VC: Playing as Undead Legion

I googled Blood Knights and I got boobs.  Was not disappointed.

Before you dig any deeper, please see the article I wrote about VC/TK interactions here.  I'll start off with my VC list because I have the most experience with them (I got into them when they got their new 7th Ed. book).  My playstyle has always been a killy armored Vampire Lord because that's how I envision myself if I was to personally take command of the army.  It just sings well with me.

For now, I'll skip the Special Characters and all the Nagash Vol. 2 units.  I want to concentrate on the original army books.

Vampire Counts Unit Bucket:
Vampire Lord, Master Necromancer, Necromancer, Vampire, Wight King, Tomb Banshee, Zombies, Skeleton Warriors, Crypt Ghouls, Dire Wolves, Grave Guard, Black Knights, Crypt Horrors, Vargheists, Fell Bats, Spirit Host, Bat Swarms, Hexwraiths, Terrorgheist, Mortis Engine

Tomb Kings Unit Bucket:
Tomb King, Liche High Priest, Tomb Prince, Liche Priest, Necrotect, Skeleton Archers, Skeleton Horsemen, Skeleton Horse Archers, Skeleton Chariots, Necropolis Knights, Ushabti, Khemrian Warsphinx, Sepulchral Stalkers, Hierotitan, Necrosphinx, Screaming Skull Catapult, Casket of Souls

VC: Adding the Casket of Souls

Releasing all dem souls!

In a previous article, I wrote about how to play with both VC and TK in the same army.  I mentioned in there that the Casket of Souls was practically a must take in all lists.  Why is that?  Well, here are some of my reasons:

• It gives you +D3 PD to use per phase, and it doesn't have to be for the casket. No matter how you dice it, there's just not many things in the game that gives you this kind of advantage.  You want it to boost your normal casting? Go ahead. You want to use the Casket? Sure. You want to feed your Peripat? That's fine too.
• It gives you a pseudo-shooting option that you will always have.
• It allows you to remove a key pieces off the map if it goes off. I'm talking about serious key pieces here: The Skullcannon is Ld.7 with 4 wounds, Empire Cannons away from their general are also under threat, Ogre Ironblasters are Ld.7, although 5W will be harder to manage. Most of the other danger pieces only have 3 wounds. Elf RBTs only have 2W are are Ld.8; thus auto-dying on average rolls. Mournfangs in a flanking position are now suddenly threatened big time, so are most low Ld. chaff: Furies, Dogs, Sabertusks, the list goes on. And it has the potential to bounce.
• Once your opponent have figured out that this is a dangerous piece on the battlefield, he will throw dice to dispel it. The fact that he has to throw DD at a FREE spell potentially (D3 averages 2 dice free), you will now be ahead in the magic phase. This increases the chances you will have VDM, Desert Wind, or anything else you want to conjur up with your opponents are on a 2-dice deficit. If he fails to dispel and loses concentration, while the probability is low, it's just a shutout.
• This limits your opponent's movement, deployment and chaff potential. Will he risk bounces and lose large amounts of low. Ld chaff? He will need to deploy tight, or not be very careful of his movements or risk getting blasted off the board.  Forget about low Ld flankers, forget about warmachines trying to get flank shots, anything that can possibly threaten flanks is also threatened by the Casket if their leadership is low enough.
• With Peripat and Casket, you're literally +2 PD/DD on your opponent from the beginning of the game. You get 2 from the casket, you decide to bank it, and thus you're up 2 while you negotiate your existing magic phase. This is free advantage on both offense and defense.
• It works with a number of things that messes with your opponent's leadership.  Doom and Darkness makes it more effective, Golden Death Mask of Kharnut, Aura of Dark Majesty, anything that reduces or prevents superior leadership from being used.  While I'm not saying that this is the best use of points in the army, the synergy is there and cannot be overlooked.
• It's relatively cheap, small and you can keep it out of LoS because it doesn't need it to do its stuff. The effect is Direct Damage. It's also T10, I've had people shoot it with a cannon and call it a waste on a 1,2,3.  Most people don't even bother with it, and if you tuck it away in a corner without LoS, no one really bothers.

Aside from the magic that Liche Priests can offer, I don't think there's too much from the book that VC can use to their advantage.  If only Tomb Kings can take their steeds, maybe I would be able to utilize that Golden Deathmask in more of my army lists.  Sadly, that is not to be.

What would I change in my existing VC army to incorporate the Casket and Liche Priest?  Cut the Vargheists and Necromancer for a Lv.1 Liche Priest, Lore of Nehekhara with a dispel scroll.  Unless you get something you really want, you'll almost always default of Invocation of the Desert Wind.  Otherwise, just place the Vargheists for the Casket and you're good to go.

VC: Analyzing my current 2500 list

Long reads require a beautiful vampire chick.

Before anything else, I'll throw up the army list so we can go over everything piece by piece.  My current rendition of VC is pretty much the same of what I ran in the past.  I still have an all-powerful Vampire Lord, but I've changed a couple of components around the rest of the army to fit a more aggressive playstyle.  Probably the biggest change here is the fact that I dropped a Terrorgheist for a greater selection of units and magic support.

2497
13 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 548
Lore of Vampires
Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Dark Knight, Dragonhelm, Ogre Blade, 4+ Ward

HEROES:
Lv.1 Vampire BSB = 245
Lore of Vampires
Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Dark Knight, Nightshroud, Gem

Lv.1 Necromancer = 100
Lore of Vampires
Cursed Book

CORE:
33x Skeleton Warriors, FC = 195
30x Ghouls, Ghast = 310
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
11x Black Knights, FC, BoSwiftness = 331
5x Hexwraiths = 150
3x Vargeists = 138
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Terrorgheist = 225

First, let's take a look at my Vampire Lord.  He runs Lore of Vampires obviously, and comes with the standard kit of Quickblood and Red Fury.  I always run my Vampire Lords with Beguile because the chance to make someone re-roll successful hits against you is just too good to pass up on.  This combined with your 1+ save, 2++ vs. fire and 4+ ward, you're extremely tanky while still capable of putting out ludicrous amounts of damage yourself,  With 13 deploys, you should be able to drop your characters last, placing your VL and supporting Vampire away from enemy characters so you're not forced to fight them.  If you do, I have strong faith in my lord's ability to take them down because of..

