Post: #1

I've used the army builder to put togeter a list for you all to look at, using the Vampire Counts rules, but everything will be built using High Elf conversions (see my army blog for details of what's what). Some stuff doesn't have a name yet because I couldn't think of a decent name for a particular Undead regiment, but any suggestions for such (including the name of the army) would be massively appreciated! :3

Post: #2

The lord is better of in a unit than on his own, so i would drop the hellsteed to a nightmare and put him in the blood knights, or drop the mount alltogether and put him in the grave guard, and also drop the wristbands in favour of a ward save item. I would drop walking death from him and give him red fury instead.

Forbidden Lore is kind of wasted on a lvl 1 caster, so I would go for dark acolyte instead on hero level caster vamps.
The sceptre de noirot isnt a terribly useful or effective item from what I have heard.

The staff of damnation can be useful.

Summon creatures of the night is of little use in a list without bats or dire wolves.

Your list should specify which spell your necromancers have.

Many people, my self included, would advocate dropping the zombies in favour of skeletons or ghouls, as zombies are free combat resolution for the enemy, as they are just so weak. It is better to just use raise dead if you need zombies.

I would recomend the banner of blood keep for the blood knights, as it gives them good protection from the various shooting, magic and war machiens the enemy will target them with.

Cairn Wraiths are handy, as some enemies will not be able to hurt them
The black coach is handy as it gets powerful and drains pd from the enemy.


Apart from all of the above, the list seems okay.

Post: #3

I completely agree with Sanai about your Lord. Nix the Hellsteed, as a Barded Nightmare will give you a better Armour Save anyway, and get him rolling with the Blood Knights (because the Blood Drinker really makes KoBK's a tough nut to crack). Get rid of the Wristbands in favor of the Crown of the Damned, and make one of your Vampire Heroes a BSB. It's only 25 points, and it will give your Lord re-rollable LD10 for his Stupidity, so he will virtually never fail.

Also, those Zombies are going to be kind of useless. Take a unit of 20 Crypt Ghouls instead (it costs the same number of points). That way, you can use Summon Ghouls instead of Summon Creatures of the Night on your Vampire. Ghouls are really our hardest-hitting core infantry, with two attacks per model and poison. Your opponent(s) probably won't be too afraid of your Core, and Ghouls can be a nice surprise.

Lastly, get rid of Forbidden Lore and take Dark Acolyte, as Sanai suggested. Unless you are planning on trying to pull off powered-up spells from the BRB, they won't be useful. Level 1 casters won't get you very far, especially if your Lord is only level 2.

Post: #4

Thanks for the input folks! I'll try and address all your points in the same order you made them as much as possible

• I might indeed drop the mount down to a Nightmare and put hiim in the Knights. But I would be intrgued to know why you suggest the Crown of the Damned as opposed to the Wristbands, which give a Ward save against shooting unless I'm mistaken... and it's been a while since I was last able to look at the book *is not at home right now* What does Red Fury do versus Walking Death?
• Again, I forget what Forbidden Lore does versus Dark Acolyte, so a bit of reasoning would be appreciated before I can comment further
• Other folks have indeed suggested swapping out the Sceptre for something like the Tomb Blade (not gonna do that, they aren't meant for combat), but the Staff of Damnation might be a nice idea to consider instead
• I may replace Summon Creatures with something else later, since you make a good point
• I will indeed consider swapping out the zombies for Ghouls, as people have significantly panned them as a really bad thing to start with. I just thought it might be good to have them on the board right from the get-go, rather than having to summon them (and use a lot of very precious power dice to do so)
• Banner of Blood Keep might be a viable change for my Blood Knights, I shall consider it
• I intend to see if I can fit in a BSB, in the form of a Wight King as they're cheaper and easier to shoehorn in.
• My one last point; You say "unless you intend to pull off powered-up spells from the BRB"... well yes, I kind of do. I intend at least one of my wizards to have something other than Lore of the Vampires so that as many folks as possible can have their full compliment of spells (as you can now no longer double up with the same spells from the same lore on different wizards)
  

Post: #5

With regards to your rules questions, here are some answers:

1) Walking Death gives you a free +1 to CR. It does not stack with other Vampires with the power (so there's a max of +1, even if you have 2 Walking Death Vamps in the same combat). Red Fury costs 25 more points, and for every wound you cause in Close Combat, you immediately get to make an additional attack. However, the additional attacks do not benefit from the Red Fury rule.

2) Dark Acolyte gives you another wizard level, while Forbidden Lore merely grants you access to all of the spells from a particular lore. You'll still be a level 1 caster, but you'll know lots of spells.

So, if you're planning to take a BRB lore, you might be able to justify forbidden lore on one of the Vampires, but I would definitely swap one of them for Dark Acolyte, simply because it's hard for level 1 casters to compete against powerful enemy spellcasters. Also, you have 50 extra points, so why not give the Vampire Lord an extra magic level? He's not primarily a caster, but having a level 3 still helps greatly with dispel rolls.