Soulblight Gravelords News, Rumours and Speculation

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

59 minutes ago, dekay said:

There are also new vampires from Underworlds. Who knows, maybe it will be the Beastmen case and they'll be actually useful?

Thanks for the reminder! I'll add them to the list.

 

24 minutes ago, lare2 said:

We now know there'll be warscrolls for the Cursed City models so... welcome to our new vamp. 

I love the weirdo Vampires like her and Kritza. I'm glad we have the regular heavily armoured Lords too, but models like her are what I really want.

[KratosvonCarstein]

Damn all these vampires are amazing! This feels like Vampire Counts 2.0 which I love with some quirky twists (some real horror vibe). We are going to be spoilt for choice with our heroes. Maybe an elite allegiance (precious soulblight) could have the possibility to have more heroes in the list, so we can use all these goodies. Also I would love the ability to have some more customization for the vampires, something like vampiric powers in Vampire Counts in addition to the bloodlines. I want my blender Vampire lord back

I would also like a regular mounted vampire lord model in addition to a new big centrepiece. But everything now is just icing on this lovely cake honestly.

Edited March 22, 2021 by KratosvonCarstein

[Raptor_Jesues]

37 minutes ago, lare2 said:

We now know there'll be warscrolls for the Cursed City models so... welcome to our new vamp. 

i have mixed feelings about this one but is nice to have the choice.  Would probably swap the head with the coven throne mathriarch's one. Also she is the first Vrikos vampire to not be directly linked to some kind of animal wich makes me think that maybe they dont have this werewolf theme after all

Edited March 22, 2021 by Raptor_Jesues

[PiotrW]

I'm looking at how this range seems to develop and I have a question: could the vampires get some sort of vampiric infantry? From what I see so far, they might be getting a lot of heroes, one cavalry unit (Bloodknights), two "shambling slaves" infantry units (skeletons and zombies)... and that's basically it? Not as much variety as, say, the LRL...

Anyway, all these new models are pretty, although I can't help thinking: what's sup with vampires and crazy hairstyles?

BTW. I hope there will be at least one pretty vampire?

[Raptor_Jesues]

9 minutes ago, PiotrW said:

I'm looking at how this range seems to develop and I have a question: could the vampires get some sort of vampiric infantry? From what I see so far, they might be getting a lot of heroes, one cavalry unit (Bloodknights), two "shambling slaves" infantry units (skeletons and zombies)... and that's basically it? Not as much variety as, say, the LRL...

Anyway, all these new models are pretty, although I can't help thinking: what's sup with vampires and crazy hairstyles?

BTW. I hope there will be at least one pretty vampire?

i really hope so. It seems like we will get some kind of glaive infantry but it is unclear if they are grave guards or vampires

given the colour i would say grave guard

Edited March 22, 2021 by Raptor_Jesues

[sandlemad]

So that's three special characters for the Vyrgos (Vyrkos? Both have been used...) dynasty then: Annika, Kritza and Radukar, though I do wonder if Radukar and the other Cursed City stuff will actually get rules in the battletome itself.  2-3 special characters for one subfaction is a bit of a surprise, though I suppose that's what we have with e.g. the Ossiarch. Maybe it's not so lopsided if they do go ahead and make new Carstinian/Nulahmian/Blood Dragon-esque dynasties to go with Mannfred/Neferata/Vhordai, which seems like an easy win. That would still be 5-6 unique characters for a faction, which is somewhere around the top end of AoS forces.

There's the WHU Crimson Court as well, they look like they could be from various bloodlines or, in fairness, just showing the variation you can have within one dynasty. GW seems to like giving WHU units a single specific subfaction keyword where they can.

It'll be interesting to see if the Vyrkos Blood-Born get a bloodline-agnostic 'generic' version outside of Cursed City, or if the vampire infantry folks were hoping for materialise.

Incidentally with Annika we have slightly less of an obvious bestial association though as has been mentioned Kritza's trait is really quite specific to him and Radukar's wolfiness seems more symbolic.

Edited March 22, 2021 by sandlemad

[Twisted Firaun]

1 hour ago, lare2 said:

We now know there'll be warscrolls for the Cursed City models so... welcome to our new vamp. 

Honestly not my favorite of the new vamps, but I’m in a generally great mood cause it’s my birthday so I’ll focus on the positives(the mask and the funny name of her sword).