The Vampire.  I chose the Vampire over the Wight King BSB that I regularly take for 3 main reasons:  You can take another Invocation of Nehek that can be used close to your general, you are S5/S7 on the charge, and you can take vampiric powers.  The extra IoN gives me sustainability on my unit once I enter combat and allows me to heal up any characters that take damage.  S7 on the charge is just huge for me these days because there's a lot of T5 out there that I want to force damage through.  While the Wight King's main advantages over the Vampire is the extra wound and T5, he lacks the raw killing potential that the Vampire delivers.  Over a sustained fight, you need to be able to pile on those additional wounds, especially if the WK can't KB stuff like monstrous infantry.  In terms of durability, I'm already sporting the Nightshroud and 1+ AS, but the -1 Ld aura plus Beguile tests at -4 for both Lord and Vampire is remarkably good.  The Nightshroud's ability just can't be underestimated:  It is seriously one of the best defensive items in the game, rendering most magical weapons and GWs ineffective vs. your vampires in combat.  Not only that, but it strips away ASF and allows Quickblood to do its thing.

When you deploy these guys in a bus, you want to put them on the edges, away from any characters that you might face.  The first rank of 5 should look something like this:  VL V CH BK BK.  The VL on the edge means that hopefully, the least amount of attacks will be going towards your lord on a unit of similar size.  Since the last model swinging will also be in BtB with your Nightshroud, the Lord will reap all the advantages and additional protection that the NS will provide.  In addition, you will have 2 instances to apply your -4 Beguile, and hopefully that will be enough to push the damage through the unit instead of into characters.  Should you absolutely need to fight enemy characters (such as a challenge), the character fighting your VL will also be in BtB with the Nightshroud, and lose ASF in his fight as well.  Let's just say I got money on our guy.

Lastly, we have the humble Necromancer.  Sure, he gives me yet another IoN to cast around if he so desires, but he carries the awesome Cursed Book.  I don't know about you guys, but I think this is one of the best magic items in the game.  For an average of 2 dice, he can cast a lot of spells that a Lv.1 Necro would normally struggle with.  He has a 33% chance to cast a great spell on one dice, and I think that's a great price to pay for some of the best combat-swingy spells in the game.  All of them are hexes that can be cast in combat, and some of them are Remains in Play.  To make it even better, a lot of them have greater range than your other spells, allowing you to stay back a little further and still be a threat on the battlefield.  I absolutely love this item and I think it's a great way to improve your magic flexibility while keeping your LoV spam strong.  Good players can often play fine without a scroll in their army, so give this handy little thing a go for a couple of games and see where it gets you.  I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Alright, now we enter the bulk of the army and you'll see some set staples here.  I always take some kind of chaff and that's why we'll see 3x Dire Wolves and 3x Spirit Hosts.  Personally, I think VC have some of the best drops in the game for cheap and effective chaff.  Spirit Hosts might be one of the most annoying things ever since they can kill other cheap chaff, work as redirectors, and offer static combat res if your opponent is already tied up.  They can tie naked knights up all day, and being Ethereal means they can get places other units cannot.  In short, they're probably one of the best units in the entire book and everyone should have 3x for chaffing purposes.  Later in the game once your forces hit combat, make sure to run them behind enemy units and rear charge them for a static +2 combat res.  If they can't reform and all their characters with magical weapons are already fighting in the front, then it sucks to be them.  The same would apply to your Hexwraiths.

Speaking of Hexwraiths, I always like running one unit whenever I play VC.  Their applications are truly outrageous and they can do so many things its unreal.  I only like taking one unit of them because if you take too many, you risk drawing a bad matchup in the form of heavy magic missiles, magic shooting, or something else that can just wipe them off the board.  They're relatively expensive, and you can only heal a single one per IoN, so you gotta be smart about how you use them.  For me, they're excellent chaff killers since they can pass through enemy (and friendly!) units and deal good damage.  They can kill chaff, hunt warmachines, threaten any unit that won't beat them in combat res naturally, provide Terror tests, strip Regen, and offer static combat res in later parts of the game.  You just need to make sure you keep these guys away from magic attacks and within range of your general.  Since I'm running a relatively fast army, I don't really have an issue with that.

My Skeleton Warriors are there to be a bunker of my Necromancer, and the Ghouls in 6x5 allow me to fight on a semi-decent level.  The 2 poison attacks each really help once I push these guys up and tie up something nasty.  I always like some Ghouls in my army because they threaten a lot of the big beasties out there with high T.  Apply enough wounds either through luck, or with Vanhels and Ghouls become really threatening to some armies.  My Black Knights form my VL's armored bunker and BoSwiftness helps me get to where I want to be.  The Vargheists are just there to keep pace with my army and hunt down anything that threatens to block me or can threaten my flanks.  Since they're not the toughest things in the world and they have Frenzy, then tend to fly out to kill chaff and enemy warmachines.  Their plentiful attacks at S5 can really make short work out of most light units, and the fact that they're vampires allow me to reach out to other areas of the map I wouldn't otherwise be able to.

