Soulblight Gravelords Tactics: Legion of Blood

In this video TheJTJ and Chris C, talk about the Soulblight Gravelords Battletome. We go over an in depth analysis of the Legion of Blood. This is part 3 in the full tactical breakdown of the SBGL army.

 

 

Cursed Bloodlines Tactics overview

Legion of Blood

 

Battle Traits

• Immortal Majesty
  • Nice bonus – could pay big dividends when elite units run. You would be surprised how many times after battleshock you wish just 1 more model ran.
• Favored Retainers
  • Can totally negate some enemy spells and abilities. Like, Slaanesh Fiends, Gitz netters
  • Will be interesting how this is affected by 3^rd
• Grade
  • B
  • Not bad, but it does restrict the units that make use of it.
• Tactics
  • Deathrattle are the primary type of units that take advantage of these traits. They have banners that hand out -bravery that comes into effect during battlshock.
  • Keep in mind that any Vampire can hand out the buff – so Bloodknights can apply favored retainers to Black knights, etc.
  • Soul-Crushing Contempt will also add to the negative battlshock modifier.
• Note
  • Black knights battline in Legion of Blood.

Command Traits

• Premeditated Violence
  • Nice on a VLOZD, No other units gets much millage out of it. Better options
  • B-
• Soul-crushing Contempt
  • Works nicely with, deathrattle banners, Immortal Majesty. But trying to build a Bravery debuff army is a little hard in this book.
  • The Shudder spell from the Coven Throne can take
  • Not trash, but better options
  • C+
• Aristocracy of Blood
  • Giving out charge re-rolls is great. Many uses for your mounted heroes, and when units pop out of the grave.
  • There are several ways in the book to get added charge distance and pile it. This works hand in hand with those.
  • A+
• Aura of Dark majesty
  • Great ability for a frontline fighter. Consider it on a Wight King, or VLOZD.
  • A+
• Walking Death
  • Fishing for 6s. Very swingy. Best used on VLOZD
  • B-
• Sanguine Blur
  • Very good ability, works on self and units wholly within 12”. Zombies with a 9 inch pile in? VLOZD with 6” pile in. Blood knights with extra. The uses and tactics are varied and many.
  • The extra pile in can also rope extra units into combat, move more units onto objectives and possibly move models out of retaliations position.
  • A+
• Tactics
  • When building your list use Aristocracy of blood to help with charges – could be good to pop unit out of the grave and try for the long charge. – cog would help this.
  • Aura of Dark Majesty is very good to put on your frontline fighters. VLOZD best choice, however could keep your Bloodseeker Palanquin alive a bit longer if you are taking that unit.
  • Sanguine Blur is one of the best unit buffs in the book. Has incredible tactical possibilities
  • Depending on build I would take Aura or Blur.

Artefacts of Power

• Ring of Dominion
  • Interesting Artefact, could be devastating against certain characters. However the 5+ is inconsistent and could not be counted on in a big situation
  • C+
• Shadeglass Decanter
  • Only guaranteed to do 1 mortal for the game, and max 5. Not the best choice could be good to take out a low wound backline hero, but way to unreliable.
  • C-
• Orb of Enchantment
  • One use. It would be worth consideration if it was guaranteed to work however you need a 3+. It should have been one or the other either auto one use or 3+ each turn. All in all avoid.
  • C-
• Soulbound Garments
  • 2+Vengorian Lord, VLOZD, vampire lord, Wight Kings.. big YES
  • A+
• Oubliette Arcana
  • You get to use it every enemy hero Phase, but its only on a 5+ and only 18 inche range.
  • B-
• Amulet of Screams
  • One time per game D3 mortals to an enemy wizard when the successfully cast…avoid
  • F
• Tactics
  • The clear winner here is Soulbound Garments. This will be taken 95% of the time by most players and possibly a reason to take this legion over other.

 

CT AoP Combinations

• Im taking Soulbound Garments 95% of the time. Pairing it up with Aura of Dark majesty will make your combat heroes very very tanky. Add in Dark Mist from Neferata, and or fading vigour and decrepify and it will extremely hard to do wounds to the hero in close combat.
• Sanguine Blur with Soulbound Garments is also viable if you want to have a front line heroe that is not quite as tanky but buffs the units around them more.

List Ideas

• JTJ Comments
  • Based on emphasizing the legions benefits
    • General
      • VLOZD
      • Aura of Dark Majesty
      • Soulbound Garments
      • Pinions
    • Neferata
      • Decrepify
    • Black knights x15
    • Deathrattle Skeletons x 3
    • Deathrattle Skeletons x3
    • Grave guard x2
  • Alternative is to drop Neferats and take the Deathmarch to lower the drops.
• CC Comments
  • If you want to try and build a bravery bomb list, Legion of Blood is the way to go, due to Immortal Majesty Battle Trait and Soul-crushing Contempt Command Trait added in with the general allegiance bravery debuffs.
  • One of the few Bloodlines / Dynasties where I would use a VLoZD over Prince Vhordrai (due to Command Traits & Artefacts).
  • All of the Command Traits are viable in one way or another, but my favorites are:
    • Aristocracy of Blood – could build an alpha strike list around this to get free charge re-rolls for units near your General.
    • Aura of Dark Majesty – VloZD becomes -1 to hit with melee weapons and pair it with Soulbound Garments Artefact for +1 to save and you have a pretty tanky centerpiece model.
    • Saguine Blur – extra pile in distance is huge but allowing units wholly within 12” to get an extra 3” is fantastic. 9” pile in zombies!!
  • There are a couple of standout Artefacts, specifically:
    • Soulbound Garments – makes your heroes more tanky, can build a beastly VLoZD when paired with Aura of Dark Majesty Command
    • Oubliette Arcana – Once per enemy Hero phase you basically get two chances to unbind a specific spell, the second attempting having a 33% chance of unbinding it regardless of what the opponent cast it on. Very significant to helping stop a critical enemy spell.
  • You could build an annoying tanking list using Neferata’s -1 to hit ability, possibly pair it with Gemnids as well with several blocks of skeletons.
    • With 3.0 it is rumored that you may not be able to debuff stack, so Gemnids + Neferata would not work.
  • I would personally build a list using a VLoZD with Aura of Dark Majesty and Soulbound Garments along with Red Banqueters battalion. This would lead to a tanky VLoZD that heals D3 in every one of your Hero phases.

 

Thanks for Reading and watching, Y’all be good.