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I finally am getting back to fantasy, and I want to know what I skeleton based army would need for its Vampire. Should vampires be more magic or combat based, as I do have a necromancer riding on a corpse cart, which is really a medical cart now. Any suggestions would be great. I am kinda lost when it comes to fantasy, more of a 40k player myself.

I think one of the beauties of the Vamp book is there are so many options. Lord of the Dead (or whatever helps raise skeletons) is an easy choice if you're headed towards skellies. I love the look of them much more, though ghouls are generally more competitive.

If you want to deal damage, infinite hatred will make sure you get the hits, and a suitable magic weapon (even just the sword of might) will let you put some hurt on rank and file.

I don't think there's any one optimal build by any means- so much depends on what else is in the army and what points you're playing at. Guessing by your sig, 500?

RZ

This is most likely in no way an optimal build, but my personal favorite:

Vampire Lord - red fury, infinite hatred, walking death; sword of might, flayed hauberk, talisman of lycni, crown of the damned, black periapt = 400

Ultra-fast solo butcher of a vamp, but he requires some planning on where he's going after he punches through whatever he's fighting, as his immense speed means he can easily distance himself from his deadite minions and possibly get himself (re)killed by being too overzealous ...

Other than that, sorry don't have much experience with vamps, always am surprised by their tricks when I come across them in games

- Salvage

Sword of Kings, Nightshroud, Infinite Hatred, Beguile, Red Fury. Points to spare.


Always, ALWAYS strikes first [except against Great Unclean Ones with that cheesy ability!]. Re-roll misses, re-roll wounds if they fail their ld test, with killing blow. Any wounds give you more attacks, also re-rolled.

The beauty is in challenges. Killing blow a 3-wound character, you get 3 extra attacks. If you killing blow a character more than once in a challenge, you count as doing all their remaining wounds with each one.

It's great getting +8 from overkill in a challenge

Max overkill bonus is 6, I think.

Other than that, I basically agree. Survivability is an issue, but when isn't it with VC characters?

Overkill is capped at model's wounds +5. So you could overkill a minotaur champ for a maximum of 8 combat resolution. This combo shines against heroes and multi-wound champs, loses some thing on 1 wound unit champs.

RZ

Dread lance + red thirst + hand of dust

autohit str 7 on the charge, 2's to wound, and you roll them again for more wounds. hand of dust, Bonus 2d6 str4 no armor hits!

I dont actually play vamps but a guy threw this at me the other day on top of a zombie dragon. It hurt bad, he smote everything until my khorne lord on a manticore got to him.

Even worse than that, hand of dust is strength 5...

RZ

infamousxiii wrote:Dread lance + red thirst + hand of dust

autohit str 7 on the charge, 2's to wound, and you roll them again for more wounds. hand of dust, Bonus 2d6 str4 no armor hits!

I dont actually play vamps but a guy threw this at me the other day on top of a zombie dragon. It hurt bad, he smote everything until my khorne lord on a manticore got to him.

Not a legal combo, Dread Lance + The Hand of Dust > 100 pts. of magic items.

Hand of dust doesn't ignore armor

Red_Zeke wrote:I think one of the beauties of the Vamp book is there are so many options. Lord of the Dead (or whatever helps raise skeletons) is an easy choice if you're headed towards skellies. I love the look of them much more, though ghouls are generally more competitive.

If you want to deal damage, infinite hatred will make sure you get the hits, and a suitable magic weapon (even just the sword of might) will let you put some hurt on rank and file.

I don't think there's any one optimal build by any means- so much depends on what else is in the army and what points you're playing at. Guessing by your sig, 500?

RZ

to answer your question:
i prefer CC over magic as a couple of magic missiles will not reliably route a unit. whereas combat often will. Plus you will be comp slapped for bulk power dice. and its not erally enjoyable being on the receiving end of mass dice AND regen banners etc.

what do i give my vamps and lord?

lord: LVL3 sword of str, crown o stupidity, ench shield, red fury, dreadknight, inf hatred, book of arkhan
will shred rank and file with awesome armour and ward.

vamp: LVL1 inf hatred, dreadknight, flaming spike - can tap regen monsters