How to Play Soulblight Gravelords in Warhammer Age of Sigmar (4th Edition)

Soulblight Gravelords are built around durability and returning models rather than raw output. The recurring 4th-edition themes, confirmed across official and community sources, are:

• A faction-wide ward save. Effectively every unit in the army shrugs off a share of wounds and mortal wounds, which is the 'deathless minions' identity that makes cheap chaff punch above its cost. (Check the exact ward value in your current faction pack.)
• Returning slain models (Deathly Invocation). Your heroes can heal units and bring slain models back into them each turn, so units that should be dead keep standing back up.
• Bringing whole units back (Endless Legions). Destroyed Summonable units of skeletons/zombies can be raised again, typically at reduced strength, keeping objectives contested long after they 'should' be lost.
• Grave / reserve deployment via faction terrain. The army uses its Cursed Sepulchre terrain and a 'set up in the grave' reserve mechanic to hold units back and surge them onto the board near the terrain.
• Vampire self-healing (The Hunger). Vampire units recover wounds when they fight, especially when they destroy an enemy, making your heroes very hard to grind down in melee.

Exact rule names and numbers vary by faction pack revision, so verify them before playing.

The 4th-edition faction pack gives Soulblight Gravelords four battle formations, each leaning into a different keyword theme. They were consistently reported as:

• Legion of Shyish — pushes the returning-models game, letting you pick an extra target for Deathly Invocation so more of your units heal and reanimate each turn.
• Bacchanal of Blood — the vampire build: casting and to-wound bonuses for VAMPIRE units, rewarding an aggressive, spell-heavy, charge-in playstyle (a natural fit for Blood Knights).
• Deathstench Drove — the zombie build: lets DEADWALKERS units pile in and deal extra damage, turning a wall of zombies into a slow grinding threat.
• Deathmarch — the skeleton build: rewards DEATHRATTLE units for charging (reported as bonus Rend on the charge), giving your bone hordes real bite on the attack.

Pick the formation that matches the core of your list: vampires and Blood Knights want Bacchanal of Blood, a skeleton horde wants Deathmarch, a zombie tide wants Deathstench Drove, and a broad reanimation army wants Legion of Shyish. Confirm each formation's exact ability wording in the current faction pack, as details can be tweaked by Battlescroll.

• Vampire Lord (on foot, on Nightmare Steed, or on a Zombie Dragon) — your core hero: strong melee, self-healing via The Hunger, and often a caster and buff/re-roll enabler. The mounted and dragon versions are hard-hitting centrepieces.
• Necromancer — cheap support caster that helps fuel spellcasting and reanimation; a staple in most lists.
• Wight King — a durable Deathrattle hero that buffs skeleton units and anchors a bone-heavy army.
• Blood Knights — elite vampire cavalry; fast, resilient, and hard-hitting, the classic hammer for Bacchanal of Blood.
• Deathrattle Skeletons (a.k.a. Barrow Guard) — cheap, resilient battleline that returns constantly; excellent objective holders and the backbone of a horde list.
• Deadwalker Zombies — very cheap, expendable bodies that reinforce into large blocks; ideal for screening, tarpitting and Deathstench Drove.
• Black Knights (a.k.a. Barrow Knights) — skeletal cavalry for cheap mobile threats and charges.
• Dire Wolves / Fell Bats / Vargheists — fast harassment, chaff and objective-grabbing; Vargheists add flying melee punch.
• Named characters (e.g. Prince Vhordrai, Mannfred, Neferata, Nagash) — powerful centrepiece heroes and casters when your list can afford them.

(Some units have been re-boxed and renamed in recent releases, e.g. the Deathrattle army set; older and newer names both circulate. Match your actual warscrolls when list-building.)

Soulblight Gravelords play an attrition and board-control game. Your cheap skeletons and zombies are not meant to win fights outright — they are meant to hold objectives, screen your heroes, and refuse to stay dead, while your vampires and elite units do the actual killing.

A typical gameplan: deploy a resilient front line of skeletons/zombies, keep heroes close so their returning-models and healing abilities cover the whole army, and use the grave/reserve deployment to threaten late arrivals near your terrain. Trade chaff freely, then reanimate it to re-contest objectives. Push your vampire hammer (Blood Knights, a mounted Vampire Lord, or a dragon) into the target you most need dead, leaning on The Hunger to keep it healthy. Because you score and hold with bodies you can keep replacing, you often win on objectives over several turns rather than by tabling the opponent.

Magic supports all of this: your WIZARDs cast from the faction spell lore to buff charges, boost damage, or heal, so keeping casters alive and in range matters.

• Over-committing heroes. Your returning-models and healing engine depends on heroes staying alive and near your units. Throwing a Vampire Lord in too early, unsupported, can collapse the whole army's resilience.
• Forgetting the reinforcement plan. New players trade chaff but forget to actually raise it back or reposition it to re-contest objectives — that reanimation is where the faction's staying power lives.
• Ignoring the terrain and reserve game. The Cursed Sepulchre and grave deployment are part of your board control; leaving them out of your plan wastes a core strength.
• Expecting alpha-strike kills. Outside the vampire hammer, this army grinds; trying to win turn 1 rather than out-lasting the opponent usually backfires.

Where they struggle: high-volume mortal-wound output and abilities that ignore ward saves blunt your durability; fast, elite armies can out-score you before attrition tips your way; and if your heroes are picked off early, the reanimation engine sputters. Being slow overall, you can also cede early objectives to more mobile opponents, so you must plan to claw them back.