First off I'd like to offer the knowledge I haven't played much
WHFB with any other armies besides vamps, so I'm just offering my own experiences from games I've mostly had to proxy. It's hard getting all the models painted.
artyboy wrote:
Vampire Lord on a nightmare and +1 magic level:
Powers: Master of the Black Arts
Dark Acolyte
Magic Items: Enchanted Shield
Walach's Bloody Hauberk
Blood Drinker
He runs with a unit of blood knights x5: Kastellan w/ Sword of Striking, Musician, Standard Bearer w/ The Flag of Blood Keep
This is generally a good Lord, but I offer a word of warning. Vampires aren't what they used to be. They used to be able to take out entire squads on their own but taking a couple of wounds is very possible for them now. Even with the Hauberk and the shiled, although the Blood Drinker should help mitigate that situation.
The Blood Knights, in my experience, aren't that good. They look so awesome on paper though. Their main problem is frenzy and without effective screening units like some dire wolves they usually get baited and killed pretty hard or just tied up with flank charges and such.
artyboy wrote:Vampire Hero:
Powers: Dark Acolyte
Magic Items: Nightshroud
Sword of Battle
Enchanted Shield
He runs with a unit of grave guard x21: Seneschal, Musican, Standard Bearer w/ Dead Legion Banner
This looks ok. Some pretty survivable strong GG with Banner of the Dead Legion. But having the idea that the Vampire will be doing a great deal might be thinking too highly of him.
artyboy wrote:Necromancer
Magic Items: Dispel Scrolls x2
He runs with a unit of zombies x40: Musician, Standard Bearer
Characters can't join blocks of zombies anymore. And zombies really suck pretty hard. I wouldn't invest in standards or musicians with them, those points are best spent on more numbers. Just numbers. And usually you shouldn't even waste your time actually buying zombies. Usually your magic phase in
VC is good enough to raise a new unit of zombies and raise it to around 20 zombies pretty easily.
artyboy wrote:Black Knights x10: Barded Skeletal Steeds, Hell Knight, Musician, Standard Bearer w/ Banner of the Barrows
'
In 2000 and below I don't really like the Hammer units of Black Knights, and when you do that you usually have the Wight King
BSB with The Drakenhof Banner to make the unit particularly deadly. The main problem this unit might see is being out of range of a vampire for marching, usually a Varghulf accompanies a unit like this. But in lower points two units of five Black Knights with Hell Knight and Standard Bearer does well charging into the flanks.
artyboy wrote:Do I have too many points wrapped up in high point value units? The vampire lord by himself is 455 points. Is that typical? Should I rethink my magic items? Is a dispel scroll packing necromancer still as necessary as it used to be? Should I split the zombies into two units? I was toying with the idea of dropping the black knights in favor of some skeletons, some dire wolves and another hero. Black knights just strike me as a very mobile, hard hitting unit for their points cost so I kept them.
In order:
Very typical to spend half or more points on your characters, they are incredibly important to
VC.
It's very typical, it's the norm.
I'd say rethink the rolls you might want your vampires to fill, in
CC they don't do as hot as they once did.
Not really, but in this particular list where you aren't maxed out on magic characters you might need him.
You have to split the zombie units into two, you actually need 3+ core units at 2000+.
You might want to go with more.
Black Knights are good, but the barding hurts them, it does slow them down a little.
