idn0971

The way the battleplans are set up you don't really need objective sitters as much since so many points are scored from battle tactics and your grand strategy and you only really need to hold 2 objective on the battleplans to score max points.

For sure. But that's a matter of target priority. And it's also true for any melee hero not just radukar. And if they have a lot of monsters, we have decent power projection and can engage in multiple areas forcing them to choose their priorities with their monsters since they can only roar once

I'm still not sure how to make sure grave guard actually get into combat with their slow movement. Honestly I think taking 1 or 2 blocks of 10 with great weapons might be the best way of using them as a sneaky hammer that you don't mind if they get destroyed

Radukar also does a decent job of doing some damage as well as providing excellent buffs and coming with a pack of 10 direwolves. His mortal wounds can be very nice as they are some of the only mortal wounds that the army can generate outside of graveguard

So there is a sidebar by rule 25.3 that says a unit cannot go above it's max unit size. However max unit size is not defined in either the core rules or the faq so it is unclear what it is and what the rule actually does. I just emailed the faq team and I suggest all of you do the same to help get clarification on this issue. Their email is AoSFAQ@gwplc.com

The current free AOS app has exactly this functionality

I really like vengorian lords in Kastelai for the exact reasons you've stated. I think they have been a bit overlooked but especially in Kastelai I think they are a great piece that can both act as a buff debuff piece as well as be a sturdy monster with all the benefits of that in this edition

Some spells or abilities like hand of dust from nagash or Archaon's slayer of kings have text that says that a model is slain. This rule says that instead of being slain by that spell or ability the mega gargant will take d6 mortal wounds instead

You can ambush blood knights in kastelai to get some more flexibility. Also the retreat and charge combined with the ability to fly over chaff allows you to get more mobility than you might think. Direwolves can also steal objectives if they survive a charge since they are speedy and don't do damage anyway

You could also do 20 grave guard and a vampire lord. And put the grave guard in the grave if you need to so you can deepstrike/protect the grave guard

You're overlooking coherency. 20 direwolves are really hard to maneuver as single block and a reinforced pack of skeletons make a fairly tough objective holder as long as you have a command point for a potential inspiring presence for them to use. They fill a bit of a different role as direwolves are fast chaff and objective takers and skeletons are better at holding mid or backfield objectives for cheap which is helpful with how many teleports and deepstrikes exist in the game

You could certainly change the skeletons into fell bats. I'd hate to lose the direwolves personally as they are the only cheap fast chaff that we have that can actually survive a charge

That's totally fair. My idea is that they are in the crimson keep accompanying the kastelai as it means they get a fresh hunt every night but I completely understand not wanting to have Vyrkos in Kastelai. If I were doing something like that and you were dead set against non kastelai units I might do something like this Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords- Lineage: Kastelai DynastyLeadersPrince Vhordrai (455)- Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine PinionsVengorian Lord (280)- Artefact: Fragment of the Keep- Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine PinionsVampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (435)- DeathlanceBattleline5 x Blood Knights (195)5 x Blood Knights (195)5 x Blood Knights (195)10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (85)10 x Dire Wolves (135)Total: 1975 / 2000Extra Command Points: 0Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 113 It's a lot more fragile but has potentially more damage output and takes full benefit of the new monster rules and bonuses. I'd probably stick all the troops in the anti monster battalion and have high drops. The other option is going 3 drop and trying to get priority.

Fair enough. My narrative for it is that they have joined the kastelai lead by my vengorian lord for their nightly hunt and brought their direwolves

Radukar, Belladamma and dire wolves for chaff. I have a list that I played on TTS that I really liked if you scroll up the thread

I'm going to make what might be a radical argument. I don't think Prince Vhordrai is the best option in a blood knight heavy Kastelai list. My reasoning for this is that in a blood knights list what you need is not a massive hammer that takes up almost a fifth of your list but instead you want to have more heroes that can buff your blood knights and can fit into battalions and take artifacts. Vhordrai is a fairly good hammer whose main upside is his high rend values but he relies on self buffs and potentially needs buffs from other pieces as well. His command ability is not good as to get any use out of it you have to put another 300+ point hero out of it. He also provides no buffs to your blood knights which are your main hammer and anvil. He's also less tanky then blood knights as he has one less wound and the same save for 250 points more. He also does not have retreat and charge and he can be hard to use with the smaller board size since his base is so large even with fly. Finally a 14" flyer is less valuable in a blood knights list as it already is highly mobile. Overall as much as I dislike it I think that Vhordrai and a Zombie Dragon are both more effective in other bloodlines where a modular fast hard hitting monster is more valuable since they lack the same mobility as a blood knight list. Let me know what you guys think, I'd be happy to be convinced otherwise but he seems like a trap in his own subfaction which kinds of sad but that is not to say that he cannot be an effective piece I'm a different subfaction.

