AoS3 - Soulblight Gravelord Discussion

[Le Chef]

8 hours ago, BaylorCorvette said:

I squeezed out a win by basically outflanking or putting everything in the graves, minus my heroes and two dire wolf units.

Once again congratulations with great result. I have thankfully saved your list and ordered a Vengorian Lord. Usually I run a double dragon list (see list few posts ago). 

As for the Blood Knights, can we put both units in reserve? I thought it was just 1 unit if we run 2 in total. Thanks 

[Doko]

I dont like the new vampirelord.

Head and torso of a femenine man,then legs of a woman.

Im happy for everyone that like it because it is a shame that i wont buy it when it is a limited edition mini.

For me my favorite vampire lord is a heavy armored badass vampire(as vlad) and the closest is the generic vampirelord.

All these other vampired(ratman,disneylady and now this man\woman) arent even close to my tastes.

I hope gw release some more of these simple badass heavy armor vampires and stop with the weirdoss

[Kadeton]

Very impressed with that new Vampire Lord! I'm not too fond of the bald-headed vampire look in general, but she's making it work.

[Wordy9th]

6 hours ago, Doko said:

I dont like the new vampirelord.

Head and torso of a femenine man,then legs of a woman.

Im happy for everyone that like it because it is a shame that i wont buy it when it is a limited edition mini.

For me my favorite vampire lord is a heavy armored badass vampire(as vlad) and the closest is the generic vampirelord.

All these other vampired(ratman,disneylady and now this man\woman) arent even close to my tastes.

I hope gw release some more of these simple badass heavy armor vampires and stop with the weirdoss

I get you, but to be fair we have the Crimson Court - where Duvalle and the Mace-man fit the bill just fine. Add in the new Vampire Lord and you have 3(!) new Vampire models that fit the armored bill you describe.

As much as many people are loving this new Vampire (myself included, I'll definately get her), that's 8+ new Vampire models we've got already, including Radukar, Annika etc. Can I get new Grave Guard instead, pretty please?

I'm pretty hyped about her potential rules though. The standard Vampire Lord but with more wounds / wound transfer / combat ability would be lovely!

Edited October 12, 2021 by Wordy9th

[Leshoyadut]

I think my favorite part of this new vampire lord is how androgynous they are. I think most people are interpreting them as feminine because of how overly masculine the male models tend to be, but there's really nothing particularly explicit one way or the other about this one. And I just think that's neat.

Even outside of that, though, I rather like the model. The bone chest armor and the ridiculously huge collar on the cape are fantastic.

33 minutes ago, Wordy9th said:

As much as many people are loving this new Vampire (myself included, I'll definately get her), that's 8+ new Vampire models we've got already, including Radukar, Annika etc. Can I get new Grave Guard instead, pretty please?

New GG would certainly be welcome, as well. The old ones are still kinda cool, but definitely feel a bit lackluster compared to newer models.

[Wordy9th]

They're definitely overshadowed (quite literally in terms of their size) by the new skeletons - which doesn't sit right when they're meant to be the elite ones.

Also pretty please I never want to see whatever weapon the 'great weapons' are meant to be on a model ever again! (some kind of confused halberd?)

Love them as a concept though.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

8 minutes ago, Leshoyadut said:

I think my favorite part of this new vampire lord is how androgynous they are. I think most people are interpreting them as feminine because of how overly masculine the male models tend to be, but there's really nothing particularly explicit one way or the other about this one. And I just think that's neat.

Even outside of that, though, I rather like the model. The bone chest armor and the ridiculously huge collar on the cape are fantastic.

New GG would certainly be welcome, as well. The old ones are still kinda cool, but definitely feel a bit lackluster compared to newer models.

A new Grave Guard kit would be super nice. Especially if it could come as a dual kit with a ranged option. I got kinda excited yesterday because I though that if ranged skeletons existed, you would be able to make them ignore negative modifiers to hit in Legion of Blood, but nope! Melee only. No fun allowed.

Anyway, I like that the new vampire is a huge weirdo again. Between the generic Vampire Lord and Crimson Court, we are definitely spoiled for choice for cool guy vampires. I like that there are now enough different vampire sculpts around to make your vampires look exactly like you want. Personally, this new vampire reminds me of the classic Nosferatu look, which I think is pretty cool. The design is also really campy in a fun 90s way. I think this is a good design for a limited edition model: Something that would probably be a bit too weird to really have mass appeal, but a certain niche crowd will really appreciate.

