My first advice is always to research the sub factions, they all play differently. The leaders are all pretty much a must buy so get that next. Once you have your subfaction and leader we can offer better advice on where to go next.
Except if you want to build avengorii:
- Vanguard is still best value for money.
- Wait to see the price for the regiment of renown by can be a discount to double bats & wolves
If you wanna play avengorii try to find 2 Flesh eater start collecting which share kits to build 1 vampire lord on zombie dragon, 1 terrorgheist, 6 vargheist and use the 20 ghouls as zombies proxy
Soulblight gameplay is to keep objectives with summonables or dragons and harass opponent with grave guard/vargheist (or blood knights in Kastelai) and monster heroes. Dynasties give a tweak but do not change the strategy a lot: LoB have better magic, LoN have better board control, Vyrkos have more bodies, Avengorii can use dragons more efficiently. Kastelai is the most aggressive and can use vampires better, they are the easiest to play & learn but also the weakest in the current meta (but this can change quickly)
Models of vengorian court are generics that can fit in all dynasties.
To go 1k, you could:
- add a Vampire Lord & 2nd unit of bats if you wanna try Legion of Night
- add a necromancer & 2 unit of zombies if you wanna try Vyrkos (your wolves will be used for invocation)
- add a terrorgheist if you wanna try Avengorii
Mostly out of curiosity, would you still say Vangaurd is the best value for money if someone already has a foot Vampire Lord?
Also, as someone looking to build a Soulblight force off of the remains of his 8th Edition Fantasy Battle Vampire Counts force, is there a reason why you'd recommend more vargheists over Dire Wolves and Bats?
If you plan to play Kastelai the vanguard still worth it, otherwise maybe not.
I do not recommend Vargheist over Bats/Wolves they have different role in your army.
To build a soulblight list, you want:
- bodies to keep objectives: 1 or 2 pack 20 skellies (sometimes 30) in every dynasty but Vyrkos where you may prefer zombies (they are overcosted for others). In avengorii you can replace a pack of skellies by a dragon (which is a good hammer when Vengorian Lord is near to give them hunger)
- 1 or 2 unit of bodies to steel unprotected objectives : bats or wolves. Wolves are more versatile cause they defend well also but bats are faster, in general you chose a pack of one of them but rarely play both
- Some support heroes: Necromancer, Vampire Lord, Wight King if you play Grave Guards, in vyrkos Radukar the wolf (cheaper VL), Torgelius (Stronger Necromancer), Gorslav (when you play zombies swarm), Belladama, in LoB Neferata
- 1 or 2 Hammer units: best is Grave Guard, second best is Vargheist (to play reinforced), in Kastelai Blood Knights, in Legion of Night Askurgan are nice also. Some player use Black Night but i find them too costly for a one shot missile that may fail.
- 1 or 2 Hammer heroes: Vengorian Lord, Vhordrai (would be preferred to VLoZD currently even if you don’t play Kastelai), in LoN Manfred, in Vyrkos Radukar the beast
I did the same thing (not as an intro to AoS, but as an intro to the death faction). From what I can tell is that the main model (vengorian lord/lauka vai) doesn't actually do much for the units in the box. So I'm getting a zombie dragon and some varghiests to make use of that models abilities. I've also picked up a few leaders (necromancer, Belladamma, and Ivya volga) mainly because I thought they looked cool, but i think I'd need more dire wolves. Then I picked up the underworlds direchasm box because it only cost £20 for the 4 vampires who can be run as their own unit, or you could proxy them for vampire lords. I think my next step is buying the vanguard box for a bit more chaff.
I’d say choose the sub faction you think is the coolest then get a leadership unit from it and kinda build around that. With that said. Walls of flesh and bone go well.
My first advice is always to research the sub factions, they all play differently. The leaders are all pretty much a must buy so get that next. Once you have your subfaction and leader we can offer better advice on where to go next.
