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Contemplating buying a WoC army, but I still wanna play. So a friend said he'd loan me a Vampire Count army to test out. Probably against Bretonnians but I don't really wanna make it too good just against them.

Resurrection Legion

Lords

Vampire Lord
Master of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead
+1lvl, Talisman of Preservation, The Flayed Hauberk, Sword of Might
- 425pts

The General, ready to smack down those Death spells and can still slap someone silly in close combat. But hey, would some other lore be good too? Metal comes to mind but it would be kinda annoying for a Bret player... though Purple Sun is annoying too. Shadow could be nice too.

Heroes

Vampire
Master of the Black Arts
Book of Arkhan, The Cadaverous Cuirass
- 210pts

They see me raising, the undead. Also, more vampire spells. Book of Arkhan cause you just gotta take it.

Wight King
BSB, Sword of kings, Enchanted Shield
- 150pts

Yeah. No regenerate banner, I am crazy. Smacks someone with his cool 5+ killing blow sword. No ward, I like it dangerous.

Necromancer
Vanhel's Dance Macabre, Invocation of Nehek
- 70pts

If I somehow have Power Dice left, this guy gets to work.

Core

40 Skeleton Warriors
Full Command, War Banner
- 365pts

Something reasonably fair, right?

30 Crypt Ghouls
- 240pts

Ghouls. Nothing much else to it.

Special

40 Grave Guard
Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
- 565pts

Hopefully these guys will do some killing. But not super good without that Regen BSB.

Rare

Black Coach

Oh cool, it eats the power dice... wait, how does this thing even work in this ed? Does this shoot my army in the leg by eating some power dice?

2 Cairn Wraiths and a Banshee
- 175pts

Something to skirt around, maybe go for some warmachines? I dunno.

Total - 2390pts

So there you have it. My first deployment into Vampire Count territory. Did I make a mess of the landing and break my legs or what?

It's a solid start. The black coach will eat dice of each player each turn. You have one master of the black arts so that helps to offset it. Keep in mind I believe the motba bonus dice is just for that character (different colored dice helps).

One thing I like to do is to make one of my vampires a killy character. Having both mostly geared towards magic means you really need that magic to make a difference. Especially with skeleton units. Skeletons wont win many combats without some help. Also there's a part of my brain that is thinking that the BSB can't take any other magic items. I don't have my book in front of me.

I personally have never used the regen banner. It took a bit of a hit once it got faq'd that no saves of any kind are allowed against unstable. I like banner of the barrows, strigoli (hate) and the war banner myself.

Are your grave guard plain hw/s or great weapons? I use hw/s but that's the way mine are modeled. Most people take the gw for great cleaving. Also that is a huge gg unit. That has inherent advantages (lots of attacks, ranks & bodies) and disadvantages (war machines and the big nasty spells can kill a lot of guys).

For skeletons I like it simple with the war banner. YMMV

Lastly only two wraiths with one banshee is a bit undersized. Their role is then strictly against other tiny units like fast cav, war machines or possibly tying up things like chariots that do not have magic weapons. I would prefer to use 4 plus a banshee myself.

Thanks for the comments.

Yeah, MotBA dice are only for that vampire.

I also feel that my Vampire Lord is plenty killy as he is. Against most targets he has re-rollable attacks and his armour save/ward is adequate. Though I was thinking of a super hitty Vampire Lord that Red Fury and one of those magical swords that grant extra attacks (and of course he'd be lvl4 too).

And the other vampire is there just kinda for the Black Art Mastery.

The BSB can take magical items if he doesn't have a magical banner. So mine is completely legal.

I was thinking of going with great weapons with my grave guard, but then the image of a lance of knights driving themselves trough them sprung into mind. I want to roll at least something for my saves/parry. And Vanhels Danse Macabre doesn't really combo that well with great weapons and ini 3 guys. But I can certainly see the strength of Great Weapons.'

Now that I look at it close, a warbanner does the same thing as that magical banner. Except it does it always regardless of my ranks. I'll swap it for something.

And yeah, they are a bit undersized. But what to do? Drop them completely for a Vargulf? Drop something else to bring them to a bigger strength?

40 skeles kinda suck imo. Too much for too little (even if you baby sit them with buffs like speed of light). Also black coach is gonna zap PD away from your 3 casters

kenshin620 wrote:40 skeles kinda suck imo. Too much for too little (even if you baby sit them with buffs like speed of light). Also black coach is gonna zap PD away from your 3 casters

So, more ghouls? But they aren't that amazing either. And yeah, the black coach sucks away power dice, but it'd be nice if I could field at least one zany unit.
What would the trade off be? I can see even a vampire for that 200pts. Or maybe a small unit of knights? Though that's kinda useless. make the current grave guard smaller and take another unit of them? The possibilities are endless.

Is the Vargulf any good in this ed? Seems a bit weedy, really needs a block to support him in close combat. Small unit/warmachine hunter?

Seonnut wrote:

kenshin620 wrote:40 skeles kinda suck imo. Too much for too little (even if you baby sit them with buffs like speed of light). Also black coach is gonna zap PD away from your 3 casters

So, more ghouls? But they aren't that amazing either.

Also true

VC have sucky/sub par core. after all skeletons cost as much as storm vermin

With a unit of 40 Skeletons you won't be expecting to win combats on their own. Ideally I use mine to hold up a unit then hit it in the flank with support to try and break it. In fact against a fair number of things they survive better than ghouls as they will get a parry save and +2 combat from having the war banner even with the ghouls 4 toughness. I've played with blocks ranging from 25 to 40 in 5 wide and 10 wide horde formation. I am starting to find 30 +/- 5 going 5 wide with hw/s to be my preferred size. Also there is one scenario where banners are a big deal. Taking nothing but ghouls as your core puts you in a hole for that one. I think taking one of each is fine but you won't loose much if you cut the skeletons to 30 - I think you will still be at the min 25% core requirement.

I like the black coach and find that one motba and the black periapt are enough to prevent it from hampering my magic phase for the most part. Once in a while you'll roll a bunch of 6's but remember that your opponent can as well. Once it goes etheral it can be a real annoyance to your opponent. It won't kill tons of models but I find it very useful. And it looks spiffy.

One Varghulf on its own is a toss up. It will eat warmachines IF it gets to them. It also does very well in flank charges. It's fairly vulnerable to shooting though. The prevailing wisdom is that they function best in pairs. Two of them hitting a unit does quite a bit of damage. I think it will be a better option than the small unit of wraiths but not as good as a larger unit of wraiths. 10 Skeletons and 2 gg should be about enough to boost the wraiths to 4+banshee. Its up to you though.

I personally love my 10 strong black knights. They won't be charging the front of a big infantry block and making them flee, but they perform well in flank charges and against any fast cav, war machines, archers, etc. Their ethereal movement is also a very handy bonus during setup and unlike other cavalry they aren't bothered with things like woods.