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Games Workshop Warhammer AoS - Soulblight Gravelords Deathrattle Skeletons

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Particularly strong and capable bearers of the Soulblight curse come to command entire armies of their lesser kin, striking out across the realms to conquer their own domains. These Vampire Lords are incredibly powerful figures, strong both martially and magically, and with the indomitable will to hold together thousands of undead servants. Quotes Gaze now upon the tomb of Halgorax, Eternal chieftan of the Fasting Veldt, Butcher of seven nations, Lord of the Hosts, Maker of ten thousand widows and orphans. Think upon him and despair, mortals, For still he shall not tire until his boot rests on your throat. 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. While vampires often deign to fight on their own, at the head of a horde of skeletal minions, some come together to form dark knightly brotherhoods and take to the field mounted atop fearless undead steeds. These Blood Knights charge headlong into enemy formations with an arrogant disregard for danger, trampling their way across entire units of soldiers and skewering what few remain on the end of their lances. Games Workshop’s vampires tend towards the bestial, with even the more human looking ones snarling with talons raised, ready to tear their victims apart in their bloodlust. Kritza on the other hand is extremely restrained and reserved. There’s something resigned, almost mournful about him; you suspect he would apologise before and after biting you, and possibly during as well.

Indeed the longer I look at Vengorian Lord the more I start to think of the ways I’d tweak him (a new head for starters!) so perhaps, should I decide to get this kit for myself it’ll be an altered version Vengorian Lord rather than Lauka Vai by the time that I finally put brush to plastic. Of all these releases this is the one which has my creative juices flowing the most as a converter so don’t be surprised if some twisted nightmare comes crawling up out of the dark depths sooner or later. Unlike the Nighthaunt or Ossiarch Bonereapers these new Soulblight and their minions would for the most part fit seamlessly into the old Warhammer world as well. If you’re still marching around on square bases and flying the banner of Sylvania as the Empire burns then this release looks like a welcome opportunity to refresh your collection. Equally – and unlike the aforementioned Empire models – these appear completely at home in the Age of Sigmar. A corpse is still a corpse after all, regardless of where you raise it, and with the possibility of a dwarf no-one clings to the old ways like a vampire. Skeletons. The ubiquitous fantasy baddie. Whether guarding some broke treasure in a cave or gathering by thousands at the will of a necromancer, skeletons have been striking terror into the hearts of the living for ages. In this article we will look at 28-32mm plastic skeleton infantry kits from Games Workshop, past and present, and kits that are commonly available from other manufacturers. First we’ll dig up skeletons from the Games Workshop vault and look at how they have progressed to the latest kit. In the second section we will explore the offerings of other miniature companies and offer a comparison of features and price. The Line Up: From left to right: GW 1988, GW 1998, GW 2008, GW 2008(Grave Guard), GW 2021, Mantic, Oathmark, Wargames Atlantic, Warlord (Wargames Factory) Note: grid squares are 1/4 inch. As an Undead fan who started the Warhammer hobby in the late 90’s, I already had the GW kits on hand. For the purposes of this article I bought one sprue of each kit from other manufacturers. It makes a lot of sense for wargamers to look at miniatures available outside Games Workshop when they’re looking for gaming pieces. Early on in my hobby days I often wondered how I could fill out an army without paying the GW tax for their ‘premium’ models. There weren’t many options at that time, and finding them could be difficult. Today however there are a variety of models available. Mantic recently released Ancient Egyptian styled skeletons in their Army of Dust, they look neat, but don’t really fit the flavor of this article. Games Workshop: 1988 Skeleton Warriors First plastic skeleton warriors with metal command. Source: Undead Army Book by Games Workshop

Nor is this element entirely unique, my first thought when I saw them was of the Tribe of Sarrassa from the game Hate, although those guys really were more tree than corpse. The Wight Kings rule huge empires, known as Deathrattle Kingdoms, from their barrow thrones, tomb palaces and mortuary keeps. Their followers were once the citizens of living and vital kingdoms that have been destroyed by war, pestilence or simply the ravages of time. Many of the inhabitants of these empires still act much as they did when they were living, toiling silently to build and maintain cities and towns, clear woods and forge weapons and tools. [1] Military 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…

Each group of 10 contains options to assemble one Standard Bearer and one Skeleton Champion armed with a mace or halberd Many Wight Kings act as frontline champions for the Gravelord armies. Whilst the weakest of them can be dominated by Vampires, most retain a sense of pride and individuality giving them an imperious will that it is difficult for most to bind them into service. Thus, most Soulblight prefer to make alliances of mutual benefit with Wight Kings. [5a] [5b] In some cases Wight Kings may even bind vampires into their service and for vampires the threat of facing starvation in a bloodless kingdom is enough to offer their necromantic expertise to Wight Kings seeking to invade the lands of the living. [6a] Mounts 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? I’m not going to lie to you, I think she’s really damn cool. She’s a truly weird and unsettling creature who has crawled forth from the same dark pits of the human imagination that HP Lovecraft once indulged. She speaks directly to the part of the human mind that recoils at death, and doubley so at undeath. As our civilisation has grown so the undead have been made safe, gathering around spooky clichés, fun-loving ghosts, Halloween parties, sparkling vampires. An age of reason, science and enlightenment has taught us that there is nothing to fear here. Lauka Vai reaches out and touches the inner medieval peasant lying alone in his hut, heart racing and ears straining to hear the creak and rustle of something lurking just beyond the door, the part of us that knows that reason is for daylight hours and lies awake when all the lights go out. I’ve always felt however that they don’t really belong to Age of Sigmar, they’re borrowed from old Warhammer and ever since the setting was created they’ve felt like a fish out of water, allowed to linger on in the new setting because we’re all too polite to tell them that the setting they belong to burned to the ground six years ago and they weren’t on it. Whilst some of the other old world survivors, Morathi for instance, or Nagash himself, have really grown into their new roles these two old timers never really seemed to fit. Introducing new vampire characters has only emphasised this divide. I suppose BelladammaVolga could almost come riding across the steps of Kislev and perhaps Lauka Vai might lurk on some lonely island off the coast of Lustria or Naggaroth, but really these are creatures of the new Realms – and Neferata and Mannfred belong to the old. Perhaps as the new range beds in I’ll change my mind, or perhaps they’ll just be allowed to live out their days quietly on the shelves of Games Workshop stores until the Old World project is finally unveiled and they’re able to find their way home at last.

Lauka Vai, Mother of Nightmares

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. 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]

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.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. Her big hair-do is a bit OTT of course but it suits the model. Taken as a whole the miniature combines barely contained savagery with faded grandeur, and of all the vampires in this wave of releases she looks the most undead – the bloodlust and decay only just masked, and only for now… Inside Battletome: Soulblight Gravelords, you’ll find all the warscrolls, battle traits, and more to field an army of vampires and their risen minions. Nagash himself is even making an appearance, so perhaps all that moaning about being broken was just some classic melodrama. 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.

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.

Final Thoughts

They are armed with pitted Ancient Swords and Spears paired with battered Crypt Shields. They are clad in corroded armour. [1] [2] [3b] [3c] Miniatures

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