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emptyhat

Zombie
Nov 1, 2017
6
Cliffs of Decadence
One of the perks of playing Vampire Counts is that you might end with more of certain models on the table than you started with. In 8th I think these are limited to Zombies, Skeletons, and Dire Wolves, Bat Swarms and Fell Bats (for vamps with the upgrade).

So my question is how many of these models am I likely to need on hand, especially Zombies. I've got 40 right now and I'm planning in buying and painting them in batches of 40. I appreciate that this is a question that changes quite a bit with scale and playstyle but that is why your experiences are quite valuable as a rough guide.

(Oh and if anyone wants to chime in on older editions that might be something that could be useful down the road if I end up playing with people who prefer older versions.)
 

Alabaster427

Minister of Thriftiness
Dec 9, 2013
1,315
It's been quite a while since I played 8th, but if I recall, the most you could summon at one time was 2D6 models. 40 is more than enough for summoning. And 1-2 units of the other stuff is enough also. As for the dire wolves and bats, those can only be summoned with the Ruler of the Night vampiric power, which is pretty much useless.
 

emptyhat

Zombie
Nov 1, 2017
6
Cliffs of Decadence
Ah ok. It looks like you can boost Invocation of Nehek to boost all the units within 12" or 18" rather than just a single unit, that's part of why I thought you might need a lot. Is the higher casting total 12 and 18 something that made it impractical over the 6+ of the basic spell? Also because it is the signature spell you can try and cast it from multiple wizards (I think), though I guess if you have a few most will be low level so vulnerable to the dispel advantage of a high level enemy caster.

If having 40 spare is about right for normal games then that is quite handy and I won't worry too much about getting boxes and boxes of zombies unless I run into a problem.
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
40 zombies are two minimal size units which are usually good at the start of the battle. But then, of course, it keeps growing - and yes, every caster can spam it on all the units, which makes those zombies grow really fast. I had 65 on hand back in the day and it was way too few, 80 in all may be a good number - and in most cases that should suffice.

As for skeletons and beasties, they don't grow as much as zombies and they need special upgrades for that, so I would mark getting a lot of those as something very low priority - and it still very situational. I remember needing lots of fell bats when I fielded Mannfred von Carstein - but never before and never again.
 

Alabaster427

Minister of Thriftiness
Dec 9, 2013
1,315
Ah ok. It looks like you can boost Invocation of Nehek to boost all the units within 12" or 18" rather than just a single unit, that's part of why I thought you might need a lot. Is the higher casting total 12 and 18 something that made it impractical over the 6+ of the basic spell? Also because it is the signature spell you can try and cast it from multiple wizards (I think), though I guess if you have a few most will be low level so vulnerable to the dispel advantage of a high level enemy caster.

If having 40 spare is about right for normal games then that is quite handy and I won't worry too much about getting boxes and boxes of zombies unless I run into a problem.

It's not that it's hard to cast the boosted versions, but there are two problems with them: A. You have to declare which version you are casting before you roll, so if you declare the 18+ and roll a total of 17 (after including wizard level) you get nothing. B. You risk losing your wizard to miscast.
 
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Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
Miscasts are one of the things about eighth edition and editions preceding it that I do not miss. That said, I do miss playing older editions over Age of Sigmar.

I ran into problems with not having sufficient Zombies when I played older editions of the game. I would thus thoroughly recommend that you invest in a significant number of models if you plan on using Invocation of Nehek on a regular basis. I never thought that I would need more than 30-40 Zombies and I was completely wrong, so don't make the same mistake that I did.
 

brr-icy

Skeleton
Jan 23, 2019
80
Ontario
I still play 6th, and I have 90 zombies and 120 skeletons, I don't usually end up running out anymore, even with a heavy summoning build
 

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