Editing Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Death/Soulblight (section)

==Warscrolls==
The common keywords of these warscrolls are: '''DEATH''' and '''SOULBLIGHT'''. Apart from Bat Swarms and Fell Bats all the units also have the '''VAMPIRE''' keyword.

===Heroes===

*'''Mannfred, Mortarch of Night:''' Just like Nagash, Mannfred has Behemoth status. This beauty sits on top of the Mortarchs point pyramid at 420pt. The close combat monster of the three, because Mannfreds' already powerful melee profiles get added to the powerful profiles of the Dread Abyssal. Like all Mortarchs he heals 2 Wounds whenever he kills a model in combat, can cast twice though with no modifiers (gains +1 to cast/unbind if his sword kills something) and gets a bonus to Hit and Wound with his sword if he successfully casts a spell. The Armour of Templehof also means a lot more on such a huge target like this. Also, the Vigour of Undeath ability that non-Mortarch Mannfred has gets buffed a lot by affecting ALL Death units in range instead of just one, though that range varies with his Wound count. Mannfred is an absolute combat beast. His sword (provided you cast at least one spell that turn) hits and wounds on a 2+, and if you use Mannfred's command ability (Which you should, only Nagash's is better) makes both of that 2s rerollable. This basically guarantees that he is hitting at all times with 4 -1 d3 damage attacks, not including his 2 sickle-glaive attacks, or his Dread Abyssal's attacks, or the spirits. The sheer number of rending multi-damage attacks that he puts out a turn will rip most enemies to pieces.

*'''Neferata, Mortarch of Blood:''' As all of the Mortarchs are, she's classified as Behemoth. Mid-ranged at 400pt. Not as powerful as Mannfred and not as costly as Arkhan but tricksier than both put together. Her Command Ability creates a huge bubble of -1 To Hit for enemy units, a spell lets give a selected unit the Nighthaunt abilities to fly and ignore save Modifiers. <s>her personal attacks (so not the Abyssal) create new Vampire Lords if she kills Heroes with them</s> and her dagger has a chance to auto-kill any model she wounded with it. Set her up at the head of your army for her Command Ability to affect as many enemies as possible.

*'''Prince Vhordrai:''' He is basically a vampire lord on zombie dragon on steroids which wake up really early in the dusk and have no time for any of your bullshit. No, seriously, this guy is a fucking blender and probably a claimer for the title of smashiest hero in the game. Better statline than a VLoZD with lance, chalice and shield but with a +1 attack on every profile, a rend -2 lance and a fucking angry dragon which can spit some death-fire-rape-juice that causes FUCKIN 6 MORTAL WOUNDS when full hp (it can degrade quite quickly if the enemy focuses him down but remember that he can heal). To add some gravy on a really really bloody beef, his unique spell allows him to add 1 to BOTH HIS HIT AND WOUND ROLLS. I mean, Nagash almighty, that is downright terrifying. His command trait allows a hero to attack as if it were the combat phase (this hero cannot be him unfortunately, that would have been waaaay too gross) or, if the hero is a wizard (which all of your heroes are), to cast an extra spell, so you can consider bringing another VLoZD along with him if you plan to smash some eggs with your dragon goon squad. He comes at 40 points more than a vanilla VLoZD, so if you're going to be bringing one Lord on Dragon, you would do well to bring him unless you've got a really good plan on what to do with the regular VLoZD.

*'''Vampire Lord:''' While most armies must choose between fighter and caster, your Vampire Lord does both. He's got a great melee profile, can cast a spell a turn and has a powerful Command Ability. And since he can heal wounds by killing stuff, you want him in the thick of it. Can also have wings or a nightmare to increase his movement, with the wings letting you fly while the nightmare grants you another melee weapon. Since the command ability grants an additional attack with each weapon of the affected unit, it's best to use this on models with few strong attacks or better yet on models with more than one weapon profile. If you want to be a real jerk, use the Lord's buff on a Necrosphinx, which turns into an absolute rape machine thanks to this. Using his command ability on a big unit of skeletons is also a great tactic to just drown the enemy with attacks. If you play carefully enough, 30 skeletons would be getting 4 attacks each (1 attack base, +2 attacks with a unit of 30, +1 from buff) with +1 to hit if they are near a lord. To top it off, he has one of the best debuff spells in the game: at 6+, it subtracts 1 from the Attacks of EACH weapon of a unit to a minimum of 1. Yes, against basic troops with one attack it's useless, but against those elite units with 2 attacks (stormcast, chaos warriors, hammerers, Phoenix guard, saurus guard... come on, every army has at least one)? Well, all of a sudden, that crucial unit is half as powerful. Use this spell wisely and you can beat almost anything even with half-decomposed zombies! He <s>can</s> always has a blood chalice that gives him back D6 wound once per game (it's 'optional', but since there's no downside to taking it you should always have it), increasing the dude's (un)life span. All in all, a quite nice little hero that can be a pretty scary backline assassin, ready to debuff an enemy monster and then jump some squishy unit while topping up your own dudes or putting serious hurt on the enemy with the right spells.

