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I got my VC dex as a birthday present from my brother, a nice gift from him I guess because I was not going to buy it on account of all the zombie that we were supposed to buy to substitute for our trusty SK.

First I must say that the spanish translation is a piece of crap, you get kicked in the teeth every couple of lines that shows that the translator was probably given a weekend to go over the whole thing and nobody bothered to proofread it. So you get little jokes like (translating from the spanish mess) "At the head of the Vampire Counts, the zombie hordes, the skeleton legions and the hosts of other dammed creatures...." So who is the boss in that army????

After my rant a couple of questions just to check if I´m not getting something or if the translator changed the rules on the go as well.

1st. What´s the point of the Great Wolf? I mean, you pay 10 extra points for +1 attack, I can only guess that even if it does not make sense from a fluff POV it is still a unit champion so on a multiple charge it can challenge a character away from the VC tearing through the Empire regiment. If not I can´t imagine why someone should put one in his wolf units at all.

2nd. Banner of the Eternal Nightmare (or whatever is named in the english version) 25pts, you can add up to +4 instead of the usual +3 for rank bonus. But for the same amount of points you get the War Banner that adds a +1 to CR Yes, yes, you can only buy one War Banner so this is a nice banner for a zombie unit....BUZZZ... wrong!, zombies can not buy magic banners, errrrr so what´s the point of a item that needs 25+ miniatures to give a bonus? If I don´t use a huge sk (30+) unit this item will be worthless after the 1st hth round.

3rd This one for rules lawyers only. Can you or can you not use the miasma thingy from the corpse cart? Going with RAW and with some other players posting on the other thread, as it doesn´t say it can be cast on units engaged in hth you can´t, but then why should I buy the stupid thing to boost my zombie tar pit units if I can not boost them once they are in hth?

M.

PS: I forgot the Mousillon banner another 25 pts item that only pays back itself if the unit it´s carrying it gets massacred, it doesn´t get better, wait! yes we can have a Night Armor...
PSS: I´m not saying that VC needs additional items, I think that these obvious (from my POV) page filling items should be striken and leave a leaner object selection.

1) Unit champions are generally not worth it in any Fast Cavalry unit. As you noticed, their usefullness tends to be situational at best.

2) Every Skeleton unit can have a magic banner. So if one unit takes the War Banner, another can take this one. And having 30+ Skeletons isn't unrealistic considering the casting abilities of the new Vampire Counts.

3) The miasma is just like the Invocation of Nehek, obviously meant to be cast into combat, poor wording means by RAW you can't. Most circles will let you do it, though.

4) The Mousillon banner is kind of cool - min sized units tend to be 100pts (125 with this banner) so if an opponent manages to kill them all (after summoning) they still only get 125, vs the 225 they would get for any other unit. Assuming, of course, they don't mind the D6 Str4 hits.

5) The night armour is pretty good if you hit hard with your character...which isn't hard with the new Vampires. Not saying I'd take it every game, but it is certainly far from worthless.

Hope that helps!

Zoned

1.) He's a champion
2.) With the right vampire power you can increase skeleton units above their starting size with invocation of neheck. so huge units of skeletons are not an uncommon site.
3.) It was the intent of the designers that it could be cast into combat. They screwed up and didn't literally spell out that it was possible in the army. RAW adherents delare it's not legal untill a FAQ ammends this situation, while more easy going players witll concede the point.

Zoned wrote:
5) The night armour is pretty good if you hit hard with your character...which isn't hard with the new Vampires. Not saying I'd take it every game, but it is certainly far from worthless.

Hope that helps!

Zoned

25pts for an item that changes the -1 for shooting against characters for a -2? No thanks, I´ll scrap 5 additional points and give my vamp 3+ ward save against all shooting.

M.

Gah, sorry, I thought you meant the nightshroud (makes anyone directing attacks against you always strike last, effectively.)

The main point/usage of the wolf champs is that you can make effective dragon/monster trap unit by taking 6 wolves + 1 champ in addition to the normal benefits of +1 attack and challenges. Tying up the big thing for 2 combat rounds is pretty useful now and then, altough the trap unit isn't free.

Actually, the champion would crumble after the unit gets destroyed around it, making the champion even that much more useless.

Actually, the champion would crumble after the unit gets destroyed around it, making the champion even that much more useless.

You're missing it - champion challenges the nasty (character) thing, who then maxes out at +5 combat resolution. 5 more wolves crumble, leaving the big nasty stuck fighting that last wolf for an extra round.

I don't see a point in running more than 6 wolves.

Don´t ask me, I don´t usually see the point of running wolves at all. (nor ghouls and zombies either )

M.

You run them because they look cool !!

That and Wolves run fast, and Ghouls have 2 poisoned attacks each and the capability to move before the game begins.

I'm actually having a harder and harder time justifyng skeletons in my VC army.

Miguelsan wrote:Don´t ask me, I don´t usually see the point of running wolves at all. (nor ghouls and zombies either )

M.

Zombies are usually better left for summoning purposes, but taking ghouls over skeletons is actually pretty common with the new book. Cost is same, the durability is around the same (ws3,t4 vs ws2,t3,4+sv in cc) against many opponents but the ghouls will hit harder with their 2 poisoned attacks. Skeletons do have the choice of getting more static combat res but the ghouls will benefit from the nice ghoulkin ability if one of the vampires take it, so there...