BaylorCorvette

This OR the ability for them to take the damage from wounds & mortal wounds inflicted by Missile weapons. Like others have said, simply handing out a minus to hit, while nice isn't going to be super huge with so many things still doing mortal wounds on unmodified 6s. So something that can help mitigate our good units from just taking a bunch of mortals would be the way to go. Via passing them off or the bat swarm having to be the target if they are the closest enemy would be good too.

"Although the Lumineth Realm-lords and the Ossiarch Bonereapers are taking centre-stage in Broken Realms: Teclis, they’re not the only ones getting drawn into the gods’ struggle. Dark machinations headed by everyone’s favourite backstabbing vampire seem to be riling up the plague hosts of Nurgle, who are taking to the field with some newly updated heralds at the fore." So I wonder if this is just a piece to explain the Nurgle part in BR Teclis, or maybe this is going to be some tie in for Gravelords. I cannot wait to see the lore of BR Teclis. I really hope it sets the stage of what is going on with Soulblight and lead into the introduction of their Battletome, kind of like BR Morathi did for the new Slaanesh book.

Yeah I thought they looked like bodies impaled on spears or something. Hard to tell though.

This is where I'm at too. My HOPE is that Gravelords gets elite Vampire foot infantry. Basically non mounted Blood Knights. Maybe min unit sizes of 3-5 with max unit size of 6-10.

That's fair, I personally would like a Blood Reserve mechanic for Vampires. Could even roll it into an artefact or command trait if need be, but would prefer it as a stand alone feature. But only for Vampires. Gravelords summoning is a big question mark. I wouldn't be surprised if they did away with the gravesites and using a CP to return a unit. I do however think Deathly Invocation will stay since Nagash and Arkhan use it in Ossiarch Bonereapers lists. Also it is thematic having a Vampire Lord bringing back Skeletons or Zombies to replenish units that have taken damage. Perhaps they do something similar that Sylvaneth can do where they can summon in Dryads but in this case Vampires have a spell that can summon in a unit of Zombies (or Skeletons)? We already know the named Necromancer from Cursed City will be able to bring in Zombies. Maybe that will work like FeC "Summon Imperial Guard" where once per game you can bring in a unit. Lots of question marks here.

It is definitely hard to nail down. Because it certainly looks like a unit of four unique Heroes as opposed to a unit with 1 Hero and the three "normal models" There is HUUUUGE potential here to make them a unique Vampire foot guys but I fear that it will be a huge miss as with some underworlds warbands. I definitely think it will be interesting to see their AoS warscrolls because they may be the first "Soulblight Gravelords" units that we will see stats for. If nothing else, we will at least see keywords.

Not so much a rumor as it is a trend I see. So with aethergold for KO, aetherquartz for LRL & Urgold for Fyreslayers I wonder if we will see something somewhat similar for Gravelords? I would love to see a "Blood Reserve" that Soulblight key word units use similar to KO or LRL. Maybe it throws them into a frenzy to re-roll hits, re-roll spell rolls, re-roll charges, etc. Each Soulblight key word unit gets 1 (maybe 2 depending on blood line / sub allegiance) per game. So it wouldn't be useable for zombies or skeletons just the vamps.

I do LOVE Blood Knights in Legion of Blood. Hopefully they keep a bloodline or sub allegiance like this. Maybe an ability where all "Soulblight" models get +1 to their attack characteristic, this sub allegiance would obviously be focused on Vampires instead of lots of Skeletons or Zombies.

I don't want Soulblight to be like LRL because I agree LRL is full of NPE. However I do not want Soulblight to be terrible either. My greatest fear is that they will be a knee ****** reaction to LRL rules and be underpowered. I hope I'm wrong though!

We know April and since the Serephon one went on preorder last weekend, my guess is Crimson Court is second to last or last weekend of April.

Agreed, it would be very cool to have some giant zombie ogors as an elite unit

What is the leak that said Cursed City is start of April? I haven't seen anything about that other than one or two posts here with people claiming the "heard" that.

Where things could potentially change is if there are ways to increase the attack characteristic of these guys. Maybe from the Vanari Bannerblade, similar to what a Bloodsecrator does for Khorne.

@whispersofblood does have a point though. I just played a two day tournament this past weekend, where I played as Khorne (specifically my Khorne Vampires that are primarily StD units). I placed 6th overall. One of my matchups was against LrL with Teclis, the game was Focal Points. My army had 3 drops, his had 4 and I decided to take the first turn by the start of turn four I had a Single Slaughterpriest left with 1 wound remaining, one unit of Chaos Warriors with 3 models left in it (started at 15) and one unit of Chaos Warriors with a single model left (started with 5) and a single unit of Chaos Knights with 2 Knights left. His army had Teclis with 3 wounds left and then 1 unit of archers at full health, another unit of archers with 6 models remaining, a unit of spearmen at full health and a unit of spearman with like 5 models remaining, plus a Cathallar. I pretty much played the objectives and zoned him out the first two and a half turns and then on the top of turn 4 I summoned it 30 Bloodletters that sealed the game for me. So yes I got hammered very hard by mortal wounds from his units and Teclis magic and then huge bravery debuffs, however I had enough bodies to zone areas out and prevent him from playing the objectives. Its not my ideal way to play AoS BUT I was able to beat Teclis and LrL so I'll take a win where I can get it.

