Soulblight Gravelords News, Rumours and Speculation

[Sception]

3 minutes ago, Raptor_Jesues said:

LOL. Well im fairly sure it will be errata'd

I'm fairly sure it won't.  locus has always ben exclusively for the lore spells, not for any other spells you might have to cast.

[Lucky Snake Eyes]

39 minutes ago, Aren73 said:

Someone help me see the value in the Shifting Keep ability. 

Why would I want to chuck a unit or two of blood knights in the enemy back lines when they are unlikely to make the charge? I can't even give them a character to let them reroll charges. 

Perhaps a 10-15 man unit that expects to lose some models before they fight...but just seems a bit wasteful. If we could chuck over a VLoZD or Vhordrai that'd be a different matter. 

 

there's a command trait for a 12" aura of reroll charges so drop in your general with them.

[Boar]

47 minutes ago, FeralMulan said:

- Soul Spike? I GUESS? Still need to roll a 4+ each time and if it is a short charge, it does laughably little.

You roll number of dice equal to their charge roll! So it's 3,5 MW for average charge

[Boar]

double post

Edited May 13, 2021 by Boar

[Sception]

5 minutes ago, Lucky Snake Eyes said:

there's a command trait for a 12" aura of reroll charges so drop in your general with them.

How?

[FeralMulan]

1 minute ago, Boar said:

You roll number of dice equal to their charge roll! So it's 3,5 MW for average charge

Yeah potentially! But a few problems:

A. Does not stop a unit from charging, so it's mostly good against heroes
B. 3.5 MW is not generally enough to blunt a dangerous charge (except DoK maybe?)
C. The unit needs to be close enough to cast it on, then I need to move far enough away to guarantee a long enough charge to make the spell worth it
D. Just generally hate a 50% variance on a spell that already might not go off/get unbound.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

One combo that I am feeling kinda excited about is Coven Throne plus Grave Guard.

Old Grave Guard were already a blender. The new ones are better offensively and can sit at potentially a 3+ save with shields. They are 2 attacks 3+/3+/-1/1 with mortals on 6s to wound in addition. Coven throne pushes that to 2+/2+/-1/1. As mentioned, with a 3+ save and likely 6+ fnp. Legion of Blood guarantees that their hit/wound will never be debuffed to be lower and has a +1 to saves artefact to put the Coven Throne at a 3+.

You can in theory layer +1 attack on there or take great wight blades for +1 damage but -1 to wounds and saves, but I think it's actually going to be overkill in nearly all situations. Their damage is good enough, what they need help with is mobility if anything. As a side note, if you hit on 2s that Wight King reroll 1s to hit gets... OK? Maybe in Deathmarch if battalions stick around.

[Sception]

1 minute ago, FeralMulan said:

Yeah potentially! But a few problems:

A. Does not stop a unit from charging, so it's mostly good against heroes
B. 3.5 MW is not generally enough to blunt a dangerous charge (except DoK maybe?)
C. The unit needs to be close enough to cast it on, then I need to move far enough away to guarantee a long enough charge to make the spell worth it
D. Just generally hate a 50% variance on a spell that already might not go off/get unbound.

spell is based on the charge roll, not the distance moved.  They can be 3" away, and if they roll a 12 for the charge they'll roll 12 dice.

still not particularly great or anything, but still.

[Boar]

Just now, FeralMulan said:

Yeah potentially! But a few problems:

A. Does not stop a unit from charging, so it's mostly good against heroes
B. 3.5 MW is not generally enough to blunt a dangerous charge (except DoK maybe?)
C. The unit needs to be close enough to cast it on, then I need to move far enough away to guarantee a long enough charge to make the spell worth it
D. Just generally hate a 50% variance on a spell that already might not go off/get unbound.

I mean it's equivalent to D6 MW which isn't really that common among spells, and it may give enemy a pause. Usefull vs. elite units

[Lucky Snake Eyes]

Just now, Sception said:

How?

How as in how do I know this or how does this work?

