Nightseer2012

Just the one spell actually. Dark Mists is a 50/50 cast chance without modifiers. Corpse Carts are dirt cheap, so I'm not worried. Soulbound Garments is an artifact to give to the VLoZD, so no variables there, just sweet 2+ armor save. EDIT: Actually more than a 50/50, getting a 6 on 2d6 is better than 50/50 odds. Throw in the Corpse cart or something, and it is "likely".

Actually yea, get yourself a VLoZD with Soulbound Garments, buff him with Dark Mist, and boom. 2+ Ethereal VLoZD.

It isn't the old Ethereal Amulet but... Legion of Blood VLoZD with Soulbound Garments for a nice 2+ armor save. Actually most of the Command Traits from the Legion of Blood would be awesome on a VLoZD too. Exploding attacks, more Bravery debuffs to synergize with Immortal Majesty and Reanimated Horrors, Aura of Dark Majesty's -1 to be hit, several charging modifiers for either the VLoZD or his escort? Just tailer to your flavor, Legion of Blood has your general covered pretty well.

But what about... VLoZD buffed BY the Vamptaur? lol.

Yea, but it is 3 models. As a monster ball of one Monster and 2 Medium Monsters, they will be traveling together anyhow, I kind of assumed they would slam into one unit at a time anyway. A Zombie/Terrorgheist throws in some wounds early with ranged, get some charge MW of of Lauka Val, the Vengorian can heal any of the three of them once they chew through a unit. They Lauka Val still gets spells off the Lore of Vampires, and while they are 100% lesser versions of our last spells, they are also notably easier to cast by about 2 each. So you can use her to keep you from being counter charged with Death's Downpour or Soulpike, you can add on MW with a few other spells, give her an additional heal beyond Hunger with Vile Transference, which only needs a 4 now and will probably heal you 1-2 a cast (more if your in a mob). And hell, remember that both Lauka and the Vengorian Lord are both monsters, and benefit from the +1 Hit and Wound as well. Yea, they don't buff your whole army, but you take them as a giant distraction carnifex that can actually reasonably do some damage while the rest of your army plays the objective game. Just a self-sustaining murder missile. Yea, countered by shooting, but hell, everything is countered by shooting this edition, so that isn't exactly something new.

Besides being worried about a lot in here, I do like the synergy of running both Lauka Val and another Vengorian Lord. Between Both of their CA’s and the Lords spell, you can get some ZDragons/Terrorgheists to be 3+/2+, drastically increasing their killing power. That monster ball will be wounded at -1, and negating a point of rend, also great. Then once per turn you can pick a monster to fight at full health when it isn’t (once per battle per monster)? That is a scary Avengorii ball that can also heal itself, which isn’t bad in for 850ish pts.

Ok.... Max Unit of Skellies/Zombies + Soulscream Bridge = Possible fastest way to get our slow tarpit in close without other "deploy from another board edge" shenanigans again. My bridge has always done pretty well, and it will be much more beneficial to get a tar pit like zombie or skellies in fast that some others. Just because when they die, 30 recurring zombies or 20 recurring skellies can oppress an objective better than say, 5 black knights can. Noticing a grim downside for Endless in my opinion. They resurrected units show up during OUR battleshock, so the opponent has a whole turn to deal to this new, but half strength unit (unless you double turn, but meh). Depending on who you are fighting, giving them a whole turn to fight a half strength unit is more than enough time. I guess it is just another case of forcing your opponent to waste resources fighting a unit they have already killed, rather than expecting this new unit to actually perform well on its own.

Ugh... I am stupendously stuck. Recently picked up Neferata to round out the two Abyssal Steed Mounted Mortarchs that I respect. I could run the Legion of Blood that sounds like the well rounded Skeleton Legions that I used too. I have a Prince Vhordrai, and the new Blood Knights are stunning. I also love the look of both the new Bloodlines... and have zombie dragons and plenty of dire wolves respectively... The safe choice is to get the Battletome before I decide... but THE TEMPTATION!!! Also... I cannot wait to get my hands on the rules for the Lady Volga, especially that spell which can turn enemy models into Dire Wolves. I would love to see what that bloodline can do to buff (or at least make better use of) Dire Wolves en masse.

