Countering Soulblight

[MarkWallbanger]

I've been playing CoS for a while now and keep struggling against soulblight with all sorts of lists. Shooting heavy seams to do best but I still find myself very rarely winning. Has anyone got any good lists/city choices that have performed well against Soulblight? The biggest threats are usually Prince Vhordrai and 40 Graveguard. Cheers!

[Skreech Verminking]

5 minutes ago, MarkWallbanger said:

I've been playing CoS for a while now and keep struggling against soulblight with all sorts of lists. Shooting heavy seams to do best but I still find myself very rarely winning. Has anyone got any good lists/city choices that have performed well against Soulblight? The biggest threats are usually Prince Vhordrai and 40 Graveguard. Cheers!

Units of 20-30Irondrakes will deal with most stuff.

they are one of the best shooting units.

combine them with the purple sun and the extra rend prayer of the dwarf priest, and you’ve got a unit that kills most things

[readercolin]

There are a few ways that you can deal with them.

The easiest way is shooting.  Cities has a ton of shooting options, and which one you take is up to your preference.  Irondrakes are generally considered the best, and you are generally going to be rocking rend -2 most of the time due to their priest, but you can get that all the way up to rend 4 if you bring a purple sun and Krondys.  However, you can also do a ton of damage with Sisters of the Watch, or just try to overwhelm them with freeguild crossbows or darkshards.  But remember that you aren't limited to just Cities - a block of Vanguard Raptors with longstrikes is still good, or you can play Settlers Gain and bring a block or two of Sentinels, or Tempest Eye and bring an Ironclad.

Next up, Magic.  This tends to work best in Hallowheart, but you can also get this to work well in Living City or Settlers Gain as well.  Hallowheart with a Celestial Hurricanum can effectively cast 2 chain lightning's each turn, which is going to hit a single unit and then every other unit near it.  Living City lets you bring either a Branchwych or warsong revenant, which when combined with a spell portal can throw a ton of damage downrange.  Finally, Settlers Gain lets you bring teclis to just do a ton of damage across the board, potentially even when combined with the Hurricanum for more damage.

Third, Fight on Death.  If you play the Phoenicium, you can have a frostheart/flamespyre phoenix issue a fight on death command, and even if your opponent comes into you and smashes, you still get to hit them back before you leave the field.

Finally, bring some cruise missiles.  Soulblight is fairly good when they can play a grindy game.  However, if you charge a single unit in that is going to delete whatever it hits (ex. fulminators), you will get to hit first and kill whatever you hit, and then your opponent has to react to a massive threat in their field on their next turn.  Melee combat does work in I go You go, but you only get to go if you have any units left in melee, which a cruise missile strategy avoids.

Now, I will note that most of the strategies above aren't limited to doing just one at a time.  You can fairly easily run several.  Personally, this is what I would run if I was expecting to face soulblight more frequently:

Hallowheart
Runelord (general, arcane tome, command trait of choice, ignite weapon, sear wounds, heal)
Battlemage (adjutant, Ghur, roaming wildfire, Elemental Cyclone)
Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (Elemental Cyclone, Sear Wounds)
10 Dreadspears
10 Longbeards
30 Irondrakes
20 Phoenix Guard
4 Fulminators

An army like this gets 6 spells a turn with a good amount of offensive magic (and it is easy to use their command ability on the hurricanum for significant bonus's to casting), a solid anvil in the form of the phoenix guard, a significant ranged hammer in the form of the 30 irondrakes, and a cruise missile (that can be very thoroughly buffed up) in the form of the fulminators.  Notable here is that ignite weapons works for both melee and ranged, so you can stick it on the irondrakes and between all the buffs you can have them on a 2+/2+rr1's/ -2/1, with 2 shots each if you don't have to move.  However, you can also stick ignite weapons on the phoenix guard to have them on a 2+/2+/-1/1, or the fulminators and give them all out attack for a 2+/2+/-2/1-3.  Finally, if you are playing GHB 2022, you have your choice of battalions, with the dreadspears, longbeards and irondrakes all easily going into expert conquerers, the phoenix guard and fulminators easily going into bounty hunters, and the hero's going into your choice of command entourage or warlord, or you can stick everything in a battle regiment to guarantee the one drop deployment.

[MarkWallbanger]

Thanks for the input, definitely liking the look of 4 fulminators. I've put together a hallowheart list based on what you've suggested and think I'll be giving it a go next game: 

 - Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
     - Army Type: Hallowheart
     - Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
     - Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)***
     - Artefacts of Power: Whitefire Tome
     - Spells: Crystal Aegis, Elemental Cyclone, Ignite Weapons, Roaming Wildfire, Sear Wounds, Warding Brand
Battlemage (100)***
     - General's Adjutant
     - Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds, Warding Brand
Runelord (95)***
     - General
     - Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
BATTLELINE
Irondrakes (340)*
Freeguild Guard (85)**
     - General's Retinue
     - Sergeant
     - Standard Bearer
     - Drummer
     - Freeguild Sword and Shield
Freeguild Guard (85)**
     - Freeguild Halberd
OTHER
Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)*
Phoenix Guard (350)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (70)
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Command Entourage
     - Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

I might also try looking into a a living city list that'll allow me to alphastrike with fulminators and irondrakes to try take out some of the big threats early. Cheers!

[Pariah7echo]

On 9/22/2022 at 12:50 AM, MarkWallbanger said:

Thanks for the input, definitely liking the look of 4 fulminators. I've put together a hallowheart list based on what you've suggested and think I'll be giving it a go next game: 

 - Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
     - Army Type: Hallowheart
     - Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak
     - Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (290)***
     - Artefacts of Power: Whitefire Tome
     - Spells: Crystal Aegis, Elemental Cyclone, Ignite Weapons, Roaming Wildfire, Sear Wounds, Warding Brand
Battlemage (100)***
     - General's Adjutant
     - Spells: Ignite Weapons, Sear Wounds, Warding Brand
Runelord (95)***
     - General
     - Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
BATTLELINE
Irondrakes (340)*
Freeguild Guard (85)**
     - General's Retinue
     - Sergeant
     - Standard Bearer
     - Drummer
     - Freeguild Sword and Shield
Freeguild Guard (85)**
     - Freeguild Halberd
OTHER
Dracothian Guard Fulminators (460)*
Phoenix Guard (350)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Chronomantic Cogs (40)
1 x Umbral Spellportal (70)
1 x Purple Sun of Shyish (70)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Command Entourage
     - Magnificent

TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000

I might also try looking into a a living city list that'll allow me to alphastrike with fulminators and irondrakes to try take out some of the big threats early. Cheers!

Personally I'd swap the spell portal for a bridge. Irondrakes really don't want to walk up the field. And in a pinch you can use it to teleport the fulminators or something else across the battlefield. I'd also try and swap a squad of freeguild guard for longbeards. the re-roll ones to wound can be big with the irondrakes when your dice decide to betray you. Also your battle mage should only have 2 spells known not 3. For whatever reason the app lets you pick more than you're allowed to.