AoS3 - Soulblight Gravelord Discussion

[Ravenborn]

Thanks for the response, that’s exactly the info I was looking for.

I don’t have spare wolves or zombies, but lots of spare skeletons. I think that fits Alanis Morriset’s version of irony. 

[Ravenborn]

Here’s another question; I understand Black Knights lost their freedom of movement, which has reduced their effectiveness. Do they still have any role to play in a current army? 
 

I have five from my purchase, debating if I should bother painting them. 

[Kaizennus]

Just now, Ravenborn said:

Here’s another question; I understand Black Knights lost their freedom of movement, which has reduced their effectiveness. Do they still have any role to play in a current army? 
 

I have five from my purchase, debating if I should bother painting them. 

From a competitive point of view… no.

if we’re lucky they might get some love in the winter update but I wouldn’t say it’s very likely.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

6 hours ago, Kaizennus said:

From a competitive point of view… no.

if we’re lucky they might get some love in the winter update but I wouldn’t say it’s very likely.

I have said this for a while, but I think if Black Knights drop to~100 points they are playable. 1d3 mortals on a stick with 18" threat range, plus they are summonable. So ideally they could charge something turn 1, die, come back and do another 1d3 mortals later. I'd consider them over Fell Bats at that point.

[Liquidsteel]

19 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I have said this for a while, but I think if Black Knights drop to~100 points they are playable. 1d3 mortals on a stick with 18" threat range, plus they are summonable. So ideally they could charge something turn 1, die, come back and do another 1d3 mortals later. I'd consider them over Fell Bats at that point.

Yeah for 100 I would consider them, you can cover a nice footprint spread out lengthways to either screen or cut off the board, and not being battleline is a good advantage to not give up an easy Broken Ranks.

[BaylorCorvette]

 

18 hours ago, Le Chef said:

Exciting! Any idea what we can expect?

 

17 hours ago, Liquidsteel said:

Specifically no, however generally we can expect new Grand Strategies, Battle Tactics and Battalions. 

Agreed. I think it will likely be Grand Strats, Battle Tactics and Battalions. I am hopeful we get a couple mount traits like Cities did last month. Although, even mount traits will be a bit whatever since the only mounts are VLoZD's, Wight King on Steed, and I guess the Bloodseeker Palanquin & Coven Throne.. If only named Characters could take mount traits.... 

[Boingrot Bouncer]

Although I would like the mount trait idea it would make the cursed mutations that avengorii have a bit less special and that blood line would probably need something more then to make it special.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

42 minutes ago, Boingrot Bouncer said:

Although I would like the mount trait idea it would make the cursed mutations that avengorii have a bit less special and that blood line would probably need something more then to make it special.

"Mount traits" for VAMPIRE keyword heroes might actually be the answer. I think that would be pretty cool and not step on the toes of any one blood line. Still, it's probably more likely that we will just see one or two mount traits for Zombie Dragons and Terrorgheists. That's exactly what happened in the Cities of Sigmar update last month: One mount trait for the Griffin, one for the Black Dragon, and that's it. I hoped it would at least be Hurricanum or Steam Tank mount traits (or in the case of Gravelords, Coven Throne traits), but GW don't do that kind of stuff because they are cowards.

[Liquidsteel]

2 hours ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

"Mount traits" for VAMPIRE keyword heroes might actually be the answer. I think that would be pretty cool and not step on the toes of any one blood line. Still, it's probably more likely that we will just see one or two mount traits for Zombie Dragons and Terrorgheists. That's exactly what happened in the Cities of Sigmar update last month: One mount trait for the Griffin, one for the Black Dragon, and that's it. I hoped it would at least be Hurricanum or Steam Tank mount traits (or in the case of Gravelords, Coven Throne traits), but GW don't do that kind of stuff because they are cowards.

I'm just fantasizing here but they could call it "Hunger" or something. Each (non unique) Vampire Hero can choose one Hunger.

Could be something like a d6" pre-game move, a +2 bonus to charge when in range of a Wizard, +1 to wound vs monsters etc

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

2 minutes ago, Liquidsteel said:

I'm just fantasizing here but they could call it "Hunger" or something. Each (non unique) Vampire Hero can choose one Hunger.

Could be something like a d6" pre-game move, a +2 bonus to charge when in range of a Wizard, +1 to wound vs monsters etc

I'd love that. Just some small, not really mechanically strong option to customize your vampires. Soulblight Gravelords already have access to all the tools they need to play a good game. But a few little flavour options would be great.

[BaylorCorvette]

The Seraphon update (two WD's ago) had a unique monstrous action, so we could see that too. In addition their mount traits were tied to a Stegadon, Carnosaur or Troglodon in the army that also has the Hero keyword and it was just a once per game thing (either add 1 to attacks characteristic or run and charge). Based on the Seraphon wording that would make me think a named character could do it, but maybe not. If they allow a named character on a mount to do a once per game "thing" then all of a sudden that becomes really good since almost all of our mounted Heroes are named. But a lot of this is probably wishful thinking..

[Nightseer2012]

That would be a nice nod to the old customization rules, so would that just look like another command trait, but it doesn't have to be your general?  That could be nice. 

I am guessing we will probably have to wait for this "winter update" outside of the white dwarf before we see bigger changes.  Admittedly it is wishlisting, but I want that bigger update to show Avengorii some love.  I do very much love the Mother of Nightmares and Vengorian Lord by themselves, but their subfaction is definitely the weakest imo, which is a shame in the edition which is supposed to be the "Age of the Beast".

