By Patrick Nevan

Editor Pete wrote an article about the new Cities of Sigmar Battle tactics the other week and managed to establish a pretty decent framework for examining the strength of a book’s battle tactics. At the Craichouse we have decided to adopt the format and examine the strength of each faction’s battle tactics in a series of semi-regular articles because why not? It’s easy to write, it’s useful content and it helps placate the insatiable demands of our Patreons for an endless stream of content.

This week I’ll be taking a look at the current darlings of the meta and my latest army purchase: the Soulblight Gravelords. (Always loved the models, lifelong Zombie enthusiast, etc etc.) Couldn’t care less about the SBGL? Probably worth a look anyway to find out what they can do. Love them or hate them, battle tactics and grand strats win the close games of 3rd ed AOS.

The Criteria

As a reminder these are the standard criteria we are using for assessing the strength of each books battle tactics:

• Turn 1 EZ Mode.  Is there a gimme that you can bank turn 1?  Always important because it gives you an easy flow into the game, lifting the mental load on you and putting scoreboard pressure on your opponent.  It’s the first thing people look for in the GHB tactics and even when you can reliably score one of those early on, having a guaranteed one-two punch for the first two rounds is a huge quality of life boost.
• Grand Strategy.  The GHB Grand Strats are often “win more” and are variations on have stuff left at the end of the game / stop your opponent having stuff left.  In this context, having an absolute gimme in the book can swing tight games without any skill or good fortune required – Tzeentch and Fyreslayers are the benchmark here, offering you a 3-0 headstart in every game for no real reason.
• Zingers.  Are there 2-3 tactics you can reliably hit most games, to complement 2-3 from the GHB and give you 4-5 every game?  In the race to five there’s usually more value in a couple of zingers to get you over the line, even if the book is padded out with some dross and filllers, as opposed to having a whole bunch that are all kind of feasible but also dicey. In practice you’d generally prefer a couple of superstars over strength in depth.
• Synchronicity.  How does this army work in with the GHB tactics – are they achievable for common builds?  An example here would be Sons of Behemat – their own BTs aren’t amazing, but they had a really nice run with the first GHB in 3^rd Edition that rewarded Monsters.  With Gally Champs – not so much.  So today we’ll be looking at battle tactics in the context of the 2023 GHB.
• Flavour. Getting hit with the “thematic” stick in Battle Tactics is usually a sign that you’ve been stiffed with something random and dumb, like the one in Sons of Behemat where you have to hit a series of dice rolls to fling a model around to achieve Man-skittles.  While it won’t always help you to hit those consistent 10+3 VPs, good design that makes tactics actually interesting deserves some kind of recognition.

SBGL Tactics

Source: Wahapedia

Callous Overlord: One of my favorite battle tactics for being achievable and very thematic. Pick a Summonable unit that is not in combat and make sure they meet their fate as disposable chumps that same turn. This one gives you a rare chance to cheer on your opponent’s damage output while they do their level best to whiff their attacks, great fun for everybody.

The risk level of this strat depends on the summonable units you have at your disposal. The crappier the unit the better, so ideally you want to get 5 respawned skeletons close to three units that can wipe them out. Move 20 Zombies close to a single tough unit you are just asking to fail the tactic when they redeploy six inches.

With their bonkers movement, low wound count and piss poor resilience Fell Bats are a natural choice for a full strength unit. The best candidates are the one or two Vyrkos Direwolves you can spawn off Belladama’s Lycancurse spell. Don’t neglect your summonable heroes either, their pitiful existence is just as meaningless as anyone’s.

Early Game? Not really. A unit of Fell Bats can get the job done pretty reliably on most 18 inch deployments, but why take chances first turn? Nice one to be aware of though.

Overall Quality? Very solid in the late game once you have some half strength units floating around and just a fun one to do.

Cursed Unlife: Use The Hunger ability to heal wounds allocated to a vamp general or two vamp units. The Hunger lets vampires heal whatever damage they dish out in melee so you have to go into combat to get this one but it’s another thematic battle tactic as you have to get out there and suck some blood.

