Here's a second opinion of the new unit roster, including special characters I've used. I'll try to avoid repeating what was said above.

Lords

Vampire Lord: If you're going to spend this many points on a character you have to make it count. There's a few ways to do this. The build mentioned above is good, but you can suffer against things with higher initiative/ASF and killing blow. Against assassins they'll go simultaneous with you and a 4+ ward is only a 50% chance of saving your general from a killing blow that will most likely lose you the game. I've been having success with a build of Red Fury, Quickblood, Nightshroud, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Other Trickster's Shard, Talisman of Protection. It's a character hunting build that is almost assured to kill any other character in the game so your Lord is safe. You should be very wary of enemy units with killing blow and powerful rank and file units/monsters though. Take full advantage of the ability of your lord to move from unit to unit to get the matchup you want. Alternatively if you want to go the caster route, to be worth his points you really need your caster lord killing things in close combat. So if you take Master of the Black Arts (better than most people say, just because it can save you from a terrible winds roll at a critical time. Don't just look at the averages) I would advise spending your items on a weapon, armour and a good ward. You're paying for that statline so you better use it. Another thing that can be tacked onto these builds is Fear Incarnate. Put your lord in a unit with the Screaming Banner and take another Vampire with Aura of Dark Majesty and have a Wraith/Banshee to cause terror and you have a unit whose fear tests are very difficult to resist.

Strigoi Ghoul King: Can be effective in a Mortis Engine list since he gains a 4+ save. Always under any circumstances take the 5 point item that gives a 2+ save vs flaming attacks. Very vulnerable to killing blow but re-rolling hits in all combats is great, you have to be extremely careful when you pick your fights. I would consider this lord only if you're running a Mortis Engine, or if you really want a mounted Terrorgheist.

Master Necromancer: If you take a level 1 combat Vampire Lord on foot you should be able to afford a level four version of this guy which lets you not have all your points tied up in one basket. He can't get master of the black arts which is unfortunate but you can't beat the cost.

Vlad von Carstein: Vlad should only be taken with Isabella, period. He's not as effective at killing things as a full on combat lord nor is he that effective at casting but you pay for a lord that is extremely difficult to kill. I would consider Vlad against an army that takes a lot of character killers or killing blow units or death magic.

Count Mannfred: Mannfred is the best caster character in the book. He comes with 14 spells, MotBA, Dark Acolyte and the sword of unholy power can let you dominate the magic phase. The problem is he's paying for a high statline and is very vulnerable to just about everything in close combat. Taking Mannfred is very high risk high reward, because even more so than the other characters you have to pick your matchups well. If you get him into combat with skavenslaves, state troops, gnoblars, goblins skeletons or ideally zombies he's golden as he'll generate absurd amounts of power/dispel dice for you. If you want to improve his armour save to be at least useful you can take him on a Barded Nightmare and stick him in a Black Knight or Blood Knight unit, but that adds even more points to his cost.

Heinrich Kemmler: Kemmler is good. If you have the points upgrading a master necromancer into Kemmler nets you loremaster(potentially allowing your army to have 3 Vanhels if you grab the book and roll it with another wizard), +1 to dispel and the ability to turn ethereal to escape close combat attacks or war machines or fly and escape close combat entirely. He can also create new grave guard with close combat attacks but that's not really very important or useful. The problem with Kemmler is he's generally too pricy to include and still get a useful combat Vampire Lord.

Heroes

Vampire: The problem with Vampire heroes is they are a ton of points and toughness 4 with 2 wounds. You really really need to mitigate this so think about protection from rank and file first and foremost. Armour of Silvered Steel is a great choice since you can still take either a great weapon or an additional hand weapon (or warrior bane if you need a magic weapon). Beguile and Aura of Dark Majesty are good powers for a hero since one protects him and the other makes other things about your army better. Quickblood with a great weapon can be good too, strength 7 is nothing to sniff at.

