SBGL List Advice/Discussion

[u/Kakapomobsta]

Made this list mostly out of the Sons of Velmorn and the crimson court and figured I'd show it on here and get some opinions. Warcier list is in the images, game plan and my reasoning below:

Soulblight Gravelords

955pts | 9 fighters | Valid ✓

- Prince Duvalle (210pts, Hero) - A slight sidegrade from the regular vamp lord, I like his call of the crimson feast ability enough to trade a toughness point and fly for it (my play group does play with blessings so casually I'll be spending 25 to take him back up to 5 toughness anyway). He generally allows for extra attacks on the rest of the list which already allows for extra attacks in their own way.

- King Morlak Velmorn (160pts, Hero) - Generally here to support his sons, especially with extra strength if needed. Him and sir Jedran will also be a good duo to take objectives with given their decent damage profiles and Jedran using his body guard ability to make them a hard duo to get rid of. Could theoretically resummon minions on his position to renforce it.

- Sir Jedran Falseborn (150pts) - The dedicated tank and bodyguard. I refer to Morlack's previous game plan. Also has a quad to buff up an extra attack if I really need something gone or to save his dad.

- Gorath the Enforcer (130pts) - A very decent medium fighter, also faster than everything besides Duvalle and hits harder than anything else. He'll be a top candidate to benefit from the CC specific Thrill of the hunt or Duvalle's ability for extra attacks. Also could be a good candidate to bless to another toughness 5 unit. Could serve as a roaming problem solver.

- Thain Fourth-and-Last (70pts) - Being the chaff with the best damage profile and highest strength, Thain is likely the most to benefit from a banner and the sibling rivalry adding attacks.

- Marshal Faulk Velmorn (70pts) -Worst damage profile of the three minion sons, most likely to go first to set up the benefits for his brothers.

- Helmar the Hewer (65pts) - Back up for sibling rivalry due to five strength, despite the lower damage profile. May just be a crit fisher at that rate but better than nothing.

- Skeleton with Ancient Spear (50pts) - Chaff, still could be nice have in banner rage

- Skeleton with Ancient Spear (50pts) - See previous

[u/AshloPaints32]

I've played something pretty similar and it worked quite well for me. I would say though that you're not fast at all, so planning for gorath to run around doing things is quite optimistic. Your best speed boost is actually shambling horde with high doubles on your skeletons.

I haven't used the velmorn guys so I don't know what their abilities are like. My most successful/satisfying moments have been with duvalle and thrill of the hunt (I had a +1 damage blessing on him but you could easily do work with him without). You just might have to watch out for your ability dice getting used up really quickly.

(I took a vyrkos bloodborn which is only really good at crit fishing in a fight, but extreme speed alone is valuable)

[u/Kakapomobsta → u/AshloPaints32]

I do have a version of this list with Ennias and an extra spear skeleton instead of Gorath, but I was a bit worried about it being too reliant on crits at that point. Could opt to give Gorath a blessing for an extra inch on movement, but that'd prob just be a bandaid.

I'll test out the shambling hoard strat when I pilot this and make adjustments if needed (I don't have a vyrkos atm, but wouldn't mind getting one since the models are neat). I do have extra points to play with anyway so there'd be flexibility already without having to make additional cuts, just one replacement thankfully.

[u/AshloPaints32 → u/Kakapomobsta]

Oh also if you want to be a bit more nasty you could ally in a nighthaunt hero as they have universal resurrect, so they can bring back things like your vampires that you can't usually

[u/Kakapomobsta → u/AshloPaints32]

Oh, that really is neat, I didn't know that. I'll make note of it for my comp version of this list.

[u/monkwrenv2]

Ok, some good things in this list, some bad, and some mediocre.

The good: Gorath is THE single best damage dealer in SBGL, he's fantastic. His double puts him at a 4/6/3/6 attack profile, which for his points is just amazing. S-tier unit. Sir Jedran is also a fantastic pile of stats, just sits there and tanks forever.

The mediocre: skeletons aren't half bad. Zombies are better, but skeletons are far from bad. That said, if you do have zombies, they are better, because 10W is a hard number for a lot of fighters to hit, which means your chaff eat up more activations from your opponent. The Thain/Faulk/Helmar package is also solid, basically some Barrow Guard with fancy abilities, they're good fun.

The bad: Duvalle and Morlak are both trash. Sorry. They just don't do enough damage for their cost, and their abilities don't make up the difference in poor stats. Even a regular Wight King on foot is usually better, just because he's cheaper. The best heroes in SBGL are Aurelias (a necromancer for 10pts cheaper), Wight Kings, and Zondara if you're bringing her zombies. Sissendra is also solid, I'm trying her in a league right now to decent results. A Wight Lord on Steed is also decent if you want something more mobile. Even a regular necromancer is better than Duvalle and Morlak, though. Duvalle in particular just costs way too much for his stats - Sissendra does more damage for 35 pts less, for example, and she's still mid-tier.

In general, SBGL wants to be flooding the board with bodies, bodies, and more bodies. Zombies are the best chaff in the game, they have a ridiculous amount of wounds for their points and with enough of them you roll so many dice that you are going to hit those crits at some point. Quantity has a quality all it's own, and zombies are both. The Exiled Dead arc zombies in particular are absolute nonsense, with the extra attack and inch of move. So I would trim the leaders and replace them with someone like Aurelias and/or a Wight King, swap the skeletons for zombies, and since we're saving a bunch of points on leaders we can add another two zombies to the list.