best vampire setup?

[blood knight]

hi,
i am wondering what peoples thoughts where about what is the best vampire setup? and if you think they work well with a particular unit please put that in to.

 

[dreadlordvharesh]

for a battle standard, i like going BSB, Helm of command, black periapt and dark acolye and maybe lord of the dead for bloodlines. this is a fantasitc support vamp, quite easy to use, decent magically and can raise my main combat units as much as i need to.

general it's a bit harder, i like using mannfred personally, but if taking a normal lord i like either cadervous armour (immunity to KB and poison) or the night shroud...then usually a simple magic weapon either +1 attack or strength.

 

[LidlessPraetor]

My Absolute Favorite settup for a vampire is with Forbidden Lore with Lore of Beasts. On a Lord with Bear's Anger, That's 7 really high strength attacks. On top of that, it gives toughness 6. Put him/her with a unit of Grave Guard, and you've got an anvil and hammer build in one unit. Of course, the flaw is that your opponent can dispel, so do what I'd do... take a hero level one with forbidden lore too lol. If they dispel the first, then cast it again with the hero.

As far as equipment, it's all personal preference. You could even have this one a Battle Standard and as a support role. Forbidden Lore is cheap, so that leaves alot of points to spend on whatever you want to. Personally, the flayed Hauberk is a MUST HAVE for this vampire. High toughness is nice, but with an armor save, and regen to go with it; you're golden.

 

[Draemock]

How do you get Regen on a vamp other than IoN?....or is that what you meant lol ?

 

[chris_havoc]

He means in a unit of Grave Guard with a BSB that has the Drakenhoff banner.

 

[Flailing-Axes]

To be honest, I'd be tempted to kit a guy like that out with as little equipment as possible. Basic vampire+Forbidden Lore+Talisman of Lycni. Maybe give him Armour of Night too, and run him around the battlefield, challenging enemy mages and characters and whatnot.

 

[thewrathchilde]

obviously the setup is dictated by the roll that you want the vampire to fill.

For a lord that is either magic, combat, or the less popular hybrid version. For my Lord I tend to go with the hybrid believing the magic is critical and even though he isn't the beast that a pure combat lord is he still adds quite a bit of punch to one of my units. The configuration is use is: level 3, Master of Dark Arts, Lord of the Dead, Avatar of Death (HA/GW), Walach's Bloody Hauberk, Book of Arkhan, Cursed Book.

If I want to go focus heavier on combat and do not want to field him in an infantry unit then I will swap MoDA for Red Fury, AoD for Dread Knight, and LotD for Infinite Hatred and keep the magic items the same or swap the Cursed Book out for the Balefire Spike. Alternately for a pure casting lord you can go the other direction: level 3, MoDA, Forbidden Lore, Lord of the Dead, Helm of Commandment, etc....though I still prefer to keep a ward save for those "oh s#&t" moments.

For my hero level vampires I tend to use a mixture of "focused" and "flexible" vampires. Typically I include one of each; the flexible designed to provide decent support for the magic phase, maintain some survivability, and still provide a little punch in combat. He is usually configured with Dark Acolyte, Lord of the Dead, Flayed Hauberk, Black Periapt, Biting Blade. Every once in a while I will add on the BSB as well though I prefer to field it on something more survivable like a WK rather than a Vampire.

For my focused vamp I lean towards Avatar of Death (HA/GW), Infinite Hatred, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of the Lycni. This one is pretty much used for chariot/wizard/war machine hunting. He is also fast enough to jump out and support the Varghulf against small knight units and other flank attacking units.

Of course there are many more equally (or more) viable configurations you can use but these are a few that have served me well.

WC

 

[Flailing-Axes]

I use that exact 'flexible' hero in my games too, so far she's done well.

Another Set-up I've seen work (Never used it, though) is a hero level vampire, Infinite hatred, Walking Death, BSB, Sword of Battle, Flayed Hauberk. Stick him in a unit of 25 skeletons with Banner of Endless Nightmare, and you have a unit with static CR 7/8. And the best part is, nobody thinks it's that hard, skeletons are not one of the harder things in the VC army, so nobody treats it as one, charge a few of their rank and file units at them and get slaughtered. Plus, the vampire can still hold his own in combat, with 4 attacks, re-rolling misses and a strengh of 5 and a 2+ armour save protecting him. Of course, you can also give him Tomb Blade insted of Sword of Battle, in which case the skeletons become even more durable.