Necromancer: These guys are great to provide cheap invocations and carry a dispel scroll or one of the excellent items in the Vampire Counts book. Cursed Book (usually casts a spell on a 10 for ~two powerdice with zero chance of failure or miscast), Rod of Flaming Death (beautiful for tarpitting large hordes) and the Staff of Damnation (amazing for great weapon grave guard) are all very useful in the right situation. Plus they're cheap channels for dice and prevent your army crumbling after your general's death.

Wight King: They're a hero with toughness 5 and 3 wounds. That is amazing. Don't even think about a Vampire battle standard bearer (unless you're using a mounted Vampire BSB in a big Black Knight unit). Mitigating combat losses by 1 and re-rolling leadership tests for 25 points is worth it, and for 10 more points you can add flaming attacks to a grave guard horde. Alternatively, a Wight King can take an ogre blade and a dragonhelm for a 3+ save, strength 6, 2+ ward vs flame in addition to his very tough profile making a cheap (compared to a Vampire) and very effective fighter.

Wraith: Kind of costly and vulnerable for what it brings. I feel these are best used if you need to cause terror in a unit for a fear bomb or if you have a 5-wide tarpit unit that needs to negate attacks from a corner (If you have them on the edge of a 5-wide skeleton/zombie unit you'll negate 3 models unless they have magic weapons). Otherwise there are better ways to spend your points.

Banshee: Brings terror and attack negation like the wraith. Worth the points if you have aura of dark majesty and are fighting an army with good armour saves (Chaos Knights are a beautiful target). Especially worth the points if you have Doom and Darkness from lore of death. Otherwise kind of pricy. If your opponent has no magic missiles they can skirmish around the flanks and force terror tests on low leadership units hanging around the back of your opponents army.

Mannfred the Acolyte: The only hero level loremaster around. He's pricy but effective in that role. To really get him to be worth his points he has to be killing things though, and with his 5+ armour, toughness 4 and 2 wounds that's hard. I wouldn't take him unless I knew I could get him into combat with zombies or skavenslaves.

Isabella von Carstein: Auto-include if you're taking Vlad von Carstein, pointless otherwise.

Konrad von Carstein: Konrad has the same problem as Mannfred the Acolyte in that he needs to be in combat, but is terribly vulnerable in combat. Konrad must be near the general and near a battle standard bearer or he's very likely to fail his stupidity. I feel Konrad is best used as a suicidal character against monstrous infantry/cavalry with poor armour saves, try your best to get Hellish Vigour on him. Against an ogre unit, Konrad can get six hatred attacks, causing a maximum of 12 wounds, giving him 12 more attacks, possibly causing 24 more wounds, gutting said ogre unit. He'll die instantly whenever something hits back, but hopefully that round of combat was worth it.

Krell Lord of Undeath: Krell is a very expensive Wight King that is only conceivably worth his points when killing blowing ridden monsters in a challenge with Kemmler. For almost all intents and purposes a normal Wight King will serve about as well for half the cost.

Character Mounts

Zombie Dragon: Well worth its points against non-cannon armies. I would advise taking Nightshroud and Dread Knight on this monster. You can't refuse challenges anyway so you might as well make weapon skill 4 hit you on 6's. Nightshroud lets your dragon strike (and breathe) before your opponent in a challenge. Obviously suffers vs cannons since two cannon hits will on average kill both lord and mount, you better hope you can charge that cannon on turn 2 and you get the first turn. Worth pointing out that not very many armies have cannons though! Wouldn't take it to a tournament where you can't change lists though.

Terrorgheist: I really wouldn't bother taking this as a mount since you can take it by itself, the combination mentioned above is best if you want to. The one advantage is that you'll be able to march, but then the rest of your army won't.

Abyssal Terror: It's half the price of a Zombie Dragon or Coven Throne and still has a strength 5 thunderstomp and fly. The virtue of this mount is its low cost so I really wouldn't bother with the expensive upgrades for its massive 3 attacks.

Coven Throne: The lack of fly really hurts this compared to a Zombie Dragon since you can't pick your targets nearly as well, can't charge over top of your units and can't march since you're a chariot. It has a lot of goodies but you're still putting a huge target on your lord. You *can* take it with a hero but then your leadership for battle of wills is 3 lower.

