Soulblight Gravelords News, Rumours and Speculation

[Gothmaug]

Remember, we don't know what current rules, if any, survive the transition to the new Codex. Chalice of Blood, Deathless Minions, Dance Macabre may all go the wayside. We also have to figure in that 3rd edition is on its way, and this book (I hope) will be tuned to the new addition, so some of the changes that might appear sub-par upon release will make more sense in a few months when the new 3rd edition core rulebook hits. 

 

On another note, the Vrykos Dynasty making all heroes "generals" makes the 650pt battalion from Cursed City much more interesting, especially if they all get a warlord trait. 

 

 

[Feii]

3 minutes ago, Aren73 said:

I see this as a great sign. This could point to the warscrolls themselves being stronger. 

Also, a nice move away from the basic LoN faction, which is further underlined through each of the subfactions being based on a vampiric bloodline. Really glad this isn't just a reskin of LoN. 

wholly within - bin writer. 


Don't understand why they don't start using MODELS wholly within more frequently. It is a very nice compromise between wholly within and no restriction. 

[Raptor_Jesues]

I missed it at first but the Kastelai bloodline bit says that their bloodknights get stronger when "blood starts flowing"... could it be they get endless legions or just some frenzy? I would onestly like both

[Gotz]

1 hour ago, lare2 said:

Can anyone spot the necromancer? Imagine he's in the range but I don't see him here. 

don't mind the left circles, just marked grave guard.

[Raptor_Jesues]

1 minute ago, Gotz said:

don't mind the left circles, just marked grave guard.

uh... the vengorian is actually smaller than i thought. Very good

[Lich King]

I mean - I like that fact that the general can be out and about doing his own thing - I felt even with 4 Graves before- our general had to go back and spend a command point and babysit to ensure something can be resurrected. I see this as a buff as a result. 
 Also - we need to see remaining rules and scrolls - along with the knowledge that 3rs is around the corner . It’s almost for sure this book has been written with at least that in mind. 

[Sception]

 

9 minutes ago, Feii said:

wholly within - bin writer. 

Yeah, it's a bad sign whenever you see those words.

 

Looking back, though, I was very nervous going into Legions of Nagash, because all the earliest details we had for them were also pretty negative.  No more summoning spells, no more healing banners, etc etc.  Then we got the bigger picture and everything was cool.

So I'm certainly not panicking or anything.  But yeah, my earlier fears of 'bin writer' are creeping back.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Sception

[Nactigal]

I am excited to run a completely mounted army of black knights, wight king and blood knights in legion of blood.

[Raptor_Jesues]

I do not know how mutch i would care for deathless minions on big units though. It is going to save one skeleton every 6 or so wich is meh at best, i would rather have my general doing something useful, expecially now that they probably regen by themselves. It could still be good on elite units like blood knights where saving one wound could mean one entire model staying up and fighting for another round (and then possibly even heal)

[Mandzak-Miniatures]

I am really hoping the Negash icon is a feasible option, that includes some minor spooks...

[Sception]

4 minutes ago, Raptor_Jesues said:

I do not know how mutch i would care for deathless minions on big units though. It is going to save one skeleton every 6 or so wich is meh at best, i would rather have my general doing something useful, expecially now that they probably regen by themselves. It could still be good on elite units like blood knights where saving one wound could mean one entire model staying up and fighting for another round (and then possibly even heal)

Doesn't need to be your general - casters and buff heros like necromancers and wight kings used to be perfectly capable of providing deathless minions for big infantry blobs.  Now not so much.  And the low rate of return on deathless minions meant it mattered most on big squads like max skeleton units, shaving off a few incoming wounds, supplementing whatever healing you could get from invocation and gravesites.  a 6++ on 40 skeletons on average saves six before counting recursion, and gives you enough rolls that the average starts to actually show.  A 6++ on 5 blood knights maybe saves a couple wounds, or maybe not since the fewer times you roll the more subject you are to the errant whims of the dice.  Plus a smaller unit is more likely to be wiped out all at once, even if it does get a lucky save in, which means less recursion and thus less bonus wounds to roll more deathless minions dice on.

Wholly within, largely limiting the rule to smaller units with fewer wounds to roll against, is a pretty significant blow against deathless minions mattering as a rule at all.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Sception

[Raptor_Jesues]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

Doesn't need to be your general - casters and buff heros like necromancers and wight kings used to be perfectly capable of providing deathless minions for big infantry blobs.  Now not so much.  And the low rate of return on deathless minions meant it mattered most on big squads like mas skeleton units, shaving off a few incoming wounds, supplementing whatever healing you could get from invocation and gravesites.

Wholly within is a pretty significant blow against it mattering as a rule at all.

sure but i always found it pretty lackluster, i am not too sad it is less usable now (although i would have preferred if they buffed it but whatever). We still should have the whole picture, maybe there are spells to increase the range tenflod etc

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

43 minutes ago, Nactigal said:

I'll reserve my judgement until the end, but the endless legions ability is so tough to trigger. I hope it isn't a focus out our book.

BR 1: our units are likely not destroyed/we likely haven't destroyed much

BR 2: killing really starts, though wet are forced into an akward choice of get deathless minions mid board or endless legions back board. If we make a 5+ roll and a gravesite is open we get a (likely slow) 100pt unit t3

BR 3+: summoned units won't likely be able to act in time to affect the outcome of the game.

I'd bet money on there being a way to get +1 to that roll or to place an extra grave site through an artfact/allegiance ability. Plus, resurrection no longer costs CP, so those can be put to work doing other cool stuff now. Gorslav from Cursed City has a command ability that resurrects, so maybe that is not completely off the table.

