The Old World Best Vampire Counts models?

[Disciple of Nagash]

As a legacy army, we don't have an "official" range and we have to make do either from old models or by using those from Age of Sigmar, or perhaps other alternatives!

It would be great to see recommendations on models, for example I initially thought a lot of the Soulblight Gravelords characters would be good, and then I've seen some have quite big bases I don't think will work in The Old World.

Or skeletons, as the AoS ones look pretty heavily armoured compared to the older ones we used to have in WHFB. As I'm going through and preparing my own forces I'm going to start adding to this thread, and we might very well end up turning this into more of useful sticky thread!

 

[Sception]

Old world did increase base sizes from old warhammer fantasy. old 20mm squares are now 25mm, heavy cav is on 30x60 now, etc. much of the gravelord range fits fine:

I was surprised how well the blood knights fit on 30x60s given how huge they are, though i did need to weapon swap the champion's mace for a lance because the normal pose on the mace arm has it way out to the side, which wouldn't fit ranked.

dire wolves & bats are easy/great fits. old fantasy ghouls, horrors, vargheists, black knights, wight king, necromancer, terrorgheist/zombie dragon, mortis engine, spirit hosts, corpse cart, & a few more units are still available in various aos kits.

I'm using old 7e plastic skeletons & grave guard, but i do own the new gravelord skeletons & barrow guard, & they're a bit more difficult. They ~can~ rank up on the 25s, if your super careful & maybe willing to do a bit of reposing of weapon and shield atms, and even then you might have to number them and assign specific places for each in the unit so their tattered skirts dont bump into each other. TBH I'd recommend using other skeleton options if playing at an independent venue. Or use tk equivalent units if that fits your army aesthetic.

barrow guard might be worth the bother for grave guard because they're fantastic, but i'd def recommend finding another option for basic skeleton warriors if you can.

the main aos infantry & cavalry vamp heroes are way too big to look good ranked in infantry, but there are a lot of variant options. the Underworld vampire warband would probably work well for infantry vamps. for cav vamp hero, if you cant go 3rd party then the blood knight kit is prob the way to go, just save the fancier champion bits - the cape & decorative wings, maybe an unhelmeted head - for your hero.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

That's some really useful pics, I was looking at the GW website on some of the models I liked, and there are some on there that are a definite no-no for TOW basing!

The new models are great....although the ones I probably like the least are still the base Ghouls, even though the rest of the Flesheaster Courts are pretty good. Anyone got any more examples? I've heard the newer Black Coach can be troublesome?

 

[Sception]

if you don't like the normal ghouls, the newer 'Crypt Guard' fit the look while having much better posing & proportions. If you equip them with their hand weapons instead of the optional halberds (the kit comes with enough of both for every model) then they should rank up easier than the lesser ghouls.

Down side is they're meant to be a more elite unit, & model for model are very pricey when used as hoardy ghouls.

 

[Raven Torrid]

I also never liked GW's approach to Ghouls. Even the Crypt Guard which are a vast improvement over first plastic ghouls follow the same design approach that I dislike - overly crooked with stuff growing out of their backs.
Wish they approached them to be more similar to the old metal ones, closer to usual ghoul aesthetics. Planescape Torment Ghouls or Elder Scrolls Draugr come to mind as solid designs.

That said, I am also not a fan of the Mantic Ghouls. Got them back in the day as an alternative, but got rid of them after. Just don't get the fantasy vibe from them.

From GW I actually really like Dark Eldar Ur-Ghuls, but they were never available as a unit.

So kinda also in the search for something decent, but haven't noticed anything special. Maybe something 3D printable is an option.

 

[Comte de Monte Real]

Even the Crypt Guard which are a vast improvement over first plastic ghouls follow the same design approach that I dislike - overly crooked with stuff growing out of their backs.
Wish they approached them to be more similar to the old metal ones, closer to usual ghoul aesthetics.

Oh did I hate putting Crypt Ghouls together when I first got into Warhammer Fantasy, I hated how the jagged the model assembly was - just painful.

As per the discussion, I do like some minor kitbash from the different GW kits, especially new soulblight kits and old vampire count kits mesh well. Otherwise, I just bought some wargames atlantic minis and I'm looking forward to seeing how they look with my GW minis.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

From GW I actually really like Dark Eldar Ur-Ghuls, but they were never available as a unit.

When I saw this picture before reading the words I was thinking "Yes!"...and then I saw they are not really available I like the no eyes theme, I could see that being quite cool, having hordes of blind ghouls sniffing out their prey. I've tried having a search today and most of the ghouls I've found either are like the GW ones or look too much like zombies.There were some that were shuffling along all fours which look cool but they wouldn't rank up well.

As for the best model I've seen in recent times, Prince Vhordrai on Revenant Draconith is simply amazing, I would say this is by far the best undead dragon GW has ever produced

 

[Velmates]

I can only jump the GW-bandwagon (sorry to say as they are getting more and more expensive). The modern models of gravelords, flesh eater courts, and night haunt are fantastic and, as prince Vhordrai shows, are even getting better.

Thank you for the pictures of them ranked up. I am currently building an new army of them, using Blood Knights, Zombies, Skeletons, Grave Guard, Bats, Necro on Mortis Engine and the Vengorian Lord model. I also bought the banshees, dire wolves and want to add some of the fantastic character models.

However, if someone wants to try another approach, I can also recommend Last Sword Miniatures, link below (I own a High Elf army from them). You can buy templates and print at home but they also sell physical models for a reasonable price (not too cheap but cheaper than GW most of the time, especially characters; units are more similar priced). Only problem I found is, that the material they use is either brittle (characters and single models) or rubbery (units, mostly) and hard to work with files as it tends to flake. IMO, GW is overall better quality, however the sculpts from LSM are often more dynamic and creative.

Link: Last Sword Miniatures, Undead.

 

[GypsyBastard]

I also never liked GW's approach to Ghouls. Even the Crypt Guard which are a vast improvement over first plastic ghouls follow the same design approach that I dislike - overly crooked with stuff growing out of their backs.
Wish they approached them to be more similar to the old metal ones, closer to usual ghoul aesthetics. Planescape Torment Ghouls or Elder Scrolls Draugr come to mind as solid designs.

That said, I am also not a fan of the Mantic Ghouls. Got them back in the day as an alternative, but got rid of them after. Just don't get the fantasy vibe from them.

From GW I actually really like Dark Eldar Ur-Ghuls, but they were never available as a unit.

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So kinda also in the search for something decent, but haven't noticed anything special. Maybe something 3D printable is an option.

I was thinking about kitbashing the new Pestigors in to Ghouls! Giving 'em Ghoul feet, arms with different weapons and heads!

And hers a link for realy great prints! Buying 'em all the time but it takes more then half of a year for them to arrive!

https://darkminiatures.com/search/?search=Ur-Ghul