This is a second turn onwards tactic as you are going to need some wounded vampires in melee range to make it work. Interestingly you don’t need to nominate the Vampire units so this one is almost an auto achieve if you have an ass load of wounded vampires. There is something incredibly demoralizing for your opponent when you tick off a battle tactic half way through your turn, so be sure to make a production of achieving it when you do one point of damage with your VLZOD general.

Worried that you might not get it with Zombie spam Vyrkos? Well if you’re too lazy to use the many other options available, Warmasters qualify as generals for this one. Plan ahead, take a mortal from damned terrain on Belladama and put the old girl into combat next round for a bit of a treat.

Early game? Not in the sense that you can plan for it. If your opponent goes first, lights up your vampire units and obligingly moves into charge range it’s doable, but thats very situational.

Overall Quality: Very solid, easy to achieve with the right build and a just reward for getting a bunch of vampires to do what they are supposed to do.

The Grasping Dead:  Keep a summonable unit in combat for a turn.  Tarpit with a tarpit, Huh?  There is a bit of a theme with these battle tactics where you are being rewarded for doing things you should be doing anyway.  Some call it easy mode, I’m going with Thematic cause I just painted 200 Zombies.

Again this one is a bit situational.  You have to have a Summonable unit in combat and it has to be alive at the end of the turn.  If you pick one that doesn’t survive when you are controlling the turn, you deserve to fail.  Pick one that wipes out its opponent, you deserve to fail. 

Be aware of opponents that charge in your movement phase or can drag other units into the combat to change the outcome of the fight, but this one is ideal for a mid board chaff struggle.

There are a few interesting options here.  One is to pick a unit of Dire Wolves or Fell Bats, retreat it out of combat and use your Fell Bat charge or 6 inch pile in to get into a different combat.  Alternatively you can use Vanhels Magic Dance to fight in the hero phase and move to a different combat, but you run the risk of overcomplicating things.

Early Game?  Nothing you can plan for, but if your opponent goes first and gets a Summonable unit in combat why not?

Overall Quality:  Situational but solid.  I tend to think this one is an opportunity to keep an eye out for rather a battle tactic to plan for, but it should come up a fair bit.

The Choicest Vintage:  Kill any selected enemy Hero with a Vamp.  As far as Kill X with Y battle tactics go this one is pretty solid.  You can target any enemy hero and you don’t have to declare the killer, so failing one charge won’t necessarily blow it for you.  This is a classic bully battle tactic where the ideal scenario is an enemy hero with one wound being torn to shreds by your choice of three Monster-mounted Vampire heroes.  

Fair warning these are the tactics you fail when your opponent redeploys 6 inches or makes a freakish string of saves, or kills himself at the end of the hero phase with his own endless spell.  (It happened to a friend of a friend of mine).  Every step away from a 6 on 1 Vampire hero gang bang is a risk with this tactic.

Early Game?  As above if your opponent is nice enough to go first and park a hero in front of you fill your boots.  Otherwise forget it.

Overall Quality:  It’s a sold battle tactic if you have heroes on big stompy monsters, or blizzard bait as we call them at the moment.  Otherwise it’s pretty situational.

Expand the Grave Empires:  Take two objectives wholly outside your territory with Summonable or Vamp units.  How good is it?  Well it would be a struggle to claim an objective without an eligible unit so no worries there.  9 out of 12 battleplans have two objectives wholly outside your territory so 75% of the time it’s available 100% of the time.

How easy it is to get will depend on the battleplan and the opponent.  SBGL are pretty solid at the objective game, even zombies can get where they need to be with some thought to gravesite placement.

Check your players’ pack: in Geomantic Pulse, Nexus Collapse, Lines of Communication, Spring the Trap and the Frigid Zephyr this is your first turn no brainer battle tactic.

Early Game:  Absolutely in the right battleplan.

Overall Quality:  Assuming you are eligible this one works as a goober first turn tactic, a tight struggle objective control tactic or something to tick off in turn five when your opponent has been massacred.  It’s pretty durn good.

Endless Nightmare:  Return six or more slain Summonable models to a unit in a turn.  Another thematic one if you’re running chunky Summonable units, this is the most risk-free battle tactic in the game. Thanks to start of the hero phase action order you don’t even have to declare it until you know you can achieve it.

