Ravinsild

Yeah I’m not expecting a new Soulblight Gravelords tome or any new models for a long long time.

Seems like Soulblight Gravelords armies like Kastelei who can go full blood knights but still drag zombies and skeletons from the grave could be incredibly strong if that’s the case. Avengorii Dynasty too with some hidden GV skeletons or zombies or even dire wolves.

Man. I have no idea what to do now. Everyone is saying taking hordes is a terrible idea. I wanted a grinding attrition army that would create long grueling games fighting over objectives and so forth. It seems that’s not going to happen with additional damage to what would be the battleline I would be using due to the headhunters battalion. So suddenly 80 zombies seems like they get deleted right quick. I’m thinking as I’m going Kastelei 3 sets of 10 wolves or something. Then again if the Battletome battle tactics are still valid then one could play into it via callous overlord where you pick a summonable unit and score it if it was destroyed that turn. So maybe expecting a block of 40 skeletons or hell even 20-30 skeletons and expecting them to die yoy still score points. Then you can counter attack with your own bounty hunters and crush a bunch of their units hopefully adding +1 to your roll and there’s a battle tactics for if you get a 5+ to resurrect a unit you get a point. Or maybe it would be the rise of the full Bloodknights list 🤷‍♂️ (For Kastelei idk what the other legions are supposed to do)

Bloodknights win big time. Putting them in the Veteran Hunter’s they’re 3 damage in the charge into any enemy unit that’s the new keyword. Galletian Veteran or whatever. So for some armies that’s huge like Witch Aelves, Ogors, Fyreslayers, Stormcast Eternals. Even Brutes are always Battleline you’d be demolishing Brutes. ArdBoyz cut down like chaff, blobs of savage Orruks. Take you down a hero first things first like a support hero if you’re playing Kastelei and suddenly you’re at 4 damage apiece on the charge into GV units. Troggoths would get deleted. Do the same thing to Graveguard and they’re at 3 damage apiece fighting twice with a Necromancer at +1 attack with a vampire lord. Nothing can withstand that.

Lol I have no idea what the point of chaos warrior halberds is now though. If Greatblades give -1 rend and Halberds don’t it seems like a no brained to always pick Greatsword in this instance. However in my humble opinion if you’re kitting then out with offensive weapons like that you may have missed the point. They’ll never do much offensively so I’ll forever take mine with shields to use them as an anvil which appears to be their intended purpose. Why take Greatblade Warriors when Chaos Chosen exist?