Corpse Cart: I could see putting a necromancer on this if you didn't have a small skeleton or zombie bunker, but then you're eating up points in heroes instead of special. It just lets your opponent single out and kill your necromancer easier or kill both in one cannon shot, bad idea in my opinion.

Core

Zombies: Amazing unit. You'll want at least 60 of these, more if possible. I find multiple small units of these clog up your deployment, can be difficult to hit with all your invocations and die easier but if you have like 200 zombies it would work well. I prefer a single unit 5 wide to minimize attacks back, starting small but usually getting up to about 70-80 strong by the time you impact the enemy. Save your zombies when deploying and put them opposite an enemy unit with high strength attacks. They're gold against large monsters, demigryph knights, chaos knights, hell pit abominations and so on. The most valuable thing in their army will be stuck killing the least valuable thing in your army for most likely many turns. I feel like getting Zombies into the right matchup is often the key to winning with Vampire Counts. As an aside, combo charging a unit pinned by Zombies is almost always a bad idea because Zombies give up a billion combat resolution and will probably kill whatever your other unit is.

Skeletons: Now these have a different purpose entirely. If you're taking a Mortis Engine equip them with spears, otherwise hand weapon and shield. Skeletons have a 5+ armour and 6+ ward/regen in close combat compared to Zombies, which means against most everything they'll give up less combat resolution. What this means is that it's quite viable to pin a unit with skeletons (hopefully with the screaming banner and fear bomb Vampire, perhaps a Wraith or Banshee on the side) then crush them with something else on the flank. I believe the best formation is 5-wide, don't try to pretend Skeletons are going to kill anything, just minimize incoming attacks and give up as little combat resolution as possible while your characters do the killing.

Ghouls: Expensive and die about as easily or more easily than skeletons, can't take a banner so they generate one less static combat resolution. Ghouls can be used in two ways. Either in a big horde 40 strong as a hammer unit to break the enemy, or in small units to take advantage of their two attacks and kill your opponent's smaller units, or flank their larger blocks. Either way ghouls are best used against high toughness bad save models to get the best of their poisoned attacks. In the new book I've been leaning back towards a core entirely made of zombies and skeletons, ghouls have let me down with their high cost meaning my model count is too low. I tend to think Vampire Count's core should tarpit so your characters, specials and rares can do the actual damage.

Dire Wolves: They can't declare a flee reaction and can't march outside your general's range. For me this cripples dire wolves as a fast cavalry unit. A unit might not be bad to redirect enemy charges but they're a little pricy. Would only take them if also taking summon creatures of the night on a level 4.

Special

Corpse Cart: Lynchpin of magic heavy Vampires. Unholy Lodestone is a very good upgrade, Balefire is so so. You'll want book of arkhan to Vanhel's Danse the cart because of its slow movement. Almost a must-include unit.

Grave Guard: Great Weapons are still the way to go, 4+ armour and 6+ ward is just not worth giving up a unit with the ability to kill monsters and ignore armour saves for just 1 point per model. Banner of the Barrows is a must-include for a Grave Guard horde and this is a great place to put your Wight King battle standard bearer. And they should be a horde, minimum unit size 30 or they're going to crumble. If you want a smaller unit there are better ways to spend the points.

Black Knights: Spectral Steeds can be a lot of fun with this unit. If you set up your battlefield well, you can block enemy charges while your Black Knights can charge through buildings and impassable terrain. Lances and Barding are worth it. If you're going to take this unit, take a large unit 10+, ideally more. That way when you hit the flank they can disorder blocks and cause them to lose their rank bonus, and spectral steeds makes them particularly good at hitting the flank. They're an excellent target for Vanhel's danse because of their low weapon skill, but killing blow means they're great at fighting other knights as well. You can also use them as a very effective bodyguard for mounted Vampire Lords since Invocation is so good at raising them.

Crypt Horrors: Powerful as stated above, but best to take in large units to avoid death to combat resolution. Mortis Engine basically must be taken if you're going to field them.