Finally, we have the lone Terrorgheist.  I've ran two TGs for the longest time, but as new armies come out and high S, D6 wound shooting becomes more and more accessible, things can get really bad, really fast.  Multiple Terrorgheists, Ethereal units and scream-lists are purely a meta thing I feel because there are some armies that just don't care they're on the board.  When you're playing something like Wood Elves, or Daemons of Chaos, investing in multiple units of Hexwraiths is just a bad idea.  You're essentially giving them points because you WILL lose them.  If you don't lose them, you know you've probably played them too conservatively, and thus they're not making back their points.  The same philosophy holds true for Terrorgheists because while they're god damn amazing, cannons just erase them from the board.  Unlike the Hexwraith unit that costs 150 in your list, these things are 225 per pop and each one lost is a huge chunk of your points.  Hexwraiths are also easier to hide and keep out of range.  Terrors need to be within 8" of something to scream, and if they're not screaming, they're not making their points back.  For this reason, I've reduced the number down to 1 and used the points to buff up other areas of my army.  Losing one is bad enough in a poor matchup, but losing two before you can get any use out of them is disastrous.

That's it from me, good night folks.

WHFB: How well does VC and TK play together?

Let my legions pour forth and consume this world!

Hey guys, just a quick article here about how I'm going to incorporate some of the new Undead Legions rules to my existing Vampire Counts army.

Here are some of the big things to take note of:

• There is no more Nehekharan Undead or specific Vampire Counts Undead, there is now only one Undead.  This means that all the magic, magic items and special rules that target a specific undead entity now affects all Undead models in your army.  The same applies for the Lore of Nehekhara and Lore of Vampires.  This is absolutely huge, and something I will expand on in a bit.
• You now have access to all of the units in both army books so you and mix and match like you please, following the normal army restrictions of course.  By normal, I mean now you can play with 50% of your army as Lords.  You want to take a beefy Tomb King along side your pumped up Vampire Lord in 2500 points?  Sure thing.
• Tomb Kings' units can now march within 12" of the army general, just like Vampire Counts.  This is gigantic because the army was never able to march before, and made up their movement with magic spells.  Let this sink in for a bit, because it's going to get wild in a little bit.
• Finally, your general dying no longer makes your entire army crumble.  If you lose your big bad Vampire Lord, nothing bad happens because Nagash's power is able to sustain your army during these dark times.  This can be a huge boon for late game attrition when your general rolls horribly to save.

If you guys haven't figured it out already, this unlocks a huge new can of worms that the Old World is not ready for.  Just when you think it's bad enough that some of their greatest heroes have fallen, the world is in ruins and they're being bombarded by Undead and Chaos at all sides, what more can go wrong?!

Here is where it goes wrong:

Tomb Kings can now march with your Vampire Lord right?  Both Lore of Nehekhara and Lore of Vampires can be used on all Undead units right?  Bring on the movement shenanigans!  If anything WHFB has taught me over the years is that these slow-moving, corpse-ridden undead guys sure can move when you want them to.  Between Incantation of Desert Winds and Vanhel's Danse Macabre, you can move your entire army into your opponent's backfield soon after you deploy.  Why?  Because there is no more restriction which Undead units are affected by these spells.  Incantation of Desert Winds is a signature spell that was built into the TK lore to make up for the fact that TK could never march before.  Now that every Liche Priest and their mother can take it, you have a grave decision to make when your opponent wants to cast this spell.  On a 8+ augment Undead (was Nehekaran Undead) units within 12" can immediately make a normal move as if it were the Remaining Moves sub-phase.  You can extend this to a bubble 24" on a 16+, but that might be out of the realm of possibilities for a Lv.1-2 supporting Liche Priest.

Now think about this for a second:  Your entire army just marched, and now it can move again?  What happens when you get off VDM (Vanhel's Danse Macabre) on a bubble 12+?  If that goes off, every Undead unit within 12" can now make another 8" move followed by re-rolls to hit until the next round of magic.  If you think Wood Elves are fast, or Slaaneshi Daemons, think again:  Undead are the new masters of movement and they do so with basic spells, one of which is a signature spell that every Liche Priest can take, and VDM with Book of Arkhan (BS PL3) from a Necromancer.

Sure, sure, but we can dispel that right?  Of course you can, but that's the beauty of it all.  For a spell like Incantation of Desert Winds, it just became questionable to a must dispel lest you want Terrorgheists screaming behind your units.  This level of magical commitment forces your hand and there's a possibility that it won't be enough to stop it all.  The fact that this is available on every wizard in the TK army means that you will always have it in your arsenal.

What happens when you combine an army with re-roll hits via VDM with Incantation of Righteous Smiting?  You have a dramatic increase in damage potential as your army is now capable of re-rolling hits with +1 attack.  Both of those can be stacked and both of those can be cast in a bubble if you so desired.  With Tomb Guard and Grave Guard benefiting huge amounts from these magical effects, it's no wonder that they stayed in different books.  If you think that's rough, think about what happens when you cast Hellish Vigor on a unit in combination with Incantation of Cursed Blades?  Your Skeletons now gain re-roll wounds and the ability to Killing Blow!  Throw this onto your Grave Guard and you now re-roll wounds and KB on a 5+.  If that's not crazy, I don't know what is.

When you throw magical items into the fray, things get even more ridiculous.  Incantation of Vengeance is a hex that not only reduces the movement's by D3, but it treats all terrain as Dangerous Terrain so everyone has to test if they move.  Combine this with Rod of Flaming Death (BS PL3) and the unit will take an immediate S4 hit on every model if it moves.  More interactions can be Death magic's lovely Soul Blight with Incantation of Desiccation that's essentially the same thing, but a possibility of a stronger, more expensive to cast -D3 S/T version.  As we already know, Incantation of Smiting is a great spell because of the +1 attack it gives, but when you combine this with Staff of Damnation (BS PL4) and its ability to give Extra Attack to every Undead unit within 6", things get really ridiculous if these spells start flying out.

