Soulblight Gravelords News, Rumours and Speculation

[pixieproxy]

Following from the rumour thread discussion, @Il Maestro looked at the Azyr app, which has a Soulblight section now,  and the other section for units had both bat swarms and vargheists. I looked into it myself and in the battleline we have Vargheists and Blood knights! The coven throne, palanquin and both vamp mortarchs were in the leader section as well. 

Possible confirmations? Or just GW's left tech hand not knowing what the right rules hand is doing?

[Koradrel of Chrace]

@El Syf He definitely survives, but there's a small little caption that he sacrificed his steed to Alarielle's Spear.

[pixieproxy]

Would also like to add that if vargheists and blood knights are both battleline, we could run a really neat elite force that way.

[Il Maestro]

To echo what I said in another thread, here are some warscrolls for the new units in the Soulblight roster...

 

Can’t help but feel that it’s part of an automated update when Cursed City was released, and the omission of other units from the box might hint at either different names (so the automatic update didn’t trigger) or maybe different models in general?

 

Speculate! ☺️

[idn0971]

These are the warscrolls that came in cursed city they have been on the gw website for a few weeks now

 

[Akylas]

9 hours ago, idn0971 said:

I really want blood knights to be super elite and actually good. Make them 300 points and worth it, give them big damage, 3+ save, and a better aftersave because they are vampires and should be super tough to kill. I don't want them to be reserrectuable just super tough to kill in the first place and hit like a truck when they attack. There is not very many good super elite calvary in the game and I want blood knights to break that trend.

I agree. I'd rather see vampire units be strong but rare, especially martial ones like blood knights.

2 hours ago, Koradrel of Chrace said:

So this is a bit of a sidetrack from the new Blood Knights.  I just finished reading BR: Teclis last night, and an interesting detail stuck out to me.  While I realize that all things come back with necromancy, they go out of their way with each of the Mortarchs to point out that their mounts are destroyed.  Is this a potential harbinger of new Mortarch models?

That's a good point. I wouldn't have expected new mortarch models as they aren't very old, but it's an interesting detail to have their mounts destroyed kripke for replacing). New Neferata and Manfred with the Soulblight time and Arkan with a Bonereapers one layer, maybe?

[Il Maestro]

30 minutes ago, idn0971 said:

These are the warscrolls that came in cursed city they have been on the gw website for a few weeks now

 

It was more to highlight that there are a specific subsection that are included in Soublight Gravelords, and those that are not. Interestingly, the skeleton warriors and zombies are not part of Gravelords - does that mean that there will be no skeletons or zombies? Unlikely. Which begs the question, why not include these new models and (potential placeholder) warscrolls?

 

It makes me think that if there is an automated algorithm that shows/updates new warscrolls in Azyr as they are officially released to the public, whatever is planned for zombies/skeletons is not related to their Cursed City counterparts. Does that mean new models?

 

Also begs the question about the Crimson Court - are they not included yet because they don't have any official warscroll release so far? I imagine so. Just talking out loud 😃

[idn0971]

26 minutes ago, Il Maestro said:

It was more to highlight that there are a specific subsection that are included in Soublight Gravelords, and those that are not. Interestingly, the skeleton warriors and zombies are not part of Gravelords - does that mean that there will be no skeletons or zombies? Unlikely. Which begs the question, why not include these new models and (potential placeholder) warscrolls?

 

It makes me think that if there is an automated algorithm that shows/updates new warscrolls in Azyr as they are officially released to the public, whatever is planned for zombies/skeletons is not related to their Cursed City counterparts. Does that mean new models?

 

Also begs the question about the Crimson Court - are they not included yet because they don't have any official warscroll release so far? I imagine so. Just talking out loud 😃

They aren't actually in soulblight gravelords though on the app and they also don't have the keyword. Soulblight gravelord will be a keyword and none of them have it.

[Il Maestro]

2 hours ago, idn0971 said:

They aren't actually in soulblight gravelords though on the app and they also don't have the keyword. Soulblight gravelord will be a keyword and none of them have it.

That’s my point - unless one expects that skeletons and zombies will not be a part of the upcoming book (which I think is highly unlikely), then there must be something different waiting to be released. It could be new models, or just some reboxing of those ones.

