New 1000pt VC army

[WaitWut]

Hey all, first post here. A bit of background before we get to the fun list part. I've been lurking for a bit and there is lots of good info on here, and I loved Sun King and Najo's handbook (have it bookmarked). That being said I would like a little help with my army list and deciding on what direction to take my army. A couple of my friends and I all decided to start up Warhammer starting with Warbands rules and then uping our points every month or every other month. I'm going to be playing against Dwarves and Ogres 90% of the time.

Here is my 800 point list, but I'd like to start planning out my 1000+ list so I know what to save up for/ask for Christmas.

800 Points

• Vampire - RF, AoD
• Necromancer - lvl2, BoA, Dragonbane Gem, Channeling Staff
• 20 Zombies - stand, music
• 10 Crypt Ghouls
• 5 Direwolves
• 5 Hexwraiths
• 1 Spirit Host
• 1 Spirit Host

I have a box of crypt horrors/vargheists that I haven't put together yet, 5 more direwolves, and 1 more spirit host that I have available to use right now. I would like to add in some TK stuff eventually, mostly a casket of souls, heirotitan, tomb prince (leaning towards sticking him with the ghouls), and a liche priest for those sweet buffs. If you all need anymore info feel free to ask. I look forward to your suggestions!

 

[Jdredsox]

Hi,

I'm not one of the experts on here but I've played a fair few games at 1k in a campaign I'm involved in so I can offer some advice from experience.

Firstly, you'll want to get some sort of ward save on your vampire. He/she is key to your army so you want to keep them alive.

As you mentioned mixing in tomb kings I am guessing you'll go for end times rules and magic. You could up your vamp to a vamp lord but that may be a bit expensive at 1k.

Crypt ghouls are quite expensive at this level with no save, if you get a tomb prince you may want to change them for a sword and board skeleton unit, add the tomb prince and you have a nice unit.

Zombies with a tomb prince and necromancer spamming invocation could be interesting at 1k as you should generate more troops than you lose. And they would still be WS5 S3? (I don't have my codex to hand). A big horde of 35 would only be a little more than your 10 ghouls and you'll get more attacks in, hitting dwarves at the same time or before possibly, and invocation grows them beyond that size really quickly.

You could put your vampire in there as well which will draw all the fire to that one big unit and free up your hexwraiths/spirit host to cause havoc without being shot.

Another option is to stick your vampire on a steed of some sort and get some black knights to run around with him. Keep him near the zombies at the start so they can march and then hit units in the flank when you charge with the zombies.

With regards to building crypt horrors/vargheists, it depends how you want to play I would say. Horrors are good for an infantry army plodding along and hit like a hammer. If you want to be fast, vargheists fly. Great for supporting cavalry charges or picking off war machines. I'll see if I can find one of my old army lists for any more ideas at 1k.

Oh, and the casket is great, if only for the extra magic dice.

 

[WaitWut]

Thanks for the tips. How does this look?

1000 Points

• Vampire - RF, AoD (heavy armor, 4+ ward save)
• Necromancer - lvl 2, BoA, Dragonbane Gem
• 20 Skelletons - FC, sword and board
• 20 Zombies - stand, music
• 5 Dire Wolves - champ
• 3 Crypt Horrors - champ
• 5 Hexwraiths
• 1 Spirit Host
• 1 Spirit Host
• 1 Spirit Host

I have to deal with a Firebelly pretty often which is why I took the Dragonbane Gem. So then I was thinking Necro with the zombies and the Vamp with the skellies. I'm not near my TK book right now to see how much a Tomb Prince would be, but I really like the idea of having one in the zombies or skellies.

 

[WaitWut]

I have a "friendly" tournament coming up, but we're all very competitive, against some Ogres (which I know will have a Stonehorn) and a Dwaf army (which will be highly optimized against the Stonehorn). It's still 1000 points and I was wanting some thoughts on this version.

