2500pts VC list Competitive or not?

[Korzac]

Hi Guys,

Big fan of the website and just recently had time to get back into VC again.

The idea of this list is to have the Vamp Lord and Baby Vamp in the GG block, the 2 Necro's in the skele's.

The zombies act as tarpits, the ghouls as a strong flanking unit. Everything lumped around the Mortis Engine and the Corpse Cart benefiting from buffs. The dogs being used as redirectors/chaffs.

Strong magic phase allowing for uncontested Vamp Lore spells + baby vamp getting off the +1 str +1 toughness buffs.

Any advice is welcome with regards to composition and items!

The list I have is as follows:

• • - Army Size
    Army (0-2999 points)
    
• Lords
  • Master Necromancer
    Lore of the Vampires, The General of Undeath, Wizard Level 4
    
    • Magic Items
      AB - Black Periapt
      
  • Vampire Lord
    Lore of the Vampires, Quickblood, Red Fury, Wizard Level 1
    
    • Magic Items
      BRB - Armour of Destiny, BRB - Ironcurse Icon, BRB - Luckstone, BRB - Ogre Blade
      
• Heroes
  • Necromancer
    Lore of the Vampires, Wizard Level 1
    
    • Magic Items
      BRB - Dispel Scroll
      
  • Vampire
    Great Weapon, Wizard Level 1
    
    • Forbidden Lore
      Beasts
      
      
    • Magic Items
      AB - Nightshroud
      
• Core
  • Crypt Ghouls
    Champion, 30x Crypt Ghoul
    
    
  • Dire Wolves
    Champion, 5x Dire Wolf
    
    
  • Dire Wolves
    Champion, 5x Dire Wolf
    
    
  • Skeleton Warriors
    Champion, Musician, 18x Skeleton Warrior
    
    • Standard Bearer
      BRB - Lichebone Pennant
      
  • Zombies
    Musician, Standard Bearer, 29x Zombie
    
    
  • Zombies
    Musician, Standard Bearer, 29x Zombie
    
• Rare
  • Mortis Engine
    Blasphemous Tome
    
• Special
  • Corpse Cart
    Unholy Lodestone
    
    
  • Grave Guard
    Champion, Musician
    
    • 33x Grave Guard
      33x Great Weapon
      
      
    • Standard Bearer
      AB - Banner of the Barrows
      

 

[owain_b]

I quite like this list, but you Vampire Lord will need to be your General.
I would drop forbidden lore and make the vamp better in combat and maybe even a BSB. I love the corpse cart model but I find it is just too slow to be useful, I'd drop it and 3 grave guard and take 3 Vargheists or something

 

[Korzac]

Thanks for the reply owain_B,

Will make the Vamp Lord my general - school boy error.

Interesting thought around making the baby vamp more of a fighter over a buffer, any specific reason? definitely a good idea to make him BSB.

I love the Corpse Cart too, I figured it would be fine even if slow moving because of the whole army being dependent on VHDM to move faster than foot slog anyway. I could get rid of it for sure, though I feel it would damage my magic phase, but replacing it with Vargheists seems a bit out of place for the list. Vargheists move a lot faster than the rest and as a unit of 3 would probably just get wrecked if he stops VHDM as my GG block wouldn't be in combat until turn 2/3.

If I did replace the CC, how would replacing it with a unit of 3 Crypt Horros work? They'd benefit from the ME and would be an excellent anvil for the GG/Ghouls to smash onto?

Cheers!

 

[Emicrania]

I give you my 2cent. The combination of Mortis Engine with the tome and a nuke vampire is fundamental . Allows you to stay competitive in magic phase and get a slayer vampire (always issue challenge with your champ,is the first that get resurrects and allow your vamp to blast troops):
Vamp lord lvl3 lore of vamp, great weapon,heavy armour,quickblood, red fury,beguille, black periapt and talisman of protection.
So now you have 5 A at S7 with additional A at I7 and 2 dice to store and use when you need +2 to cast any spell. Watch out for IF and add a necro with book of arkahn and you got a killing machine boosted with rerolls and an extra movement very turn.
You won.

 

[owain_b]

Thanks for the reply owain_B,

Will make the Vamp Lord my general - school boy error.

Interesting thought around making the baby vamp more of a fighter over a buffer, any specific reason? definitely a good idea to make him BSB.

