New Army - what to buy

[johnnyw]

Hi,

First post

I've played WoC as my first army, but I'm about to start a year long 2000pt league, and now I know a bit more about the game I'd like to enter with a VC army.

There's a lot of great advice on the forum about lists, but it's quite confusing for a newcomer, especially when choosing options. I'd like to build an army that I can learn with and which will help me to try out the different army styles, although I'm leaning towards magic rather than combat. I'd appreciate some advice on the selection I've chosen which is based on two battalion boxes. At this stage I haven't included any named characters as I'd like to learn the basics first:

Vampire/Lord on nightmare (could go into Infantry, Black Knights or on his own)
Vampire
Vampire
Necromancer (could be on Corpse Cart)

40 Skeletons
40 Zombies
20 Ghouls
10 Dire Wolves
2 Corpse Cart

20 Grave Guard
5 Black Knights

1 Varghulf
3 Cairn Wraiths

Many thanks for any help.

John

 

[Crone]

Hello and Velcome Johnnyw!
The models that you have listed are fine to start learning the way our army plays. You will, however, want to specialize into a specific choice from the main "3" core unit choices: zombie, skeleton, and ghoul. Most Vampire players will generally pick one of those three, take the related summoning power (unless you decide on zombie), and primarily collect those particular models. I like to think of it like this: my Vampire Lord has created my army and his specific powers determines what and how that army will perform. There are multitudes of posts discussing the validity of this choice or that one, but use the models that you have listed and determine for yourself the army list that best suits your preferred method of play.

 

[Count Ironskull]

Just to echo what Crone said, you have a good start. Play with all of the core and figure out if you have a favorite, then focus on that. It's always nice to have one extra box of zombies, just for Raise Dead purposes, but those extra 20 models should be enough.

Grave Guard are a solid unit in any list. 20 is a good start. Later on you might make this unit a bit bigger, but it's not worth buying extra models at this point. The way I modeled mine was ten with hand weapon and shield and ten with great weapons, and I put the appropriate ten on the first two ranks depending on which weapons I bought for them.

Black Knights are Grave Guard on horseback. I love them. Five is a good start. 7-8 would be fair in a large-scale game. You'll probably never need more than 10.

Two corpse carts might be one too many for a starting army. If you keep your close-combat units close together, they can all fall within the six inch radius of one cart. I've only fielded two carts in a 3000 point game, and even then I think it was one too many.

Dire wolves are always nice. I own 20 models, and that's been enough for me all along.

The varghulf is the best all-around rare, in my opinion, and an excellent purchase for any list.

Wraiths are good, and if you end up liking them, consider buying a banshee model as well. Against low leadership armies, she can be a monster. Just watch out for magic, runed warmachines (dwarfs), and the skaven cheaty guns of death.

As far as characters go, just have three or four models on foot and one or two models on horseback. That should be enough for you to field any combo you want. The necromancer will almost always go in a corpse cart, and that model comes with him, so no need to purchase an extra. (And when you put the cart together, you can choose not to glue him down.)

 

[johnnyw]

Thanks for all the great advice!

I returned from the shop today laden down with boxes. It looks a bit intimidating having 2000 unassembled and unpainted points in front of you

John

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Lol - I bet it does. Well make sure you create a painting log so we can all see how you do, plus then we can help with tips and pointers along the way.

 

[Ricw]

Grave Guard are a solid unit in any list. 20 is a good start. Later on you might make this unit a bit bigger, but it's not worth buying extra models at this point. The way I modeled mine was ten with hand weapon and shield and ten with great weapons, and I put the appropriate ten on the first two ranks depending on which weapons I bought for them.


I do the same thing for fun games. Would anyone call you on this in tournaments?

 

[Count Ironskull]

I do the same thing for fun games. Would anyone call you on this in tournaments?

I've never played in a tournament hosted by GW themselves, so I can't say if they would or not, but in all the local tournaments this has been fine. The basic rule is state what the unit is and what the non-magic gear is as you deploy.

I think 40K games are a bit more strict about the what-you-see-is-what-you-get rule.

 

[johnnyw]

Great advice on equipping half and half. I've done the same on the skeletons with half having spears and half having hand weapons.

On another point, which probably should be in modelling. I was persuaded to go for a box of Bretonnian Knights and a box of Grave Guard to make up the Black Knights. Will they need much modding, and should I use the Skeleton Spears?

I was thinking of making 6 Black Knights, with full command, and using the remaining 4 GG to make that unit up to 24, or perhaps 7 Knights and 23 GG assuming I'd always have a hero in the GG unit

Thanks again

John

 

[Ricw]

I'm not a fan of spears on skeletons. The extra attacks are mediocre at best. Unless your building around some sort of skelly/helm of command combo I don't like the extra points.

 

[TMS]

I think that JohnyW is asking whether or not he should use the skeleton's spearheads for his black knight convertions.

You could do that for sure, but I decided to use the great weapon blades that you get with the same grave guards and put those on the end of the Bretonnian lances instead. It gives them a more menacing appearance in my opinion.

Edit: Also, my grave guard/bretts black knights didn't need much modding at all. Grave guard head, torso and left arm, Bretonnian right arm, legs and horse.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

We;; I've just got my Bret models, awaiting my GG bits. So I know who to turn to if help is needed MS!

The spears should work fine Johnny, nothing wrong with that. It depends on how heavily armoured you want them to look. With the skellie spears they will have unarmoured arms, so will not look as heavily armoured as Bret arms.