For the former there's an imgur album of like 75% of the book at this point going around, including the pages for kasteli. They have a command trait that gives the general a 12" aura of reroll charges, similar to the one the old soulblight allegiance had. Shifting keep let's you deploy 1 or more units off the table edge so you hold your general plus bloodknights in reserve and deploy them both next to each other on the same table edge. Rerolling a 9" still isn't great but it's better than not rerolling.

[Sception]

Just now, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

Old Grave Guard were already a blender. The new ones are better offensively and can sit at potentially a 3+ save with shields.

Rumors are bonuses & penalties in 3e will be capped to +1/-1.  If that's true, then grave guard shields won't stack with any other direct bonus to armor saves.

[FeralMulan]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

spell is based on the charge roll, not the distance moved.  They can be 3" away, and if they roll a 12 for the charge they'll roll 12 dice.

still not particularly great or anything, but still.

That's a good point, actually, didn't think of that! I still feel there are way too many layers of variance.

 - spell needs to go off
 - not be unbound
 - enemy must roll high on charge
- I must roll high on 4+

[Sception]

5 minutes ago, Lucky Snake Eyes said:

How as in how do I know this or how does this work?

For the former there's an imgur album of like 75% of the book at this point going around, including the pages for kasteli. They have a command trait that gives the general a 12" aura of reroll charges, similar to the one the old soulblight allegiance had. Shifting keep let's you deploy 1 or more units off the table edge so you hold your general plus bloodknights in reserve and deploy them both next to each other on the same table edge. Rerolling a 9" still isn't great but it's better than not rerolling.

How will you 'drop your general' in with the blood knights showing up on the enemy backfield?  Shifting keep only lets you outflank blood knights, not heroes or whatever.  You aren't legion of night.

Did I miss a deep strike rule on VLoZD?  I might have, I don't have the pages in front of me right at the moment.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Sception

[Lucky Snake Eyes]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

Rumors are bonuses & penalties in 3e will be capped to +1/-1.  If that's true, then grave guard shields won't stack with any other direct bonus to armor saves.

if it's handled like 40k then the buff/debuff cap will only be for hit and wound rolls

[Sception]

Just now, Lucky Snake Eyes said:

if it's handled like 40k then the buff/debuff cap will only be for hit and wound rolls

Fingers crossed.

[FeralMulan]

4 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

One combo that I am feeling kinda excited about is Coven Throne plus Grave Guard.

Old Grave Guard were already a blender. The new ones are better offensively and can sit at potentially a 3+ save with shields. They are 2 attacks 3+/3+/-1/1 with mortals on 6s to wound in addition. Coven throne pushes that to 2+/2+/-1/1. As mentioned, with a 3+ save and likely 6+ fnp. Legion of Blood guarantees that their hit/wound will never be debuffed to be lower and has a +1 to saves artefact to put the Coven Throne at a 3+.

You can in theory layer +1 attack on there or take great wight blades for +1 damage but -1 to wounds and saves, but I think it's actually going to be overkill in nearly all situations. Their damage is good enough, what they need help with is mobility if anything. As a side note, if you hit on 2s that Wight King reroll 1s to hit gets... OK? Maybe in Deathmarch if battalions stick around.

I think they will be better as Vyrkos, for a free +1 wound. coven Throne buff is better spent on Blood Knights I think.

Still, Grave Guard are one to watch!

[Lucky Snake Eyes]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

How will you 'drop your general' in with the blood knights showing up on the enemy backfield?  Shifting keep only lets you outflank blood knights, not heroes or whatever.  You aren't legion of night.

fair, I guess a vengorian or vlozd might be fast enough to get within 12" of where they walk in by using pinions. Pinions seems like a good spell for 1st turn for those since you'd want to use their warscroll spells more often later on.

[Boar]

1 minute ago, FeralMulan said:

 - spell needs to go off
 - not be unbound

I mean those are true for every spell. Not some amazing spell, but MW are MW. And if you had D6 MW variance would be greater.

Also it's not unmodified charge roll, so if they have modifiers, well bad for them

[Gothmaug]

Anyone know of Bat swarms survived into the new battletome? And if not, they're technically in the legions of Nagash book still, so could potentially be brought as allies until 3rd edition? Or does Soulblight Gravelords replace the Legions of Nagash book? 

