The Soulblight Gravelords fight an eternal battle in the name of their lord Nagash. Cursed with an unnatural return from the grave, the Gravelords are a force of Death incarnate, clawing their way out of crypts and barrows to strike down Nagash’s enemies. Led by ancient vampires who have been “blessed” with the Soulblight curse, these undead aristocrats wield both terrifying magical and physical powers only held back by their relentless plotting against each other.

Today, the Deathrattle Army Set containing the brand new Soulblight Gravelords battletome is up for pre order. In this article we’ll be taking a look at the awesome new box, seeing what is included and giving the new battletome a full deep dive to see what has changed since the previous index, and what new stuff is on the horizon for the forces of Death. We also paint up the entire contents of the Army Set to see what they look like alongside some other models in the Soulblight Gravelords range.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us the Deathrattle army set early to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order yours through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of the set which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s lift the coffin lid on the brand new set and see what goodies lie within…

Soulblight Gravelords Deathrattle Army Set Unboxing

It only seems a few weeks ago that we had the Gitmob Army Set for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but we already have the latest army set in our hands with the Deathrattle box for the Soulblight Gravelords!

If you’ve picked up any recent Army Sets you’ll know what to expect here – the box contains a collection of brand new models for the range, a full set of Warscroll cards and the brand new Battletome in a limited edition cover. The move to including Warscroll cards in these boxes has been a massive plus to me – very often in the past we just got cards for the models contained in the box, but for the last couple of years we now get a full set for the entire army, which is a great change in my books. We’ll be digging into the new Soulblight Gravelords battletome shortly, but I have to shout out the gorgeous limited edition that is contained within the box. It’s got a really nice cover showing the assembled masses of Deathrattle armies and has both gold edging and a ribbon book mark. The box also acts as “early access” to the new book – it tends to get a general release alongside the main wave of models a couple of weeks to a month after the release of this box, allowing you to play with the contents of the box a little ahead of the full release.

The main selling point of these boxes however is often the miniatures, and for the Soulblight Gravelords we get some absolutely gorgeous stuff. I’ve been collecting Gravelords for a long time, stretching back to Vampire Counts in the world that was, and while we got a lot of cool stuff for the army over the last couple of Battletome releases, there’s always been some kits that started to look a little dated. Both the Graveguard and the Black Knights were old Warhammer Fantasy kits that had been repurposed for Age of Sigmar. Since the release of The Old World we’ve started to see a shift of some of those older kits to be retired to head back to that game and replaced with some awesome new kits that better capture the Age of Sigmar aesthetic.

Both of these kits get new incarnations in the Deathrattle box with new sculpts that better match the releases since Cursed City, with the new Skeletons looking so much better than the old Grave Guard. One of the biggest issues with the Grave Guard is how tricky they were to build. Even for experienced builders they were a little fiddly, and for newcomers to the hobby they were downright frustrating. I’m very happy to share that the new ones are a breeze to build, only having a couple of pieces per model and fit together like a dream. With their new identity as “Barrow Guard” they have a much more stylised armour style now to better mark them out as the elite honour guard that would be burried alongside their king. They are also now on 28mm bases, making them a little easier to distinguish from the rank and file skeletons. 20 are included in the box and have options for two handed weapons or sword and shield – there’s no difference from a rules point of view, so go crazy with whichever loadout you want. I opted for Sword and Shield as I feel they look nicer on the battlefield.

The Barrow Knights are the Black Knights reimagined into a new unit (With much better rules) and again, they share the same stylings on the Barrow Guard, and look much more impressive than the old incarnations. The Black Knights suffered a little from the duel build period where most kits had parts to build one of two quite different units, which was a great idea at the time, but did lead to some compromises to make the duel build work. Without that restriction the Barrow Knights are now able to be much more dynamic and fitting to the theme, though if you do still have some old Black Knights they don’t look too bad mixed alongside them. 5 Knights are included in the box, and I’m already wanting to expand this further.

The final new kit in the box is the mounted Wight King which can also be built as a Wight Lord. This replaces the old (but excellent) Wight King model, with a duel kit that manages to make both of the builds look distinct with lots of great little details such as a trail of coins leading from a pillaged grave, or the headdress on the skeletal steed.

