Newbie to Vampire counts

[MasterSlann]

Hey guys, just picked up a vampire army and was wondering what you all thought of the list. I've been a lizardmen player for a while and just got into VC

Lord
Vampire lord : red fury, infinite hatred, dread knight, helm of commandment, crown of damned, +1 magic lvl
-has a 2+ armor and 4+ ward

Hero
Wight king : BSB, drakenhof banner, grt wpn
-5+ armor and 4+ regen

Vampire : Sword of might, nightshroud, lord of dead, infinite hatred, dragon bane gem
-6+ armor and 4+ regen

Necromancer : +1 necro spell, dispel scroll

Core
40 crypt ghouls
25 skeleton warriors with hand weapon/ shield and standard
corpse cart with balefire

Special
30 grave guard : command, great weapons, and banner of barrows

Rare
4 blood knights : command and banner of strigos
vargulf

Idea is for lord to go in the blood knights and just crush stuff on the charge, the wight king and vampire will go into the grave guard unit to be the "death star" unit and to get buff to WS from general. So just wondering what everyone thinks and thanks for the help


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[Alastor]

Seems ok to my fledgling eyes but I'd say having two combat orientated vamps could be a waste of the magic they could be wielding. You could make either the lord or the thrall a caster, with the necromancer as a support caster you could give the enemy quite a hard time with VHD and some vampire spells (or even forbidden lore for some extra spells).

The corpse cart seems to be considered somewhat limited in it's utility, although balefire is the preferred option of the lodestone. The bound spell can be useful as well but the problem is that it requires you to work your tactics around the corpse cart to ensure you use it to it's full potential.

Looks like a fairly decent first list with the usual grave guard deathstar and the BSB with drakenhoff. Just depends what sort of player you are, if you want to go for a fully optimised list, this is on the way but by no means there. If you're a casual player who likes to win but doesn't mind if they lose either, well then you could have a vampire and four hundred zombies and it would still be good if you enjoyed using it.

Bit all over the place but has character and seems useful.

Alastor

 

[MasterSlann]

How could i make it better? i'm usually a lizardmen player and am tired of my magic phase being the high point. I'd rather be able to crush people with combat. the blood knights should be able to crush anything they come up against as well as the grave guard. IDK what you mean by all over the place as everything really has a place and purpose in the army. Just bc i didn't OP on magic doesn't make the list weak.

 

[Uthiliano]

Why would you take Helm of Commandment on a Vampire Lord that you clearly intend to be in the thickness of the battle? (you spend all your bloodline powers on close combat)... If he goes with the BKs you need Blood Drinker! (it owns so much when raising 55pts models). You also need atleast another BK to give him look out sir!... and preferably the Charmed Shield on that lord aswell to give another 2+ save vs a cannon targetting him out when u loose a knight...

What's the point of the second vampire?... he's quite expensive so if you dont have a specific plan I'd cut him of... You could give him MotBA, HoC and BP and keep him out of combat... that way he'd be useful!

 

[datalink7]

Here are the changes I would make, trying to keep a similar theme.

1. Drop Necromancer or Vampire Thrall (I'd prefer to keep the Thrall). I feel that, in this edition, after two casters you face a large amount of diminishing returns due to the lack of power dice.

2. Equip your Vampire Lord as follows: Level 3, Red Fury, Dread Knight, Blood Drinker, Crown of the Damned. I wouldn't go infinite hatred on this build because you don't want to be more than one combat with this unit most of the time, just crush things on the charge, and you already have the strigos banner so infinite hatred gets you nothing on the first turn. You might consider supernatural horror for Terror instead, but I don't find this that useful. I'd probably just save the 25 extra points, or throw one of the +1 to cast abilities on there.

Then you have several options, depending on where you want to go, for the rest of the points.

a. Dragon Helm, Black Periapt. Gets you a 1+ save (and 2+ ward vs. fire) and more magic capability
b. Dragon Helm, Other Tricksters Shard. 1+ save (2+ ward vs fire), and better able to get through ward saves
c. Potion of Strength, Charmed Shield. Gets you a nice S8 for one combat, and can stop that lucky cannon ball.
d. Dispel scroll, for magic defense.

I'd probably go a or b, leaning towards b since this is a combat oriented character.

3. This is my personal favorite combat build for a combat Vampire Thrall

Sword of Might, Flayed Hauberk, Luckstone, Ironcurse Icon, Walking Death, Infinite Hatred

3 S6 hatred attacks, a 2+ armor save (with one reroll), 6+ ward save to unit vs. war machines, and +1 to combat rez.

Now, with the extra points you've saved, get more blood knights. 5 is the minimum, but I'd prefer 6 if you can swing it.

Those are some of my suggestions.

 

[MasterSlann]

thanks a lot guys all of that is really helpful i hadn't even thought of the Look out sir :/

 

[Stealthman]

<<< massive supporter of the blood drinker!!! its really overpowered when used with blood knights and a hoff banner.

i agree that helm of commandment is a huge waste on a combat oriented character! much better used with a caster.

other than those (which have already been mentioned i think it looks great!

 

[Uthiliano]

Seriously... Dont put your lord in that unit!
One shot from a cannon and it's like 4+ gameover... and it's not rare to see 2 of those in these battlesizes...

 

[datalink7]

Seriously... Dont put your lord in that unit!
One shot from a cannon and it's like 4+ gameover... and it's not rare to see 2 of those in these battlesizes...

It isn't 4+ game over. If he gets the unit up to at least 5, like we have suggested, he'll get a "look out sir!" roll. If he gets the unit up to 6, that's two "look out sir!" rolls. So to kill his lord in one turn it would be.

Cannon has to hit.
"look out sir!" has to fail, or opponent has to kill 1-2 knights first
Cannon has to wound.
He has to fail his ward save.
Cannon has to roll 3+ wounds.

Sure, it can happen (I had a tyrant, with 5 wounds and a 4+ ward save with a reroll die on the first turn while in a unit), but it isn't very likely unless they are running 3+ cannons. And even then it isn't overly likely as at least one of them should misfire at some point with 6 artillery dice rolls.

 

[Uthiliano]

It isn't 4+ game over.

The unit isn't 5+ atm... so obviously that's what I was referring to...

And anyways a unit of 5 BK can be easily reduced to 4 before the cannon strikes... and again it's quite normal to meet 2 cannons atleast...

Sure, it can happen (I had a tyrant, with 5 wounds and a 4+ ward save with a reroll die on the first turn while in a unit), but it isn't very likely unless they are running 3+ cannons. And even then it isn't overly likely as at least one of them should misfire at some point with 6 artillery dice rolls.

A tyrant you lost? So it's like... maximal an 8th of your army you risk and it's way more likely not to die?... whereas a vampire lord is everything and the game will be as good as over...

Cannon has to hit.
"look out sir!" has to fail, or opponent has to kill 1-2 knights first
Cannon has to wound.
He has to fail his ward save.
Cannon has to roll 3+ wounds.

6 Artillery rolls where they get a reroll (let's face it if you bring 3 cannons you bring an engi) and it's only the 3 first rolls that necesarily means he wont hit necesarily (they have an average of like 85-90% chance to hit on cavalry bases) and can be fatal... whilst 2 of the shots would likely be able to end the game in the first turn the BK's comes out from hiding... (even without a unit of handgunners picking of the first BK)

Dont get me wrong I love BKs... but wouldn't put my lord in anything that squishy especially if you dont even equip him/them for it... (Charmed Shield, Flag of the Bloodkeep etc)