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I've been playing 40k for around 10 years now and decided to get into the other side of Warhammer. I checked out all the armies and did a bit of research and am going to start collecting Vampire Counts. Can anyone give me any advice on where to start and which units are the core of the army? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Depends on your play style. Your army is built to support a couple of characters. No matter what, you need zombies because your basic spells can summon them. From there you can go either skeletons or ghouls. Ghouls are more damage output with poison and more attacks but cost more points. Skeletons are more for combat res as they can have a command (musician and standard). You want a couple of standards in your army if you play the mission where you capture standards. Zombies are cheap, die in droves, and are brought back in droves. No combat potential.

You will need about 500 - 600 points of rank and file core. Some wolves for redirection.

For special, you need to decide on cavalry, tomb guard, or their bigger beasts like vargheists or the big nasty ghoul. Each serve different purposes: the cavalry and vargheists hit like a load of bricks but won't live through protracted combats. The other two are great at staying in protracted combats and won't win unless you support them.

For rare, you need to pick something that supports the rest of your army. If you go lots of infantry go with the Morris engine as it buffs your troops and allows you keep your stuff alive through its slow march across the table. Otherwise you can go with something a little more combat oriented like blood knights or a varghulf. Want a chariot, go with the black coach. As it kills more and the game goes on, it becomes ethereal and flies. Then you have wraith units and banshees as support units (be sure to screen these from wizards as one magic missile can kill the unit). Then there is the big nasty terrorgheist. It can fly, it causes terror, and screams. It's a great disruption piece.

For heros, you have necromancers as spell casters. No armor and no fighting potential. Purely used for spell slinging. Next you have vampires, their core characters. These things can be spell slingers, combat monsters, or a combination of both. Lastly, you have ghoul kings. Weak spell casters but combat monsters. They don't wear armor so you have to equip them just right. By themselves, they will destroy core troops. Give them scabscrath, the other tricksters shard, and the dragon gem with red fury, flight, and one that lowers the enemy ld. You will see the enemy cut like a hot knife through butter. Your king will have a 5+ regen and 2+ ward vs flaming attacks.

Read this thread, that's what it's for! Welcome!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/533899.page