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Hello all,
Just started playing WHFB, and chose vampire counts.
My budget is around 180 dollars,
I plan to buy the battalion which contains
A corpse cart
20 ghouls
20 skeletons
10 dire wolves

What should I get to complement that?
I plan to build the.cart with a necro on it
I was thinking a varghulf and maybe a vamp hero?
After getting the battalion my budget will be 60
Any suggestions on what to get to make a decent small army?
Any feedback would be appreciated

My first suggestion on a tight budget is to troll ebay, the dakka swap shop, and bartertown. There are usually some good deals there.

That being said, if you do buy things full retail, I would suggest a Varghulf and some flavor of Vampire which will give you roughly 1000 points. Just be aware that 20 Skeletons is a bit small for the unit even at 1000 points. The Wight King is cheap at $15 and is easily converted into a Vampire with a head swap (or you can just use him as the Wight King). I'd also recommend when it comes to list building to not mount the Necromancer on the cart. He's much more useful on foot and it's an easy conversion from the cart. You army should look something like this:

Vampire Hero - wiv gubbins
Master Necromancer
20 Skeletons - musician, banner
20 Ghouls
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
Corpse Cast - Lodestone (the stone helps you get the most out of Invocation of Nehek to help with your low numbers)
Varghulf

Gives you a nice strong magic phase for 1000 points which will help since your units are a bit small. If you buy the battalion, Wight King, and Varghulf you're looking at $177 (full retail). Then just convert the Wight King and Master Necromancer out of what you have and voila!

Thanks for response!
Do you think the money on the varghulf would be better spent on more skeletons?
And im nervous about the wight king, because if my necro dies I have no one to take.over


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just looked on the GW website, and there is another vampire counts set. It is 5 dollars less than the batttalion. It comes with:
A wight king
10 grave guard
20 skeletons
5 black knights

Is this a better starting point? If so what would I buy to complement that set to make it into an army?

That one isn't horrible but it's much better going with 2 of them (10 Grave Guard aren't going to do much). A pair of those sets is a solid army but it'll be over your budget.

Varghulfs are pretty nasty and your list would really lack some hitting power without him. 20 Skeletons can work since you'll have two invocations (if you go with Vampires on your Vampire) as well as having an advantage in the magic phase. At 1000 points most people aren't going to have a level 3 except for maybe goblins. The vampire, ghouls, and varghulf are going to be doing most of the work. When you get some cash to expand definitely beef up your numbers though. I've run units of 25 skeletons with decent success so it can be done, they just are better in large numbers. Give 'em hand weapons and shields and have them be a nice tarpit.