Age of Sigmar 3.0 is in full swing now, so let’s take a look at how to play a Soulblight Gravelords Army!
I wanted to wait for a little until the General’s Handbook came out before diving into Age of Sigmar 3.0 list-building articles.
So today we are going to get back at it. We are going to look at a book that came out right before 3.0 dropped but was wrote with the new rules set in mind, the Soulblight Gravelords!
How to Play Soulblight Gravelords at 2000 Points
(The Legion of Blood and Legion of Night are built around start collecting boxes and a Mortarch so if you are looking for the best bang for your buck you can start there.)
Here are the general abilities that are given to all Soulblight Gravelords, then we will break it down into a list for each faction.
- Unquiet Dead: Set up 4 Gravesite spots on the battlefield, 2 within your territory and 2 anywhere on the battlefield more than 1” from objectives and terrain features. Summonable units can be set up from reserves from these locations wholly within 12” of one and more than 9” from enemy units.
- On an unmodified Casting Roll of 9+ for spells unique to the Soulblight Gravelords, the effects are resolved twice if not unbound.
- 6+ Ward save if a Soulblight Gravelord unit is wholly within 12” of a friendly hero.
- Non death units subtract 1 from Bravery if within 6” of Deathrattle or Deadwalker unit, subtract 2 if they are within 6” of two or more of these units.
- At the end of your battleshock phase count the number of enemy units destroyed that turn and add that to a D6 roll. On a 5+ you can return half of a destroyed summonable Soulblight Gravelords Deathrattle or summonable Soulblight Gravelords Deathwalker unit to the table wholly with 12” of a gravesite more than 9” from the enemy.
- Deathly Invocation: Used in the hero phase select several summonable units based on a chart (2 to 4) you can heal up to D3 wounds to that unit, if they are not wounded return that number of wounds in models to the unit.
This is basically the book that is replacing the Legions of Nagash book which was a solid book for its time. I like these abilities though I do think Deathly Invocation is not nearly as good as it was as a unit can only benefit from it once per turn. The casting is nice though if you bring some powerhouse wizards. Let us dive into each of the allegiances and built a list around their abilities.
Legion of Blood (All Units Gain this Keyword):
- If an enemy fails battleshock within 3” of a Legion of Blood vampire unit an additional D3 models flee.
- Ignore negative hit and wound modifiers to Legion of Blood summonable Deathrattle units while wholly with 12” (18” if general) of Vampire Hero.
- Unique artifacts and command traits.
Built around Neferata and a pair of start collecting boxes is this and the legion of Night is probably the most economical of choices for the Soulblight player. Starting with what you get from buying the Mortarch and two start collecting boxes we are going to reinforce the Black Knights once and the Grave guard twice and your another unit of Grave Guard once to really fill out your elite skeletons.
- Neferata Mortarch of Blood: 365 Leader 1 of 6
- Wright King on Skeletal Steed: 130 Points Leader 2 of 6
- Wright Kind on Skeletal Steed: 130 Points Leader 3 of 6
- 10 Black Knights: 240 Points Battleline 1 of 3 Required
- 30 Grave Guard: 420 Points Battleline 2 of 3 Required
- 20 Grave Guard: 280 Points Battleline 3 of 3 Required
- Total 1565 Points
The Watch Captain is key here and for only 80 points he will help your Deathrattle blocks chug forward to engage your enemy. Backed up by Radukar the Beast who can summon in 10 Dire Wolves to further annoy your opponent or grab an objective.
- Watch Captain Halgrim: 80 Points Leader 4 of 6
- Radukar the Beast: 315 Points Leader 5 of 6
- Total 1960 (can get an endless spell or two)
This army is a slow-moving wave that is going to beat back anything that it encounters, though be wary of troops that pop up behind your lines. Once your blocks of skeletons move forward it is hard to get them to move backward very fast.
Legion of Night (All Units Gain this Keyword):
- In the first battle round add 1 to save rolls for legions of night Deathwalkers and Deathrattle units.
- You can set up a legion of night unit in ambush, and at the end of the movement phase place it wholly within 6” of any table edge as long as it is more than 9” from the enemy.
- Unique artifacts and command abilities.
Build around Mannfred, this army is based around setting up from ambush and getting your opponent to go all-in against your “bait”. You will really have to think about who you are going to use as bait and who you are going to set up in ambush though because that can make or break you.
Sure, setting up 30 Grave Guard in your opponents’ backfield can be a huge way to start the game, but make sure you have the space to set them up and the speed to get them into combat.
- Mannfred Mortarch of Night: 380 Points Leader 1 of 6
- 1 Wright King on Skeletal Steed: 130 Points Leader 2 of 6
- 1 Wright King on Skeletal Steed: 130 Points Leader 3 of 6
- 30 Grave Guard: 420 Points Battleline 1 of 3 Required
- 10 Grave Guard: 140 Points Battleline 2 of 3 Required
- 10 Black Knights: 240 Points No Unit Type
- Total 1440
This is again building around two start collecting boxes, but you still need another battleline and luckily the Legion of Night specific one is pretty good. Then we will want a couple more vampires in here to help shore up our hero slots.
