Soulblight Gravelords News, Rumours and Speculation

[BaylorCorvette]

I wonder if the Vargskyr will be a legitimate unit (as opposed to Cursed City model with a warscroll) for Gravelords? It looks awesome, really it looks like a Vampire version of the Crypt Horror.

[idn0971]

I don't know if anyone has noticed or mentioned this before or if it is even something that means anything but in the preview pictures that were shown of the new skeletons and zombies the skeletons are shown as a group of 5 while the zombies are shown in a group of 10. Maybe skeletons will be elite troops taken in 5s now?? It's completly tin foil hat but I couldn't find an example where GW showed a unit that wasn't in it's actual unit size. And in the actual preview they showed 6 skeletons instead of 10 which was really odd.

[lare2]

They are in 10s in Cursed City... if that means anything. 

I've been kinda thinking along the same lines as well. Zombies as battleline and skeletons as something else... perhaps more elite battleline or perhaps elite. Starved for further info. Hoping the warscroll cards for Cursed City will give us a bigger clue as to how SBG will look. 

EDIT: image added.

Edited March 30, 2021 by lare2

[lare2]

I want all the skellies.

[idn0971]

I want to run all skeletons and vampires. I'm really hoping that black knights and the mounted vampire lord get a new kit and I can get them to be battleline so I can run all the models I really like together

[RedRowan]

They mentioned on the AoS FB page after the preview that the number of skeletons shown were for showcase purposes rather than unit size.

Steve

[BaylorCorvette]

I think "elite" is a matter of perspective. Elite compared to Zombies, yes. But elite compared to other armies elite choices, no. Usually models taken in increments of 5 instead of 10 are fairly elite (overall), unless they are a specialty unit of some sort. I do however think that they will do a better job differentiating Zombies from Skeletons in terms of function compared to what we have in LoN right now. These Skeletons look more like Grave Guard than your average naked skeleton. So perhaps they will have a combat profile more similar to Grave Guard. However then that begs the question, what happens to Grave Guard? Are they dropped from the line? Rolled into "Soulblight Gravelords Skeletons" ?

I feel that the Zombies roll in Soulblight Gravelords will more than likely be a tar pit type of unit. However to be an effective tar pit will be tricky for these guys because Zombies are obviously not going to have a good armor save, nor will they likely have more than 1 wound, meaning you will need a lot of them to be an effective tar pit. The one mechanic they could have is the potential to have them regenerate fairly quickly. So you may have a unit of 40 of them and your opponent may kill 25 in a single turn. Assuming they don't battleshock away (maybe they are immune to battleshock?) perhaps their warscroll has a regenerate feature where you return X number of models in your Hero phase, then of course if there is still something similar to Deathly Invocations all of a sudden  you 40 man that was reduced to a 15 man is back up to a 25+ man unit, for example. 

[Verminlord]

5 hours ago, SorryLizard said:

I think I'm going to jump in with a hopefully all vampire army. Aiming for 1kpts to use in doubles or small games.

Of note, if any of you follow the Soulbound RPG they just released the Bestiary book which has a section on Soulblight that includes

• Necromancer
• Deadwalker Zombie
• Dire Wolves
• Fell Bats
• Grave Guard
• Deathrattle Skeleton
• Wight King
• Vampire Lord

A little sidebar says that almost all Vampires are human but there are some who are not, including an Elven Vampire from Necros.

A theme throughout the story text for Vampires is the beastial hunger vs nobility and control. Definitely monstrous beat type vampires as well as fancy gothic nobility supported here. Mention too that not all Vampires are heartless, some still have compassion for the living.

I was so sure grave guard were getting axed after seeing the new armoured skellies. This is very good news for skelly fans assuming it is reflective of the book! If grave guard are in, you have to imagine they are getting a new kit to bring them up to new skelly standards.

Now I just need black knights confirmed...

[pixieproxy]

So in today's Crimson Court preview we have this:

"The Crimson Court embodies the contradictory aspects of the Soulblight vampires – they are superhuman, highly skilled, refined, and after their own way.* However, they are also bloodthirsty and driven by their hunger to feast on the living. Each of the vampires could succumb to this bloodlust at any time, erupting in an excess of violence that would make a Blood Warrior wince."

Relevant text in bold, it's capitalized in the article and everything, hopefully the name of vamp foot troops? Am I reading too much into it?

[idn0971]

1 minute ago, pixieproxy said:

So in today's Crimson Court preview we have this:

"The Crimson Court embodies the contradictory aspects of the Soulblight vampires – they are superhuman, highly skilled, refined, and after their own way.* However, they are also bloodthirsty and driven by their hunger to feast on the living. Each of the vampires could succumb to this bloodlust at any time, erupting in an excess of violence that would make a Blood Warrior wince."

