AoS 2 - Soulblight Discussion

[lare2]

19 minutes ago, Sception said:

I'll definitely be picking up the mounted wight king and the new battle tome. 

Exactly what my plans were... prior to today. Think I'm just gonna sit on it and see what news comes. 

[Verminlord]

29 minutes ago, lare2 said:

If they're a replacement for Grave Guard, that I could handle. I only ever bothered with the one max unit. Suppose we just have to wait... unless GW let us know beforehand and put us out our misery. 

From facebook

[Thamalys]

Plastic Blood Knights. That's all I needed to see. 

The new battle tome came as a genuine surprise to me. Yes, the rumours were rife but I was not sold on an actual new battletome/faction. No way I'm not going to go balls to the wall with it - I just hope some decent elite builds will be a possibility (not a big fan of hordes...) but hey, whatever. New battle tome - today's a good day.

Meanwhile, my VLoZDs (which I very much hope will remain a core unit of this new faction) are getting some new riders for sure. Love the new models. It was high time for the fell bats as well. Not much of a skelly fanboy but the Wight King on steed looks rad.

Please, oh please let's get rid of this pesky Plague so that we can go back to roll dice, drink beer and have fun.

 

 

[Heckromancer]

I have seen people saying the bases on the new skellies look bigger but to me they look like the current 25mm. I cannot imagine GW changing the base size especially because they are a horde unit. If they do change the bases i am in no mood to swap 90 skellies onto bigger bases after only swapping them from squares a year ago. 

[Verminlord]

6 minutes ago, Heckromancer said:

I have seen people saying the bases on the new skellies look bigger but to me they look like the current 25mm. I cannot imagine GW changing the base size especially because they are a horde unit. If they do change the bases i am in no mood to swap 90 skellies onto bigger bases after only swapping them from squares a year ago. 

The precedent was started with warcry having 28mil bases on small models.

The new blissbarb archers that were just released are also on 28s and they are just as small and hordey as og skeletons.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Verminlord

[warhammernerd]

FINALLY

[Knopers]

Now I'm thinking if the vampire army could get any ranged unit like skeleton archers or vampire ranged infantry? Whether there were such units in the past?

[Raptor_Jesues]

2 hours ago, lare2 said:

Okay, I love everything. GW knocking it out the park. Bit worried for my 100 skellies though. What do you think the place for our old bonies will be in this newfangled force? Do you think they'll even have a place? I'm thinking of flogging them off for the new goodness but if they've still got a place... just don't know. 

Looks like it is CONVERSION TIMEEEE

[lare2]

1 hour ago, Verminlord said:

From facebook

Much appreciated. Least we know now. 

Wonder if they'll still be 40 max... 

Edited March 20, 2021 by lare2

[warhammernerd]

4 minutes ago, Knopers said:

Now I'm thinking if the vampire army could get any ranged unit like skeleton archers or vampire ranged infantry? Whether there were such units in the past?

Nah, they neither need it it should have it. 

[Raptor_Jesues]

i expecially love him. Amazing model, 99/100 my new vampire lord

[warhammernerd]

It’s a staggering release, my absolute favourite since AoS launched. 

[Heckromancer]

I realise this is a stretch but with how we have different stormcast chambers and fire slayer lodges, what are the chances they reintroduce the vampire bloodlines. It would be great to have the ability to tie in some units from other Death battle tomes, some FEC ghouls for a strigoi bloodline, some spirit hosts or a knight of shrouds helping out the Von Carsteins. 
It probably will not be the case but it is an exciting thought. 

[Raptor_Jesues]

1 minute ago, Heckromancer said:

I realise this is a stretch but with how we have different stormcast chambers and fire slayer lodges, what are the chances they reintroduce the vampire bloodlines. It would be great to have the ability to tie in some units from other Death battle tomes, some FEC ghouls for a strigoi bloodline, some spirit hosts or a knight of shrouds helping out the Von Carsteins. 
It probably will not be the case but it is an exciting thought. 

i sure would not mind 

[Clewzy]

Anyone notice a bit of a nod to the old heroquest zombie 

[Evil Bob]

On 3/15/2021 at 1:27 PM, Raptor_Jesues said:

All this talking about soulblight brought me to think about the lord on abyssal terror. Do you guys think that we are going to get him back in the new book?

