Soulblight Vs Free Guild Battle Report

[Koalaninja]

Just really getting into the playing part of the hobby and had a game against the Free Guild I wanted to share with you. I am hoping you enjoy the report and I would really appreciate any advice you can give on my list or tactics. 

Battleplan: Battle for the Pass

Pics of Deployment

TURN 1 Soulblight

I went first. The human scum garrisoned a house with his 30 handgunners which gave him line of fire down the top-middle objective. Going near it would be suicide so I decided to ignore it and try to win the bottom side and push through onto his home objective. I left my zombie dragon at the top of the table to stop him pushing through onto my home objective. 

I moved forward on the bottom side and this is the end of my turn. Screen of black knights and blood knights ready to charge. 

Empire Turn 1

This was quite uneventful. He moved his swordsmen down off the hill and moves his squad of outriders to cover the bottom of the board. he took a few shots at the black knights and caused a few wounds. he moved his general on mount onto the top-middle objective to secure it. 

Soulblight Turn 2

I won the initiative.  The plan was to blow up this flank. The blood knights both went into the demi gryphs and I moved one black knight into combat with his swordsmen to keep them in place and stop them advancing.  MISTAKE!!!! I put the back knights in range of the Handgunners in the house. BOOM! all 10 were slaughtered by 30 shots hitting and wounding on 2's. 

 

The two Blood Knight squads then killed the demis but then the outriders behind the demis pilled in locking both squads in combat. It was over to the Empire.

Empire turn 2

He moved stuff forward a bit and fired into the blood knights with the hurricanium hurting them badly. The griffon then moved forward and started to Nom them till only one remained. Not good. The healthy Blood Knight squad hit the outrider squad that piled in and killed 3. 

Vampire Count turn 3

I won the roll again and felt I had to do something so i attempted a reckless charge with the Coven Throne that got buffed by mystic shield and the re-roll command ability. I  pushed it along with the Vargiests onto the centre hill and moved my Vamp Lord carrying the goblet of charge re-rolls into the middle. The plan was to charge over the line of swords and attack the hurricanium.

But alas I failed to roll far enough so both units charged the swords.... and BOOM! Got shot again by the handgunners. 

The Coven throne survived the barrage on 2 wounds but only killed 4 swordsmen who proceeded to kill both the vargiests and the throne. Needless to say we called it there......

[Koalaninja]

So I got absolutely CREAMED! Would really appreciate some advice on how to get better. My list is as follows. In terms of other models I have lots of skeletons a wight king with banner, two Morghasts and a Manfred on Mortarch. 

VLORDZD

Vamp Lord

Coven Throne

5 blood knights

5 blood knights

2 Bat Swarm

2 Bat Swarm

2 Bat Swarm

3 Vargiests

10 black knights

 

[Xelotath]

Just to go into a bit more detail can you elaborate on what allegiance abilities you used, and how you felt your units performed and what their roles were/ how well they performed at said roles?

[Koalaninja]

Sure! I took the +1 to casting allegience ability. 

The bats were there to cap points and reduce shooting. They applied a -1 to hit debuff and kept up with my fast army but against the free guild -1 wasn’t enough. Definitely limited casualties. 

The black knights were there to block charges. It was my mistake to pull in the handgunners by engaging the swords and they got blown off. In their defence not much in the game can survive 27 -1 rend save rolls. 

The blood knights are meant to be my damage dealers. They did ok on the charge but my mistake was engaging with both squads and letting them get bogged in combat. Have to try these guys again but they don’t seem incredible. 

Varggiests. Got shot and meleed to death before they could attack. 

Coven throne. Always disappointing but it’s my vanity pick. 

Vampire lord. This guy is there to debuff with his spell. His damage is meh. He managed to debuff the griffin which kept the knights alive a turn longer. 

Zombie dragon. This is where I messed up. Sat doing nothing all game protecting a point. His command ability was wasted and maybe the blood knights could have done something if the vampire lord had been general and buffed the blood knights with feast. 

 

 

[xspire]

Unfortunately my suggestions are going to be based on models you don't have, which might not be very useful if you aren't looking to expand your army or invest more into it.

Firstly, 9 times out of 10 you pretty much want to be taking Swift death, if you're using screening units swift death sets up your charges perfectly, it also closes the gap faster and it means vs armies with large ranged threats, instead of trying to avoid them and play around them, you have the speed to just go straight for them and get them before they start ripping your army apart. Don't get me wrong some of the others are good, but when you compare what swift death does for all your units vs what e.g spell casting buffs does for your army the speed usually comes out on top.

I would recommend choosing a different screening unit. Wolves for the points value, or Fell bats to keep them full soulblight & really fast, 16" move screening unit with swift death - take a bigger unit and they're a high speed tarpit. Both are cheaper than Knights, I'd also split screening units up a bit more, it's easier to split bats and wolves up because they're cheaper, e.g 2 x 6 Fell bats. There's almost no justification to take black knights in a soulblight list really (obviously when they're the models you have its the go to option, just giving you some ideas to maybe work towards.)

You also need to be careful with the bat swarms. Obviously they're a good choice vs FG but the best way to play bat swarms is to summon them. The reason is because soulblight is already unforgiving and some things are overcosted so you need every single unit you're bringing to do exactly what you need it to. Having the bats as a summoning pool means you can swap out to other things as and when you need them, you don't always need the bats. It also means you can send them further up the table on turn 1 and give your screening units a bit more of a chance to not get wiped out in one turn if you're setting up for turn 2 charges.

