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I'm thinking of starting a VC army, and have made a 2000 points to collect. C&C welcome!

Vampire Counts 2000pts.

Lords

Vampire Lord 385pts.
Barded Nightmare,Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead,
Red Fury, Blood Drinker, Walach's Bloody Hauberk.

Heroes

Konrad von Carstein 145pts.

Vampire 195pts.
Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, The Flayed Hauberk,
Tomb Blade.

Wight King 125pts.
Battle Standard Bearer, Royal Standard of Strigos,
Barded Skeletal Steed.

Core

Skeleton Warriors 205pts.
20 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command and
Banner of the Dead Legion.

Crypt Ghouls 88pts.
10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast.

Crypt Ghouls 88pts.
10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast.


Special

Black Knights 264pts.
8 Black Knights with Full Command and Barded Steeds.

Grave Guard 270pts.
20 Grave Guard with Full Command.

Fell Bats 60pts.
3 Fell Bats.

Rare

Varghulf 175pts.

No zombies and little to no summoning. I would drop Konrad and add a necro on a cart, and change the hero vamp to be more of a caster.

The black knights would be better off at 5 or 10, at 8 they don't get a rank bonus and are too wide to run in a single line.

The days of 8 cavalry are at an end unless 8th edition changes their setup.

Well, the Wight King and vampire Lord would go with the black knights, so they would get a rank bonus.
However, you may be right about Konrad and the summoning problem, i'll do another list and post it up here.

Putting all your eggs in a single unit begs for heavy cannon fire and focused magic attacks. You are trusting 1/3 of your army to a single unit, and it is a unit that is meant to be offensive at that.

Well, that is a good point. But what units should the Vampires join?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here's the new list. I dropped the Black Knights, Made the Lord more ''Magical'', the Vampire more fighty, dropped Konrad,
and mounted a Necromancer on a Corpse Cart to replace him. I'm now thinking that the Lord and Wight King will go with the Grave Guard,
as with a flanking charge from the Dire Wolves or Ghouls they can take on pretty much anything.

Vampire Counts 2000pts.

Lords

Vampire Lord 400pts.
Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Avatar of Death,
Blood Drinker, The Flayed Hauberk, Black Periapt,
Additional Magic Level.

Heroes

Vampire 170pts.
Avatar of Death, Infinite Hatred, Tomb Blade.

Necromancer 195pts.
Raise Dead, 2 Dispel Scrolls, Corpse Cart.

Wight King 160pts.
Battle Standard Bearer, Sword of Striking,
Banner of the Barrows.

Core

Skeleton Warriors 205pts.
20 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command and
Banner of the Dead Legion.

Zombie Horde 112pts.
25 Zombies with Musician and Standard Bearer.

Crypt Ghouls 88pts
10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast.

Crypt Ghouls 88pts
10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast.

Dire Wolves 80pts.
10 Dire Wolves.

Special

Grave Guard 270pts.
20 Grave Guard with Full Command.

Fell Bats 60pts.
3 Fell Bats.

Rare

Varghulf 175pts.

Total: 2000pts.

Vampire Lord 400pts.
Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Avatar of Death,
Blood Drinker, The Flayed Hauberk, Black Periapt,
Additional Magic Level.

Not bad, few issues with this though. The most efficient vampire armies run either all ghouls, or all skeletons. This is due to saving points on taking either lord of the dead of summon ghouls, and not both. Those units of 10 ghouls will not last long at all, even as a pure hammer unit. Being able to summon them above their starting value is a big advantage as you move across the board. (but will address this later) other than that, nice and casty.

Vampire 170pts.
Avatar of Death, Infinite Hatred, Tomb Blade.

fince choice, more expensive than conrad, but can help add dice and magic kick to the army, the main strength of VC.

Necromancer 195pts.
Raise Dead, 2 Dispel Scrolls, Corpse Cart.

I've never been too afraid of this setup. I'd think another vamp hero, kitted for magic and given the helm of commandment would fit better, not sure on points difference though.

Wight King 160pts.
Battle Standard Bearer, Sword of Striking,
Banner of the Barrows.

no complaints

Core

Skeleton Warriors 205pts.
20 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command and
Banner of the Dead Legion.

Zombie Horde 112pts.
25 Zombies with Musician and Standard Bearer.

Crypt Ghouls 88pts
10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast.

Crypt Ghouls 88pts
10 Crypt Ghouls with Crypt Ghast.

Dire Wolves 80pts.
10 Dire Wolves.

Ok, the dire wolves are good, but I'd almost run them in two groups of 5 instead of 1 group of 10. more manouvrable (sp?) and can go after more targets. Though they are more fragile. (but your opponent will have many other concerns to deal with).

As I was saying earlier, the mixed core units idea looks good, and indead adds flavor, but it does hinder you a little as I said earlier. I'd either try and get summon ghouls onto one of your casters, or simply drop them for more skellies, or try for a unit of 5 black knights. (5 black knights with standard and banner of hellish vigour is 161 points)

Grave Guard 270pts.
20 Grave Guard with Full Command.

