Soulblight Gravelords Handbook 2023
by
The Sun King
by
The Sun King
Introduction
This handbook is a subjective assessment of the Soulblight faction, meant to help newcomers to the game. As we become more familiar with the newest battletome this handbook will change accordingly. The ratings are subjective and should only be used as a rule of thumb. Age of Sigmar is no exact science and opinions will therefore differ – not even our collective wisdom can deduce an ultimate truth. However, this handbook should offer insights into the intricacies of the Soulblight Gravelords. The ratings and comments are based on competitive play at 2000 points.
And as always remember the golden rule: Wargaming is supposed to be fun. This handbook is not trying to dictate that competitive play is the only, or even the right, way of playing.
Glossary
Anvil / tar pit: A unit that is very hard to kill and therefore good at holding enemy units in place. In general the difference in use between anvil and tar pit is that an anvil’s survivability is often due to good saves where a tar pit is relying on lots of bodies and recursion to keep the enemy in place.
Hammer: A unit that has a high damage output and synergises well with anvil units.
Glass Cannon: A hammer unit that has very low survivability.
Road block: A unit that can stand in the way of the opponent to block their movement. Has preferably a big footprint.
Screen: A unit that is expendable and good at standing in front of your valuable assets to protect them from enemy charges.
Chaff: a cheap throw-a-unit. Needs to be so cheap that any resources the opponent allocates to deal with it is in your favour.
Zoning: The act of putting your units in positions that makes it so that you hinder enemy movement or deployment. Especially relevant to block out enemy units getting deployed from reserve.
Backliner / deck chair sitters: Units that are not strong enough to be frontline fighters but can hold the backline and later in the game get activated as an offensive unit.
Castle: A type of army list where you keep most of your units close together and try to block out the opponent’s access to your valuable assets that will be placed in the middle of your “castle”. Can both be a mobile build or stationary.
Pinning: The act of moving your anvil units into close combat and holding the enemy unit in a position that puts them at a disadvantage.
Alpha Strike: A type of list that puts emphasis on dealing a huge amount of damage to the opponent’s army in the first battle round. Can be both a ranged or close combat build. A version of alpha striking is alpha pinning where the strategy is not to deal damage but to rush anvil units into the enemy deployment to pin them in their territory.
Deathstar: A type of list that puts all eggs in one basket in order to create an unbeatable unit or group of units. The name alludes to the fact that this type of list will delete any enemy unit that it focuses on.
Multiple Small Units (MSU): A type of list that focuses on spreading the points put over many units, the benefit being that you have many different tools at your disposal, good mobility and it counters deathstars (see above).
Hammer: A unit that has a high damage output and synergises well with anvil units.
Glass Cannon: A hammer unit that has very low survivability.
Road block: A unit that can stand in the way of the opponent to block their movement. Has preferably a big footprint.
Screen: A unit that is expendable and good at standing in front of your valuable assets to protect them from enemy charges.
Chaff: a cheap throw-a-unit. Needs to be so cheap that any resources the opponent allocates to deal with it is in your favour.
Zoning: The act of putting your units in positions that makes it so that you hinder enemy movement or deployment. Especially relevant to block out enemy units getting deployed from reserve.
Backliner / deck chair sitters: Units that are not strong enough to be frontline fighters but can hold the backline and later in the game get activated as an offensive unit.
Castle: A type of army list where you keep most of your units close together and try to block out the opponent’s access to your valuable assets that will be placed in the middle of your “castle”. Can both be a mobile build or stationary.
Pinning: The act of moving your anvil units into close combat and holding the enemy unit in a position that puts them at a disadvantage.
Alpha Strike: A type of list that puts emphasis on dealing a huge amount of damage to the opponent’s army in the first battle round. Can be both a ranged or close combat build. A version of alpha striking is alpha pinning where the strategy is not to deal damage but to rush anvil units into the enemy deployment to pin them in their territory.
Deathstar: A type of list that puts all eggs in one basket in order to create an unbeatable unit or group of units. The name alludes to the fact that this type of list will delete any enemy unit that it focuses on.
Multiple Small Units (MSU): A type of list that focuses on spreading the points put over many units, the benefit being that you have many different tools at your disposal, good mobility and it counters deathstars (see above).