In that regard I think the best possible list for me follows the Ironjawz Recipe: 2 units of ArdBoyz as my grinders, the damage sponges, objective holders and general anvils. 2-3 units of Gore-Gruntas to support the Megaboss on Maw-Krusha. They’re my flex unit that can peel back in case of deep strikes, be held back and charge when needed or split to the flanks for far flung objectives then come back in. They’re fast enough to be able to move around and tag what’s needed. Then there’s the brutes which are the slow backfield hammer incase of deep strikes or enemy alpha strike charges or whatever. They can also be deployed via Hand of Gork upfield. After that you have the main hammer Megaboss on Maw-Krusha who is your mobile point and click to delete a unit, main offense and general. He can move up to 30” in one turn so I usually sit back and wait for the right opportunity hovering as far back as possible before my opponent exposes their general or other important piece and pouncing like a cat. All rhis accompanied by the support which is typically 2 Warchanters for +1 to hit and +1 to damage and a Weirdnob maybe to counter spell or Hand of Gork. Taking this to Soulblight Gravelords I make the following analogy: Skeletons are ArdBoyz, only 1 worse save, but every single one of them has 6+ ward instead of only 2 per 5. Only 1 wound but they also come back in combat on a 4+. With Invigorating Aura and Deathly Invocations I feel they’re the king of attrition. They’re the perfect anvil and tarpit and objectives holders. Plus from the graveyard gives excellent mobility that’s guaranteed over a 8 cast hand of Gork. Blood Knights are self sufficient and need almost no support and do more damage than Gore-Gruntas. They would be the exact same role and use as Gore-Gruntas and with Kastelei they can be brought in on the edges to protect from being shot off the board. Graveguard are brutes but can be brought back, get a 6+ ward save and do wayyy more damage, plus the option to be deployed from the grave again a guaranteed deepstrike instead of a risky cast. Then the support heroes, Wight King gives Graveguard reroll 1s, Vampire Lord +1 attack to Graveguard, and with the Necromancer we have Vanhel’s Fight Again. With Kastelei Dynasty my independent Blood Knights and VLOZD snowball, and the VLOZD can move 20” and still charge giving a huge threat range via using the run and still charge command trait, plus the auto run command ability, which is perfect for the pounce and strike. Which could be up to 26” if I run Amythystine Pistons instead of Flaming Sword. Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords - Army Type: Kastelai Dynasty LEADER Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)* - General - Command Traits: A Craving for Massacre - Deathlance - Artefacts: Fragment of the Keep - Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Flaming Weapon Vampire Lord (140)** - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Soulpike Necromancer (125)** - Artefacts: Arcane Tome - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Decrepify Wight King (115)** BATTLELINE Blood Knights (195)* Blood Knights (195)* 2 x Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* 2 x Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* OTHER 1 x Grave Guard (280)** - Great Wight Blade CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment **Warlord TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000) although since reinforcement rules I would probably do 3 blocks of 20 skeletons and a block of 20 grave guard What I have really found out is that my playstyle is pretty defensive. I have tried all alpha strike armies in the past even with Death and Ironjawz and other armies and it’s never worked. However I refined my playstyle on the Ironjawz into a slow game meat grinder of outlasting my opponent and striking their most powerful pieces with my MBMK at the perfect time. They hold back thinking they’re safe and next turn they can walk forward into combat but oops I happen to move 30” in a round and charge and deleted 800 points of your army and almost all of your hammers in like round 4 after holding objectives all game. I’m looking for a defensive slow grinding attrition playstyle to outlast my opponent and hit them when they’re weakest or most confident underestimating my speed and hitting power. With Kastelei I can easily run 20-26” with the run and charge command trait and Amythystine pistons or not. I am also not married to Skeletons. 40 zombies and 20 dire wolves. I don’t really care. 80 zombies and 10 dire wolves. I’m just committed to the grind and having flexibility to have fast units tag far away objectives then join the fight or whatever. I’d even use Fell Bats just for like super far away objective grabbers on the maps with the objectives all the way spaced out. I just want a defensive style where I can strike when I need to where I need with what I need to. I think graveyard deployment, run and charge in the same turn, etc can add a lot to that.

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords - Army Type: Kastelai Dynasty - Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence LEADER Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435) - General - Command Traits: A Craving for Massacre - Deathlance - Artefacts: Fragment of the Keep - Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma - Spells: Flaming Weapon, Invigorating Aura Vampire Lord (140) - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Amethystine Pinions Necromancer (125) - Spells: Decrepify, Invigorating Aura Wight King On Skeletal Steed (130) BATTLELINE Dire Wolves (135) - Doom Wolf Dire Wolves (135) - Doom Wolf Blood Knights (195) - Kastellan - Standard Bearer Blood Knights (195) - Kastellan - Standard Bearer 1 x Deadwalker Zombies (230) OTHER 1 x Grave Guard (280) - Seneschal - 2 x Standard Bearer - 2 x Hornblower - Great Wight Blade TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000) Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App Is this a good list? For Kastelai that is

If the Blood Knights took down a hero in Kastelai with 3 damage on the charge would they be a proper hammer? I’m surprised to find that the horde mentality is gone. Used to be like minimum 60 skeletons or you lose. i thought you had to embrace the horde to do well

Well for hammers I was planning on bringing 20 graveguard, 10 blood knights and a vampire lord on zombie dragon, and to buff out the graveguard I was bringing a Necromancer for fight twice and a Vampire Lord for +1 attack. Is that enough offensive power do you think?