[Evil Bob]

3 hours ago, LordPrometheus said:

 I hope this gives Nagash, Neferata, and Mannfred some love. Nagash doesn't do much for OBR, and at this point he's just hideously overcosted. Neferata and Mannfred have been ignored for so long, most people forget they exist in AoS.

Considering the “affection” GW has shown towards Archeon, Lord Kroak , Teclis, Sigvald, etc, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual named Soulblight characters get some proper attention.

As for Nagash that’s a big question mark.  He didn’t get an overhaul with the OBR book.  More like a Barbie version to that sub faction.  Maybe that is going to be an ongoing theme for relevant books?

[Thamalys]

13 minutes ago, Loyal Son of Khemri said:

Honestly not my favorite of the new vamps

Nope... all is great - but the face. She looks like someone who has woken up in suburbian Prague after a crazy hen do she remembers nothing about. I mean, it's a new model, so I can't and won't complain. Maybe I'll put that mask on  

7 minutes ago, Evil Bob said:

As for Nagash that’s a big question mark.

I personally don't like the idea of the Gods joining the fray. Nagash, Teclis... it feels wrong. It should take much more than 2000 points of anything to bring down the blooming God of Death. Maybe it's just me - but I picture these guys sort of pulverising entire armies with a flick fo their wrist, not get bogged down by 20 marauders or something.

[Sception]

I'm not too concerned about Nagash either way.  Never felt he was an appropriate character for 2k point competitive games, so if he's relegated for a time to non-competitive narrative big games, I won't be complaining about it.  Likewise, while I'd like to see him maintained in gravelords  in some fashion (and added to nighthaunt for that matter), if he's relegated to OBR and GA:Death it won't bother me overmuch, particularly if GA:Death could be made into a more playable allegiance in its own right, maybe picking up some of the features from the Legions.

Mannfred & Neferata, though, really need some love.  Arkhan got some in OBR, (an extra cast, self healing, full lore access, nothing there to complain about), and I'd like to see similar kinds of improvements for Manny & Neferata, but what they most need and Arkhan still needs is to not be so dang fragile.  Bump them up to 14 wounds, give them a better ward save - especially now that they can't be layered, put a hardcap on the number of wounds they can take per round, give them a chance to revive themselves after the first time they're slain, I don't know.  Something.  Probably multiple somethings.  As is they're just way too fragile.  The same could be said for Olynder.  Of all the mortarchs, only Katakros avoids this problem, thanks to being part of a unit.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Sception

[Twisted Firaun]

4 minutes ago, Thamalys said:

23 minutes ago, Loyal Son of Khemri said:

 

Nope... all is great - but the face. She looks like someone who has woken up in suburbian Prague after a crazy hen do she remembers nothing about. I mean, it's a new model, so I can't and won't complain. Maybe I'll put that mask on  

I agree with your idea with the mask, cause I honestly don’t want Gothic Yzma looking at me.

[Sception]

1 hour ago, lare2 said:

We now know there'll be warscrolls for the Cursed City models so... welcome to our new vamp. 

I think she's fantastic, face & all.

With all the fantastic vampire lord models we've seen lately, I really hope the new battle tome manages to provide some effective mechanical reason to field more than one in an army.  The current vampire lord is a good hero, but not one you'd really feel any particular motivation to double or triple up on.  Maybe if they get bloodline power type abilities the way some factions have mount abilities an an extra upgrade apart from spells (which only go so far), command abilities (which only one model at most can have) and artefacts (which are strictly limited by access to affordable & effective battalions)?  It might also help if, in 3rd edition AoS, you could spend points to purchase additional magic items...

[Thamalys]

16 minutes ago, Sception said:

Mannfred & Neferata, though, really need some love

100% - they shouldn't die to a stiff breeze and they should get access to much more damage (Mannfred) and magic (Neff). I want Mannfred to be Vhordrai-like at a bare minimum, and I want Neff to be able to do very sneaky, potentially game-swinging things.

8 minutes ago, Sception said:

The current vampire lord is a good hero

He/She is - fast (flying horror / nightmare steed versions - of course), Deathly Invocation, not entirely useless in combat, excellent CA. I would probably make them a lil' more durable (with all the silly stuff flying around, 5-wound heroes are tough for Death players...) and, most importantly, give them a signature spell. Each one a different one. The rat king, the wolf person, this goth lady... they all look and feel very different, they deserve their own spell - and it better be a good one!