 

I just find it interesting that another bunch of models in that same box are included in SBG, which makes me think it’s less likely that it’s just a reboxing issue that leads to the skeletons and zombies not having the keyword initially.

 

In fact, my guess is that there will be new warscrolls for other units that are in Cursed City so that they fit into Soulblight Gravelords, whereas those already tagged with the keyword are deemed a good fit for AoS directly.
 

Does that make more sense with what I mean? =D

Edited April 21, 2021 by Il Maestro

[Ghoooouls]

8 hours ago, pixieproxy said:

Following from the rumour thread discussion, @Il Maestro looked at the Azyr app, which has a Soulblight section now,  and the other section for units had both bat swarms and vargheists. I looked into it myself and in the battleline we have Vargheists and Blood knights! The coven throne, palanquin and both vamp mortarchs were in the leader section as well. 

Possible confirmations? Or just GW's left tech hand not knowing what the right rules hand is doing?

That's just soulblight as it's always been.

Edit: didn't realise you meant in the army builder bit, thought you just meant when searching for warscrolls... but current soulblight have blood knights and vargheists as battle line, the two mortarchs, vampire lords etc. Etc. Anything with the keyword *soulblight*.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Ghoooouls

[KratosvonCarstein]

3 hours ago, Il Maestro said:

That’s my point - unless one expects that skeletons and zombies will not be a part of the upcoming book (which I think is highly unlikely), then there must be something different waiting to be released. It could be new models, or just some reboxing of those ones.

 

I just find it interesting that another bunch of models in that same box are included in SBG, which makes me think it’s less likely that it’s just a reboxing issue that leads to the skeletons and zombies not having the keyword initially.

 

In fact, my guess is that there will be new warscrolls for other units that are in Cursed City so that they fit into Soulblight Gravelords, whereas those already tagged with the keyword are deemed a good fit for AoS directly.
 

Does that make more sense with what I mean? =D

They have already confirmed new skeletons and zombies for the new book though, so they are probably just holding off those new warscrolls until the book drops.
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/03/20/warhammer-preview-online-faith-damnation/

I hope they also release the cursed city models seperately so you can take individual models and place in your army instead of a giant blob of all of them for 680 points.
 

[Liquidsteel]

10 hours ago, pixieproxy said:

Following from the rumour thread discussion, @Il Maestro looked at the Azyr app, which has a Soulblight section now,  and the other section for units had both bat swarms and vargheists. I looked into it myself and in the battleline we have Vargheists and Blood knights! The coven throne, palanquin and both vamp mortarchs were in the leader section as well. 

Possible confirmations? Or just GW's left tech hand not knowing what the right rules hand is doing?

I believe they were always Battleline for the Soulblight allegiance, so nothing has changed?

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

4 hours ago, Il Maestro said:

That’s my point - unless one expects that skeletons and zombies will not be a part of the upcoming book (which I think is highly unlikely), then there must be something different waiting to be released. It could be new models, or just some reboxing of those ones.

 

I just find it interesting that another bunch of models in that same box are included in SBG, which makes me think it’s less likely that it’s just a reboxing issue that leads to the skeletons and zombies not having the keyword initially.

 

In fact, my guess is that there will be new warscrolls for other units that are in Cursed City so that they fit into Soulblight Gravelords, whereas those already tagged with the keyword are deemed a good fit for AoS directly.
 

Does that make more sense with what I mean? =D

 

It's interesting. Hard to make out the pattern as for what is included or excluded on Azyr. Not everything from Cursed City is in, and not everything with the SOULBLIGHT keyword is in, either. Everything from Cursed City with the SOULBLIGHT keyword is there, though. What is more puzzling is the inclusion of just some units not from Cursed City, but with the Soulblight keyword, such as Blood Knights.

Interstingly, if you filter units by allegiance on Azyr and select Soulblight, you get all the Death heroes from Cursed City, the Vargskyr, Nightguard and Bloodborn, even though most of those heroes do not have the SOULBLIGHT keyword. Plus, you do not get the established LoN units with the SOULBLIGHT keyword like the vampire heroes and Blood Knights.