Alright, enough about spells, I get it.  What more do the armies have that can help each other?  Well, think about it like this for a sec:  A lot of these items never interacted with each other before and certainly not on a competitive level.  I frown upon the decision to put something like Golden Death Mask of Kharnut (TK magic item) together with a unit with Screaming Banner (VC magic banner).  Your model now causes Terror, all enemy units within 6" of the wearer cannot use their general's Inspiring Presence or their BSB's Hold Your Ground rule.  Screaming Banner requires that enemy units in combat with the thing roll an extra dice for a fear test and discard the lowest result.  Add in the already existing fear-bomb that VC have such as Fear Incarnate (successful fear tests must be re-rolled) and Aura of Dark Majesty (-1 Ld aura), and you have something much greater.  Although seen as a gimmick by some, other armies are not as fortunate because they don't have plentiful ITP units.

Another popular unit being talked about is the Necrotect.  For a very affordable price in your hero slot, you are able to grant any unit Hatred.  Slap this in a unit of Great Guard with Banner of Barrows and you'll be hitting things with re-rolls with +1 to hit.  If that's not enough for you, add in a Tomb Prince or Tomb King special rule My Will Be Done! and give your WS to the entire unit.  WS5 or 6 Grave Guard will hit most things in the game on 2s, wound with 2s.  Slap on some of the magic spells we talked about earlier and things get out of control.  One of the other rules that that Necrotect lends the army is his ability to give Undead Constructs within 12" range of him a lovely 6+ Regen.  This doesn't seem like a lot at first, but then you apply the Mortis Engine's ability to improve Regen saves and your perspective changes a lot.  For your opponent, this changes in a very bad way as most armies already struggle with T8 Necrosphinx, and now they have freakin' 5+ Regen and take 2 less wounds from losing combat if you have a BSB nearby.

Lastly, expect to see a Casket of Souls in every list.  Not only does it work wonderfully with the whole scream-machine that VC tends to throw out every now and then, but it supplies a lovely +D3 PD to the army.  Combined with something like Black Peripat and maybe the Mortis Engine's +2 to cast for Lore of Vampires, you might just dominate the magic phase.

Just how powerful is all this?  Aside from the movement shennigans, I'm pretty sure it's going to be very powerful, but not unbeatable.  I'm not going to get into all the crazy Mortarchs just yet, but this should be enough to get the gears in your head moving.

VC: The book is not so bad

I remember when this card dominated..

Coming back to WHFB after a long hiatus, I took the last couple of days to learn about the new armies.  I stopped playing a few months after Dark Elves got their new book and during that time, Dwarfs and Wood Elves also got their proper updates.  Good for them.  It's been a long time coming since these armies got their updates and I hope everyone gets updated relatively soon.

So what prompted this post exactly?  Well, I've been hearing quite a bit from the online community that VC lost a lot of their appeal.  Wood Elves bring a lot of magical arrows into the fray and Dwarfs just have enough shooting to make your Terrorgheists miserable.  While these are both true, I don't think it's all doom and gloom for VC.  Out of all the books that have been released so far, I think VC has the best magic item selection and very powerful playstyles overall.

There are three main playstyles that is VC for the most part:

• The offensive style plays with a Blenderlord, loves to apply pressure with a knight bus and fast movers that jam up and annihilate the enemy.  He sustains himself via magic, chews through units through his lord and plays a more isolate and destroy game.  The lord likes to focus on one unit, annihilates it utterly and then moves onto the other while the rest of the army supports this action.  When you look at the army itself, it runs with fast movers like Hexwraiths, Terrorgheists, multiple drops of Dire Wolves, Vargheists, Bat Swarms, basically anything that can keep pace with the Blenderlord's bus of Black Knights.
• The defensive playstyle is on the completely opposite ends of the spectrum.  You like to footslog, keep your army as compressed as possible and win the game through attrition.  In order for VC to do this, they must have a strong magic phase in the way of magical items, namely the Black Peripat.  You might see one or two Master Necromancers in this list, forming your basic casting engines to be combined with the Mortis Engine's +2 to cast for Lore of Vampires.  The rest of the army is made out of anything with good staying power:  Big units of Ghouls, a big unit of Crypt Horrors, Mortis Engine for additional Regen, and anything else that can take a beating and stick in combat.  These lists tend to be slower than the offensive style of playing.
• The last style that you'll see is a mix of both.  You might have a Blenderlord bus, a fat stack of Crypt Horrors with Mortis Engine, and/or anything else that combines the ideology of both.  These lists might have more options when fighting against specific archetypes in the metagame, but they're definitely not as focused as the other two playstyles.  Personally, I think players that focuses on either pure offense or pure defense have better lists overall.  The reason for this is because the VC army likes to either move and move fast, or move slow together.  Breaking that 12" march bubble with your General causes some serious problems most of the time, especially when most of the spells you cast are best in an AoE.

I will say one thing that is the major flaw in the VC book:  Some of the units are gimmicky and very swingy in terms of effectiveness.  For example:  Hexwraiths can be great against something like Ogres, but they'll be hiding for their lives vs. Wood Elves.  Terrorgheists basically have nowhere to hide against multiple cannons, but against an army with little shooting, they can dominate.

At the end of the day, you gotta take what playstyle you playing with most and utilize units that can face anyone in a tournament setting.  That means knowing your meta and which archetypes out there give you the most trouble.  If you're expecting to see a lot of magic flying around, you probably don't want to load your list with Hexwraiths.  If you're expecting to see Ogres, Dwarfs and Empire a lot, multiple Terrorgheists might be a point sink more than anything else.  You just gotta know what you're fighting against and build a balanced list based on your own playstyle.

Lastly, for christ sakes people, revisit your magic items selection once in a while, you'll be surprised with what you'll find.  Black Peripat allows you to absolutely dominate magic phases and it might be one of the best Arcane items in the game, rivaling that of Book of Hoeth.  Nightshroud has been absolutely absurd for me, shutting down opposing ASF and removing the threat of magic weapon/GW-totting models entirely.  Shit, even that cheap little Cursed Book that you have there for 35 points might be one of the best items in the game right now.  A little Lv.1 Necromancer can potentially cast a Soul Blight with 1 dice that'll normally take him 3 dice to cast.  Not just that, but your opponent will throw at least 2 dice on his Lv.4 to dispel it.  If that's not magic power, I don't know what is.

