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Hey guys, I'm seeking advice on Vampire Counts. I recently came into possession of a bunch of undead models (Mantic Kings of War undead to be precise) and so I decided to start a VC army using them. I'm only going to play them in friendly circles who won't care about non GW models, so it shouldn't be a problem.

So, I got the Undead starter set which is 20 Zombies, 20 Ghouls and 10 Skeleton warriors (can be found http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Kings-of-War/Undead/Getting-Started/Product/Undead-One-Player-Battle-Set-50-Figures.html) and, out of nowhere, by girlfriend randomly bought me a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon box to go with (pic related http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1290005a)

Now obviously, I appreciate that I won't be able to field said Lord on Dragon for a good while, but I'm seeking advice on two fronts:

1) What would be the best way to put together said dragon box. Would you go with Lord on Dragon or Ghoul King on Terrorgheist? And does anyone know if you can exploit the bits left over from the box to make anything worthwhile? Like, if I build the Terrorgheist, can I use the leftover Vampire model and just stick him on a horse or something?

2) Given what I've already got from the above box, what would your next purchase be to make this a viable force?

So... er yeah, help?

Thanks in advance...

Okay, quick update!

Thanks for the help everyone, been some great advice!

So, I broke open my dragon/terrorgheist box, and I've finished building it. I've pretty much split it down into as many individual units and the like as I can, so I've ended up with:

- A Terrorgheist (just going to field it on its own as a rare choice)

- Strigoi Ghoul King on foot (probably going to pop him into a unit of ghouls or zombies)

- Vampire/Vampire Lord which I was going to put on a horse, but found that I'd have to deface his armour to get him to sit properly, so I've ended up mounting him on the neck/head of the dragon bits that I've got left over, and then basing that to make it look as if it's coming out of the ground. I'm planning on running that as a counts-as nightmare, since it fits on a cavalry base.

So, my plan next is to get another mantic undead box and a necromancer, so I can get a unit of 40 zombies, 40 ghouls and then use the 20 skeletons I'll have as Grave Guard, since the Mantic skeletons are a bit in between standard GW skellies and armoured undead.

How does that sound?

Okay, so finally got around to buying a necromancer today to supplement the vamps I've got, but I've got a question if people would be kind enough to help me out.

The mantic revenants I'm looking at using for my Grave Guard (nice suggestion there from Loki) have got 1-handed weapons and shields from the look of it, although I'd love to be corrected about that if I'm wrong, and from what I've read, it looks like everyone is suggesting great-weapons with grave guard, so my question is as follows: can a unit have both great-weapons and shields? I'm new to the fantasy side of WH, and so I'm still figuring stuff out. Obviously, they can't use both, since great-weapons are two-handers, but can they be equipped with both and choose to use different ones depending on the turn? Or is it no shield if the model is equipped with a great weapon.

The reason I ask is because I would like to save money and buy the mantic revenants, but if I have to somehow mod them all to be wielding two handed weapons, then I might be a bit screwed. Maybe better off just buying standard grave guard.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, so re-reading the vampire counts book, it seems that if I give my grave guard greatweapons, then I have to lose the shields anyhow.

Another question though; what should I be doing with my necromancer? Do I stick him in a big unit of zombies or something to protect him from being singled out? Or does that scupper his magic potential due to the zombies probably being tied up in combat the whole game?

Taking another look, I'm thinking of now using the Mantic Wraiths as Grave Guard. They're still undead looking creepies in armour, but they're all wielding two handed weapons, and getting 20 of them is gonna cost the same as 10 GW Grave Guard. Should do the job!

Well, more is always better... well nearly always!

So assuming I've got the following:

40 Skeletons, 40 Zombies, 20 Ghouls and 20 Grave Guard, which units would you put the Ghoul King and Necromancer in? And would you get any more characters beyond that?

If I had unlimited resources, I'd probably agree regarding the Ghoul King/Vampire Lord situation, and I'd be taking a full caster Vampire Lord, but at the moment I don't have a model I can use for a vampire on foot.

I think my next purchase, after bulking up my core units some more, is probably going to be another vampire model, so I can have a vampire lord on foot stacked with my grave guard.