Soulblight Gravelords Tactics: Kastelai Dynasty

In this video ChrisC and TheJTJ breaks down the Soulblight Gravelords Battletome. We go over an in depth analysis of the Kastelai Dynasty. This is part 6 in the full tactical breakdown of the SBGL army.

 

 

 

 

Cursed Bloodlines Tactics overview

Kastelai Dynasty

 

Battle Traits

• The Shifting Keep
  • Outflanking Blood Knights – helps protect them from Turn 1 shooting or magic or allows you to possibly alpha strike / hit your opponent’s back lines.
• Might of the Crimson Keep
  • Permanent buff to Kastelai VAMPIRES depending on the type of UNIT they destroy. Each unit can only get each buff once (no stacking).
    • Bloodied Strength: +1 Damage to melee weapons (excluding mounts) if they destroy a Hero or Monster.
    • Stolen Vitality: +1 to the wounds characteristic if they destroy a unit with a wounds characteristic of 3 or more that wasn’t a Hero or Monster.
    • Absorbed Speed: +2 to run and charge rolls if they destroy a unit with a Wounds characteristic of 2 or less.
  • Grade
    • B+
    • Blood Knights are great, and will be amazing if their Riders of Ruin ability is FAQ’d or changed with 3.0 so that they can charge after they use the ability. Anything that can buff them or make them stronger is a plus.
    • Blood Knights may be the target of shooting or magic heavy opponents, so outflanking them can help protect them on turn 1 and also forces your opponent to respect your ability to come in on their back lines.
  • Tactics
    • Generally speaking, the Kastelai Dynasty will move relatively fast and hit hard but will be light on bodies compared to other Bloodlines and Dynasties that bring a lot of Skeletons or Zombies.
      • Leverage this by trying to gain early board control and/or hitting the opponent hard early on, focusing on a specific unit or two to generate the Might of the Crimson Keep abilities.
    • Note
      • Blood Knights are battline in Kastelai Dynasty.

 

Command Traits

• Beacon of Bloodshed
  • Impact hits can be nice, but with no way to retreat and charge your big Hero will likely be stuck in combat. There are better options.
  • B-
• Master of Retaliation
  • Only good on a General that plans to be in combat most of the game (VLoZD), but can generate decent mortal wounds with the possibility of 2d3 per battle round.
  • B
• Power in the Blood
  • Decent so long as you don’t plan to send your General in on its own. Helps ensure that your General will get the Might of the Crimson Keep buffs more reliably.
  • B-
• Rousing Commander
  • Only once per battle use but when used at the right time can ensure a lot of damage is dealt along with providing more staying power (on Blood Knights specifically).
  • Best paired with an Alpha Strike strategy.
  • B
• Swift and Deadly
  • Free 12” bubble of re-roll charges – fantastic, especially in a Dynasty that wants to move fast and hit the opponent early. Helps ensure those charges go off more reliably.
  • B
• A Craving for Massacre
  • Might be one of the best ways to make an Alpha strike VLoZD. Pinions + Run & Charge + COGs and you basically get to charge whatever you want on the board.
  • B+
• Tactics
  • There are no immediate standout Command Traits that are a MUST take.
  • For an Alpha strike list Swift and Deadly (re-roll charge rolls, 12” bubble) or A Craving for Massacre (General can run & still charge) are likely to be preferred, possibly Rousing Commander for a very hard-hitting single turn but will require good positioning.
  • Beacon of Bloodshed (impact hits), Master of Retaliation (MWs each combat phase) or Power in the Blood are all great if you want to make a VLoZD your main hammer unit.
  • Nothing really tricky here these are all average combat hero traits.

 

Artefacts of Power

• Sword of Red Seneschals:
  • Great if you want to super buff units around the bearer. Most milage would be from Grave Guard, specifically with Great Weapons.
  • Lots of things need to happen for this to go off.
  • C+
• Bloodsaint’s Shield
  • Too small of a range to really be effective.
  • D-
• Standard of the Crimson Keep
  • Protection from shooting is great, but doesn’t help against Mortal Wounds and it only helps out the bearer.
  • -1 shoot is great in the meta
  • A-
• Grave-sand Shard
  • Only usable once per battle and last until the end of the turn NOT battle round.
  • C
• Fragment of the Keep
  • Really nice, it is a passive 6” bubble around the bearer, can help reduce damage to the bearer and nearby friendly units.
  • Not wholly within.
  • Something to de buff wounds is great because there are lots of debuffs for hits in the book already.
  • A-
• The Red Casket
  • Once per game use, between Pinions and COGs there are more reliable and reusable ways to get the bearer into combat.
  • Why not just a 2+ all the time!?!?!
  • F
• Tactics
  • The main standout is Fragment of the Keep granting a 6” bubble around the bearer that makes all enemy units -1 to wound for their melee weapons against not only the bearer but anything, so long as they are within the 6” range. It is also passive and last the entire game, unlike some other artefacts that are once per battle. Sword of the Red Seneschal is nice since it could buff all SBGL units, although you’ll likely be using most if not all Vampires in this Dynasty. Grave-sand Shard could see some play for an alpha strike list that wants to mitigate damage for a round which will help stall the opponent from breaking through the alpha strike units.
  • Pair Fragment with Geminids or other death spells for -1 to hit and wound.

 

 

Command Traits Artefacts of Power Combinations

• CC
  • Most of the Command Traits & Artefacts pair well in any combination.
  • I think by far the artefact Fragment of the Keep will see the most play with Sword of the Red Seneschals being second. Rousing Commander or Swift & Deadly Command Traits will likely see the most play as it has the best force multiplier and not focused just on the General.
• JTJ
  • Craving for Massacre and Fragment for front line
  • Swift and deadly + standard of Crimson keep for backline

List Ideas

• CC Comments
  • Best Dynasty if you want to focus on Calvary since Blood Knights are battleline.
  • Outflanking Blood Knights offer great protection from shooting or magic round 1 but also force your opponent to respect their back lines, Blood Knights are great in combat and having them come in from behind can put big pressure on the opponent especially if paired with COGs to help charges go off the same turn the Blood Knights come on the board.
  • The Might of the Crimson Keep buffs can really supercharge your Vampires.
    • Prince Vhordrai can possibly have 4 attacks with -3 Rend & 5 Damage per swing. With his warscroll spell hitting and wounding on 2+.
    • Blood Knights are the real winners overall but Vargheists can definitely make big use out of the buffs, especially if you deep strike and pick off a low wound support Hero.
  • The first list I am planning on testing uses Prince Vhordrai with several 5 man units of Blood Knights and two units of Dire Wolves. The Dire Wolves provide screening and objective grabbing while Prince Vhordrai and the Blood Knights try to inflict as much damage and as quickly as possible, putting the opponent on the back foot. This will be paired with a Hero with the Rousing Commander Command Trait to help maximize this tactic.
• JTJ Comments
  • Trying to take advantage legion traits and ability
  • VLOZD
    • General
    • Craving for Massacre
    • Fragment of the Keep
    • Pinions
  • Vengorian Lord
  • Blood Knights x10
  • Blood Knights X10
  • Dire Wolves X10
  • Dire Wolves X10
  • Zombies X20
  • Zombies X20
  • The Zombies sit back and hold objectives or run forward to distract the enemy. The Dire wolves can be used as screens or to peel off and take objectives while your Heroes and knights do the work.

 

 

Thanks for watching, Y’all be good.