Know your meta, know the archetypes, and know your opponents.  Above all else:  Know your own army.  It will drastically increase your win % as far as preparation is concerned.

VC: Undead elves are real

She can lead my army anytime.

Now that GW has officially confirmed the fact they exist, I'm going to add on some undead elements to my current High Elf army to make it into Vampire Counts.  I already have an asston of High Elves, all I need to do is get myself some undead elements and make it real.

• I'm thinking about using my Spearmen as Skeleton Warriors.
• Dragon Princes as Black Knights, although Blood Knights would be better.
• Ghouls I will need to buy, probably Mantic Ghouls because they look great.
• Dire Wolves I will need to buy as well.
• Pick up some Hexwraiths because I love the models and they look very different than the rest.
• I will need to pick up a Terrorgheist because there's not really a model like it.
• New Spirit Host models are coming out, so I'm going to pick myself 3 of them.
• Vargheists right now are a toss up, I might use them, I might not.  I gotta playtest more.

On another note, so what about those Undead Legions?  Being able to combine VC and TK will lead to a lot of crazy stuff.  Seeing how TK couldn't march before and now they can, do you think they will be more competitive?  What about the fact that Incantation of Desert Winds can now affect both TK and VC units? Would you like the ability to march twice?  Then put on a big bubble VDM?  Add in 2x Necrosphinx and a Casket of Souls and you have one potent list.

2500
13 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 548
Lore of Vampires
Dark Knight, Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Dragonhelm, Ogre Blade, 4+ Ward

HEROES:
Lv.1 Vampire BSB = 250
Lore of Vampires
Dark Knight, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Nightshroud, Luckstone, PoFools

CORE:
33x Skeleton Warriors, FC = 195
30x Ghouls, Ghast = 310
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
12x Black Knights, FC, BoSwiftness = 357
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Casket of Souls = 135
Necrosphinx = 225
Necrosphinx = 225

Resurrecting a dead army

This should be fun.

Yup, bringing back the dead.  I have no idea why the sudden interest in Vampire Counts, but I have a crap ton of them sitting the garage waiting to get updated.  Warhammer Fantasy has died down a lot in my area, but I think I'm going to get back into it in a big way.  It's a solid game system and 8th Ed. has really made it more fun contrary to what other people believe.  By the way the current books are rolling out, I'm sure we'll see a more balanced game once the 7th Ed. power armies get rotated out (DE, Lizzies, Skaven).

Here's what I'm currently building towards at 2500:

2496
12 deploys

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 548
Lore of Vampires
Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Heavy Armor, Shield, Barded Nightmare
Dragonhelm, ToPreservation, Ogre Blade

HEROES:
Lv.2 Vampire = 233
Lore of Death
Aura of Dark Majesty
Heavy Armor, Lance, Barded Nightmare
Enchanted Shield, Cursed Book

Lv.1 Necro = 90
Lore of Vampires
Scroll

CORE:
40x Zombies (Standard) = 125
20x Zombies (Standard) = 65
35x Ghouls (Ghast) = 360
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
10x Black Knights (FC, BoSwiftness) = 305
5x Hexwraiths = 150
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Terrorgheist = 225
Terrorgheist = 225

++++++++++++++++++++++

The main thing to note here is that I'm going for a pretty balanced approach.  There's a mini-cav bus, less screams than a scream list, and a good amount of magic as well.  The Vamp Lord and Lv.2 Vamp will ride in the Black Knights, 6x2 formation and they'll fly shotgun next to 2x Terrorgheists.  With 12 drops total in the list, I'm looking to match if not beat most deployment.  I won't have enough to out-deploy MSU armies, but this is a pretty good start.

Lv.1 Necro functions as a caddy and sits in the smaller zombie unit.  Ghouls will be a hitting force that'll benefit greatly from Van Hels, but it's the Lord and the Terrorgheists that'll do the heavy lifting.  Spirit Hosts are great units to have and Hexwraiths are severely underrated.  They're one of the best chaff removal units in the game and being able to scare off/kill Eagles/Sabretusks/Ratdarts are a huge bonus.

Anyways, this is what I got for now.  Construction of the army will probably take place now and into April, with enough time to get some games in before my primary army, High Elves enter the fray in May.  Tau comes out next and I'll probably get my hands on the book just to write an review.  Otherwise, I try to stay away from the blue goat fishmen as much as possible.

BR: 2500pts HE vs. VC

Hey guys, this is my first game vs. the new Vampire Counts with my High Elves so I'm really excited to report the game.  I literally just finished playing and I'm pretty tired, but I had to get this BR down before I forget too much stuff.  Throughout the game, I managed to snag a few pictures, but nothing too crazy because we were just having a great time.  I played against my friend Lucas and he's always a good sport.

Before the game began, I gave my opponent a choice between a competitive list and a casual list.  He went with the casual and I took the following:

Lv.4 Archmage, Silver Wand, Robe, Talisman of Saphery, Lore of Shadow
Noble, BSB, GW, AoC, Dawnstone
Lv.1 Mage, Sigil, High Magic
40x Spears in FC w/ Lion Standard
2x 10x Archers
20x Phoenix Guard, FC with Banner of Sorcery
24x White Lions, FC with Banner of Eternal Flame
12x Sword Masters
5x Dragon Princes
2x Great Eagles

I guess I also owe it to some folks over at Ulthuan.net for wanting to see some BRs that feature non-book lists, so here you have it.  I literally took out my case, and decided to take a little bit of everything.  Overall, I was pretty happy about the list.

