Age of Sigmar 4: Soulblight Gravelords Faction Pack 2024 - Full Review

[@overlord3051]

I genuinely love how you provide rules context; perfect for a new edition.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Thanks i appreciate it!! takes ages

[@sheareiswig]

really love how thorough you are in each rules video. I could imagine that it could get exhausting having to repeat yourself, but I know personally it is super appreciated! can't wait to watch them all

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Must be boring to listen to as well but just trying to make it as accessible as possible

[@sheareiswig]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams nah! it’s great. im too damn forgetful. so it’s helps out a lot 😂

[@Malisteen]

"Nagash bringing back 10 blood knights or 40 zombies feels good," he says, in a voice that sounds like he already feels very bad indeed about opponents doing this to him in the future.

[@Fortunes.Fool.]

How are you doing these videos faster than I can watch them? I’m also realizing how many armies of shame I have to assemble based on seeing these in my feed going, “oh I need to watch that later, gotta watch that one, oh yeah I have a vampire army to do…”

[@Crimzy2304]

Rob is a fucking legend, in my opinion.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Appreciate you

[@Starburst7641]

No, that's a goddamn fact.

[@valentinjakob1686]

Someone is in loooove

[@crg1850]

That was great! Thanks for tackling such a tough one. I was worried about this faction after losing subfactions but like you said they put some effort into this book.

[@Solitayre_sedai]

I love how the army is no longer dynasty locked, so if I wanted to I could run Neferata, Radukar and vhordrai all in the same list.

[@40KWill]

You can buy that would practically be your entire army.

[@rotm4447]

aint nobody playing radukar the beast for 350.

[@Solus1994]

​@@rotm4447 I am

[@rotm4447]

@@Solus1994 god speed.

[@rybo0072]

​@@rotm4447 I ran radukar the beast in a regiment with 2 units of vyrkos blood born and it's hilarious how hard you hit especially with vhordrhai tailing behind aswell 😂

[@paulturner9675]

I received your lovely objective markers in the mail all the way over in Brisbane Australia ... thanks Rob, can't wait to use them.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

OH NICE!! Happy gaming

[@zachlawrence9875]

Sitting here (im)patiently waiting for Nighthaunt

[@jacobgale4792]

Same lmao

[@BaneChain236]

Rob, I love you

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Is it because I review all 900 heroes

[@BaneChain236]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams uhh yeah that would be why

[@mitchatkisson5491]

It's the puns

[@tomreed9172]

Your attitude to life / the way the game works & your opinion on that x

[@kassill3786]

Thanks for the breakdown, I’ve been out of AoS for a while so this helped me to get a grasp on the new mechanics/roles for each unit

[@tobiasnenseter8044]

Loved this video, I also like how impactfull all the units feel when you read about them. Love how the samy old Nercromancer is still mr. strike twice. Vanhels Dance Macabre is so fun, throwback to Legions of Nagash when you could throw 322 (or 402?) attacks a turn.

[@xtruthx]

I am brand new to age of sigmar.. the fantasy setting was appealing to me over 40k so I decided to play AOS. It took me about a week of thinking about what army I was going to go with. I bounced back and forth between cities of sigmar to war clans to maggotkin. I couldn't make up my mind. The guy at my hobby shop up the road asked me if I liked vampires and I said I did. That's when he showed me The gravelord armies. Picked up a box of blood Knights and started building. I haven't even played a game yet but have plans to go watch some people play tonight. I am really digging this army so far from what I'm hearing.

[@olafolafsson2755]

The son of AoS president seems to play vampires:)

[@evilme73]

This compared with sylvaneth bringing back the old dual release 1hot+1not vibes

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Yeah Sylvaneth was rough

[@shendu1337]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams i feel like most of order got it rly rough so far. cities/sce also look pretty bad.

[@FlipityGibett]

@@shendu1337non humans look decent in CoS.

[@BlaueCookieFan]

A bit disappointing (though by no means new) that the vampires have less wounds that your run of the mill chaos lord. Except for vangorians, of course.

