Soulblight Gravelords News, Rumours and Speculation

[Gotz]

Graveguard are on Soulbound bestiary, but also skeleton archers... so I'm betting for new graveguard models.

btw full list on the bestiary is:  necromancer, deadwalker zombie, dire wolfs, fell bats, grave guard, deathrattle skeleton, wight king, vampire lord

[Raptor_Jesues]

10 minutes ago, Gotz said:

Graveguard are on Soulbound bestiary, but also skeleton archers... so I'm betting for new graveguard models.

btw full list on the bestiary is:  necromancer, deadwalker zombie, dire wolfs, fell bats, grave guard, deathrattle skeleton, wight king, vampire lord

how about
DUAL KIT GRAVE GUARDS/GRAVE ARCHERS
how crazy would that be?

[ShyishBarry]

Rise from your grave, TGA! Anyway, if they do keep Grave Guard I really hope they give them new models, since it would break my heart to have the chaff skeleton warriors with the fancy new sculpts, and the elite Grave Guard with the... honestly not even bad, but just very dated sculpts. Kinda like what's going on with the Start Collecting Chaos Warriors vs. Chosen.

Edited April 17, 2021 by ShyishBarry

[Joseph Mackay]

In my opinion, anything that is a dual kit isn’t going away
-Zombie Dragon/Terrorghiest shared by Flesh-Eaters and Legions Of Nagash
-Black Knights/Hexwraiths shared by Nighthaunt and Legions Of Nagash
-Crypt Horrors/Crypt Flayers/Vargheists shared by Flesh-Eaters and Legions Of Nagash
-Arkhan/Mannfred/Nefarata shared by Bonereapers and Legions Of Nagash
-Coven Throne/Bloodseeker Plaquin/Mortis Engine shared by Legions Of Nagash and Nighthaunt*

*it’s not a Nighthaunt unit but it should be 

[Sception]

Don't know why the mortis engine should be nighthaunt.  It's not ethereal, it's not a ghost, it doesn't fit the aesthetic look of the current nighthaunt range.  It's got some banshees stuck to it, sure, but I just don't see it.  Might as well say Mannfred should be in the nighthaunt book cus he's got some ghosties on his base.

Still though, I agree that the dual kits probably aren't going anywhere.  I also expect the corpse cart to stay as is.  We also might see the wight king on foot and necromancer stay, or maybe only change in so far as to re-cut their sprue with a molded round base, instead of a molded square base with a plain round base randomly thrown in.

[Gotz]

12 hours ago, Raptor_Jesues said:

how about
DUAL KIT GRAVE GUARDS/GRAVE ARCHERS
how crazy would that be?

that would be really cool!

7 hours ago, Sception said:

Don't know why the mortis engine should be nighthaunt.  It's not ethereal, it's not a ghost, it doesn't fit the aesthetic look of the current nighthaunt range.  It's got some banshees stuck to it, sure, but I just don't see it.  Might as well say Mannfred should be in the nighthaunt book cus he's got some ghosties on his base.

Still though, I agree that the dual kits probably aren't going anywhere.  I also expect the corpse cart to stay as is.  We also might see the wight king on foot and necromancer stay, or maybe only change in so far as to re-cut their sprue with a molded round base, instead of a molded square base with a plain round base randomly thrown in.

they made up the Blood Palanquin for LoN battletome, so I wouldn't discard a renamig of the posible configurations of the kit (originally was a double kit, not triple).

[Honk]

Welcome back suckers... 🍷🧛🏻‍♂️
 

just reread the Cruciator rules from the latest book... the underworlds „empower“ mechanics seems to be seeping into AoS

interesting, but not sure if I like that rule for my precious and brittle lord on foot 🤔 but the possibilities are tempting 

[Twisted Firaun]

On 4/17/2021 at 4:52 AM, Gotz said:

Graveguard are on Soulbound bestiary, but also skeleton archers... so I'm betting for new graveguard models.

btw full list on the bestiary is:  necromancer, deadwalker zombie, dire wolfs, fell bats, grave guard, deathrattle skeleton, wight king, vampire lord

Hold up, skeleton archers? *Happy Tomb Kings noises*

[BaylorCorvette]

Weeeeeell this is disappointing news but understandable given the complications of constantly rolling out new products in the world right now. Hopefully we will have our Gravelords in May!