A Note on Averages
I will refer to “wounds on average” in this handbook. Whenever I do, it is assumed that your unit or model attacks an enemy unit with a normal save of 4+ and nothing else affecting the roll otherwise. The point of these averages is to highlight what you can expect from a unit in terms of damage output, as the weapon profiles can be a bit tricky to evaluate just by looking at them. Remember that in actuality many factors affect the rolls when you play, so use the averages only as a rule of thumb.
Rating scale
No unit exists in a vacuum and the ratings should reflect that. Thus the ratings are given based on how effectively the unit accomplishes its role in the army. However, all army lists are different so the analysis of each unit will be based on a very general perspective and common assumptions (e.g. fast and cheap units are used as screens etc.). Given the generality of the ratings they should be taken with a grain of salt.
✪✩✩✩✩ is unusable. This rating is reserved for the real stinkers. Picking this can only make your list worse.
✪✪✩✩✩ is situational. You need to have a specific purpose in mind if you pick this. Without a plan for the selection you will make your list worse by picking this.
✪✪✪✩✩ is decent. This is a balanced selection but is not a must-have either.
✪✪✪✪✩ is good. Most lists will benefit from this selection and you should definitely consider it.
✪✪✪✪✪ is amazing. This rating is reserved for the best our book has to offer.
Change Log
08-09-2023: Added additional information on Deathrattle Skeletons, Grave Guard and Askurgan Trueblades. Corrected the entry about Korsagi Nightguard. Formatted the handbook so that the entries are expandable.
Units
Battleline
Deadwalker Zombies - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪
20 for 120 points. Summonable.
Zombies are cheap and can be used in several different ways depending on your army list. These brain hungry folk are cheap bodies on the board, which makes them efficient at contesting objectives, zoning enemy units out and acting as slow screens for your valuable assets. Their role changes markedly depending on whether you reinforce them or not. Taken in small units of 20 they are a cheap and effective way of adding roadblocks and screening utility to your army. A small unit of zombies is also interesting in respect to our Endless Legions battle trait - as they will be wiped out quicker than a big unit and thus can return to the board faster. Which is a strength as we can take advantage of this with Callous Overlord (battle tactic) and Empire of Corpses (grand strategy). Soulblight Gravelords is an army that really wants to capitalise on our recursion and that means that it can be a good idea to have squishy units that can die early in the game - so that we can get them back sooner. If you are looking for the cheapest way to fulfil the requirement of 3 battleline units you should look at Deathrattle Skeletons instead, as they are cheaper per unit. If you take Deadwalker Zombies in blocks of 40 or 60 they become a bit more unwieldy in terms of movement but turn into amazing tar pits that can bog down the enemy and dish out mortal wounds as they die. On their own zombies cannot fight, but they are not meant to - you want them to die, because if they do, it means that your opponent is wasting their attacks and taking mortal wounds as a result. However, there are builds that can turn our cute little deadwalkers into something a bit more frightening in combat: The Corpse Cart is the main combo piece for the zombies as it gives them the ability to cause mortal wounds on 6s to wound. This is good as the zombies have 2 attacks each which are horrible on their own, but with some mortal wounds stacked on top they become a really scary thing to run into. If you’re going the route of boosting zombies' offensive capabilities you should bring them in bigger units and use things like the Vampire Lord’s +1 to attack ability or the Necromancer’s spell Vanhel’s Danse Macabre. If you’re going for a tanky build with loads of zombies you should go into the Vyrkos subfaction. The reason is that the command trait Spoor Trackers makes the slow zombies faster and the artefact of power Ulfenkarni Phylactery buffs the zombies ward saves to a 5+. Not only that but Vyrkos also has some cool unique heroes to help with the tankiness and attrition: Gorslav can reliably get destroyed zombie units back each of your turns and Torgillius buffs summonable units' ward save to a 5+ (this does not stack with other effects like the Ulfenkarni Phylactery). The Vyrkos heroic action Pack Alpha also lets you add d3 deadwalkers to a unit every turn, but this is probably better used on Dire Wolves. A few things to watch out for if you take zombies: horde clearing spells can really ruin your day and remember to have a hero close by that can issue Inspiring Presence.
