1000pt hvy combat list

[shadowmage]

Ok a new league is forming and we are starting out at 1000pts. Such a small numner for a VC army is pretty frustrating. You have to have character but you cant leave yourself totally defenseless. Pretty much pick either a heavy combat or heavy magic list.

Ok so far so good (not really but thats the plan) With that in mind I decided to go heavy combat. I should be facing a sorted collection WOC (Knights anyone), High Elves, Dark Elves, a Dwarf player and Skaven. I am sure there are more but Ill be the only Vamp player.

Now on with the list.

Fast is the key. (yes I could have tossed in goulkin but needed the points elsewhere)

Vamps both go in the Black Knight unit, they should be able to kill off characters and hopefully break some units. Causing terror hopefully will break the other rather small armies.

Fell bats are great, use them to take out them pesky war machines/march block/block charges etc...

Varghulf nuff said...

Vampire @ 165 Pts
Sword of Battle
Beguile
Dread Knight

Vampire BSB @ 200 Pts
Dread Knight
Supernatural Horror
Banner of the Dead Legion

10 Crypt Ghouls @ 80 Pts

10 Crypt Ghouls @ 80 Pts

6 Black Knights @ 219 Pts
FC, Royal Standard of Strigos

Varghulf @ 175 Pts

4 Fell Bats @ 80 Pts

 

[Zaggo]

At first glance, it strikes me that you don’t have enough troops to boast a combat heavy force. Combat heavy armies obviously lack something in the magic department, and with the reduced ability to raise the newly undead, you’re going to have to pack a punch right form the beginning.

I would consider dropping both the vargulf and the black knights. While this may seem drastic, you can spend the points on stock troops (probably skeletons, but ideally graveguard), and then use your 10 strong ghouls units as flankers, supporting the main bulk of the force (10 is a perfect number for this role).

These blocks of troops really need to be at least 20 strong (more if possible), and need to combine maximum static combat res. with the combat punch of your tooled up vamps.

For your general I would consider two options, firstly:

vampire @ 185 pts
Dreadknight, infinite hatred, balefire spike, dispel scroll

Or secondly:
vampire @ 185 pts
Avatar of death, infinite hatred, blooddrinker

The first choice is really nice in your main troop unit, be they sheletons or graveguard. He is armoured up to the nines, and really packs a punch when he charges; benefiting as he does from all mounted pluses and still can’t be targeted in his unit, which is nice!

The second choice works along the same themes, but spends more points on the survivability of both himself and the unit he find himself in.

So it’s either or really, which ever you prefer and whatever darstadly foe you might find yourself facing my ofc influence this.

Briefly I would suggest you squeezing in at least one (preferably two) dispel scrolls, as in a combat heavy army they can be a god send when you find yourself out of dice and facing cleansing flare (or whatever) just rolled on a 15!

Lastly, if you do go for larger units, try and go into the combat with as much help as you can… To do his acrew as much static combat res. as possible. Always take full command, try and get three ranks when possible, (this may be difficult as ideally you want a 6 wide frontage as well); and ALWAYS, where possible, out number your enemy – obvious really with fear causing troops. Also, take banners that excentuate this, ie. warbanner, banner of endless nightmare (although possibly not as good here), or banner of dead legion… etc…

Hope this helps …

 

[spla5hmummy]

I've only played 6 games, but 4 of them have been at 1000pts and it has become apparent to me that a magic heavy army is more effective at this points value than a combat heavy one. The reason being, you start off on the same footing as your opponent but every ghoul/skele you raise puts you 8/1000 ahead of the game as opposed to 8/2000. In other words, our advantage has doubled. The more core you will raise the more you will leave your opponent in the dust. The last two games I played at 1000pts I won with more points on the field than when I started.

It's essential that you have summon ghouls/lord of the dead on at least two of your vampires so that you can boost your units endlessly. Also only use one type of core so that you only need the one kind of nehek buff and you have both vampires raising the same unit/s. The remaining vampire can raise zombies behind the enemy or invocate first when numbers are still low from previous combat. If he rolls VanHels that's ideal. I usuallly give him the book to be on the safe side. I make it the last thing I use in my magic phase in the hopes that my opponent has used his dispell dice trying to stop my IoN spam.

 

[shadowmage]

I have bounced back and forth a dozen times on this issue. One of the main problems is that at smaller numbers is that there are armies that do rather well.

A WOC army can still take Knights at 1000pts and have plenty left over for example. A Lizardman army will have a ton of skinks and can still field salamanders, saurus and Kroxidors. VC have to take characters and most likely your going to be spending anywhere from 20-40% of your points on these fellows.

I think the size of ghouls are too small, so they need to be increased. I dont take skeletons, dont own any so thats not really a choice. I do own some 90 ghouls thou.

I'll have to decide about the Varghulf. He is also almost 20% of the army cost, still my last few games he has paid for his points in spades.

The only issue with so called magic heavy at 1000pts is its not really. A dwarf player is going to have 4-5 dispell dice plus if he takes a runesmith a couple of runes of spellbreaking. If I play with the points right I could have 8 dice to cast. Ill have to take a necromancer which isnt really that bad of an idea, escpecially on the corpse cart.

Magic from the opponent I am not to terribly worried about, actually the last tournement I took 2nd place and didnt bother with any dispell scrolls. (it was a 1500pt tourney thou) I came away with a 2-0-1. Would have won except that my last opponent was a high elf player and we murdered one another. (my draw) I beat the winner badly in my first game but he massacred his next two opponents.

Well darn, heh, thanks for yall's input but still no closer to a decision.

 

[spla5hmummy]

In my magic heavy list I've spent 505 pnts on three vampires. I realise that this extreme list isn't for everyone but it's worked for me so far. 8 power dice and one bound spell. Not many lists can deal with 8 power dice, particularly when they're mostly being rolled one at a time for IoN. Two of the vamps have summon ghouls so they succeed on a roll of 3.

 

[shadowmage]

In my magic heavy list I've spent 505 pnts on three vampires. I realise that this extreme list isn't for everyone but it's worked for me so far. 8 power dice and one bound spell.

I imagine 4 or so units of ghouls and little else? I think I am going to stick with some variation of this list. There is strength behind it. If I can wreck a few units quickly, cause some panic tests across the table. Two units causing terror is always difficult to deal with at low level point games as well. If it doesnt work, oh well there is always next week and a few hundred more points added to the list.