[@BonsaiBear27]

Cant wait to field this army/spearhead! Thanks Rob for explaining it all, it was really helpful 👍

[@kolbyblack6180]

You sir are absolutely killing these faction packs! Also, the vapms are going to be so much fun to play!!!! Looking forward to your tier list as well!

[@just_gut]

The use of Fell Bats is similar to what you said. They move fast are are relatively unthreatening in comparison to Wolves/Zombies/Skeletons/Blood Knights. This gives them the ability to complete a couple battle tactics. Take the Flanks, Take Their Land, and Attack on Two Fronts (especially late in the game) from the Universal ones, and Inevitable Demise from the Death ones. They're also much cheaper than anything else with reasonable movement, and that is pretty crucial in an army that has so many options (especially at the higher point values.) EDIT: Also, Fell Bats are Deadwalkers, so can set up in reserve and come on later but still have the mobility to help with whatever.

[@Mat-e5g]

Rob you rock!!! Thanks for doing what you do, we love your content!!

[@Ignatiusofantioch87]

I finally started painting my Askurgan Trueblades today. Thanks for your hard work.

[@MrGreenpaulo]

Awesome video, thanks Rob! I am a SBGL player and yes I am f^^kin stoked lol

[@joshjenne8355]

Just now getting into sigmar and have my eyes on soulblight! Thank you!

[@markyp9215]

Something to mention about corpse carts. They seem to be there for direwolves more than zombies now. With belladonna's spell, corpse cart with for the auto wound, radukar for the +1 to wound and the necro for the fight twice, I think you can really punch stuff with wolves.

[@Dom-pu5hj]

Wolves have companion on their attacks. It doesn't affect them. Crit is part of the attack sequence. Only thing that helps wolves is bella, necro double attack (because it buffs the unit not that attack profile), and AoA.

[@masver2424]

Hey Rob masver from Twitch chat! Love the videos 4th Ed series been watching since 1st Ed. You're an important piece to the Aos community! Thanks for making a wonderful game amazing!

[@WolfpriestCjarl]

Oh man, I need these videos to stay relevant and make sense of all this new stuff!!! thx u thx u thx u

[@Brightminipainting]

Incredible work rate Rob, you are the real hobby hero! Really enjoying the twitch streams as well. One thing - don't explain your jokes 😂

[@bristlebauss78]

I'm pretty excited for this, I know there are an obscene number of characters and heroes but the way they all have their own unique tricks gives the entire faction so much replay-ability for keeping it fresh and trying so many different play styles. 100% will be using Kritza at some point, his whole vibe seems like Beni from the Mummy movie and I'm so here for it haha

[@TheApple176]

Behemoth’s Bane is wild. I think you’ve nailed it with the suggestion that it will be changed to only affect companion attacks.

[@40KWill]

Maybe but it might be built to hit the big hero monsters.

[@squidjuice666]

I've been waiting for this one, appreciate you rob!

[@asurman77]

Yes! Finally my other army is being reviewed!

[@Solitayre_sedai]

A great review, thanks rob. I love my SBGL army, I don’t know where to start with all the amazing combos that can be run!

[@jamesalbright7581]

Rob thanks for the great review! You got me all fired up to play soulblight.

[@TheVirtue01]

My biggest takeaway: A "death lozenge" is now a thing

[@GreatMachination]

I am so glad they got rid of the dynasties. I just hope the points are reasonable so we can make some pretty wild looking armies because man this looks super fun. Thanks Rob!

[@leefoster73]

Played my first real game last night and got trashed. This clip has given me some great tips for list building, hopefully I'll get off the ground better.

[@Robotlizardguything]

Lauka Vai never fails to dissapoint me, and be completely overshadowed by everything else.

[@ChrisFrosin]

BRILLIANT! Was excited for this one. Caught a little on Twitch yesterday. Currently building my Spearhead up ready to try!