I really enjoyed paining all of these models and I’m already hungry to add some more to my collection. Barrow Guard and Barrow Knights are both really good in game, and the Barrow King and the Barrow Lord are both units you want to take, so there’s probably scope here to pick up two boxes to give you the foundation of a great Soulblight Gravelords army with 2 units of 20 Barrow Guard, 10 Barrow Knights and one of each character. Another option may be the upcoming Spearhead box, which we’ll chat about a little later.

With the models built and painted though, let’s dive into the new Battletome and see just what has changed and what is new…

Soulblight Gravelords Battletome Review (2025)

From a presentation and style point of view, the 4th edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar has been a golden age for the game. The book is absolutely gorgeous and filled with lore, artwork and miniatures shots – and presentation here is brilliant, from the bloody splattered side panels to the printed texture of each page with scuffs and scratches making it look like an old tome, to stylised headshots flanking text about the characters, this is the probably one of my favourite books from this edition so far visually.

If you’ve picked up any of the other battletomes this edition, a lot of things follow the same format – we have a fold out map of the Realm of Death giving us a much better look at it, we get a full “bestiary” rather than the old style army shot section, meaning that every page of lore about each unit in the book has full shots and artwork of the models too. I’ve mentioned in previous 4th edition reviews that I feel this is a great change that not only helps identify units for new players, but flows much better within the book too. We also see some sections written “in character” that give us insight into personalities from the point of view of a lich in the service of Nagash too. I love touches like this, and I’m really glad that this is something that has continued across the battletomes so far. We do get new lore here too, in particular a deeper dive into who the Deathrattle are, which is no surprise considering that they are the focus of the box and new models.

The Rules

So one of the biggest questions I had going into this book was what, if anything, has changed since the index. If you’re expecting massive changes then you will be disappointed, though that’s not to say there are not any changes, as even some of the more subtle ones have a big impact. One of the things that has changed is the introduction of Cursed Sepulchres, which is somewhat of a return to Grave Sites. This is a set of three scenery pieces, one which is placed in your territory, one that can be placed outside of enemy territory and one that can be placed anywhere on the board. These are used as points for your units that have been deployed in the grave to come out of, and also as a point to summon your units brought back through the Endless Legions rule. This allows you to bring back a unit in any movement phase (though only once per battle round), and in the Battletome this no longer requires a command point either, you just get to bring it back for free! You only get half the unit rounded up, but this can be very strong with certain units. Deathly Invocation still exists which allows you to pick 3 Deathrattle units within 12″ of a hero and return 3 health worth of models or heal 3 health worth of damage on each of them.

Battle Formations remain the same as the index with a choice between Legion of Shyish, which allows you to pick an additional unit for deathly invocation, Bacchanal of Blood which gives vampires +1 to wound when they charge, and +1 to cast when not in combat, Deathstench Drove which allows your Deadwalkers to pile in and cause damage at the end of the turn or Tide of Bones and Blades which gives your Deathrattle units +1 rend as long as they have charged and they are attacking a unit that has fewer models than them. This is a nice mix which really comes down to what you want to take as the core of your army – Vampires, Zombies or Skeletons, so glad to see they have not changed anything here.

Heroic Traits and Spells stay the same as the previous index, but Artifacts have shifted somewhat. Orb of Enhancement and Amulet of Screams are gone and are instead replaced with Terminus Clock which gives enemy Wizards -1 to cast on a roll of 3+ or the Amulet of Graves which can be used once per battle to summon a new Sepulchre if one has been destroyed during the battle.

So a few tweaks here and there for the army rules, but what about the profiles? The majority of the book remains the same as the old list, but there have been some changes which we’ll dig into next. Before we dive into the changes however, there are a couple of units that have been removed from the book. Terrorghiests are gone along with the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon , which doesnt surprise me as the duel kit is being placed with the new Dragon. the Bloodseeker Palanquin is also gone, but the other two builds of the kit still exist (which does surprise me given how this is an old Warhammer Fantasy kit). Cado Ezerchiar’s solo profile has also gone too, replaced with the new kit. What surprised me the most however is that most of the kits from Cursed City (other than Radukar) have been removed from the book. Kosargi Nightguard, Vargskyr, Halgrim, Blood-Born, Torgillius and Gorslav have all returned to the grave, which is a real shame as they are gorgeous models – I suspect that they may not be available much longer and as such are being phased out. I always thought the Cursed City contents worked as a great gateway into collecting a Soulblight Gravelords army, so I am quite sad to see these go.