You get a Summonable unit that has taken a few licks, Rally 2 or 3 models, declare the battle tactic then top off the remainder in the hero phase with a guaranteed 3 or 4 via Deathly Invocation.  Don’t get enough Rallies, do another battle tactic.  The Ur-Chad way to achieve this is lose 30-odd Zombies and rally the six you need before declaring the battle tactic just to get your points before your opponent can touch a dice.

There are other ways to get this one with Skeletons, Mortis Engines, Nagash and Cado Whatshisface but whatever, this ones for the Horde Masters.

Early Game?  Again if your opponent is nice enough to butcher a bunch of Summonable models turn one go nuts.

Overall Quality:  Very good, you need chunky units and they have to lose models but it’s absolutely risk free once you are eligible. 

Grand Strats

The quality of generic grand strats in this GHB defaults to dogshit. We are looking for at least one half-decent grand strat. Naturally SBGL can do a little better.

Lust for Domination:  Control more of your own gravesites than your opponent.  This is a bit of a win-more grand strat but it’s still one you can scramble for in a tight game.  This is way better than any of the garbage in the GHB.  Your go-to grand strat if you aren’t committing enough summonable units to ensure one of the others. 

In a live game there’s always a chance of being beaten out of this type of strat if your opponent takes the second turn of the fifth battleround and snatches something off you.  It is also quite possible to blow this one if your game doesn’t go to time. Still better than a shit show like having two live wizards within 6 inches of the board center.

Empire of Corpses:  Aww yeah the Zombie Spammer’s bff.  (You’ll note it says Empire of Corpses not Skellingtons or freaky giant bats.)  Run a bunch of Zombies in Vyrkos, take Gorslav the Spadekeeper for the additional 2+ unit return, commit your Zombies to combat and this is one of the easiest grand strats in the game.  If your opponent doesn’t kill 3x 20-man units of zombies during the game you aren’t going to need the three points anyway.

If you aren’t planning on running a bunch of Summonable units into combat, give this one a miss.  A clever opponent can beat this strat by non-obligingly wiping out your screening units early in the game. I’d day at least five summonable units is your minimum. Push em up, get em killed. If your opponent can shut down your ability to return units you’ve lost anyway.

The Danse Macabre:  More summonable units in enemy territory than enemy units.  At first glance this one seems pretty dumb but I think it’s meant for those undead warlords who aren’t planning on having all their minions destroyed.  Think Black Knights and a bunch of fell bats.

Not your first pick but with the right build this one is very gettable and better than anything in the GHB.

Crimson Larder:  All your heroes are vampires; all their heroes are dead.  Well, they can’t all be zingers.   I guess this is the narrative one for Avengori.  It’s doable but take Lust for Domination if you aren’t running enough Summonable units. Anyways, hats off to GW for not putting one of those goofy complete 4 book battle tactics grand strats in here.

GHB Tactics

We’ll circle back and update this part after the current handbook cycles out. Or forget. Time will tell. Most of the GHB tactics are very situational and there are only so many times I am going to type the phrase “one to keep an eye out for.” Keep an eye out for them.

Intimidate the Invaders: Either late game or one you set up for if you know youll be going first. This one is a bit list- and battleplan-dependent. Moving half your Zombie units at least 9 inches is a non starter for some but if you plan ahead and yank a couple from the grave you’ll manage.

Reprisal: Most SBGL armies have a warmaster and they count for this one.

Endless Expropriation: A bit of a mystery, reading this GHB you get the sense that the devs thought sending Incarnates wild would be a very bad thing rather than a tedious basic bitch game plan. Not worth taking Rupture for imo

Magical Dominance: SBGL score this same as anyone else, if you’re out of unbind range or all your opponent’s unbinders are dead go for it. Be aware that Legion of Night have the single best option for denying this battle tactic using their heroic action to port into unbind range after the tactic has been declared.

Magical Mayhem: SBGL spell output is weak or situational. E.g. Vile Transference on a Gargant. I wouldn’t be risking a Blizzard to score this one myself unless the chips were down.

Bait and Trap: Retreat with 2 units and charge with 2 units.  If you have two units in combat why not.