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/04/18/our-pre-order-schedules-changing-a-bit-heres-how/

[JackStreicher]

I wished someone would spill some insider info about if and what we can expect for SBL

[El Syf]

Yeah the waiting is almost too much, although crimson court turned up yesterday so at least I’ve got something to be getting on with. Really intrigued where we as a grand alliance go from here; Broken Realms Teclis basically took a dump on us. Manfred was the only one who came out of it looking somewhat good and that involved him cutting his losses and then doing classic Manfred type stuff.

[JackStreicher]

2 hours ago, Loyal Son of Khemri said:

Hold up, skeleton archers? *Happy Tomb Kings noises*

Don‘t tease me

imagine the new Skeletons, but with bows 😍

[Scythian]

GW is shutting down for two weeks because once May begins, it’s a whirlwind of releases until the end of summer. With vampires, AoS 3.0, and 40k releases, the next three months are going to be GW in “all hands on deck” mode. Look for vampire preorder in 2 weeks. Then it all begins.

[Raptor_Jesues]

I am not mad. Just extremely pissed off and very disappointed. I am also very damn mad.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Raptor_Jesues

[Fellman]

Spoiler





Sound like one of the fearla vampires from cursed city but working for neferat

Broken Realms Fiction – Marked for Death - Warhammer Community (warhammer-community.com)

[Causalis]

1 hour ago, Fellman said:

Sound like one of the fearla vampires from cursed city but working for neferat

Oh, what's this, yet another plan of Neferata that fails? If the lore we have read so far is anything to go by then the Lumineth will now find that ritual-site and foil Neferata's plans because the Queen of Intrigues and schemes is so far extremely incompetent in the AoS fluff...

Hopefully I'm wrong and the Lumineth finding out about this is "just as planned" and Nef kicks their haughty butts.

[Ahlambra]

32 minutes ago, Causalis said:

Oh, what's this, yet another plan of Neferata that fails? If the lore we have read so far is anything to go by then the Lumineth will now find that ritual-site and foil Neferata's plans because the Queen of Intrigues and schemes is so far extremely incompetent in the AoS fluff...

Hopefully I'm wrong and the Lumineth finding out about this is "just as planned" and Nef kicks their haughty butts.

It's all part of the long con. Fail so many times people think you're a joke, then BAM!

[HanShot First]

On 4/17/2021 at 4:52 AM, Gotz said:

Graveguard are on Soulbound bestiary, but also skeleton archers... so I'm betting for new graveguard models.

btw full list on the bestiary is:  necromancer, deadwalker zombie, dire wolfs, fell bats, grave guard, deathrattle skeleton, wight king, vampire lord

Skeleton archers would make sense, SBGL don’t have any ranged options and even if it’s crappy shooting it’s still some shooting.

[Lich King]

Would skeleton archers be battle line perhaps? I sure hope so - Soulblight needs an actual Shooting phase apart from one dragon breath or Mortis engine attack.

As for the release delay - we just had a huge amount for Sigmar this month so I’m not worried. Soulblight is right around the corner according to the latest Warhammer Community article on Wight Kings. That means almost 99% May ( if all goes accordingly). 

[Ahlambra]

3 hours ago, HanShot First said:

Skeleton archers would make sense, SBGL don’t have any ranged options and even if it’s crappy shooting it’s still some shooting.

I have no clue what it would do from a balance perspective, but as a new player trying to decide on an army, I'd love for them to have a bit of shooting. Even if it was bad, just having the option would be nice.