Oh, and: battalions. God yes. We desperately need ones, and we also need how allies to be readily available to join!

Edited March 22, 2021 by Thamalys

[warhammernerd]

Vampire lords should have at least 7 wounds, for a start. They are un-fluffing dead and supposedly weirded inhuman strength and  move eye watering speed. If they can turn into bats, wolves or rats and move double time that’d be sweet too. Currently they are slow, swingy and easy to take down with even the smallest amount of effort.

Edited March 22, 2021 by warhammernerd

[Clan's Cynic]

41 minutes ago, Evil Bob said:

As for Nagash that’s a big question mark.  He didn’t get an overhaul with the OBR book.  More like a Barbie version to that sub faction.  Maybe that is going to be an ongoing theme for relevant books?

I could maybe see Nagash getting another Warscroll with one of those Gotrek-esq "This character may be taken in any <Death> allegiance force and counts as part of that army" since they seem more fond of those kind of rules these days.

[Sception]

I don't think mannfred needs to be the killy specifically.  Remember, of the von carsteins he was always more of the scheming back line necromancer type himself.  Honestly, both Mannfred and Neferata should be be very similar in the broad strokes - both very physically powerful, but very magically powerful, and both tricks.  The difference should be in the details.

Spoiler

 

For instance, arcane wise they should both be double casters with strong signature spells.  Additionally, if we keep separate spell lores for necromancers and vampires, then give neferata full access to the vampire spell lore - making her the queen of blood magic - and maybe give mannfred access to a spell of his choice from each lore (making him the more versatile and unpredictable caster).  Both should also get some sort of casting/dispelling bonus abiliity.  Mannfred's current ability works well enough there (cast a spell for a melee buff, kill a model in melee for a casting/dispel buff), give neferata something else - maybe the ability to drain wounds from nearby models - friendly or enemy - to empower her spells, something akin to Reikenor's corpse candles? 

If Arkan sticks around as a playable choice in the book - either for gravelords or for a side 'legions' type allegiance - then he gets full access to the necromancer lore, while if Nagash sticks around he gets full access to both.

For combat make both mannfred and neferata - but neferata especially - deadlier and more durable.  For neferata, maybe give her fight first priority shenanigance?  Or maybe let just her - not her mount - fight at the start of the combat phase before enemy models, but then let her (and her mount) be activated again during normal combat resolution?  Honestly, there's any number of ways you could do it, but she's the queen of all vampires, she should be a threat to match, if anything a distinct tier above Mannfred in both threat and points cost.  Like, put manny in the 300ish range with Arkhan but neferata in the 500ish range with Katakros - with abilities to match.

In terms of tricksiness, Mannfred's current legion of the night outflanking business is good, incorporate that into his warscroll or his subfaction.  With neferata, she's got some decent utility abilities, but more ways to mess with the opponent to represent her spy network would be nice.  I particularly like the idea of forcing one or more enemy units into ongoing reserve at the start of the game as traitors and saboteurs delay their arrival

 

but that's just a bunch of arbitrary wish listing, however GW actually does it, the point is I want these heroes to be tough enough to reasonably field, and I personally want to see Neferata in particular on par with Katakros in points cost and overall game utility.

When it comes to a pure combat monster who goes light on the spellcasting, I think Vhordrai is a good choice there, and lore-wise I'd like to see him elevated to mortarch status as a ploy by nagash to keep the other two vampire mortarchs from getting out of hand (if any one starts gaining the upper hand, the other two will naturally ally against them to keep them in check).

Edited March 22, 2021 by Sception

[Knopers]

I really enjoy the aesthetics of the new vampires. I also still have hope for more infantry units, especially heavy armored blood dragon themed. IMO black knights and grave guards should be replaced as all minis produced before 2010 should do. Zombie dragon is still fresh (from 2014) as well as mortarchs. From the  point of view of new player, when you compare new wave of slaanesh army or lumineth you have a thoughts: "why should I buy older kits like this. They're ok, but still...something wrong with them and they don't suit to the rest of my new army." So the sales model will show what boxes will gone next. The same story will be with mortis engine: it certainly will be in new book, but it wouldn't be a such good and valuable option compared to new stuff.
I want to get me right- black knights are fine but their sculpt is not so encouraging.

