AoS 2 - Soulblight Discussion

[RuneBrush]

Welcome to the new Soulblight discussion thread!  Following on from the release of the second edition Age of Sigmar rules, this thread is the main thread to talk about all things related the Soulblight allegiance of Grand Alliance Death.  For new players the Soulblighted are humans who have been turned to vampires, their soul forever tainted who sustain themselves on the blood of others.

We do encourage people to create your own threads talking about your armies, home written fan fiction, conversions and paint jobs (not everybody frequents the painting forum), but this thread will be the central place to talk tactics, list building and general conversation and similar.  You all know the drill!

For easy reference, here's a link to the old Let's Chat thread, it still contains lots of gems of information!  http://www.tga.community/forums/topic/11372-lets-chat-soulblight/

[Lightbox]

I think an important thing is how will ghb18 change our alleigance abilities? Because that will impact whether soulblight can be decent again. 

 

Though blood knights are now 240 points which is great! Still a shame we lost vhargheist battleline... Fell bat battleline would also be nice.

[Tizianolol]

I really love to have a vampire list. The problem is I think Soulblight are not competitive after the release of legion of nagash book. Are there any good news for them in aos2?:)

[themortalgod]

5 hours ago, Tizianolol said:

I really love to have a vampire list. The problem is I think Soulblight are not competitive after the release of legion of nagash book. Are there any good news for them in aos2?:)

Personally, im surprised they reprinted soulblight in LoN. They way I see it is that soulblight effectively became Legion of Blood.

[Tizianolol]

i thought that too. the problem is bk are nerfed and we miss the strong command ability to make vlozd retire and charge . it was a very tactic command ability 

[Deadkitten]

On 6/22/2018 at 6:31 PM, themortalgod said:

Personally, im surprised they reprinted soulblight in LoN. They way I see it is that soulblight effectively became Legion of Blood.

It's just so good.  I just don't see what a straight Soulblight list brings to the table.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Deadkitten

[Lemon Knuckles]

Placeholder for when a stand-alone Soulblight battletome comes out.  Pretty sure it will happen, and pretty sure it will be a long, long wait.

[Tizianolol]

I love the idea of elite vampire list. But with this meta hords are the way too go and nagash book making them the only choice. I hope in a SB book too:)

[Lemon Knuckles]

1 hour ago, Tizianolol said:

I love the idea of elite vampire list. But with this meta hords are the way too go and nagash book making them the only choice. I hope in a SB book too:)

There might be game for elite Vampire lists.  Some new scenarios have shorter distance between deployment zones (18').  That, along with some of the tweaks to shooting, and the buffs to casters in general, might open up space for some smart cookies to hit gold.

[Tizianolol]

The problem are objectives.. Hords army are better captire and defend ..the question is: why I have to play SB when legion of blood ( for ex) can have skeletons and gravesite combos? When I can have back like 10/15 skeletons per turn?:)

[Lemon Knuckles]

All I'm saying is that there might be something there if people really think through all of the changes.  For example, hordes lose their objective priority in the new scenarios.  In some of the new ones, casters get priority.  Easier to get in combat turn one due to deployment changes.  Changes to CPs and some combo shenninghans with Prince V or VLoZD.  

The gravesites and recursion are the most obvious and powerful of the Death abilities, and that's the route I'm going down personally.  All I'm saying is that it's too early to say for sure that elite vampire armies are a non-starter.  I'm rooting for whoever has the balls to figure out how to make it work.

[Lightbox]

13 hours ago, Lemon Knuckles said:

All I'm saying is that there might be something there if people really think through all of the changes.  For example, hordes lose their objective priority in the new scenarios.  In some of the new ones, casters get priority.  Easier to get in combat turn one due to deployment changes.  Changes to CPs and some combo shenninghans with Prince V or VLoZD.  

The gravesites and recursion are the most obvious and powerful of the Death abilities, and that's the route I'm going down personally.  All I'm saying is that it's too early to say for sure that elite vampire armies are a non-starter.  I'm rooting for whoever has the balls to figure out how to make it work.