Relevant text in bold, it's capitalized in the article and everything, hopefully the name of vamp foot troops? Am I reading too much into it?

Blood warriors are from khorne

 

[pixieproxy]

1 minute ago, idn0971 said:

Blood warriors are from khorne

 

Oh boo

[Btimmy]

55 minutes ago, Verminlord said:

I was so sure grave guard were getting axed after seeing the new armoured skellies. This is very good news for skelly fans assuming it is reflective of the book! If grave guard are in, you have to imagine they are getting a new kit to bring them up to new skelly standards.

Now I just need black knights confirmed...

They have been confirmed for awhile. The community post that references the new wight king on steed talks about him leading black knights. 

[Gothmaug]

2 hours ago, lare2 said:

They are in 10s in Cursed City... if that means anything. 

I've been kinda thinking along the same lines as well. Zombies as battleline and skeletons as something else... perhaps more elite battleline or perhaps elite. Starved for further info. Hoping the warscroll cards for Cursed City will give us a bigger clue as to how SBG will look. 

EDIT: image added.

looking at the Cursed City skellies and the soulblight skellies side by side, I believe they are the same kit. One using the spears, the other using the swords. Heads are swapped between different bodies, but poses and shield design are the same. 

 

Haven't checked the zombies, but probably the same thing. 

[Vasshpit]

@Gothmaug I dont believe they are. The CC ones are easy to build.

They other have more options, a little less flowing robe, and what looks like a different champion. 

This Is my guess on the new skellies

• Box of 10-20. Hoping 20

• spear or sword option

•2 champion weapon options. One appears to be a mace and the other a halberd. 

•banner carrier bits

•probably enough heads for full armored or just skull. 

That's my guess. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Vasshpit

[Urauloth]

1 hour ago, Gothmaug said:

looking at the Cursed City skellies and the soulblight skellies side by side, I believe they are the same kit. One using the spears, the other using the swords. Heads are swapped between different bodies, but poses and shield design are the same. 

I can't agree. If you look at the Ulfenwatch skeletons, all their details are aligned along the same plane - there's a flatness to their design that's typical of miniatures that share a sprue with many others. Their cloth, weapons and shields all "line up".  They're probably one or two piece models. There's nothing wrong with this, of course. The Soulblight skeletons, on the other hand, have details which go in a lot more directions. They're more three dimensional, which is almost certainly a result of being made of more components  arranged differently on the sprues. It looks like the difference between an ETB set and a full multipart kit, to me - a little bit like the Acolytes from the Silver Tower box vs the ones in the AoS kit.

Both kinds of skeleton sharing the same wargear design is an excellent decision though.

[pixieproxy]

52 minutes ago, Vasshpit said:

@Gothmaug I dont believe they are. The CC ones are easy to build.

They other have more options, a little less flowing robe, and what looks like a different champion. 

This Is my guess on the new skellies

• Box of 10-20. Hoping 20

• spear or sword option

•2 champion weapon options. One appears to be a mace and the other a halberd. 

•banner carrier bits

•probably enough heads for full armored or just skull. 

That's my guess. 

I really really hope you're right on the 20 models. The last unit we saw at 20 was the mortek guard? If neither Skeletons or Zombies are at 20 this might be a real expensive battleline/army

[Harpo2]

The new deathrattle skeltons have the options to use bows in the Soulbound Beastiary.

 

[warhammernerd]

5 minutes ago, Harpo2 said:

The new deathrattle skeltons have the options to use bows in the Soulbound Beastiary.

 

Would be very surprised if they had bows in AoS.

[BaylorCorvette]

19 minutes ago, warhammernerd said:

Would be very surprised if they had bows in AoS.

Same. BUT I am hopeful that we get Skeleton archers or maybe some other range choice, an elite Vampire archer unit? Although that seems even more unlikely. Would be nice to have some range options thrown in. Not looking to have something crazy powerful like doing mortal wounds on 6s to hit, or 5s & 6s and no Line of Sight needed like one army 🙄but having a unit that could sit somewhere and plink a few shots would be nice. Death is known to have no real range options with a few MINOR exceptions. Obviously OBR have the crawlers but they cost a lot and are super swingy. I think you can still keep the identiy of Death as a whole of not being a ranged attack faction but still have something minor. Heck, skeleton archers that are 1 attack, 4/4/-/1 and maybe some special warscroll ability where they re-roll 1s to hit or 1s to wound based on unit size would be sufficient. Although, I woundn't say no to elite Vampire scouts with deepstrike abilities that have bows that do mortals on 6s lol.