[Aren73]

In principle I don't disagree with "wholly within" but I was always of the opinion that all the 12" wholly within abilities should be 15" instead. 

If you're going to make the rule more restrictive at least increase the range a bit. 

[pixieproxy]

11 minutes ago, Sception said:

 

Yeah, it's a bad sign whenever you see those words.

 

Looking back, though, I was very nervous going into Legions of Nagash, because all the earliest details we had for them were also pretty negative.  No more summoning spells, no more healing banners, etc etc.  Then we got the bigger picture and everything was cool.

So I'm certainly not panicking or anything.  But yeah, my earlier fears of 'bin writer' are creeping back.

I'd like to point out that almost EVERY tome in 2.0 after Soul Wars has Wholly within, including the new Lumineth and DoK books. It's a change in the style of the game, not the bin writer

[BaylorCorvette]

Speaking as a someone who really only plays in tournament matched play settings, I am not sweating things too much yet. We no longer have to make sure our general is alive and around a gravesite to bring a unit back, I very much like that change. However it is obviously less reliable since we cannot guarantee a resurrect with a CA and instead have to bank on a 1 in 3 chance (assuming we do not kill anything) AND we have 50% less gravesites, so placing will be more difficult. The wording of units WHOLLY within doesn't really surprise me since we've pretty much been seeing this for a while now. I was fully expecting the gravesite wording to be wholly within and I am assuming all other spells / CAs that target our own units will be wholly within too.

As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, hopefully there will be a focus on warscrolls since those are much easier to balance overtime than allegiances / battletomes. Also, we haven't really seen any other rules yet, so lets wait a bit before we make any knee ****** reactions. If this leak is true then Skeletons and Zombies have ways of regenerating units on their own. This leak was posted in April and predicted several things accurately, so it is very possible the information about Zombie and Skeleton regeneration is also correct.

[Sception]

6 minutes ago, Raptor_Jesues said:

sure but i always found it pretty lackluster, i am not too sad it is less usable now (although i would have preferred if they buffed it but whatever). We still should have the whole picture, maybe there are spells to increase the range tenflod etc

Deathless minions wasn't the biggest deal, and a nerf to it isn't the end of the faction on its own.  But so far the rules teases we've seen have been "Whoops, all nerfs!"

That said, we've only started to get a small handful of rules teasers.  And again the early legions of nagash teasers were pretty iffy until we got the full picture way back then.  There's plenty of time for this to turn around.

Absolutely wish they had gone with 'models within' instead of 'units wholly within' though.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Sception

[Lich King]

Why is no one talking about Terrorgheists and Dragons (possibly Vlozds) as battle line . It’s awesome !

[Raptor_Jesues]

1 minute ago, Lich King said:

Why is no one talking about Terrorgheists and Dragons (possibly Vlozds) as battle line . It’s awesome !

and a bit cheesy in my opinion, i do not care much for monster spamming

[Lich King]

Just now, Raptor_Jesues said:

and a bit cheesy in my opinion, i do not care much for monster spamming

I see your point but I for one love army construction options. If other armies have access to stuff like that - we should too !

[Sception]

Just now, Lich King said:

Why is no one talking about Terrorgheists and Dragons (possibly Vlozds) as battle line . It’s awesome !

It's gotten some buzz.  I'm honestly a bit annoyed at it, as I kind of felt that was one of relatively few unique FEC things.  Still, monster mash is a cool concept, so I'll get over it.  Dedicated Gristlegore player will functionally have an entire separate army to play around with just by swapping out some characters, and maybe proxying some flayers as vargheists or vice versa.

[Raptor_Jesues]

Sidenote, very happy that the locus of shys is staying, just hope they will make the vampire lore a bit better

[BaylorCorvette]

2 minutes ago, Lich King said:

Why is no one talking about Terrorgheists and Dragons (possibly Vlozds) as battle line . It’s awesome !

For me personally since I play competitively, I don't like any one unit costing 400 pts+ (too much tied up in one unit) nor do I like taking more than 1 monster or behemoth especially when it only counts as 1 model. Unfortunately this game favors hordes over super cool large beasts. I tend to lean more towards having some chaff to soak up charges or flank objectives, some more elite units (in this case possibly Blood Knights) supported by Heroes to give off buffs and then possibly 1 "big guy" to act as a missile or a distraction. So unless we have some strong gimmick with Terrogheists and/or Dragons I cannot see myself using this dynasty. Now if a Vampire Lord could ride a Terrorgheist then I've got some ideas, but that could fit into any Blood Line.

[Thamalys]

4 minutes ago, BaylorCorvette said:

For me personally since I play competitively, I don't like any one unit costing 400 pts+ (too much tied up in one unit) nor do I like taking more than 1 monster or behemoth especially when it only counts as 1 model. Unfortunately this game favors hordes over super cool large beasts. I tend to lean more towards having some chaff to soak up charges or flank objectives, some more elite units (in this case possibly Blood Knights) supported by Heroes to give off buffs and then possibly 1 "big guy" to act as a missile or a distraction. So unless we have some strong gimmick with Terrogheists and/or Dragons I cannot see myself using this dynasty. Now if a Vampire Lord could ride a Terrorgheist then I've got some ideas, but that could fit into any Blood Line.

Yeah, ok, but... dragons! 😜

[Aren73]

2 minutes ago, Thamalys said:

Yeah, ok, but... dragons! 😜

Rather I am concerned that Vargheists weren't mentioned. I was hoping to run them as battleline in Avengorii - would have seemed the natural choice given their lore.