Deathrattle Skeletons - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✩
10 for 100 points. Summonable.
Skellies are not as numerable as their zombie siblings but they sport a better save and stronger recursion. Their rend improves by 1 if your skeleton unit outnumbers their enemy, but do not let this fool you into thinking that skellies can actually fight. The two main reasons for bringing Deathrattle Skeletons are either as a cheap 10 model unit to screen or as a reinforced unit that acts as an anvil. Skellies have champions which enables them to issue commands to themselves, which is nice as they can act more independently than Deadwalker Zombies. As a unit of 10 they are good at zoning out the enemy and you can string them out to get a cheap screen in front of your hammer units. Skeletons are also the cheapest way of passing the battleline requirement (unless you play Legion of Night where you can use Fell Bats). They are slow so they are not good for screening in later turns. However, Endless Legions lets you return destroyed units outside 3” (on your turn) of enemy units and 5 skellies popping up in front of an enemy can really ruin their plans. If you take Skeletons in a unit of 30 they turn into a good anvil because of their Skeleton Legion ability: At the start of all combat phases you roll a dice for each slain model from the unit. On a 4+, you return 1 slain model to this unit. So if your unit is down to 10 models left, you will on average return 10 models to the unit. That can really make it a nightmare for the opponent to chew through the skeletons. Their Skeleton Legion ability makes them really good at soaking up things like Unleash Hell. There are a few things to note about this. First off this ability has a bit of anti-synergy with the Endless Legion battle trait, as it takes longer time for this unit to be destroyed - so make sure you include other units that can die early in the battle. Secondly, if your hope is that the 30 skeletons can take a beating and not get destroyed you might be in for a rude awakening as many units in Age of Sigmar have the damage potential to easily wipe 30 skellies out in a single combat phase. However, this might not be such a big issue as that would mean that your opponent threw their strong hammer unit into your 30 skeletons that comes back as a unit of 15 later. Deathrattle Skeletons synergise well with the Wight King on foot for a bit of extra damage output. They also benefit from the Ulfernkarni Phylactery as their standard bearer gives them rerolls on 1’s of their Deathly Minions ability, so you get a little extra survivability that way. If you’re running Neferata in Legion of Blood she will also increase the defensive power of the Deathrattle Skeletons considerably with her Twilight’s Allure (as long as they stay wholly within 12” of her).
Dire Wolves - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪
10 for 140 points. Summonable.
The zombie doggos are a strong choice if you need a fast and expendable unit. For 140 points you get 20 wounds almost as cheap as Deadwalker Zombies with a save as good as Deathrattle Skeletons and with a movement that is higher than both those units combined. Not too shabby. They have a champion so the rotten canines can bark orders at themselves, which of course is always a plus. Their On the Hunt ability makes them able to get into combat from up to 6” away which is a really neat trick to avoid things like monstrous actions and Unleash Hell. It also means that you can basically run and charge: Move 10" + Autorun 6" + pile in 6" = 22" threat range. The one area where the Dire Wolves are severely lacking is in offence: they are not capable of fighting their way out of a wet paper bag. Unlike Zombies and Skeletons the doggos don’t have ways to really boost their damage output, so don’t try to make them your damage dealers. Taken on their own without further support the Dire Wolves are great as screens, roadblocks and even backliners. If you reinforce them they turn into a decent anvil with high mobility (although the unit’s footprint starts getting a bit unwieldy when taken in higher numbers). If you lean into the zombie doggos you can use them with great effect in Vyrkos as you get a free unit of 10 from Kin of the Wolf and Pack Alpha lets you add d3 extra wolves in each of your hero phases. This, combined with other synergies from Vyrkos, makes for a good Alpha Pinning list where you swamp the opponent with fast wolves that have really strong recursion. An odd thing about the doggos is that they have an extra champion for each 10 models in the unit - weird, but good.
Other
Black Knights - Rating: ✪✪✪✪(✪)
5 for 130 points. Summonable. Battleline in Legion of Blood.