Personally, I'd be hesitant to infer anything from this, other than that all the units that are in the Soulblight Gravelords allegiance on Azyr are probably in the book. Radukar makes sense as a stand-alone release, as well. He is on his own sprue after all.

I would not conclude that the warscrolls we are seeing are final, though. And the selection is obviously not complete, since we know the Deathrattle units and zombies are part of Gravelords.

EDIT: It seems the Gravelords allegiance on Azyr contains all non-hero SOULBLIGHT units and all SOULBLIGHT units from Cursed City.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Neil Arthur Hotep

[Honk]

1 hour ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

would not conclude that the warscrolls we are seeing are final, though. And the selection is obviously not complete, since we know the Deathrattle units and zombies are part of Gravelords.

My tea leaves tell me it‘s the nurgle hiccup ...

cursed city was probably due last year or so, so they get the old rules for their Warscrolls (mentioned here somewhere) and the implementation into the apps leads to friction loss and artifacts 😅

 

I‘m still hoping for cool rules, the inspired/empowered mechanic for the new nighthaunt hero has me hoping and musing. Carsteins could get empowered after using a command ability, bossy b!tch35 🙊, necrach after magic, Dragons after a successful charge...

and the teclis spanking and overall mortarch disarray leaves space for Abhorash and another centerpiece 🤔

after seeing the sigvald custom vampire 😍🧛🏻‍♂️😍 I want a blender on foot 

and I want some coven, katakros style

[JackStreicher]

I just hope the Warscrolls won‘t be blant Stats-Carriers (quite an issue of the current Slaanesh imo). I‘d prefer toned down LRL Warscrolls for our blood addicts. (Meaning: flaverfoul, useful rules that don’t break 3 core rules at once xD)

[Raptor_Jesues]

52 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

I just hope the Warscrolls won‘t be blant Stats-Carriers (quite an issue of the current Slaanesh imo). I‘d prefer toned down LRL Warscrolls for our blood addicts. (Meaning: flaverfoul, useful rules that don’t break 3 core rules at once xD)

agreed, those are my hopes as well mostly, although i wish for bloodknights to have a beefy statline because raw power is nice

[Sception]

I, again, wouldn't advise getting any hopes up for significant warscroll changes.  While there are of course noticeable exceptions, in general GW tends to prefer a 'copy & paste' approach, adjusting only points values.  Several of our units remain largely unchanged all the way back to the compendium days.  Warscroll changes are a bit more common lately, but even then changes are often underwhelming.  Eg: look at the new warscroll for Dreadscythe Harridans.  Barely different at all, and burdened with a points increase that makes them worse now than they were before.

This isn't to say meaningful warscroll changes for existing units won't or can't happen, just that they can't be counted on, and speculation on significant changes or specific buffs is setting yourself up for disappointment.

All that said, I wouldn't put any stock what-so-ever in the half baked cursed city warscrolls, or the app for that matter.  It's highly doubtful that the people that update the app have any access at all to rules in development.  The circle of trust seems very small for in-development rules these days.  We'd see earlier and more detailed leaks otherwise.

[BaylorCorvette]

13 hours ago, Akylas said:

I agree. I'd rather see vampire units be strong but rare, especially martial ones like blood knights.

That's a good point. I wouldn't have expected new mortarch models as they aren't very old, but it's an interesting detail to have their mounts destroyed kripke for replacing). New Neferata and Manfred with the Soulblight time and Arkan with a Bonereapers one layer, maybe?

I think the ability to run a nearly all Vampire list would be awesome. However, I agree that Blood Knights should be very elite and hard as nails. However their points should reflect that. As you mentioned BK's are very strong and martial warriors. There could be lesser Vampire units, such as the Vyrkos Blood-born that would be significantly weaker than Blood Knights but still fill other less elite rolls in the army while allowing an all Vampire list.