I had a similar thought. Going to just say "these smaller skeletons are just normal humans, and these bigger skeletons were raised from Norscan/Chaos Warrior corpses". I wouldn't mind having to fit two styles of skeletons on the same board, just means I have to be creative with my painting and modelling I suppose. Besides... 80 Skeleton Warriors moving up in a tide of spears and bone sounds like exactly why I got into Vampire Counts in the first place.

I actually prefer the 1/4 to the allies rules in a lot of cases. At least the 1/4 gets some synergy in your armies. Honestly I don't like a lot of allies that GW pre-allow for us anyway. I may have a chip on my shoulder about allies rules already. Who gets who as allies, and it not having any consistency with who is allies with who in the lore, etc etc. Just let the Grand Alliances ally or something. It isn't like anyone is using Grand Alliance Allegiances anyway. I would love to play GA Death, it would actually encourage me to buy more models, but unless 3.0 gives them a facelift, weird faction alliances (or lack thereof), is what we get. I would love 1/4 CoS as thralls. Duarding, Aelf, or Human thralls in a Soulblight army sounds super thematic.

Personally I am going to not hope for too much. As much as I would be interested in seeing a whole new swathe of new ideas like you mentioned (seriously everything you mentioned sounds wicked), I am going to set my expectations that they are just going to give the Vampire Counts a new, admittedly beautiful coat of paint, slap on some power creepy rules, and that will be it for the Soulblight Gravelords. The new skellies and zombies, the vampire lords, the wight king (just updating the old sculpts)... Maybe a new centerpiece model & maybe a terrain piece. Personally, I will be surprised if we get Soulblight specific Endless Spells, considering there are already so many Shyish-centric spells already. Maybe it is a little pessimistic, but hey, if they come out with some huge reinvention, or a bunch of new units that aren't just updates of old models, then I will be ecstatic that GW went above and beyond. All that being said, the only thing I think I would love to wish list for is a freakin' unit of crossbowmen, lol.

So for AoS iconography there seems to be the Blood Dragon flag and the Hammer of Sigmar Flag for next week. Wondering if the Hammer is just for 3.0 teasers in general. Makes a man dream that Soulblight could be the first battletome of 3.0, instead of the last one for 2.0

Lore seeker is just... not enough as a "named character". For either of the roles the battletome says he is supposed to be good at. A shame, because I really want to see him run with a Bladelord escort teleporting to his side in some dramatic holding action on the far side of the board like Starcraft Zealots, lol.

It is a Sylvaneth. That is going to be a female aelf spirit, floating above insect like tendrils and hatching new insect spirits.

I mean, "there is nothing stopping them" is technically true, but it doesn't change what GW has or hasn't done historically. I am all for narratives moving forward, but I am also all for army continuity. It would be really interesting for a series of books or movies for Arkhan to go from leading the Legion of Sacrament, to the Null Myriad, to "THE SUN LEGION" or something, but as a literal Arkhan player who owns his model, him jumping from army to army would get really frustrating. I already am having to deal with the idea that he isn't going to be in the Soulblight Book, so I can no longer have him leading my normal skeletons around and will only be in the Ossiarch Book. As a Legion of Sacrament player, losing him is already a pain in the ass. Something could easily be said for "anything is possible", but outright ignoring the "cynical corporate point of view" leads to a lot of disappointment when it comes to GW. Personally, if they make a new model for him in a few years, awesome, that would be super fun, but I don't think they will be doing it soon unless they also intend to make new models for Mannfred and Neferata simply because they all come in the same box, and I simply haven't seen any evidence that they plan to make new models for the two Soulblight Mortarchs. When they start teasing new models for the Soulblight Mortarchs closer to Gravelords being released, then sure, then I think a new Arkhan model could be on the table, easy. It would be super cool to see an Arkhan altered by his time in the Perimiter Inimical. I would love to see the story actually matter in that case, and Arkhan is the perfect character for that style of a redemption arc. But I also think there is something to be said for Arkhan becoming a good guy while still being a leader of a DEATH faction. That was his whole point of view in the first place, that DEATH and ORDER should be working together, and I think making DEATH a little less cartoonishly evil by allowing them to have a good aligned character leader would go a long way towards making that goal a reality, instead of stealing the closest thing DEATH has to a wise leader and, making him a sun spirit, plonking him into ORDER because "that is where the good guys go". That is why I would be ok with an Arkhan with some rules and lore changes but still being an Ossiarch leader. It is a change in mentality and outlook that comes with being enlightened, something subtle but still profound.