1000 points

• Vampire - RF, heavy armor, shield, lance, barded nightmare, ToP
• Necromancer - lvl 2, BoA, Master of the Dead
• 30 Skeletons
• 5 Dire Wolves - champ
• 5 Dire Wolves - champ
• 10 Black Knights - champ, lances
• 3 Vargheist

 

[Quinten]

On the vamp change out your shield for the enchanted shield. Its three more points and it will raise your save to 1+. Take out the champs on the dire wolves and add a vargoyle to your vargheists. The unit champions just aren't worth it on dire wolves unless you take seven.

 

[WaitWut]

The only reason I had the champs in the dire wolves was to meet the minimum core requirement, so I'd probably be better off adding a sb and musician to the skellies? And if I switch out for the enchanted shield I should be at 996 points. If I took the lance off my vamp I could make a vargheist a vargoyle, would I be better off with the extra attack in my vargs or the +2 to strength on a charge on my vamp?

 

[Jdredsox]

Hi, depends what you're using the vargheist for. If they're warmachine hunting the extra attack may be useful but it's also throwing away points as they likely won't survive the battle.

Standards would be good if you end up in a blood and glory battle as you need lots of standards in that so that it doesn't end up with you losing as they turn all their warmachines on your general.

Champs on dire wolves is useful if you have the spare points, but you can probably invest them better elsewhere at 1k. These guys need to vanguard up and kill warmachines or redirect Gyrocopters away from your big blocks.

I agree that the enchanted shield is 3 extra points well spent.

 

[WaitWut]

Model wise I can do:

• 10 black knights/hexwraiths
• 40 zombies/skeletons/ghouls
• 10 dire wolves
• 3 spirit hosts
• 3 vargheists
• 1 vampire
• 1 necromancer

I've been having trouble combining killing power, units that will last more than one round of combat, and having more than one or two things he has to shoot with his warmachines.

 

[Jdredsox]

Hi,

This is an end times list, if you play not end times lord allowance look into replacing the vamp lord. I can't promise this will be a great list but here goes.

Lord

Vamp lord lvl2 lore of vamp.
Barded nightmare, RF, armour of destiny, sword of swift slaying (gives ASF for less than quick blood)

Core

5x wolves
5x wolves
30x skellies, champ and standard, sword and shield

3 vargheist

7x black knights, barding and lances, champion and standard

Wolves and vargheists hunt war machines. Vargheists are a big threat but you need to keep an eye on them because of frenzy. Don't let them get drawn into a troop block on their own.

Start the skellies just in front and to the side of your vamp and black knight bus. Use them to shield the knights from war machines early on. They can march within 12 of your vamp so that should be two turns of marching if you position them well.

Your knights are your main hammer especially with the vamp.

Use invocation and van hels as your two main spells (if you're using end times spam them to get across the board fast and keep your units at full strength). If not still take invocation. You need to keep your guys alive as much as you can.

 

[WaitWut]

Looks pretty solid to me, I hadn't really thought about cutting out my necromancer. I'll be sure to post some battle reports after my games! Thanks for the tips.

 

[Jdredsox]

I think you can afford a shield on the vamp as well which I forgot to list.

Originally I was going to include the necromancer as well but I feel at 1k you need to be able to hit and if you're against dwarves you don't need to worry about magic as much.

With wolves van guarding and vargheist flying 20" your opponent will have to prioritise targets to keep his warmachines alive. If he targets the black knights he has to get through the 2+ armour, and their main job is to deliver your vampire to the frontline.

Dwarves get a natural 2+ to their dispell so anything lower than a level 2 wizard isn't too much use so any necromancer would need to be 100+ points to stand a good chance of casting, you already have that with a vamp and you don't need to worry about your army falling apart if your general dies.

You lack ranged options which is a shame but something you get used to with VC. That's why van hels is so good, you close the distance that much faster.

Your ideal scenario is getting his big block into combat with your skellies and then hitting them in the flank with the vamp and knights. Accept challenges with your champions and let the vamp blend. Remember invocation brings your champion back first.

If your vargheist survive warmachine hunting they are great at flank attacks, as skirmishers they don't disrupt but they pack a punch and have stomps.