*'''Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon:''' Unless you've already taken Vhordai, there is next to no reason to take this dude (unless you want him to have certain traits/gear) as he's only 40 points cheaper and doesn't have nearly the same statline to compensate for being similarly priced. That being said, he does still have a bunch of devastating attacks and what might be the meanest breath attack in the game, as it hits units of 6 or more models automatically and then Wounds on 2+. The Vampire, on the other hand, provides a bunch of healing to the Dragon and yet another powerful melee profile. Like all Vampires, he's a Wizard, but with a very gimmicky unique spell that will never see use. His Command Ability is providing re-rolls To Hit to a friendly Death unit, which works well with your already high to hit values (or if you really needed a Bat Swarm to hit something for once). His durability is also something to be amazed at, not only does he have a once per game chalice of blood that heals him D6 wounds, the right traits/equipment (see above) can help the dragon live far longer than most monsters too. Get Vile Transference, Mist Form and the Scabbing Plate and you'll passively heal 2 wounds nearly every combat phase, heal D3 wounds per spell cast and heal D6 wounds once per game if you really need it. Keep that statline up so that the dragon can keep ripping and tearing. This guy will have your opponents wishing they were playing Soulblight.

*'''Coven Throne:''' For when you really want to cherry-tap some shmucks. This thing pours out TWENTY-FIVE attacks in melee, <s> but only one of them is actually powerful and can potentially make new generic Vampire Lords, but don't bet on it</s>. They also allow you to reroll a single dice roll per game (either your own or your opponents. That's right, you can force your opponent to reroll a critical save in a pinch or a roll if they're using a warscroll that let's them bring back units). Don't you dare forget that, it might help? It's also a wizard with a meh unique spell (Bravery test on 3D6, if they fail they cannot attack the caster). Can be good if you're up against mortal units, otherwise stick to stuff like Vile Transference, Amethyst Orb or Soul Pike. Its Command Ability lets you allows a Death unit to Re-roll all hit, wound, and save rolls of 1 until your next hero Phase, which is great. It's also ridiculously fast with a 14" flying movement.

*'''Bloodseeker Palanquin:''' Similar to the Coven Throne, only it sucks. It can increase the attack of all '''Soulblight''' units if a Hero is slain near it, but you've already got traits or abilities for that. It has a short-range missile weapon that deals d3 mortal wounds if you roll higher than the unit's leadership with 2 dice. is also has a 12" spell that targets a hero that has a 50% to deal 1 mortal wound, 2/3 to deal d3 and a 1/6 chance to deal d6 mortal wounds. Just skip it, it's not worth the ridiculous points you have to pay for it (being 60 points more expensive than a Coven Throne and nowhere near as useful, gaining a possible 1 extra attack for your dudes instead of a shitload more damage and a possible new Vampire Lord).

===Troops===
*'''Blood Knights:''' '''Battleline'''. Quite possible THE reason you play soulblight, Vampire Cavalry. Now ''these'' guys used to be winning you best cavalry ever awards. They do a lot of damage, ridiculous amounts of it on the charge, 3 attacks with 3's and 3's, -1 rend and D3 damage a piece and they can regenerate lost wounds, now slightly nerfed. They used to bring back 1 slain model every hero phase with the banner but now it's changed to lower the enemy's bravery by 1. They also got a 20 point discount, though it doesn't quite make up for the nerf. They can still be used really effectively however, Necromantic means they inflict a -2 debuff to Bravery while the Ruby Vial, Necromantic and their standard put a -3 debuff to their Bravery. Kill even one model and you can watch half a unit of Chaos Knights run away. That's not to say the other bonuses, re-rolling 1's on to hits when they charge, and gaining movement 12" while being allowed to fucking fly! Do note too that thanks to their shields, if you get these guys in cover they are nearly impossible to remove against anyone without rend, as they get a 2+ save which, combined with Mystic Shield allows them to re-roll failed save rolls. While the Vargheists can do more damage out of the charge (and the same amount on a charge but in a more reliable way), the Blood Knights are harder to kill and have more staying power in general. A mix of the two sound like a pretty nice idea.
**The models are horribly overpriced but there are ways around it until GW puts out a new kit for this bad boys.

*'''Fell Bats:''' '''SUMMONABLE'''. These are odd. They have surprising staying power with 3 wounds each, but their damage output can generously be described as lacking. However, once an enemy model in their vicinity dies, they double their attacks for the rest of the game, granting 6 attacks to each bat. If you're going to use them then you should keep them near your Blood Knights or Vampire Lord (despite their movement). Once those units kill something then these guys become great.

*'''Bat Swarms:''' '''SUMMONABLE'''. They're swarms. Lot of attacks, awful Hit, and Wound rolls. Their flavor heals all wounds if it inflicts a wound, but that's not why you take them. You take them because all enemy units within 12" of them take a -1 penalty To Hit in the shooting phase, which is fucking massive considering they have a 12" flying movement. Keep in mind too that their melee range is 3", in effect meaning that you can put them behind Blood Knights, Fell Bats or Vargheists to inflict further wounds on enemy units while keeping them relatively safe. Have them come up to the side of those units so that hordes can't lap around them (while still letting them heal all the damage they receive) and you'll appreciate them more.

*'''Vargheists:''' Like most 4-Wound models, Vargheists have to endure the obligatory comparison with Ogres. And they don't come up short, as they have a 12" Flying movement and -1 Rend on their weapons over Ogres. Unfortunately, unlike basically all Vampires, they can't heal lost wounds and with a 5+ save these guys can go down quickly if put in too deep. A nice tactic for them is to have them hunt artillery or wizards as they can do this easily without being quickly gunned down and torn apart by other combat units (looking at you stormcast) while blood knights and VLoZD take care of meanest enemies. They also look fuckin amazing, which is a great plus.