I didn't get the full list from my opponent, but here's what he had:

Lv.4 Vampire Lord, caster stuff
Lv.1 Beast Vampire
Wight King BSB w/ Black Knights
A unit of Black Knights
A unit of Vargheists
A big block of Crypt Horrors
A big block of Skeletons (Bunker)
A smaller unit of Ghouls
A larger unit of Ghouls
A Corpse Cart

We played on a map that's pretty straight forward.  I had 10 drops total and I managed to outdeploy him in some critical spots.  The biggest one is probably the White Lions vs. his Crypt Horrors and the Dragon Princes on his far flank while the rest of his army stayed together.

I'll post some pictures and talk at the same time.. hopefully it all makes sense.  Keep in mind some pictures are missing because we were having a ball!

Some observations on VC gameplay

So after a few games of playing with the new VC, I have some notes to share with you guys:

• A Lv.4 is really important in the army because of magic dominance.  You really need a strong magic phase to keep your units in good number.  Grave Guard are still amazing with GWs, it's just they're a lot more fragile than last edition.
• Supporting casters are a must have too.  The 6" bubble for rank 1 IoN is a great way to raise bunkers and keep units alive when they're next to you.  2 dice is a good chuck for a Lv.1 caster.
• Ethereal re-directors are decent, not the best.  The reason why is because of the 12" bubble and clunky bases giving you a harder time.
• Speaking of the 12" bubble, this is my biggest observation.  It keeps your entire army bunched up and close together and leaves very little choices on army composition.  A large core block of Skeletons is the right way to go (I've tried 60 and 2x 30) and the larger block allows you to anchor on one side of your flank entirely.  The 12" march bubble is very important in 2 respects:
• It makes cavalry-based armies a little less attractive.  You want movement, you desire movement, but leaving your army behind you while you seek glory is just troublesome.  Foot Lords are probably better because you want to be in the center of your army.  Cavalry Lords are bad unless your entire army can keep up with you (an entire cav army or flying Vargheists).
• Overruns and pursues can be bad for your Lord's unit.  Say you win combat by a lot and roll really high to pursue or overrun.  Unless your units are in position to charge or counter-charge next turn, their movement gets hampered a lot.  You can't march unless you're within 12" and you can't rely 100% on Van Hels to get your shit where it needs to be.
• If you plan on taking Black Knights, they should probably hang out behind your main forces or something so you can VHD them around the side so they can supporting charge next turn.
• Big blocks of Skeletons are pretty win.  My Ghouls have done pretty well in games, but I found Skeletons to be the core unit for price vs. effectiveness.  You just lock something down hard and that's always good.
• The biggest winners I've seen on various forums, battle reports and personal experience is the Mortis Engine, Crypt Horrors and Vargheists.  The Mortis Engine just lets you cast with +2 to all things and it's just ridiculous.  When a Lv.1 casts like a Lv.3, there's a good chance you'll get a lot more spells off.  With IoN needed to sustain your army's model count by the time you move across the battlefield, I would definitely recommend the Mortis Engine.  The funny thing is that Crypt Horrors are also really amazing.  T5 with 4+ Regen because of the Mortis Engine really holds the line when you need them too.  And Vargheists, flying Frenzy Monstrous Infantry is just really good.  Good WS, high S, good I, flying, a lot of attacks, it's all good.  T4 with no armor saves might seem like liability, but it's mother fing ridiculous vs. armies that don't have a lot of shooting or magic missiles.  They just fly over most re-directors and hit things on the flank.  Bam, dead units everywhere.
• So in summary, let's recap what I think is good:
• Big units of core to hold flanks (Skellies!)
• Ethereal misdirectors are clunky with the 12" bubble
• The 12" bubble really hinders movement and keeps your army tight
• Mortis Engine, Crypt Horrors, Vargheists and GG w/ Great Weapons (yes, they're still amazing) are the way to go.

PS - And this is probably pretty random.. but I managed to get my hands on a Ogres army for really cheap.  Guess I'll have Ogres on top of VC soon!

PPS - Hellheart vs. Vampires when they have a Mortis Engine just ruins their undead lives.  Roll twice on the Miscast chart and you pick the result.  Terrible.

PPPS - I have a game as High Elves vs. the new VC tonight!  BR will come soon :)

More VC army construction

UPDATED: 1-19-12

I'm still working on the finer points of designing a solid VC army and I'd like to take you guys on a guided tour on how I reach certain decisions.  Hopefully, this short article will help you guys in your army building stages as well.

First, I'll talk about my lord choices:

Vampire Lord = 433
Lore of Vampires
Red Fury, Quickblood
Knight, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, 4+ Ward, PoFool

Lv.3 Master Necro (Book of Arkhan) = 190
Lore of Vampires

This here is what I had at first.  I wanted to do this for the following reasons:  Keeping the VL at Lv.1 makes him a mere support caster.  It gives him focus, as he's now a primary melee attacker.  Bigger spells are not really used by him, thus limiting the amount of PD thrown (which in turn lowers the chance to miscast).  This also allows me to fill in a Master Necro at Lv.3 and Book of Arkhan.  It gives him a dedicated role and allows him to cast elsewhere (2 casters vs. 1) while maintaining a good magic item.

However, my list progressed to something like this:

2500pt VC army brainstorm

Alright guys, gloves off.  I have enough models to make it happen, so now it's time to proxy a few games and see how I do.  However, there's some stuff I want to go over first.

2246

LORDS:
Vampire Lord = 433
Lore of Vampires
Red Fury, Quickblood
Knight, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, 4+ Ward, PoFool

Lv.3 Master Necro (Book of Arkhan) = 190
Lore of Vampires

HEROES:
Vampire = 210
Lore of Shadow
Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incarnate
Knight, Enchanted Shield, Scroll

CORE:
60x Skeletons (FC, Spears) = 330
29x Ghouls (Ghast) = 300

SPECIAL:
40x Grave Guard (FC, Banner of Barrows) = 520
8x Black Knights (FC, Screaming Banner) = 263

8th Ed. Vampire Counts Army Book Review

Possibly the worst cover art I've ever seen.