Managed to play a TTS game with a friend and played a blood knight heavy Kastelai list vs his 4 mega gargant list. We played the vice battleplan which was very interesting and I really liked it. I managed to win at the top of 4 after managing to kill two of his mega gargants at the bottom of 3 but it was a close game. Battle tactics, heroic actions and monstrous rampages all have a meaningful and positive impact on the game and barely slowed it down and in general the game felt a lot faster and more involved than 2.0. Blood knights preformed very well first as a solid anvil but acted as an amazing hammer when buffed. Them plus a fully buffed vengorian lord with rousing commander one shotted a gatebreaker in a single round. Radukar also was a beast and helped pin and kill an kraken eater. Overall I think the heavy blood knight list is both fun and viable. As far as battalions go I took the warlord and battle regiment battalions to get more enchancments and lower drops. In the future I think I would not take the battle regiment and instead take two hunters of the heartlands battalions from the GHB to make all my blood knights immune to monstorous rampages. Roar is so good and being able to shut that off is worth it in my opinion since this list doesn't care about drops as much and it won't win drops against lists that do care. Lists: Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords- Lineage: Kastelai DynastyLeadersBelladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos (200)- Lore of the Vampires: SoulpikeRadukar the Beast (315)Vengorian Lord (280)- General- Command Trait: Rousing Commander- Artefact: Fragment of the Keep- Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine PinionsVampire Lord (140)- Artefact: Grave-sand ShardBattleline5 x Blood Knights (195)5 x Blood Knights (195)10 x Dire Wolves (135)5 x Blood Knights (195)10 x Dire Wolves (135)5 x Blood Knights (195)Total: 1985 / 2000Extra Command Points: 0Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 136 His list Taker tribe Gatebreaker Warstomper Kraken eater Kraken eater General 5+ ward artifact and wizard artifact

First off, you only get a bonus to the endless legions roll for enemy units destroyed not friendly units. The other issue with them is that they are directly competing for the same role as direwolves and are worse on almost all counts vs direwolves as a fast cheap chaff/tarpit unit. Direwolves are 15 points more but you get 2x the number of models and wounds, a similarly bad attack profile, 2 " less move, and importantly direwolves are unconditional battleline and black knights are not. And as far as mobile anvils/hammers go black knights are completely outclassed in survivability, subfaction support, mobility through retreat and charge, and damage by blood knights. They are just a miss in terms of a role in the army as every potential role they have is done better by a different unit in the army.

I've been taking a second look at the book now that points and the new core rules are out and I really think that most of the units and all of the subfactions are viable now. The change to mystic shield and the addition of flaming weapon strengthed the generic vampire lord by providing two good spells to help compensate against the awful vampire lore in the book. We also have lots of heroes with 3+ saves that can easily get to a 2+ to ensure that our key buff pieces stay alive. In addition, wight kings have gotten a buff since their command ability will no longer be redudant and presumably will be fixed to provide another buff to grave guard in addition to allowing grave guard battleline and being a fairly tanky and mobile hero for 130 points. All the subfactions provide substantial benefits with the nerf to inspiring presence strengthening legion of Blood in particular while the amount of debuffs in the game continues to go up also improving their standing in addition to the strong command traits and artifacts in the faction. Avengorii also has been inderictly buffed through both the new obejctive rules as well as the addition of decent generic artifacts that can be taken instead of the awful artifacts that are in the book. Skeletons have also gotten a buff as more command points means it is likely you will have enough for a key inspiring presence if you bring back half a unit as well as the focus on MSU making it more likely that a block of 30 will survive to regenerate and having rally in addition to deathly invocations to stay as a tarpit on an objective and can now even get to a 4+ save if necessary. Overall the book looks much better now in 3.0 rules and most units in the book seem to have a role barring the major exception of black knights, fell bats, and the bloodseeker palanquin. I'm really excited to play soulblight and try out the many potential lists in the book

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords - Lineage: Kastelai Dynasty Leaders Belladamma Volga, First of the Vyrkos (200) Vengorian Lord (280) - General - Command Trait: Rousing Commander - Artefact: Fragment of the Keep Radukar the Beast (315) Vampire Lord (140) - Artefact: Grave-sand Shard Battleline 5 x Blood Knights (195) 5 x Blood Knights (195) 5 x Blood Knights (195) 10 x Dire Wolves (135) 5 x Blood Knights (195) 10 x Dire Wolves (135) Total: 1985 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 0 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 136 What do you guys think of this? Fits into the new core battalions so it gets an extra enchantment as well as being 5 drops. Has lots of wounds and is very mobile with confirmed retreat and charge for blood knights as well as most of the army being on a 3+ save base. Idea is for vengorian lord to be a debuff/buff piece with -1 wound and -1 rend bubbles as well as potentially getting off his +1 wound spell and being a monster in general. Vampire lord provides another caster who can use mystic shield or the new flaming weapon depending on what's necessary. Direwolves provide screening and bodies to make sure blood knights get into combat and to hold objectives

It's official in the new edition that no unit can go over it's maximum unit size, so no infitine zombie combos. The rule is in the sidebar of the core rules in the pitched battle profiles section(25.0) for reference. Quote "During a battle, if a unit is at its maximum unit size, no further models can be added to it and any that would be added to it are removed from play" Sorry to all those who wanted massive zombie hordes

Same

Has anyone leaked the anvil of apotheosis rules in the new white dwarf yet? I want to build a working wight king and a more interesting vampire lord but I can't find them.

If a named character has a bloodline keyword then they cannot get a different bloodline keyword. They can still be taken they just don't get any of the benefits of the bloodline. So in your example Mannfred had the legion of night keyword already so he would not get the kastelai keyword or the effects of the kastelai battle traits. In addition named characters can never take a command traits or artifact regardless of if they are in their own subfaction.

In addition, the core rules state that if the number of wounds allocated to a model equals it's wounds characteristic than the model is slain. Since the number of wounds would be 3 and the wounds characteristic would now also be 3 it would be slain.