Games Workshop Warhammer AoS - Soulblight Gravelords Deathrattle Skeletons

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The Mortal Realms are dotted with dozens, if not hundreds of long-dead and ruined kingdoms and nations. Torn apart by war, famine, death or whatever else may cause the downfall of a people. Most of these are however found in Shyish. Ruined castles, overgrown crypts and half-collapsed barrows are all to be found there along with the skeletal remains of their inhabitants. This doesn’t mean these places are dead, on the contrary. These now Deathrattle Kingdoms are still somewhat alive, a skeletal Wight King ruling over his undead subjects and commanding legions of Deathrattle Skeletons to battle. These regimented hordes of ancient armour and bone are enough to make any mortal tremble in fear or die to their rusted weapons. Having set the bar very high by imagining how good these could look for at least the last decade or so these vampires were going to have to work hard to impress me – but they rose to the challenge with aplomb. If you’d asked me a few months ago to come up with a wishlist of models I’d like to see in this release then theBlood Knights would have been second only to the Zombies (more on them below). The oldBlood Knights were nice enough models but, and I know this is just personal taste, I never really liked them that much – which is unfortunate because I loved the concept behind them and the artwork which often made them look brooding and terrible to behold. Scampering around his feet we have a pair of little Vyrkos Blood-Born. These diminutive vampires were once the nobility of the Cursed City who swore themselves to Radukar and were reborn as these half-feral creatures. Seeing them on Radukar’s base is a nice touch, providing a nod to the Cursed City game whilst also serving to emphasise how big the vampire lord has now grown. However I can’t help but wonder if, in the future, they might look a little out of context. Without the game from which they originated, and with it having remained on the shelves for such a brief time, there’s very little that looks like them elsewhere in the range. Who knows though, maybe someday the little scamps will get their own kit? One thing that does strike me though, especially as I look at the new vampire characters, is how much old Neferata and Mannfred feel out of place. For the uninitiated these were two of the most powerful vampires in the old Warhammer setting and when the great necromancer Nagash became a god in the new Mortal Realms he raised their souls once more and bound them into his service, reasoning that as their miniatures had only been released in 2014 it might be premature to kill them off without giving people a proper chance to buy them – a fate which Radukar the Wolf can only envy. Now I’m certainly not complaining that the models are still available, both of them are excellent miniatures and I certainly intend to paint one or other of them someday – probably Neferata (sorry Mannfred, you’re a much more interesting character and your devious villainy is a hoot to read about, but I have a secret love for Neferata so she jumps the queue).

Soulblight Gravelords: The Wight Kings that lead Deathrattle armies - whether being cruel Shyishian despots or enlightened Hyshian philosarchs - feel a deep sense of pride and individuality within them, making all but the weakest of them difficult to dominate by any but the Mortarchs and Nagash himself, as many a foolish Necromancer and Vampire Lord has found out. Thus, wise Soulblight monarchs often form alliances and pacts of mutual respect with the Deathrattle Kingdoms - offering them freedom of conquest and mountains of corpses with which to reinforce their hosts, in return for serving as valuable lieutenants and champions. With the coming of the Ossiarch Bonereapers, these alliances are becoming more necessary for all but the most stubborn of Kingdoms to survive. [3a] Nothing quite embodies the very essence of Death more than Skeleton Warriors. Clad in ancient armour and armed with rusting weaponry, these revenants are the core of many an Age of Sigmar army, and they’re pretty easy to paint too! In our latest entry from the Mind of Mengel, we’re looking at an easy way at getting yours on the tabletop looking great:The outgoing zombies kit (below) was hard to love. Like all zombies it kept shambling on long after it should have been laid to rest but at long last it’s suffered the metaphorical headshot to put it in its grave (and this time it can damn well stay there!). A Wight King was once a mighty and brutal warlords that were buried after their deaths in tombs, protected by shamanistic spells from thieves and looters. Some of these tombs where built where dark magic flows and pools, and many Wight Kings rest uneasily in these accursed places. When this dark magic grows strong these undead king rise from their crypts as Wight Kings, their eyes glowing with unnatural life. [2] [3] [4] Role Wight Kings are the rulers of the Deathrattle Kingdoms. While they have lost their sense of morality, their hunger for conquest and war has not and their tactical acumen remains as sharp as ever. Thus unburdened by doubt and weariness, the Deathrattle phalanxes react instantly to their lord’s commands. [5b] It’s only after a second glance that one spots the sinister tide of rats scurrying beneath his long cape, and recognise exactly what kind of animals he’s used to decorate his robes. They seem to be quite dead now of course, just stuffed heads with glassy eyes – but are they? These are the vampire lords after all, and no-one is quite as dead as they ought to be. When the Deathrattle Skeletons rise from the graves of the ancient world, things have gone seriously wrong for the living!

