Army themes!

[circus1943]

Hey!
Recently got my book and started to think about what I should get.
What themes do you guys use for your armies? Started this thread to get some ideas.

 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Normal themes are based around other armies most the time.
A good example would be a empire Provence that has been killed and raised but this works with any army.

Another good example would be to use events in history and characters to base it around like Bretonia Mouslion and Crom and his army Marching into Sylvania to attack the empire and getting destroyed and raised.

A idea I had a while back was the army of Van Hal the great necromancer (taught by prince Vladimir who was later revealed to be Vlad) who almost destroyed the Skaven Invasion but was killed by his Apprentice but allowed the empire time enough to recover what it could from the rat man plague and Emperor Mandred Skaven Slayer finished the weakened foe off.
So this means you can have a mixed human and undead force which gives you lots of room for planning.
Also Van Hal was protecting the Empire, this would not be a evil army but in fact a good one where the heros of old fought to protect their loved ones from the evil rat men.

 

[Sanai]

There are several main themes you can go for
based simply on unit theme-

You can do skeleton core, with grave guard, black knights, hexwraiths, wraiths, mortis engine for a skeletal theme

or ghouls, crypt horrors, ghoul king, varghulf, terrorgheist for a strigoi/ghoulish theme

alternitavely, you can choose a bloodline- blood dragons have fighty vampires, zombie dragons, skeletons/gg, and as many black knights and blood knights as possible. Strigoi use the ghoulish theme, necrarchs focus on zombies, skeletons, various undead, with lots of casty vampires. Lahmians and carsteins favou versatile vampires with lots of bats and dire wolves, though lahmians disdain zombies and non female vampires, while carsteins will use stuff from all bloodlines.atu

 

[SHOGGOTH]

Speaking in terms of visual / fluffy themes, I think VC armies look best when they revolve around the powerful personality of the vampire general.

VC armies are essentially a couple of colourful leaders surrounded by a horde of disposable, anonymous fodder. So, create a memorable vampire leader and he / she can lead the design and feel of the rest of the army.

For example, you could come up with a crusty old vampire wizard, and the rest of the army becomes his science experiments. Or a vampire knight leading a crusade. I saw in WD a long time ago a vampire designed as a witch doctor - and his army was made in a tropical island theme of cannibal ghouls and zombie pirates. Looked awesome.

Obviously if you're primarily in it for the win, this idea won't particularly grab you. But if a strong, customisable visual theme is your thing, rest assured the vamps have many opportunities!

 

[Vipoid]

Well, I'm slowly working on creating a Ghoul army:

Strigoi Ghoul King general
Ghouls for core
Crypt Horrors for special
Terrorghiests for rare

Maybe a Necromancer - or even a Master Necromancer if points allow - with seed of rebirth (who's turning into a Ghoul).

 

[circus1943]

These are some great ideas!
Here's what I'd like to build around:
Zombies, Vampires and Terrorgheists.
I'm just stuck at the moment.

 

[Talon]

What I've always done when starting an army is look around at other people's lists and see what you like the look of in terms of playstyle, and then build my own background around that. For example, I haven't long started vampires. When I did, I liked the look of the BK Bus list and so wrote a list purely on those grounds. I then started to build up the background. My vampire lord, Arturo Von Mortem, is a powerful necromancer (Lv4 Lore of Vampires). The second, hero level, vampire is his son, Xavier Von Mortem. The Necromancer (Lore of Death) is a powerful construct created by Lord Arturo and so is a skeletal model etc.

That would be my advice, don't feel that you have to stick to a theme for your list, build the fluff around the list you want to play.

 

[circus1943]

Talon has a great point! Started this thread just to get ideas and yours aswell as the others are great ones.
It's just to get the creativity mojo going.

 

[Irisado]

These are some great ideas!
Here's what I'd like to build around:
Zombies, Vampires and Terrorgheists.
I'm just stuck at the moment.

A Vampire from Sylvania has summoned forth a horde of dead Zombies from a recent battle in which the Elector Count of Stirland sent troops forth to wipe out said Vampire Lord, but couldn't manage to defeat his undead host, and now he has replenished it with fresh corpses.

That's just an idea off the top of my head, so it needs a lot of work, and expansion. Sylvania is ripe for raising the dead though, so you might like to base your army around that region of Stirland.

 

[circus1943]

I like that! It's very late now, but tomorrow I'll brainstorm around and hopefully get something cool done.

 

[Bounce]

Ancient warriors theme. Grave guards, wraiths, banshees , spirit hosts.
Bat themes fell bats, bat swarms, vargheists, terrorgheists
Ghoul theme.