 

[rocdocta]

it really depends on what you see his role as. i prefer CC rather than magic. my all time favourite combo:

Lord
level 3
avatar of death, red fury, inf haterd (for the dragon)
dread lance, crown of stupidity

zombie dragon

it is not unusual to get 13 wounds on the charge with this setup. the average is about 10. up to 8 str 7 hits and 5 ws6, str 6 rerollable attacks. so on the charge he will break most ranked blocks of infantry esp if he rear/ flank charges them. stupidity can hurt but normally he is fine.

 

[Jerak]

I think there are so many good set ups it makes it hard to pick just one so here a few of my faves-
Lord-Combat monster
Lv 3
Dragon
Red fury
Infinate hatred
Walking death
Balefire spike
Crown of the damned
Book of Arkhan
Flayed Habauk

Vamp-Hunter
Hellsteed
Balefire spike
Flayed Habauk
Cursed book
Infinated hatred
Beguile

Vamp-support
Dark Acolyte
Avatar of death
Helm of command
Black pariept

Vamp-Annoying
BSB
Walking death
Infinate hatred
Talisman of the lycani
Sword of battle
Nightshroud

Jerak

 

[Nicodemus]

it really depends on what you see his role as. i prefer CC rather than magic. my all time favourite combo:

Lord
level 3
avatar of death, red fury, inf haterd (for the dragon)
dread lance, crown of stupidity

zombie dragon

it is not unusual to get 13 wounds on the charge with this setup. the average is about 10. up to 8 str 7 hits and 5 ws6, str 6 rerollable attacks. so on the charge he will break most ranked blocks of infantry esp if he rear/ flank charges them. stupidity can hurt but normally he is fine.

The Dragon will not get hatred, infinite hatred only effect the Vampire. ^^

 

[Jerak]

Actually im pretty sure he dragon does get hatred as a mount uses the same special rules as the rider so if a rider is frenzyed or has hatred then the mount gets that rule too.

 

[Kaptain Von]

I'm all about the extra magic level, Red Fury, Infinite Hatred and Lord of the Dead with Blood Drinker, Walach's Bloody Hauberk and the Black Periapt. Stick that in a unit of Grave Guard and you've got yourself a tasty little meat grinder that does the "for every one of ours that dies, the undead grow in strength" thing very well. I like Lord of the Dead 'cause my army runs around two Skeleton units flanking whatever Wights I've taken, the Bloody Hauberk is the best option available as far as Ward saves go, and the Periapt is just dead handy (that extra dispel die comes in handy against Warrior Priests, or for stopping Power of Darkness, or... it just goes on!).

 

[Flailing-Axes]

meh, Blood drinker lords are only meant to exist in Blood Knight units as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Nicodemus]

Actually im pretty sure he dragon does get hatred as a mount uses the same special rules as the rider so if a rider is frenzyed or has hatred then the mount gets that rule too.

Hmm...the power say "The Vampire Hates all enemies...", so I would say that only the Vampire get Hatred. The rule book maybe say some thing else but I couldn't find it.

 

[Kaptain Von]

Hatred and Frenzy do now transfer onto the mounts (it's in the current rulebook section detailing those two rules - no page reference, sorry, for I am still Without Rulebook).

 

[Flailing-Axes]

It does transfer, unless in specifically says in the item description (Does not affact mounts), as it was with the old Khorne

 

[chris_havoc]

Wouldn't it be cool if mounts got Red Fury too

 

[N.I.B]

Normal Hatred is transfered, the always reroll to hit part, is not.

 

[chris_havoc]

Has that been FAQ'd? If that is the case are you very sure that Infinite Hatred does allow the mount to re-roll even in the first turn of combat?

 

[Vic]

Has that been FAQ'd? If that is the case are you very sure that Infinite Hatred does allow the mount to re-roll even in the first turn of combat?

Yes it does, NIB said it exactly as it is.

The wording of our bloodline "Infinite Hatred" specifies that the vampire Hates all enemies (and rerolls in every round of combat). The key part is Hates (in italic). It gives us the special rule Hate. Therefore we're bound to overrun and pursue, but we also confer it to our mounts (as stated in the BRB)

 

[Nicodemus]

Found it now, page 79, Characters: Mounts Psychology.

 

[chris_havoc]

OH OK! Makes sense... so if the wording to be something like: "Infinite Hatred - Vampire may re-roll to hit every round of combat," then the mounts would gain no re-roll on the first turn because hatred isn't explicitly included in the power. Makes sense.

 

[Ithurel]

Hmm.... hadnt thought about the mounts rerolls. Thanks for the little tip guys.

 

[alion0148]

he i have a question if i play a 1250 pionts game what should i take as my heroes??