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So, im starting a vampire army, and I intend to take vlad as I like the model so much. Are there any units (other than Isabella) that synergise well with him?

Im also going to be rocking one or two large units of GG. In your opinions, what would be the optimum load out for two big blocks of GG in a vlad army?


Cheers,
Special K.





*edit*
Ive now worked out the heart of the list and would appreciate opinions on which special gewgaws and auxiliary units would flesh it out. So far its:

Vlad
Bsb with drakenhof banner
Hero wraith
40 skellies
40 skellies
40 GG
40 or 2x20 ghouls
6 bat swarms
4 fell bats
Varghulf
Black coach

Standard loadout for Grave Guard in 8th is Full Command, Great Weapons and Banner of the Barrows. Would advise running one big horde instead of two, they rely a lot on the buffs and support of the rest of the Vampire army I.E. Vanhel's Danse, Helm of Commandment from a hero Vampire perhaps, some rare choices and your core blocks to keep their flanks secure. A horde of 40 can generally put out 31 attacks at initiative 3 that hit on 2's with a re-roll (with helm and banner and Vanhel's) and wound on 2's and killing blow (with great weapons).

Your second horde wouldn't get the helm, or the banner and less chance of getting Vanhel's. You'd probably be looking at 31 attacks that hit on 4's with no re-roll at initiative 0. So a little over half as effective for your points.

As far as synergizing with Vlad keep in mind that by taking him your magic phase is going to be a little less powerful. Therefore probably the best choice is a Black Coach (or two) to suck away your opponent's power dice (and your own, but you're not magic heavy with Vlad anyway).

Thanks for the response. If taking two units isn't that great, would you say there's any point in the unit being more than 40 strong? Or would I be better off just taking a bsb with the Regen banner?

You might want to consider spending the points elsewhere (Terrorgheist, Vargulf, Wraiths?) rather than dumping everything into a death star that can be wiped out by an Infernal Gateway or Purple Sun/Pit of Shades.

To clarify, this will be a huge army as im using mantic infantry. So an epic unit of GG wouldnt actually be such a big chunk of the army. Ive got a varghulf and a ton of bats of varying sizes that I fully intend to make use of too, and about forty ghouls. I wad originally planning on a strigoi theme, you see, but I've decided to include a ton of skellies and GG after being given the vlad figure and realising that its actually a brilliant figure if you dont paint it in the gw colours.


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Forgot to mention, I HAAAAAATE monsters in fantasy as two of my regular opponents play cannon heavy builds.

The regen banner is a very good investment (and the BSB helps with crumbling a little as well, which is always nice). I personally wouldnt go much higher than 40-strong as its such a points dump already, and the regen banner will go a long way towards making up for there being 'less' GG.

Ghouls are also excellent BTW. But you are going to need a unit of Skellies as a bunker (and a banner for Blood or Glory missions), and something else as another anvil/distraction unit. Deathstars are good, but having some sort of supporting unit to go with them (like to remove ranks for example) is better.

just my £0.02

Im definitely planning on two giant blobs of skeletons. I hear alot about skelly spearmen, but are handweapon/shield skellies worth it for the 6++?


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Any point including a necromancer? Ive got one just sitting around gathering dust.

I see spears as a waste for skeletons. You might gain a few extra strength 3 attacks at weapon skill 2. That's not really going to kill much. Skeletons are a tar pit, so for less points you can get just as much combat resolution from your parry save and save a few skeletons as well.

Necromancer is nice as an assured Vanhel's or an extra wizard to one dice invocation of nehek on. Can also carry a dispel scroll, generally worth bringing one considering they're very cheap.

So a scroll caddy necro? Im not totally familiar with 8e, but ive heard that single dice spells are a thing of the past. Do you have any success with doing that?


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Also, helm of commandment. Do I put the helm vampire in a flanking unit of skellies or somehow hide him in the GG unit.

Blood Knights are awesome.

They're also about two hundred bucks per unit.

...And are always your opponents first target....

Sword and Board Skellies are probably the better investment, as Nitros said, as is the scroll caddy Necro.

One dicing spells is still possible, it just depends when you cast them (ie at what point during the phase), you opponent only has so many Dispel dice....

If I can fit them in, would you guys recommend spamming dispel necromancers? Currently the list im tinkering with could fit 2 2x dispel and one single dispel necro, a drakenhof bsb, a helm of commandment vamp and vlad, with lord points to spare. As im getting a mantic megabox and I have 40 ghouls as it is, I'll soon have 80.

I'll throw in my two cents and say that i prefer both blood knights and terrorgheists to the vargwulf as a rare choice.

Fair enough, but im not giving gw two hundred dollars for a five man blood knight unit, nor can I be bothered converting them. And as for terrorgheists: brilliant model but will die like a dog in a 4k point game where your opponents take as many cannons as they can get their mits on. Varghulfs can hide behind things easily.

Ktulhut wrote:If I can fit them in, would you guys recommend spamming dispel necromancers? Currently the list im tinkering with could fit 2 2x dispel and one single dispel necro, a drakenhof bsb, a helm of commandment vamp and vlad, with lord points to spare. As im getting a mantic megabox and I have 40 ghouls as it is, I'll soon have 80.

I don't reccomend it because it's illegal. You can only take any magic item once. Dispel scroll is a magic item.

Ktulhut wrote:They're also about two hundred bucks per unit.

Yeah, but if you make them a unit of 4 knights with a vampire count with bloodfeeder, it's $100 for a 600 point unit.

Nitros14 wrote:

Ktulhut wrote:If I can fit them in, would you guys recommend spamming dispel necromancers? Currently the list im tinkering with could fit 2 2x dispel and one single dispel necro, a drakenhof bsb, a helm of commandment vamp and vlad, with lord points to spare. As im getting a mantic megabox and I have 40 ghouls as it is, I'll soon have 80.

I don't reccomend it because it's illegal. You can only take any magic item once. Dispel scroll is a magic item.

Huh? Since when can you only take one dispel scroll?


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Woah, looking at the brb I see what you mean. I need to go tell a bunch of people they're playing the game wrong.


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Woah, looking at the brb I see what you mean. I need to go tell a bunch of people they're playing the game wrong.