[TheGrimKnight]

I had a quick general question on what other peoples thoughts were on chainghasts. Since in general death has barely any range units, I saw that a few units of allied chainghasts for their alright range attack may be worth while. For 150 points its 8 wounds and 4 d3, 15 inch range attacks at -2 rend. they could sit behind a screen to unleash hell, which is something we sorely lack. 

[BaylorCorvette]

15 hours ago, Le Chef said:

Once again congratulations with great result. I have thankfully saved your list and ordered a Vengorian Lord. Usually I run a double dragon list (see list few posts ago). 

As for the Blood Knights, can we put both units in reserve? I thought it was just 1 unit if we run 2 in total. Thanks 

I should have been more specific, I deployed one unit of BKs with the Vengorian Lord and one unit in outflank. I'm about 50/50 in doing this regardless of match up. The outflank unit always comes out around the other unit and my Vengorian Lord, but it makes my opponent think twice during deployment and turn 1 when there is a unit of BKs that can pop out on a board edge somewhere.

[BaylorCorvette]

36 minutes ago, TheGrimKnight said:

I had a quick general question on what other peoples thoughts were on chainghasts. Since in general death has barely any range units, I saw that a few units of allied chainghasts for their alright range attack may be worth while. For 150 points its 8 wounds and 4 d3, 15 inch range attacks at -2 rend. they could sit behind a screen to unleash hell, which is something we sorely lack. 

-1 To Hit from Unleash Hell means they are hitting on 5s, so don't expect to get much damage through with them. While I would love a little bit of range support I am not convinced we need it. We have a ton of options for mobility, via graves or outflank in Legion of Night or Kastelai Blood Knights. Also have a Deep Strike option with Vargheists and then there is Mannfreds shenanigans. At the end of the day it is an objective game and GHB 2021's missions favor objectives near the center of the map, meaning you're likely to get your melee army into combat one way or another. Even at the 2 day GT I went to last month I was paired up against KO and a shooting/magic heavy Seraphon list, while they did hit my army hard, I just zoned them out or controlled the board because they didn't want to get into combat and it resulted in them falling too far behind on Victory Points.

[TheGrimKnight]

16 minutes ago, BaylorCorvette said:

-1 To Hit from Unleash Hell means they are hitting on 5s, so don't expect to get much damage through with them. While I would love a little bit of range support I am not convinced we need it. We have a ton of options for mobility, via graves or outflank in Legion of Night or Kastelai Blood Knights. Also have a Deep Strike option with Vargheists and then there is Mannfreds shenanigans. At the end of the day it is an objective game and GHB 2021's missions favor objectives near the center of the map, meaning you're likely to get your melee army into combat one way or another. Even at the 2 day GT I went to last month I was paired up against KO and a shooting/magic heavy Seraphon list, while they did hit my army hard, I just zoned them out or controlled the board because they didn't want to get into combat and it resulted in them falling too far behind on Victory Points.

Thanks for the advice! I havent played as soulblight yet, (or in 3rd edition yet) and while working on the army I see other forces with either mixed or range heavy. Blood Knights are 100 percent why I decided with soulblight. I'll have my glorious Knights fighting for the lady somehow!

 

I do wish we could ally in bonereapers, just for flavor I really want to use a trebuchet, and the crawler is good substitute for it.

[NearlyHeadlessNickAOS]

On 10/11/2021 at 9:06 AM, BaylorCorvette said:

Took the list I went 4-1 with for a 3rd place overall finish out of 70 people at a GT a few weeks ago to a 14 person local this past weekend. Ended up going 3-0 and finishing second, there was a SoB player that also went 3-0 and scored 1 more tournament point than me to secure the first place finish at the tournament. 

Game 1 was on Survival of the Fittest against a dwarf heavy Cities of Sigmar Tempest Eye list. He was running a death star of 30 irondrakes buffed out the a$$, basically 58 shots hitting and wounding on 2s with -2 rend then the champs anti monster weapon. He also ran 20 Phoneix Guard to screen / hold the center of the map. I squeezed out a win by basically outflanking or putting everything in the graves, minus my heroes and two dire wolf units. As expected he went to the center objective and as a result I pushed to the two side objectives. I then was able to sweep around one flank and mush his irondrakes back so they couldn't contest an objective any more which allowed me to secure the win.