Eh, not sure about that, only because I don't see them entirely dropping his model or anything as dramatic as changing Grand Alliance. If they "change" him, I feel like the most they would do would be giving him a revised Sub-faction within Ossiarch that reflects his new status and change his warscroll a little. If only because they JUST put him in the Ossiarch. Story wise it would be interesting, but I am trying to temper my crack-pot theories with the knowledge of what GW would do model wise. If they even go so far as to make him a "good" Death character, I think it would be an Ossiarch subfaction that say... fights alongside order armies against chaos, hoovering up the dead bodies of both sides to make new Ossiarch. Basically what Death USED to do before the Pantheon broke up, which is what Arkhan wanted to do all along. If I wasn't considering GW models in my thoughts, I would assume they would reboot him entirely and make a new TK faction under his sun-filled visage, but the Ossiarch are almost exactly what the TK used to be, so we wont see something like that, unless they specifically add new models to the Ossiarch range with a new "good guy" flavor in mind. I doubt seeing new major death factions anytime in the next couple of years, not with Soulblight Gravelords being so close now.

All I know is that getting access to Transporting Vortex to "set up" Wardens or Bladelords in Shining Company again farther up the board is like having a second birthday this year. Anywhere on the board 9' away... yeeeeeeeeeeeeees.

So... the following idea is total spitball wish listing because I love Arkhan. Since before the Soul Wars, Arkhan has been depicted as distant, measured and intelligent. He is totally amoral, yes, but he seems "wise" compared to the other Mortarchs, and many times he seems wiser than Nagash. In Soul Wars he talks about missing the Aliiance between Sigmar and Nagash, and how them working together was the best thing for the Realms. He noted that Death would come to everything in the end, so why shouldn't Nagash just help the other Order gods defeat Chaos and just wait. Obviously he still carries out Nagash's will, but he knows the natural order of things still is good for Nagash. So... Arkhan is wise, intelligent, longed for the old order to return, and as the leader of the Null Myriad, exceptionally resistant to magic. I only bring this all up because in the Lumineth lore, falling into the Perimeter Inimical in Hysh means either being destroyed, or finding yourself before the Spirit of the Sun itself. Bare with me now. Tinfoil hats on. What happens when a wise resilient entity that longs for "order" survives Hysh's perimeter long enough to see the Sun Spirit? Tyrion got his brother back, the pilgrims from Alumnia receive enlightenment... how interesting would it be for Arkhan to not only survive the Perimeter, but to come back enlightened, by the Sun Spirit. The paradises are free from Arkhan "the Black". What if they "Gandalf" Arkhan the Black to give a wiser leader to Death factions? What could we do with that lore wise? Ok, I submit myself for ridicule now, but I think it would be amazing to have a Death leader that is wise, patient, calculating, and willing to destroy Chaos.

