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First off, thanks to whomever replies to this post.

I'm an avid 40K player (6 years experience or so), who plays Orks and Blood Angels, both around the 1,500-2,000 points level. Recently, I've been wanting to get into Fantasy. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm completely bats about vampires - so naturally, I gravitated towards Vampire Counts.

Since everyone knows this is a huge investment (I'd buy the rule book, and an entire army - otherwise known as $200-$300 right out of the gate), I was wondering if anyone had some advice, in terms of good point value armies for them, what they excel at, what they're bad at, and how much it'll cost for around 1,000 points.

I'll welcome "Counts are not a starter army" comments, but I'll ignore them - I'm set on playing Counts, and I already bought a few HQ models for them.

Play what you want to play.

Vampires themselves are extremely powerful and versetile. They got a crapload of abilities and spells to choose from. So figuring out your theme with them is a good start.

I've been looking through their book lately and what is scary is the sheer number of Ethereal troops they can get. And powerful ones at that.

I personally think that's the way I would go just because there are lots of lists out there you could stomp all over because they could barely hurt you. Even high magic lists would have to focus all their firepower on taking them down, which leaves your other forces free.

Dont invest too much in core. they are kinda crappy unless buffed by a caster lord. I prefer ghouls since they can do some damage before dieing off (plus I frakking love the mantic ones). Dont bother with too many wizards though. You will need to get some good special/rares. Grave Guard are pretty good for solid block, vargulf and blood knights are great for rares. use etherals sprainly (1 to 2 units max) they are expensive and even with the threat of non magical attack immunity, a wizard can mess their day

I think Kenshin's doing a pretty good job advising, I would only want to add that you should try to work in some stuff like blood nights into your army for sure because having vampire troops means that if someone takes out your general you still have troops that won't just crumble.

Oh and by the way, try to make sure your general stays alive when playing VC.

Mantic is definitely the way forward for zombies and skellies just because you'll need so many, not necessarily for when you deploy but for summoning where casualties are no guarantee of providing you with enough. also the mantic figs have some really nice touches. check out Beastsofwar.com for a really good look at the sprues if you haven't seen them already.

They don't make anything to compete with the Corpse Cart or those splendid Von Carstein models though!