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Hey, just considering getting into Vampires in the future, and I was wondering how effective people would consider the following:

- Vampire Lord + level 3 + Fear Incarnate + Aura of Dark Majesty + Forbidden Lore + Talisman of Preservation + Charmed Shield (425)

- Necromancer + Dispel Scroll (95)
- Necromancer (70)
- Tomb Banshee (90)
- Tomb Banshee (90)

- 35 Zombies (105)
- 35 Zombies (105)
- 38 Skeletons + full command + The Screaming Banner (260)
- 5 Dire Wolves (40)
- 5 Dire Wolves (40)

- 30 Grave Guard + full command + Banner of the Barrows + great weapons (450)

- 1 Mortis Engine + Blasphemous Tome (240)

2000.

As you can see, I'm going off of memory on point-values, but I don't think I'm off by much.

I'm not looking for the best thing ever, just wondering if the army in my head would be able to put up a fight. Really, I just want some Ghostly Howls and some wights with bagpipes and plaid funeral shrouds.

I've briefly looked over the new book in store so I can't comment on strats but I love this concept. I did a scottish orc horde as my first fantasy army. You should do a army development blog.

Thanks. I wouldn't be able to get into this for a long time, but I'd consider doing a blog when I do.

P.S.: List updated.

Your units of ghouls are too small; they could (not always, but often enough) die in one turn, proving to be a pretty poor tar pit.

You really think so? I'm seeing them taking 1.7 wounds/turn, assuming no Regeneration and versus WS3 S3, and dealing out 3.6 in return, assuming light armour and shields. Anything much scarier than that, and I'd question their opponent's role as "tar pit".

They are rather small, though. I was originally thinking that they'd be small flank/support units, which they still could be, of course. Just that, with only one significant threat on the table, they'll probably do less supporting and more holding off those crap units you'd want to throw in front of the general and his Guard.

The problem isn't how many wounds they do vs how many they take. The problem is static combat res. If you go up against anything with 4 full ranks and a banner at the end of combat, you're down by 3 before taking wounds into account.

With rounding, say you go up against something 5 ranks deep. I'm assuming that you are 6 wide to increase your attacks (although I believe 7 is ideal for your base size). You lose two, and they lose four. You now have a rank bonus of 1; theirs is 3. They have a banner, you have none...their total combat res (assuming no character) is 6, and yours is 5...so you lose one more. Next round its the same thing, only this time you lose enough that you no longer have a rank bonus at all.

Basically, you killing 4 compared to losing 3 (until you lose enough attacks to lose more) means that you can only tarpit them in isolation for 1.5 to 2 full game turns. While that will sometimes be enough, I don't think it will hold up.

drop the zombie regiment to 2x 20 since the new incantation spell give 2d6 +wizard lvl to zombies that are within 6 of the necromancers (which they should be) just make sure you have enough extra models, raise dead is also nice to make new units of these guys and really harass your opponent

drop ghasts and add extra models instead to get as many more models in there as possible, seeing these guys around 30 or so would look much better at 2k
18 is ok for 1500 but not enough at 2k imho

30 Ghouls is certainly better than 18. I mean, there's more bodies. The Ghasts were there to accept challenges, in case my Necromancers would rather brave combat than enemy shooting and magic, but their so fragile anyway it probably doesn't matter.
Would one big unit look better than two medium ones?

I'll consider the zombie thing, though. Maybe two units of 30 (just in case), and one unit of 30ish ghouls?

List updated.

So I noticed that the Ghoul King is only ever a lvl1 wizard, and I figured I'd probably be better off with something else.
The ghouls were never very central to the army concept; I just figured that they'd actually be able to do something in combat, unlike zombies/skeletons.

But then I got to thinking, with the -1 Ld power and the Doom and Darkness! spell, the ghostly howls would actually become a serious threat and then some. And, well, might as well take the Screaming Banner and the Fear Incarnate power. A unit fighting those skeletons is looking at -4 Ld and then 3 ghostly howls (against Ld10, that's 9 wounds), and then a very good chance they'll be WS1.

I dunno...what do you think? A little gimmicky, I know, but it's not like any one of those things is bad on its own.

I think this one flows a little better. I do think that taking forbidden lore just to make your opponent lower leadership is too gimicky to be effective. I would rather see him be lore of Vamps as well...three invocations a turn is better than two.

Well, I'd also plan on using the other spells, mainly to kill enemy characters.
Without Doom and Darkness!, I'm not sure if the banshees and the Engine pose enough of a threat, and with one unit of Graveguard as the only hammer in the army, do you think it'd be enough?

Well, that is a good point. Hmm...I guess the only answer I can give you at this point is to try it out. If you don't have the models (it doesn't seem like you do yet), perhaps you could proxy?

I'm turning my Skaven into Zombies because I'm bored with them...and, yes, I do mean that I will be converting/painting them as undead Skaven.

Your general has to have Lore of Vamps, sadly. Not even forbidden lore can't get rid of that.

Awww. Well, so much for that lil' plan. I guess I could try getting a secondary caster, but I'd hate to go for anything less than a guaranteed Doom and Darkness! spell, with a good chance at Purple Sun to restock my dice and raise more dudes.


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Awww. Well, so much for that lil' plan. I guess I could try getting a secondary caster, but I'd hate to go for anything less than a guaranteed Doom and Darkness! spell, with a good chance at Purple Sun to restock my dice and raise more dudes.