We recently talked about Games Workshop’s Shadespire and the reasons why we’re stoked for it. Well, add one more reason to get excited. Games Workshop revealed a new playable faction for the game and they’re skeletons. Probably the best looking skeleton models Games Workshop has ever released.
For those who are familiar with the Age of Sigmar universe, you’ll notice that these are specifically skeletons (Deathrattle) and not representing anything else from the Grand Alliance Death. So for all of you zombie, banshee, and vampire fans out there, keep crossing those undead fingers.
In the game’s setting, the city of Shadespire is an, “ancient and damned city, cursed by the Lord of Undeath to eternally sit in limbo between the realms of Light and Shadow.” The skeletons of this faction are the Sepulchral Guard, who are former warriors of the city of Shadespire before the curse was placed.
The really cool part is that these warriors are not just mindless, shambling undead; they retain shards of their memories from before the curse and are each unique individuals. This means we can still expect these characters to have limited and restricted upgrades within the Sepulchral Guard’s unique upgrade deck.
There isn’t a ton of information available but based on the reveal video (embedded at the top), it looks like the whole faction will consist of 7 models. In a game with a maximum cap on the number of activations per turn, being 4; this means starting the game with 3 models a turn who cannot activate.
The Sepulchral Guard will favor a player with a considered, strategic approach to battle. It will be really interesting to see what kinds of objective cards they bring to help overcome this limitation. Being skeletons, they are not nearly as hard to kill as the Stormcast Eternals, and they definitely don’t kill quite as easily as the Bloodbound followers of Khorne so the Sepulchral Guard player will have to rely on sound strategy to win the day. It also sounds like this faction is going to have some truly built in synergy as the Sepulchral Warden will have an ability to bolster the other undead warriors around him.
Just like the Stormcast Eternals and the Bloodbound found in the Shadespire starter set, all of the models for the Sepulchral Guard are clip-together, or push style, plastic and require no glue to assemble. Presumably, also like the starter set models, they will be cast in coloured plastic, allowing you to get them on the table ( even if painted models roll better, that’s just basic science) and start playing right away. For Age of Sigmar Grand Alliance Death players, these models also match the same scale as the Deathrattle so you can seamlessly add them to your existing units for a characterful addition.
The Sepulchral Guard will be available with the launch of the full Shadespire starter set so make sure you save enough bones (get it?) to pick them both up so you can start playing this fantastic looking game as soon as possible.
What faction do you want to see in Shadespire? Let us know in the comments!
Image Credits: Games Workshop
