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So a friend of mine challenged me to make a decent 2250 Vampire Count Army for him, in order to prove to him that his vampire count army didn't completely suck and he could still play fantasy.

Vampire Lord-455
-Magic Level 3, Skabscrath, Book of Arkhan, Crown of the Damned, Dread Knight, Infinite Hatred, Master of the Black Arts

Vampire-175
-Master of the Black Arts, Dispel Scroll

Vampire-175
-Master of the Black Arts, Dispel Scroll

Vampire-175
-Dread Knight, Infinite Hatred, BSB

23 Skeletons-227
-Spears, Shields, Light Armor
-Full Command

23 Skeletons-227
-Spears, Shields, Light Armor
-Full Command

40 Zombies-172
-Standard, Musician

40 Zombies-172
-Standard, Musician

3 Fell Bats-60

3 Fell Bats-60

23 Grave Guard-351
-Hand Weapon, Heavy Armor, Shield
-Full Command
-Banner of the Barrows

Zombies? I dunno. Sure, there's 40 of 'em, but a decent choppy unit can take out a whole lot in just a turn. The characters look solid, if repetitive, and the big blocks of skeletons and grave guard are good 'uns.

Oh, and your friend wanted proof that his VC don't suck? How do they suck at all? These guys are absurd.

He thought they sucked because he could no longer play them like he used to, which was spamming invocation of nehek 12 or so times a turn.

The Zombies are there for a couple of different reasons actually. Number one, while zombies suck suck suck suck, it's still 40 of them, and that's going to attract a lot of fire. 2, needed to have over 562.5 points in core choices. 3, 21-30 attacks, even strength 2 attacks, aren't all that bad for 172 points.

You cant have more than one dispell scroll anymore.

Also from what im reading the black coach is supposed to be getting pretty nuts, as well as vherguls. D6 stomp attacks ftw!

Eh, the problem is, even with the d6 stomp attacks, even with two of them against a unit, theres just soooo many attacks coming back at them, plus ranks, plus standard, I see them having problems winning the combats

Angron wrote:Eh, the problem is, even with the d6 stomp attacks, even with two of them against a unit, theres just soooo many attacks coming back at them, plus ranks, plus standard, I see them having problems winning the combats

This is a mindset people are going to have to change.

Lords on dragons, big bad special and rare units may no longer be able to walts into a combat and win it solo. They are going to have to take a supporting role.

Just because you cant run it into a block of infantry solo and win is not a good reason to not take it. Develope some strategy people.

I will agree with Shivan, albeit in milder tones.

The Coach and the 'ghulf may not be able to break stuff on their own (though d6+4 attacks versus ones that probably wound on 6's and half are regenerated still feels like you're coming out ahead), but if you can take out their ranks via a flank charge, you'll essentially ensure victory.

Warpsolution wrote:I will agree with Shivan, albeit in milder tones.

The Coach and the 'ghulf may not be able to break stuff on their own (though d6+4 attacks versus ones that probably wound on 6's and half are regenerated still feels like you're coming out ahead), but if you can take out their ranks via a flank charge, you'll essentially ensure victory.

Also you still get flanking bonuses for charging flanks with these creatures, you just dont negate their ranks.

So a flank charge from a varghulf or what not is still very scary, especially since oyu will only get a few attacks back and probly wont wound it.

Drop a master of the black arts, average roll is a 7, meaning with the +6 you get 13 dice, one more than you can use, which is taking up valuable points!

What unit is the dread knight going in?

Dispel are 0-1.

Why not get the +1 invocation on skelies power to be able to make your units bigger?

Also, you have magic level 6 total, meaning you have one copy of each spell in the lore. Consider who gets what.

I might do something like this:

Vampire Lord
Ogreblade, The Cadaverous Cuirass, Crown of the Damned, Infinite Hatered, Lord of the Dead, Dark Acolyte
365 Points

Vampire
BSB, Sword of Battle, The Flayed Hauberk, Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead
210

Necromancer
Invocation of Nehek, Vanhel's Danse, Dispell Scroll
95 Points

25xSkeletons
Full Command, Spears, Banner of Hellfire
255 Points

25xSkeletons
Full Command, Spears, Banner of Eternal Fire
255 Points

29xZombies
Musician
120 Points

Corpse Cart
Unholy Lodestone
100 Points

21xGrave Guard
Full Command, Screaming Banner
322

6xBlack Knights
Musician
152 Points

Black Coach
200 Points

Varghulf
175 Points

2249

@OP:

As has been mentioned before, more than 2 MotDA is pretty useless.

Stupidity is really bad on a lord. Bad Ld rolls will cause him to do nothing instead of beating face.

You have two mounted characters but no unit of cavalry for them to go in. It makes them so easy to kill with shooting.

You have way more than 563pts in core. Considering that VC core choices are really bad you should invest more in other choices.

I dont think VC will need more than two casters any more. Considering you get an almost unchangeable number of PD no matter how many casters you take more than two is unnecessary. If you want to take lots of characters make most of them fighty, rather than magicy.

@Tzeentchling9

Without errata necromancers take away spells that could be used by your vampires, which makes them unplayable, since you can only have a single particular spell in each army (except the base spell).

Again lots of points in core. Skeletons are WS2 S3 T3 with a 5+ sv. They cant kill anything by themselves. I dont think theres much point having so many.

It turns out standards are quite important in 8th, so every unit that can have one should.

Cavalry cant break unit unles they're in two ranks now, but you can attack in an extra rank. This makes a unit of 10 Black Knights quite good, especially if they have the Royal Banner of the Strigos to give them hatred.

Regwon wrote:
@Tzeentchling9

Without errata necromancers take away spells that could be used by your vampires, which makes them unplayable, since you can only have a single particular spell in each army (except the base spell).

Actually, casters that get spells without rolling for them don't count toward the "1 spell per army" limit.

Again lots of points in core. Skeletons are WS2 S3 T3 with a 5+ sv. They cant kill anything by themselves. I dont think theres much point having so many.

Not really a lot of core, I have about 68 more points than I need to make the list legal(Cart does not count).

The idea with the Skeletons(and the Zombies) are to tarpit and have the flanking Rares and the Vamps in the units do the killing.

It turns out standards are quite important in 8th, so every unit that can have one should.

That's why I have Skellies over ghouls( ) and they and the Graveguard do have one. The Zombies are more likely to just die and the Black Knights are too few number and just meant to hit flanks and/or warmachines.

Cavalry cant break unit unles they're in two ranks now, but you can attack in an extra rank. This makes a unit of 10 Black Knights quite good, especially if they have the Royal Banner of the Strigos to give them hatred.

I know that, but they are not supposed to charge flanks on their own, they are going to support the blocks of Core.

Of course, you are free to argue with me and prove my stupidity. I don't actually play vamps, but at least 7 of the regulars at the local shop do and I get to face them quite a bit.