Black Knights are fast and cause mortal wounds on their charge. As with so many other units in Soulblight Gravelords they work quite differently depending on what you combine them with. The extra rating in parenthesis is if you run them alongside a Wight King on Skeletal Steed as this boosts their mortal wound output considerably (just make sure to keep them wholly within 12" of the Wight King after they charge). Taken in Legion of Blood they become battleline which is a benefit because it reduces the amount of points you would have to spend on other battleline units. Another benefit to having them as battleline is that you can double reinforce them. If you run them in Legion of Blood a strong synergy worth mentioning is that Doomed Minions make the Black Knights capable of doing some damage if they are in the same combat as your general. Taken alone without any of the aforementioned combinations they work well as fast screens that given their cavalry bases can cover quite a bit if you deploy them sideways. Note that Endless Legions returns units at half strength rounded up so a unit of 5 knights will come back as a unit of 3 - that is a decent return on investment. Their screening potential drops significantly if you reinforce them because of coherency rules. However they do become quite the anvil and a fast one at that. Their mortal wounds on the charge make Black Knights a good counter to screens, meaning that you can charge them into enemy screens and remove them so that your hammer units can charge past. Model placement doesn't matter for the mortal wounds: you can just tag the enemy unit with one model, so that you do not get in the way of your own units that need to charge past.
Blood Knights - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪
5 for 230 points. Battleline in Kastelai.
Blood Knights are the heavy hitters of the vampiric legions. They are our most consistent damage dealers and unlike Grave Guard they are very mobile and they do not need support to really dish out the pain. However, they do benefit from getting support - for instance they become extremely tanky if Neferata casts Dark Mist on them (that’s 3+ ethereal save… yes please!). They are pricey but with so many of our other units being cheap this is not a huge issue in list composition. Their biggest issue is their massive base size as it can be hard to get everyone to fight if you run them in a reinforced unit (even with their 2” range). There is a tendency to view Blood Knights as something you should mainly take if you run Kastelai, but as previously mentioned they are good on their own and combo with other dynasties (such as Legion of Blood). They also combine very well with Belladamma in Vyrkos if she casts Under A Killing Moon. To be frank, Blood Knights will be good in any army.
Corpse Cart - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✩
1 for 80 points.
On its own the Corpse Cart does absolutely nothing, so the evaluation of this unit will assume that you are running it alongside a unit of Zombies (preferably a big one) and/or wizards. It is a strong synergy piece and given the cheap price it is almost too good to pass up if you are running any sort of zombie build. To be honest even without running any zombies it makes sense to pick this unit because 80 points for a 12” bubble of +1 to cast to all you wizards within range is quite the bargain. It is so cheap that it is really annoying for your opponent to deal with because whatever they do, the outcome will be to your benefit. Do they ignore it? Great, you have the buffs available and can use it for zoning out and holding objectives. Do they kill it? Great, they have spent resources removing a unit that is almost free. I have been assuming that you run the Corpse Cart with the Unholy Lodestone as it is so far superior to the Balefire Brazier. The only time I would consider the brazier is if you already have two other Corpse Carts with lodestones, as the +1 to cast doesn’t stack with itself. However, running three carts in a single army is probably a stretch.
Fell Bats - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✩
3 for 80 points. Summonable. Battleline in Legion of Night.
This unit cannot kill anything even if its life depended on it - thankfully it doesn’t. For the cheap price of 80 points you get three 40mm bases with movement 14”, fly and summonable. That is a cheap and effective screen if I ever saw one. Outside of Fell Bats’ obvious capabilities as a zoning tool, screen and objective grabber - it also helps us get battle tactics (like Callous Overlord) as well as Grand Strategies (like Empire of Corpses). The reason why summonable is so strong on this unit is that you start with three bats. Then they die. Then they come back as a unit of two bats. That is recursion at its finest.
Grave Guard - Rating: ✪✪✪✪✩
10 for 150 points. Summonable. Battleline if a Wight King is your general.