I am an Arkhan fanboy, so this news is a little worrying. All in all, they won't squat either him or Nagash, they are too narratively important and they have both died before multiple times and returned. I am assuming they won't do anything with Arkhan's model, as he is a triple kit with Mannfred and Neferata already. I guess what bothers me is that I was still holding out hope I could use either Nagash or Arkhan in Soulblight Gravelords, as they are my centerpiece models, and the whole reason I played Legions of Nagash to begin with. It seems like a cruel stroke of luck that chances are my two favorite centerpiece models will most likely be incompatible with my entire army soon. I suppose I could pray that AoS 3.0 makes the Grand Alliances a little easier to play with, but I won't hold my breath. I honestly wasn't really feeling Ossiarch Bonereapers as an army I wanted to play personally, I am kind of sad. After that, I guess I have a few questions? I am going to try and reserve my judgement till I have the book in hand, but some summaries sounds worrying. 1) How "easy" is it for Teclis to seal the Shyish Nadir? Did he need to consume pure aetherquartz, or ground himself with an artifact or something at least? It took millenia for Nagash to acquire the materials and spells he needed to create the series of black pyramids, not to mention the Great Black Pyramid that created the Shyish Nadir in the first place (and he still technically failed in that, and had to "make do" with the Necroquake because it wasn't his intent). 2) Any word on how this will effect the Arcanum Optimar? I'm guessing GW will want to keep selling endless spells so I doubt they would undo it entirely, but it would probably make sense for there to be some kind of effect.

Ill just put that next to "Jimmy Space" for funny names. Still disagree on the Morathi thing, but I guess that is why we have opinions. Back on the Lumineth, I am excited about new models for the Underworlds game, it kind of gives me hope that whenever the other big chunk of lumineth gets revealed, it will have the parts that feel so missing in this army. Would love to see someone do a Lumineth army based on the River Temple that was "infected" by orruk ferocity from the battletome.

I get loving villains, hell, I play Nagash, but even his character is much weaker in AoS than it used to be. Nagash is now more of a 'force of nature' than a being anymore. At least when he is displayed in most novels, his mind is far off, doing millions of things at once on grand scales, which kind of leaves him empty, personality wise. I kind of share the theory that he took out pieces of his own personality to "remake" the first three Mortarchs, because each of them kind of lines up with a facet that seems to be missing from Nagash's current personality. I get mad at Nagash's character sometimes as well, when he repeats the same old mistakes, but at least with Nagash, he has reformed so many times and gotten so powerful that he simply doesn't remember things anymore. Even stuff since the Age of Myth, it's like he has Diety level Alzheimers. It feels like Nagash's "character" is much weaker than it used to be, which is dissapointing. When it comes to villains, I actually love Arkhan. He balances out the "death death death" part of Nagash's personality with real patience. Especially in Soul Wars, he seems to understand the need for the other Realms to exist independently, at least for now. He knows everything eventually dies anyway, so there is no need to rush things, so he would rather work together to defeat Chaos. He misses the days when Nagash and Sigmar worked together to topple cosmic nonsense that neither of them could do alone, and used both their strengths to build a huge empire for both the living and the dead. That is the kind of villain I like. He is still more than happy to tear your soul out, but he has a vision that makes actual sense. His character has grown immensely since Warhammer fantasy, so he feels real, he shows growth and insight. With Morathi it just feels the same as it always does. You would think that being trapped by Slaanesh yourself would give you some insight into how stupid of an idea it would be to destabilize his prison and risk his escape. She just never learns anything, never grows as a character. Yea, she is more powerful and has her own army that she is NEARLY a god of, but her personality so far seems exactly the same. I would love for the new book to show some growth, I would love to change my mind about her. Tyrion and Teclis seem to be showing growth in the new Battletome, which is nice. Teclis is willing to admit that he needs guidance, so he communes with Celenarr, which offers him a new solution to save his people instead of forcing him to start over AGAIN. Tyrion seems much more patient than he used to, even staying Teclis' hand when it comes to killing the first Iodeneth off. Tyrion seems to have much more wisdom than he used to, and I would love to see what his bonding with the True Sun of Hysh resolves itself into. I guess for me, the weakest stories coming from GW are the ones where no one learns anything. I guess it makes sense that one of my favorite characters used to be a wretched noble son, who would gamble away his fortunes, and is now a patient, wise, but still amoral lich king who thinks on a cosmic scale.