Vargheist: They're good no doubt, but really need to be used with care because of leadership 7 frenzy. If you happen to be taking a Lord on a flying steed or a mounted lord with knights they're much better.

Fel Bats: Should only be used with summon creatures of the night on a level 4 to get full use out of them. They're cheap and strong enough to adequately hunt war machines and skirmishers. If you take a unit of 2, summon creatures of the night will get that up to 5 strong with one cast.

Bat Swarms: Best used with great weapon grave guard. Hover means they can't flank very well, but your Grave Guard striking first/simultaneously can be the difference victory and defeat. If you can get the corpse cart ASF on the Grave Guard, then make your opponent strike last your great weapons will actually strike first against anything but an opponent with ASF and initiative 4+ (I.E. high elves).

Spirit Host: One of the best units in the book, you can take them as singles. This means you can drop them first during deployment and ensure you get the matchups you want which is so important for Vampires. They're extremely good at tarpitting large monsters and enemy skirmishers as well. You can't beat their cost.

Hexwraiths: Can't march outside the general's movement, extremely vulnerable to magic missiles and combat resolution (whoo 1 attack). I feel these are overpriced but still usable.

Rare

Black Coach: Lost some appeal because it no longer steals power dice from your enemy but at least it doesn't steal yours anymore. It's still extremely difficult to kill and once it gets killing blow an effective character hunter. It's almost immune to magic missiles and once it gets fly it dominates the board. Definitely a good choice.

Varghulf: The ability to march outside the general's bubble is the primary advantage of the Varghulf over the Terrogheist. It's very effective in combat for its cost and extremely fast moving. Another rare choice I don't feel you'd go wrong taking.

Cairn Wraiths: Lack of skirmishing and inability to march hurts them but they're the cheapest ethereal unit that can actually fight and kill things in close combat. What I said above about the Banshee also applies to the unit banshee, in that aura of dark majesty and doom and darkness drastically improve effectiveness. Considering they're competing against other rare choices though maybe not the best choice when you can take them in heroes instead.

Blood Knights: If you want to use Blood Knights effectively you really need to go all in to make the most of their high cost. I would say at least 5 strong, preferably 7, with flag of blood keep and ideally a mounted Vampire (hero or lord) with them, preferably with book of arkhan to give them re-rolls to hit, enchanted shield for 1+ armour save and obsidian trinket for 3+ ward vs magic missiles. Their marching away from the general is great and their killing power is outrageous (you're looking at 22 strength 7 attacks on the charge).

Terrorgheist: Not marching sucks, but you can hardly find a better unit at killing small, unprotected low leadership targets. This is another good rare choice but you have to be careful to avoid close combat. Don't bother with the expensive and not very useful upgrades.

Mortis Engine: The Mortis Engine can be a lynchpin in your army or a tacked on waste of points. It basically makes units such as the Strigoi Ghoul KIng, Ghouls and Crypt Horrors dramatically more useful. The Blasphemous Tome is best used with numerous low level casters because if your Lord miscasts near it you are in deep trouble. A level one necromancer can one dice invocation of nehek near a Blasphemous Tome and succeed on a 3+ so it can be effective for casting numerous spells. A hero Vampire with dark acolyte gains 2+D3 to the casting total of invocation and so can drain dispel dice effectively. If you're taking a Mortis Engine, plan your army around it, it's not something to be tacked on.



Hope that gives you some more perspective. When you're building your army, you have to look at how your units will work together. Whether you take a Mortis Engine or not dramatically changes how your army works. If you want to save 240 points you can avoid ghoul king, ghouls and crypt horrors and take hand weapon shield skeletons, a great weapon grave guard horde and blood or black knights along with a combat Vampire Lord who can be a level 4 wizard as well. Alternatively, you could go with the Mortis Engine, grab a Crypt Horror horde instead of Grave Guard and add ghouls to your core. Spirit Hosts are very effective for either, since getting matchups you want is so crucial and Zombies are basically must include for either as well as tarpitting your opponent's best units is often your best route to victory.

Tangent wrote:Redirector as in, you position them threateningly such that enemy units go after them instead of what they were originally going after?