I'd Imagine LoN will continue to exist until 3rd edition, then get dropped from support, but perhaps not. 

 

[Honk]

4 hours ago, Aren73 said:

We can try approaching this like two adults, both of whom see an aspect of what's there, where we can both learn from each other? 

You‘re new to this internet thing?

🍹🥳👍

Can’t keep up with all the posts, but I‘m a bit hurting, a bit sad and a bit intrigued by new possibilities 

I guess for most the dream and the hopes are now facing GDubs reality for LoN 2.0

we Germans call that Weltschmerz, reality is not able to achieve the inner dream of an utopia...

 

Grandma and her hairy good boi sounds fun, her spell will get your opponent to develop lycanthropy 

zombies dishing out mortals to regain bodies on a 2+ could be funky (take that 2+ stormy stormboys)

manni noping out just before combat phase, or being caught by impact hits at the end of charge phase, because I forgot

bloodknights are sound and the Classic Soulblight cavalry list looks valid (coven throne CA, neffi buffs)

Little vamps have cool abilities 

 

We sadly don’t have an obvious I‘ll crush you built, our regen got nerfed, big daddy N is probably pure gold, Arkhan as caster is missing, spells on a 7+ unreliable, my Morghast are gone, so are the heavy hitting reapers, vampire CA only for summonable...

we‘ll have to see, what synergies can be cheesed and if that gives us strong options vs kroak, vs tzeetch host, vs eels

 

But Friendly games should be save and versatile 

[Sception]

3 minutes ago, Lucky Snake Eyes said:

fair, I guess a vengorian or vlozd might be fast enough to get within 12" of where they walk in by using pinions. Pinions seems like a good spell for 1st turn for those since you'd want to use their warscroll spells more often later on.

pinions is nice on vlozd and venga, but it's not "I'm going to fly from my deployment zone to your back board edge in a single turn" nice.  At which point you might as well be charging in from your zone and using riders of ruin to trample over the enemy front lines into their back lines anyway.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Sception

[FeralMulan]

Just now, Gothmaug said:

Anyone know of Bat swarms survived into the new battletome? And if not, they're technically in the legions of Nagash book still, so could potentially be brought as allies until 3rd edition? Or does Soulblight Gravelords replace the Legions of Nagash book? 

I'd Imagine LoN will continue to exist until 3rd edition, then get dropped from support, but perhaps not. 

 

The leaked book specifies who you can take as allies: FEC and Nighthaunt.

Don't get high on hope, man. LoN is going bye bye.

[Blizzardking9567]

@warhammernerd I appreciate your optimism. I am an ogor player coming to join death and was really wanting to just keep brining back hoards of dead with the deathly invocation. I see that is out, but I am still in. If you have the time I would love to see any of your list ideas. I purchased 60 old skeletons, 20 black knights 20 zombies and  2 mortach models. I am not sure which way I would want to go.

 

Overall I can’t help but see some of the nerfs but I think that’s because I am not viewing this as SBGL but as LON 2. Can’t fret about what was and have to work with what is.

[Nightseer2012]

I like Belladama Volka.  Between "Under the Killing Moon", "Pack Alpha", and being Vyrkos, she can get the humble Dire Wolves do do some serious work, especially on the charge.  Radukar the Beast has obvious synergy with summoning more wolves, and giving units more attacks.  And the Deathstench Drove actually isn't bad in Vyrkos, I could just use some help figuring out how to speed up the corpse carts.  Soulscream Bridge?  Helps with mobility, and adds more -1 bravery our army, idk.

[Ghoooouls]

Im really digging a lot of the new stuff.

The one thing that is quite a blow is that we can now only heal each summonable unit 1d3 max. Beforehand if you had graves nearby and heroes it was easy to bring back like 5d3 skeletons per turn.

I guess on the plus side, zombies have a much better mechanic to generate returning models themselves.

Huge amount of different options to go with. They are all going to play relatively differently to what I'm used to but I'm very excited.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Ghoooouls