We'll see what new toys soulblight gets in GhB, I mean for an elite vampire list you likely won't have many units that can benefit from gravesites so that could be that it's less of an issue. I think it's a lot weaker for sure as skeleton hordes and recursion are massive strength for death but new edition could make soulblight more effective, not necessarily at tournament competitive level but at least at pick up games against friends level. Though the fact all those blood knights get +1 attack In legion of blood is a massive boon so we'll have to see whether soulblight does get some nice new stuff. Would be worth playing around with at least and seeing if it can be made to work.

[Bohemond]

Anyone noticed yet that Soulblight is not listed in GHB18. No allegiance abilities, no relics, no Soulblight battle profile. But still Blood Knights are listed as "Battleline in Soulblight Army", and Soulblight is listed as a faction in the list of allies. Surely GW must have made some sort of mistake. ?

Edited June 30, 2018 by Bohemond

[Inqy]

5 hours ago, Bohemond said:

Anyone noticed yet that Soulblight is not listed in GHB18. No allegiance abilities, no relics, no Soulblight battle profile. But still Blood Knights are listed as "Battleline in Soulblight Army", and Soulblight is listed as a faction in the list of allies. Surely GW must have made some sort of mistake. ?

The Soulblight Faction write up is in Legions of Nagash. The fact it isn't in the new GHB just means it's not been changed.

[Bohemond]

2 hours ago, Inqy said:

The fact it isn't in the new GHB just means it's not been changed.

That is a good point, I did not consider that. But the only official list that tells us what units Soulblight is composed of is in GHB17, which is of today null and void. 

[Honk]

18 hours ago, Bohemond said:

the only official list that tells us what units Soulblight is composed of

Keyword „Soulblight“ ?!

[Bohemond]

2 hours ago, Honk said:

Keyword „Soulblight“ ?!

There are many keywords that does not represent a faction, Malignant for example. I am not saying Soulblight have ceased to exist. But if there is no overview of Soulblight, how would you normally know it is a faction? It is confusing. ?

[Deadkitten]

2 hours ago, Bohemond said:

 It is confusing. ?

The Soulblight Allegiance stuff is in the Legions of Nagash book.  

[Black_Fortress_Immortal]

I was looking at running this list:

Allegiance: Soulblight
- Bloodline: Swift Death
Mortal Realm: Ulgu
Vampire Lord On Zombie Dragon (440)
- General
- Deathlance & Shield & Chalice
- Artefact: Doppelganger Cloak 
- Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Prince Vhordrai (480)
- Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference
Vampire Lord (140)
- Artefact: Sigil of the Sanguine Throne 
- Lore of the Vampires: Soulpike
5 x Blood Knights (240)
5 x Blood Knights (240)
5 x Blood Knights (240)
5 x Dire Wolves (60)
- Allies
Chronomantic Cogs (60)

Total: 1900 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 2
Allies: 60 / 400
Wounds: 88


The idea is fairily simple... buff up the VLoZD with Death Knight and Bloodfeast, cast Amethystine Pinions to buff the movement, have the Cogs cast for +2" move + charge, fly up to shoot and charge, with Vhordrai support.  Advance the Blood Knights up as well, and pass around the Sigil of Sanguine Throne reroll and command point use as needed.  You have a VERY good chance at having multiple units in combat turn 1, and if you go second, they risk having your VLoZD in their face for multiple phases (Fist of Nagash).  Due to Doppelganger Cloak, they won't be able to hit your VLoZD until you want them to... in which a buffed up General will demolish them.  A very 'elite' army that has little margin of error.

[Kyriakin]

On 6/26/2018 at 6:58 AM, Deadkitten said:

It's just so good.  I just don't see what a straight Soulblight list brings to the table.

Only if you are thinking competitively.

Some people just want an army of vampires and bats, without skellies, zombies (etc.) diluting the army's theme.