I think there was a tiny misunderstanding. I meant 60 skeletons total and 10 dire wolves, as in 30 Skeletons, 30 Skeletons and 10 direwolves, or 20 skeletons, 20 skeletons, 20 skeletons, or 20 skeletons, 20 skeletons, 10 dire wolves. If I do 30 skeletons, 30 skeletons, 10 dire wolves though that's 4 "reinforcement points" so I cannot reinforce a unit of Grave Guard. I'd have to bring 2 units of 10 Grave Guard.

I was personally going to run 2 blocks of 30 or 3 blocks of 20 in order to fulfill battleline requirements for, for instance, Legion of Blood. I could do 2 sets of 20 a block of Direwolves or something, but if I double reinforce then I can't reinforce the Grave Guard to be at 20. These stupid reinforcement rules really hurt trying to run hordes.

I figured you needed as many skellies as possible to keep the units alive since they’re so killable. I tried LoN back in AoS 1.0 or maybe early 2.0 and the strategy then was as many skeletons or zombies as possible to flood the board and death couldn’t function without it because I kept trying MSU (3 sets of 10) skeletons because I didn’t want a horde army at the time. My idea is also based off my Ironjawz experience with a tough tarpit/anvil of ArdBoyz, so that would be my skeletons being constantly revived via their combat resurrection, deathly invocations and the invigorating aura spell. The Blood Knights do the same damage as Gore-Gruntas on the charge. Graveguard do as much or way more damage than Brutes. Then the hammer hero like MBMK (VLOZD) and last the support pieces like the Warchanter (Necromancer let’s GG fight twice, Wight King rr1, VL gives +1 attack to GG) I am having trouble picking a Dynasty as well. Legion of Blood: D3 more run from bravery +1 attack to 1 VLOZD, +2 cast 1 footlord Deathrattle (1 Wight King, 2 units of 30 Skeletons, 1 unit of 10-20 Graveguard) don’t take negative modifiers to hit/wound Artefacts: +1 to save Command trait: -1 to be hit Re-roll charge rolls Vrykos Dynasty: Re-roll casting rolls for vampires (1 VLOZD, 1 Footlord) +1 to hit/wound for Deathrattle ( 1 Wight king, 2 units of 30 Skeletons, 1 unit of 10-20 Graveguard) Artefacts: D3 Extra attacks Command Trait: Re-roll Charge rolls Free command point once per turn Kastelei Dynasty: Deepstrike Vampires on board edge +1 damage, +1 wound, +2 speed for 1 VLOZD, 2 units of 5 Bloodknights, 1 Vampire Lord on Foot, 1 unit of Vargheists Artefacts: -1 to wound rolls Command Trait: Re-roll charge rolls I have also reworked my list to be either: Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords - Army Type: Kastelai Dynasty - Grand Strategy: Hold the Line LEADER Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)* - General - Command Traits: Swift and Deadly - Deathlance - Artefacts: Fragment of the Keep - Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma - Spells: Flaming Weapon, Invigorating Aura Vampire Lord (140)** - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Amethystine Pinions Necromancer (125)** - Artefacts: Arcane Tome - Spells: Decrepify, Invigorating Aura Wight King (115)** BATTLELINE 1 x Deathrattle Skeletons (170)* 1 x Deathrattle Skeletons (170)* Blood Knights (195)* Blood Knights (195)* 1 x Deathrattle Skeletons (170)* OTHER 1 x Grave Guard (280)** - Great Wight Blade CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment **Warlord TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000) Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App Or this: Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords - Army Type: Legion of Blood - Grand Strategy: Hold the Line LEADER Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435) - General - Command Traits: Aristocracy of Blood - Deathlance - Artefacts: Soulbound Garments - Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma - Spells: Flaming Weapon, Invigorating Aura Neferata (365)* - Spells: Vile Transference Vampire Lord (140)* - Spells: Amethystine Pinions, Invigorating Aura BATTLELINE 2 x Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* 2 x Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* Dire Wolves (135)* OTHER Blood Knights (195)* Blood Knights (195)* CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment TOTAL POINTS: (1975/2000) Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App The truth about what got me into vampires and death is the Card Game they had for Warhammer. Im used to elite armies though so I resisted the horde back then. Now I guess I’m ready to embrace it with contrast paint existing. I’ve just always always wanted to use Neferata and have a bunch of vampires but I see now the use of giant blobs of skeletons or zombies to take objectives and hopefully never die. I want a defensive attrition army that can play the grinding game. 5 battle rounds of slow and brutal slaughter that isn’t Nurgle.