Just... freakin' Morathi. Her and Mannfred are my least favorite AoS characters. At least when the Skaven muck something up it is funny. But Morathi's perpetual "I'm going to take more than my fair share and ruin it for everyone" shtick got old a long time ago (like 5th edition Fantasy long time ago). This is just going to stall Teclis' advance in his new war, because he will have to choose between his crusade to stabilize the Realms and repairing/re-hiding the prison of Slaanesh (which I doubt will be possible). Another thought occurs, hopefully we don't have to wait for Slaanesh' now inevitable escape for Tyrion (and his entirely military complex) to get off his blind butt and do something.

I decided to go a little old school on my narrative. Tossed this up on reddit earlier too. Vlad's spirit has returned from the depths of the underworlds, and reclaimed his old Mortarch title with his old name. I wanted to stay away from the 3+ ethereal cheese, and get as close to the other Dread Abyssal riding Mortarchs as I could, while staying as close as I could to his old ET rules. At 40DP (400 points) he would run well in most of the Legions of Nagash. In Legion of Sacrament, he would be casting at +2 to get his debuff cast easier, and I would run him with Mastery of Death (speed his army along) and Shroud of Darkness (-2 to hit with ranged at over 8"). In Legion of Blood he would have a -2 Bravery Aura, and I would probably run him with Soul-crushing Contempt to spike that up to a -3 if he kills a model in combat. In Legion of Night, I would run him with Terrifying Visage for a -2 Bravery aura, and the Shard of Night (-1 to hit from shooting attacks). He probably functions least efficiently in the Grant Host of Nagash, but I would run him with Ancient Strategist (reroll charges for units nearby), and Terrorgheist Mantle to capitalize on bravery de-buffs. They way he used to play in Warhammer Fantasy, you wanted to get him stuck in, cleaving heavy units apart, and debuff the enemy with his superior magic . I tried to keep that similar here, but with the added benefit that he finally has his own Dread Abyssal, named "Ignavest, Feaster of Cowards". He obviously wont be anything competitive, but I miss being able to field my Mortarch of Shadows, and this gives me that outlet. Next I am planning on making some 20DP range acolytes that worship Vashanesh, and I want to see what I can do with these rules to make a cheaper hero that works well in tandem with my reborn Mortarch. I will eventually make a converted model for him, might even put Mannfred on foot on Vashanesh's base in chains, as an example to others, lol.

So far we are stuck with our 2 non-combat mages. Our only hope in the short term is the Anvil of Apotheosis, and the rumor that it can be used in Pitched battle if your opponent agrees. From the rules they have already shown, you can make a combat Aelf, which will inherit the <Lumineth Realm Lord> keyword, and through that the Nation keywords. Unfortunately, I have doubts that they will be able to give your hero a <Vanari>, <Cathallar>, or <Alarith> keyword, so the synergies will end at just having the LRL and Great Nation keywords & rules. This will work out in my meta, my group already house rules some things once in a while and loves kitbashed heroes and such, but this will not be a good solution for anyone in a more competitive meta, or tournaments, who I doubt will allow the Anvil of Apotheosis rules. For everyone else, our only hope is that eventually(tm) we will get the other 60% of the army that the lore teases us with, including Close Combat Heroes, Artillery, Chariots, Sky Temple ( Fox Spirit, Skirmish Calvary, Flying Mage), River Temple (River Spirit, Light Skirmish Infantry, River Mage), and the Zenith Temple (Sun/Phoenix Spirit, Aelves made of Light who I expect will be heroes due to their rarity, supposedly there are literally only a handful), and Tyrion himself. So yea... while what is out looks really cool, I still can't shake the tidal wave of disappointment by the limitations of this release.

Wow... if that is true, that will be really interesting. I know there are some High Elves on Dragons that don't have a home that would love to be included in the Realm Lords through the Anvil of Apotheosis. My group already house rules a couple things, and I actually think it wont be hard for us to work in the new Anvil Rules. We aren't very competitive, so it is no skin off our backs.