Blender Vamp Armour

[sackree]

I will be running the typical blender vamp lord set up on my army general. Ogre blade, red fury, quick-blood, etc. This is all obvious on him, the part I need help with is choosing his defense setup.

He will be on a barded nightmare with a shield, but is it best to give him the Armour of destiny or night-shroud and a +6 ward?

AoD does give him a higher overall save and a better ward, but nightshroud means that the opponent is -1 to hit and loses strength bonuses. In a challenge this would work to my advantage a lot more than the Aod.

Cheers in advance,
Tom

 

[MVC]

I will be running the typical blender vamp lord set up on my army general. Ogre blade, red fury, quick-blood, etc. This is all obvious on him, the part I need help with is choosing his defense setup.

He will be on a barded nightmare with a shield, but is it best to give him the Armour of destiny or night-shroud and a +6 ward?

AoD does give him a higher overall save and a better ward, but nightshroud means that the opponent is -1 to hit and loses strength bonuses. In a challenge this would work to my advantage a lot more than the Aod.

Cheers in advance,
Tom

You Could try Talisman of Preservation + Enchanted Shield. This gives him 4++ ward and 1+ armour save. If you still want the Nightshroud, put it on a WK or Vamp body guard. Nightshroud works on anyone in b2b contact so when you charge/makeway, make sure you position both your general and his body guard in b2b with the enemy character. Best of both worlds!

 

[MVC]

Oh and Nightshroud isn't -1 to hit, it gives them Always Strike Last I believe.

 

[Seneschal]

Dragonhelm, heavy armor, shield and Talisman of Preservation are what I would go with for a VL mounted on a nightmare.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Dragonhelm, heavy armor, shield and Talisman of Preservation are what I would go with for a VL mounted on a nightmare.

This

 

[Gokamok]

I'm getting more and more fond of Dawnstone+Dragonhelm, since it's cheaper than going 1+/4++, and is usually as good or even better. It leaves room for taking either Giant Blade instead of Ogre Blade, or adding something nifty like Potion of Strength or an arcane item.

 

[Ether Dude]

Without a wad save you have 0 hope against killing blow. Or failed look out sir rolls. Or miscast results that ignore armor. When your entire army revolves around one model, a 4+ ward save is the least you can do.

 

[MadLarkin]

Running without a ward isn't too bad. You have to be sure to either avoid a killing blow unit or hit them in the flanks. Ive ran a blender lord with nightshroud, ogreblad and ots to great success. Make sure you have enough models to provide a LOS and be smart with your magic and you're golden

 

[Demian]

I prefer using Nightshroud than Talisman of Preservation. I try to instill a "if you are really Immune to Psychology, you will go against those Bloodletters without a Ward... now go kill stuff Vampire!" policy.

It's not the best way to keep your Lord alive, but it's the best way he will blend enemies, (almost) whoever they are. Even Assassins and High Elves.

 

[Xander]

I've learned from recent games to never take your lord without a 4+ ward. Misscasts, lookouts, and killing blow all destroyed my lord in my first 3 games in the last tournament I was in (I tried to avoid the KB unit, but sometimes bad luck happens). Never leave home without a 4+! My new vampire is over 500 points, that's a lot of points riding on a hope that you won't get screwed by the many things that ignore armor.

 

[Tamodan Varison]

AoD does give him a higher overall save and a better ward, but nightshroud means that the opponent is -1 to hit and loses strength bonuses. In a challenge this would work to my advantage a lot more than the Aod.

But why would you want your expensive blender lord to get stuck in challenges? You're not paying 500+ points to kill unit champions and medium range heroes, are you? If you're particularly keen on killing stuff in challenges, use a WK. You're blender lord typically wants to charge headlong into your opponents most expensive unit, and grind it down. This unit is usually a fairly killy horde, so you're probably gonna want to protect him from more than just the fist rank, which is the only thing the sucky item that the Nightshroud is in my opinion, is protecting him from.

Besides, with QB and initiative 7, there's not much striking before you, so the use of ASL from Nighshroud is already debatable in this build. The inly use it's got after this is protection against GW/Halberd/Lance. The range of protection for AoD/ToP is just way wider.

 

[midean]

HA, Shield, Red fury, Quick blood, Fear incarnate, Ogre blade, Dragon helm, Talisman of Preservation, potion of foolhardiness, barded nightmare.

And I run him next to a WK bodyguard with HA, GW, barded nightmare, Nightshroud, ironcurse icon

And I'm can't wait to try a new tactic by running another vamp hero in there and try the same meat shield tactic I run with my ogres. Have the Lord and vamp hero on each side with the WK in the middle and run a unit of 6 Blackknights in a lance formation. Hero will have the Shadow lore for the sig spell. Real curious to see how it plays out......erv:

 

[Friendly Dead]

I vastly prefer Nightshroud

Against the vast majority of enemies T% and 1+ armour is more than sufficient

It also have the advantage of ensuring you'll get the ASF rerolls.