Game 2 was Tooth and Nail against a Legion of Blood list running the super buffed VLoZD (-1 to hit & +1 save) everything else was Skeletons, Grave Guard, Zombies or foot support heroes. Given that you couldn't put ANYTHING in reserve for Tooth and Nail made things interesting for both of us since we were SBGL players that wanted things in the graves. My Army was much faster which allowed me to dictate engagements. The funny thing was my Prince Vhordrai failing a 3" charge with snake eyes and then using a CP to reroll into snake eyes again, that is a 1 in 1,296 chance!!! My Vengorian Lord tanked the heck out of the VLoZD, some Grave Guard and 2 Vamp Lords on foot for four combat rounds only taking 5 wounds (Fragment of the Keep + Reduce Rend by 1 is amazing!) Anyways I was able to be more aggressive and control the board which gave me the win.

Game 3 was Savage Gains against Vykros Dynasty. I went from never having played against SBGL to having two matches in a row. My opponent I knew really well and he's a great player so it was a fun game that tested both of us (he finished 6th (with a Tzeentch Archaon list) in the 70 person GT that I finished 3rd in . His list was Belladamma, two units of Grave Guard, some wolves, zombies, Necromancer, foot Vampire Lord and allied in was the named Gate Breaker Mega Gargant mercenary. Again the Vengorian Lord came up huge. In about 4 rounds of combat the Gate Breaker was only able to kill a single Blood Knight and put a few wounds on some other things. Fragment of the Keep on a Vengorian Lord is so good. Anyways, the game was super close and we ran out of time, so we talked it out. I had recently gotten a double turn which allowed me to sweep his back lines and then we just rolled off to see who got turn 5 (I did) and we both agreed I would have won.

So another solid showing for this list. I will likely be taking it to the Austin GT hosted by GW in November.

Congrats on the win good sir! So I have played 2 games so far with my Soulblight. My first game was Vyrkos with a Gargant, 20 GG and Prince V against Slaves and it was a good game but very one sides for the Gravelords. I recently played my second game as my 10 Blood Knights and Vengorian Lord are all done and I played the same list you are running with the Grave-sand Shard instead; I played against a good friend's Kruleboys list and he smashed me. I made a few misplays as well as not getting one in 4 priorities and lycancurse did not go off once :(. However. I do feel like if there is a weakness it is ranged mortals. Any tips from a pro? Most of my competitive play has been with Deepkin and I haven't had too much of a problem with ranged units minus 50 Sentinel spam. 

 

My Vengorian Lord was shot off the board in one turn with a 5+ fnp easy. There were a lot of bodies so I could not get the pups to pile in 6 to the bolt boys. I may have been a little too timid with playing as well. I have a bigger GT coming up and despite knowing I can do very well with the fish bro's I am going to take the SBGL just because they are way more fun at this time! I really like your list because I am not into spamming 20-25 blood knights and I like to control the board space when I play. 

[Predien]

56 minutes ago, NearlyHeadlessNickAOS said:

Congrats on the win good sir! So I have played 2 games so far with my Soulblight. My first game was Vyrkos with a Gargant, 20 GG and Prince V against Slaves and it was a good game but very one sides for the Gravelords. I recently played my second game as my 10 Blood Knights and Vengorian Lord are all done and I played the same list you are running with the Grave-sand Shard instead; I played against a good friend's Kruleboys list and he smashed me. I made a few misplays as well as not getting one in 4 priorities and lycancurse did not go off once :(. However. I do feel like if there is a weakness it is ranged mortals. Any tips from a pro? Most of my competitive play has been with Deepkin and I haven't had too much of a problem with ranged units minus 50 Sentinel spam. 

 

My Vengorian Lord was shot off the board in one turn with a 5+ fnp easy. There were a lot of bodies so I could not get the pups to pile in 6 to the bolt boys. I may have been a little too timid with playing as well. I have a bigger GT coming up and despite knowing I can do very well with the fish bro's I am going to take the SBGL just because they are way more fun at this time! I really like your list because I am not into spamming 20-25 blood knights and I like to control the board space when I play. 

Range MW output is the bread and butter of a KBz army. Most are going to be running anywhere between 6-12 boltboyz and/or some beastskewerz. You'll need to deploy outside of 27" with your big guys and force the KBz to move. When the KBz units move their shooting profile gets a lot shorter. Also consider adding in some Unleash Hell fodder. Bats are quick and cheap. If you can get into the boltboyz you will absolutely destroy them in combat...you just have to get there.

[BaylorCorvette]

8 minutes ago, NearlyHeadlessNickAOS said:

Congrats on the win good sir! So I have played 2 games so far with my Soulblight. My first game was Vyrkos with a Gargant, 20 GG and Prince V against Slaves and it was a good game but very one sides for the Gravelords. I recently played my second game as my 10 Blood Knights and Vengorian Lord are all done and I played the same list you are running with the Grave-sand Shard instead; I played against a good friend's Kruleboys list and he smashed me. I made a few misplays as well as not getting one in 4 priorities and lycancurse did not go off once :(. However. I do feel like if there is a weakness it is ranged mortals. Any tips from a pro? Most of my competitive play has been with Deepkin and I haven't had too much of a problem with ranged units minus 50 Sentinel spam. 

