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Count Mannfred-525
-Sword of Unholy Power, Armor of Templehof, Book of Arkhan, Black Periapt
-Master of the Black Arts, Lord of the Dead, Summon Creatures of the Night

Vampire-195
-Helm of Commandment, Power Stone
-Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead

Vampire-185
-2 Power Stones
-Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead

Vampire-200
-Sceptre de Noirt, Power Stone
-Master of the Black Arts

11 Skeletons-144
-Spear, Light Armor, Shield
-Full Command
Banner of the Dead Legion

11 Skeletons-119
-Spear, Light Armor, Shield
-Full Command

11 Skeletons-119
-Spear, Light Armor, Shield
-Full Command

5 Dire Wolves-40

5 Dire Wolves-40

5 Dire Wolves-40

Corpse Cart-100
-Unholy Lodestone

Corpse Cart-100
-Unholy Lodestone

3 Fell Bats-60

3 Fell Bats-60

19 Graveguard-322
-Great Weapons, Heavy Armor
Full Command
Banner of the Barrows

It's your typical skeleton/ zombie night of horror list. Mannfred allows me to use his 6 dice to summon more fell bats and dire wolves on a 3+ on the first turn. My only concern with this is buying enough of the models so that if he rolls a 6 for invocation of nehek, and then the corpse carts add +1-2, I have to make sure I have enough models to possibly add 8 models to each unit. So that's 22 fellbats, and 39 dire wolves. I figure the first turn will be doing this, and using the vampire heroes to summon more skeletons, by casting invocation of nehek 8 times, that'll net me 8d6 skeletons. Turn two will revolve around the sceptre de noirt guy casting the raise dead spell 2-3 times (he'll hafta use his power stone), to create 2-3 shiny new 10-12 man zombie squads at 50 VP's a piece. Then we'll be invocation of nehek'ing those squads up to a dcent size..... rinse and repeat. The problem is that this list relies on flank/butt charges to win combat, as well as attrition. The only "heavy hitters" in the army are the grave guard, and the vampires, and even they aren't that "uber". The list is for a guy who has more money than he knows what to do with, so the price of the models won't be a big deal.

sounds great but if mannfred gets taken out the line will collapse super quick.

what are you going to do about character sniping or other such nastyness?

NaZ

It's a nice plan, but I have seen too many magic phases go plop. You'd be amazed at the number of 1's you can roll when you only need a three. And of course, three ones is a miscast. So the lack of heavy hitters would be a concern for me.

If I were facing this army, I'd try to stop any raising of bats or wolves, and try to eliminated those units quickly through shooting, then worry about grinding down the bug units of skeletons later.

Maybe sacrifice some skeletons, and maybe a corpse kart, for another Grave Guard unit ? That way they wouldn't have a giant bullseye painted across their foreheads

Send in your summoned Fell Bats to distract them as the Grave Guard make it across the battlefiled. Flank with the wolves and summoned zombies while the graveguard move in for the kill.

I'm planning on fielding something very silimar, but I'm including a unit of Black Knights.

Also looking into a method of breeding Fell Bats.....

He needs 3 core (Wolves and Corpse Cart don't count) so he can't lose a skeleton unit.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Updated the list to give the vampires master of the black arts, that way they can cast invocation of nehek 3-6 times a turn... meaning I can cast the spell 17 times a turn, every turn. Also gave the skeletons spears... just for grins.

I keep forgeting that half the troops choices don't count towards the required core units.

Also, Angron, how are you casting Invocation of Nehek 17 times a turn ? I'm not doubting it's possible, I just want to know how to do it

By rolling each of my 17 power dice, once. Because of Lord of the Dead/ Summon Creatures of the Night, I only need a 3+ to get the spell off on all of the units except the grave guard, so I should only need to roll one dice. Each vampire generates 3 power dice thanks to master of the black arts=9 power dice, mannfred generates 6 dice, and 2 from the army pool= 6+9+2=17..... then I can throw in the two power stones too if I want to.

Updated to make even nastier.... added the helm of commandment and greatweapons on the graveguard, so they now hit on a 2 and wound on a 2

How do they hit on a 2?

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Helm of Commandment means that so long as the vampire is near the graveguard and not in combat, they use his WS, meaning they hit on 3's. Then, combine this with the banner of the barrows, which states that they get +1 to hit, means they hit on 2's.

I thought master of the black arts costs 50 pts and takes all of your alloted vampire powers.

O, and you have two helms of command, no-no-no

I would actually sacrifice something to add another block or two of skeletons in there.
Possibly the corpse carts.

Good catch, for some reason I was thinking it was 35...... Master of the black arts IS the one that lets you generate 2 powerdice more, right? Or is it the one where you know all the spells? Also, good catch on the helm of commandments... only thought I had one, that's what I get for mulitple editing....

So now they can only cast it 15 times a turn, every turn..... poo

Okay, I was thinking that Master Of The Black Arts was the one that gave you the larger spell selection and not the +2 power dice.

I was aslo missing the +1 to the casting roll on invocation of Neheck, for some reason I kept reading it and thinking it was +1 to the D6 roll to see how many you rasied/jealed.

My VC army exists purely as Theory Hammer at this point, so I'm a little rough on the details

I am actually running a similar army to this. However, I am not running Manfred. you can accomplish similar spell casting prowess for a lot less points by using a generic vampire lord and giving him the +1 level upgrade, +1 level vampire power, and +2 power dice upgrade and then +1 to summon skeletons. The points you save can then be used to buy things to make your army a little more "hitty" such as a varghulf. Also, I have necromancers on my corpse carts so that I can stick them in units and protect them (they're US 4 with the character so they still get "look out sir").

I know that you come out with a few less dice with the Necromancers but 12 dice combined with the Book or Arkhan and the bound spells from the Cart still makes for a big magic phase. Also you save some more points on the necromancers vs. vampires so that you can make the rest of your army a little less anemic.