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I've been running so far with Vlad and a lv 3 vampire lord that's kitted for close combat. I'm very partial to the Sword of Kings + Nightshroud with Infinite Hatred and Beguile combination. It's something I could even take on a hero-level vampire in smaller games and is incredibly effective. My lord also takes Red Fury, to get lots and LOTS of killing in.

For competitive gaming though, I think I need versatility. A lot of times people end up avoiding the unit said vampires are in, and lately most opponents seem either so weak that a vampire lord is pretty much overkill already, regardless of deadly gear, or the vampire lord just plain isn't a challenge at all [Bloodthirsters, GUO, etc] so the gear is pointless.

That being said, I've been looking at the Vampire power that allows them to know ALL the spells from ANY lore other than Life. It seems like it would be nice to be able to pick a lore especially effective against my enemy, and be able to reach out and deal damage without necessarily having to get into combat.

Vlad's strength is in his toughness, though. 4+ ward and 4+ regeneration when with his personal guard and wight BSB are really hard to take down. It's nice having him as the general - even if the worst happens, on a 2+ he comes back. But I can get a vampire lord with 100 points of powers and 100 points of magic items that's level 3 for fewer points than Vlad. Do y'all think it would be worth it to take a pair of the all spells from any lore vampire lords, or to stick with what I have, Vlad and a caster lord/combat fighter in support?

Vlad is good at staying alive, he also can add greatly to a unit's ability, but as a Lord, I don't find him to be nearly as useful as Manfred as a special character. Manfred has 6 of his own dice, excluding the pool, he gets bonuses to adding to a few different units, and he knows all the spells of death and vampire counts. As an added bonus, you can give two arcane items (+1 to cast and dispel staff being almost a must), and for versatility you can change his mount, he can ride a barded nightmare, winged nightmare, or an abbysmal terror. He is the only Special Character which you can adjust, though his primary purpose is still magic. If you are set on the special characters, I would go with Manfred over Vlad for sheer magic power and versatility. As for the second lord, if you want him to be a true monster, put him on a Zombie Dragon or an Absymal Terror, depending if you want more characters or not. Give him the Bloodline abilities of Red Fury, and either give him Dark Acolyte to give him another level of magic, along with one of the mastery lores, or give him +1 to combat res and beguile. For Magic, give him the dreadlance along with either the Crown of the Damned, or go with the Acursed armor, and a talisman of protection. This gives you a Lord who on the charge will hit 4 times, more then likely wound at least 3 times (S 7 wounding on 2's), giving you three additional attacks automatically hitting more then likely giving you 3 more wounds. He has a very likely potential to cause 8 wounds himself, and with either T 6, or a 4+ ward save should be able to avoid being killed. However getting charged by a nasty will leave you hurting, and be very careful of tricky builds that the Dark Elves, and the Daemons can do. (Pendant of Khaleth givng the Dark Elf effectively a 2+ ward save against high strength attacks, and daemon armor which can void magic weapons).