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I'd like some input on my Vampire Lord's build. Here is the general list I run:

Vamp Lord lvl 4 mounted with 10 Black Knights
Hero Vamp BSB on Coven Throne
2 zombie units
1 unit of 50 skeletons
2 units of 5 Dire Wolves
Black Coach
Varghulf

I tried a new build for my Vamp Lord and Coven Throne Vamp for my recent game against Ogres, which I lost. Here is the newer build:

Vamp Lord - Level 4 Wizard, Ogre Blade, Shield, Heavy Armor, Nightshroud, Other Trickster's Shard, Dragonbane Gem, Red Fury, Quickblood, Beguile
Hero Vamp - Mounted on Coven Throne, Level 1 Wizard, Hand Weapon, Lance, Heavy Armor, Aura of Dark Majesty, Charmed Shield, BSB, Book of Arkhan, Luckstone, Ironcurse Icon

And here is the older build, which I used for maybe 6 games:

Vamp Lord - Level 4 Wizard, Hand Weapon, Lance, Shield, Armor of Destiny, Other Trickster's Shard, Dawnstone, Red Fury, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Hero Vamp - Mounted on Coven Throne, Level 1 Wizard, Hand Weapon, Lance, Heavy Armor, Red Fury, Charmed Shield, BSB, Book of Arkhan

The main reason why I changed to the newer build is because of the lance on the Vamp Lord. I found myself not breaking enemy units in the first turn (steadfast sometimes) and then not wounding on 2+ in subsequent rounds (maybe because of toughness buffs from magic or something). I felt like that hevily decreased the effectiveness of Red Fury, especially if I couldn't get off Hellish Vigor for rerolls to wound.

The main advantage of the older build is the addition of a 4+ ward save on my Vamp Lord. The main advantages of the new build are a constant strength 7 and a constant ASF from Quickblood, plus a slightly better armor save (but no Dawnstone) and the effects of the Nightshroud. In the old build, I relied on Vanhel's Danse for rerolls to hit.

So I'm looking for a good combination here. I think the Lord pretty much must be a level 4 caster. I know I want the Book of Arkhan for extra Vanhel's, I want Aura of Dark Majesty for Battle of Wills from the Coven Throne, and I want the Coven Throne within 12" of the Vamp Lord for leadership 10. Other than those things, I'm willing to change everything on both characters.

What am I missing?

I personally like the newer build. It sucks not having a 4+ ward on your vampire but ASF, S7, Red Fury and other tricksters shard has the potential to make bloodthirsters cry.

It really comes down to do you want to make your vampire hard to kill or would you rather put him down on the board and dare your opponent to try and kill him, knowing anything that gets in combat with him will lose?

If you are going to run the Coven throne, I'd run it stripped down.
It leaves you enough points to run a vampire hero BSB on barded steed.

Here's what I would do:
Vampire Lord, barded steed, heavy armor, shield, dragon helm, red fury, quick blood, beguile, 4+ ward, other tricksters shard, sword of anti-heroes.
This guy's a beast. 1+ armor, 4+ ward, opponents re-roll wards, you've got ASF and make more attacks. You start with 5S5 attacks, but gain an attack and strength for each character in the opponents unit.
Add magic levels to taste.

Vampire: Level 1, coven throne, heavy armor, shield, aura of dark majesty.

That's cheap enough that you can also take:
Vampire, level 1, BSB, heavy armor, enchanted shield, barded steed, Sword of Swiftness, and Red Fury.
It's another 4 S5 attacks with ASF and Red fury.

Don't kill his heroes, tie them up with unit champs for a round, and pound on his rank and file with your boosted strength and attacks.

-Matt

Here is something I have been playing around with. Then again I have yet to try it out as well. Its just something I have been kicking around.

Vamp Lord

lvl 4,

Flying Horror, Jump from one unit to another unit. This allows your entire army to always march as long as you have units to jump into.