From me, my wishlist is unchangeable (and imo possible):
- 5 man heavy vampire unit with claymores/halberds/2h maces - like WHU band, lumineth stoneguards, slaanesh knights
- skeleton/light vampire archers/trackers
- some kind of machine- maybe bolt thrower?
- RED DUKE on hell steed (that thing with wings from 6ed book)

Do you think that someone from GW read our posts to get an inspiration?

[Causalis]

16 minutes ago, Sception said:

but she's the queen of all vampires, she should be a threat to match, if anything a distinct tier above Mannfred in both threat and points cos

Is she still such a powerhouse in AoS fluff? In "Nagash: The Undying King" she struggled against a single Blightlord. I was actually a bit shocked how weak she was. Thought she should carve through Nurgle's followers like the wind of death but nope. So I think GW doesn't see her as a combat monster in any way. Sure she is still an Uber-Vampire with all that entails. But I think in GW's eyes Neferata is all about scheming, subterfuge etc. 

This is not to say that I wouldn't really like to see her become a blender! But I think Mannfred should be the one more geared towards combat and Neferata should be a support/combat hybrid with a strong CA and unique spell etc.

 

11 minutes ago, Knopers said:

slaanesh knights

Please, no. I don't want 140p "Elite" unit that literally has 2 attacks that deal 1 dmg. If GW makes elite Vampires, I want them to really hurt. 

[warhammernerd]

Can’t imagine they will make blood knights weaker than they currently are. I suspect they will be much the same, poss a bit improved with more varied buff support.

[Charleston]

22 minutes ago, warhammernerd said:

Can’t imagine they will make blood knights weaker than they currently are. I suspect they will be much the same, poss a bit improved with more varied buff support.

Currently Blood Knights are comparable with Chaos Knights. Having them perform worse would be quite unsatisfying

[Gothmaug]

She could be part of an expansion for Cursed City, same with the Rat king vampire. 
 

I love all the new vampire heroes, though we may find ourselves plagued by too many choices and not enough hero slots in our army list. . I assume Soulblight will play like nighthaunt where you use lots of small heroes as support, because between cursed city villain models,  the new soulblight vampire lords, and the old vamp lord models, were going to be spoiled for choices in what heroes to field🤔 which is a good thing! 

[Siphon]

1 hour ago, Sception said:

I think she's fantastic, face & all.

With all the fantastic vampire lord models we've seen lately, I really hope the new battle tome manages to provide some effective mechanical reason to field more than one in an army.  The current vampire lord is a good hero, but not one you'd really feel any particular motivation to double or triple up on.  Maybe if they get bloodline power type abilities the way some factions have mount abilities an an extra upgrade apart from spells (which only go so far), command abilities (which only one model at most can have) and artefacts (which are strictly limited by access to affordable & effective battalions)?  It might also help if, in 3rd edition AoS, you could spend points to purchase additional magic items...

My wishlist on Vampire Lords is that they will function similar to the Ravagers list in Slaves to Darkness.  
 

when you buy a Vampire lord you pick a dynasty for it.  Then every Vampire lord in your army (either as a sub faction itself or in spite of your chosen sub faction)  gets to pick a command trait from a list for the dynasty they chose.  The command traits will likely on the weaker side, except for one in each list that will be the overpowered definitive choice because that’s how G-dub rolls.  
 

Id like to see an overall allegiance special rule that Vampire lords do not count toward total hero choice (meaning you can select as many Vampire lords as you want) and that when you add them to you list, you can choose to have any number of Vampire lords form into Coven units.  The coven units are selected before the game begins during list building and then function exactly as units during the game, maybe being immune to battle shock.  Each individual model in the coven unit can still be selected to be assigned artifacts or be chosen as general.

 

this would allow you to have the units of vampires everyone wants or still have solitary vamp lords.  

 

I don’t expect them to get that much of a stat buff and run maybe 150-175 points a model.  
 

 

for the rest of the book, I expect all OBR and Nighthaunt units to be dropped.  Nagash gone, Arkham gone, Etc.   Maybe, maybe the Banshee stays.  I’d really like the Black coach to stay because the model is boss and has a vampire in the coffin,  but we will see.

[Thamalys]

1 hour ago, Causalis said:

Is she still such a powerhouse in AoS fluff?