[@Grigorim]

Three skaven in a vampire cloak stealing your stuff

[@DaigotsuSoetsu]

The Kosargi Nightguard have control 3 for some reason, which is possibly a typo/oversight compared to similar units The book looks juiced and Rob is a legend for editing this down from the Twitch stream of even greater length Rob apologizing for swearing at the end not only shows just how tired he was, but also his sincerity to the community in being inclusive and welcoming to players of all ages~

[@mnpuck]

Hell yea! thank you for this! Getting Vhordrai's range attacks + the buff for companion from Lauka Vai would be insane!

[@CarbonMage]

1:12:20 just a note that Nightguard have too much health to actually bring a model back unless you've got a Mortis Engine in range

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

I tried to say that and hope i did

[@CarbonMage]

@thehonestwargamerstreams I mean, I got it just from watching this video, so you're clearly doing something right 😄 Thanks for making this, I've really wanted to see what sbg look like now!

[@Malisteen]

also there's only two of them and they can't be reinforced, with only 8 wounds total for the unit. It won't be too common to have one dead and the other alive. Really wish the Nightguard & bloodborn could be reinforced. As is... eh.

[@Lfcsweden-n5m]

Timestamps needed 😂 and maybe a medal for all these warscrolls 😂

[@gamer7138]

As someone who owns blood knights, vhordrai and vamp lord on zomb dragon for his 2k army since i think thats the coolest aesthetic. I am extremely happy.

[@ryanbowald2425]

It looks like nearly every warscroll got a buff. Man it’s a great time to be a soulblight player!

[@TrebleAmp]

These might be the most fun army to play by the looks of it!

[@Malisteen]

ok, so my painting priority list for AoS in 4e is: 1) soulblight spearhead, 2) a TON of zombies & dire wolves, 3) Mortis Engine, 4) Nagash (combine with mortis, 80 zombies & 20 wolves for when I want my opponent to hate me), 5) Liche's hand ror (replacing Nagash in the mortis+deathstench build for games against people I still want to be friends with), 6) OBR spearhead (if I'm going to have arkhan & morghasts anyway, might as well be able to run them natively). That production line should keep my busy till midway through 7th ed aos.

[@probsthinkingaboutfood2982]

I’m so happy about the Coven Throne, I was slightly worried that the model might be retired from aos since it is an older model (but one of my fav models ever lol) and the warscroll is super fun, nothing crazy but still a fun unit to use.

[@thehonestaspy102]

Thank you so much for continuing to throw shade at GW for making melee foot heroes suck! 😂

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

ill never stop

[@thehonestaspy102]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams and that's why you're the GOAT!

[@valentinjakob1686]

Good Review, thank you!

[@Ramza998]

I'm just happy Nagash looks actually interesting and fun and kept his funny guessing game so I have a reason to buy and paint him for my Nighthaunt. And with his incredibly high price he at least seems more reasonable than the ever exasperating Kragnos

[@jamesbgood25]

Looks awesome!!! Now do Flesh Eater Courts so I can have decision paralysis for a month deciding which one I want to paint!!

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

On it

[@DaBadMoonIsRisin]

@@thehonestwargamerstreamsYES, fec will be my new aos 4 army, SUPER exited for the vid

[@capt.mannerings8095]

This book is so much fun, you compare it to some of the others and its night and day. Love the video and needed this one as i missed the majority of the stream.

[@SMTHPFFMB]

Thanks for the great video! You touched on Grave Guard being Deathrattle - do you think that Fell Bats and Dire Wolves being Deadwalker will have any interesting combos?

[@Dom-pu5hj]

Companion on the attacks negates most of the buffs

[@florianmousson2773]

thanks for this massive job, reviewing a massive army! And what an army!!!!!!!!!!!

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

appreciated

[@tau5843]

Cities of sigmar soon?

[@Tropic_Recon]

Love these videos, holding out for the Khorne Boys!