Quickblood 5 attacks ASF at Str 7

Summon dogs Added this little tid bit so that I could grow a pack of dogs or two packs on one of my flanks

Dark Acolyte to gen back some dice after casting sig

This gear can be changed up but I am leaning towards a block of skellies with lichbone pennant. This gives the 3 plus war vs magic, book adds speed to the units hitting powah.....

Charmed shield for the first big hit,
Talism of Prev, heavy armour, GW, Book of Arkhan

I still have not fully weighted this guy in but the over all role of this guy is. To keep the army moving forward at full speed. Then again you can do this with a reforming unit.

I still have not really found my nitch for my list but im working on it. Right now I keep returning to the necro because he is cheap. Cheap character allows for more toys in my army.

Does the Sword of Anti-Heroes (which I just recently started seriously looking at, btw) work based upon character models in the enemy unit or character models in base contact?

Man, Jono... I hate losing the Vamp Lord. Heh, seriously, it sucks. He's so many points, and I know when he dies that the game is basically over. :(

As for that suggested build, Matt, is there room for a dispel scroll in there somewhere? And also, I run two units of zombies (30 and 35) and a unit of 50 skeletons, and I include a lvl 1 necro bunkered in the smaller zombie unit to top them up when necessary. Though, to be honest, if I don't get a ridiculously good magic phase, I tend to not have him casting anything... hmmm... Do you think he's worth having in the back field? You've definitely made me reconsider his purpose...

Just google blendy vampire lord, and note just how disgusting that guy is, outright banned in poland

Tiarna Fuilteach wrote:
Just google blendy vampire lord, and note just how disgusting that guy is, outright banned in poland

Well, the issue is that I'm running him in a unique way. I'm familiar with the blender, but the combination of BSB vamp on Coven Throne and the Lord with Black Knights working in conjunction changes things for me strategically.

Hey Matt, I'm looking at using a build similar to the one you mentioned. Changing my list around a bit. But I've got a question for you - what's more important: the BSB or a Dispel Scroll? I'm maxed out on heroes and can't have both.

 Tangent wrote:
Hey Matt, I'm looking at using a build similar to the one you mentioned. Changing my list around a bit. But I've got a question for you - what's more important: the BSB or a Dispel Scroll? I'm maxed out on heroes and can't have both.

That's going to depend more on what your whole army looks like.
I find that with fast moving lists, I can usually get by without a dispel scroll, because the spells I'm most worried about are direct damage. Once in combat, I'm safe.
If you need a BSB is going to be more based on the army.

-Matt

Hmmm...

Well, I'm always worried about not having a dispel scroll, but I play a lot of games where I end up using it almost because I feel like I have to. Like, I go the whole game without needing to use it, and then there's a chance my scroll caddy necro might die, so I use it on some spell just in case he dies before I can. But the level 1 Necro bunkered in a unit of zombies has been essentially a waste of points in almost every game I've played, not counting the occasional time in which I'm actually glad I have the dispel scroll.

As for the BSB, I feel like the best use of him is to prevent a unit or model from COMPLETELY dying to crumble and instead being left with one wound, but I don't know if this has ever happened in my games. Either the unit wouldn't be dying anyway, or the unit would be dying by so much that reducing this number by one is irrelevant. And simply preventing wounds if the unit wouldn't be dying anyway is also kind-of irrelevant, as the spamming of IoN combined with the Lore attribute is almost always enough to bring these models up to full strength.

HawaiiMatt wrote:
If you are going to run the Coven throne, I'd run it stripped down.
It leaves you enough points to run a vampire hero BSB on barded steed.

Here's what I would do:
Vampire Lord, barded steed, heavy armor, shield, dragon helm, red fury, quick blood, beguile, 4+ ward, other tricksters shard, sword of anti-heroes.
This guy's a beast. 1+ armor, 4+ ward, opponents re-roll wards, you've got ASF and make more attacks. You start with 5S5 attacks, but gain an attack and strength for each character in the opponents unit.

Whats causing the "reroll wards on opponents" ?

Oops nevermind i see it.