I figured once the model went Legends they were done with him.  But “if” GW did bring him back it would be one hell of an hat-trick.

• Bigger than a Vamoie mounted/on-foot.  So more violent and expensive.
• Smaller than a Vampire on a Zombidragon so cheaper and less dice
• Resurrecting one of the cooler concepts.  Patchwork monster anyone?

If that ain’t perfection I don’t know what is.

[Evil Bob]

3 hours ago, Verminlord said:

From facebook

I’ve been waiting since 7th edition WFB for Fell Bats to be made great again.  Make it so GW they’ve been left in the cold far too long.

[Legion Master Ghreer]

I am all in! This will be my first age of sigmar army and I am extremely excited. I've been wanting a Vampire Counts army for about 15 years now and decided to finally go for it about three months ago. Fortunately the only unit I have purchased so far is the plastic Wight King!

[HanShot First]

Are there any rumors of a new vamp lord on zombie dragon?  The kit needs updating but if there isn’t I’ll just convert one.

[Sception]

4 hours ago, Heckromancer said:

I realise this is a stretch but with how we have different stormcast chambers and fire slayer lodges, what are the chances they reintroduce the vampire bloodlines. It would be great to have the ability to tie in some units from other Death battle tomes, some FEC ghouls for a strigoi bloodline, some spirit hosts or a knight of shrouds helping out the Von Carsteins. 
It probably will not be the case but it is an exciting thought. 

Not a stretch at all.  Rather, I'd say it's almost guaranteed, although they won't be ~entirely~ the same bloodlines as in oldhammer, and they're called "dynasties" now.  From the Kritza article on warhammer communities (link)

Quote

This well-dressed fellow hails from the Vyrkos Dynasty of Soulblight Vampires.

So Kritza and Radukar are confirmed as part of the "Vyrkos" dynasty.  Which confirms that dynasties are at least a lore thing.  That doesn't guarantee a mechanical implementation, but given that every book has subfactions now, and dynasties would be the natural subfaction implementation for Soulblight, I think it's relatively safe to expect that's what we'll be seeing.

Moving into more speculative territory, Vyrkos is rat themed, and Radukar is associated with wolves, so if I had to make a guess I'd say it's possible that the Vyrkos dynasty in general will have powers related to animals & creatures of the night - fell bats, dire wolves, rat & bat swarms, etc.  That's just a guess though. Kritza's rat themed abilities seem to derive from the particular circumstances of his transformation - feeding on and being fed on by rats while hiding in a corpse cart while the soulblight curse was taking hold - and thus his rat theme may be completely unrelated to other Vyrkos dynasties, while Radukar's wolf theme so far is more a matter of personal brand and iconography, there's currently no indication that he himself has wolf-themed powers.

If I were to place any guess about other dynasties, I still think we'll see some based on the existing vampire special characters - Mannfred, Neferata, and Vhordrai - drawing from their various character traits.  Which does mean I think we might see von carstein and lahmiean dynasties, though the von carstein dynasty may draw more from Mannfred than Vlad, which might make it more closely resemble necrarchs than old world von carsteins.  And Vhordrai's dynasty, if he gets one, would likely be somewhat blood dragonesque in abilities and fighting style if not in personality.

And it's also possible that we might see FEC rolled back into Soulblight as their own neo-strigoi dynasty.  I don't personally want to see that, but there have been some signs that indicate it could happen, and it wouldn't be unprecedented given how pestilens got rolled back into skaven and BCR back into Mawtribes.  And it wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to FEC since there are a number of new and existing gravelord/legion units that would fit right into FEC armies, including dire wolves, bat & rat swarms, dire bats, the Vargskyr, necromancers as court wizards, corpse carts as banquet wagons, etc.  Again, I'd rather see FEC expanded with their own unique takes on these things, but if they do get rolled into the gravelords I won't be shedding many tears over it, particularly if they maintain a full separate allegiance writeup, not just subfaction rules as a dynasty choice.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Sception

[Sception]

10 minutes ago, HanShot First said:

Are there any rumors of a new vamp lord on zombie dragon?  The kit needs updating but if there isn’t I’ll just convert one.