The Grave Guard is by far our hardest hitting summonable unit, which is an important role in our army, as our other summonable units cannot work as hammers. I will evaluate this unit assuming that you run them with Great Wight Blades as the sword and shield option is a waste of points. To put it shortly I believe sword and shield is not worth it because you greatly reduce the unit’s damage output in exchange for a bit more survivability but then you end up with a unit that is not a good anvil and not a good hammer. You should focus on making the Grave Guard better at what they already excel at: smashing things. Grave Guards are the definition of a glass cannon: they wreck most things they touch if they get to attack first, but they melt away in the blink of an eye if anything gets to have their go at them. This makes them a hard unit to use effectively but the key is to hide them in the gravesites - you really don't want the opponent to hit them before you have gotten them into combat. The Grave Guard hit like a ton of bricks but they can be hard to get into a favourable position given their low movement. A good way to get more out of the unit is to bring a Wight King with them in the gravesite so that they can jump out together and use the Lord of Shambling Bones to devastating effect (you cannot use this in the turn they emerge from the gravesite though). If you want to make your charges more reliable you can go with the Vyrkos subfaction and make the Wight King your general with Driven by Deathstench. And now that we are at Vyrkos you might want to go with Belladamma for her Under the Killing Moon spell which turns the Grave Guard into truly terrifying damage dealers.
Korsagi Nightguard - Rating: ✪✩✩✩✩
2 for 80 points.
First off, Korsagi Nightguard cannot grow with Pack Alpha because they are not summonable… so this unit is just not good. Their damage output is pitiful, even if they are teaming up with Radukar, and 8 wounds for 80 points is just not effective.
The Sepulchral Guard - Rating: ✪✩✩✩✩
7 for 100. Summonable.
This unit is not good. The reason being that even with their two wounds apiece they have no staying power and they don't fight well. Their 6" pile in is cool, but completely wasted on a unit that cannot fight or survive. You will be better off taking Deathrattle Skeletons.
Vargheists - Rating: ✪✪(✪)✩✩
3 for 140 points. Battleline in Legion of Night and Avengori.
Vargheists are a fine unit but they are a little bit overcosted as they only have decent damage output and die like flies if they get stuck in combat. They don’t really do enough damage to be hammers and they are a bit too expensive to be screens (compared to a unit like Fell Bats). The warscroll in itself is not bad as they have great mobility and can be used as screen removers - they just cost a bit too much for what they do, and you are most likely better off getting Fell Bats at almost half the price. Interestingly the Vargheists are good in Kastelai as they are a vampiric unit that can make good use of Might of the Crimson Keep. They do have the Hunger, excellent mobility and the ability to deep strike which can be handy - just don’t expect them to do anything amazing in close combat. Given that the unit will often act as independent operators it is nifty that they have a champion (not that I understand how a bestial vargheist consumed by blood-hunger would ever be able to make tactical decisions for their unit, but okay). Running them as battleline in Avengorii and Legion of Night has become a bit more interesting given the updated coherency rules where a reinforced unit of 6 still can string out to either screen a lot or get all models into close combat. The star in parenthesis is if you run them in Kastelai or as battleline in Avengorii and Legion of Night.
Vargskyr - Rating: ✪✩✩✩✩
1 for 90 points.
If this had been a monster it would be a really good addition to our army. Unfortunately, it is not. Its damage output isn't amazing and the Varskyr doesn’t add any needed tools for our toolbox. A damn shame that the warscroll is uninteresting, as the model is really cool: Good thing it can be used to replace the resin Varghulf of the Flesh-Eater Courts.
Vyrkos Blood-born - Rating: ✪✪✩✩✩
3 for 90 points.
This warscroll is interesting - not great given the price, but the ability to make a pregame move is unique in the army and something that could become useful. As it is now they probably die too quickly to be worth the points because they are not summonable - compared to for instance Fell Bats. They are also keyword-locked to Vyrkos which is a bit annoying, as they would be better in Kastelai.
Askurgan Trueblades - Rating: ✪✪✪✩✩
8 for 180 points.
This is a quite interesting unit, and I have the feeling that their warscroll will take some time for us to really appreciate and put to use. They are fairly expensive as it is now, and they fall into a weird place where they have less damage output than Grave Guards but more mobility and survivability. A reinforced unit could definitely do some work and be hard for the opponent to shift. However, what makes them unique is their ability to make the enemy strike last, which makes the Trueblades more survivable in turn as fewer enemy models will get to hit back at them after they have attacked. This unit seems to have the best synergy in Kastelai as they can level up as they kill enemy units. Another way for them to level up is on their warscroll: kill monsters and the Trueblades themselves become truly monstrous. This means that the Askurgan's stocks go up if you play in a meta where monsters are a common sighting.
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