The thing with Nef is that she always comes out on top even when it looks like everything's going down the drain for her... granted, it's quite hard to reflect the spying/manipulating/lying attitude on the tabletop, but magic and command abilities can massively help. Not that its ever going to happen, but I'd love her to be a 5-wound model that re-appears at the other end of the table when she dies, with 7 wounds and a new profile, or some crazy mechanics like that that would do justice to the fact that no one, absolutely no one can outsmart her.

Another low-hanging fruit would be to modify her current command ability (which would be admittedly phenomenal if we had ways to stack CPs) in such a way to either stop enemies where they are for a whole battle-round turn (mesmerising, she is!) or even to convince them to betray and join the vampire ranks (because she is the sassiest lady of them all). 

Turning opponents into vampire has to come back, come on... it's too fluffy not to have it and we used to have it before, so my hopes in that regard are, if not high, at least decent.

[Causalis]

5 minutes ago, Thamalys said:

The thing with Nef is that she always comes out on top even when it looks like everything's going down the drain for her

Yes, but not in a "I smash your face in" kinda way. Which is what I meant with that. Her prowess comes from her plans and outsmarting her opponent, not by beating him to a pulp in hand-to-hand combat. 

You're right about the problem of reflecting this on the tabletop. Another problem here is theme: Arkhan is the "Mortarch of Magic". But Mannfred is also supposed to be the Vampire that's well versed in magic. But he is also supposed to be scheming and cunning, like Nef. But that leads to some weird mishmash. Would be better to have it clear-cut: Arkhan for magic, Neferata for cunning, Mannfred for melee. Obviously Manni and Nef should both be lvl 2 casters. But Nef should lean more towards support and (de)buffs. Beguiling the enemy, confusing their plans, infusing our Vampires with bloodmagic etc. 

On the topic of whishlisting:

I would fancy a new Corspe Cart. The current one is ok, but just think about how sweet a new one could look! 

With the new Skeletons being all armoured we also lack the visual distinction between the current Grave Guard and the new Skeleton Warriors. Thus I think the Grave Guard will either get squated (pls no!) or we get a new sculpt for them. Lorewise they are fallen heroes and warriors of great martial prowess, all burried in their splendid armour and resurrected to defend the castles and barrows. So if their job is to be the elite guard of important places I would like for them to look more beefy. Give them big armour like Chaos Warriors and put 'em on 32mm bases and give them 2 wounds. Shift them from a blender unit - yes people, the current iteration of Grave Guard can decimate foes! I took third place with my LoN in the GTC Warmup and people were really surprised by how strong GG can be - to an anvil. We currently really lack any durable unit! The only one is Spirit Hosts and those will likely be Nighthaunt-exclusive with the new book. 

Speaking of changes to armour: For crying out loud, please GW, change the stupid Graveshields rule! Almost every unit that gets released these days has rend -1 or better on their weapons, making our shields useless. Hell, they could even scrap the rule entirely and lower the points a bit. It's just sad seeing my Black Knights going from their potential 4+ to a 6+ save when they fave rend -1...

Buffs to the Coven Throne - specifically the Vampire Queen on top. She hits like a wet noodle. And a rework of the Bloodseeker Palanquin! It could become a buff unit that (quite literally) juices up Soulblight units within X". 

I also hope that each of the new Vampires (Rat guy and horn-hair lady) are simply the named character choice of their bloodline and not just random unique leaders without ties to anything. 

[Evil Bob]

1 hour ago, Siphon said:

My wishlist on Vampire Lords is that they will function similar to the Ravagers list in Slaves to Darkness.  

snip

for the rest of the book, I expect all OBR and Nighthaunt units to be dropped.  Nagash gone, Arkham gone, Etc.   Maybe, maybe the Banshee stays.  I’d really like the Black coach to stay because the model is boss and has a vampire in the coffin,  but we will see.

The irony here is the most likely unit removed (all the way to Legends) is the LoN Black Coach.  It is truly odd the marketing department didn’t push the Nighthaunt BC as a replacement on release.

I wouldn’t be surprised if all the ghostly units from previous Vampire Counts WFB armies made it back.  Thinning a book looks bad, not adding new units makes a flimsy book look worse.  Every other book has only grown.  Although my bet on potentially removed units would be the Soul Wars bedsheets.  Which would be sad because those Chainwrasps are money, never saw it coming how cross-army useful those little buggers would become.