[Verminlord]

The real tragedy is the loss of our skeleton musician/dooter

[warhammernerd]

12 hours ago, BaylorCorvette said:

Same. BUT I am hopeful that we get Skeleton archers or maybe some other range choice, an elite Vampire archer unit? Although that seems even more unlikely. Would be nice to have some range options thrown in. Not looking to have something crazy powerful like doing mortal wounds on 6s to hit, or 5s & 6s and no Line of Sight needed like one army 🙄but having a unit that could sit somewhere and plink a few shots would be nice. Death is known to have no real range options with a few MINOR exceptions. Obviously OBR have the crawlers but they cost a lot and are super swingy. I think you can still keep the identiy of Death as a whole of not being a ranged attack faction but still have something minor. Heck, skeleton archers that are 1 attack, 4/4/-/1 and maybe some special warscroll ability where they re-roll 1s to hit or 1s to wound based on unit size would be sufficient. Although, I woundn't say no to elite Vampire scouts with deepstrike abilities that have bows that do mortals on 6s lol.

Why would vampires ever be armed with bows?!

Edited March 31, 2021 by warhammernerd

[Clan's Cynic]

Expanding on the Soulbound Beastiary references, it definitely makes it sound like they'll be a horde army. That's probably not much of a surprise to many people, but the eliteness (that's a word now) is being firmy left to the Ossiarchs it seems.

Gravelords command legions of the dead. They arrive in massive groups and their numbers continue to swell. Their level of organisation is varied based on who they have leading the charge, but they will always look to increase in number. They may do this by converting fallen foes into fellow undead warriors, or Chosen undead may summon or raise additional undead to clutter the Zone.

Deadwalker  Zombies  and  Skeleton  Warriors  are  almost  always  seen  in  swarms,  typically  led  by  a  more  powerful  undead. Dire Wolves are favoured pets of Vampire Lords, and  thus  are  used  to  scout  ahead  in  battle,  rending  foes  asunder, or dragging back particularly interesting ones for their Vampire to feed upon. Dire Wolves are pack hunters and often run in groups of at least three.

Necromancers stay as far from melee combat as possible, using  their  minions  as  shields.  They  are  physically  weak,  and  refuse  the  possibility  of  meeting  a  foe  without  their  summoned   army.   Wight   Kings   behave   in   the   exact   opposite fashion, often marching at the vanguard of their massive armies to better issue commands. Vampire Lords are  versatile  combatants,  getting  in  close  to  attack  and  heal, then darting  away to let their undead minions do all the hard work.

___________________

The   only   voice   many   of   the   more   powerful   undead   respect  is  Nagash.  This  leads  to  occasional  infighting,  with  Necromancers,  Vampire  Lords,  and  Wight  Kings  attempting   to   conquer   one   another’s   territory.   The   mortals unlucky enough to be caught in their battles serve as  resources,  whether  they  are  devoured,  experimented  upon, or unceremoniously ‘drafted’ into an undead army.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[warhammernerd]

1 hour ago, BaylorCorvette said:

Same. BUT I am hopeful that we get Skeleton archers or maybe some other range choice, an elite Vampire archer unit? Although that seems even more unlikely. Would be nice to have some range options thrown in. Not looking to have something crazy powerful like doing mortal wounds on 6s to hit, or 5s & 6s and no Line of Sight needed like one army 🙄but having a unit that could sit somewhere and plink a few shots would be nice. Death is known to have no real range options with a few MINOR exceptions. Obviously OBR have the crawlers but they cost a lot and are super swingy. I think you can still keep the identiy of Death as a whole of not being a ranged attack faction but still have something minor. Heck, skeleton archers that are 1 attack, 4/4/-/1 and maybe some special warscroll ability where they re-roll 1s to hit or 1s to wound based on unit size would be sufficient. Although, I woundn't say no to elite Vampire scouts with deepstrike abilities that have bows that do mortals on 6s lol.

We don’t need shooting cos we have rapid fast heroes to deliver power where and when needed, gravesites to summon units, and the ability to bring units back from the dead. I actually am really fine without shooting. OBR, yes, they should. But Soulblight, Vampire Counts have ever had any shooting. Unless you count skeleton archers or Skull Catapults in Tomb Kings, or even further back skeleton crossbow men in god knows what edition of fantasy. Personally, I’m all about the shambling relentless brain dead corpses backed up by superhuman vamps.

[Honk]

2 hours ago, BaylorCorvette said:

Heck, skeleton archers that are 1 attack, 4/4/-/1

But who’s gonna buy? 10 archers get 2.5 wounds, so -1hp on a 4+ 🤔 rather have 5 puppies frolicking around or throw a bolt... but you do you

If we’re talking X-Mas again... bats as 24“ bound endless summoning spells 😱 with „objective secure“ 

[BaylorCorvette]

17 minutes ago, warhammernerd said:

Why would vampires come ever be armed with bows?!

 What I would envision would be something like the armored foot vampires from Underworlds Rise of the Lycans.