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords - Army Type: Vyrkos Dynasty - Grand Strategy: Hold the Line LEADER Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)* - General - Command Traits: Pack Alpha - Deathlance - Artefacts: Sangsyron - Mount Traits: Foetid Miasma - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Flaming Weapon Vampire Lord (140)** - Spells: Invigorating Aura, Amethystine Pinions Necromancer (125)** - Artefacts: Arcane Tome - Spells: Decrepify, Invigorating Aura Wight King (115)** BATTLELINE 2 x Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* 2 x Deathrattle Skeletons (255)* Dire Wolves (135)* OTHER Blood Knights (195)* Blood Knights (195)* Grave Guard (140)** - Great Wight Blade CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment **Warlord TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000) Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App Do y’all think this list has any potential to be good in any kind of way? I wanted a strong vampire presence but also to lean into Death’s strength of just hordes of bodies and the dead underlines under the vampires doing the work and protecting their masters while the vampires get the glory of the kills and taking offensive objectives.

Tie between the Megaboss on Mawkrusha and Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut because they both look insanely cool.

Uh. What about Girstlegore? It’s all Terrorgheists and those fly and also is a death army. also Vargheists fly. I don’t know if any other death battleline flies though.

Have there been any rumours about the full chaos warriors kit and knights kit being released come winter? Instead of the mono pose ones in the SC Box we have now.

My app must be wrong then. It says they’re only battleline if you run Idolators. Oh well guess I need to update haha.

I thought chariots were only battleline if your general was a Karkadrak or Lord on Mount, same with Knights?

It also lost its +1 to hit on charge ability in addition to its innate ability to strike first, which is now a heroic action only for Chaos Undivided. So it’s lost 2 abilities straight out of the gate in addition to losing an attack and it’s damage output is worse. We have not seen the new tome with the new marks or Warscrolls for anyone else, but as it stands DP are basically alone in the tome. Every prayer, or spell or any buffs target MORTAL units so nothing but despoilers interacts with them currently. I think they’re just objectively worse now based on the current tome and the current DP.

Nah new Daemon Prince is straight garbage. Nice new model but I will not be getting one to replace the one I have. Why would I pay money for something that’s actively worse?

Overall I guess I’d say I fell in love with Chaos due to Chaos Warriors and their ilk so I am trying to make them work and in my experience with Ironjawz having 4+ save 6+ ward save multiwound boys (who also have a better attack at 3/3/0/1 over the ArdBoyz too now) can be pretty tough to shift. Chaos Knight are worse than Gore-Gruntas but Varanguard are almost double price. It felt like STD were the defensive version of Ironjawz because Ironjawz are weak to shooting and mortal wound spam, but a lot of STD stuff has 5+ save vs mortal wounds and everyone can get the 6+ ward not just Warriors (I’d kill for 6+ ward on Brutes or GGs). Only thing they don’t have is a chaos Mawkrusha but I don’t want half my list to be Archaon..