You mentioned you have Arkhan and that could be a cool swap out. He works really well with Soulblight, my 500 tournament sideboard is usually Arkhan and bat swarms. Arkhan and a coven throne is actually a really good combo, he steals the beguile spell and then you put him vs something nasty and it makes him invincible. Unfortunately it's not points efficient so if you take Arkhan you should drop the CT.

I also think you need 5 more blood knights, again the coven throne is the obvious drop - points for points you can do a straight swap.

The reason your vargheists are under performing is because really they're the best in units of 6. They're not elite units, but they're pretty decent and 6 ensures that they won't get deleted in one go, they're especially weak vs ranged but going for swift death does make them a lot better. The best thing to think about when you're using vargheists is you want them to get into combat with something where they SHOULD win, BUT, they don't have to win.

This is my list:

VLoZD

VL on Nightmare

3 x 5 Blood Knights

6 Vargheists

2 x 6 Fell Bats

Sideboard: Arkhan & 2 x 2 Bat Swarms

I've seen people use Dire wolves instead of Fell bats and that's also really good, in fact I would even say that it might be better to take the wolves, I just personally didn't want to buy&paint 320 points of dire wolves. I've also seen people argue for dropping screening units (I use this arguement too in smaller games) and going for 2 x 6 Vargheists instead of the Bats/wolves/(in your case black knights).

I would like to add that I do like the Coven throne but it's just not really great at anything, it's one of those things that's awesome to model and possibly good in a sideboard but it's just a bit meh in game unless it has the perfect target to go after (rarely happens). Would be so much better if beguile applied to all 'soulblight' units and not just the throne, but the enemy units couldn't be affected two turns in a row to balance it out.

[Koalaninja]

Thank you for this comprehensive help!!  The summoning is a great idea and one I will definitely use. I’m happy to look at other models as death is my first love and I like the entire collection. 

The fell bats/ wolves is a great idea as well and one I had been considering especially considering the wolves can be used as battleline for mixed death. 

With the models I do have wouldn it be possible to build a more competitive grand alliance death list or would I be better off sticking soulblight? I also have a necromancer.

[GingerGiant]

Blood Knights have a fantastic charge, but even still, their charge isn't as strong as the Vargheists in sustained combat. In fact, I consider the Knights to be quite fragile, as Anti-Armor hurts them more than most.  I also wouldn't take Necromantic unless you plan on doing heavy spellcasting with multiple Vampire Lords (sans Zombie Dragon). With as many Blood Knights as you have, they would very much benefit from Swift Death. Have you considered allying a Mortis Engine? I think that's more of a lots of Vampire Lords-type ally, but it's good in an army with multiple wounds across the board.

[xspire]

10 hours ago, Koalaninja said:

With the models I do have wouldn it be possible to build a more competitive grand alliance death list or would I be better off sticking soulblight? I also have a necromancer.

I mean, when you have this many soulblight models it's probably better to stick with soulblight, GA: Death is better if you only want to run 1 x Blood Knights and really mix and match some stuff.

With the models you have you could get away with using Mannfred as Arkhan and 5 Black Knights as Blood Knights for a few games to test them out I guess. If you drop the coven throne and the 10 black knights for proxy/stand in Arkhan and 5 Blood Knights you're good to go.

[Koalaninja]

On 18/11/2017 at 11:17 AM, xspire said:

I mean, when you have this many soulblight models it's probably better to stick with soulblight, GA: Death is better if you only want to run 1 x Blood Knights and really mix and match some stuff.

With the models you have you could get away with using Mannfred as Arkhan and 5 Black Knights as Blood Knights for a few games to test them out I guess. If you drop the coven throne and the 10 black knights for proxy/stand in Arkhan and 5 Blood Knights you're good to go.

@xspireYou have been extremely helpful but I need to lock in my list for the start of an ongoing tourney this weekend. It’s a 6 player league where we play each other twice. I can’t proxy and don’t have time to buy new models. I have 400 points of allies to spend and would really appreciate your help choosing the best option. 

1). 40 skeletons and a necromancer

2). 2 morghast Archai and 20 skeletons

3). 2 morghast Archai and 5 hexwraiths

4). 10 hexwraiths and a bat swarm

This would slot in alongside the core list of 10 blood knights, 3 vargs, 1 bat swarm, vlzd, coven and a vamp lord. 

Help is massively appreciated as the choice is killing me. 

[xspire]

11 hours ago, Koalaninja said:

@xspireYou have been extremely helpful but I need to lock in my list for the start of an ongoing tourney this weekend. It’s a 6 player league where we play each other twice. I can’t proxy and don’t have time to buy new models. I have 400 points of allies to spend and would really appreciate your help choosing the best option. 

1). 40 skeletons and a necromancer

2). 2 morghast Archai and 20 skeletons

3). 2 morghast Archai and 5 hexwraiths

4). 10 hexwraiths and a bat swarm

This would slot in alongside the core list of 10 blood knights, 3 vargs, 1 bat swarm, vlzd, coven and a vamp lord. 

Help is massively appreciated as the choice is killing me. 

Ah, that's a shame you can't proxy. Do you still have the Wight King you mentioned? You can't really go wrong with WK & 40 Skeletons as allies. Necromancer is also fine, I guess its a survivability vs offense preference. If you had harbingers intsead of archai I'd probably recommend those & skeletons instead, with 3 wizards it would be rude not to summon some harbingers and let them 3d6 (rerollable with sigil) charge.