[@Est1987ish]

Looks like my 2k list of Wight king on steed, x10 black knights, 2x Wight Kings 120x skeleton warriors is in good shape...now just need to find someone who plays 2k of Sigmar 😂

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

That sounds like an amazing game

[@sashashadowhive6128]

Received the objective markers I ordered. Unfortunately they don't stay in their tray very well (I can tell its meant to kinda click in place, but osme of them just kinda fall out if I tilt them) which is a shame, cause I wanted to put them in my warhammer bagpack in those trays.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Apologies about that. They are meant to click but it's a mm style job and I went didn't want to scratch the tokens

[@christiancouture2194]

For the Vengorian Lord's Festering Feast, would he be able to pick himself as the target of the spell, since it isn't specified that he needs to choose ANOTHER non-character monster unit?

[@PaoloTrepiccione]

No interest in playing Soulblight, but another excellent review. This editon reminds me of the earlier days of WFB, like 4th / 5th. Where units had maybe one special rule and the Heroes were better defined in their roles. I didn't mind 3rd edition AoS, but I do see it was getting a little bloaty with some units having two or three special rules to remember along with the army ones, the GHB ones etc. I had a conversation with a younger player who commented that the game was getting dumbed down. I showed him my old Empire army book from 6th and he was baffled that there were no army rules. I showed him the Spearmen / Greatswords / swordsman, and it was a revelation that all that separated these units from each other was loadout. No unique rules, just weapons.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

I mean there were a lot of USRS but i understand the point

[@PaoloTrepiccione]

Agreed, but really you only needed to know the USSR that you needed and could forget the others.

[@curticusmaximus]

Is Vhordrai as crazy good as im thinking? A bit pricy, but damn. His combat/shooting profiles alone are crazy. Even shoots in combat. Has the hunger, is a wizard, fight first spell, that crazy vampire buff ability, 50% of doing 4-6 mottals every combat phase

[@Cus27l]

In my humble opinion, you are the best.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Well thanks!

[@Malisteen]

ooh, i like the idea of pairing the new mortis engine with nagash. magash deals mortals to every enemy unit in range chain casting his spell and powering up the mortis to trigger at maximum power every turn dealing even more mortals to up to three of the units nagash already hit, eith 880 points left over to choke the board with zombie chaff standing inbetween ypur mortal damage engine and angry enemy units, dealing even more mortals as they die and also via the deadwalkers formation.

[@Malisteen]

nagash, mortis, 80 zombies (1x40, 2x20? or should that be 2x40?), 20 dire wolves (2x10?) with deathstench drove. nagash fully powers the engine each of your turns, dealing d3 mortals to every enemy unit ww/in 18" in the process, the engine then deals six mortals to 3 units in 18" on 3+ rolls in your shooting phase. 120 wounds (before recursion) of chaff to occupy objectives & screen nagash & the engine from enemy charges, with 3 units dealing extra mortals at the end of every turn (yours and the opponents!) from the battle formation, and 80 of those wounds proccing additional mortals on a 6 when anything kills them in melee. "armies deal less mortal damage in 4e," they said. :p

[@rotm4447]

mortis engine just looks quite good in general if you can keep it alive.

[@Malisteen]

5+ ward from nagash's spell, it can heal itself d3 while dishing out even more mortals via the unlimited spell, and the faction has plenty of fast sacrificial units that come back when they die to tie up enemy ranged threats with. It shouldn't be too hard to keep the engine up for most the game.

[@BloodKraven]

Such a nice round of rules!

[@probsthinkingaboutfood2982]

My two main armies are DoK and Soulblight and I gotta say I’m feelin pretty good about both of their new rules. Just wish I could find the warscrolls for the cauldron of blood and bloodwrack shrine lol. My 3rd army I’m trying to collect was sylvaneth and that… well that doesn’t feel nearly as good as DoK or Soulblight 💀

[@mick339]

Fell Bats are great for battle tactics play

[@wrongix6544]

Damn Soulblight looking amazing

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

they look so good

[@ianralph2907]

Thanks

[@geronimowirth4477]

Black Knights finally good! But feels weird that vampires doesnt buff anymore. But feels cool for my skeleton kingdom. But I am way more exited about nurgle, I hope to see your video to them soon

[@ahamstercorn3781]

So for the spell Wase Away can it reduce a units attacks to 0?