Lol then what’s left? That said I’m trying to min/max a themed list which is the Chaos Warrior variants, or in other words min/max models I think look cool instead of what’s truly meta because I don’t like chaos marauders. i am also looking to play a new army because I’ve been playing my Ironjawz almost exclusively since 2017. STD seem similar. Chaos Warriors = ArdBoyz. Chaos Chosen = Brutes. Chaos Knights = Gore Gruntas. Chaos Sorcerer Lord = Warchanter (important buff piece). There is no Megaboss on Mawkrusha hero but I was hoping Belakor or a Chaos Lord on Manticore might come somewhat close. Also in my games I’ve learned having a resilient wall of bodies helps a lot, especially with a 6+ ward save (I learned this in AoS 2 running Big Waaagh and also shields on ArdBoyz). I also learned the counter punch strategy. Every single game I ran out yolo and “alpha strike” at my opponent with my Mawkrusha and Gore-Gruntas they would kill some chaff or screens and then get surrounded by my opponents turn and die immediately, however if I deployed as far back as possible and waited for them to move an important piece out into the open I could then strike and cripple their army. So for me, my playstyle, and my experience Chaos <something> seems like a fun alternative to Ironjawz that isn’t too different and looks extremely cool. That’s why I went for Chaos <something> for a durable, elite army that on paper according to the Warscrolls looks like some things can hit hard like chaos knights on the charge like Gore-Gruntas.

So Bel’akor would be good against say Morathi, or a Megaboss on Maw-Krusha or that big destruction god guy, Krondos or whatever? I just bought two because they had ranged attacks and looked pretty good for 100 points. However if they’re not good I’m not sure what I would do. I guess bring 10 more chaos warriors? 200 points is an awkward spot haha.

Is Belakor a good beat stick centerpiece? How useful would you say a chaos Warshrine is? Would you consider it mandatory for every list or could you go without? Are Fomoroid Crushers worth their points as a ranged threat and for MW? Trying to build a Chaos list with a huge beat stick combat monster center piece themed around the chaos warrior variants. Chaos Warriors, Chaos Knights, Chaos Chosen, Chaos Lords of all variety. I was thinking something like this: Army Faction: Slaves to Darkness - Army Type: Ravagers - Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence LEADER Be'lakor (360)* - Spells: Ruinous Vigour Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (225)* - General - Command Traits: Eternal Vendetta - Artefacts: Cloak of the Relentless Conqueror - Mark of Chaos: Khorne Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)* - Command Traits: Master of Magic - Spells: Whispers of Chaos - Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch BATTLELINE 1 x Chaos Warriors (400)* - Chaos Hand Weapon and Chaos Runeshield - Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch Chaos Knights (170)* - Cursed Lance and Chaos Runeshield - Mark of Chaos: Khorne Chaos Knights (170)* - Cursed Lance and Chaos Runeshield - Mark of Chaos: Khorne ENDLESS SPELL Eightfold Doom-sigil (50) OTHER 1 x Chosen (290) - Mark of Chaos: Khorne Fomoroid Crusher (100)* Fomoroid Crusher (100)* CORE BATTALIONS: *Battle Regiment TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000) Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App However if I dropped the Crushers I have no idea what to put in their place. Do you think this list could do anything at say, for instance, Nashcon? It’s the largest tournament in the southeast of the US is what they say.

How does the Ravager’s Battle Trait work in which every mortal hero gets a command trait? Are they all active all the time or does it activate only when they’re a General? i know you can swap General throughout the game. So do you have to choose who you want to be General and then get the Benefit of their command trait then? As an example, I have my Chaos Lord on Karkadrak with Bolstered by Hatred. He’s currently the General. His wounds characteristic is 11 when he’s the general. I then choose my Chaos Lord on Manticore to be the General and he has Eternal Vendetta. In the previous battle round could he re-roll wound rolls? Is my Chaos Lord on Karkadrak’s wound characteristic back to 9 now?