To start things off, I'd like to say that I'm very happy with the new Vampire Counts book.  It's a solid army book with lots of different options and has tons of versatility.  One of the things I enjoy the most when reading new army books is judging its internal balance:  The book must be interesting enough that there's multiple viable builds possible.  What can I say?  Phil Kelly wrote the book and the man is capable of delivering awesome material.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for... the book review.  To start things off, let's talk about the spcial rules and work our way down to special characters, lords and heroes...etc.

New VC and High Elves Tactica

Hey guys, I'm getting my hands on the book today and I'm gonna get on a review ASAP.

As for what I've been doing lately, I've been arguing with fellow High Elves players on Ulthuan.net.  One of the most raging topics is:  Do High Elves need the Book of Hoeth to be competitive?  Think of uncomped areas.

What do you guys think?  Personally, I think you don't NEED it to be competitive, but it certainly helps a lot!

Check out this massive tactica I wrote on Ulthuan.net.  It's basically all the HE info on this site transferred over plus a few more things.

In a pickle: Vamps or Ogres

Right now, I'm still pretty undecided.  Both armies are 8th Ed. books which means balanced, fun and well-designed.  I currently own High Elves and I used to have Dwarfs.. but I sold them off because I didn't "feel" them.  I always ended up going back to High Elves..

Right now, the only thing I have built for Vampires right now is my 10x Dragon Princes to be used as (well, Dragon Princes) Blood Knights.  I have nothing for Ogres but a whole bunch of stuff for my Vampires.  This totals up to 80x Mantic Ghouls, 30x Mantic Zombies and 40x GW Grave Guard still sitting in boxes.  Let's list a bunch of pros and cons and see what happens:

First, I need an army that's radically different than High Elves.  Let's go over what High Elves are known for:

• Elite troops, everywhere, nothing is expendable and everything costs an assload of points.
• This also means they ASF, re-rolls to hit with high WS and Initiative
• Masters of magic, know all the lores, wields High Magic
• Dragons are big and powerful, have Griffon friends and Eagle allies
• Fairy little girly Elves connotation
• Aesthetically beautiful pleasing to look at; a beautiful army made of silver and azure
• Everything is on infantry bases or cavalry bases for the most part
• Requires expert generalship to win out these days.  I'd rate HE as one of the hardest armies to play right now if you avoid the book and Teclis due to the nature of the army.
• Probably somewhere in the middle for popularity
• Assloads of models to assemble, but this is my first army and I have everything already

So what about Ogres?

• Big and fat; monstrous troops, cavalry and monsters all over
• Still elite because of the points that goes into everything gives you..
• High toughness, low armor, but a lot of wounds per model.  Low WS and low Initiative.
• Not masters of magic, but have interesting hungry Gut magic
• No Dragons, but Giants, Cannons pulled by Rhinox, Mourfangs (bearcats), freaking Mammoths!
• The exact opposite of little girly Elves with big, burly, fat, questionably manly, full-retard Ogres
• Aesthetically hysterical to look at.. not beautiful in the slightest but.. interesting..
• Bases are mostly monster bases with lots of chariot and monster bases too
• Requires solid generalship since your Ogres are few, your charges must be well-calculated and you have to know which models you can break with combat and which ones you can't.  Primarily melee-orientated army.
• Not a really popular army, a plus for me
• Very few models to assemble because everything is big and burly

OK.. now Vampire Counts..

• The core of the army is expendable troops with elite supporting elements
• Crappy WS expendable troops with powerful fighter lords, cavalry, killing blow elite infantry and cav
• A mix of points spread around.. dirt cheap fodder and expensive elites
• Very solid magic with a good mix of movement, augments and power
• Big Undead Dragons, Terrorgheists, spectral ethereal stuff, Coven Throne, and flying Vargheists
• Not really girly per se, but Vampires have that emo connotation about them (e.g. Twilight)
• Aesthetically a mix of zombies, skeletons, Vampire Knights (HUGE!), ghosts and a mix of the above
• Bases are very diverse too; core is mostly infantry with powerful knights to giant monsters
• Pretty low generalship I'd say.  In 7th Ed, it was all Innvo-spamming GGdeathstar and Blood Knight bus of doom.  In 8th, almost nothing changed.  Regen Banner in a GGstar with +1 to hit or BK bus in almost all games.
• Probably the biggest bandwagon of Fantasy to date (think GK to 40K)
• A fucking million models to assemble because of all the cannon fodder

The biggest problem I have right now is that I simply cannot decide on what army I want.  In a nut shell, VC really appeal to me because of Blood Knights and fighty Vampire Lords.  I'm not a huge fan of undead, I don't care much for the whole zombie-revive undead mechanic.  Aeshetically, I just want to see fully armored vampiric knights riding into battle, smashing against anything in the game and winning.  It's a pretty linear way of thinking when it comes to Vampires I think.  I really hate the emo connotation and the caster lord in a bunker playstyle what might be effective.  It's really all about the Blood Knights for me, Blood Dragons or mauling the opponents in vicious hand-to-hand combat.  I want superiority in WS, skill and martial prowess.  Maybe that was one of the reasons why I was attracted to High Elves but also Khorne Daemons.

Ogres also appeal to me because they're funny.  I think if you want playstyles, Ogres are pretty much the exact opposite of High Elves.  They're slow, low WS but fast to get into combat and just smash things aside.  They're vulnerable to I-test spells or anything that can dispatch them before they can do serious damage.  The low WS doesn't help either, showing me that the army is pretty much made out of brawlers and lowly-trained fat people who use their guts as protection.  However, they do have BEARCATS! in the form of Mourfang Cavalry.  My wife calls me bear because she thinks I'm big and burly (maybe I'm getting heavier?) and this is something that I'm willing to accept.  They also have awesome cannons, radically eccentric fluff and powerful warbeasts.  I also think they're pretty characterful simply because the Ogres themselves are funny, almost a parody of wargaming.  I can't really picture an army made of Shreks.. can you?  Definitely something different from the seriousness that is High Elves (and me for that matter).