 

My Vengorian Lord was shot off the board in one turn with a 5+ fnp easy. There were a lot of bodies so I could not get the pups to pile in 6 to the bolt boys. I may have been a little too timid with playing as well. I have a bigger GT coming up and despite knowing I can do very well with the fish bro's I am going to take the SBGL just because they are way more fun at this time! I really like your list because I am not into spamming 20-25 blood knights and I like to control the board space when I play. 

Thanks for the kind words. I have not yet played against Kruelboyz but one of the guys in the local scene is leaning heavy into about 12-15 Boltboyz, 2 Killbows and some other stuff. My strategy going up against them would be dependent on mission and who got to dictate turn order. Usually against a shooting army, if I can dictate turn order (I'm a 2 drop) then I will outflank / put a lot of things in the graves and then deploy deep in my own zone and give them the first turn which should help minimize damaged received turn 1. Your turn 1 you pop things out of the graves and outflank, maybe get lucky with a long bomb charge or two. Then priority roll, if you get the double you are in a much better position. At the end of the day, it is an objective game so you don't HAVE to kill them, but yes their MW output is pretty crazy.

[NearlyHeadlessNickAOS]

18 minutes ago, Predien said:

Range MW output is the bread and butter of a KBz army. Most are going to be running anywhere between 6-12 boltboyz and/or some beastskewerz. You'll need to deploy outside of 27" with your big guys and force the KBz to move. When the KBz units move their shooting profile gets a lot shorter. Also consider adding in some Unleash Hell fodder. Bats are quick and cheap. If you can get into the boltboyz you will absolutely destroy them in combat...you just have to get there.

He was running a one drop so I had to go first and then I had to move up. I stayed outside of the 20 inch massive threat range but within the 27. He just popped the Vengo Lord so easily. Hew as running 9 Bolts and 40 Gut Rippas it was rough. Way harder match than for the fish bros.

[NearlyHeadlessNickAOS]

5 minutes ago, BaylorCorvette said:

Thanks for the kind words. I have not yet played against Kruelboyz but one of the guys in the local scene is leaning heavy into about 12-15 Boltboyz, 2 Killbows and some other stuff. My strategy going up against them would be dependent on mission and who got to dictate turn order. Usually against a shooting army, if I can dictate turn order (I'm a 2 drop) then I will outflank / put a lot of things in the graves and then deploy deep in my own zone and give them the first turn which should help minimize damaged received turn 1. Your turn 1 you pop things out of the graves and outflank, maybe get lucky with a long bomb charge or two. Then priority roll, if you get the double you are in a much better position. At the end of the day, it is an objective game so you don't HAVE to kill them, but yes their MW output is pretty crazy.

I was playing for objectives and trying to tag. The problem was if you don't get priority he has 2 turns of shooting since he was a one drop. He can reliably kill the Vengo Lord and Prince V per turn with shooting. Because he has so many bodies and it was tectonic interference he was able to screen out the grave guard. I tried a long bomb charge with the GG but playing for that is just a luck thing. My meta is pretty competitive as well. It was still a lot more fun playing Kruleboys than LRL :p.

[BaylorCorvette]

10 minutes ago, NearlyHeadlessNickAOS said:

I was playing for objectives and trying to tag. The problem was if you don't get priority he has 2 turns of shooting since he was a one drop. He can reliably kill the Vengo Lord and Prince V per turn with shooting. Because he has so many bodies and it was tectonic interference he was able to screen out the grave guard. I tried a long bomb charge with the GG but playing for that is just a luck thing. My meta is pretty competitive as well. It was still a lot more fun playing Kruleboys than LRL :p.

dice will be dice I guess, and yeah I much rather play against them than LRL. Unfortunately I think Kruleboyz is just a hard counter to us. Some games will be easier than others and dice will go our way every now and then too. If I wanted to build a list strictly around beating Kruleboyz I would focus on just a TON of bodies and possibly no monsters. But I prefer not to tailor my list against one thing specifically since most of my games are tournaments and I need to be able well rounded.