So what else has changed? Let’s take a look at the profiles that have been updated, some of these are minor, others less so…

Lauka Vai’s spell The Queen’s Dictat has had a bit of a wording change, it can now only target a non-unique monster (so no casting it on Vhordrai or Nagash) but now doesnt just affect companion weapons meaning you can also use it on Vengorian Lords.

Speaking of the Vengorian Lord, he has had a bit of a rework too, if he causes any damage to an enemy unit both he and all Soulblight Gravelords Monsters within 12″ head D3 – this feels a lot better than his old rule, and if you are going Dragon heavy then he’s well worth bringing along!

Blades of the Hollow King is the new profile for Cado, who is now accompanied by Sissendra and Aurellias. Cado retains his statline and his Retribution or Salvation spell, Aurellias can be used to either allow the unit to cast a second spell a turn or to reroll casting rolls of 1, and Sissendra has a truck load of attacks with Crit Mortals, who can give the unit a 5+ ward or give Cado crit mortals too. Fun unit, will depend on how many points they are, with 6 wounds each this is essentially an 18 wound infantry wizard, which is interesting

Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed is an amazing new unit if you plan on taking Blood Knights – His For Glory, For Blood is a bit wordy, but essentially it means that then he charges he can reroll the charge and then allow a unit of Blood Knights to charge (and reroll the charge) even if they could not normally charge – this means you can call a counter charge with the Lord in order to fling both him and a unit of Blood Knights into combat in the enemy turn. On top of this he gives Blood Knights +1 rend on the charge too, which would make them an impressive rend 3 against infantry.

Vampire Lords also get a small but important update in that their Sanguine Blur ability now happens in the Hero phase and not the Movement Phase

While Vhordrai’s profile stays the same, we get a new profile for Revenant Draconith, for those who want multiple undead dragons in their army. These are very cool with a statline similar to the old Dragon (though the breath attack now has a flat 5 shots rather than D6). It can be deployed in the sky and “deep strike” using the usual restrictions, what’s really cool is it’s rampage through – at the end of any turn on a D3 roll of 2+ it does that many mortal wounds, heals itself the same amount and is removed from the board ready to fly down again next turn. The fact that you can do this in both your and your opponents turn gives you some fun ways to use this too.

We mentioned that the Bloodseeker Palanquin is gone, but the Coven Throne has actually gained it’s Promising Concoction ability, allowing it to give 3 friendly vampires +1 attack each once per game.

Some of the biggest changes in the book are with the Deathrattle however. The Wight King on Skeletal Steed is a new profile that is very fun. He can pick an objective or terrain in enemy territory and give Deathrattle +1 to hit while nearby it, and in addition if he causes a critical hit on an enemy unit then that unit’s save is reduced by 1 for the rest of the game. This is amazing and basically gives your entire army an extra point of rend against that unit for the rest of the game. And this can be done on multiple units too! Great unit and I need another Wight King kit so I can build one!

Wight Kings on foot can now give a friendly unit Crit (2 hits) on a roll of 3+, and he still keeps his old rule allowing a unit to fight immediately after him with +1 to hit.

The Wight Lord is a new unit name, but this is essentially the old Wight King on steed profile – he makes units charge better and allows cav to immediately fight after him.

Barrow Knights are the new Black Knights, but really they are now much better mounted Grave Guard. They get Crit Mortals all the time and no longer need to charge to trigger it, and in addition they get to return a slain model at the end of every turn making them into a massive tarpit to try and wade through. I love these guys and depending on points I think I’d always take a unit backed up by the two mounted Wight characters.

We also get a trio of new Endless Spells in the new book. Hand of Nagash is brilliant and has a 50/50 chance of reducing a nearby units control to 1, or stop it from moving entirely – in our practice games this was amazing and just the threat of this thing creeping up and stopping you from moving onto an objective or scuppering a battle tactic was brilliant. What’s really cool is that it can be removed from the board in the movement phase and placed anywhere outside of 9 of the enemy, but it also has a change of creeping forward D3 inches on a roll of 2+ making the charge a little more likely.

The Unholy Reliquary is an interesting one, it’s basically a battery that can be used in order to regain D3 wounds on a hero, or instead add 1 to all their attacks (though increasing attacks removed the spell from the battlefield)

Finally we have the Sanguine Storm which is an interesting 2 part spell that has a lot of weak crit mortal attacks that can also heal the spell, but only has 6 health that is shared across the two halves of the spell.

The Soulblight Gravelords Endless spells can be case using a Cursed Sepulchre for range and visibility, which is nice. Speaking of the terrain piece it also heals each time a model dies within 9″ of it.