This is where I will introduce the metric of dollars per skeleton (DPS) going forward with the in production kits. These prices are based on official company webstores. One in every 10 models can become a Standard Bearer, carrying an ancient and tattered battle flag to the fray. This standard allows you to reroll 1’s of the roll for your Deathless Minions battle trait for the unit. Furthermore, the Deathrattle Skeletons are a Skeleton Legion. This ability allows you to roll a dice for every slain skeleton during their fight phase, on a 4+ it is reanimated and re-joins their comrades in their eternal war.So far, we’ve covered the Stormcast Eternals, Orruk Warclans, and Slaves to Darkness, but today, it’s time to cover our first Death faction. In the days and weeks to come, we’ll be bringing you more of these overviews, designed to be informative for both newer and experienced players alike. On that note, let’s learn a little bit more about these deathless servants of Nagash. Who Are the Soulblight Gravelords? The central villain of the ill-fated game Cursed City (surely a case of nominative predeterminism if ever I heard one!) was the vampire lord Radukar the Wolf. Vampires may be at the heart of this wave of releases but there are other undead shambling forth alongside them, not least of which is the magnificent Wight King. Whilst the Rat Prince tends towards an appearance of civilised melancholy Lady Annika appears to be a much more vicious creature indeed. If you like your vampires to keep their murderous inclinations beneath the thinnest veneer of civilisation then this could well be the girl for you. Now I don’t actually own any of these new skeletons (of course – they’ve not even been released yet) but what I do have are the Cursed City skeletons which, to all intents and purposes, are basically the same models, so let’s line them up next to some of the older skeletons in the range and see how they compare.

However it’s at this point that things start to get a bit bloody weird. Quite why someone decided that a part-bat, part-dragon, part-woman was the centre piece the army needed but needless to say it’s been divisive. Enter Lauka Vai, the Mother of Nightmares. What can I say – it’s a beautiful model ruined by, for some crazy reason, having bats in their hair. There’s a time and a place for being a bit OTT but this just comes off as daft to me, and plays to that silly superstition that bats get caught in ladies’ hair. If I get this model, and I might, those will either be getting snipped off or I’ll be giving them a headswap from elsewhere in the range. Otherwise it’s a damn good model, and its simplicity is its greatest strength, which makes adding a silly flourish in the form of the hair bats even more foolish. Mind you, a female friend did comment “Who hasn’t been running late and wished a few bats would turn up and do your hair? This is Warhammer’s answer to a Disney Princess!” I’ll never look at this particular miniature quite the same way again…

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They wield cursed Baleful Tomb Blades into battle, which they often use to behead their foes. Some pair these with Ancient Shield to batter enemy's blows aside, while other pair them with Infernal Standards saturated in Death magic that sustains and prevents the destruction of the undead. [1a] [1c] Cortek - Cold-Iron King - Dark Lord of Despair - Halgorax - Jade Skull Emperor - Oleksander Halgrim - Realmreaver Lord - Sarpa - Sepulchral Guard ( Prince of Dust - Champion - Harvester - Warden) - Yaros The new kit appears to contain a range of options, including lances, swords and a variety of heads, allowing you to personalise your own vampiric elite – or put together large numbers of them without having to include any duplicates. Certainly there will be those who build their army around a core of Blood Knights and create all-vampire armies, something that I think will be an impressive sight to behold. Warseer Forum/EEFL Forum Games Workshop Fantasy release timeline: https://eefl.freeforums.net/thread/1622/games-workshop-fantasy-releases-timeline Now that you know a bit more about the Soulblight Gravelords, we’ll hand you over to Warhammer Age of Sigmar playtester and Nagash’s Mortarch of Tournaments, Steve Curtis, to tell us more about how they play in the new edition.