[Ghoooouls]

Do we know when this white dwarf is available?

[Liquidsteel]

16 minutes ago, Ghoooouls said:

Do we know when this white dwarf is available?

I think it will be out end of next week, its usually mid month.

[BaylorCorvette]

2 hours ago, Ghoooouls said:

Do we know when this white dwarf is available?

I think I've read that it is usually third Friday of the month, that would put it on the 17th. We might get either a Warhammer Community article that could shed some light on it or a possible a leak from somewhere before then.

[Liquidsteel]

15 hours ago, BaylorCorvette said:

I think I've read that it is usually third Friday of the month, that would put it on the 17th. We might get either a Warhammer Community article that could shed some light on it or a possible a leak from somewhere before then.

If you subscribe it arrives earlier in the week, I cancelled mine earlier this year, but someone should be sharing pictures by Tuesday.

[Orchid89]

I just bought the Battleforce to start my SBGL army.

I dont have the battletome yet so i have a few questions.

I have the cursed city box too so I can reinforce the x20 Skeletons in the Batteforce box with an extra x10 to run it in a unit of x30.

Do I need a Necromancer to go with the Skeletons? I am not a huge fan of the Necromancer model tbh, are there any alternatives to using a Necromancer? or is he a must when running a unit of x30 Skeletons?

Should I bother getting more zombies to run them as a unit of x60? I see that most people run them at x40?

I plan on getting Mannfred + a VLoZD too and already own a Coven Throne (spare Mortis engine from when my partner started collecting NH)

EDIT: I actually prefer the Neferata model, so i might build her instead of Mannfred. Or magnetize if its not too hard

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Orchid89

[Skreech Verminking]

After having seen this conversion, I’m really tempted to buy myself a vengorian lord.

this is in all actuality what I hoped the vengorian lord would have looked like, since I really don’t enjoy the current existing sculpt for it.

but the conversion is amazing.

So my gratitude towards the person who made it😉

[Skreech Verminking]

1 hour ago, Orchid89 said:

Should I bother getting more zombies to run them as a unit of x60? I see that most people run them at x40?

I haven’t really played zombies to often.

(I have currently not even played a single game with my soulblight gravelord (I’m still building them up)

but in comparison towards clanrats, I do believe that 60 is probably the way to go, if you are looking for a meat-shield unit that is capable of surviving more then 1 round in combat against most foes.

Yet some might just literally kill you.

for example a fully buffed up mawcrusher, will be able to deal 61 damage in a single round of combat very efficiently and likely.

although that doesn’t include the math of the 6+ ward save zombies have.

so those guys might even just barely survive.

 

[Wordy9th]

2 hours ago, Skreech Verminking said:

After having seen this conversion, I’m really tempted to buy myself a vengorian lord.

this is in all actuality what I hoped the vengorian lord would have looked like, since I really don’t enjoy the current existing sculpt for it.

but the conversion is amazing.

So my gratitude towards the person who made it😉

That looks very cool. Which parts is it?

[Skreech Verminking]

1 hour ago, Wordy9th said:

That looks very cool. Which parts is it?

I’m guessing, The halve of a Blood knights horse, the blood knights himself and the more animalistic part of the vengorian lord 

but I din’t know for certain.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Skreech Verminking

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

9 hours ago, Orchid89 said:

Do I need a Necromancer to go with the Skeletons? I am not a huge fan of the Necromancer model tbh, are there any alternatives to using a Necromancer? or is he a must when running a unit of x30 Skeletons?

You don't need need him, but he has pretty good synergy. A better looking necromancer is fairly easy to kitbash by putting a skull on literally any sorcerer model, but there is no other "real" Gravelords model that does what the Necromancer does for a Skeleton  unit.

 

9 hours ago, Orchid89 said:

Should I bother getting more zombies to run them as a unit of x60? I see that most people run them at x40?

40 are good because you get a huge unit of 40 bodies for just 1 reinforcement point and at 230 points. Going to 60 has diminishing returns both in terms of objective play and offense, in my opinion. I'd rather run a unit of 40 and one of 20 if I had 60 zombies, myself.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Neil Arthur Hotep

[TechnoVampire]

On 12/11/2021 at 5:53 AM, Orchid89 said:

Do I need a Necromancer to go with the Skeletons? I am not a huge fan of the Necromancer model tbh, are there any alternatives to using a Necromancer? or is he a must when running a unit of x30 Skeletons?

I also really don’t like the necromancer model so I kit-bashed one: 

[Scruf]

The Australian GW site posted the preorder for White Dwarf 471:
 

Quote

The Tome Celestial: Soulblight Gravelords
New background and updated battletome rules for the Soulblight Gravelords. Crack open a human and celebrate with a glass of blood!
Provides 1 new Battle Trait for the Soulblight Gravelords, 1 new Legion of Blood Battle Trait, 2 Mount Traits for Zombie Dragons alongside 3 Soulblight Gravelords bespoke Core Battalions.
Additionally provides updated rules for Open Play and Path to Glory rules for Narrative Play. For Matched Play the Soulblight Gravelords gain access to 1 bespoke Grand Strategy and 3 Battle Tactics.

Personally hoping the LoB battle trait buffs our battleline Black Knights

[Sception]

I gave my necromancer a simple heads swap from the empire wizards kit which I though helped.  Alternatively, you can just assemble a couple death wizards out of that kit to use as necromancers.

There's also this conversion from the kruleboyz swamp wizard which doesn't look ~too~ terribly difficult: