Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok, bit of a question for you.

I'm aware that non-ethereal characters cannot join ethereal units, (Vampire Lord > Cairn Wraiths = No!)

I'm also aware that ethereal characters can join non-ethereal units, (Cairn Wraith > Skeleton Warriors = Yes!)

So how does this affect units comprising of only characters?

For example, if I had one of the Character Cairn Wraiths then my Vampire Lord couldn't join him, as he is an ethereal unit, however, the Character Cairn Wraith could join the Vampire Lord, providing the same result.

Now I'm not looking to discuss how effective/viable this is in an actual game, but what if I was to take 9 seperate Character Cairn Wraiths, and each of them joins the solo Vampire Lord.

If this a legal? And if it is, is it cheap/dirty play?

It does appear to be legal. The way you laid it out appears to jive with what the BRB says.

I don't think it's beardy. It's ridiculously expensive to field (540 for the Wraiths, plus a Vampire Lord can easily be well over 400 pts), and not all that good. Not to mention that one Light Wizard or any Daemons can really ruin the unit's day...

I could be wrong (don't have my books handy), but I didn't think characters could just join up freely. I thought the only way to have a 'unit' of characters would be for them to all be in a unit and have the unit killed around them...

Nope. Characters can join to make character only units. I am pretty sure it is on pg 97 about characters joining units (going from memory on the page).

 DarthBinky wrote:
It does appear to be legal. The way you laid it out appears to jive with what the BRB says.

I don't think it's beardy. It's ridiculously expensive to field (540 for the Wraiths, plus a Vampire Lord can easily be well over 400 pts), and not all that good. Not to mention that one Light Wizard or any Daemons can really ruin the unit's day...

If the vampire shows up with MR3, it helps out a lot. As all are characters, hits are divided up evenly, then you roll to wound, then you roll the MR saves. It's not all that easy to wipe them with a single spell. If the characters then split up, a single invocation heals them all.

It's a lot harder to deal with 9 wraiths running around solo than when they are grouped up.

-Matt

 HawaiiMatt wrote:
If the vampire shows up with MR3, it helps out a lot. As all are characters, hits are divided up evenly, then you roll to wound, then you roll the MR saves. It's not all that easy to wipe them with a single spell. If the characters then split up, a single invocation heals them all.

It's a lot harder to deal with 9 wraiths running around solo than when they are grouped up.

-Matt

The latter point- absolutely. That would be horrendously annoying.

As for the former, I had written up a whole thing about why I thought it was bad and deleted it- the OP had specifically asked for not that sort of tactical debate. But yeah, allocating hits in melee will be a PITA. And a Lodestone would mitigate the magic vulnerability but also means that's 45 pts that isn't being spent on magic items to make the Vampire nastier/more survivable in melee, nor does it help when Daemons are smacking them (or when runic artillery, Sisters of Avellorn, Wood Elves, etc shoot them).