my first armylist

[Count michael]

Hey every one Have finally got around to writting my first VC army list and was wondering what you thought of it and if it would be good to play with


2500pt vampire count army
Lords
Vampire lord 385pts
Blooddrinker, flayed hauberk, helm of commandent, supernatural horror, forbidden lore, lord of the dead

Heroes
Vampire 200pts
Cadaverous cuirass, balefire spike, enchanted shield, lord of the dead, supernatural horror, mounted on hellstead

Necromancer 190pts
Invocation of Nehek, raise dead, nightshroud, sceptre de noirot, mounted on a corpse cart

Necromancer 190pts
Invocation of Nehek, raise dead, nightshroud, sceptre de noirot, mounted on a corpse cart

Core
20 skeleton warriors 180pts
Spears

20 skeleton warriors 160pts

20 skeleton warriors 160pts

30 zombies 120pts

30 zombies 120pts


Special units
6 fell bats 120pts

39 grave gaurd 498pts
full command (is joined by vampire lord)


rare choice
3 cairn wraiths 175ps
tomb banshee




so what did you think be as honest as possible

cheers

 

[Ricey]

Lord: Seems like you're trying to do too much with this guy here. I see a mix of both combat-y items and magic items, something which i personally don't like doing. Rather than hybrid-izing your lord, why not make him specialize in something? At this point value, I'm sure you'll find a way to make your thrall vampire do the other job sufficiently enough that you won't be that far behind.
Thrall Vampire: Never been a fan of a combat vampire on a steed, gets shot down way too easily for what its worth in terms of the +AS and MS. I'd suggest removing for something else.
Necromancers: One necro is nice, two just seems counter-productive in my eyes. I would much rather just take those points and create a third vampire thrall, as the vampire'll survive much longer and allow more mobility in your army. If its simply a copy paste mistake and you only have one vampire, ignore the prior comment on necromancers. However, I would strongly discourage using a CC for a mount on your necro, seeing as how he's a walking bull's-eye since he can't join any RnF.
Core: In 8th edition, everyone and their grandmothers will be running big, nasty units of infantry. 20 skeleton blocks just won't cut it anymore in 8th, i recommend turning them into 2 groups of 5x6s with HW+S.
Oh, and zombies u should never ever invest points into. Use them for Raise Dead, but that's it. They just are not worth it. Replacing them with ghouls would be lovely.
Fell Bats are ok i guess, not much experience with them,.
Grave Guard: Full command is good, i would slap on a banner of the barrows on them, as the two were meant to be. 39 seems a bit deathstar-ish, and a template spell such as PoS or anything similar would chop through em. How you deploy them is gonna matter. Oh, and in my opinion, GW > HW+S. You have dirty-low Initiative anyways, so why not go for the extra punchy power?
Rare: Just be careful with wraiths, they're hit or miss on armies. If they don't have a way to deal with ethereals, these will be the bane of your enemy. On the other hand, if you're facing something like DoC or Lizards, you'll find them dead pretty fast.

Sorry if the post is sorta long.

 

[waaanial00]

Hi there welcome to the fold

First off I am not that experienced at playing big games however I have been playing a load of smaller games and the only thing I havent really tried to the full are lords, so some of what I say might be off.

Still diving in

Lord - As the previous poster said you are kitting your Lord with far too many aspects. At the moment you have a general who

- Is designed to combat buff a unit with his LD, however is armed with a magic sword
- Is supposed to be increasing your skeleton units size but is going in the grave guard unit
- Grants terror but is being put into a unit designed to win combats
- Is going to be front line but has no ward save. Plus going in a high profile unit which will likely suffer attacks which will negate armour.

Honestly you need to decide what you want from him and make him do it to the best of his abilities.

Terror isnt great, its useful but generally speaking people pass unmodified LD checks in fantasy, I wouldnt be spending Vamp points on it.

The helm of commandment is brilliant (first pop last night and hot damn was it brilliant) however you will need to keep the guy out of combat to use it, if your lord is going to be on the front line then its best to give this to a thrall who will be casting spells and staying the hell away from combat.