- Vampire Lord: 140 Points Leader 4 of 6
- Vampire Lord: 140 Points 5 of 6
- 6 Vargheists: 310 Points Battleline 3 of 3 Required
- Total 1910
This is a neat army in that you are going to use ambush to get into your opponent’s backline rather than the Legion of Blood steady march. With the remaining 90 points, you can get some endless spells or pick and choose some of the other death units that might fit your army thematically like fell bats or something similar.
Vyrkos Dynasty (All Units Gain this Keyword):
- Add 1 to wound rolls for Vyrkos Dynsty Deathrattle and Deadwalker troops while wholly within 12” of a Vampire Hero.
- You can re-roll casting rolls for Vyrkos Dynsty Wizards.
- Unique artifacts and command abilities.
One of the new armies we are going to build around we are going to pick up some of the models from this Dynasty then add some other vampires in there to round out the leaders.
- Belladamma Volga: 200 Points Leader 1 of 6
- Kritza, the Rat Prince: 95 Points Leader 2 of 6
- Lady Annika, the Thirsting Blade: Leader 3 of 6
- Radukar the Beast: 315 Points Leader 4 of 6
- Vengorian Lord: 280 Points Leader 5 of 6
- Vampire Lord: 140 Points Leader 6 of 6
- Total 1140 Points
This is all your hero slots filled in so it is time to give them some troops to command. We are going to double reinforce a unit of Deathrattle Skeletons and a double reinforce a unit of Deadwalker Zombies, add in a Corpse Cart with unholy loadstone to hold the line better, and for our last battleline add a unit of 10 dire wolves.
- 60 Deadwalker Zombies: 345 Points Battleline 1 of 3 Required
- 10 Dire Wolves: 135 Points Battleline 2 of 3 Required
- 30 Deathrattle Skeletons: 255 Points Battleline 3 of 3 Required
- Corpse Cart with Unholy Loadstone: 80 Points No Unit Type
- Total 1955
This is a fun different type of army and the re-rolling casting rolls is a huge perk for your wizards. You have some large tar pits, but you are going to be counting on your unique named heroes to score your objectives and take out your opponent’s support troops.
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Kastelai Dynasty (All Units Gain this Keyword):
- You can place Blood Knight units in ambush which allows them to set up at the end of the movement phase 6” from any table edge outside of 9” from enemy units.
- Each time a Vampire unit destroys an enemy unit they gain one of the following traits (can only happen once each trait)
- Hero or Monster is slain: Add 1 to Damage of non-mount melee weapons.
- Wound’s characteristic 3 or more and not Hero or Monster: Add 1 to Wound’s characteristic.
- Wound’s characteristic of 2 or less and not Hero or Monster: Add 2 to run and charge rolls.
- Unique artifacts and command abilities.
This army is all about the Blood Knights (sorry wallet) being led by Prince Vhordrai and a pair of zombie dragons, so it is a pretty easy army to paint.
- Prince Vhordrai: 455 Points Leader 1 of 6
- Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon: 435 Points Leader 2 of 6
- Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon: 435 Points Leader 3 of 6
- 5 Blood Knights: 195 Points Battleline 1 of 3 Required
- 5 Blood Knights: 195 Points Battleline 2 of 3 Required
- 5 Blood Knights: 195 Points Battleline 3 of 3 Required
- Total 1910 (use the rest on endless spells or a solo unique vampire character)
This army is going to be a turn 1 decider on who wins and loses usually. You are going to set up your leaders, with the Blood Knights in reserve. Then the game starts out and here comes the knights and you hopefully make charges with everything turn 1 and wrecking face.
Avengorii Dynasty (All Units Gain this Keyword):
- 1 Zombie Dragon or Terrorgheist gets a cursed mutation, for each warscroll battalion you take you can give an additional cursed mutation as long as they are not the same model or mutation.
- Unless the attacking model is a Monster subtract 1 from wound rolls that target friendly Zombie Dragon, Terrorgheist, or Vampire Monster units.
- In the combat phase pick 1 friendly Zombie Dragon, Terrorgheist, or Vampire Monster to attack as if it was at the top of its wound chart.
- Unique artifacts and command abilities.
This army is all about taking Zombie Dragons or Terrorgheists as battleline troops and there are some unique leaders that run this Dynasty so we will about around that.
- Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares:285 Points Leader 1 of 6
- Terrorgheist: 305 Points Battleline 1 of 3 Required
- Terrorgheist: 305 Points Battleline 2 of 3 Required
- Terrorgheist: 305 Points Battleline 3 of 3 Required
- Total 1200
Let’s stick with the big baddies list and add a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon and a Vengorian Lord to round out this list.
- Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon: 435 Points Leader 2 of 6
- Vengorian Lord: 280 Points Leader 3 of 6
If your goal is to sling the least amount of paint and have the easiest carrying army then this list is for you. With it, you are fully embracing the realm of beasts and the year of the Monster.
There you have an Age of Sigmar 3.0 list building help for the new Soulblight Gravelords book. If I were looking to get into the army, I think I would start with the Legion of Blood just because the two start collecting boxes, and a Mortarch gets you 75% of the way there. It also fits my play style of a slow but steady march across the battlefield.
Though each of these looks different enough for its own play style and there is nothing wrong with running a bunch of Monsters in the Avengorii Dynasty and seeing the surprise on your opponents face when you show your battleline troops
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