All the stuff that can hurt this fellow including misscasts etc. is unlikely to so much damage that you cant heal it easily in your magic phase.

Also it virtuallys nullifies any chance high elves have of hurting him, meaning he can slaughter them with impunity

As for killing blows, Nightshroud neuters all nasty skulkers or assassins who are the ones who tend to have KB in the. It will rob them both of striking before him and also of any potential rerolls, giving him amble time to take them out first.

I find Nightshroud better in most situations than a 4+ save simply because you'll be taking an awful lot fewer saves in using it. In fact the only time I've missed the 4+ ward is when those fucking death magic spells start flying.

 

[Gatti]

I find that taking a 4+ ward on your general is a little like wearing a helmet when you ride a bicycle. Sure, not every day will you get hit by a car, but you wear it in preparation for the one day you do. Similarly, you only need the 4+ ward when you face death or killing blow, or fail a lookout sir. But, the day you do face that, you're going to wish you had that 4+ ward really fast.

So be safe kids! Wear your helmet!

 

[datalink7]

You can always stick Nightshroud on a WK who rides next to your Vamp. With proper model placement can get most of the protection from it. Plus it gives you a decent character to stick in challenges if need be.

A decision I go back and forth on making with him is should I go OTS for more offense (but only a 2+/4+) or get Dragonhealm instead for the 1+ armor save (and 2+ ward against fire).

 

[Lynks]

I find that taking a 4+ ward on your general is a little like wearing a helmet when you ride a bicycle. Sure, not every day will you get hit by a car, but you wear it in preparation for the one day you do. Similarly, you only need the 4+ ward when you face death or killing blow, or fail a lookout sir. But, the day you do face that, you're going to wish you had that 4+ ward really fast.

So be safe kids! Wear your helmet!

Gatti, you can take that further and say the 'cool kids' don't wear their helmets though

On my general I always have some form of ward, 4++ or 5++ minimum. My combat characters tend to get targeted and torn down without one and my wizards are quite adept at miscasting so I never leave home without one (unless I'm taking a ghoul king as his regen fills the role well enough)

 

[The Sun King]

Interesting... I've toyed with the idea of how to make a Vamp kill a Keeper of Secrets and so far my ideas have been in vain... but with you guys talking so much about Nightshroud it occured to me that it would completely neuter the Keeper(which heavily depends on having rerolls from I10 and ASF).

 

[Bounce]

I would say the key point is I always wear my helmet and never get hit by cars so therefore maybe I should stop wearing it. Particularly when the analogy of being hit by a car is my vampire dies in one game. Fortunately he can come back to life for the next game or unlife.

 

[TobiasRathein]

Dragonhelm, heavy armor, shield and Talisman of Preservation are what I would go with for a VL mounted on a nightmare.

This

That.

 

[Verr]

I am building a Lord

At the moment Shield, Heavy Armour, Talisman of Preservation Armour Save at 2+

What does the Nightshroud count as?

Is it Light Armour? If it is not what will my armour save be? Is it worth it for the removal of strength bonuses and ASF?

Would it be 4+? (mounted, barded and +1 for nightshroud) or 3+ cos of the shield? Doesn't seem clear about shields and no armour.

Newish to this (back in the game after a 15 year break)

I am thinking that Dragon Helm would be best.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Nigt shroud just improves your save by 1 buut charmed shield or dragon helm are better in every way

 

[rothgar13]

As Johnny noted, the Nightshroud bumps your existing armor save by a point. He's also correct in saying that it's not worth it for a Vampire Lord as protected as yours is - at this point you're better off focusing on the offensive side of things and making him something to be feared.

 

[Adam_Barrow]

If you've got another character in his unit, Nightshroud can go on the other character and your Lord will still get the perks if he's next to him. The Shroud is models in base to base contact.

 

[Burnanation]

I where no helmet and ride on the free way.

I take NS on my blender lord that flies around on an AT.

Abyssal Terror, Nightshroud, Quickblood, Red Fury, Shield, Heavy Armor , Sword of Bloodshed

Haven't used it in a tourny, but sure is fun in games at the local shop. He is for fast max blenderage. Between him and the AT against most rank and file he'll churn out about 13ish wounds. Max wounds 25, which takes a bit of luck but not a ton.

 

[Vipoid]

I have to say, I'd never want to field a Vampire Lord without a 4+ ward save.

Nightshroud is nice in challenges, and against certain armies (high elves come to mind). However, I just can't abide the idea of losing my ~500pt Lord to a Killing Blow.

Also, to those who say that you can use nightshroud to kill the killing-blow model before it strikes, I suggest you try that against a Khorne daemon army; where even the basic infantry have killing blow.