I haven't purchased any of the BR Books, and have just read and/or watched summaries online. However I somehow missed that all(?) of the Mortarchs lost their Dread Abyssal. If true, then this can further support a new Mortarch kit. After what happened to Arkhan in BR Teclis, I thought that it may lay the foundation for a new Arkhan model since he is more or less an OBR model now. However the problem with that theory is that all three Mortarchs in LoN currently share the same kit so I dismissed that as a possibility. However, if all the Dread Abyssals were destroyed then GW could use this as an opportunity to come out with a new Arkhan model where he is maybe an OBR style construct and then Neferata and Mannfred get their own kit with perhaps a more Zombie Dragon style mount? If I had to put money on it, I am still going to say that the three Mortarch's do not get new kits and the mounts being destroyed is just more of a lore thing in the BR books.

[RuneBrush]

12 minutes ago, BaylorCorvette said:

I haven't purchased any of the BR Books, and have just read and/or watched summaries online. However I somehow missed that all(?) of the Mortarchs lost their Dread Abyssal. If true, then this can further support a new Mortarch kit. After what happened to Arkhan in BR Teclis, I thought that it may lay the foundation for a new Arkhan model since he is more or less an OBR model now. However the problem with that theory is that all three Mortarchs in LoN currently share the same kit so I dismissed that as a possibility. However, if all the Dread Abyssals were destroyed then GW could use this as an opportunity to come out with a new Arkhan model where he is maybe an OBR style construct and then Neferata and Mannfred get their own kit with perhaps a more Zombie Dragon style mount? If I had to put money on it, I am still going to say that the three Mortarch's do not get new kits and the mounts being destroyed is just more of a lore thing in the BR books.

Tbh, me and my brother have been talking about new Mortarch kits for a while and we weren't convinced due to the age of the models and that it would need LoN to be pretty much replaced.  However I'd rule nothing out!  From a background perspective nothing in Death is ever permanently destroyed - even Nagash being smashed by Archaeon basically created himself a new body over time, so there's no reason why we couldn't simply see new mortarch kits with newly created "Mega Abyssals" - the bonereapers have the technology afterall.  It would also allow a bit more personalisation, I could see Nagadron being more feline and sleek and Ashigaroth being a lot more like a creature of the dark - plus it would give more options for a striking army centrepiece.

I could see that over time we're going to see LoN be slowly but surely replaced with separate battletomes.  Hopefully we'll still have that central "core" of skeletons, zombies and chainrasp but then the options will vary for each mortarch.  It will also mean we'll start to see things like Grimghast only really appearing in Nighthaunt armies.

[Feii]

I hope the cursed city models will get a separate/point cost adjustment. Radukar and the zombie guy looks great for some summon heavy lists. 

[Ahlambra]

1 hour ago, Feii said:

I hope the cursed city models will get a separate/point cost adjustment. Radukar and the zombie guy looks great for some summon heavy lists. 

Yeah, same here, I'm really only interested in the Vyrkos Blood-Born and the Vargskyr myself.

[Feii]

8 minutes ago, Ahlambra said:

Yeah, same here, I'm really only interested in the Vyrkos Blood-Born and the Vargskyr myself.

the gravekeeper is an absolute blast to paint model, seriously might be my favourite small scale model ever painted.

[Ahlambra]

53 minutes ago, Feii said:

the gravekeeper is an absolute blast to paint model, seriously might be my favourite small scale model ever painted.

Yeah he looks pretty cool, I meant more from a rules perspective. Visually, I think most of the Cursed City models are gorgeous. However, I tend to skew towards fast/elite lists, so unfortunately I wouldn't have a tonne of opportunities to take Gorslav.

[Sception]

Just as a warning, the decorative pins in Gorslav's shoulders are super fragile.  Be very careful clipping him off the sprue & cleaning mold lines, and be extra careful not to bump him or drop anything on him.

Oooh, my crimson Court "pre" order finally shipped!  Looking forward to that.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Sception

[Ahlambra]

26 minutes ago, Sception said:

Just as a warning, the decorative pins in Gorslav's shoulders are super fragile.  Be very careful clipping him off the sprue & cleaning mold lines, and be extra careful not to bump him or drop anything on him.

Oooh, my crimson Court "pre" order finally shipped!  Looking forward to that.

Do you happen to know how long warbands tend to stay in production? Was thinking of grabbing them, but was waiting on their AoS rules before committing, I don't know how much play Underworlds gets around my neck of the woods.