[@carlfromchicago6908]

Thanks!

[@TheEldenBling]

I really don't get the roll a d3 on a 2+ return slain models, is that if you roll a 4+ (2+ on a d3) that you bring back 2 models or 4 ?

[@rotm4447]

on a d6 its 3-4 bring back 2, on a 5-6 bring back 3.

[@TheEldenBling]

@@rotm4447 brilliant thank you

[@timocode2069]

Looks that AoS4 is way less killy compared to 40K or AoS3 or what do you guys think?

[@Hedonite]

It looks like that on the surface. But getting combos off and utilizing out of phase charging and good tactics. It's about the same at 3rd imo

[@SamuraiMujuru]

And the great question endures, who would win in a fight between Nietzche's ubermensch and Mandroid? The answer is... WEREWOLF QUEEN, IT'S ALWAYS WEREWOLF QUEEN!

[@Starburst7641]

Rob is the hero GW needs, but does not deserve.

[@scottbarber2736]

Excellent Ted Talk

[@hachi261]

When will the stormcast faction analysis be available? +info about the models coming out in 2025 and what do you think about it thx :)

[@markpandelidis2079]

Lash of the sire doesn't need to state that you can't move into combat because you can never move into combat as per the core rules unless the ability states otherwise.

[@40KWill]

True. I bet someone will argue this.

[@markpandelidis2079]

@@40KWill ....people can argue that the moon should be closer to the earth. Like it's what's written word for word. I don't get this concept of arguing because you want something to work your way rather than what's literally written lol.

[@sashashadowhive6128]

Could you point out where it says that? (I am not argueing with you I just cannot find it back and I like knowing where to find stuff to end these kinds of arguments quickly when they arise)

[@markpandelidis2079]

@@sashashadowhive6128 I actually don't see it written anywhere myself. I suppose I'm not 100% in the right in this instance, as with the new core rules, if the ability doesn't specifically say it's a normal move....there's nothing in the core rules that say you can't move into combat. I would probably say the intention is not to allow it. But as GW is very bad at writing rules, this is something someone could argue. I therefore retract my previous statement.

[@sashashadowhive6128]

@@markpandelidis2079 Holy shit a mature person on the internet who admits a mistake... This is rare. But yeah, in any other case they seem to clearly write out if a unit can or cannot end in/move through combat ranges. So this is a weird instance.

[@rickroberts7312]

Great video

[@HarleyTill]

Excited for deepkin!

[@ismasekkate9607]

Man they did not hold back on this army. Love mine even more now.

[@MrFerned]

Where is this written that units can't move after "the rising dead"? Only related rule in new edition i found is you can't use 2 core abilities per phase which this isn't.

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Units can't move after set up. Is in the core rules

[@raigomander2817]

Rob! Rob! Rob! Rob!

[@40KWill]

Points on the big vampires are a bit oppressive

[@harrisonmacey6380]

If the wight king targets death rattle cavalry not just black knights does that mean there are other death rattle cavalry units? Or do you think we will get a new death rattle cav unit?

[@Rythla]

I think it's so that he is affected by himself :)

[@MrFrummel]

Will you cover the Beasts of Chaos as well?

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

of course

[@40KWill]

We get a whole 1/3 of 4th Ed with BoC and BS.

[@thehonestaspy102]

If you had a unit with 2 wounds each where one model was dead and one was on half health could you heal the wounded model and return the dead one or is it a one or other kind of ability?

[@shinufilms]

ogor subfaction - +1 to casting SBGL - +1 to casting AND +1 to wound, on heroes who are infinitely better fighters than ogor heroes. yup, seems fine to me :(

[@danielcraine120]

In my personal opinion, super spicey

[@ChaseTheChamp11]

Man, I wish this video used markers...that would have been great.

[@MrWooberman]

Ah... Neferata's bs knife persists. My first game of aos was cut short when she one shotted my Great Unclean One. It was a feels bad game over from that point.

