Start Collecting a Soulblight Gravelords Army
If you are just starting a Soulblight Gravelords Army, you may be struggling to see the wood beyond the zombies. Well, worry not my young thrall, for I have some help for you here.
The first thing you need is the Army Book. You can get the Soulblight Gravelords Army book on our website (Please forgive the shameless plug…. There will be many of them).
Your next choice is WHY you are going to start collecting a Soulblight Gravelords Army. Are you doing it to play competitively? Or are you doing it just because you think the army and the rules are cool and fun? This first question is vital because it will massively impact which models you buy. If you are trying to be competitive then it may be worth asking on the Soulblight Gravelords Facebook group what units are working well with the current Meta. This is important because each “Season” Games Workshop release a set of new temporary rules that can heavily impact the army build. If you are just playing for fun, then really you just need to pick the models you like the best and go from there.
Picking a faction
Picking a faction is the important 1st step. Really you do this with an idea of the type of models you want to collect because they will massively impact your faction choice.
Avengorii – If you like monsters then the Avengorii are for you. To make the most of this faction you will most likely want to take Lauka Vai. As the faction head she will be a general in addition for your army. You would then want either another Vengorian Lord or a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon for your chosen General. Then for your normal units you add in Terrorgheist or Zombie Dragons.
Kastelai – This is a list for Blood Knights and vampire units. You can take Prince Vhordrai as a General in addition.
Legion of Blood – This is Neferata’s faction. She is your General in addition. This faction is all about combining Vampire units with summonable units. A good way to maximise these abilities is to use 2 deathrattle units with a vampire unit. This will give your enemy -2 leadership for battleshock, if they then fail battle shock, D3 extra models will flee.
Legion of Night – This is Mannfred Von Carstein’s faction. He is your general in addition. This faction is all about ambushing you opponent. Baiting them with your cheap disposable units and bringing your harder hitting units in from reserve.
Vyrkos Dynasty – This is Belladamma Volga‘s faction. She is a general in addition, along with: Radukar the Beast, Lady Annika and Kritza. Vyrkos is all about having powerful vampire heroes who support your summonable units.
Building your Soulblight Gravelords Army
Soulblight Gravelords Leaders:
Everyone needs a general, but with soulblight gravelords your leaders and general are a vital part of your forces. Your leaders give your units a 6+ ward save, healing for summonable units and can bring in a unit to fight immediately after them with the deadly co-ordination ability. Some of these leaders are powerful enough to protect themselves, while others are much better in support of your units.
Depending on your style of play and the faction you pick, almost every leader available can be viable. Always be aware that your general will have a large target on their back and it is often a good idea to not make your biggest hardest hitting model your general because they instantly become a pin cushion against some armies. Many times I have lost a General Vampire lord on Zombie dragon in turn 1, effectively neutering my army. This is 1 benefit of having a named Leader from your faction, giving you that extra general can really help you with command points. Even just that fact that if 1 of them is slain, you then get your command point from heroic leadership on a 2+ instead of a 4+ can be worth it.
Soulblight Gravelords Troops:
The versatility of a Soulblight Gravelords army is second to none (in my opinion). The “meat” of most soulblight lists are Deadwalker Zombies. There are not many armies where you have a unit with 20 wounds, a 6+ ward save and healing abilities for just 120 point! Deathrattle Skeletons can also be a complete tar pit for sticking on objectives. A unit of 10 can be wiped out quite easily, but reinforce it to 20 models and make sure it attacks 2nd so that it can heal all the models that were killed in the combat phase. Even better if you can get Vanhel’s off from your necromancer, meaning they get to recover twice in the combat phase.
Fell Bats are great at sneaking around to steal objectives, blocking charges, taking “unleash hell” and generally getting in the way. Black Knights are incredibly mobile and great at supporting more mobile leaders. Blood Knights are your elite cavalry. Their riders of ruin ability means they can effectively retreat and charge. This should mean you are charging with them on each of your turns, picking the place where they need to be the most. Having a unit of black knights supporting them can mean the enemy is locked into combat and unable to redeploy. This can give your black knights more chance to hit hard.
Accessories:
I have already mentioned the importance of the Soulblight Gravelords Army Book. But on top of that you want to make sure your games look good. Some decent scenery is always worth while (Like our Warcry Ravaged Lands Corpsewrack Mausoleum for example). Some decent dice are always important. You can go for specific Soulblight Gravelord Dice, or pop for more generic looking Dice. Finally, don’t forget you need to paint your army! There are tons of tips on various places around the internet on how to paint your army, personally I find YouTube the best place.