[NearlyHeadlessNickAOS]

Just now, BaylorCorvette said:

dice will be dice I guess, and yeah I much rather play against them than LRL. Unfortunately I think Kruleboyz is just a hard counter to us. Some games will be easier than others and dice will go our way every now and then too. If I wanted to build a list strictly around beating Kruleboyz I would focus on just a TON of bodies and possibly no monsters. But I prefer not to tailor my list against one thing specifically since most of my games are tournaments and I need to be able well rounded.

That is good advice. Our club is doing one event a month including a Major and a GT within the next 2 months. The army just feels so fun to play. Tailoring a list is never a good idea. I may try out Nagash in a bit but I am really enjoying a mixed arms force.

[Liquidsteel]

My club mate that went 5-0 beat a Kruleboyz list with the Nagash and Blood Knights list we've been running. I'm not sure on the specifics but it included 2 killbows and a few units of boltboyz

[JackStreicher]

I really love the new Vampire Lord. We rarely see fit / sporty women in games and I really like her slender, noble shape with the overdone, eccentric armour. The head is something one has to get used to (easily switched), yet the overall composition and paintjob is great. (The conor looks Sandy around the stomach?)

 

I wished we had Vampire infantry 🩸🥲

some more images:

 

 

 

[NearlyHeadlessNickAOS]

2 hours ago, Liquidsteel said:

My club mate that went 5-0 beat a Kruleboyz list with the Nagash and Blood Knights list we've been running. I'm not sure on the specifics but it included 2 killbows and a few units of boltboyz

Nagash seems great at blasting Monsters or taking care of death star shooting units ☠️

[MirageFive]

I'm new to Soulblight (and 3.0) and would like some feedback on this list I'm theorizing:

Vyrkos:
Radukar the Beast - 315
Belladamma Volga - Amaranthine Orb - 200
VLoZD - Hunter's Snare, Amulet of Destiny, Amethystine Pinions - 435
40 Deadwalker Zombies - 230
20 Deadwalker Zombies - 115
10 Dire Wolves - 135
20 Grave Guard - Great Wight Blades - 280
20 Grave Guard - Great Wight Blades - 280
Total - 1,990
Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
Triumph: Bloodthirsty
Battle Regiment 1: Radukar, Belladamma, Zombies, Dire Wolves
Battle Regiment 2: VLoZD, Grave Guard

Edited October 14, 2021 by MirageFive

[Wordy9th]

17 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

I really love the new Vampire Lord. We rarely see fit / sporty women in games and I really like her slender, noble shape with the overdone, eccentric armour. The head is something one has to get used to (easily switched), yet the overall composition and paintjob is great. (The conor looks Sandy around the stomach?)

 

I wished we had Vampire infantry 🩸🥲

some more images:

 

 

 

 

Sadly I've yet to see any female Vampire Lords who embody the unearthly charm and beauty that the book references more than a few times, especially for Legion of Blood themed vampires.

The book talks a great deal about 'the monster within' contrasting with outward grace and nobility, but I'm seeing a lot of the monster without and little grace and nobility.

Something along the lines of a foot Neferata style vampire is what I'm thinking. 

 

Edit: If anyone has any idea of head conversions along these lines I'd love to hear them. I was thinking Witch Elf, but the hair would probably get caught on that big old collar of hers ^_^.

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by Wordy9th

[JackStreicher]

3 hours ago, Wordy9th said:

 

Sadly I've yet to see any female Vampire Lords who embody the unearthly charm and beauty that the book references more than a few times, especially for Legion of Blood themed vampires.

The book talks a great deal about 'the monster within' contrasting with outward grace and nobility, but I'm seeing a lot of the monster without and little grace and nobility.

Something along the lines of a foot Neferata style vampire is what I'm thinking. 

 

Edit: If anyone has any idea of head conversions along these lines I'd love to hear them. I was thinking Witch Elf, but the hair would probably get caught on that big old collar of hers ^_^.

 

Vampire Knight heads or (if those fit) Stormcast heads/ Warriors of chaos heads

Edited October 13, 2021 by JackStreicher

[Liquidsteel]

If anyone is interested in Battle Reports, the guys from my club have been doing them for a little while now, and hopefully to an okay standard. 

Thus week James Tinsdale is playing the list we both took to Carnage at the weekend, Nagash and Blood Knights. He went 5-0 and I went 4-1. He'll be playing against Tom and Sons of Behemat with 4 Mega Gargants.

It's a live style batrep and they interact with the chat, it's unedited so can be quite long, but you get to hear the thought processes behind things and can ask questions in chat. As it's on YouTube you can always watch it back later.

I hope sharing it is okay. The batrep will be Thursday evening as usual, around 7pm UK time.