m a massive fan of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and so when the chance came along to delve into the latest edition with a new army, I bit their arm off.* Games Workshop has discussed revamping how battalions work so this could be something we’re missing. I’m hoping so, as the fact that some books have great ones and others do not is continuously frustrating. The lord of the Crimson Keep is Prince Vhordrai, the Fist of Nagash. This mighty vampire leads his knights to war from the front, or more accurately from above on his zombie dragon. The well-drilled Kastelai cavalry values feats of skill and strength in combat, and they become even stronger as the blood begins to flow.

Gravesites

Terrogheists, Zombie Dragons and Vargheists are all Battleline in this subfaction. Summary of Bloodlines On the tabletop, the variety of Vyrkos Heroes, including Radukar the Beast and Belladamma Volga, all count as generals if taken in a Vyrkos army. That makes them a great option for players who like strong support from leaders and Wizards. The profile has now been split into two to represent mounted and unmounted. Beheading Strike now does a mortal wound on a hit of 6 rather than extra damage, with the mounted version doing D3 mortal wounds on the charge with a roll of 2+. Command ability is not as good as it was, now only allowing rerolls of hit rolls of 1 (Looks like there is currently a typo here too, as it states it is used in the hero phase and lasts until the end of that phase!) Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon: Again, has more consistent damage, no more D3 or D6 damage which have all been replaced with average flat damage. No real changes to his warscroll aside from a couple of extra wounds. All in all, the Soulblight Gravelords make up a resilient army that will frustrate your opponent. Let’s find out how the various legions and dynasties mix up the formula.