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What is the best way to protect your vampire general? What vampire powers/magical items do you recommend?

I usually protect mine by Barded Nightmare, Heavy armour, Enchanted Shield and Talisman of Preservation. That's a 1+ armour, 4+ ward.
If it's low points I take the same things on a Hero Vamp, but with a Dawnstone instead of the Talisman.

The CF wrote:I usually protect mine by Barded Nightmare, Heavy armour, Enchanted Shield and Talisman of Preservation. That's a 1+ armour, 4+ ward.
If it's low points I take the same things on a Hero Vamp, but with a Dawnstone instead of the Talisman.

I take dragon helm and mundane shield instead of enchanted. 1+ armor, 4+ ward, 2+ ward vs fire. It's nice to have should you face lore of metal.

Full kit out is:
Barded Steed (sometimes hellsteed instead), heavy armor, shield, dragon helm, 4+ ward, ogre blade, quick blood and red fury. 428 for a level 1, additional levels are optional.
He hits like a strigoi, only he's faster and much more surviviable.

-Matt

I like a lord on foot in the middle of my infantry where he can hit everything with his march aura and can get the best results from casting.

I'm partial to Red Fury, Quickblood, Fear Incarnate, Nightshroud, Heavy Armour, Shield, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Other Trickster's Shard, Talisman of Protection.

Obviously not as survivable as other builds, but the intention here is to absolutely murder anything dangerous before it can hit back. With ASF and Nightshroud you're almost guaranteed to go first against even dark elf and skaven assassins and with sword of anti-heroes/other trickster's shard/red fury even Chaos Lords usually get wrecked before they can strike back. I use Fear Incarnate because I put him in a unit with Screaming Banner and I also run a Vampire with Aura of Dark Majesty.

For example, against a Chaos Lord in a Chosen Unit with a BSB, this Lord gets seven attacks at strength seven, forcing your opponent to re-roll successful ward saves and getting a free attack for every wound caused. If you can get Vanhels or Hellish Vigour off so much the better.

Only thing to beware of is units with baseline killing blow, like Tomb Guard, Grave Guard, Executioners etc.

Nitros14 wrote:I like a lord on foot in the middle of my infantry where he can hit everything with his march aura and can get the best results from casting.

I'm partial to Red Fury, Quickblood, Fear Incarnate, Nightshroud, Heavy Armour, Shield, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Other Trickster's Shard, Talisman of Protection.

Obviously not as survivable as other builds, but the intention here is to absolutely murder anything dangerous before it can hit back. With ASF and Nightshroud you're almost guaranteed to go first against even dark elf and skaven assassins and with sword of anti-heroes/other trickster's shard/red fury even Chaos Lords usually get wrecked before they can strike back. I use Fear Incarnate because I put him in a unit with Screaming Banner and I also run a Vampire with Aura of Dark Majesty.

For example, against a Chaos Lord in a Chosen Unit with a BSB, this Lord gets seven attacks at strength seven, forcing your opponent to re-roll successful ward saves and getting a free attack for every wound caused. If you can get Vanhels or Hellish Vigour off so much the better.

Only thing to beware of is units with baseline killing blow, like Tomb Guard, Grave Guard, Executioners etc.

I tried a build like that for awhile, but the problem I ran into was rank and file knocking me senseless.
3+ armor is decent, but the big problem is that Nightshroud only works on models in base to base. Support attacks fight as normal.
I had maneaters repeatedly smoke this guy, hitting on 4+, wounding on 2+ with great weapons, and me stuck with only a 5+ regen (i used seed of rebirth + mortis engine).

I like the sword of anti-heroes a lot, but I'm not willing to lose games by leaving my general exposed to non-challenge threats.

-Matt

I haven't really had that issue, but I'm also not fighting Ogres. I do usually end up having to move my lord around a lot to avoid particularly unpleasant things but he's rarely died.