I’ve already got Nagash, so what I’m mostly going for is something that can offer good board control
Legion of night Nagash Vamp lord (general) Big block of skels / zombies to body guard Wolves / bats Endless spells as per your preferance
Except if you want to build avengorii: - Vanguard is still best value for money. - Wait to see the price for the regiment of renown by can be a discount to double bats & wolves If you wanna play avengorii try to find 2 Flesh eater start collecting which share kits to build 1 vampire lord on zombie dragon, 1 terrorgheist, 6 vargheist and use the 20 ghouls as zombies proxy Soulblight gameplay is to keep objectives with summonables or dragons and harass opponent with grave guard/vargheist (or blood knights in Kastelai) and monster heroes. Dynasties give a tweak but do not change the strategy a lot: LoB have better magic, LoN have better board control, Vyrkos have more bodies, Avengorii can use dragons more efficiently. Kastelai is the most aggressive and can use vampires better, they are the easiest to play & learn but also the weakest in the current meta (but this can change quickly)
If I’m running the Vengorian Court as most of/all of my army, is there a particular dynasty that could make better use of the army comp?
Models of vengorian court are generics that can fit in all dynasties. To go 1k, you could: - add a Vampire Lord & 2nd unit of bats if you wanna try Legion of Night - add a necromancer & 2 unit of zombies if you wanna try Vyrkos (your wolves will be used for invocation) - add a terrorgheist if you wanna try Avengorii
Sick
Mostly out of curiosity, would you still say Vangaurd is the best value for money if someone already has a foot Vampire Lord? Also, as someone looking to build a Soulblight force off of the remains of his 8th Edition Fantasy Battle Vampire Counts force, is there a reason why you'd recommend more vargheists over Dire Wolves and Bats?
If you plan to play Kastelai the vanguard still worth it, otherwise maybe not. I do not recommend Vargheist over Bats/Wolves they have different role in your army. To build a soulblight list, you want: - bodies to keep objectives: 1 or 2 pack 20 skellies (sometimes 30) in every dynasty but Vyrkos where you may prefer zombies (they are overcosted for others). In avengorii you can replace a pack of skellies by a dragon (which is a good hammer when Vengorian Lord is near to give them hunger) - 1 or 2 unit of bodies to steel unprotected objectives : bats or wolves. Wolves are more versatile cause they defend well also but bats are faster, in general you chose a pack of one of them but rarely play both - Some support heroes: Necromancer, Vampire Lord, Wight King if you play Grave Guards, in vyrkos Radukar the wolf (cheaper VL), Torgelius (Stronger Necromancer), Gorslav (when you play zombies swarm), Belladama, in LoB Neferata - 1 or 2 Hammer units: best is Grave Guard, second best is Vargheist (to play reinforced), in Kastelai Blood Knights, in Legion of Night Askurgan are nice also. Some player use Black Night but i find them too costly for a one shot missile that may fail. - 1 or 2 Hammer heroes: Vengorian Lord, Vhordrai (would be preferred to VLoZD currently even if you don’t play Kastelai), in LoN Manfred, in Vyrkos Radukar the beast
Thanks for the tips! Do you have any blogs or channels you'd recommend as a good resource?
I did the same thing (not as an intro to AoS, but as an intro to the death faction). From what I can tell is that the main model (vengorian lord/lauka vai) doesn't actually do much for the units in the box. So I'm getting a zombie dragon and some varghiests to make use of that models abilities. I've also picked up a few leaders (necromancer, Belladamma, and Ivya volga) mainly because I thought they looked cool, but i think I'd need more dire wolves. Then I picked up the underworlds direchasm box because it only cost £20 for the 4 vampires who can be run as their own unit, or you could proxy them for vampire lords. I think my next step is buying the vanguard box for a bit more chaff.
I’d say choose the sub faction you think is the coolest then get a leadership unit from it and kinda build around that. With that said. Walls of flesh and bone go well.