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Hi there.

Me and a friend have recently taken up Fantasy after playing 40k for the past 4 years, so while we are used to most of the mechanics of the game, we are still not that solid in the rules, and that might be a factor.

But the main problem we have been having is that Skaven just seems very, very powerful. I'm actually the Skaven player, but I've also been feeling that a lot of my wins (all of our games so far) have been due to the Armybook and not me, so wanted to hear if anyone have had the same experiences or if the lists are a factor.

The lists (roughly)
Vampire Counts:

Vampire lord
- lvl 3

Necromancer
- lvl 1

Necromancer
- lvl 1

30 Skeletons

20 Ghouls

15 Grave Guard

Varghulf

Cairn Wraith

Tomb Banshee

Skaven:

Grey Seer

BSB

Engineer
- lvl 2

Engineer
- lvl 2

40 Clan Rats

20 Clan Rats

20 Clan Rats

Hell Pit

Warp Lightning Cannon


These lists are primarily build using the models we own, so we do understand that might also be a factor. But so far the games have really been very one sided, and I was wondering if anyone here could comment on whether or not it's normal for the VCs to be hard pressed in this matchup, or if there is something glaringly obvious in the lists above that might explain it. And any advice for the VC list would be much appreciated.

Taking a 2 second look at these lists the Skaven player out numbers the VC player, outcasts the VC player and has better monters/rares/hitting power than the VC player. It makes sense the Skaven player is winning. My suggestion would be a total retool of the VC army preying on more natural LD things... example off the top of my head is Terrorgiest. The Abom sucks against hard hitting monsters but units it is just dirty, than Cannon is possibly the best thing in the game if placed right, and will take care of the bottom 3 units which is the only things that are even remotely worrysome. I would tool up the Vamp, make him a level 4, Terrorgiest and start using all the undead as blockers/tarpits as they are meant. Are the army lists even points is the thought that goes through my head over and over.

Thanks for the reply.

You say you would completely retool the VC list, but could you perhaps be a bit more concrete on what to change, besides adding a Terrorgheist and a lvl4?

And yeah, the points are even when we actually play, we were also very doubtful of the numbers so we checked them ourselves I am missing some details in the lists above, but they were more meant to give a general idea of the lists rather than an actual list debate. But I would be more than happy to provide the actual lists if needed.

One way to give yourself a nice hammer unit is by simply amplifying your graveguard. What are they armed with, hand weapon and shield? If so, they won't be killing as much as they can, but if they have great weapons, perfect. Find the points to give them Banner of the Barrows if you don't already - they'll be hitting on at least 3+. If they have great weapons, they'll be wounding on 2+, which gives you a lot of wounds

Adding a Wight King BSB to your list and sticking him with them also adds survivability in what extra banner you can add. If you can squeeze in the Drakenhof Banner, you'll have a nice regeneration save on top of their heavy armour. If you can't squeeze that in, Banner of the Blood Keep can at least ensure you get into combat, giving them a 3+ ward save against ranged attacks, and rely on Invocation to keep the unit standing in combat.

I think the VC player needs more troops to soak the crumble of lost combat. As your skelles/ghouls are; they're pretty small for units in a VC army.
To free up the points for more troops I'd drop a necromancer, possibly both, and both wraiths.
Use those points to get more ghouls, and make your vamp lord a lv.4.
The terrorgiest/+more grave guard with banner of the barrows is a good call as well. But with just the one hard hitting unit, I'd worry about eating WLC for a turn or 2 and then being bogged down by that unit of 40 clanrats for the rest of the game.
1500 is kind of a hard spot for VC, who win or loose based on their magic phase.