Well, there you have it folks.  Everyone knows me as the guy that plays High Elves but now I'm looking for a second army to offset that.  I just don't know!  Help! (more below)

Some VC brainstorming

Needless to say, I'm really excited about Vampire Counts in January.  I have boxes and boxes of stuff stored away waiting for this day (Jan 14th).  As if I don't have enough stuff already, the new stuff looks amazing.  I think it's time I start brainstorming on what kind of things I'll be taking in my 8th Ed. Vampires army.

First thing's first:  I will be taking a fighty killy lord over a spellcasting one.  There is nothing more boring than a bunker lord sitting behind his units spamming spells.  I want some 6th Ed. Killing Blow, +1S on the charge killer or some 7th Ed. Infinite Hatred + Red Fury.  From the latest rumor mill, it appears that Vamp Lords will be able to hit WS9 by taking the Dreadknight upgrade.  Since we have no idea what else is available, I'm hoping it'll be similar to what 7th Ed has now.  Sadly, I don't think Bloodlines will be back from what I've read so far.

I have no idea how I'm gonna deliver this bad boy yet, but it's either going to be Zombie Dragon, Blood Knights, Black Knights or Grave Guard.  At this moment, I'm leaning towards the Zombie Dragon and Blood Knights.  From the White Dwarf BR, it appears that Blood Knights went down in points, costing ~250 points for 5 of them with Full Command.  Also confirmed is the Banner of Blood Keep, so that's always a good thing to give your dudes ranged insurance.

Some VC rumors

UPDATED: 1:36pm 12-29-11

Completely true. Local newsagent had the white dwarf, and I've been having a good read. Invocation of Nehek affects all friendly units in its radius of 6"/12"/18", depending on the power level.

The Corpse Cart gives all units within 6" ASF until your next magic phase if it is the target of a Vampire spell - including the AoE of Invocation. This is specifically stated. Imaging say, 3 units of Skeletons or even Grave Guard, with 2 Corpse Carts between them, and a Necromancer or two in there throwing out Invocation every turn. Skeletons/Grave Guard with permanent ASF.

Raise Dead can raise either Zombies or Skeletons.

A few other tidbits.

Necromancers can take an upgrade called Master of the Dead. The only way to add models to a Skeleton unit raised with Raise Dead is with a Necromancer with Master of the Dead.

Ghouls are 10 points. A unit of 40 with a Ghast in one of the sample lists was 410 points.

Banner of the Blood Keep is one of the returning banners, and grants a 4+ ward save to shooting attacks.

There appear to be 3 different vampire types. Vampire lord, Vampire, Strigoi Ghoul King. This is mentioned in the new rules for Vampire Counts pacts for Storm of magic, they specifically name the lord choices you can take, and it is those 3 and Master Necromancer. They don't mention at all what makes a Strigoi Ghoul King different, though it might have something to do with Hatred and Poison, as Phil Kelly pointed out in the GW website Terrorgeist designers notes.

I also may be reading too much into it, but there's some hints towards Ghouls not being able to be reinforced through Invocation of Nehek. Don't quote me on this, it's not outright stated, just whenever they talk about raising models, Ghouls are the only unit not mentioned, as well as in the Lahmian sample list they say 'with 40 models, it ensures there will be enough left when they reach the enemy' or sometihng to that effect.

A Vampire Lord with death knight is WS 9. Looks like Vampire Lords are getting ridiculous stats again.

Master Necromancers can be the general. They specifically state this. It's possible to make an army completely lacking vampires.

They make a subtle mention about 'when the general dies, the army starts to crumble until another powerful character can regain control.' Seems like you can replace the general with a powerful Necromancer or other Vampire caster somehow if the general dies.

----------



Another batch of input... (from reading through the WD at the store today)

Where should we start ?

Lore of the Vampires

Signature Spell is definitely Invocation of Nehek - on the most fundamental level it can restore "D6 + caster's Wizard level" of Wounds to friendly Undead unit within 6". Boosted version has 12" range, as well as 18" ones.

Other spells includes Raise Dead, Vanhel's Danse Macabre, Curse of Years, Gaze of Nagash, and Wind of Death

Lore attribute: When the spell from the Lore of the Vampires is succefully casted, the wizard or any undead models within 12" restores 1 wound.
Rules tidbits:

All Vampire has rule called "Hunger" - You get to roll a D6 when the vampire kills one or more models in combat, on a 6 you recovers one wound. (Vlad with Blood Drinker pass the roll on 4+)

Also Vampire, including vampiric creatures "such as" Varghulf and Vargheist, can march. So Vargheist will be able to move 20" per turn almost all the time. (not sure if Varghulf can also fly)

Vampiric Powers: (not all of them, just those mentioned in WD)
Flying Horror - give the vampire ability to fly (unsure)
Dread Knight - ability to boost WS (don't know how - but a Vampire Llord with Dread Knight has WS of 9)
Quickblood - gains ASF
Master of the Black Arts - get to re-roll one D6 for the Winds of Magic.
Dark Acolyte - add D3 to the total number of models raised by Nehek.
Red Fury - should be about the same. (unsure)

Merry Christmas Vampire Counts!

Got a whole bunch of pics from the latest White Dwarf.

Check out all the Vampire Count goodness!

Merry Christmas everybody :)

Another army in the works

Just sketching up army lists and random, competitive thought patterns right now, nothing too serious.  I'll give you a hint though, it has something to do with the picture above.  If you guys guess what army, I'll start blogging about my ideas.  It's gonna be really fun.