Edited July 25, 2018 by Kyriakin

[Black_Fortress_Immortal]

1 hour ago, Kyriakin said:

Only if you are thinking competitively.

Some people just want an army of vampires and bats, without skellies, zombies (etc.) diluting the army's theme.

Soulblight bloodlines are very nice bonuses, along with VERY strong Command Traits and Artifacts.  A completely different playstyle than LoN... more 'elite' than running buffed up regenerating hordes/gravesites.

[jjb070707]

Looking at the command traits and artifacts, as you suggested, I don't see how these attributes stack up well against the legion of blood ones. Aura of Dark Majesty is an equal tool to the soulblight variety and works with fewer stipulations. The orb is also a strong dueling artifact. Their are also much stronger offensive options in the legion of blood as well. 

18 hours ago, Black_Fortress_Immortal said:

Soulblight bloodlines are very nice bonuses, along with VERY strong Command Traits and Artifacts.  A completely different playstyle than LoN... more 'elite' than running buffed up regenerating hordes/gravesites.

Additionally, the swift death feature of +2" and flying is replicated for our general if we need it, and the faction wide +1 attack from the LoB is arguably better as well. Soulblight truly just seems to be watered down LoB at the moment, and doesn't really seem to offer any significant upsides as compared to the Legion.... 

I'd like to know which traits specifically you see as better and why they might make Soulblight a better choice for a Vampire army, as a theme based argument is weak here, seeing as how both factions are thematically continuances of vampire counts, and the Lahmian bloodlines under Neferata....

[Black_Fortress_Immortal]

1 hour ago, jjb070707 said:

Looking at the command traits and artifacts, as you suggested, I don't see how these attributes stack up well against the legion of blood ones. Aura of Dark Majesty is an equal tool to the soulblight variety and works with fewer stipulations. The orb is also a strong dueling artifact. Their are also much stronger offensive options in the legion of blood as well. 

Additionally, the swift death feature of +2" and flying is replicated for our general if we need it, and the faction wide +1 attack from the LoB is arguably better as well. Soulblight truly just seems to be watered down LoB at the moment, and doesn't really seem to offer any significant upsides as compared to the Legion.... 

I'd like to know which traits specifically you see as better and why they might make Soulblight a better choice for a Vampire army, as a theme based argument is weak here, seeing as how both factions are thematically continuances of vampire counts, and the Lahmian bloodlines under Neferata....

Swift Death applies to entire army.  With cogs, your Blood Knights are going to be flying 14" with a +2" to charge, which is massive.  There's going to be more mobility on your knights, charging OVER lines.

Sigil of the Sanguine Throne is a 12" range re-rollable charge, which is super strong for an alpha-strike army.

Mist Form is extremely powerful.  This allows the VLoZD to have their pick of targets and prevents him from being tied down.  Since they're stronger on the charge with the Lance, you're going to have more output that way, and with the 16"+ fly with rerollable charge, you're going to have your pick of targets. 

Legion of Blood can't do this.

[jjb070707]

11 minutes ago, Black_Fortress_Immortal said:

Swift Death applies to entire army.  With cogs, your Blood Knights are going to be flying 14" with a +2" to charge, which is massive.  There's going to be more mobility on your knights, charging OVER lines.

Sigil of the Sanguine Throne is a 12" range re-rollable charge, which is super strong for an alpha-strike army.

Mist Form is extremely powerful.  This allows the VLoZD to have their pick of targets and prevents him from being tied down.  Since they're stronger on the charge with the Lance, you're going to have more output that way, and with the 16"+ fly with rerollable charge, you're going to have your pick of targets. 

Legion of Blood can't do this.

I do believe you have made your case good sir. What does your ideal 2k look like then?

Would you think of using Reikenor to ensure the cogs go off?

[Black_Fortress_Immortal]

6 minutes ago, jjb070707 said:

I do believe you have made your case good sir. What does your ideal 2k look like then?

Would you think of using Reikenor to ensure the cogs go off?

If you scroll up a few posts, you'll see.