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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
decwd.png

Warhammer Community Link

December’s issue of White Dwarf is on its way, with 144 pages packed full of hobby content. Turn that white snow red with an update to Battletome: Soulblight Gravelords, bringing new matched play, open play, and Path to Glory rules for everyone’s favourite bloodsuckers.

Of course, as soon as I post a thread that says "no real news on the horizon, lets look at some rumors & speculation" out comes some actual, factual news. :p

Nice to see 3e style Path to Glory rules for the gravelords. I'm pretty hype for that. Based on the Stormcast and Ork books the other 'matched play' and 'open play' rules likely refer to Faction specific grand strategies, battle tactics, & maybe some alternative core battalions. No saying for sure till it's out/leaked though.
 

Oppenheimer

Varghulf
May 26, 2013
743
Cities of Sigmar also got mount traits (although only for two of its mount types, not for the phoenix strangely) so it seems likely we will get that and some Path to Glory stuff at the very least.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Path to Glory's basically confirmed, and is the thing I'm personally most hype for regardless.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Not quite what I had hoped for, honestly, but since it's all bonuses on top of a book I'm mostly happy with I'm not complaining. The battalions are bad or forgettable, the grand strategy is decent but still probably worse than sorcery or HtL so it's not likely to see much play in competitive formats. The tactics are decent. Of the two mount traits, reroll damage on the dragon's breath attack is actually a nice upgrade on them.

Of the new allegiance abilities, deadly coordination is great for radukar the beast specifically, and alright for a regular vampire lord if you're fielding one in support of some zombies or grave guard, though not really a big deal at first glance.

The new LoB trait is nice for making their vampire lords shine a bit more, the casting bonus in particular is appreciated, though personally I had my fingers crossed for bodyguard black knights. Oh, well!

A LoB VLoZD with +1 lance attack LoB ability, re-roll breath damage mount trait, and the +1 armor save artefact could be pretty good. Shame you can't trigger deadly coordination with it, but oh well.

...

Personally I was most excited for the new Path to Glory rules, which afaik haven't leaked yet, so I'm still waiting on that.
 
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Oppenheimer

Varghulf
May 26, 2013
743
I can't even order the new White Dwarf yet. Looks like it's delayed in North America. All the leaks appear to be about matched play but Path to Glory is my bag.
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
Wow those are some huge buffs!🤤 Awesome update (even though I'm not sure we needed more power🤭)! I love Legion of Blood and Zombie Dragons so the huge buff to those are right up my alley.
 
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The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
same here. I always play a ZD, and even Lord Kroak would find a hard time in stopping a spell cast by a VL supported by a Mortis Engine.
Even more so if you pick Master of Magic as Command trait.🧙

A Legion of Blood Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with an extra attack on the deathlance and rerollable Pestilencial Breath is the real deal.

I love that they made it so our summonable units attack together with heroes. It strengthens support heroes like the VL. And Yeah Grave Guard just got even better. 💀
 
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The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
Oh another thing that occured to me: the Battle tactic Callous Overlord is so cool flavorwise but also good as you can turn a weakened Battleline unit from a liability into a benefit.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
This white dwarf review pans through the SBGL update in full, including open play and path to glory rules & may or may not be easier to read:


The most notable thing about path to glory is that summonable units aren't recorded on your order of battle, instead you just pick them each battle up to a limit based on the heroes you field in that game.

Up side: you don't have to worry about casualties, order of battle reinforcement limits, or glory costs.

down side: no veteran abilities for these units, and the limit per character is surprisingly strict: you can only take 3 summonable units per mortarch, 2 per non-mortarch vampire hero, and 1 per other SBGL hero.

There are summonable heavy builds that would really struggle with that. Hilariously, as written Nagash himself would only be able to muster the necromantic energy to raise a paltry one (1) summonable unit beyond those provided by other heroes & territories.

There is a territory that adds to the summonable limit, but only one unit, or 3 with upgrade. It's pretty rare to roll, and you cant choose it as a starting territory.

Unless I missed something there's no adjustment to the total unit pool limits to account for the fact that half your army in any given game won't be coming from your order of battle. There's also no extra allowance for wizards, so you'll still likely have to burn multiple starting territories on the arcane terrain.

Overall a bit clunky, but still looks interesting & I'm excited to play around with it. The unique terrain, Cursed City especially, seem pretty cool.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
I would have made summonables immune to casualties and unable to gain vet skills, but still would have required them to be part of your order of battle, with no extra restrictions on them.
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
I have to say Im unsure how you could expect more from the update. I mean we already have a good book and all these rules are positive add ons to that - how can that not be great? 😀
 

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