No rumors to that effect as of yet.  There's a picture of a vamp on zombie dragon on the new battletome cover that looks like it has a different head, but it has the same '2 legs 2 wings' limb layout that some people don't like.  Honestly, the current kit still looks pretty darn good - the wings are massive and impressive, the layered effect on the rotted torso is fantastic (if a bit hasslesome to paint), the rider's armor looks more or less in line with the new vampire lord on foot model (though the helmeted head could certainly benefit from being swapped out with one from the new blood knight kit, hopefully there are extra heads in there).  And it's a multi kit with several other current units, including the terrorgheist and the only existing Ghoul King model, so they can't exactly get rid of the kit.

What I think is more likely (tough still far from guaranteed) is a kit that keeps the same wing sprue but re-cuts the body sprue, ditching the terrorgheist and current vamp lord and ghoul king bits, but adds new bits for prince vhordrai, sort of how the current Skarbrand box includes some parts (even a whole sprue?) from the bloodthirster kit, but with alternate bits for the special character instead of the three generic bloodthirster types.

Again, though, that's just speculation.  Still, enough people complained about zombie dragons being wyverns (which imo is dumb, dragons can have any number of limbs or heads) that if they were going to do an entirely new zombie dragon I expect it would have the six limbed body plan, and if they were releasing a new six limbed zombie dragon I don't think the battletome cover art would show one with four limbs.

[JackStreicher]

seems like there‘s more to come!

[Walrustaco]

5 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

seems like there‘s more to come!

Hmm, whilst I’m also hoping for more, especially an answer on what happens to Grave Guard now, I feel like the community people who reply always give these non-committal answers.

[JackStreicher]

17 minutes ago, Walrustaco said:

Hmm, whilst I’m also hoping for more, especially an answer on what happens to Grave Guard now, I feel like the community people who reply always give these non-committal answers.

They usually just don‘t answer question they have no answer to.  Imo this means we‘ll get new Dire Wolves along the way (maybe LRL style)

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

I don't get why everyone is doomsaying about Grave Guard and Black Knights right now. First of all, we should appreciate that Gravelords are one of the rarest kinds of updates: The type where lots of old units get resculpts. That's a really, really good sign for the future of the faction. Resculpting old units is less profitable than releasing new ones in the short term (people won't likely replace their 80 skeleton warriors with new sculpts), but it's necessary to keep the faction attractive for new players who don't want to buy 20 year old sculpts. It's a show of faith on the part of GW that people want to keep buying classic undead in AoS.

Here are some facts to keep in mind before we ge too worked up:

• We have not yet seen everything this release has to offer.

We know more vampires are coming, the preview page states that much ( "Kritza is not the only vampire..." )

Direwolves are on the cover of the book and GW facebook is all "wait and see wink" .

• Not only are the derpiest kits getting updates, but passable ones are as well.

Bat swarms, fell bats and even rat swarms are getting new sculpts. Units that did not need new sculpts like skeleton warriors are getting new sculpts. Why are we assuming that other units are scrapped instead of assuming they are getting new sculpts, as well? This update looks like the Necron update from 40k: Everything gets brought up to the same, new standard. Black Knights in particular are 100% safe: You don't release a new Wight King on Steed to squat the current Deathrattle cavalry unit afterwards. They even share a kit with Hexwraiths. They are certain to stick around.

• There are not just updates, but new models as well.

Let's not forget that everything in Cursed City will be playable in Gravelords. That includes the Vrykos Bloodborn, the ogre zombies and the Vargskyr. But why would we assume that it ends there? I'd honestly be surprised if we don't see a new centerpiece and more support for the SOULBLIGHT keyword. The winged vampire from Underworlds, for example, seems like a prime suspect for a new unit. As does the vampire duellist lady, honestly.

I have been predicting that this update will be a handled similarly to the Hedonites update from the moment the vampire lord leaked. Nothing so far seems to contradict that. After the latest reveals, I personally don't see a future where we end up with a half-updated army without anything new and a bunch of options removed.