1,000 Crusading Theme

[Ulrock]

Jumping back into AoS now that there is points. I'm wanting to do a "Crusade" theme so eventually lots of cavalry. Is this too little at 1,000?

Leader: vampire lord on nightmare

Battle line:
20 skeleton w/ spears
20 skeletons w/ spears

Other:
5 blood knights
5 blood knights

 

[Undead4Life]

I was toying with a similar idea, but went with a Lord on Dragon and Blood Knights as Soulblight Battleline. Your list seems more capable of objective scoring whereas the way I had it would have to shoot for tabling the opponent.

If you have the option I would go for wings instead of a horse for the Vamp; being able to ignore terrain is far superior to a chomping steed, IMO.

Otherwise looks good to me!

 

[Ulrock]

So at higher points I will be taking a zombie dragon with vampire lord but wouldn't do that till around 1,500. Is this pretty good for starting out in Sigmar?

 

[Kallypso]

don't forget that if you take the soulblight allegiance you don't get the death battle trait, command trait and artefacts. Sadly you will have to wait for a soulblight battletome to get a real bonus. (and i hope the soulblight battletome will come with some really cool ability and hopefully new vampire units!)

If your opponent agrees before the game, he will maybe let you use the bonus from death allegiance and keep blood knights has battleline

 

[Mad 'At]

I'm moving this to Summoning the Deathrattlers.

 

[Aranei]

don't forget that if you take the soulblight allegiance you don't get the death battle trait, command trait and artefacts. Sadly you will have to wait for a soulblight battletome to get a real bonus. (and i hope the soulblight battletome will come with some really cool ability and hopefully new vampire units!)

If your opponent agrees before the game, he will maybe let you use the bonus from death allegiance and keep blood knights has battleline

Errata says that you can keep Blood Knights as battleline even if you pick to have Death allegiance.

 

[Kallypso]

I've read a second time the errata and nowhere does it says you can choose death allegiance and keep the bonus from being soulblight allegiance. They say we have to choose an allegiance before setting up and that's pretty much it.

quote form errata general's handbook version 1.0:

''You must record the allegiance abilities for your army when the battle begins, before setting up your first unit. You can choose to take either the allegiance abilities for the allegiance your army belongs to, or the allegiance abilities for the Grand Alliance your army belongs to.''

 

[Demian]

Errata

Page 106 - Change the last paragraph to read:

(...)

"You must record the allegiance abilities for your army when the battle begins, before setting up your first unit. You can choose to take either the allegiance abilities for the allegiance your army belongs to, or the allegiance abilities for the Grand Alliance your army belongs to."

EDIT: the army roster is never changed, so you must build your army according to the rules, and thus, if you have a Soulblight army your Blood Knights become another Battleline option for you. Abilities/artifacts are not determined at this point.

However, your Allegiance Abilities CAN change between battles, to suit your particular needs and are determined "when the battle begins, before setting up your first unit". So in this case, you can use your particular army's allegiance abilities or your Grand Alliance ones. In this case, Soulblight doesn't have particular abilities, and so, you default to the Grand Alliance ones.

IE: When building your army, you determine who is going to be its General, and write down which units are Battleline, which Leaders and so on. Then, before deployment begins, you mark if your General will use a Command Trait and which one. If you suspect a gunline, you may want to default to Ruler of the Night to add more chances of surviving the shots, or if you anticipate lots of multiple small units, you may want to get Supernatural Terror and force more of them to flee, etc.

Also, you may chose any heroes to wield any one Artifact of Power, like the Carstein Ring if you feel you will be sniped out, etc.

 

[Kallypso]

ooohh!!! i see! i missed the when the battle begins! :S thx a lot Demian for the explanation

 

[Ulrock]

Have there been any rumors on upcoming Death Rattle or Soulblight books? I feel like Blood Knights as Battleline and a vampire on dragon would be brutal.

 

[Undead4Life]

Blood Knights are already Battleline if you stick to Soulblight, no? You have to stay within bounds unless you plan on summoning outside-Soulblight stuff.

 

[Demian]

Soulblight is one of the two themes that has Wizards with them (Vampires) and one of the few that don't require Necromancers to work.

Keeping that in mind, it's units are small but with Elite combat stats (they have no infantry, as of today) and must rely on monsters and fast charges to win. This can be compensated a bit with summoning.

Having 2+ units of Blood Knights is... quite expensive, both in money and in points, but they are well worth it, and so, one should aim to move fast and hard against heavy targets and not become entangled with lesser enemies, since Vampires, while formidable, are not like they used to be in 8th when a single hero could kill around 7-10 models a turn easily.

It seems like the Soulblight's "battleline" are Fell Bats, with stats very much like other Battleline units, with the capacity of become enraged with their Scent of Gore ability, but are not very durable. Vargheists are expensive but they hit like... a winged vampire on steroids!

Our best General is a Vampire on Zombie Dragon, hands down. Coupled with Red Fury, and an Arcane Shield each turn, it becomes a massive threat on the table who can easily destroy blocks of infantry (will let you know his average damage per combat phase soon ). Cursed Book or Tomb Blade on this guy for extra power!

All in all, it is an expensive army, but with very powerful gimmicks like the Coven Throne's Beguile spell which can basically disable an entire unit until your next Hero Phase, and the Scrying Pool to make that critical dice hit/miss, etc.

 

[Ulrock]

This may be a dumb question but with Aos it says a model can have a hornblower and a flagbearer. So I I make a model with a standard or horn does that mean I don't get their attacks with swords?

 

[Kallypso]

@Ulrock yes they can still use their normal equipment (weapons or shields) i think it's in the errata

 

[Demian]

Indeed! Stadard Bearers and musicians of all sorts count as a regular member of your Unit, and you may even have more than 1 of them in it as well!

 

[Ulrock]

I got my models in this week and this is what I decided on for 1,000 pts:

1 Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon
5 Blood Knights
5 Blood Knights

I started reading about Abhorash and well....... got me wanting to do a Soulblight crusading Army!

 

[Demian]

Go for it!

Also, do not neglect the usefulness of a Vampire Lord on steed or foot. Their Spell is one of the greatest in AoS, and will come in handy when dealing with elites, monsters and even heroes. 1 less attack per model/weapon is awesome.

Now, Vargheists while expensive, can perform quite well against regular infantry, even elites. If you're lucky, you can generate some extra attacks that can potentially kill 2 models each! Plus they are mobile and, well, Soulblight!

If that's not your thing, Bat Swarms can really help against shooty armies and can be summoned!

 

[Ulrock]

OK. I'll have to look more into the other units but that is what I'm starting with. I'm excited. I hope they do a soulblight or death rattle book soon.