[@LikeTheSearchEngine]

Yeah, I don't understand the idea behind the mechanic. It shouldn't work on monsters.

[@OldManRogers]

Had me at fangtastic

[@lukevassh7740]

Watching now, I hope deathrattle heavy is a viable option. 💀✊️

[@rotm4447]

Skeletons units of 10 still instead of going to 20 feels like a big miss.

[@lukevassh7740]

I do agree.

[@Malisteen]

Well, wight lords aren't bad, but are a bit hard to justify as heroes of their own detachments just because of how over-stuffed the soulblight hero lineup is, with no relief in the form of heroes able to take other heroes in their battalions outside of vyrkos - much as I like the cursed city stuff, it should probably have been kicked to legends if keeping it around caused the core faction units to lose important utility options like that.. Skeletons aren't terrible, but yeah, not going to unit size 20 really hurts them compared to zombies in the chaff department. Black Knights got a big boost, so they're looking pretty good. Shame neferata's scout move is limited to infantry, they probably work better with Mannfred now. Grave guard... are a mixed bag. On the one hand they actually have a rule to help them guard heroes, which is a big flavor win. On the downside, they lost their great weapons - you can still model the unit with great weapons, but no matter what you give them their profile is still clearly designed to represent sword & board (4+ save, damage 1 attacks). You can buff them up to be pretty reasonably threatening, but unless you go way out over the top on buffs 2 attacks at damage 1 just isn't going to be munching through units like you might be used to in the past. You can definitely make a strong army with some deathrattle in it. Grave Guard with Radukar (either), Black Knights with Mannfred, etc. As for making a strong 'deathrattle army' - where all or most of the units are boney boys, including your heroes? That gets a bit iffier. But let's try. First problem that jumps out is the lack of a skeletal caster, which in turn suggests an obvious solution - the Liche's Hand regiment of renown. We're not sure what the exact rules of the RORs are yet, but Arkhan should provide a strong skeletal triple caster, 2x2 morghasts bring a bit more hitting power with speed and importantly flying? Plus you get a bit of that old 'Legions of Nagash' feel. General's battalion - Wight King (on foot, not enough points for mount) - general, lash, orb - 10 black knights - 20 grave guard - 20 deathrattle skeletons - 20 deathrattle skeletons The Liche's Hand - Arkhan - 2 morghast archai - 2 morghast harbingers 1990 total, I think. deathmarch of course not sure which manifestations to take. skeleton bridge is the obvious thematically though, and the army does have speed issues. Arkhan + a wight king harkens back to the end times days when he and Krell were paired up, so that's fun flavor at least. decent number of boys, even better wound count. Kind of slow though, lacking an especially potent hammer without the layered buffs options to make black knights or grave guard properly killy. Should be at least casually playable though, and it'd certainly look real nice on the table, especially if GW ever get around to updating the grave guard kit..

[@lukevassh7740]

That des look like a fun list. I do hope deathrattle get some love next tome release or via warcry. I'd love updated grave guard with a ranged option as well as updated knights. There's some 4chan "rumors" about something called a wight kings court. Maybe this will be like gobalapooze or CoS comman Corp but for deathrattle.

[@davidfulbrook2440]

When will you be doing cities Rob? Thanks

[@rotm4447]

If +1 deathly invocation target isn't the worst formation in the game its gotta be up there.

[@Mornin.Coffee]

If someone likes to play horde its potential goes from rezing 90 units thru whole game to 120, tbh they all are pretty good. Personally i hate that playstyle tho and probably will prefer to take plus cast/wound for elite vamp force

[@dirkv6069]

Are you going to make a fec Review?

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

Yes!

[@RauMins]

Horror of Sheesh 😂

[@tostificator]

Even though skaven Are Published I would love to See you review it!

[@thehonestwargamerstreams]

I will

[@tostificator]

@@thehonestwargamerstreams in Germany we say: „Ehrenmann“

[@cameronchen2346]

Are fell bats vampires still?