IMO make him a LVL4 casting machine with Dark Acolyte, Master of the Black Arts and some casting toys OR make him a combat monster with Infinite Hatred, Red Fury, Ogre Blade, Flayed Hauberk and Helm of Damned.

Heroes -

Dont like the Vampire, lots of stuff but ultimately wont be much help. I hate getting my Hero level vampires into combat as T4 and 2W means that they get squashed, even worse with a mount as you have nothing to hide him in.

Next up you cant duplicate magic items so assuming that the Necromancer isnt a copy paste error, your currently illegal. The thing which makes Necros brilliant is that they are damn cheap and a decent way of getting VHDM into your list. At 70 points for a dual spell necro they are fairly decent enough, couple that with the fact that they give LD buffing to a unit you put them in and you might actually get off a swift reform outside of Generals 12" bubble or not be march blocked.

Still I have to say that the thing you are sorely missing is a Vamp Thrall with Forbidden lore, these guys are decently customisable to your situation and can be relied upon to multi dice cast big spells to attempt to sway the course of the battle.

I have started to use Lore of Beasts when I run combat champs (savage beast of Horros and the toughness buffing spells are great), running into knights a lot then lore of metal, want to even the playing field against superior troops then go for shadows.

Core -

As above, go big with Skeletons or go ghouls. If you are planning on using buffing spells then combine up your units into 2 big ones. A great post earlier this week attributed most VC wins to having 1 or 2 combats at a time and investing all your magic/abilities into those, this gives us the best chance at breaking the enemy bit by bit through local superiority. This is much easier when you have concentrated force, which means smaller numbers of bigger units.

Zombies are meh, however 60 zombies in 1 unit is likely to hold no matter what gets thrown at it. 240 points for a guarenteed way of holding almost anything? I think thats a fairly decent investment. Throw on HOC and Occams Mindrazor (shadow spell) then they become a credable threat.

Special -

GG is a big, which is ok. I would make sure they have Great Weapons though!

Rare -

Im more of a Varghulf fan, 2 are apparently brilliant. I dont particularly trust Wraiths when there is a big chance that you will be facing a lot of magic attacks.

 

[Nedar]

I agree with above: Lord is trying to do too much. Pick casting or fighting and stick with it. If casting you should hide in a bunker behind your army. If fighting be sure to have a good armor save and ward save. I can't find myself leaving home without Cadaverous Cuirass on my fighting lord personally as I fear KB...as I have won numerous games with it before :devil2:

Vamp running around on a flying horse will probably die in short order. I'd suggest making him a caster with Forbidden Lore and hiding him away in a bunker with necro and pulling a Combat lord into work with the GG block (Great Weapons like stated above).

Wraiths are indeed either good, or terrible most of the time. And with the new rules Banshee's really are not very good anymore IMO. I'd prefer the 3 S5 attacks than the scream.

Fell Bats got hurt in 8th, i'd avoid taking them personally...run Wolves if you need cheap units for w/e reason or another. Also considering shrinking Grave Guard...they are a tad large and a juicy target for templates and Dooms Day Spells. If you are keeping 39...get great weapons and put them in horde formation for lots of S6 KB attacks.

 

[Balleflass]

Throw both ur Corpse Cart's out the window or burn em. ive tried em many times and they aint even worth 50 pts (since i rather spend 50 pts on somethin else).
Cut ur GG unit down to 29+lord.
I dont think u can have Sceptre de noirot and nightshroud on both ur necros. only 1 of each magic item over the whole army rule.
Let one necro have Staff of Damnation and IoN spell and let the other have Book of Arkhan and IoN spell.
Remove 3 Fell bats. i think 3 is enough. (they will die superfast as long as ur opponent has some kind of range weapon)

This will free up alot of points and u can then get urself a Varghulf or two. if u go for 1 varghulf, then get Wraiths for the rest of the points

well i guess most of what ive said here has alrdy been said by others.

but anyway. since this is ur first VC list, field the army u listed and try it out. only way to learn some ppl love Fell bats and dire wolves, some ppl dont. some favor Vargs, some favor Wraiths. thats the way it is (But i love both though) ^^