I love the Corpse Cart too, I figured it would be fine even if slow moving because of the whole army being dependent on VHDM to move faster than foot slog anyway. I could get rid of it for sure, though I feel it would damage my magic phase, but replacing it with Vargheists seems a bit out of place for the list. Vargheists move a lot faster than the rest and as a unit of 3 would probably just get wrecked if he stops VHDM as my GG block wouldn't be in combat until turn 2/3.

If I did replace the CC, how would replacing it with a unit of 3 Crypt Horros work? They'd benefit from the ME and would be an excellent anvil for the GG/Ghouls to smash onto?

Cheers!

I would go for the fighting vamp becuse lore of vamps is pretty good at buffing with vanhels and hellish vigour and otherwise you only have one good fighter.

You are totally right about crypt horrors, and they would really benefit from the mortis engine but I find they need to be 6 strong minimum. But 3 vargheists would be good at keeping a flank protected. But actually if you could find the points for 6 crypt horrors that would be better.

The problem with the CC and movement is that it cant march so even if you bubble vanhels everything moves 8 and it moves 4. you end up having to just cast vanhels on the CC and not the rest of the army so it can keep up and it holds the whole army up. I'd be tempted to drop the CC and try and find extra points for another mortis engine. I love running 2

 

[Korzac]

Thanks Owain - I think I'll see if I can fit in 6 Crypt horrors then. I don't have any of their models and would rather add them into my collection rather than get a second ME (not that that won't happen at some point ^^)

Shame about the CC, but I take your point to heart - I'll take it out of the list. RIP.

Thinking about it, I might be able to proxy it as a second ME in some friendly games...

 

[estwheadn]

I think hex wraiths would work better than vargheists in this list.
I would drop the master necro and make your vampire level 4. Forget about the black periapt, go for great weapon, OTS, Night shroud, talisman of preservation. I would give the baby vamp aura of dark majesty over forbidden lore. Without the necro a 3rd LoV caster is handy for an IoN. Also give him dread knight and beguile. Then give him glittering scales. His armor save sucks anyways so might as well give him -1 to hit. At ws8 most lord characters will be hitting him on 5s and re-rolling hits if they fail the beguile test at -4LD. Then give him book of arkhan for another chance at re-rolls for the unit. Don't accept challenges with this guy, he'd probably get crunched by most characters especially if there is no nightshroud nearby. However the -1 to hit penalty, high WS and re-rolling misses is a good reason for the enemy not to allocate attacks to him. So he should be swinging away freely most of the time.

@owain_b are you saying that when you cast vanhel's on the CC it only moves 4? It will move 8"

Also I would drop the CC anyways. You would be better off putting those points towards more graveguard. Is your core over 625? If it is you should bring that down and use those points towards a unit of vargheists or hexwraiths. Vargheists would actually work well with this army. Remember that the ME's regen effect is given by a token at the start of the movement phase. The vargheists go off on their own after that and still get the effect from the regeneration. They're vampiric and fast so they can usually hunt something down on their own and then come back to support the rest of your army when it gets into combat. A terrorgheist would be pretty sweet too but I don't know where you would get the points.
The most important thing to take away from this is to beef up that graveguard squad. You want to run them 6-7 wide and they need plenty of wounds in the unit because their saves suck.

 

[owain_b]

Yeah they both move 8" from vanhels but CC only goes 4" in the normal move, and vanhels is the spell I'd be dispelling early game anyway if I was playing the ogres. It just gets left behind unless you slow your army down for it and I don't think it's buff is worth slowing the army down for. That said it can be worth it against elves though.

 

[estwheadn]

If you have book of arkhan you can cast a second vanhel's on it. Also the corpse cart might not get there for the first round of combat, but it will be there after that.

 

[owain_b]

Yeah IF you have book of Arkhan, and IF it isnt dispelled. I cant remember the last time I actually managed to cast Vanhels, in my group my opponents hate it so much they are constantly saving dispell dice for it, which is great for me as I get to sneak out raise dead etc but its not great for my corpes cart. Turn 3 my whole army is in combat and the CC has moved just 12". Its just to slow and heavily relient on vanhels, I sometimes risk it against elves as the return can be worth it stopping their rerolls. And I'm not saying CC doesnt work end of story, I'm just saying you have to mitigate for the fact you have one and I think the points can be better spent elsewhere.