Seen these ran many different ways. Scariest to see is a unit of these suckers with the wight king, vamp lord, guard with great weapons and a hero vamp behind giving the unit its WS (from helm of commandment). This turns into a nasty deathstar unit, and many people will probably cry cheese for it. I'd only use it this way every now and then.

Fell Bats 60pts.
3 Fell Bats.

fine

Rare

Varghulf 175pts.

This thing is fun.



All in all, not a bad way to start. I've never played VC, but I've played against them maybe 20 times or more. (brother and a friend used to play them, so faced them a lot). So everything I've said comes from an enemie's point of view and fears.

Anyway, hope it helps.

Thanks for the ideas! Dropping the necromancer for another Vampire and the Ghouls for 5 Black knights sounds tempting,
But i think i would have to drop the Varghulf to get the points. Howver, i've been thinking about adding Mannfred the Acolyte for a while now,
as he is cheap and a pretty good magic hero. So how about this for characters:

Vampire Lord 400pts.
Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Avatar of Death,
Blood Drinker, The Flayed Hauberk, Black Periapt,
Additional Magic Level.

Mannfred the Acolyte 215pts.
Sceptre de Noirot.

Vampire 170pts.
Avatar of Death, Infinite Hatred, Tomb Blade.

Wight King 160pts.
Battle Standard Bearer, Sword of Striking,
Banner of the Barrows.

This would cost 20 pts. more than the original setup but if i drop the Varghulf it should be alright.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here's the new list which i made for 20 minutes, i dropped the Varghulf and changed the characters a bit.
The ghouls have been dropped, replacing them is a unit of skeletons with the Standard of Everlasting Death
(i hade 15 points over). I Also split up the Dire Wolves and added a unit of Black Knights with the Standard of Hellish Vigour.

Vampire Counts 2000

Lords

Vampire Lord 395pts.
Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Master of the Black Arts,
Blood Drinker, The Flayed Hauberk, Black Periapt,
Talisman of Protection.

Heroes

Vampire 200pts.
Avatar of Death, Infinite Hatred, Tomb Blade,
Helm of Commandment.

Mannfred the Acolyte 185pts.


Wight King 115pts.
Battle Standard Bearer, Sword of Striking.


Core

Skeleton Warriors 205pts.
20 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command and Banner of
the Dead Legion.

Skeleton Warriors 205pts.
20 Skeleton Warriors with Full Command and Standard of
Everlasting Death.

Zombie Horde 112pts.
25 Zombies with Musician and Standard Bearer.

Dire Wolves 40pts.
5 Dire Wolves.

Dire Wolves 40pts.
5 Dire Wolves.

Special

Grave Guard 270pts.
20 Grave Guard with Full Command.

Black Knights 185pts.
5 Black Knights with Full Command and Standard of
Hellish Vigour.

Fell Bats 60pts.
3 Fell Bats.


Total:2002 points.

A marked improvement over the first list for sure.

I'm not a huge fan of special characters, even at the hero level. I find them to be overpriced for the rules afforded them. That being said, 185 points isn't HUGE for a VC hero, so I suppose I'll go read up on his rules before I tell you not to take him.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but a vampire BSB would fare better than a wight king. Yes it costs more, but it can also cast spells and has all the benefits of a vampire. He can also still take vampiric powers on top of a magic banner.

VC magic is a major force to be dealt with, and maximizing it will benefit your army on the field as you can summon units upon units.

One way to look at it is: the more casters you have, even at Lv1, the more chances you have to draw out dispel dice and scrolls. This will allow you to pull off bigger spells like summon undead horde, and these spells should be saved for last.

aerethan wrote:A marked improvement over the first list for sure.

I'm not a huge fan of special characters, even at the hero level. I find them to be overpriced for the rules afforded them. That being said, 185 points isn't HUGE for a VC hero, so I suppose I'll go read up on his rules before I tell you not to take him.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but a vampire BSB would fare better than a wight king. Yes it costs more, but it can also cast spells and has all the benefits of a vampire. He can also still take vampiric powers on top of a magic banner.

VC magic is a major force to be dealt with, and maximizing it will benefit your army on the field as you can summon units upon units.

One way to look at it is: the more casters you have, even at Lv1, the more chances you have to draw out dispel dice and scrolls. This will allow you to pull off bigger spells like summon undead horde, and these spells should be saved for last.

The reason wight kings are used so commonly for BSB is the 3 wounds/T5 on a hero model, adds a little more survivability. Though trying to deal with MORE casting would be a pain for your opponent though, so it's not a bad idea.

The VC heroes seem different than most. I've seen them run pretty efficiently in game and don't seem to hinder them in points too much.
A quick look at mannfred the acolyte...not too bad, give him book of arkhan maybe and he's pretty decent.

Well, i'm actually ki´nd of happy with the list now. I'v started saving money for everything(models+paints=4000SKR) so i wont start buying stuff for another couple of months.
It'll probably end up as a half-finished army, but whatever. Thanks for the help.

If you have not yet started collecting paint, I would recommend sticking to Vallejo products as they are far more bang for your buck.

The only GW paints I can recommend are the washes and their silver colors. Everything else get from Vallejo, same colors better quality and more paint per dollar(or w/e your currency may be).