True but also consider this, the Crimson Court and Cursed City will have AoS warscroll cards released with them. I would think that they would want the Soulblight Battletome to be out for this. Maybe not. Anyways, on to my analysis of the upcoming Vampires. I am SUEPR stoked! I converted an entire army into "Khorne Vampires" that played under the Khorne allegiance (mainly Slaves to Darkness models converted into Vamps with Khorne keyword), it was a labor of love project until a proper Vampire book came out. This past weekend I played a two day AoS tournament with them and to my surprised I finished 6th overall. Here are my thoughts on what I am hoping for, because I not only want to look at cool Vampire models BUT I want them to be a competitive faction. -Make Blood Knights a 3+ Save, so many things have rend these days that the increase save against no rend is pretty useless on the current Blood Knights. replace the D3 damage on the charge with just an additional damage but also increase rend by 1 and also possibly impact hits or the ability to retreat and still charge. These should be SCARY shock Calvary. -There are two things that are really prevalent in todays meta tournament lists. Shooting and Mortal Wounds, often from shooting as well but also from Magic. I would LOVE to see Bat Swarms offer the ability that any time a friendly Soulblight unit is allocated a wound or mortal wound from a missile weapon within X number of inches, on a 2+ (or 4+ maybe) that wound or mortal wound can be allocated to the Bat Swarm instead. -I love the "Mist Form" command trait in the current soulblight section of the LoN book and I think it fits narratively with vampires but also is very strong. The ability to retreat and still charge. I think this should be carried over into the new book and possibly apply to all vampires in some form or fashion. -I want to see a deep strike option or redeploy option. Deep Strike could be something as simple as bats being able to set up off the board and deep strike in. I was also thinking that a specific bloodline or command trait or something specific to one general/blood line could be once both armies have been deployed but before the first battle round X number of Soulblight units can be redeployed. It must still follow the same restrictions as normal deployment. This would highlight any sort of "tactical" minded Vampire Generals. Once the enemy has their entire army set up, maybe you see a more advantageous spot to set up. -I think a 6+ army wide wound and mortal wound shrug will likely be standard as with most Death armies. However, to emphasize just how robust a Vampires vitality is, maybe Soulblight have a standard 4+ or 5+ Mortal Wound shrug. -Usable battalions, I think we will for sure see several battalions in the book but I just hope they are both usable in terms of what the battalion buff offers but also the units that are included in it. The battalions in the last few books GW has released seemed to have been pretty good, as opposed to a lot of earlier ones. -This is probably a pipe dream, but I would love to see some foot Vampires, mainly in two flavors. The first being elite melee warriors maybe in units of 3 or 5. The second being archers, either on foot or on horseback. The horse back variety could be some sort of hit and run type of unit with bows but also swords. -Highly unlikely but would be cool - A Vampire type Assassin unit, could be a Hero or just a normal unit that allows for a deep strike or a deployment after the first battle round and has a bonus against killing an enemy General and/or Hero. -Finally, a cool terrain piece. Probably the lowest hanging fruit would be a graveyard type of terrain piece that allows summoning of undead units or bringing them back. I am very curious to see if the Deathly Invocations stays around along with the grave sites to bring back destroyed summonable units.

I can see that, but it also looks like bodies impaled on a large piece of wood to me too. So IDK what to think.

I was thinking Destruction as well.

Yes BR: Be'Lakor is #3.

Thanks, it was an overall fantastic weekend! Alright I'm super hype'd for all these new Vampires! I'm going to be making some crazy kit bashes for my Gravelords army.

Y'all I'm soooo excited to see the Soulblight release!!! I'm just now getting around to commenting on it as I was at my first two day AOS tournament where my Khorne Vampires placed 6th overall and nearly took top Chaos, but going into the two day tournament I didn't care if I went 0-5 after seeing/hearing the Soulblight release. My Khorne Vampires were a labor or love until a proper Soulblight Battletome was brought into AoS, I am SOOOO READY! Based on BR Teclis next week, Vampire Underworlds Warband next month does anyone think that we could see Soulblight Gravelords April / May? My initial impression is that Soulblight Gravelords will be replacing LoN since they will have Skeletons and Zombies. My HOPE is that there are more models in that Battletome that are NEW and that GW hasn't shown off yet, because everything they did show pretty much already has a warscroll in AoS (Skeletons, Zombies, Blood Knights, Fell Bats, Wight King on Steed, etc). My fingers are still crossed for Vampire Infantry, I really hope there is a sub allegiance that is pretty much Vampires (and Bats) only. In the shooting Meta that we have going on I would love if Bat Swarms still existed but instead of enemy being -1 to hit, they have a rule where if a friendly unit takes a wound from a missile weapon and there is a friendly Bat Swarm in range on a 2+ (or 4+) that wound or mortal wound is allocated to the Bat Swarm instead. A simple -1 to Hit while nice isn't cutting it IMO in the meta when mortal wounds can be dished out so easily from range (looking at you Lumineth and BloodStalkers)

Vampires or bust for me!

Yup exactly. Or they could be an annoyingly hard to kill unit, somewhat like Plaguebearers. Maybe a 5+ shurg on wounds and mortal wounds. Or they remain dirt cheap speed bumps like they are currently in the game. Heck, right now a unit of 40+ Zombies with a Corpse Cart is hitting on 2s and wounding on 3s, granted it is only 1 attack per model but if they had ways to crank up number of attacks like Khorne without using a CP then it becomes deadly.

LOL, I didn't even notice that. Pretty neat.

Really the main difference of FeC is that they're delusional and think they are nobility. Where as things like Vargskyr's & Vargheists are more bestial Vampires that have been deprived of feasting and turned into a "beast" so-to-speak. I don't think they have any delusions of what they are, just more of a feral animal that hungers.

Some AoS rules for the Cursed City models! https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/03/19/you-can-use-all-of-the-cursed-city-models-in-warhammer-age-of-sigmar/