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Hiya Dakka,

I've been willing to get into Warhammer Fantasy for awhile and the combination of the Nagash release and playing too much Diablo have got me hooked on undead.
Since my budget isn't very large i've decided to start with a 1000 point list and just build that. (with some spare models for summoning ofc.)
Seeing as i have no experience in fantasy whatsoever i'd like a little help deciding what to put into the list since i wouldn't want to buy tons of VC just to realise my list can be destroyed by looking at it.
As such,without further ado,the starting point,i hope we can work together to make this into a decent list:

Lords:

Master Necromancer 220p
-Level 4
-Master of the Dead

Heroes:

Wight King 89p
-Shield

Core Units:

30 Skeleton Warriors 180p (Master Necro goes here)
-Full command

20 Crypt Ghouls 210p
-Crypt Ghast

Special Units:

14 Grave Guard 248p
-Great Weapons
-Banner of the Barrows


This leaves me with about 50p to play around with,what does Dakka think?

For starters I would use that 50 points left over and drop the wight king giving you 139 points to get yourself a vamp. Going with the vamp over the Wight king is far better IMO. More killy, lvl 1 wizard, ect. Other then that I think your blocks are alright as long as you keep them tight and I would take advantage to try to raise as much as you can before hitting combat. If you can get those ghouls to 30 and horde them before they hit a block that will help a lot

While i am not a vampire counts player, their are a fair few in my meta and we play 100pts often and someone plays a list quite similar to this. The only differences where the Wight King was a BSB and enchanted shield and he had a few more Grave Guard.

As a rule try to spend the minimum on troops (25% usually, so 250pts) and have most of your points spent in elites, rares and heroes/lords as that is were your kill-yness is coming from. So maybe with those spare points, trim off some troops and add in some more Tomb Guard? Spirit Hosts are also great at this point level as no one can handle them!

 namiel wrote:
For starters I would use that 50 points left over and drop the wight king giving you 139 points to get yourself a vamp. Going with the vamp over the Wight king is far better IMO. More killy, lvl 1 wizard, ect. Other then that I think your blocks are alright as long as you keep them tight and I would take advantage to try to raise as much as you can before hitting combat. If you can get those ghouls to 30 and horde them before they hit a block that will help a lot

I see your point,i don't think it's possible however to bring Ghouls past their starting size (i could be,and most likely am,wrong but could i get a page number to back it up just in case it comes up in a game?)
As for the wight king,i suppose it's possible however i really like the Wight King model,i'll be sad to see him go.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
While i am not a vampire counts player, their are a fair few in my meta and we play 100pts often and someone plays a list quite similar to this. The only differences where the Wight King was a BSB and enchanted shield and he had a few more Grave Guard.

As a rule try to spend the minimum on troops (25% usually, so 250pts) and have most of your points spent in elites, rares and heroes/lords as that is were your kill-yness is coming from. So maybe with those spare points, trim off some troops and add in some more Tomb Guard? Spirit Hosts are also great at this point level as no one can handle them!

That's interesting,the 'adding more Grave Guard' suggestion actually made me realise i misread the percentages (i thought i could only spend 25% in specials) so with that,here's my revamped list:

Lords:

Master Necromancer 220p
-Level 4
-Master of the Dead

Heroes:

Vampire: 111p (would swapping the shield for a CC weapon work?)
-Shield
-Heavy Armour

Wight King 89p (i couldn't resist it)
-Shield

Core:

30 Skeletons 180p (should i take spears?)
-Full command

20 Zombies 70p
-Banner and musician

Special:

20 Grave Guard 320p
-Great Weapons
-Full Command
-Banner of the Barrows

That would leave me with about 10p for items etc.
Is this any good? could it use improvements? Should i completely rewight(sorry for the terrible pun) it?

A naked Vampire is a useless Vampire. Sure he throws out a few strength 5 attacks, but he is lacking in enough power to make his points back. Look into some cheap magic items (Enchanted Shield should always be your go-to item if you hero has a shield), some Vamp powers such as Quick-Blood/Red Fury or a plain old Potion of Strength to make him a little more interesting.

Remember you will be wanting to deploy the Grave Guard in ranks of 5, so in your unit you have 2 guys at the back doing nothing because they are displaced by the heroes. Drop two Guard to fit the heroes in nicely and use the spare points to bulk up your heroes, they seem entirely naked!

Your troops are fine, they won't win you any awards, but they are fine. Sword and Board vs Shield and Spear is up to you, but know what if you deploy in 3 ranks of 10 then all 3 ranks get to fight anyway due to Horde Formation with or without spears, making them redundant.

Consider swapping Zombies for 2 units of 5 Dire Wolves, they provide a good chaff unit that is slightly more killy and MUCH faster. That choice will depend on how you want to play your games, fast and fragile or slow and blocky.

Well skeletons will not be holding against most any targets in combat, so I severely warn against both spears and definitely horde formation, zombies do their same job for much cheaper and raise faster

Dire Wolves are great, cheap, fast, and can threaten light units and warmachines on the charge

Vampires are a tricky subject, you most definitely don't want them to die, but at such low points you don't want them to be a points sink either, I like the wight king with armor of destiny for the gg block, he's tough and cheap


Definitely want to bump the grave guard unit up some so it doesn't get rendered useless fast from casualties, in that same vein consider grabbing a lvl 1/2 necromancer with a scroll and possibly Crypt horrors

Drop the vamp. at 2 wounds with 4 toughness and only a 4+ save he is a waste of points. Don't bother with vamps until higher point levels where you can give them some decent equipment and powers. Use the points to get 10 more GGs. Other then that the list is fine.

 Jinx Magiga wrote:

Lords:

Master Necromancer 220p
-Level 4
-Master of the Dead

Heroes:

Vampire: 111p (would swapping the shield for a CC weapon work?)
-Shield
-Heavy Armour

Wight King 89p (i couldn't resist it)
-Shield

2 casters with ION is important, I prefere 3 if you decide to lose the King for a base necromancer lv, you'll have plenty of points to beef that vampire up a little
with 34 points maybe Quickblood and Warriorsbane. Warriorsbane is not a great magic item but at 5 points why not.

 Jinx Magiga wrote:

Core:

30 Skeletons 180p (should i take spears?)
-Full command

20 Zombies 70p
-Banner and musician

Summon and summon like crazy you'll really need to beef these numbers up.

 Jinx Magiga wrote:

Special:

20 Grave Guard 320p
-Great Weapons
-Full Command
-Banner of the Barrows

Excellent beat stick unit, however at these low numbers becareful who you take on.