There are just tons of ways you can do vampires.

 

[Shadow of the Night]

I just thought of a Ghoul King who has set up residence in Missilussion (sp). Planning on incorporating bret/empire infantry models in my zombies, use bret kinghts as wights, and ghouls, lots of ghouls!

 

[laribold]

I've just picked up the VC book and plan on converting my existing Empire into a VC force (but mainly because I've already got loads of Empire stuff and don't like the new Empire book).

However, if I get on well with playing VC then I'd like to do the following Sleepy Hollow-esque theme.

Based around a Witches Coven in one of the (many) Haunted Woods of Sylvania.

The three witches (maiden, mother and crone) can be Vamps or Necromancers
A Headless Horseman (Hessian?) Wight King maybe leading a big pack of Dire Wolves as part of a spectral hunt
A fair few more Dire Wolves
Dryads mixed with Skeleton bits to make proper haunted woods as Skeleton units
Hexwraiths, Wraiths and Spirit Hosts to enhance the haunted theme


Probably not the most effective VC list, but I love the thought of the enemy having to fight against the haunted woods themselves!

 

[Theerteen]

If I ever start a undead army again, I will theme it like Army Of Darkness, in my opinion one of the best movies ever made In fact, at the moment I'm building a big unitfiller that is inspired by the skeleton recruitment scene, with skeletons who exhume other skellies from their graves, hand out weapons to them and so on...
The VL would be evil Ash ( http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2073/2488748640_abd8be4b10.jpg & http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/3/33118/684393-evil_ash_389784_super.jpg ), and a Banshee/Nekro/... or something could be the evil Sheila ( http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j3RBv8c5wY0/UK_EB8hCXyI/AAAAAAAAA8s/yVXwdzOcYXI/s1600/tumblr_mc10l9JbXc1qb8zyf.jpg ) :devil2: And there are some other "monsters" in the movie who could stand model for a VC army...Dammit I hate myself for having the biggest part of my army ready (or build up..), so it's to late to start this from the ground :ghost:

 

[Magpie]

The back story to mine, the main idea was a Vampire army that wasn't "main stream" and has had to be brought together by a variety of means different to the norm, thus allowing me to use a variety of models from other Army Books! just for LOLZ:

Stripped of their menfolk by the ravages of the futile attempts at conquest of the Von Carsteins, Granston House in Ghulport stood defenceless, the Duchess, her daughters and the few remaining loyal servants the only occupants.

The sorry fact that family holdings dominate the only pass through the Haunted Hills at Sleeps End, a strategic flanking route for any approach to the Von Carstein's Castle Drakenoff, meant that all forces that Vlad von Carstein had drawn as his foe would be often tempted to assail this easy route to victory over the hated von Carsteins.

Realising the only hope of "survival" in the forsaken province that Sylvania had now become was the curse of undeath, Duchess Aliandra Granston of Ghulport sought "the blood kiss" from an obliging Lahmian who thought it useful to have blood ties with the holder of such strategic lands.

Thus empowered by the forces of darkness the Granstons built their forces to meet all who would dispossess them. Thus embittered by the enforced forfeiture of their immortal souls, few can expect quarter whether they be mortal, immortal, man or beast.

 

[civitatem mortuorum]

I'm putting together the army of Vanhal: An undead horde ridden with the plague, brought back to life to fight the Skaven.

 

[HERO]

Hey!
Recently got my book and started to think about what I should get.
What themes do you guys use for your armies? Started this thread to get some ideas.

Personally, I have High Elves as my primary WHFB army.

The theme I went with was the San'layn from World of WarCraft. In short, they're Vampiric Elves.
http://www.wowwiki.com/San'layn

I can't help it, I work at the company so the culture is very much ingrained with my hobbies.

All of my Black Knights/Blood Dragons are Dragon Princes, and my Skeletons are my Spearmen. Since I have loads and loads of Spearmen, this worked out pretty nicely.

 

[Chaos Zombie]

The three witches (maiden, mother and crone) can be Vamps or Necromancers

Three witches? I wondee how a macbeth themed army would go. Macbeth as the fighty vampire. Three necromancer witches. Lady macbth as a banshee, Banquo as a spirit host. hmmmm

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Dryad Forest of Dunsinane. +1 this.

 

[Tomfoolery]

The three witches (maiden, mother and crone) can be Vamps or Necromancers

Three witches? I wondee how a macbeth themed army would go. Macbeth as the fighty vampire. Three necromancer witches. Lady macbth as a banshee, Banquo as a spirit host. hmmmm

"The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him".