1,000 Undead Wood Elves

[eljimbobo]

Hi there guys, this is my first army here. I've been looking at expanding into either Wood Elves or Vampire Counts, but after looking at WD309 I decided to pick both! I have a few models I've just bought and am working on putting them into an army now. I've included what I have in mind for my army right now, and here is my total model count.

Vampire
Necromancer
26 Skeletons
18 Ghouls
15 Grave Guard
1 Spirit Host

Plan is to run the Necromancer with the Skeletons and Vamp with the Grave Guard. Not a lot of units on the board, but I think I've got a solid magic phase for 1,000 points and my hero can probably kill any other players general by himself. Potion of Speed is mostly to deal with Elves hitting me first or in case I'm playing an opponent with higher Initiative and I want re-rolls.

How does my list look, and can I make it better with just the models I have?

 

[Niltag]

Nightshroud is bad idea on necro

 

[The Sun King]

Welcome to the forum!

I agree, you shouldn't put Nightshroud on the necro, rather give him Talisman of Preservation if you want to protect him.
Also I think I would build your vampire differently: Red Fury, Sword of Swiftslaying, ES, Heavy Armor, Lucstone.

 

[Sume]

I am curious did you get the idea from my posts about the topic? I am surprised I still had that particular white dwarf around after so long. Moving, selling all my armies after being really ill in late 2007. I was looking through it as I remembered one of the ones I saved had some tank painting tutorials. This one had painting faces, which I was looking at for my Sisters of Battle. Then I stumbled upon the Vampire Count armies made from Wood Elves, High Elves, and Orc and Goblins.

 

[eljimbobo]

Thanks for the help guys! I'll switch to Talisman of Protection. a 6+ armor save isn't as good as a 4+ ward save.

As to the vampire build, I'm not entirely sure why you prefer it Sun King. You reduced the vampire would have -1 attacks and -2 on his armor save in exchange for always striking first. Striking First against enemy characters can be nice, but with 6 initiative base I don't see the the reason to take it.

Sume, I actually looked at your list before posting mine to see how you were going to convert the Glade Guard/Skeletons! The White Dwarf had some awesome conversion ideas and I think I may try for an undead/lizardman army next(it'll be monster heavy). I'm doing the same thing with unit conversions as you:

Glade Guard/Skeleton Warriors
Dryads/Ghouls
Eternal Guard/Grave Guard
Sprites/Spirit Host
Highborn with Sword and Spear/Vampire
Spellsinger with Staff/Necromancer

I'm doing to the store in a bit to buy a pin vise to drill holes in Dryads to make them look decayed. I'll probably cut pieces off of them, stack the bits on a 40mm x 40mm base, and then put a few spites flying around it in a circle for filler. The idea is to make it look like the Necromancer is summoning deadwood that fell on the ground as reinforcements for his Ghouls. This base doubles as my Spirit Host if I need it.

The Eternal Guard will probably be my easiest conversion. I really like the look of the models, so I think I'm just going to remove their faces to make their helmets look empty and paint their skin a translucent green so they look like ghostly soldiers.

The Skeletons will have the most conversions, making them the more challenging unit in my army to make. I'm going to be going by what the book has and will probably need to get some green stuff for gap fillers. I'd like to leave some bows in the unit here and there so I can still use them as Glade Guard with filler.

 

[Sume]

As for your skeletons, do you have access or know someone that has a Tomb King army? I have over a hundred skeleton arms holding hand weapons and arms holding nothing. This is not to mention left over bits from chariots, and horseman sprues. I figured if I wanted skeletons just swap arms around on the elf models. If I want to make hand weapon and shield grave guard. I would cut the metal arms off the eternal guard, put the skeleton arms on them, and order high elf shields. I also got a pointer in terms of eternal guard for zombies. Make sure plenty do not have any hoods. Then paint the faces in a decay'd zombie state. You could even drill holes in the faces, and make it look like maggot holes. Could always cut off jaws, and model in green stuff tongues. Lets you go all crazy like with how you want. For my spirit hosts I wanted to mix sprites, and the disembodied look you see in that white dwarf.

I am not able to give you good army feedback yet. I am still trying to construct a list myself. I can mostly likely borrow a VC army or proxy most of it using my Tomb Kings to get a feel for it.

 

[The Sun King]

As to the vampire build, I'm not entirely sure why you prefer it Sun King. You reduced the vampire would have -1 attacks and -2 on his armor save in exchange for always striking first. Striking First against enemy characters can be nice, but with 6 initiative base I don't see the the reason to take it.

Page 66 in BRB:
"Always Strike First
Models with this special rule (or who are attacking with a weapon that grants this special rule) always strike first in close combat regardless of Initiative.
In addition, if the model's Initiative is equal to or higher than his enemy's, he can re-roll failed misses when striking in close combat — he moves so fast that he can land his blows with incredible precision. If the model with this rule is fighting an enemy"

That is why.

 

[eljimbobo]

Thanks for the modeling tips, Sume, I'll have to try them out on my Skellies. I heard that VC Skeletons are really brittle and I might have better luck using TK Skeletons for the conversions. Do you have any experience with this? Also, I can't wait to hear how your list does!

Sun King, I forgot about that rule! Re-rolls are much better than 1 attack. It's also only a -1 to the armor save, but since I have one free re-roll I think he'll be ok. Thanks!

 

[Sume]

Tomb King skeletons are the old VC ones. When they packaged them for TK, they just added a TK sprue, which has tomb king type armor heads, shields, banner, and the tuba.

 

[eljimbobo]

Tomb King skeletons are the old VC ones. When they packaged them for TK, they just added a TK sprue, which has tomb king type armor heads, shields, banner, and the tuba.

Which model is more brittle? The old VC ones(TK) or the new VC ones?

 

[Sume]

I have no experience with the new vc skeletons outside the little 5 man package box that I used to fill out some more archers for my tomb kings. Those old skeletons are very annoying, would say brittle. The new vc ones I think are a little more sturdy, but do have more armor and empire parts to them.

 

[The Sun King]

The old ones are more brittle. The new VC skeletons look brittle but actually quite sturdy. And you're welcome

 

[eljimbobo]

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I needed!

 

[The Sun King]

Any time