[Joseph Mackay]

On 4/18/2021 at 3:17 AM, Sception said:

Don't know why the mortis engine should be nighthaunt.  It's not ethereal, it's not a ghost, it doesn't fit the aesthetic look of the current nighthaunt range.  It's got some banshees stuck to it, sure, but I just don't see it.  Might as well say Mannfred should be in the nighthaunt book cus he's got some ghosties on his base.

Still though, I agree that the dual kits probably aren't going anywhere.  I also expect the corpse cart to stay as is.  We also might see the wight king on foot and necromancer stay, or maybe only change in so far as to re-cut their sprue with a molded round base, instead of a molded square base with a plain round base randomly thrown in.

Mostly because of the Start Collecting Malignants box. Would be perfect for Nighthaunt, if only the Mortis Engine had the Nighthaunt keyword..

Honestly that model looks like it belongs in the Nighthaunt faction, the whole thing is made up of ghostly looking things except for the Necromancer on top 

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

7 hours ago, Lich King said:

Would skeleton archers be battle line perhaps? I sure hope so - Soulblight needs an actual Shooting phase apart from one dragon breath or Mortis engine attack.

As for the release delay - we just had a huge amount for Sigmar this month so I’m not worried. Soulblight is right around the corner according to the latest Warhammer Community article on Wight Kings. That means almost 99% May ( if all goes accordingly). 

I personally think being weak at range is a fair weakness for Gravelords/Legions to have. I kind of feel that should be the path to victory against the faction, trying to remove important heroes before they swamp you in melee with their regenerating chaff units.

But I would not say no to skeleton archers, in any case. If only because it means that Tomb Kings counts-as armies will be more easily playable. Maybe give those archers the old Arrows of Asaph rule where they get to ignore to-hit penalities if they are in Neferata's subfaction or something.

[ShyishBarry]

I'm also inclined towards Soulblight not getting much shooting; that part of the vampire mechanical identity goes as far back as Fantasy, and I think it's an interesting one.

Having skeleton archers but not as battleline could be a good compromise, giving them some shooting but keeping it limited.

[warhammernerd]

Can’t see it happening, and tbh, I’m not into Soulblight getting archers. It’s not really incumbent with their lore IMO. It makes sense for OBR who are a well oiled, military war engine. But with SGL, it’s egotistical maniacal Vamps pushing forwards tides of worthless reanimated corpses. Bows and arrows doesn’t play into the armies attrition based strengths. Ranged combat would due to archers actual skill, be ****** poor at best. They are after all mindless automatons, whereas OBR troops are essentially individual sentient beings with more than a modicum of individual skill.
In terms of the armies need for ranged attacks in game to project power or take out small heroes, this is something we already excel at thanks to our lightning fast vamps, flying gribblies, summonable units and table edge ambushers. The way the army has always historically played, is bog down ****** with your tar pit units whilst the small hard hitting elite units overwhelm and pick off what’s left. Just sorta feel that archers, if we had them... would be ineffective and not in keeping theme or lore wise. Currently Gdub is trying to focus factions into playing in a particular manner in keeping with how it should feel. Don’t really see archers pushing that. Instead, they need to place more focus on the dead not dying and vamps being the card carrying mother truckers we all know them to be. 

[sandlemad]

I can see some justification for skeleton archers in that there appears to be more emphasis on Wight King as powerful intelligent players running their own significant Shyishian kingdoms and calcium-rich nations. In that regard they've picked up some of the broad background for WHFB Tomb Kings in addition to their own older WHFB background which was more about barrows, small areas of territory, and sleeping until roused.

On that basis rounding out the Deathrattle range to cover a fuller suite of troops - archers as well as spearmen and knights - could work. Ultimately the consciousness of individual skellies doesn't matter here, they could still be directed to volley fire by their more aware wight/vampire masters. Faint impressions are enough for spear drill, it doesn't stretch credulity to have the same with ranks of backfield skeleton archers darkening the sky.

That said I completely agree that lack of range was a touchstone of old VC armies' identity and playstyle. Seems like the kind of thing GW will probably want to stick with for SBGL.