Spearhead

The new Soulblight Gravelords Spearhead looks really nice – it has a Wight on foot, 20 Skeletons, 10 Barrow Guard and 5 Barrow Knights, which makes it a really good companion to this box if you want to lean into the Barrow Kingdoms side of things. As with the other recent Battletomes you get a full painting guide showing how to paint the contents of the box.

From a rules point of view they look fun – one of your skeleton units starts off the board and can be deployed within 3″ of any board edge, in addition each turn you pick an enemy unit to reduce their rend by 1, which seems pretty powerful. This one seems all about overwhelming numbers, with abiities like Overwhelming Hordes allowing you to add 1 to wound when you outnumber your target. Unlike the Deathrattle battle formation in the main rules this doesnt require you to charge either!

Rules for the units are more or less in line with what we get in the main rules with Barrow Knights still able to return a slain model every turn.

Path to Glory

One of our favourite things about the new edition of Age of Sigmar is Path to Glory and the Anvil of Apotheosis. This is a way of crafting your own heroes of your own creation for use in narrative games. Essentially you start with a pool of Destiny Points that can be spent in order to craft your character. You start with a stock profile, and then can lean into one of 4 archetypes, Combat Vampire, Caster Vampire, Necromander or Wight King. You can then take that profile and upgrade it further with different origins and flaws and even mounts and abilities in order to make something unique. Want to make a Wight King riding a dragon that ignores Ward Saves? Sure go for it! Or what about a vampire that can transform into a Fell Bat before turning back into its vampire form? Or what about a Nercromancer on a unholy fire breathing Nightmare? The possibilities are endless and there’s lots of fun that can be had here. Incidentally, I’m planning on using this to recreate profiles for the missing Cursed City characters…

Soulblight Gravelords Armies and Regiments of Renown

Like with the other Battletomes this edition we get a couple of Armies of Renown which allow you to build different armies with their own options and rules in order to give some forces with a different flavour, along with Regiments of Renown that allow Death armies to take units from the book.

For the Armies of Renown we get the option of a Knights of the Crimson Keep list, which consists of Vhordri, Vampires on Nightmares, Blood Knights and Draconith. This is a much reduced roster, but grants you the ability to charge a second time in the charge phase to take advantage of Blood Knight abilities, and even leave Blood Knights off the board to come in from board edges during the battle.

Like with a lot of Armies of Renown this is a very niche list, but good fun if you want to go heavy cavalry.

The Barrow Legion is the second list, and this is a very fun one too, you can only take Deathrattle units, however they get some cool abilities. All Deathrattle have Anti-charge (+1 rend) while near their (single and larger) Royal Crypt (which is made up of 3 Sepulchers put together), from turn 3 ALL enemy units also reduce their saves by 1 if the Crypt is still on the battlefield. You still get to recycle your dead units too. Yes, you’re not going to have any magic, but I think this could be a pretty powerful one once enemy saves are corroded across the board.

For Death players who really fancy a dragon or the Blades of the Hollow King but dont have a Soulblight Gravelords army, then regiments of Renown are in the book that allow these to be taken in a Flesh Eater, Nighthaunt or Bonereaper army. Both of these regiments also get to heal D3 every turn (Or 2D3 for Cado if he destroyed a unit) making them stick around a little longer.

Summary

So what do I think of the new Soulblight Gravelords Battletome? At first I was a little disappointed in the lack of changes over the index and the removal of some units. However, the more I dug into the book the more excited I got. Some kits that I thought were sure to go such as Corpse Carts and Mortis Engines remained in the book, and all the new units have really cool rules that fill in some gaps in the Gravelords army. The Deathrattle in particular get some big boosts, and I think that we’re going to see an interesting blend of different armies leading into various ways of building armies here. I do think we might see a lot of Barrow Knights and Blood Knights backed up with mounted characters with some dragons for taste, but a lot of that is going to depend on points costs (Which I haven’t seen at the time of writing this review)

Regardless of points however, I’m really excited to make some new lists and there’s still lots of nice toys here even with the units that have been removed.

I’m interested to see if the other Death armies (2 of which seem to be on the way this year) get much in the way of changes or if they end up leaning closer to what we previously had in the Faction Packs.

The Soulblight Gravelords Deathrattle Army Set is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 19th April.

Games Workshop provided Sprues and Brews with a free copy for review purposes.