Age of Sigmar: Hey, These Look Familiar! New Bloodlines vs Old in Soulblight
Out with the old, in with…the old. Goodbye WFB Vampire Counts rules – Hello Gravelords rules.
This weekend, the shiny new Soulblight Gravelords get their first round of preorders, and a lot of exciting stuff is coming along with them. New Skeleton and Zombie sets, new Blood Knights and Fell Bats, a brand new on foot Lord, and perhaps most exciting, the Avengorii Queen herself Lauka Vai. In addition to all these new releases, we got a quick preview of the 5 bloodlines you’ll be able to select for your army, and how each one of them plays.
Keen-eyed fans of Warhammer Fantasy will notice some similarities to the Vampire Counts bloodlines of old, though not always exact copies of course. Here the connections I made to the old ways, and I will admit some of them may be a stretch.
Legion of Night
Led by the mighty Mannfred von Carstein, the Legion of Night is listed as being the sneakiest of all the bloodlines, utilizing hordes of shambling undead to bait and distract their enemies while their more powerful units maneuver around them to deliver killing blows. The use of shambling hordes and duplicitous tactics, not to mention the fact that their primary leader still bears the name, follows the tenants of the Von Carstein bloodline, who fit the Dracula trope the closest. Here’s hoping someone playing this list builds up a scary powerful Lord to represent Vlad himself.
Legion of Blood
The Legion of Blood is said to be more interested in political intrigue than warfare, but in battle they fight with a devotion even other Undead cannot match. Led by the Vampire Queen Neferata, this Legion is pretty clearly the Lahmians (it’s even in the name of their Stronghold, Nulahmia). They fit the description of vampires as masters of seduction and deception, and I’m sure the bloodline will give them hit modifiers or something like that.
Kastelai
The dynasty of Vhordrai, this is a martial bloodline that fields waves of Blood Knights and launches attacks from a travelling citadel. This one is pretty clearly the Blood Dragons of Abhorash, and fans of the Red Duke will want to look into this one. Blood Knights as battleline and likely army abilities that allow them to move even faster will make this an exceedingly potent bloodline.
Avengorii
Led by the brand new hero Lauka Vai, the Avengorii are an army of monsters that can take Dragons and Terrorgheists as battleline. While the FEC are technically the direct descendants of Ushoran and the Stirgoi bloodline, these vamps also follow the monstrous beliefs of the Ghoul Kings. It will be interesting to see if they can include ghouls in their army.
Vyrkos
Rounding out the new bloodlines are the lupine Vyrkos first introduced in Cursed City. Every hero in the Vyrkos list will apparently count as a general, which means you’ll have tons of access to command abilities and extra auras, as well as powerful magical abilities. This harkens back to the arcane masters of the Necrarchs, and I’m interested to see what else the Vyrkos will bring to the table.
Which bloodline is your favorite?