Led into the Maelstrom: Probably my favorite battle tactic and SBGL do it as well as anyone. Just pick your targets. Belladama is a natural for this one: if you position her bodyguard wolves properly she’s very hard to kill and she won’t do any damage.

Surround and Destroy: If you have the fast moving units or you are teleporting in LON its a good first turn strat. If not you can set up for it next turn with graveyard deploys.

The Verdict

• Turn 1 EZ Mode.  There’s not an automatic BT that you’ll lock in every game. There are a bunch that are achievable bottom of turn one if your opponent comes at you, but if you are running with high drops there is a good chance that you will be relying on Surround and Destroy or Intimidate the Invaders turn one. Well you can’t have everything
• Grand Strategy.  With the right build, Empire of Corpses is almost on the same level as the Tzeentch or Orruk Warclan participation trophy grand strats.  If you’re not spamming Zombies you have other solid options.  SBGL are miles ahead of most other armies in this department.
• Zingers.  Yeah Boy!  SBGL have some of the best battle tactics in the game.  Once again the Zombie spam ones are the easiest to get if you build for them, but you can attempt most of them if the chips are down.  Expand the Grave Empires is the only one that is ineligible in some battleplans.  They are pretty much the gold standard for situational battle tactics.  They work if you get into combat or your opponent kills your models, not if your opponent has a wounded Leader with the Totem keyword within 3 and half inches of the centre of the battlefield and you kill it with your general’s second best friend from primary school.  2 or 3 a game easy peasy. 
• Synchronicity.  Yup, SBGL are strong with the combat and the magic and achieve their battle tactics same as anybody else.  As mentioned you have to plan for the first turn but after that you should have a few solid options available every turn.
• Flavour.  I read a recent GW Metawatch article where they said they were trying to get away from battle tactics that rewarded armies for simply doing what they do.  Thankfully that memo didn’t make it to the SBGL design team.  The battle tactics and grand strats here are narrative as all hell.  Raise some corpses, suck some blood, sacrifice some minions, tarpit your enemies, score some points.  These are probably the best achievable, narratively-themed battle tactics since the Ogor Mawtribes book.  Even the haters who think they’re too easy can’t argue that they’re not lore appropriate. 

Overall Score: Four and a Half out of Five

SBGL well and truly got the juice when it comes to battle tactics and grand strats.  The only reason I docked them half a point is the lack of an absolute no brainer first turn battle tactic for remembering to bring your dice or something.  People blather on about unrendable VLZODs and Zombie hordes, but it’s the damn good battle tactics that will allow the Vamps to ride out points increases and bumps in the meta.  

Then again it’s a quality book not just in its power level but in its thematic design choices.  They play like Undead should with distinct options for viable builds for elites, hordes and big ass monsters.  This is reflected in their tactics and grand strats which are thematic and strong.  Most armies have thematic battle tactics, but a lot of them are pretty limited such as:

An Honorable Death from the Fyreslayers is a good example.  One of your heroes bites the dust this turn, stern stuff and good job on the noble sacrifice.  Thematic as hell but the requirement to kill an enemy model with your attacks makes it a risky and situational battle tactic for no particular reason.  It’s easy enough to whiff with combat heroes, never mind Priests and you have to find something you can kill. It’s not an honorable death for a Runeson to get slaughtered trying to hold up Archaon?   

Like this Nurgle battle tactic. Thematic as hell but seven models makes it effectively useless against anybody but one wound armies. Seven mortals on the other hand? Achievable against almost any opponent without being stupidly easy.

There seems to be no agreement on how hard battle tactics should be to complete.  Fair to say they have gotten harder since launch of 3^rd ed but all the marginal tactics in the battletomes coupled with the marginal battle tactics in the GHB add up to a whole bunch of decision paralysis.  It wouldn’t be so bad if weaker armies had better battle tactics but there is no correlation between army strength and quality of battle tactics.

I guess what I’m saying is don’t complain that the SBGL tactics are so good.  They are what book battle tactics should be.  Achievable and thematic.  Complain that everyone else’s battle tactics are so crap and inconsistent.  Also, Zombies at 120 points are fine. Hand on my heart, for real, they’re honestly not that great.

Credit for cover image to Games Workshop

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