On Thursday, Games Workshop announced at Adepticon 2023 that they were releasing not only a new Soulblight battle tome, but also a new Hero model by the name of Ivya Volga, also known as “The Outcast”.
Here is what Games Workshop had to say about her:
“The wolf-lords of the Vyrkos dynasty run in packs, hunting their prey across the realms with supernatural skill. However, not all of these noble vampires are so enamoured with their bestial kin. Ivya Voga prefers the humble bat over the revered wolf, her rejection of tradition marking her as an outcast. Ivya roams the realms alone, hunting hulking behemoths with the help of her beloved woodsman’s axe and her loyal swarm of needle-fanged bats.” (From the Warhammer Community Page)
What do we think of Ivya Volga?
The first line tells us that she is another hero for the Vyrkos dynasty. She now joins a long list of named characters that we have access to. We may have to wait weeks before we start to get any details on how she will play, so what can we speculate? Vyrkos already has a variety of heroes that fill many different roles and play very differently and I think it is safe to assume Ivya Volga will not be any different.
The wolf legs of the model combined with the comments about “roaming” and “stalking” makes me think she will be slightly faster than the normal vampire. Instead of a 6″ move, I expect 8″ like Radukar the beast. But also some form a “reserve” deployment. Maybe able to come in from a board edge.
Games Workshop have also made a point of mentioning that Ivya Volga hunts “hulking behemoths” so maybe an ability that provides her with more damage for models with high wound counts or the behemoth keyword.
We are very excited to see the rules for this new model when GW release them and hope to be able that one of our sellers will have some models to list. But until that time, you can keep an eye on the Soulblight Gravelords Category page to see what models we do have available.