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I'm having an internal debate about Crypt Horrors (and, tangentially, Vargheists) and was hoping to get the community's opinion.

Here is the debate: I understand that anvil units and tarpits serve different functions and that Crypt Horrors are generally considered to be anvil units while the VC core choices (except maybe ghouls) are generally considered to be tarpits. I like Crypt Horrors and, until recently, had been planning to get some for my 2400 point list. I also, until recently, was planning to get a Mortis Engine, but I've been inspired by one of JohhnyCrass' lists to build a Coven Throne instead. Plus, there's two other VC players in my club and they both run the Mortis Engine.

My list will consist of a Coven Throne mounted by a hero vampire and will be run very close to a unit of Black Knights joined by a vampire lord to take advantage of the vamp lord's leadership 10 for the Coven Throne's Battle of Wills. I also intend to use a Varghulf and probably the Black Coach because I have one and it's fully painted and based.

The question is... will Crypt Horrors be worth using if I'm also using 600 points of zombies and skeletons, even though anvils and tarpits are different? Or rather, are anvils are tarpits different enough that you need to field some of both to be effective?

At the same time, does the list already have so many hammer units that adding Vargheists would be overkill? If I did add them, I would probably run them on the flank next to the Coven Throne and the Black Knights, and run the Varghulf and the Black Coach along the other flank. I don't plan to use Grave Guard at all, by the way.

Well i'm all for taking them in every list, and heres my reasons:
- poisoned attacks
-3 W per model
-T5
- second rank get full attacks

i run mine 4 wide 3 deep and they mulch anything they get into contact with
i think there worth it, because there a anvil that is much needed in an army of low hitters.

Also the Invokation (or however it is spelled) is not capped at 1 wound per casting, it's not D6+wizard level but 1+wizard level is pretty good, also if your characters are capped on wounds you can use the lore attribute on one of these guys to bring them up. At T5 and Regen they also won't lose too much, when my Beastmen with their 40 S4 hatred attacks pound on general VC core they kill lots and generally the rest are wiped due to unstable, I once killed 20+ TK through unstable alone (was flanked by stalkers and a large unit 5 wide of tomb swarm in my rear, was not the best move on the player's part). However my gor horde would struggle against Interrogator-Chaplin's unit, plus the crypt horrors can do pretty decent damage in return. I like em, and they make great filler if you want to do some ghouls or vice versa using ghouls to fill out a larget unit of horrors.

Yeah they've saved my core from being puttied countless times.

An example of that would of been my last battle against skaven i charged the hell pit abomination thingy with only 6 of them. they killed it in turn 3 with 4 models left then flanked charged a unit of 60 plague monks and a plague furnace they proceeded to then waste 23 of the little buggers, before being promoted to "full dead".

my main point with that story was that a unit of 30 skellies with a hero vamp and a CC got wasted by that unit in 2 turns. the crypt horrors held out till 3 turns without IoN, where as the skellies failed misrably even with it.

leaving my core the oppitunity to tarpit/transport my lord into stronger units where he can blender that unit into pieces.

moral of the stroy stay away from frenzied plague monks!!

I don't use anvils and get along ok but the difference seems to come down to: do you want to multi charge or not?

A tarpit unit will hold the enemy up fine but if you charge black knights into the flank of something already in combat with zombies they will put all their attacks forward into the zombies and let you use your black knights to combat rez. An anvil gets you the multi charge without that problem, but it'll be far more expensive.

I like them over vargheists. The only thing is i would take black knights and/or grave guard over horrors tho.

jonolikespie wrote:I don't use anvils and get along ok but the difference seems to come down to: do you want to multi charge or not?

A tarpit unit will hold the enemy up fine but if you charge black knights into the flank of something already in combat with zombies they will put all their attacks forward into the zombies and let you use your black knights to combat rez. An anvil gets you the multi charge without that problem, but it'll be far more expensive.

Ineedvc2500 wrote:I like them over vargheists. The only thing is i would take black knights and/or grave guard over horrors tho.

The problem that I'm having is that it seems like I'll have so many core units (who are wasted if they're not dying, basically) that I'll want to be in combat that I'll have no choice but to multi-charge, and adding a unit of Horrors only adds to that number (being an anvil unit, I mean). Further, adding the Horrors doesn't decrease the number of core that I've got to take, so I'll have 600 points of core PLUS however many, 200-some-odd points of Horrors.